Holding the right to kill and cut down the land, he will cut off the evil and leave the people hanging. The eyes pass through the northwest of the country, and the sound vibrates southeast of the sun and the moon. --Hong Xiuquan
As we all know, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement led by Hong Xiuquan almost overthrew this century-old empire. Unfortunately, when it was almost a foot in the door, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was powerless to succeed.
The reason is directly related to Hong Xiuquan's own short-sightedness, after his success, he has been addicted to women, not doing the right thing, the harem beauty is more prosperous than the emperor, and An can be undefeated.
Hong Xiuquan's great cause
In 1853, the Taiping Army rose up under the leadership of Hong Xiuquan, and everyone firmly believed that as long as they followed the Taiping Army, they could realize the ultimate ideal of "the unity of the world". For a time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Legion grew in number and momentum, and launched a huge impact on the Qing government.
They first occupied Wuchang, and then attacked Jinling (present-day Nanjing), and even in the face of Lu Jianying, the Qing Governor of Liangjiang, who was stationed in the isolated city, and the General Xianghou of Jiangning, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Army was not afraid at all, but successfully took Nanjing in the tenth day.
Up to this point, the Taiping Rebellion and Hong Xiuquan were successful, and they succeeded in posing a threat to the Qing government and feudal forces.
Later, Mr. Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary pioneer of our country, also affirmed Hong Xiuquan's dedication, which is enough to prove that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement had a far-reaching impact on future generations.
However, after capturing Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan led his troops to the former Qing Dynasty Liangjiang Governor's Palace. It was also from this time that he seemed to have forgotten his original intention of founding the Taiping Army, and completely forgotten the concept of "the world is the same, there is food to eat together".
Once, as a low-level people, Hong Xiuquan needed to overthrow the landlord class, but at this time, he himself became a landlord. Hong Xiuquan, who was not firm in his thinking, formulated a strict hierarchy, which was no less than the feudal autocracy of the Qing government.
In this way, as Hong Xiuquan's "professionalism" gradually faded, he also began to enjoy his own life, laying the groundwork for the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Beyond the harem life of the emperor
After entering Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan's first thing was to ask for the expansion of the Tianwang Palace, the expanded Tianwangfu covers an area of about 90,000 square meters, and the Tianfu Palace built with huge funds is not only luxuriously decorated, but also the beauty inside exceeds the number of harems of previous emperors.
No wonder later generations often say that Hong Xiuquan did not take a step out of the Heavenly King's Mansion for 11 years after he fixed the capital in Nanjing, and if someone had interviewed Hong Xiuquan about what he was doing in the Heavenly King's Mansion, it is estimated that he would have replied with a smile while reminiscing: "There are too many beautiful women in the palace, and I am really too busy to come."
Hong Xiuquan's extravagant style, in addition to the construction of the Heavenly King's Palace, is more manifested in the obsession with female color. In fact, as early as the beginning of Hong Xiuquan's uprising, there were already people around him who began to offer beautiful women.
With the victory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Hong Xiuquan was surrounded by more and more beautiful women, and after the Jintian Uprising alone, Hong Xiuquan's harem already had 15 concubines.
Even during the later confrontation with the Qing government, Hong Xiuquan's harem expansion did not slow down, and one beautiful woman after another was sent into the harem. For example, in 1861, the Taiping Army and the Qing government were at their most urgent.
Hong Xiuquan ignored the war ahead, but instead favored the beauties of the harem at night, and during the day he chose other beauties to enter the palace. After learning of Hong Xiuquan's preference for female color, all the ministers and generals began to search around for beautiful women to pay tribute.
It is reported that when the number is large, Hong Xiuquan can receive nearly a hundred beautiful women at one time. However, due to the large size of the Heavenly King's Mansion, ordinary people could not enter it, resulting in the fact that future generations had little understanding of the situation in the Heavenly King's Mansion.
Interestingly, after Hong Xiuquan's failure, his son's remarks when confronted with interrogation were enough to prove that Hong Tiangui had the following statement: "The image of the paper drunk gold fan in the Heavenly King's Mansion at that time: "Hong Tiangui had the following statement:
I am now sixteen years old, the old king is my father, I have eighty-eight mothers, I am born of lai, when I was nine years old, my father married me four wives. Eighty-eight queens, which meant that there were at least 88 concubines in the Heavenly King's Palace.
