Manchus in the context of "Shunzhi Emperor"

The Shanhai Pass (simplified Chinese: 山海关; traditional Chinese: 山海關; pinyin: Shānhǎi Guān; lit. 'Mountain Sea Pass') is a major fortified gateway at the eastern end of the Great Wall of China and one of its most crucial fortifications, as the pass commands the narrowest choke point in the strategic Liaoxi Corridor, an elongated coastal plain between the Yan Mountains foothills and the Bohai Sea, which is the only easily traversable landway between North and Northeast China. It is located in present-day Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, on the east bank of the Shi River, with defensive walls stretching from the Yan Mountains all the way to the shores of the Liaodong Bay.

Throughout Chinese history, garrisons around the pass served as frontline defensive outposts against raids and incursions into the North China Plain by various non-Sinitic ethnic groups from the Northeast (also known as Manchuria since the 19th century), including the Dongyi, Donghu (Xianbei and Wuhuan), Khitan and Jurchen (Manchus). The current Shanhai Pass was built during the early Ming dynasty as the easternmost fortification of the Ming Great Wall, and was extensively reinforced after Yongle Emperor moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing following the Jingnan campaign, making it the most important defensive barrier in all of China, as it shielded the heartland region around the imperial capital. The pass' strategic location dictated that without mounting a costly direct siege, the only way an invading army can get past the pass' defense was to circumvent it around the north through a few treacherously narrow mountain passes deep within the Yan Mountains, which would make it very difficult to maintain supply lines and thus any sizeable invasions. This defensive significance therefore earned the pass the famous nickname "Greatest Pass Under Heaven" (天下第一关).

A sanjak or sancak (Ottoman Turkish: سنجاق, sancak, "flag, banner") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak a liva (لوا, livâ) from the name's calque in Arabic and Persian.

Banners were a common organization of nomadic groups on the Eurasian Steppe including the early Turks, Mongols, and Manchus and were used as the name for the initial first-level territorial divisions at the formation of the Ottoman Empire. Upon the empire's expansion and the establishment of eyalets as larger provinces, sanjaks were used as the second-level administrative divisions. They continued in this purpose after the eyalets were replaced by vilayets during the Tanzimat reforms of the 19th century.

The Wild Jurchens (Chinese: 野人女真) or Haidong Jurchens (Chinese: 海東女真) were a group of the Tungusic peoples in Northeast Asia identified by the Ming dynasty as the northernmost of the three groups of Jurchen people (the other two being the Jianzhou Jurchens and Haixi Jurchens). In the 14th century, they inhabited the northernmost part of Greater Manchuria from the western side of the Greater Khingan Range to the Ussuri River and the lower Amur River bordered by the Tatar Strait and the Sea of Japan.

The descendants of Wild Jurchens do not identify themselves as Manchus. Instead, they formed different nations such as Nanai, Evenks, Negidals, Oroqen and Nivkh.

Foot binding (simplified Chinese: 缠足; traditional Chinese: 纏足; pinyin: chánzú), or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls to change their shape and size. Feet altered by foot binding were known as lotus feet and the shoes made for them were known as lotus shoes. In late imperial China, bound feet were considered a status symbol and a mark of feminine beauty. However, foot binding was a painful practice that limited the mobility of women and resulted in lifelong disabilities.

The prevalence and practice of foot binding varied over time, by region, and by social class. The practice may have originated among court dancers during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in 10th-century China and gradually became popular among the elite during the Song dynasty, later spreading to lower social classes by the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Manchu emperors attempted to ban the practice in the 17th century but failed. In some areas, foot binding raised marriage prospects. It has been estimated that by the 19th century 40–50% of all Chinese women may have had bound feet, rising to almost 100% among upper-class Han Chinese women. Frontier ethnic groups such as Turkestanis, Manchus, Mongols, and Tibetans generally did not practice footbinding.

