young son, Chu Tz'ŭ-hsüan 朱慈烜 (b. April 23, 1648), were put to death in June by strangulation with a bowstring. His mother and his legal wife were sent to Peking but, according to some accounts, they died on the way.
Through the influence of the eunuch, P'ang T'ien-shou 龐天壽 (d. 1657, age 70 sui), and P. Andreas Wolfgang [Xavier] Koflier (1603–1651), most of the immediate household of Chu Yu-lang were brought under the influence of Christianity. This eunuch had been baptized in Peking by Nicolas Longobardi 龍華民 (T. 精華, 1559–1654) before 1630 under the name Achilles 亞基樓. The legal wife of Chu Yu-lang's father, born of a family named Wang 王, was baptized in 1648 under the Christian name Helena; Chu Yu-lang's own mother, of a family named Ma 馬, was baptized as Maria; his legal wife, the Empress, born of a family named Wang 王, was baptized as Anna; his legitimate son and heir-apparent, Chu Tz'ŭ-hsüan, received the baptismal name Constantine. On November 4, 1650 the Empress Dowager, Helena, wrote a personal letter to Pope Innocent X and another to the Jesuit General asking prayers for the Ming cause and the dispatch of more missionaries to China. Two similar letters, addressed to the same personage, but dated November 1, were written by P'ang T'ien-shou. The originals of the two letters to the Pope are preserved in the Vatican; the two addressed to the Jesuit General are known only in their Latin versions. These four letters were carried to Europe by P. Michel Boym 卜彌格 (T. 致遠, H. 1612–1659) who set out from Macao on January 1, 1651 with two Chinese companions, one of whom abandoned the journey en route. He did not reach Venice until the close of 1652, and owing to the illness and death of the Pope it was not until 1655 that he obtained replies (dated December 18) from the newly-elected pontiff, Alexander VII. When Boym and his Chinese companion, named Andrew, reached China (1659) on their return mission they found the passes of Kwangsi securely guarded by the Manchus, and perhaps also learned that Empress Helena had died at T'ien-chou, Kwangsi, some years before (May 30, 1651). Worn out and dejected, Boym himself died in August 1659, unable to deliver the message which the Pope had written.
[M.1/120/7a; M.3/4/1a; M.41/13/21a following; M.59/4/1a; M.59/補遺/6a, 7a; Wang Fu-chih [q. v.], Yung-li shih-lu; 鹿樵紀聞 Lu-ch'iao chi-wên (痛史) 下/1a; 明季南略 Ming-chi nan-lüeh; 明季稗史彙編 Ming-chi pai-shih hui-pien; Ch'ü Shih-ssŭ [q. v.], Chü Chung-hsüan kung chi 7/1a; Cha Chi-tso [q. v.], Tsui-wei lu (紀) 21/1a; Pelliot, "Michel Boym", T'oung Pao (1934) p p. 95–151; Jäger, "Die Letzten Tage Das Kü Schï-sï", Sinica VIII (1933) 197–207; Ignatius Ying-ki, "The Last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and Catholicity", Bulletin of the Catholic University of Peking, no. 1, pp. 23–28 for translation into English of the two letters to the Pope; Parker, E. H., "Letters from a Chinese Empress and a Chinese Eunuch to the Pope in the Year 1650", Contemporary Review, vol. CI (1912), pp. 79–83; Pfister, Notices Bioqraphiques et Bibliographiques, I, pp. 266, 270 passim; Mizukuri Gempachi & Tanaka Yoshinari 箕作元八, 田中義成, 明ノ王太后ヨリ羅馬法王ニ贈リツ論文 in Shigaku Zasshi 史学雜誌 (1892) vol. III, No. 37, pp. 885–893; Kuwabara Jitsuzō 桑原騭藏, 明ノ龎天壽ヨリ羅馬法皇ニ送呈セシ文書 in Shigaku Zasshi (1900), vol. XI, nos. 3, 5; Harvey, G. E., History of Burma (1925), pp. 196–201; W.M.S.C.K., chüan 11; Tung-fang tsa-chih ("The Far Eastern Miscellany") vol. 8, no. 5 (1911).]
CHU Yu-sung 朱由崧, d. 1646, was a grandson of the Ming emperor, Shên-tsung, who ruled in the years 1573-1620 with the reign-title Wan-li. After the capture of Peking by the Manchus, Chu Yu-sung ruled in Nanking for one year with the reign-title Hung-kuang 弘光. His father, Chu Ch'ang-hsün 朱常洵 (1586–1641), was the first son of Shên-tsung's favorite, the concubine Chêng 鄭, who for many years attempted to secure his appointment as crown prince (see under Chu Ch'ang-lo). The strong opposition of Shên-tsung's ministers forced a settlement in 1601 by which Chu Ch'ang-lo was made heir apparent, and Chu Ch'ang-hsün was given the title Prince of Fu (福) with hereditary estates at Honanfu. In spite of this arrangement Chu Ch'ang-hsün remained at Peking, the object of continual intrigue until 1614 when he moved to Honanfu where a lavishly constructed palace had been prepared for him. His estates comprised 2,000,000 mou of fertile land, thus adding greatly to the burden of the people.
In 1617 Chu Yu-sung received the title Prince of Tê-ch'ang 德昌. Late in the year 1640 Li Tzŭ-ch'êng [q. v.] attacked Honanfu, and in the spring of the next year Chu Ch'ang-hsün was executed. His palaces burned for three days and Chu Yu-sung with his mother escaped across the Yellow River to Huai-ch'ing, Honan. In
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