Dorgon

Dorgon was a Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty and one of the principal architects of the Qing conquest of China. A son of Nurhaci and half-brother of Hong Taiji, he became regent for the young Shunzhi Emperor in 1643 and led Qing armies through the Great Wall after the collapse of Ming authority, taking Beijing in 1644 and directing the early consolidation of Qing rule.

He led Qing forces through Shanhai Pass in 1644, occupied Beijing and directed the first stage of the conquest of China. His political dominance ended with his death in 1650 and was followed by a posthumous purge of his supporters.

In Robert Elegant’s Manchu, capture brings him into the service of the Manchu prince Dorgon, forcing him to navigate rival courts, military campaigns and loyalties that no longer fit a simple division between European and Chinese worlds. In Alice Poon’s The Green Phoenix: A Novel of Empress Xiaozhuang, the Woman Who Re-Made Asia, Her imagined forbidden love for Dorgon places personal sacrifice beside the succession struggle that follows Hong Taiji’s sudden death.