Early life

Dorgon was born in the Manchu Aisin-Gioro clan as the 14th son of Nurhaci, the Khan of the Later Jin dynasty (the precursor to the Qing dynasty). His mother was Nurhaci's primary consort, Lady Abahai. Ajige and Dodo were his full brothers, and Hong Taiji was one of his half-brothers. Dorgon was one of the most influential among Nurhaci's sons, and his role was instrumental to the Qing occupation of Beijing, the capital of the fallen Ming dynasty, in 1644. During Hong Taiji's reign, Dorgon participated in many military campaigns, including the conquests of Mongolia and Korea. He fought against the Chahar Mongols in 1628 and 1635.

Rise to power

After Hong Taiji died in 1643, Dorgon became involved in a power struggle with Hong Taiji's eldest son, Hooge, over the succession to the throne. The conflict was resolved with a compromise – both backed out, and Hong Taiji's ninth son, Fulin, ascended the throne as the Shunzhi Emperor. Since the Shunzhi Emperor was only six years old at that time, Dorgon was appointed regent and became the de facto ruler. In 1645, Dorgon was conferred the title "Emperor's Uncle and Prince-Regent" (皇叔父攝政王). Later, in 1649, the title was changed to "Emperor's Father and Prince-Regent" (皇父攝政王). It was rumoured that Dorgon had a romantic affair with the Shunzhi Emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, and even secretly married her, but there are also refutations. Whether they secretly married, had a secret affair or kept their distance remains a controversy in Chinese history.

Dorgons regency (1643–1650)

A quasi-emperor

On 17 February 1644, Jirgalang, who was a capable military leader but appeared uninterested in managing state affairs, willingly yielded control of all official matters to Dorgon. After an alleged plot by Hooge to undermine the regency was exposed on 6 May of that year, Hooge was stripped of his princely title and his co-conspirators were executed. Dorgon soon replaced Hooge's supporters (mostly from the Yellow Banners) with his own, thus gaining closer control of two more banners. By early June 1644, he was in firm control of the Qing government and its military.

In early 1644, just as Dorgon and his advisors were pondering how to attack the Ming Empire, peasant rebellions were dangerously approaching Beijing. On 24 April of that year, rebel forces led by Li Zicheng breached the walls of the Ming capital. The last Ming emperor, the Chongzhen Emperor, hanged himself at a hill behind the Forbidden City. Hearing the news, Dorgon's Han Chinese advisors Hong Chengchou and Fan Wencheng (范文程; 1597–1666) urged the prince to seize this opportunity to present themselves as avengers of the fallen Ming Empire and claim the Mandate of Heaven for the Qing Empire. The last obstacle between Dorgon and Beijing was Wu Sangui, a former Ming general guarding the Shanhai Pass at the eastern end of the Great Wall.

Wu Sangui was caught between the Manchus and Li Zicheng's forces. He requested Dorgon's help in ousting the rebels and restoring the Ming Empire. When Dorgon asked Wu Sangui to work for the Qing Empire instead, Wu had little choice but to accept. Aided by Wu Sangui's elite soldiers, who fought the rebel army for hours before Dorgon finally chose to intervene with his cavalry, the Qing army won a decisive victory against Li Zicheng at the Battle of Shanhai Pass on 27 May. Li Zicheng and his defeated troops looted Beijing for several days until they left the capital on 4 June with all the wealth they could carry.

Settling in the capital

After six weeks of mistreatment at the hands of rebel troops, the residents of Beijing sent a party of elders and officials to greet their liberators on 5 June. They were startled when, instead of meeting Wu Sangui and the Ming heir apparent, they saw Dorgon, a horse-riding Manchu with the front half of his head shaved, present himself as the Prince-Regent. In the midst of this upheaval, Dorgon installed himself as Prince-Regent in Wuying Palace (武英殿), the only building that remained more or less intact after Li Zicheng had set fire to the Forbidden City on 3 June. Banner troops were ordered not to loot; their discipline made the transition to Qing rule "remarkably smooth." Yet, at the same time, as he claimed to have come to avenge the Ming Empire, Dorgon ordered that all claimants to the Ming throne (including descendants of the last Ming emperor) should be executed along with their supporters.

