he date of Zhaoqing's founding is uncertain, but it existed as early as the Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC - 220 AD) Dynasties, when it was known as Gaoyao. In the Sui Dynasty (581-618), Zhaoqing became known as Duanzhou and served as an important administrative region and military base. In 1118, Northern Song Dynasty Emperor Huizong bestowed its current name upon the city. After the fall of northern China to the Manchus in 1644, a sequence of Ming princes one after another established short-lived regimes at various locations in central and southern China, collectively known as the Southern Ming Dynasty. For several years until 1650, Zhaoqing was the seat of the last of these pretenders on the Ming throne, Zhu Youlang, styled the Yongli Emperor (who also made his court in Guilin and, later, at various locations in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Burma).