Hong Taiji

Hong Taiji (28 November 1592 – 21 September 1643), sometimes written as Huang Taiji and also referred to as Abahai in Western literature, was an Emperor of the Qing dynasty. He was responsible for consolidating the empire that his father Nurhaci had founded and laid the groundwork for the conquest of the Ming dynasty, although he died before this was accomplished. He was also responsible for changing the name of his people from Jurchen to Manchu in 1635, as well as that of the dynasty from Later Jin to Qing in 1636. The Qing dynasty lasted until 1912.

Because his father, Nurhaci, did not assume an imperial title while alive, Hong Taiji is sometimes considered to be the first Qing emperor, but because Nurhaci was posthumously awarded the imperial title, Hong Taiji is usually called the second emperor of the Qing.

Names and titles

It is unclear whether "Hong Taiji" was a title or a personal name. Written (Hung Taiji) in Manchu, it was borrowed from the Mongolian title Khong tayiji. That Mongolian term was itself derived from the Chinese huang taizi 皇太子 ("crown prince", "imperial prince"), but in Mongolian it meant, among other things, something like "respected son". Alternatively, historian Pamela Crossley argues that "Hung Taiji" was a title "of Mongolian inspiration" derived from hung, a word that appeared in other Mongolian titles at the time. Early seventeenth-century Chinese and Korean sources rendered his name as "Hong Taiji" (洪太極). The modern Chinese rendering "Huang Taiji" (皇太極), which uses the character huang ("imperial"), misleadingly implies that Hong Taiji once held the title of "imperial prince" or heir apparent, even though his father and predecessor Nurhaci never designated a successor.