On June 7, just two days after entering the city, Dorgon issued special proclamations to officials around the capital, assuring them that if the local population surrendered, the officials would be allowed to stay at their posts. Besides, all the men had to shave the front half of their heads and wear the rest of their hair in queues. He had to repeal this command three weeks later after several peasant rebellions erupted around Beijing, threatening Qing control over the capital region.

Dorgon greeted the Shunzhi Emperor at the gates of Beijing on 19 October 1644. On 30 October the six-year-old monarch performed sacrifices to Heaven and Earth at the Altar of Heaven. The southern cadet branch of Confucius's descendants who held the title wujing boshi and the northern branch 65th generation descendant of Confucius to hold the title Duke Yansheng had their titles confirmed by the Shunzhi Emperor on 31 October. A formal ritual of enthronement for the Shunzhi Emperor was held on 8 November, during which the young emperor compared Dorgon's achievements to those of the Duke of Zhou, a revered regent of the Zhou dynasty. During the ceremony, Dorgon's official title was raised from "Prince Regent" to "Uncle and Prince Regent" (叔父攝政王), in which the Manchu term for "Uncle" (ecike) represented a rank higher than that of imperial prince. Three days later Dorgon's co-regent, Jirgalang, was demoted from "Prince Regent" to "Assistant Uncle Prince Regent" (輔政叔王). In June 1645, Dorgon eventually decreed that all official documents should refer to him as "Imperial Uncle Prince Regent" (皇叔父攝政王), leaving him one step short of claiming the throne for himself.

Dorgon gave a Manchu woman as a wife to the Han Chinese official Feng Quan, who had defected from the Ming to the Qing. The Manchu queue hairstyle was willingly adopted by Feng Quan before it was enforced on the Han population and Feng learned the Manchu language.

To promote ethnic harmony, a 1648 decree from the Shunzhi Emperor allowed Han Chinese civilian men to marry Manchu women from the Banners with the permission of the Board of Revenue if they were registered daughters of officials or commoners or the permission of their banner company captain if they were unregistered commoners, it was only later in the Qing dynasty that these policies allowing intermarriage were done away with. The decree was formulated by Dorgon.

One of Dorgon's first orders in the new Qing capital was to vacate the entire northern part of Beijing and give it to Bannermen, including Han Chinese Bannermen. The Yellow Banners were given the place of honor north of the palace, followed by the White Banners to the east, the Red Banners to the west, and the Blue Banners to the south. This distribution complied with the order established in the Manchu homeland before the conquest and under which "each of the banners was given a fixed geographical location according to the points of the compass." Despite tax remissions and large-scale building programmes designed to facilitate the transition, in 1648 many Chinese civilians still lived among the newly arrived Banner population and there was still animosity between the two groups. Agricultural land outside the capital was also delineated (quan 圈) and given to Qing troops. Former landowners now became tenants who had to pay rent to their absentee Bannermen landlords. This transition in land use caused "several decades of disruption and hardship."

In 1646, Dorgon also ordered that the imperial civil service examinations for selecting government officials be reinstated. From then on, examinations were held every three years as under the Ming Empire. In the very first imperial examination held under Qing rule in 1646, candidates, most of whom were northern Chinese, were asked how the Manchus and Han Chinese could work together for a common purpose. The 1649 examination asked "how Manchus and Han Chinese could be unified so that their hearts were the same and they worked together without division." Under the Shunzhi Emperor's reign, the average number of graduates of the metropolitan examination per session was the highest of the Qing dynasty ("to win more Chinese support"), continuing until 1660 when lower quotas were established.

Conquest of the Ming

Under the reign of Dorgon – whom historians have called "the mastermind of the Qing conquest" and "the principal architect of the great Manchu enterprise" – the Qing subdued almost all of China and pushed loyalist "Southern Ming" resistance into the far southwestern reaches of China. After repressing anti-Qing revolts in Hebei and Shandong in the summer and fall of 1644, Dorgon sent armies to root out Li Zicheng from the important city of Xi'an (Shaanxi province), where Li had reestablished his headquarters after fleeing Beijing in early June 1644. Under the pressure of Qing armies, Li was forced to leave Xi'an in February 1645. He was killed – either by his own hand or by a peasant group that had organised for self-defence during this time of rampant banditry – in September 1645 after fleeing though several provinces.

