What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
It is said that "the king loses", the loser loses everything, and the winner owns everything. But such "common sense", in ancient China, did not apply to women. In other words, the vast majority of women, they don't have much choice when it comes to life. All they can do is become attached to men and become their "belongings." The ancient harem is such a typical one.
In the third year of Xianfeng (1853), Hong Xiuquan, who was born in the grass, led the Taiping Rebellion army into Nanjing. Taking the southern key lands, almost divided with the Qing court, Hong Xiuquan was very satisfied with this. He felt it was time for him to unload those burdens and enjoy the hard-won achievement. Therefore, after entering the city of Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan threw up his sleeves, closed the city gate, and walked to his "harem". It is said that Hong Xiuquan stayed in the Heavenly King's Mansion for 11 years and never went out.
Hong Xiuquan started his family as a farmer, and originally there was no such thing as a "harem". But after becoming the leader of the rebel army, everything was different. After the Jintian Uprising, he chose fifteen young and beautiful women as "concubines". About a year later, in Yong'an, Guangxi, the number of "concubines" rose to 36.
After entering the city of Nanjing, the whole city, men, women and children, had to listen to Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, Hong Xiuquan has a good feeling for this city rich in beauty. This kind of favor is even worse when his subordinates give him six beauties on every birthday.
In fact, at the beginning of entering the city of Nanjing, every spring, those who had received Hong Xiuquan's reward would select beautiful people for Hong Xiuquan at the thirteen gates of Nanjing. Later, Hong Xiuquan simply ordered, "All young women and beautiful women are ready for the Heavenly King to choose."
In the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, sent three thousand beauties to Hong Xiuquan in one breath. Hong Xiuquan selected 180 satisfactory people from among them and took them into his own Heavenly King's Mansion. Because only the Heavenly King's Mansion has an eight-foot carved bed. The "Notes on Jiangnan Chun Meng'an" records that in Hong Xiuquan's Heavenly King's Mansion, there was not even a eunuch, all concubines and female officials. And these people add up to as many as 2300 people.
Interestingly, in the face of so many women, Hong Xiuquan always regards them as wives. Because there were too many people, he couldn't tell who was who and who was called by what name, so Hong Xiuquan called them by numbers. "The 25th Wife" and "The 73rd Wife", these unheard of names, are what Hong Xiuquan calls his wives.
According to Hong Tianxi, the son of Hong Xiuquan, who was later arrested, "I am now 16 years old, and the old king is my father. I am 88 mothers, and I am the second lai born." And not only is Hong Xiuquan obsessed with beauty, when Hong Tianqiao was nine years old, he married four beauties to his son as a father.
The seventy-two concubines of the three palaces and six courts in ancient China are already an almost idiomatic hypothesis. Even the Xianfeng Emperor, who was famous for his love of beauty, had only 18 concubines, and he was completely unable to "compete" with Hong Xiuquan.
However, in Hong Xiuquan's Heavenly King's Mansion, although there are many women, there are no ones who can live freely and freely with Hong Xiuquan's favor. As a leader of the peasant rebel army, Hong Xiuquan was a very "macho" person.
In the "Poetry Collection" of Hong Xiuquan's "Heavenly Father's Poems" officially promulgated by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857), 500 poems were included, and 476 of them were Hong Xiuquan's "husband power monologues" written by Hong Xiuquan to his concubines.
These "monologues" are actually the rules that Hong Xiuquan made for them. For example, one of the songs, "Ungodly, one should be played." Hard neck does not listen to the teaching of the two should be played. Look up at the husband three should fight. Ask the king if he is not religious four should be beaten. Impure breath should be beaten. Speak loudly six should be hit. There is a call that should not be sounded. Face does not like to fight. Look left and right and you should fight. Speaking is not leisurely and should be played. "
And such as "To see the Lord is against heaven, more than half a point of sin"; "To see the Lord is to see the shoulders, it is best to look at the chest"; "Why should we sleep and not sleep, why should we not sleep and sleep." Why do you dare to sleep in spite of the patronage, and why do you dare to sleep to this day?" is even more numerous. And Hong Xiuquan had to write such a poem every three or four days to teach the women in the palace, so it took him three or four years to write so many things in Nanjing.
And the women of the Heavenly King's Palace, whether concubines or female officials, had to recite these dogmas and strictly observe them. Their lives are even less free than those of the nightingales in cages. After all, although the nightingales have lost the sky, they will not always be punished, and no matter how big or small, as long as Hong Xiuquan is unhappy, they will be punished. His life can be described as inferior to that of cattle and horses.
When he first founded the cult of Worship, Hong Xiuquan claimed that "many women in the world are all sisters" and called for "equality between men and women". But in his Heavenly King's Mansion, around him, those women lived worse than those who were imprisoned in the Forbidden City.
Later, Zeng Guofan ordered his younger brother Zeng Guoquan to lead the Xiang army to approach the city of Nanjing, and some people suggested that Hong Xiuquan pack up his treasure and leave as soon as possible. But Hong Xiuquan was unwilling to get out of this dream that had been done for more than ten years and insisted on staying in the city.
His will was not disobeyed in the end. Before the Xiang army invaded Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan died of illness.
After the Xiang army entered the city, his remnants fled, and the beauties of Manchuria fell into the hands of the wanton Xiang army. Born in such a chaotic world, and as women, perhaps they also felt sad for their fate.