Where there is oppression, there is resistance, and after the Opium War, China degenerated into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The Qing government signed many unequal treaties, cut land and paid compensation, without dignity. The state treasury did not have so much silver, and could only levy excesses on the people and increase taxes.
The people did not have a good life, and the image of "selling charcoal" was very common at that time. The people were hungry and cold, forced to make a living, and could only rise up, and the rebellion in the land of China at that time was one after another.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, represented by Hong Xiuquan, wrestled with the Qing government for 14 years and dealt a devastating blow to the Qing government. Finally, for various reasons, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement went to an end.
Everywhere is uneven, no one is not full
Hong Xiuquan is a Cantonese, very intelligent from an early age, he can read the Four Books and Five Classics at the age of seven, and the name of the prodigy is widely circulated. He and Feng Yunshan are cousins, they are similar in age, and they have played together since childhood. The two read books together, took exams together, and were intimate.
Hong Xiuquan participated in the county examination at the age of 15, and his results were among the best, and his name of "prodigy" was more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. So he took the hospital exam with confidence, but failed three times. Having never experienced failure, he suffered one blow after another, he could not accept it, and even his spirit began to trance.
At that time, the Qing government was forced to open the country's doors, and Western religions began to spread in the country, of which the most rapid spread was Christianity.
Frustrated, Hong Xiuquan closed the door at home and found the book "Persuasion to the World" that he had bought when he took the hospital examination, which was written by Christians and preached Christianity and believed in God.
After reading it, Hong Xiuquan dreamed of a man who claimed to be God, stating that the suffering he suffered in this world was his experience, and he was sent by God to slay demons and exorcise demons.
After that, Hong Xiuquan believed in God and spread the teachings to the villagers. In the tone of God, he attacked the dark rule of the Qing government. The people suffered greatly from it, but they could do nothing but spend their days in grief and oppression.
Feng Yunshan, as Hong Xiuquan's best friend, was the first to respond. The appearance of God provided spiritual sustenance to the people, who believed that the omnipresent and omnipotent God would one day deliver them from fire and water. Under the advocacy of Hong Xiuquan and his wife, the number of peasant believers was increasing day by day.
Until 1844, Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan established the Worship of God Sect and carried out an anti-Qing movement in secret. In 1950, when the number of believers reached 20,000, and the Qing government was becoming more and more corrupt, and the people complained, Hong Xiuquan knew that the time for an uprising had arrived. He led Yang Xiuqing, Shi Dakai, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui and others to set off the "Jintian Uprising".
The number of rebel troops was large, and the foreign army sprang up, and the Qing government had to pay attention to it and immediately sent people to encircle and suppress it. Originally, the ruler thought that a group of illiterate peasants could set off a storm, and they would only go on a rampage when they fought, and there was no discipline to speak of, and they would certainly be destroyed in minutes.
Overthrowing the uprising was a breeze, but they missed the resourceful Feng Yunshan. The rebel army was surrounded and suppressed by the Qing army many times, and under the leadership of Feng Yunshan, it successfully broke through and captured Yong'an, which was the territory occupied by the rebel army for the first time, which was of great significance.
Hong Xiuquan established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and at Yong'an he crowned them as "Heavenly King", and named Yang Xiuqing the Eastern King, and all the other kings were dispatched by Yang Xiuqing. Yang Xiuqing's power was too great, and gradually fattened his appetite.
In 1852, Feng Yunshan was unfortunately shot and killed on the battlefield, and Hong Xiuquan was deeply saddened. In 4 years, the rebel army captured Nanjing, renamed "Tianjing", the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom set the capital of Tianjing, and the army was called "Taiping Army".
After the official founding of the People's Republic of China, Hong Xiuquan promulgated a series of regulations. The "Tianchao Tianmu System" makes guarantees such as "farming with fields, eating with food, being uneven everywhere, and not having enough to keep warm". Didn't the people join the Taiping Army in order to have a mouthful of food to eat in the era of wars and chaos, and not be oppressed by the powerful?
The "Tianchao Tianmu System" attracted more and more people to turn to, and the Taiping Army rested and recuperated in Tianjing, and the team grew stronger and stronger.
In the "New Chapter of Senior Administration", it is proposed that we should actively learn from the West and explore ways to save the country, and do not recognize the unequal treaties signed by the Qing government. Safeguarding the dignity of the nation is the advanced point of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established as the capital, after four years of conquest, it occupied many provinces and continued to move north. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the greatest danger to the Qing government, and the rebel army was strongly counterattacked by the Qing army. However, the Taiping Army was fearless and achieved a great victory.
Originally, it was thought that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would one day overthrow the rule of the Qing government, but their victory was the beginning of decay. After years of conquest, only Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai were left alive.
