A Brief Account of the Jiading Massacre, written by Zhu Zisu, gives a firsthand record of the horrific Three Massacres of Jiading in 1645. By then, after entering China, the Qing army had gained control of most of the Central Plains and Jiangnan. It nevertheless imposed the queue order by force, demanding that Han people “keep your head if you cut your hair, or keep your hair and lose your head.” This ran profoundly against Han traditions and provoked fierce resistance, especially in Jiading.
The book recounts the three massacres in detail. On the fourth day of the seventh month, Li Chengdong broke through Jiading and ordered a massacre. Resistance leaders Hou Tongzeng and Huang Chunyao were killed or took their own lives, while the people were slaughtered; cries filled the streets, and countless people died. On the twenty-sixth day of the seventh month, Li Chengdong crushed resistance in towns such as Waigang and Gelong and again unleashed a massacre. On the sixteenth day of the eighth month, Wu Zhiban’s troops failed in their counterattack on Jiading, and Li Chengdong ordered yet another massacre. The three slaughters claimed around one hundred thousand lives, turning a prosperous city into ruins and laying bare the cruelty of war and the Qing army’s atrocities.
