At the end of the Qing Dynasty, in the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, not only was Fu Shanxiang, the only female leader in Chinese history, but also an extremely outstanding female general, Hong Xuanjiao, who not only held a lofty position in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but also fought extremely bravely, shooting and killing the Qing army's fierce generals and slashing Western soldiers. However, there is still debate about whether Hong Xuanjiao exists, and there is no clear statement about her ending.
Hong Xuanjiao, whose original name was Yang Yunjiao, was a native of Huaxian County, Guangdong, and when Hong Xuanjiao arrived at Zijing Mountain in 1847, she claimed to have dreamed of God 10 years ago, telling her that 10 years later someone would come here to teach people to worship God, and Rudang obeyed. Hong Xiuquan also claimed to have dreamed in the same year and began to "save the world" as the son and messenger of God. The coincidence of the two dreams greatly increased Hong Xiuquan's prestige, so Hong Xuanjiao became the "sixth daughter of the Heavenly Father", and Hong Xiuquan recognized her as a sister and became the core figure of the God Society.
Most of Hong Xuanjiao's descriptions say that she was a beautiful woman in the city, not only that, she was also a scarf hero, leading hundreds of female soldiers to charge the battlefield, causing countless obstacles to the Qing army. "Light makeup out of the lineup, swinging a double knife, the edge of the snow." Riding on a horse, saddle waist cage white, long white body, green and bright color between the dresses", this is a passage describing Hong Xuanjiao circulated during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty.
Hong Xuanjiao later married Xiao Chaogui, the King of the West, and in August 1852, Xiao Chaogui was shot and killed while attacking Changsha, and Hong Xuanjiao became a widow overnight in his prime, and Hong Xuanjiao did not choose to remarry, but continued to lead the women's battalion to accompany the army. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established the capital of Tianjing, Hong Xuanjiao was given the title of Chancellor of Grace, and the Title of Prince of the West was succeeded by his eldest son Xiao Youhe, known as the King of Youxi. Strangely, Hong Xuanjiao seems to have disappeared from people's vision since then, and there is no record of her in history.
As for Hong Xuanjiao's later ending, folk legends roughly have the following points: First, Hong Xuanjiao later advised Hong Xiuquan, the heavenly king, not to indulge in wine, which greatly annoyed Hong Xiuquan, plus Hong Xuanjiao knew that Hong Xiuquan had too many "secrets" of God, so in order to avoid leaking, he killed people and executed her. Second, Hong Xiuquan and the Northern King Wei Changhui launched the "Tianjing Incident" to eliminate the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing, and Wei Changhui, in order to cut off Hong Xiuquan's cronies, beat rabbits in the grass and killed Hong Xuanjiao in the rebel army.
It is also said that she died in battle when the Qing army captured Tianjing, but there is no record at that time that her body was among the dead. There are other theories that she escaped pretending to be an ordinary woman, and also fled to San Francisco in the United States to practice medicine, and finally died in a foreign country.