From newly captured Xi'an, in early April 1645, the Qing forces mounted a campaign against the rich commercial and agricultural region of Jiangnan south of the lower Yangtze River, where in June 1644 a Ming imperial prince had established a regime loyal to the Ming. Factional bickering and numerous defections prevented the Southern Ming from mounting an efficient resistance. Several Qing armies swept south, taking the key city of Xuzhou north of the Huai River in early May 1645 and soon converging on Yangzhou, the main city on the Southern Ming's northern line of defence. Bravely defended by Shi Kefa, who refused to surrender, Yangzhou fell to Qing artillery on 20 May after a one-week siege. Dorgon's brother, Dodo, then ordered the slaughter of Yangzhou's entire population. As intended, this massacre terrorised other Jiangnan cities into surrendering to the Qing Empire. Indeed, Nanjing surrendered without a fight on 16 June after its last defenders made Dodo promise he would not harm the population. The Qing forces soon captured the Ming emperor (who died in Beijing the following year) and seized Jiangnan's main cities, including Suzhou and Hangzhou; by early July 1645, the frontier between the Qing Empire and the Southern Ming regime had been pushed south to the Qiantang River.

On 21 July 1645, after Jiangnan had been superficially pacified, Dorgon issued a most inopportune edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave the front half of their heads and wear the rest of their hair in queues identical to those of the Manchus. The punishment for non-compliance was death. This policy of symbolic submission helped the Manchus distinguish friend from foe. For Han officials and literati, however, the new hairstyle was shameful and demeaning (because it breached a common Confucian directive to preserve one's body intact), whereas for common folk cutting their hair was the same as losing their virility. Because it united Chinese of all social backgrounds into resistance against Qing rule, the hair cutting command greatly hindered the Qing conquest. The defiant population of Jiading and Songjiang was massacred by former Ming general Li Chengdong (李成東; d. 1649), respectively on August 24 and September 22. Jiangyin also held out against about 10,000 Qing troops for 83 days. When the city walls were finally breached on 9 October 1645, the Qing army led by the previous Ming defector Liu Liangzuo (劉良佐; d. 1667) massacred the entire population, killing between 74,000 and 100,000 people. These massacres ended armed resistance against the Qing Empire in the Lower Yangtze. A few committed loyalists became hermits, hoping that for lack of military success, their withdrawal from the world would at least symbolise their continued defiance against Qing rule.

After the fall of Nanjing, two more members of the Ming imperial household created new Southern Ming regimes: one centred in coastal Fujian around the "Longwu Emperor" Zhu Yujian – a ninth-generation descendant of the Hongwu Emperor, the Ming dynasty's founder – and one in Zhejiang around "Regent" Zhu Yihai, Prince of Lu. But the two loyalist groups failed to cooperate, making their chances of success even lower than they already were. In July 1646, a new southern campaign led by Bolo sent Prince Lu's Zhejiang court into disarray and proceeded to attack the Longwu regime in Fujian. Zhu Yujian was caught and summarily executed in Tingzhou (western Fujian) on 6 October. His adoptive son Zheng Chenggong fled to the island of Taiwan with his fleet. Finally in November, the remaining centers of Ming resistance in Jiangxi province fell to the Qing.

In late 1646, two more Southern Ming monarchs emerged in the southern province of Guangzhou, reigning under the era names of Shaowu and Yongli. Short of official robes, the Shaowu court had to purchase from local theatre troupes. The two Ming regimes fought each other until 20 January 1647, when a small Qing force led by Li Chengdong captured Guangzhou, killed the Shaowu Emperor, and sent the Yongli court fleeing to Nanning in Guangxi. In May 1648, however, Li mutinied against the Qing Empire, and the concurrent rebellion of another former Ming general in Jiangxi helped the Yongli Emperor to retake most of south China. Li's loyalist resurgence failed. New Qing armies managed to reconquer the central provinces of Huguang (present-day Hubei and Hunan), Jiangxi, and Guangdong in 1649 and 1650. The Yongli Emperor had to flee again. Finally on 24 November 1650, Qing forces led by Shang Kexi captured Guangzhou and massacred the city's population, killing as many as 70,000 people. Although Dutch traveler Johan Nieuhof who witnessed the event happened claimed only 8000 people were slaughtered

