The Shenyang Palace Museum, Witnessing the Transition from Ming to Qing

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The Shenyang Palace Museum, as the place is now called, was built by the founder of the Manchu-Qing, Nurhachi, and his son, Huangtaiji(Abahai). It was used as an official palace by Manchu rulers.A previous capital of the Manchus had been in Liaoyang, but in 1625 Nurhachidecided to move to Shenyang and building of the new palace was begun. The complex has over one hundred buildings containing more than 500 rooms. It occupies 670,000 square meters in the center of the old part of Shenyang. The buildings inside the palace are well preserved and this constitutes China’s second most important grouping of palace halls after the Palace in Beijing. After the Manchu-ruled Qing (1644-1911) moved the capital to Beijing, the palace in Shenyang was renamed and became a subsidiary capital palace. Its architectural style carried on the traditions of ancient Chinese architecture, melding Han, Manchu, and Mongolian arts into one entity. Historically invaluable, in 2005 the Shenyang Palace successfully applied for world cultural heritage site status.

The Chongzheng Hall is the center of the Palace complex.A central axis follows the line from the Daqing Gate to the Qingning Palace, dividing the palace into three parts that run north-south. The central line of the palace contains its primary buildings, with the Chongzheng Hall as its core, where the Emperor managed affairs of state. Various other buildings are secondary to its grandeur. In the rear are the Phoenix Tower and various buildings that housed the royal concubines. The eastern line of buildings has a Great Governing Hallas the main focus, with subsidiary pavilions for Right-and Left-Wing Princes and the Eight Banners. These are also known as the Ten Princely Pavilions. Right and Left in the Manchuheritage referred respectively to West and East, since the worldview of the Manchu faced southward. These buildings symbolized the establishment of rule by the Eight Banners prior to moving”south through the pass”and taking over China. The complex is the only remaining trace of the legacy of the Eight-banner military rule in the architecture of the palace. The Great Governing Hall was used for large ceremonies, such as promulgating imperial edicts, announcing that the army would be moving out on a campaign, receiving the triumphant return of troops and their officers, and enthroning a new emperor. The Ten Princely Pavilions were where the Right and Left-Wing Princes and the Eight Banner heads conducted affairs. This practice of having princes and officials actually work together inside the palace was rare. The Great Hall and the subsidiary Princely Halls form a shape that derives from the Tent Palaces of nomadic tribes. These eleven buildings are in fact the symbolic representation of eleven royal tents: tents are mobile, they can be transferred from one place to another, whereas these Halls and Pavilions are fixed in place. The western line of buildings are anchored by a pavilion called the Wensu Pavilion. Subsidiary buildings include one in which the emperor read the Siku Quanshu(Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature), an encyclopedic collection of Chinese classical works.

Items exhibited in the Shenyang Palace Museum have primarily been passed down in history from the old Palace, such as the sword of Nurhachi, the “waist-dagger”of Abahai,a deer-horn chair, and so on. In addition, invaluable paintings from masters of both the Ming and Qing dynasties are exhibited here.

The Phoenix building and the roofs around. The Phoenix building used to be the place Huangtaiji held conventions and banquets and it used to be the highest architecture in shenyang.

