Abahai Khan (1592–1643) Manchu military and political leader

Abahai (also named Hung Taiji) was the eighth son of

Nurhaci, a Jurchen tribal chieftain who founded the

Manchu state in what is today northeastern China.

Elected by the Hosoi Beile, or council of clan princes

and nobles, in 1623 to be his father’s successor, Abahai

built upon his father’s foundations for a Manchu state

during the last years of China’s Ming dynasty. In 1644,

his son was proclaimed emperor of the Qing (Ch’ing)

dynasty, assuming leadership of China as the Ming dy￾nasty collapsed.

The Jurchen tribal people who lived in Manchuria,

a frontier region of the Chinese Ming Empire, did not

recognize the right of firstborn sons to succeed their

fathers. Because of this, all the ruler’s sons were eligible

to succeed him in an election by their fellow tribal lead￾ers. Abahai was elected and continued his father’s unfin￾ished work. He expanded the powerful Banner Army

that consisted of Manchu, Mongol, and Han Chinese

units and used it to consolidate control of the Liaoyang

area in southern Manchuria. Next he used his military

forces to subjugate Korea, forcing its government to

transfer its vassal relationship from the Ming dynasty to

him. Abahai then conquered the Amur region of north￾ern Manchuria and the Mongols of eastern Mongolia.

His next move was to set up a civil administration in the

capital city of Shenyang in 1631. The six ministries and

other institutions he implemented were copied from the

Ming government, and he staffed them with many Han

Chinese administrators. In 1635, he gave his people a

new name, Manchu (from Jurchen), and changed his

dynastic name from Hou Jin (Hou Chin, adopted by

Nurhaci, which means “Later Jin,” after the Jin dynas￾ty that ruled northern China 1115–1234). By this act,

he disssociated his dynasty with the Jin, who had con￾quered northern China after much bloodshed. Instead

he adopted the dynastic name Qing (or Ch’ing, which

means “pure”), and he assumed the title emperor rather

than khan, which had been his father’s title, because of

its nomadic associations.

In 1640, Abahai attacked Jinzhou (Chinchow) at the

southern tip of Manchuria, defeating a Ming force. This

victory brought the Manchus to the key eastern pass of the

Great Wall, Shanhaiguan (Shanhaikuan, or Mountain and

Sea Pass). However, this formidable fortress was defended

by a strong Ming army, and Abahai was not ready to chal￾lenge it. He died in 1643 before he could do so.

Abahai continued his father, Nurhaci’s, work of

building up Manchu power, and he transformed the

Manchus from a frontier tribal vassal of the Ming

Empire to become its rival. Under his rule, a collabor￾ative relationship developed among the Manchus, the

Mongols, and the Han, or ethnic, Chinese. The adop￾tion of the Chinese model of a bureaucratic adminis￾tration and its inclusion of Han Chinese would char￾acterize the Qing Dynasty and account for its success

in conquering and ruling China.