Meanwhile, in October 1646, Qing armies led by Hooge reached Sichuan, where their mission was to destroy the regime of bandit chief Zhang Xianzhong. Zhang was killed in a battle against Qing forces near Xichong in central Sichuan on 1 February 1647. Also late in 1646 but further north, forces assembled by a Muslim leader known in Chinese sources as Milayin (米喇印) revolted against Qing rule in Ganzhou (Gansu). He was soon joined by another Muslim named Ding Guodong (丁國棟). Proclaiming that they wanted to restore the Ming, they occupied a number of towns in Gansu, including the provincial capital Lanzhou. These rebels' willingness to collaborate with non-Muslim Chinese suggests that they were not only driven by religion. Both Milayin and Ding Guodong were captured and killed by Meng Qiaofang (孟喬芳; 1595–1654) in 1648, and by 1650 the Muslim rebels had been crushed in campaigns that inflicted heavy casualties.·

Death

Dorgon died on December 31, 1650 during a hunting trip in Kharahotun (present-day Chengde, Hebei), after sustaining injuries despite the presence of imperial doctors. He was posthumously granted the title "Emperor Yi" (義皇帝) and the temple name "Chengzong" (成宗), even though he was never emperor during his lifetime, which is unique in all history of feudal China when only direct ancestors and deceased heirs of a higher degree to an emperor (such as one's own older brothers, one's father's older brothers, or one's cousins born into such uncles) were posthumously granted the title of Emperor. The Shunzhi Emperor even bowed thrice in front of Dorgon's coffin during the funeral.

However, the suspicion that Dorgon was actually murdered by his political enemies while being away from the heavy protection afforded him inside the Forbidden City never went away. Dorgon had 25 years of experience of horse-riding and managed to survive, on horseback, numerous battles with the Koreans, Mongols, Han Chinese rebels, as well as regular Han Chinese armies. The official Qing history claim that he injured his leg while riding on his horse and that the injuries were so severe that he could not survive the trip back to the Forbidden City, despite the presence of imperial doctors, was dubious at best. In the dry winter of northern China, the ground was not wet. Or else, it would have easily caused horses to trip. Another cause for suspicion is that Dorgon's corpse was exhumed, flogged, and incinerated in the purge ordered by Emperor Shunzhi, a likely method camouflaged as the ultimate punishment for his alleged plot to take over the throne, in order to remove all evidence that Dorgon was murdered.

His death also took place when Emperor Shunzhi was about 13, an appropriate age for removing the regency over his head. That is, if Dorgon had died any earlier, Shunzhi would still need a regent to supervise the empire on his behalf.

Posthumous demotion and restoration

In 1651, Dorgon's political enemies, led by his former co-regent Jirgalang, submitted to the Shunzhi Emperor a long memorial listing a series of crimes committed by Dorgon, which included: possession of yellow robes, which were strictly for use only by the emperor; plotting to seize the throne from the Shunzhi Emperor by calling himself "Emperor's Father"; killing Hooge and taking Hooge's wife for himself. It is difficult to prove verbal accusations made at the time when all records were ordered to be purged by Emperor Qianlong in 1778 when he also ordered the rehabilitation of Dorgon. The last charge that Dorgon took Hooge's wife was mostly contrived, as the Manchu tradition dating from the 12th century had allowed a male relative to marry the deceased person's wife almost as a charitable act to save her and her children from being starved to death in the minus 20, merciless winters of the northeastern tip of China, known nowadays as Manchuria.

Jirgalang was an ally of Hooge in the 1643 bitter fight against Dorgon, who allied with his biological brothers for succession to the throne. Jirgalang had been expelled by Dorgon from the joint regency in 1646. This time, Jirgalang succeeded in convincing Emperor Shunzhi that even Dorgon's descendants could become a threat to the throne. As a result, Shunzhi posthumously stripped Dorgon of his titles and even had Dorgon's corpse exhumed and flogged in public. In the February 1651 imperial edict trying to justify the ultimate punishment to a dead person as well as a key member of the imperial clan, Shunzhi ordered that not only Dorgon's name be removed from the scrolls of the imperial ancestral temple. His biological mother, Empress Xiaoliewu, got the same treatment. It was a political act to remove the legitimacy for succession to the throne by any future heir descended from Empress Xiaoliewu.

