Zhu Youlang, Prince of Gui

Who was Zhu Youlang, Prince of Gui?

Zhu Youlang, Prince of Gui, the Yongli Emperor was the fourth and last emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty of China. His era name means "Perpetual calendar".

Zhu Youlang was the son of Zhu Changying, who was the seventh son of the Wanli emperor. He inherited the title Prince of Gui from his brother and lived an obscure life as a minor member of the extremely large imperial family until the fall of Beijing and the suicide of Chongzhen, the last Ming emperor, in 1644. The true beneficiaries of the collapse of the Ming were the Manchus, a northeastern people that rapidly conquered northern China, the Lower Yangzi valley, and Central China. Descendants of the Ming continued to hang on in the south, and Youlang ascended the throne as the fourth Southern Ming emperor, with the reign-title Yongli in November 1646. By 1661, pressed back into Yunnan province, he fled in Burma. A Manchu army followed and captured him there, and he was executed in June 1662.