However, even in feudal society, the number of harem concubines could not exceed 72, (three palaces, six courts and seventy-two concubines), which meant that the number of formal wives and concubines of the kings of previous dynasties was not as large as that of Hong Xiuquan at that time.
In this regard, many people say that Hong Xiuquan was originally from a peasant background, and this kind of person will reflect more power and desire in the control of women. Therefore, after Hong Xiuquan gained power, the first step was to recruit wives and concubines, and wanted to reflect his dignity as a man.
Hong Xiuquan was the only man in the Heavenly King's Mansion
Of course, there is another great spectacle in the Heavenly King's Mansion, that is: there are no other men in the Heavenly King's Mansion, and the concubines and servants in the whole palace are composed of women, for example, under the name of each princess, there will be dozens of concubines and yuan daughters.
There are so many beautiful women in the palace, Hong Xiuquan is naturally unwilling to let other men wear green hats for him, in order to put an end to this situation, Hong Xiuquan abolished the eunuch system, or no longer served by men.
The daily affairs of the mansion are taken care of by female officials, and men cannot even set foot in the backyard of the mansion for half a step, and the number of people in the whole house is added up, and there are more than 2300 women serving Hong Xiuquan.
Some people in later generations described: "There are about thousands of women in the puppet royal palace, and only one male thief is Hong, and the adultery is known." In the "Notes on the Spring Dream of Jiangnan", the image of the harem of the Heavenly King's Palace is also described as follows: the palace is extremely luxurious, and when it is encircled and suppressed, only thousands of concubines are seen, and Hong Xiuquan himself is not seen.
It is precisely because the number of concubines is too much, Hong Xiuquan can not remember everyone's name, resulting in Hong Xiuquan can only rely on the number to manage the concubines at that time, every night Hong Xiuquan flop card is not like the emperor to turn over a person, but to turn over several numbers at a time!
According to some information, Hong Xiuquan, who was obsessed with gentle township, rarely left the backyard since 1853, and even did not take a step out of the Heavenly Palace for 11 years.
After the defeat of the Taiping Army, when the Tianwang Mansion was surrounded and suppressed, the Qing government commander Zeng Guofan did not find Hong Xiuquan for many days, after all, Hong Xiuquan, who had not appeared in 11 years, was indeed difficult to find.
Hong Xiuquan almost expressed this desire for love to the extreme, first of all, to separate men and women, and to require all men and women not to have adultery.
That is to say, all the women in the world belong to Hong Xiuquan, they are all born to serve Hong Xiuquan, in Hong Xiuquan's eyes, these women are just his playthings, can be entertained at will.
Looking back on the past, Hong Xiuquan entered Nanjing at the age of 41, stayed in the Heavenly King's Mansion in the same year, and left the wives in the palace at the age of 52 to commit suicide, obviously 11 of them were in their prime, but Hong Xiuquan did not ask about the government, no matter the war, even if the Taiping Army once failed, he did not command the killing of the enemy.
He was only intoxicated in the harem, missing the best moment for the Taiping Army to further exert its strength against the Qing government, and became a "big joke" in history. Of course, because Hong Xiuquan has not been heard from for 11 years, some people have even raised doubts: "Will Hong Xiuquan be just a spiritual image, a cover for the Taiping Army uprising?" ”
In any case, Hong Xiuquan's extravagant style is actually the psychology of what we often call the nouveau riche. He did not take a step out of the palace for 11 years after staying in the Nanjing Heavenly King's Mansion, resulting in the short-lived victory of the Taiping Army.
The act of self-indulgence and depravity caused the direction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement to begin to deform, although the statement about the harem beauty three thousand was only from the wild history, but after all, it would not come out of nowhere, and Hong Xiuquan's situation at that time was not as good as this, it was almost the same!
In the history of our country, there have been many peasant uprising movements, but most of them have failed, in fact, in the final analysis, it is because of this psychology of the upstarts that the uprising movement eventually led to the failure.