Execution of all of Dorgon's heirs was also ordered but intentionally not recorded in official Qing history. Dorgon had two biological brothers: Ajige, the eighth son of Nurhaci and Dodo, the 15th. With Dodo dying of smallpox a few months prior to the death of Dorgon in December 1650 and the death of Ajige after he was arrested by Jirgalang's forces and put in jail, the 1651 purge was meant to permanently eliminate the potential that a future prince descending from Empress Xiaolewu would repeat the two Dorgon competitions for succession to the throne happening in 1626, upon the death of Nurhaci, and 1643, upon the death of Hongtaiji.

However, Dorgon was posthumously rehabilitated during Qianlong Emperor's reign. In 1778, the Qianlong Emperor granted Dorgon a posthumous name zhong (忠; "loyal"), so Dorgon's full posthumous title became "Prince Ruizhong of the First Rank" (和碩睿忠親王). The word "loyal" was intentionally picked. It starkly testified that the charges made by Jirgalang in 1651 were all trumped up. Qianlong, either intentionally or inadvertently, contradicted the records of the imperial ancestral temple left behind by Shunzhi when he ordered that the words "Dorgon's heirs having been exterminated" (后嗣废绝) be included into official Qing history to indicate why Dorbo, a fifth generation descendant of Dodo, was designated to inherit the iron-cap princely title of Dorgon. The expression "Dorgon's heirs having been exterminated" (后嗣废绝) does not carry the same meaning as "Dorgon never had a son." Regardless, after a lapse of 128 years, Qianlong could no longer find the heirs of Dorgon. Qianlong also ordered that the rehabilitation of Dorgon be accompanied by a destruction of all the records related to the elimination of the heirs of Dorgon. This was an inglorious chapter not only of Qing history but also the history of the imperial clan of Aisin-Gioro.

Myths about direct descendants of Dorgon

In the March 1651 purge of Dorgon, Shunzhi also ordered that the ancestral temple records be written to indicate that no woman had ever conceived a son for Dorgon (not that all of his sons had died due to infant mortality or some other reasons), to conceal this political conspiracy against Dorgon and his two biological brothers, who had conquered more than half of China for the young Qing empire since 1644. The extermination of Dorgon's heirs did not include his daughter, whose birth year of 1650, the same year when Dorgon died, was allowed to be left on records. Dorgon had married at least 10 wives and concubines over a period of 25 years or more. Records in the imperial ancestral temple indicate that none of his 10 wives and concubines was able to conceive a son for Dorgon over a period of 25 years, whereas only a daughter was born at the end of this 25-year period, in the same year when he died. These records do not suggest that Dorgon was infertile.

In the midst of the 1651 purge, a son of Dorgon managed to escape from execution. He fled Beijing with the active assistance of a key member of the White Banner under the command of Dorgon when he was alive. This heir of Dorgon ran all the way to modern-day Zhongshan, Guangdong province, the southern tip of China fronting the South China Sea, where there was no more way to maximize the distance between his hiding place and the Forbidden City. He changed his family name from Aisin-Gioro to Yuan 袁 (or Yuen in the Cantonese dialect). As a Chinese character, Yuan 袁 (Yuen) substantially resembles the word "Gon 袞" as in "Dorgon 多尔袞" in the written form. After successfully escaping execution, the camouflage to re-emerge as a Han Chinese person was considered perfect, as Yuan 袁 (Yuen) was also the family name of Yuan Chonghuan 袁崇煥 the Han Chinese general who fatally wounded Nurhaci in the 1626 Battle of Ningyuan, making it highly unlikely that pursuing forces from the Forbidden City would suspect that he and/or his descendants were members of the Dorgon clan. He named the large piece of land where he finally settled Haizhou 海洲, a combination of Haixi 海西，the tribal native place of Empress Xiaoliewu, his grandmother; and Jianzhou 建洲, the tribal native place of Nurhaci, his grandfather. The village where his descendants have sprang up since 1651 was named "Revelation of the Dragon 顯龍", indicating his hope that one day someone in his line would be able to reclaim the throne, which never happened through the remaining years of the Qing dynasty.

Legacy of Dorgon

After Dorgon led Manchu and Han Chinese troops loyal to him into Beijing on June 6, 1644, he immediately ordered restoration of order, as well as penalties for extortion and corruption activities conducted by any member of the imperial clan and other officials. Later, he declared that all Ming officials would be re-employed and the restoration of the civil service system to look for talents nationwide.

