introduction
There is a sentence in the "Original Tao Awakening Training": "The whole family shares peace." This is a poem written by Hong Xiuquan himself, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement he initiated was so powerful that it not only confronted the Qing government at that time, but even directly destroyed the Qing government. Although the Qing government at that time fought hard to eliminate the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the forces they used had completely depleted the foundation of the Qing government, that is to say, the Qing government at that time was already a vulnerable existence.
However, if the Qing government had not chosen to spare no effort to destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, would Hong Xiuquan have been able to completely become the master at that time?
This is actually an obvious answer, Hong Xiuquan will never become the master of China, even if he did represent the peasant class when he revolted, but after his success, he completely forgot these original intentions and lived his own life. Especially after he set the capital in Nanjing, the number of beauties he wasted may not be believed by everyone.
In terms of the uprising launched by Hong Xiuquan alone, he is indeed a remarkable figure, even before that, he was a person who had not been listed in the imperial examination many times. Hong Xiuquan's advantage is that he is very active in his thinking and can think about problems from a new perspective, which is why he can gather so many people to participate in the uprising.
And for the ideas of democracy and equality that he advocated, everyone also recognized it, so Hong Xiuquan's behavior was almost what people thought of, and as soon as such remarks were said, many people naturally resonated.
If we only talk about his contribution to the uprising, even the later Sun Yat-sen admired him very much.
But unfortunately, Hong Xiuquan did not insist on thinking about the people below from beginning to end, and after becoming the leader of the country, he was no longer the person who was dedicated to the peasant class.
After the capital was set in Nanjing, the ranks of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom underwent great changes, especially Hong Xiuquan himself.
At the time of the uprising, the democracy and equality he preached almost vanished, and was replaced by a centralized power similar to that of the Qing government, blindly emphasizing the concept of hierarchy. He himself was also a ruler to face those who had supported him, originally these people followed him because he would seek the welfare of everyone, but he did not expect that in the end Hong Xiuquan would become a country no different from the Qing Dynasty, and the people at the bottom would naturally have dissatisfaction.
The most ridiculous thing is Hong Xiuquan's harem, using the harem three thousand beautiful ladies to describe the harem of other emperors may be some exaggerated techniques, but if it is Hong Xiuquan's harem, there is no exaggeration in this, and even a little indescribable meaning. It is no exaggeration to say that Hong Xiuquan's harem is almost all women, except for those concubines, Hong Xiuquan's harem maids and all the people who serve are women officials, in Hong Xiuquan's harem, except for Hong Xiuquan, there are almost no men.
Regarding the concubines of the harem, Hong Xiuquan also did a very ridiculous job, the concubines of other people's harems have a title, but Hong Xiuquan's concubines almost all have only one number, starting from 1, seeing that the final number reached more than two thousand, it can also be seen how many girls in Nanjing Hong Xiuquan have wasted.
In fact, if Hong Xiuquan was just obsessed with gentle townships, it would be enough, but he also began to become faint and incompetent in state affairs.
Especially in the use of people, he never needed useful people, high-ranking officials were basically his relatives and friends, and only those who were related to him would be reused by him, but these people often did nothing, and the prestige established at the beginning of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gradually declined.
What was even more frightening was that Hong Xiuquan himself was not aware of this change, and he still thought how indestructible his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was, when in fact this organization had been almost consumed by his own absurdity.
Hong Xiuquan can be regarded as a character, because he has dragged down the great Qing government with his own strength, and ordinary people certainly cannot do this. And the democratic equality he originally proposed was indeed what the people needed at that time, which is also his thinking for the sake of the people, and his fault was that he had no self-control.
After becoming the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he began to look like the original him, full of power and interests, and ignored the people who supported his ascension to the throne.
If Hong Xiuquan could really stick to his original intention as always, it would not be impossible to establish a long-term force and compete with the Qing government. To obtain such a result can only be said to be that he only has the courage of a puppet, and he does not have the conditions to become a qualified leader.
epilogue
Although Hong Xiuquan has a body of problems, it is undeniable that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement he led was indeed huge, which was enough to make him go down in history, but what future generations should learn is his strong appeal, rather than his greed for pleasure after he became famous, and desire will destroy everything in a person, which is not a joke.
Reference: "The Awakening of the Original Path"