page_title: Wu Sangui
section_title: Surrender to the Qing dynasty
hierarchical_section_title: Wu Sangui / Defection to the Qing / Surrender to the Qing dynasty
caption_attribution_description: English: Battle of Shanhai Pass (Shanhaiguan, Yipianshi) in 1644 中文: 1644年李自成、吴三桂和清军的山海关之战局势示意图
context_page_description: Wu Sangui, courtesy name Changbai or Changbo, 1612 – 2 October 1678, was a Chinese military leader who played an instrumental role in the fall of the Ming dynasty and the establishment of the Qing dynasty in its place.
  In 1644, after the rebel leader Li Zicheng killed his father, the Ming general Wu Xiang, Wu Sangui allied with the Qing Prince Dorgon and allowed the Qing army passage through the Shanhaiguan to suppress Li's rebellion. For his efforts in establishing the Qing dynasty, he was given a large fiefdom consisting of Yunnan and, later, Guizhou provinces, as well as the noble title "Prince Who Pacifies the West".
  In 1674, instead of retiring from service, Wu decided to rebel against the Qing. In 1678, Wu declared himself the Emperor of China and the ruler of the Great Zhou, only to die within months. For a time, his grandson Wu Shifan succeeded him. However, the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty eventually quelled the revolt.
  Wu Sangui is considered by traditional scholars as having been a traitor to both the Ming and the Qing dynasties.
context_section_description: By February 1642, the Ming Dynasty had lost four of the eight vital cities beyond the Shanhaiguan Pass to the Manchu army. Ningyuan, where Wu was stationed, became Beijing's last defence against the Manchu army. Hong Taiji repeatedly attempted to persuade Wu to surrender, to no avail. Wu did not side with the Qing Dynasty until after the defensive capability of the Ming Dynasty had been greatly weakened with its political apparatus destroyed by the rebel armies of Li Zicheng's Shun dynasty.
  In early 1644, Li Zicheng, the head of a peasant rebel army, launched his force from Xi'an for his final offensive northeast toward Beijing. The Chongzhen Emperor decided to abandon Ningyuan and called upon Wu to defend Beijing against the rebels. Wu Sangui received the title Pingxi Bo (Chinese: 平西伯; pinyin: Píng xībó; lit.: 'Count who pacifies the West') as he moved to face the peasant army.
  At the time of Beijing's fall to Li Zicheng, on 25 April 1644, Wu and his 40,000-man army—the most significant Ming fighting force in northern China—were on the way to Beijing to come to the Chongzhen Emperor's aid but then received word of the emperor's suicide. So they garrisoned the Shanhai Pass, the eastern terminus of the main Great Wall instead. Wu and his men were then caught between the rebels within the Great Wall and the Manchus without.
  After the collapse of the Ming dynasty, Wu and his army became a vital military force in deciding the fate of China. Both Dorgon and Li Zicheng tried to gain Wu's support. Li Zicheng took a number of measures to secure Wu's surrender, granting silver, gold, a dukedom, and most crucially by capturing Wu's father Wu Xiang, ordering the latter to write a letter to persuade Wu to pledge allegiance to Li.
  At first, Wu intended to surrender to Li Zicheng, but when he heard of the predatory behaviour of Li's army and his father's captivity, he changed his plans. Instead, he killed Li's envoy. To save the life of his family, he wrote back to his father scolding him for his disloyalty and claiming to be breaking relations with his father. Furthermore, he sent several generals to pretend to pledge allegiance to Li. He knew that his force alone was insufficient to fight Li's main army. He wrote to Dorgon for military support, under the condition of restricting the dominance of Ming and Manchus to southern and northern China, respectively, claiming to resume the Ming Dynasty. The Manchu prince-regent Dorgon determined that this was an opportunity to claim the Mandate of Heaven for the Qing. Dorgon made clear in his reply that the Manchus would help Wu, but Wu would have to submit to the Qing. Wu did not accept at first.
  Li Zicheng sent two armies to attack the pass, but Wu's battle-hardened troops defeated them easily on 5 and 10 May 1644. In order to secure his position, Li was determined to destroy Wu's army. On 18 May, he personally led 60,000 troops out of Beijing to attack Wu. and defeated Wu on 21 May. The next day, Wu wrote to Dorgon for help. Dorgon took the opportunity to force Wu to surrender, and Wu had little choice but to accept. On 22 May 1644, Wu opened the gates of the Great Wall of China at Shanhai Pass to let Qing forces into China proper, forming an alliance with the Manchus. Wu ordered his soldiers to wear white cloths attached to their armour, to distinguish them from Li Zicheng's forces. Together, Wu's army and the Qing forces defeated the Shun rebels in the Battle of Shanhai Pass on 27 May 1644. Having defeated Li's main army, the Qing marched into Beijing unopposed and enthroned the young Shunzhi Emperor in the Forbidden City.  Wu pledged allegiance to the Qing dynasty.
caption: Battle of Shanhai Pass in which Wu Sangui surrendered to Qing dynasty
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