wanted to get enough to eat for themselves and their followers; they wanted to enrich themselves by conquest; but they were incapable of building up an ordered and new administration.  Li ultimately made himself “king” in the province of Shensi and called his dynasty “Shun”, but this made no difference:  there was no distribution of land among the peasants serving in Li’s army; no plan was set into operation for the collection of taxes; not one of the pressing problems was faced.

Meanwhile the Manchus were gaining support.  Almost all the Mongol princes voluntarily joined them and took part in the raids into North China.  In 1637 the united Manchus and Mongols conquered Korea.  Their power steadily grew.  What the insurgents in China failed to achieve, the Manchus achieved with the aid of their Chinese advisers:  they created a new military organization, the “Banner Organization”.  The men fit for service were distributed among eight “banners”, and these banners became the basis of the Manchu state administration.  By this device the Manchus emerged from the stage of tribal union, just as before them Turks and other northern peoples had several times abandoned the traditional authority of a hierarchy of tribal leaders, a system of ruling families, in favour of the authority, based on efficiency, of military leaders.  At the same time the Manchus set up a central government with special ministries on the Chinese model.  In 1638 the Manchus appeared before Peking, but they retired once more.  Manchu armies even reached the province of Shantung.  They were hampered by the death at the critical moment of the Manchu ruler Abahai (1626-1643).  His son Fu Lin was not entirely normal and was barely six years old; there was a regency of princes, the most prominent among them being Prince Dorgon.

Meanwhile Li Tzu-ch’eng broke through to Peking.  The city had a strong garrison, but owing to the disorganization of the government the different commanders were working against each other; and the soldiers had no fighting spirit because they had had no pay for a long time.  Thus the city fell, on April 24th, 1644, and the last Ming emperor killed himself.  A prince was proclaimed emperor; he fled through western and southern China, continually trying to make a stand, but it was too late; without the support of the gentry he had no resource, and ultimately, in 1659, he was compelled to flee into Burma.

Thus Li Tzu-ch’eng was now emperor.  It should have been his task rapidly to build up a government, and to take up arms against the other rebels and against the Manchus.  Instead of this he behaved in such a way that he was unable to gain any support from the existing officials in the capital; and as there was no one among his former supporters who had any positive, constructive ideas, just nothing was done.