The Qing dynasty (1644–1912) was the last imperial dynasty of China. The early Qing emperors adopted the bureaucratic structures and institutions from the preceding Ming dynasty but split rule between the Han and Manchus with some positions also given to Mongols. Like previous dynasties, the Qing recruited officials via the imperial examination system until the system was abolished in 1905. The Qing divided the positions into civil and military positions, each having nine grades or ranks, each subdivided into a and b categories. Civil appointments ranged from an attendant to the emperor or a grand secretary in the Forbidden City (highest) to being a prefectural tax collector, deputy jail warden, deputy police commissioner, or tax examiner. Military appointments ranged from being a field marshal or chamberlain of the imperial bodyguard to a third class sergeant, corporal or a first or second class private.

The Yongli Emperor (1623–1662), personal name Zhu Youlang, was the fourth and last emperor of the Southern Ming dynasty, reigning in turbulent times when the former Ming dynasty was overthrown and the Manchu-led Qing dynasty progressively conquered the entire China proper. He led the remnants of the Ming loyalists with the assistance of peasant armies to resist the Qing forces in southwestern China, but he was then forced to exile to Toungoo Burma and eventually captured and executed by Wu Sangui in 1662. His era name "Yongli" means "perpetual calendar".

Zhu Youlang was the son of Zhu Changying (朱常瀛), the seventh son of the Wanli Emperor, and Empress Dowager Ma. He inherited the title Prince of Gui (桂王) from his brother and lived an obscure life as a minor member of the Ming imperial family until the rebellions of peasant armies, which resulted to the fall of the imperial capital, Beijing, and the suicide of the last Ming emperor, Chongzhen, after the peasant rebel leader Li Zicheng captured Beijing in 1644. The true beneficiaries of the collapse of the Ming were the Qing dynasty, ruled by the emerging nation Manchus from Manchuria. After mass defection from Ming remnants, including a former Ming general, Wu Sangui, who allowed the Qing forces to pass the Ming Great Wall against Li Zicheng. The Qing forces defeated the peasant armies and rapidly expanded to northern China, the Lower Yangtze valley, and Central China. The Ming loyalists continued to resist in southern China, with several former Ming royal members regrouping in the south in attempt to re-establish the Ming governance, but all failed before the rapid Manchu military advance. Youlang ascended the throne in Zhaoqing as the fourth Southern Ming emperor in November 1646.

Tibet under Qing rule refers to the Qing dynasty's rule over Tibet from 1720 to 1912. The Qing rulers incorporated Tibet into the empire along with other Inner Asia territories, although the actual extent of the Qing dynasty's control over Tibet during this period has been the subject of political debate. The Qing called Tibet a fanbu, fanbang or fanshu, which has usually been translated as "vassal", "vassal state", or "borderlands", along with areas like Xinjiang and Mongolia. Like the earlier Mongol led Yuan dynasty, the Manchus of the Qing dynasty exerted military and administrative control over Tibet, while granting it a degree of political autonomy.Starting with the establishment of the Imperial Stele Inscriptions of the Pacification of Tibet, the term Xizang was officially used to replace older names to designate the region.

By 1642, Güshi Khan of the Khoshut Khanate had reunified Tibet under the spiritual and temporal authority of the 5th Dalai Lama of the Gelug school, who established a civil administration known as Ganden Phodrang. In 1653, the Dalai Lama travelled on a state visit to the Qing court, and was received in Beijing and "recognized as the spiritual authority of the Qing Empire". The Dzungar Khanate invaded Tibet in 1717 and was subsequently expelled by the Qing in 1720. The Qing emperors then appointed imperial residents known as ambans to Tibet, most of them ethnic Manchus, that reported to the Lifan Yuan, a Qing government body that oversaw the empire's frontier. During the Qing era, Lhasa was politically semi-autonomous under the Dalai Lamas or regents. Qing authorities engaged in occasional military interventions in Tibet, intervened in Tibetan frontier defense, collected tribute, stationed troops, and influenced reincarnation selection through the Golden Urn. About half of the Tibetan lands were exempted from Lhasa's administrative rule and annexed into neighboring Chinese provinces, although most were only nominally subordinated to Beijing.