What is the most in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? The answer is Lady Wang. The so-called Princess Wang Niang is equivalent to the princess of other dynasties in terms of title, but the title of Princess Niang of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not valuable. This was because there were no eunuchs in the palace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but the princes did not dare to arrange for men to do things at home, so almost all the affairs in the palace were taken care of by women. As a theocratic regime, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had such a simple concept of equality in its teachings: "There are many men in the world, all brothers; there are many women in the world, all sisters in the group".
Therefore, the female relatives of the royal palace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are called Wang Niang. Even those who look at the gate and sweep the floor in the royal palace are called Wang Niang. Her name is Wang Niang, but she can do the work of a lady. However, the reason why there are many wives of the Taiping Heavenly Kings is not only because the female relatives of the royal palace are called wang niangs, but also because there are many palaces in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The reason for the large number of royal palaces is because there are many princes: the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has a total of more than 2,700 kings. Don't look at the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which only existed for a short period of 13 years, but the number of princes is no less than that of those great unified dynasties.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement led by Hong Xiuquan was actually an old-style peasant uprising based on religious ideology. This uprising took the form of religious gathering, but in essence there were still many commonalities with previous peasant uprisings. Hong Xiuquan, who was born in mud legs, combined the concept of equality between the Chinese peasant class for thousands of years and the concept of equality between the rich and the poor in religion, and proposed to establish a heavenly kingdom on earth with land and farming, money and envoys, warmth everywhere, and uniformity everywhere.
Hong Xiuquan's so-called "Heaven on Earth" is basically similar to the ancient Chinese ideal of the world. In such an ideal society, the shackles of class superiority and inferiority should be broken between people. In the early years, Hong Xiuquan did propose to "share the same heavenly father and brother Gangchang" and "unify the Taiping Jiangshan" with everyone. At that time, Hong Xiuquan himself, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui and other early high-ranking cadres of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not have much understanding of things such as power plots, so they did not form a relatively mature official system.
At the time of the Jintian Uprising, except for Hong Xiuquan himself, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan, and Wei Changhui all served as military divisions as prime ministers. Hong Xiuquan is a talent who has repeatedly failed to participate in the imperial examination, and Yang Xiuqing is a charcoal burner who does not know a single character. At that time, the cultural level of the leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was generally low. The most contacted by Hong Xiuquan and others is not the Four Books and Five Classics, but the folk fiction stories such as "Water Margin" and "Speaking of Tang". Perhaps the military division was the first official position that Hong Xiuquan and others, who were influenced by popular readings such as "Water Margin" and "Speaking of Tang", first thought of.
In September 1851, after the Taiping Army conquered Yong'an (present-day Mengshan) in Guangxi, various systems were established successively (historically known as the Yong'an system). Hong Xiuquan divided the officers of the Taiping Army, who were less than 10,000 at that time, into sixteen ranks, including Wang, Guozong, Hou, Xiangxiang, Inspector, Commander, General, Commander, Commander, and Division Commander. While claiming the title of Heavenly King, Hong Xiuquan created five kings: Yang Xiuqing the Eastern King, Xiao Chaogui the Western King, Feng Yunshan the Southern King, Wei Changhui the Northern King, and Shi Dakai the Wing King. Among the five kings, the East And West kings are first-class kings, the southern and northern kings are second-class kings, and the wing kings are third-class kings.
Matched with hierarchical status is material treatment. At that time, Hong Xiuquan had specially decreed that all the material supplies should be divided according to levels: the king of heaven could eat ten kilograms of meat a day, and the following was reduced by half a kilogram step by step until there was no meat below the total system. This hierarchy was not fully enforced in the process of marching and fighting. In March 1853, after the Taiping Army captured Jiangning (present-day Nanjing), it was renamed Tianjing and the capital was fixed here. By this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had become a regime that confronted the Qing Dynasty in the north and south. After the Taiping Army entered Nanjing, the internal hierarchy also began to become more and more strict.
Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom claimed in its teachings to establish a heavenly kingdom on earth where everyone was equal, in fact the hierarchical differences within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom exceeded that of the feudal dynasties in Chinese history. People living in the taiping heavenly kingdom control area were divided into more than a dozen levels. Each level is hereditary from generation to generation and never changes. Even between each level there is a fine internal distinction. Among the first righteous kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there are clear highs and lows: the heavenly king is the king, the following eastern kings are the first, and then the four kings of the west, south, north and wing are arranged in order.