Dorgon is usually considered a good, devoted politician but he is also blamed for "Six Bad Policies (六大弊政)". These were policies designed to bolster the rule of the Qing conquerors, but which caused considerable disturbance and bloodshed in China, and included:

• Forced head-shaving (剃髮) and adopting Manchu clothing (易服): Chinese men were compelled to shave the front half of their heads and tie their hair in queues after the Manchu fashion, on pain of death. Massacres occurred in southern Chinese cities whose inhabitants resisted the imposition of the law.

• Land enclosure (圈地) and requisitioning of homes (占房): to provide economic bases for the Bannermen, they were allowed to enclose 'wasteland without owners' for their use; this law was however abused to take farmlands and estates which were already inhabited, with military force.

• Forced slavery (投充) and anti-escapee (逃人) laws: in the wake of the enclosure of vast agricultural estates, the manpower was provided by allowing Bannermen to seize commoners and enslave them. This in turn necessitated decrees to tackle the problem of escapees, including summary executions of people harbouring escaped slaves and hanging for repeated escapees.

Physical appearance

According to the account of Japanese travellers, Dorgon was a 34 or 35 year old man with slightly dark skin complexion and sharp eyes. He was handsome, tall and slim, and had a shiny and beautiful beard.

Family

Consorts and Issue:

• Primary consort, of the Khorchin Borjigit clan (嫡福晉 博爾濟吉特氏), personal name Batema (巴特瑪)

• Primary consort, of the Tunggiya clan (嫡福晉 佟佳氏)

• Primary consort, of the Zha'ermang Borjigit clan (嫡福晉 博爾濟吉特氏)

• Primary consort, of the Khorchin Borjigit clan (嫡福晉 博爾濟吉特氏)

• Empress Jingxiaoyi, of the Khorchin Borjigit clan (敬孝義皇后 博爾濟吉特氏; d. January 1650)

• Primary consort, of the Khorchin Borjigit clan (嫡福晉 博爾濟吉特氏)

• Princess Uisun, of the Yi clan of Jeonju (義順公主 全州李氏; 1635–1662), personal name Aesuk (愛淑)

• Secondary consort, of the Yi clan of Jeonju (側福晉 全州李氏)

　• First daughter (b. 1638), personal name Donggo (東莪)

Ancestry

生平

少年

明萬曆四十年農曆十月二十五日，多爾袞出生于赫圖阿拉城（今遼寧省新賓滿族自治縣永陵鎮老城村）。母親阿巴亥是父親努爾哈赤的大福晉，在諸位福晉中地位最高。

多爾袞15歲時，父親努爾哈赤病逝，生母阿巴亥為父親殉葬。父親生前沒有確立繼承人，八哥皇太極被擁立為新君。學界對皇太極為何能繼位有兩種說法，一是被八旗旗主及諸貝勒擁立，二是奪多爾袞之位，即朝鮮方面的記載所稱，努爾哈赤生前有意傳位于多爾袞，在努爾哈赤逝世後，因多爾袞年幼，大哥代善「以為嫌迫」而擁立皇太極繼位。後來，多爾袞攝政時稱，皇太極「即位原系奪立」。或指大福晉阿巴亥為努爾哈赤殉葬一事，亦系諸貝勒為奪位所逼。之後他以軍功替自己爭取到權力。

戰功

• 後金天聰二年（1628年，明崇禎元年）二月，17歲的多爾袞和15歲的弟弟多鐸隨皇太極出征，征討蒙古察哈爾部，初八日，多爾袞和多鐸奉皇太極之令，以偏師出擊，大獲全勝；殺古魯台吉，獲人畜1200餘。因為軍功，三月初七多爾袞被賜號「墨爾根戴青」（ᠮᡝᡵᡤᡝᠨᠳᠠᠢᠼᠢᠨ|v=mergen daičin， 「聰明機警」之意）。

• 天聰九年（1635年，崇禎八年）二月至九月，多爾袞等率軍前往收降蒙古林丹汗之子額哲。多爾袞在西拉朱爾格、托里圖，巧妙招降林丹汗之妻囊囊太后、蘇泰太后及其子額哲；並獲得元朝傳國玉璽。該玉璽成為皇太極稱帝依據之一，加速了清朝的建立。

