We now have a consensus on the history of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the Ming Dynasty fell in 1644, after which the Qing army took Beijing and officially began the early Qing Dynasty, after which the Southern Ming regime was called "the remnants of the Ming Dynasty", which, in my opinion, is extremely inappropriate.
First of all, we must remind you that every historical era has the standard of each historical era, and to thoroughly study historical events, we must look at them from the perspective of the people at that time, and we cannot use the present to be ancient. First of all, the real demise of 1644 was only the Ming Dynasty's Beijing regime. The hanging of the Chongzhen Emperor did not mean the true end of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing was still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, except for Sichuan, the vast majority of the southern land was still in the hands of the Ming regime.
Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian.
In May of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Yousong (zhu Changxun's son), the Prince of Fu, with the support of the warlords of the four towns and the remaining officials in Nanjing, proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing, and changed the next year to the first year of Hongguang, for the Hongguang Emperor, although this regime was very short-lived, and it had been eliminated by the Qing army in May of the first year of Hongguang, but Zhu Yousong was still the legitimate heir of the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian. We know that Zhu Yousong's father was Zhu Changxun, the old Fu King, and Zhu Changxun was the third son of the Wanli Emperor, Zhu Youjian was the son of Zhu Changluo of the Mingguang Emperor, and Zhu Changluo was the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun.
Ming Guangzong Zhu Changluo.
Therefore, the Chongzhen Emperor and the Hongguang Emperor were both direct descendants of the Wanli Emperor, and Zhu Yousong was the cousin of the Chongzhen Emperor, and in April and May of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the whereabouts of the Chongzhen Emperor's crown prince were unknown, Zhu Yousong was indeed eligible to inherit the Ming Dynasty throne, so at this time, the Southern Ming Hongguang regime and the Qing regime should already belong to the state of north-south opposition.
Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun.
After the rapid collapse of the Hongguang regime, the Tang king Zhu Yujian ascended the throne in Fuzhou and became emperor, changing the name to Longwu as the Longwu Emperor, and the Longwu regime was also very short-lived, and this regime collapsed in 1646, and it existed for less than a year. Tang Emperor Zhu Yujian, the eighth grandson of The Tang Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor of southern Ming and the Wanli Emperor can be said to be eight rods, but please note that the Longwu regime was recognized by most of the local forces of the Ming Dynasty during its existence, while the Lu Jianguo regime in the same period was limited to eastern Zhejiang (in fact, the prince Supervising the State, which is also an example in the Ming Dynasty), in the eleventh year of the Yong calendar (1657), the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youluo gave the Longwu Emperor the temple number Shaozong. The change of title to Emperor Peitian to Dao Hongyi Su Mu Si Wen Lie Wu Min Ren Guang XiaoXiang Emperor shows that although Zhu Yujian was a distant branch of the Zhu Ming imperial family, he was indeed recognized by the later Pro-Ming forces as the Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
Emperor Longwu of Ming Shaozong Zhu Yujian.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.
After the collapse of the Longwu regime, Zhu Youluo, the King of Gui, ascended the throne as emperor in Zhaoqing, Guangdong, and changed the Yuan Yong calendar. The Yongli Emperor Zhu Youluo was the son of Zhu Changhao, the King of Guiduan, and Zhu Changying was the seventh son of Zhu Yijun, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so like the Hongguang Emperor, the Yongli Emperor was also from the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun's lineage, a cousin of the Chongzhen Emperor, and was also eligible to take over as the Ming Emperor, although the "Emperor Ming Ancestral Training" clearly stated that "no concubine shall stand", but this had been broken as early as the early Ming Dynasty.
Zheng Chenggong.
Moreover, since 1652, the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youluo was supported by the remnants of the Great Western Army, and the Ming forces other than Zheng Chenggong were either destroyed by the Great Western Army, or voluntarily annexed, or surrendered to the Yongli Imperial Court under the call of Emperor Zhu Ming's banner and the armed forces of the Great Western Army. Therefore, from this point on, the southern Ming control area has been basically unified (except for zheng chenggongbu on the southeast coast) and the Yongli Emperor has truly become the son of heaven respected by various anti-Qing forces, and the control area of the Yongli imperial court has also included: Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Sichuan.
Zheng Chenggong's Southern Ming army.
The Great Western forces became the armed pillar of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, the Southern Ming regime can not simply be regarded as a divided regime, but should be seen as a continuation of the Ming Dynasty, from May 1644 to the murder of the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youluo in 1662, China has been in a period of confrontation between the northern and southern regimes, the time of the real demise of the Ming Dynasty should be 1662, after which although Zheng Jing (Zheng Chenggong's son) alone guarded Taiwan, and a large number of Ming Dynasty clans, including The Lu King Zhu Yihai, fled to Taiwan, but the orthodox emperor of the Ming Dynasty has died, so the Zheng regime cannot be regarded as a continuation of the Ming Dynasty. But even at this time, from the perspective of the people's hearts, the Qing court could not be called the orthodox dynasty of China, and it was not until 1683, when Shi Lang conquered Taiwan, that the Qing Dynasty officially inherited the legal system of the Ming Dynasty.