滿清入關以後，致力宣揚他們是中國幅員內的唯一合法政府。他們強調明朝在清人入關之前已經覆亡，南明政權不過係僭偽政府；況且清朝從「流寇」手中取得天下，可謂順天應人。 清廷對南明政權的態度，至乾隆中葉才改變。高宗認為，明朝在福王被擒之後，國祚始告結束。至於唐、桂二王，雖不能如福王為正統君主，但不可貶斥為僭偽。 乾隆君臣吹噓上述處理南明歷史地位的意見「大公至正」，其實高宗是借帝王權威壓抑漢人提倡南明政權為明朝合法繼承者的言論。倘若所有南明政權都屬正統，清初十七年的基業豈非居於閏位？因此，高宗賦予享國只有一年的弘光朝正統地位，實係採取以退為進的手法來確定清初的正統地位。 雖然高宗改變了官方對明清之際正統誰屬的定說，但是他對明朝之所以亡及清朝之所以興的詮釋，與前三朝的說法並無不同。其次，上述新說並沒有完全採用。例如，高宗下令重修《明史．本紀》時，便沒有因應新說而賦予南明政權新的歷史地位。

Ever since the Manchus entered into China proper, the Manchu rulers had been consistently trying hard to claim their ruling of the country as legitimate. They stressed that the peasant rebels had already brought the Ming dynasty to an end before the Manchus ever tred on China. The Manchus, therefore, obtained the Mandate of Heaven to rule China directly from the rebels' hands, not from the Ming royal family. The fact that the Ming dynasty collapsed in the hands of rebels and that the Manchu ruling of China was in line with the will of Heaven and the needs of people, rendered all the Southern Ming regimes illegitimate entities. Such official attitudes towards the historical positions of the southern Ming regimes remained unchanged until the middle of the Ch'ien-lung era. Instead of denouncing all of the regimes, Emperor Ch'ien-lung granted the Hung-kuang regime a legitimate position. He also prohibited his imperial historians from adopting derogatory terms in addressing the Lung-wu and Yung-li regimes even though he did not himself consider them legitimate successors of the Ming dynasty.

正統; 高宗; 南明政權

legitimacy; Emperor Kao-tsung; Southern Ming regimes