• 清崇德元年（1636年，明崇禎九年）十二月，清軍攻陷李氏朝鮮南漢山城。次年正月，皇太極令多爾袞追擊朝鮮王室，並限「戢其軍兵，無得殺戮」。朝鮮仁祖于正月三十投降。四月初五，多爾袞押送國王家屬等182口報捷。

• 崇德三年（1638年，崇禎十一年），八月二十三日，皇太極命睿親王多爾袞為「奉命大將軍」南征明朝，這次南征，兵分兩路，貝勒豪格在多爾袞親率的左翼軍中。左翼軍從牆子嶺、董家口入關，掠山西，破濟南，殺明朝總兵盧象升；然後北掠天津、遷安，出青山關返還，往返掃蕩數千里，于崇德四年（1639年，崇禎十二年）三月回到遼東；共攻陷城池36座，招降6座，克敵17陣，俘獲人畜26萬。

• 崇德六年（1641年，崇禎十四年）至崇德七年（1642年，崇禎十五年）松錦之戰。雙方各投入十多萬大軍會戰，清軍起先以多爾袞、濟爾哈朗等為首，後皇太極親自趕來增援。明軍經兩年激戰最終慘敗，洪承疇松山城破被俘投降，祖大壽舉錦州城投降。松錦之戰後，遼東全屬大清，大明勢力退入山海關。

爭奪皇位

及至皇太極去世時，多爾袞兄弟掌有正白旗與鑲白旗，共有65個牛彔（一牛彔為300人），占八旗全部210個牛彔的31%，足夠和皇太極長子豪格爭奪皇位。豪格繼承了皇太極的正黃旗、鑲黃旗（共40個牛彔）並自掌有正藍旗（21個牛彔）。多爾袞利用豪格的軟弱使其不能繼位，又畏于兩紅旗的實力（代善一人獨掌兩紅旗，共計51個牛彔；濟爾哈朗領導的鑲藍旗33個牛彔），不敢自己繼位，轉而扶持皇太極九子福臨入承大統。當時福臨年僅六歲，多爾袞和鄭親王濟爾哈朗共同輔政，並實際掌權。

攝政

多爾袞攝政時期，清軍入關，滿清入主中原，對清朝開始近300年的統治起了關鍵作用。順治帝對他的稱呼從「叔父攝政王」到「皇叔父攝政王」（1645年）最後演變成「皇父攝政王」（1649年）。多爾袞愛好打獵，出狩場面壯大，光是獵鷹就有一千多隻。府第「翬飛鳥革，虎踞龍蟠，不惟凌空挂斗，與帝座相同，而金碧輝煌，雕鏤奇異，尤有過之者」，順治七年七月下令加派白銀二百五十萬兩，在喀喇河屯（今河北省承德市雙灤區灤河鎮）修建避暑山莊喀喇河屯行宮（為歷史上最早的避暑山莊，位置在今承德市雙灤區灤河鎮的灤河北岸，承鋼醫院一帶）。種種奢華措施使年幼的順治皇帝心生不滿。

治國之策

• 順治元年七月初八日，多爾袞宣布取消「三餉」，即遼餉、剿餉和練餉，從而減輕了民眾的負擔。

• 順治元年十月二十一日，規定了第一個告發官吏貪污之人的獎勵，贓私將分作三分，一分賞給首告之人，其餘二分入庫。

• 順治元年八月，多爾袞諭令法司官會同廷臣詳繹明律。順治四年三月大學士剛林等人以明律為藍本修訂，滿漢雙語頒行《大清律集解附例》，有吏律、戶律、刑律、禮律等，共三十卷，乃為清朝第一部成文法典，《大清律例》的制定亦打下基礎。