Yang Xiuqing believed that the success of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was all attributed to himself, so he took pride in his achievements and forced Hong Xiuquan to seal himself "Long Live". Originally, the leader of the Taiping Army was Hong Xiuquan, as a ruler, he was offended many times by his subordinates, and where did his majesty go.
Unable to bear it, there was no need to endure any longer, and Hong Xiuquan sent Wei Changhui to secretly kill Yang Xiuqing and others. Wei Changhui did these secret things, and for the sake of Hong Xiuquan's own image in the hearts of the people, he naturally could not live.
Hong Xiuquan found a reason to kill Wei Changhui. At this point, only Shi Dakai was left as the king, and Hong Xiuquan passed through Yang Xiuqing's affairs and suspected the old department.
Shi Dakai did not want to endure this pickle, and led his men to flee, still carrying out the anti-Qing movement. After this incident, hong Xiuquan was left with only one leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was the beginning of the decline of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, known in history as the "Tianjing Incident".
After the incident, Hong Xiuquan wanted to inspire the morale of the soldiers, and made a very stupid move, and more than 2,700 kings were crowned before and after.
The decline of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement can be traced. Hong Xiuquan practiced an ascetic policy in the army, and husband and wife could not live together. However, after fixing the capital Tianjing, he recruited concubines and indulged in beauty, and there were more than two thousand concubines in his house alone. Such an act caused great dissatisfaction among the army.
Hong Xiuquan's advocacy of "everywhere is uneven, no one is not full of warmth", has not been implemented. Even though he claimed to pursue equality for all, his ideas did not deepen and he still followed the feudal hierarchy. After the establishment of the capital Tianjing, the kings built royal palaces to pursue pleasure and separate themselves from the peasants.
The Taiping Ritual System formulated by Hong Xiuquan was still the hierarchical system of the feudal dynasty, stipulating the dignity and privileges of officials at all levels, ensuring his absolute position of power, and turning around and embarking on the road of feudal power.
When they revolted, in the name of God. Hong Xiuquan is the "Heavenly King", the second son of God, while Yang Xiuqing is the "Heavenly Father", that is, God Himself. Worship God, preach god omnipotence, omnipresence, such a miraculous God is killed. It makes the faithful wonder if the God they believe in exists.
For a number of reasons, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gradually declined. In 1864, Hong Xiuquan died of illness, and Tianjing was captured by the Qing army. It marked that the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement ended in failure.
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's "Needle of the Sea God"
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's "Needle of the Sea God" is Feng Yunshan, who and Hong Xiuquan are cousins. The Feng family was well-off and had a large collection of books. Feng Yunshan read a lot of books, but he did not want to take the meritorious name, did not want to serve the Qing Dynasty that exploited the people, and only taught in the private school in the village.
When Hong Xiuquan founded the Cult of Worship, Feng Yunshan deeply felt that the people's lives were difficult and hated the Qing government, and he actively joined. Later, for the sake of Hong Xiuquan's great cause, he abandoned his wife and son and went to Guangxi to preach Christian doctrine.
The two brothers secretly preached in Guangxi for three months, and Hong Xiuquan returned to Guangdong, while he was responsible for continuing to develop the congregation. Feng Yunshan heard that there was a Bauhinia Mountain in Guiping County, which was very remote and rarely communicated with the outside world.
The remoteness and lack of contact with the outside world was simply a place tailored to allow him to preach his teachings. There are charcoal kilns in the Bauhinia Mountains, and thousands of charcoal burners make a living by selling charcoal, and burning charcoal day and night is still not enough to eat, wear and warm.
Such people most need to have a spiritual sustenance, Feng Yunshan cares about them, helps them, and takes the opportunity to preach the worship of God. Preach to them that only God can make it possible for all of them to have food and clothing, without disaster or trouble.
Feng Yunshan slowly induced them to hate the status quo and arouse their feelings of resistance. When the time was ripe, he founded the Worship of God Society, which laid a solid mass foundation for Hong Xiuquan to establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the future.
Feng Yunshan, facing the cultists, only said that he was sent by Hong Xiuquan to rescue them, and their real savior was Hong Xiuquan. The Worship of God Society developed soundly, and in 1847 Hong Xiuquan met Feng Yunshan.
Together, the two wrote propaganda pamphlets, distributed them to the poor people in the vicinity, and attracted more than 2,000 people to join. Hong Xiuquan's anti-Qing movement has been put on the table for propaganda, and the peasants have gone on strike one after another, affecting the interests of the landlords.
The landlord reported that the two men were arrested and sent to Guiping County. At that time, there were countless large and small uprisings in various parts of the Qing government, and the imperial court could not control it at all, and local officials were happy to whitewash taiping. As long as enough silver money is paid, they can be released.