During the period from the establishment of Yong'an to the dingdu Tianjing (1851-1853), the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had only five kings of the east, west, south, north and wings except for the heavenly king Hong Xiuquan. After the Taiping army entered Nanjing, it also crowned Qin Rigang the King of Yan and Hu Yixuan the King of Yu. But kings and kings are not equal: the king of heaven is called long live, the king of the east is called nine thousand years old, and the kings of the west, south, north, and wings are reduced by one thousand years in turn. The palace painting of the Heavenly King's Mansion is double dragon and double phoenix, the East King's Palace is one dragon and one phoenix, and the South, North, Wing, Yan and Yu Five King's Palaces paint a dragon and a tiger.
The crown of the Heavenly King is embroidered with double dragons and phoenixes, and the crowns of the Eastern, Northern and Wing Kings are embroidered with double dragons and single phoenixes: the single phoenix on the Hat of the Eastern King inhabits the clouds, the single phoenix of the Northern King lives on the mountain, and the single phoenix of the Wing King lives on the peony flower. The Dragon Robe of the Heavenly King is embroidered with 9 dragons, the Eastern King is embroidered with 8 dragons, the Northern King is embroidered with 7 dragons, the Wing King is embroidered with 6 dragons, and the Yan and Yu Kings are embroidered with 5 each. The documents issued by the Heavenly King are called edicts, the documents issued by the Eastern King are called edicts, the documents issued by the Northern King are called commandments, the documents issued by the Wing King are called precepts, and the documents issued by the two kings of Yan and Yu are called edicts.
It can be seen from this that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can be said to have refined the hierarchy of upper and lower levels to the extreme. This detailed hierarchy existed not only in the leadership, but also in the entire society of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom clearly stipulates that all kings will drive out, hou, and beggars, and the soldiers and people will not behead those who do not evade. In addition to these high-ranking officials, the rest of society is equally distinguished: subordinates must stand up and salute when they see their superiors, or they will be punished by corporal punishment such as beheading. The refinement of the taiping heavenly kingdom's hierarchy and inferiority can be said to have reached the highest level in Chinese history.
In 1856, the Tianjing Incident killed Yang Xiuqing of the Eastern King and Wei Changhui of the Northern King. At the end of November 1856, after Shi Dakai returned to Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan ordered him to take charge of government affairs, but at this time, Hong Xiuquan, who was already uneasy with his foreign surname, added his two brothers Hong Renfa and Hong Renda as The King of An and the King of Fu. Hong Renfa and Hong Renda's obstruction led Shi Dakai to lead his troops to flee in June 1857. After Shi Dakai left, Hong Xiuquan expressed the meaning of "never being crowned king" to all the soldiers and civilians of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but when Hong Xiuquan's brother Hong Renjie came to Tianjing in 1859, he was named the King of Gan eight thousand years less than a month later.
Hong Xiuquan's practice of sealing Hong Rengui aroused the displeasure of Meng De'en, Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Li Shixian, and others who were leading troops to fight against the Qing army at that time. After the fall of Tianjing and the capture of Hong Renjie, he confessed: "After all, the military attaches are boiling. Among the generals, Chen Yucheng was loyal and brave, and he was crowned king of England. It is decreed that internal affairs are not decided to ask the king, foreign affairs are not decided to ask the king of England, and internal and external matters are not decided to ask the king of heaven. The hearts of the people were solemnly obeyed, and they all obeyed the restraints, and li xiu was made the king of loyalty and Li Shixian was made the king of service before the long life of the heavenly king."
This statement of Hong Rengui shows that Hong Xiuquan had to seal Hong Rengui one by one in order to calm the dissatisfaction of various military generals. Therefore, at this time, hong rengui the king of Gan, Chen Yucheng the king of England, Li Xiucheng the king of Zhong, Meng Deen the king of Zan, Li Shixian the prince of the attendant, Yang Fuqing the assistant king, and Lin Shaozhang the king of Zhang were sealed at once. In the last three years of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the further abuse of the throne led to the emergence of more than 2,700 princes. In fact, these kings are divided into several levels: only a few dozen of them are really powerful, and the rest are nothing more than enjoying themselves in the name of kings.