Civil-military tension and mentalities of scholar-officials in the Yongli court of the Southern Ming = Nan Ming Yongli shi qi wen wu guan yuan guan xi yu shi ren xin tai

Abstract

Yongli period in the Southern Ming regime can be divided into two stages. The first stage (the “First Stage”) began in 1646 when Yongli Emperor ascended to the throne and ended in 1651 when Yongli Emperor fled to south-west due to the loss of control over Guangdong and Guangxi. The second stage began in 1652 when Yongli Court fled to Yunnan and ended in 1661 when the Yongli Emperor and his son were executed by Wu San Gui in Yunnan. This study focuses on the historical analysis of the First Stage. During the First stage, Yongli Court faced Qing invasion and internal conflict simultaneously. At the end of this stage, Civil and Military officials in the Yongli Court made their own decision on whether to fight, surrender or flee. The following issues are analyzed and discussed in this study:- 1. the changes of civil-military tensions and mentalities of the Scholar-Officials in the Yongli Court; 2. the way that the Scholar-Officials tried to maintain the “civil control over the military” system; 3. the conflict between “Chu” and “Wu” factions by their different points of view; 4. the attempt of Scholar-Officials from Guangdong to build volunteer army in their home town in order to resist unwanted official army; and 5. the extent to which collapse of the Yongli Court was attributed to conflicts between Civil and Military officials. Keywords: Ming-Qing, Scholar-Officials, civil control over the military