Shi Kefa (4 February 1601 – 20 May 1645), courtesy names Xianzhi and Daolin, was a government official and calligrapher who lived in the late Ming dynasty. He was born in Xiangfu (祥符; present-day Kaifeng, Henan) and claimed ancestry from Daxing County, Shuntian Prefecture (順天府大興縣; in present-day Beijing). He was mentored by Zuo Guangdou (). He served as the Minister of War in Nanjing during the early part of his career. He is best remembered for his defence of Yangzhou from the Qing dynasty and was killed when Yangzhou fell to Qing forces in April 1645. After his death, the Southern Ming granted him the posthumous name "Zhongjing" (忠靖; means "loyal and peaceful"). Nearly a century later, the Qianlong Emperor of Qing granted Shi Kefa another posthumous name, "Zhongzheng" (忠正; means "loyal and upright".) His descendants collected his works and compiled them into a book titled Lord Shi Zhongzheng's Collections (). Early life and career Shi Kefa took the imperial examination and obtained a jinshi () degree in 1628. He was appointed as an official in Xi'an, before subsequently serving as a yuanwailang () and langzhong () in the Ministry of Revenue. In 1635 he followed the general Lu Xiangsheng () to suppress peasant revolts throughout the land. Two years later, he was promoted to yushi () on the recommendation of the minister Zhang Guowei (), and was also appointed as xunfu (巡撫; a type of regional governor) of Anqing, Luzhou (present-day Hefei), Taiping (near present-day Wuhu City), Chizhou (), and various counties in Henan, Jiangxi and Huguang provinces. In 1641, he was put in charge of the Caoyun system. In the seventh month of 1643, he was appointed as the Minister of War in Nanjing. Serving the Southern Ming In the third lunar month of 1644, rebel forces led by Li Zicheng captured the Ming capital Beijing and the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide. The following month, Wu Sangui defected to the Qing dynasty and opened Shanhai Pass, allowing the Qing armies to seize control of Beijing from Li Zicheng's rebel forces and overrun most of northern China. When news of the Chongzhen Emperor's death reached Nanjing, there was much debate on who would be the new Ming emperor. Even though Shi Kefa was effectively the leader of the Ming loyalists in Nanjing, he was unable to make a decision on the issue. In the fifth lunar month, Fengyang's Viceroy,