China Stories - A Brief History of China

Chongjan may have strangled himself with a silk sash, but it is commonly recorded that he hanged himself from a scholar tree. May the rebels dismember my corpse and slaughter my officials, but let them not despoil the imperial tombs nor harm a single one of our people. He was alone, so we don't know exactly what happened next. In a bold seizing of the narrative, the manshus used the suicide to justify their conquest claiming to avenge the emperor.