The Shunzhi Emperor (Wade-Giles: Shun-chih Emperor; Chinese: 順治帝; pinyin: Shùnzhìdì; Manchu: ijishūn dasan hūwangdi; Mongolian: Eyebeer Zasagch Khaan; 15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661), a Manchu of the Aisin Gioro clan, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the first Qing (pronounced "Ch'ing") emperor to rule over China, which he did from 1644 to 1661. A committee of Manchu princes chose him to succeed his father Hong Taiji (1592–1643) in September 1643 when he was five years old. The princes also appointed two co-regents: Dorgon (1612–1650), fourtheenth son of Qing founder Nurhaci (1559–1626), and Jirgalang (1599–1655), one of Nurhaci's nephews.

From 1643 until Dorgon's death in 1650, political power lay mostly in the hands of Dorgon. After the young monarch started to rule personally in 1651, he tried, with mixed success, to fight corruption and to reduce the political influence of the Manchu nobility. Under the leadership of Dorgon and Shunzhi, the Qing conquered most of the territory of the fallen Ming dynasty, defeated the Ming's last claimants in the southern provinces, and established the basis of Qing rule over China despite highly unpopular policies like the "haircutting command" of 1645, which forced Qing subjects to shave their forehead and braid their remaining hair into a queue. The emperor died at the age of 22 of smallpox, a highly contagious disease that was endemic in China, but against which the Manchus had no immunity. He was succeeded by his third son Xuanye, who had already survived smallpox, and who subsequently reigned for sixty years under the name of Kangxi. Because the Shunzhi reign is not well documented, it constitutes a relatively little-known period of Qing history.

"Shunzhi" (Wade-Giles: Shun-chih) was the name of this ruler's reign period in Chinese; this title had equivalents in Manchu and Mongol because the Qing imperial family was Manchu and ruled over many Mongol tribes that helped the Qing to conquer China. But the emperor's personal name was Fulin, and the posthumous name by which he was worshipped at the Imperial Ancestral Temple was Shizu (Wade-Giles: Shih-tsu; Chinese: 世祖).