The Shenyang Palace is a symbol of the origins of the Manchus, it is witness to the historyof the martial tradition of Nurhachi, Abahai, and other Manchu noblemen. It also represents a record of the defeat of the Ming Dynasty in the northwest and the total destruction of the Ming Dynasty. Nurhachi(1558-1626) played a vital and irreplaceable role in this process of the Manchu rise to power. He was born in Hetu’ ala in Xinbin County, Liaoning. His father received a commission from the Ming Dynasty to be Commander of the Left-Protection Capitalin Jianzhou. In his youth the father frequented Fushunhu City where he became conversant in both Mongolian and Chinese languages. In 1582, Nurhachi’s father died at the hands of a rival Juchen faction. In 1 583, the eleventh year of the Wanli reign in the Ming Dynasty, Nurhachileda revolt that resulted in the gradual unification under his rule of all parts of Jianzhou. He assimilated the western-seas part of the Songhua River region and the eastern-seas parts of the Changbai Mountain region. Controlling all of the northeastern areas, he set up the Eight Banner system. In 1599, he had two of his translators modify the Mongolian script into a more precise transliterating method with the use of diacritical marks, so that it could be used by the Manchu language. In 1616, Nurhachi declared the establishment of a new empire with a reign name of Jin, known to history as Later Jin, in Hetu’ ala. The territory of this empire stretched from the eastern ocean to the Liao River, from a river in Mongolia to the north to a river in Korea in the south.”All began a great unification under his rule.”In 1618, under the impetus of what were called the Seven Great Grievances, he began a revolt against the Ming Dynasty. He proceeded to defeat the Ming armies repeatedly in a number of campaigns. In 1619, the Ming Emperor Chongzhen dispatched an army of 110,000 to attack Nurhachi’s capital at Hetu’ ala. At the head of the Eight Banners, Nurhachi adopted a military strategy of “You come from all roads,I gofrom one road,”whereby he decisively defeated the Ming army at Sa’ erhu. He killed the commander Du Song and annihilated some 60,000 Ming soldiers. In 1625, Nurhachi moved his capital to Shenyang, formerly known as Mukden. In 1626, he personally led a huge force in attacking the Ming further to the south, and was defeated by the Ming general Yuan Chonghuan through the general’s use of Portuguese cannon. Nurhachi was wounded and died in battle, although one theory has it that he died from an internal bleeding ulcer. His son, the later Emperor Huangtaiji(1 592-1643) officially changed the name of the empire to Qing, but Nurhachi is generally regarded as the founder of the Manchu-ruled Qing empire. Huangtaiji (Abahai) was a genius who combined martial courage and civic intelligence. He was a superbcommander and military strategist and in the Sa’ erhu campaign he proved his merit. He went on to carry out the work of Nurhachi, consolidating his economic base, drawing in talented people, turning a military victory over the Ming into an irreversible situation leading to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

Another man is worth mentioning who figured in the events at the transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties, and that is the general mentioned above, Yuan Chonghuan(1584-1630). His role in fighting the Manchus made him a people’s hero in Ming China. He was originally from Teng County in Guangxi, southern China. His ethnic heritage derived from the Dongguan people in Guangdong. He passed the official examinations and was awarded the degree of jinshi in the fourth year of the Wanli reign, the same year in which the Ming armieswere defeated at Sa’ erhu. Because of this, he determined to join in the glorious defense of the nation. In 1622, he made a reconnaissance on horseback of the military situation north of the pass. On returning to Beijing he asked to be allowed to defend the region east of the Liao River. He rebuilt various cities ithat had been destroyed, including Ningyuan, the modern-day Xingcheng in Liaoning. He made several campaigns against the Latter Jin (Qing) and in 1626 won a great victory in Ningyuan and was promoted to the leading military position of the region.In 1627，Yuan Chonghuan received the rank of Minister of Liaodong，a post bestowed upon him by the Emperor Chongzhen.He was considered supremely capable by the entire military establishment of the country.In 1630，the Manchu Emperor Abahai successfully used the strategem of sowing distrust among his enemies，and the Ming Emperor Chongzhen put Yuan Chonghuan to death by slow dismemberment of his body.The Ming Dynasty thereby lost its great defender，and as a result was totally defeated.The dynasty was overturnedin 1644 and the Manchu-ruled reign of the Qing Dynasty began.

The grave of Yuan chonghuan，at No.52 on East Huashixie Street of Inner Guangqumen in Beijing.

China is a nation of many different tribes or nationalities of people.In the course of the conflicts and the gradual melding of these people，evaluations of the heroes on either side often result in radically different viewpoints.In the history of the development of the Manchus，both Nurhachi and Abahai were heroes who made tremendous contributions to the advancement and melding of their people.As a protector of the Ming Dynasty，the courageous Yuan Chonghuan was also his nation’s hero.In those tumultuous times，each played an outstanding role on the stage of history.Each is worthy of our profound appreciation and remembrance.