逝世

多爾袞自稱在松錦之戰中勞累過度，元氣大傷，得了三種病症：一是怔忡之症，二是中風，還患有咯血症。入關後更是「機務日繁，疲于裁應，頭昏目脹，體中時複不快」。順治四年以後，風疾加重，跪拜不便，隨著健康走下坡，因而身心煩燥，容易動怒，「上上下下都怕他，據說就是達官顯貴往往也不能直接同他說話，要趁他外出過路時借便謁見。」順治七年（1650年）十一月十三日，多爾袞有疾，居家煩悶，率諸王、貝勒、貝子、公等，及八旗固山額真、官兵等獵于邊外。十二月九日，多爾袞因狩獵墜馬，膝蓋受傷，塗以涼膏，竟不治死於喀喇河屯行宮（今河北省灤平縣）。順治帝追尊多爾袞為皇帝，廟號「成宗」，全諡懋德修遠廣業定功安民立政誠敬義皇帝，簡稱「義皇帝」。但兩個月後，順治帝因多爾袞當年獨斷專行且迫害其兄豪格，于順治八年二月剝奪多爾袞的封號，並掘其墓，斬其頭骨，又接連處罰其黨羽剛林、巴哈納、冷僧機、譚泰、拜尹圖等。直到乾隆時才恢復多爾袞的睿親王封號並「追謚曰忠，補入玉牒」，下令為他修複墳塋。

個人生活

根據日本旅人的《韃靼漂流記》載，多爾袞「身材瘦長，留有美髯，是個皮膚微黑，面貌英俊，目光銳利的人。他是皇帝下面第一個有地位的人，其他各王和所有的臣下，都尊重他，上上下下都怕他。有什麼事情都不能隨便參見。趁他上街的時候，我們這些人藉機會參見。街上的行人都得匍匐在地，不許抬頭仰視」。多爾袞雖然騎射了得，作戰英勇，但身體素質不佳，他是一個帶病之人，據傳患有怔忡之症（可能類似心律不整），在戰場上及狩獵時經常頭暈目眩。

評價

多爾袞是滿人征服漢人的主要功臣之一，但一般認為他有「六大弊政」，薙髮、易服、圈地、占房（侵占房舍）、投充（搶掠漢人為奴隸）、逋逃（逃人法），延續時間最長的，是逃人法。順治七年六月，廣西巡撫郭肇基等人因為「擅帶逃人五十三名」，被處死。順治十年豪雨成災，「直隸被水諸處，萬民流離，扶老攜幼，就食山東。但逃人法嚴，不敢收留，流民啼號轉徙」。多爾袞血洗江南，也落下屠夫的惡名。

與孝莊文皇后的關係

《清朝野史大觀》、古稀老人的《多爾袞軼事》、蔣良騏《東華錄》、《張蒼水全集》中張煌言的《建夷宮詞》都有「太后下嫁」一說，即多爾袞按照清兵入關（建州女真）前的妻寡嫂的風俗娶了皇太極永福宮莊妃，即順治帝生母孝莊文皇后，同時孝莊文皇后也為了穩住多爾袞，避免其權勢野心膨脹危及順治帝的皇位。此一觀點在近代史學界裡雖有人正面認同，也有學者如閻崇年等人認為此乃當時漢人為抹黑滿清皇室而造的謠言，至今她是否下嫁於多爾袞仍是個謎。

多爾袞一生則有妻妾十人。多部文藝作品如小說或電視劇，都把多爾袞正妻博爾濟吉特氏定位為孝莊文皇后之妹，但事實上兩人僅是同族並非親姊妹。

家族

妻子|妻妾

多爾袞一生所娶妻妾中有明確記錄的共有十一人。後金時代，貴族奉行一夫多妻多妾制，可有多位福晉。所稱繼福晉者，並非喪妻再娶的繼室。最早的紀錄是多爾袞12歲時，于天命九年（1624年）五月所娶的吉桑阿爾寨之女。另外，改嫁給皇太極的林丹汗遺孀竇土門福晉所撫養的蒙古女子淑儕，被皇太極許給多爾袞。兩人在崇德五年（1640年）成婚。其後關于淑儕的記載不詳，是否為其中某位妻妾已無法考証。

除此之外，《世祖章皇帝實錄》曾提及睿王毀壞太祖太宗定例，於八旗遴選美女，取入伊家，又遣使於新服喀爾喀處，求取有夫之婦，未知八旗美女和喀爾喀有夫之婦是哪位妻妾。

女兒

• 東莪：側福晉李氏所生，為多爾袞唯一的親生子女。

養子

後代

據正史記載，多爾袞只在松錦之戰前生得一女，沒有男系後代。2005年，廣州一名男子曾自稱是多爾袞的第十世孫，並聲稱多爾袞被摘廟號後，家族一直不敢張揚，但滿族專家及愛新覺羅族後人均公開質疑其真確性。

影視形象

注釋