God worshippers are poor peasants with no extra money. There was no way, the charcoal burners could only burn charcoal day and night, endure hunger and cold, and save the money from the sale of charcoal. Finally saved a large amount of money, bribed the county order, and finally rescued Hong Xiuquan and the two from the cell.
The county order sent two messengers to repatriate the two of them back to Guangdong, and on the way, Feng Yunshan persuaded the servants to join the worship of God with three inches of uncorrupted tongue. The group sneaked back to Bauhinia Mountain.
After the Imada Uprising, the rebel army grew rapidly and was brutally suppressed by the Qing Dynasty. Feng Yunshan commanded the army to fight, stressing that only when the initiative and flexibility of the army cooperate with each other can we stand in an invincible position.
Feng Yunshan had a leading talent, and under his command, the rebel army broke through the siege of the Qing army and attacked Yong'an. In 1951, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established, and Hong Xiuquan named him "King of the South".
Hong Xiuquan was the Heavenly King, the King, but he stipulated that the king should ignore the government and that the government affairs should be taken care of by the military division. Yang Xiuqing is a military master, the spokesman of the "Heavenly Father", and his status is higher than that of the "Second Son of the Heavenly Father" Hong Xiuquan, who is constrained everywhere, and the real power of the army lies with Yang Xiuqing.
Hong Xiuquan, who was originally the leader, is now a low Yang Xiuqing, and naturally he is not used to him everywhere. Thanks to Feng Yunshan's mediation among them, it was possible to ensure that the two of them were at peace. Feng Yunshan was really clever, and under his persuasion, everyone worked together to kill the enemy in order to establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Feng Yunshan was able to write and fight, had strong organizational and coordination skills, was the founder of the uprising, and was also the "Dinghai God Needle" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established as the capital in 1853, Hong Xiuquan promulgated rules and regulations that he drafted in advance. However, Feng Yunshan did not see the spectacular situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's capital.
Hope of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty died unexpectedly
In 1852, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom marched to Hunan, and Feng Yunshan led the army to march. Passing through Jeonju, Jeonju is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and he has no intention of attacking Jeonju. However, jeonju defended the city and saw that the mighty Taiping Army was getting closer and closer to them, thinking that the Taiping Army was going to attack Jeonju.
The defenders fired decisively, and the Taiping Army was caught off guard, did not react for a while, and suffered numerous casualties. After Feng Yunshan saw it, he thought that the jeonju guards had deliberately provoked and suffered heavy casualties on his own army. Furious, he ordered an attack.
The Taiping Army hastily attacked the city and had no battle plan, so it is conceivable that it can only end up with a total annihilation of the army. Feng Yunshan was also seriously injured by shells and died. The battle between the two armies was nothing more than a oolong, but Feng Yunshan was killed.
When Hong Xiuquan heard that Feng Yunshan had unfortunately died on the battlefield, he couldn't help but cry with grief. He dispatched his troops and attacked Jeonju with all his might, giving the order to slaughter the city. Regardless of whether men, women or children, they will not be able to escape death, and they must accompany Feng Yunshan to the funeral. Even so, it was difficult to let go of the hatred in his heart.
Feng Yunshan was the only sober person among the generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the only one who considered the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After his death, the rights were divided among others, feeding their appetites.
If not, with Feng Yunshan's checks and balances, Yang Xiuqing would not dare to do anything to replace Hong Xiuquan, and there would be no "Tianjing Incident" that caused the decline of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
If Feng Yunshan was still alive, he would certainly be able to coordinate the relationship between the kings, so that they would give up their small families to take care of everyone, give up their own selfish interests and think about the people. In this way, can the Taiping Army still not win the hearts and minds of the people?
Historians once commented on Feng Yunshan, whose loyalty, talent, wisdom and instrumentality were the first people in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Indeed, Feng Yunshan's extensive reading and insight were not comparable to Yang Xiuqing and others.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established as the capital, Hong Xiuquan was addicted to power and beauty, completely forgetting their original intention of uprising, while the others only knew how to plot for their own interests. Such a "everyone for themselves" dynasty, decay is just around the corner.
Feng Yunshan was the only sober person in the face of power, and he would be able to persuade them not to be blinded by the temporary glory and wealth in front of them. If he were still alive, he might indeed be able to overthrow the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
Hong Xiuquan once wept bitterly at Feng Yunshan's funeral, "Heaven does not want me to set the world, why seize my good auxiliary speed", heaven does not want me to seize the world, why so quickly take the life of my good general?
It seems that Hong Xiuquan also knows that the only thing he can rely on to seize the world is Feng Yunshan. Although the decline of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not all due to the death of Feng Yunshan, it was directly related to the decline of its ruling class. However, Hong Xiuquan finally became a success, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lost the "Dinghai God Needle" Feng Yunshan, and indeed failed to unify the world.