Qing Dynasty Takes Beijing

June 6, 1644

Manchu cavalry under Prince Dorgon, invited through the Shanhai Pass by the Ming general Wu Sangui, rode into Beijing and installed the five-year-old Shunzhi Emperor on the Dragon Throne. The Qing dynasty, which would rule China for two hundred and sixty-eight years, had arrived. Decades of bloody conquest in the south remained, but the mandate of heaven had shifted.