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 in 1929, the National Government in Nanjing put forward the "Case of Prohibition of Slandering the Taiping Heavenly Pavilion", which was requested by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education to refer to and handle it for reference, and soon after, it was formally stipulated: "In the future, if there are records of the historical facts of the Taiping, it is forbidden to use the terms 'Cantonese Thief' and replace them with the Taiping Army or corresponding names", and henceforth the titles of "Taiping Heavenly Pavilion" and "Taiping Army" will be written into the main history.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement at the end of the Qing Dynasty is believed to be familiar to many people. In this peasant uprising that occurred in late 1850, with Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui, and Shi Dakai as the main leading members, they gathered a large number of anti-Qing forces in Jintian Village, Guangxi Province, and began a huge anti-Qing uprising movement under the slogan of "one family under the heavens, sharing peace."
As the largest anti-Qing movement that broke out in China in the middle of the 19th century, it opened the prelude to China's old democratic revolution. Hong Xiuquan and others occupied Nanjing in 1853 and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, known as Tianjing, to compete with the Qing court. However, due to the limitations of the peasant uprising ideology, the revolutionary movement that lasted for 14 years ended in failure.
In 1864, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Tianjing, was attacked by the Xiang Army, and the young king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan's son, Hong Tianguifu, was captured. In 1872, the last army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was defeated in Guizhou, which also announced the end of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Everyone knows the phrase "success and defeat", so when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement failed, people naturally thought about what the consequences would be for these people who revolted and those who were captured. How will the Qing government treat them?
Today we will take a closer look.
Opening the history books of the Qing Dynasty, I believe it is not difficult for everyone to see that the history of the Qing Dynasty is basically a history of blood and tears of the Chinese nation. The Qing Dynasty was a dynasty established after the Manchus settled in the Central Plains, and because the Manchus were always a nation of warriors and warriors, they naturally had to take over the world, and naturally they were indispensable to all kinds of killings.
In the early Qing Dynasty, it basically relied on various massacres to win the world; by the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the literary prison was popular, allowing many literati to die; in the late Qing Dynasty, it was not to mention, losing power and humiliating the country, cutting land and paying reparations, China became a piece of fat in the eyes of the Western powers, and the Qing government was also a lamb to be slaughtered.
Therefore, such a rule is inevitably accompanied by various dissatisfactions, which is why the people's uprisings continued to occur during the qing government's rule. In order to suppress the uprising, the Manchu Qing government can be said to have thought of many ways, and various cruel punishments became its main means of suppressing the people's resistance and deterring the people.
I believe that many friends who know some history must have heard of the "Ten Great Tortures of the Manchu Qing Dynasty", and this set of punishments can be called the most cruel torture in ancient China. In the Qing Dynasty, the rulers were never soft on the captives of the peasant uprising, and generally the captured prisoners were sentenced to death by Ling Chi.
After the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, after the capture of generals Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, they were all escorted to Beijing to be executed by Ling Chi and shown to the public. The leaders of the Twist army, Zhang Luoxing, Lai Wenguang, Li Xiucheng the Prince of Zhong, and Chen Yucheng, the King of England, were also punished by Ling Chi after they were captured. After the defeat of the Daduhe army, Shi Dakai surrendered to the Qing army, but what he did not expect was that such a move was not treated leniently, but was punished in Sichuan with the same punishment of Ling Chi.
According to relevant records, in the second year of Tongzhi, Shi Dakai and Zeng Shihe were sentenced to Ling Chi punishment, and both were tied to the cross wooden tree. At the time of execution, the executioner first cut Zeng Shihe first, and at this time, Zeng Shihe felt pain and couldn't help but scream bitterly, and Shi Dakai on the side reprimanded him: "Why can't you stand this time?" After Zeng Shihe listened to his reprimand, he gritted his teeth and stopped shouting. When it was Shi Dakai's turn to be tortured, he was cut with more than a thousand knives, and he never said a word, acting upright and strong.
In Chinese history, many emperors died of death, but the most tragic one should be the young king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Tianguifu. Because when he was captured at that time, he was only 16 years old, but he was executed by Ling Chi, and it was cruel to think about it. So, as the young king, how did he ascend to the throne of God, and how was he sentenced to capital punishment?
Hong Tianguifu was the eldest son of Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King, born in 1849, after the Jintian Uprising, he was established as the Young Heavenly King, and from 1860 onwards, various edicts issued to the outside world were issued in the name of the Young Heavenly King. After Hong Xiuquan's death in 1864, he was succeeded by his son and called him the "Young Heavenly King". Since, on the way to Jiangxi, more than a thousand guards were beaten by the Qing army, and Hong Tianfugui had to hide in a cave alone to avoid danger. However, he only stayed in the cave for four days, and then he ran out because he was too hungry to bear it.
In order to find food, he ran to a nearby village, just in time to organize the autumn harvest in the village, and the locals had the habit of hiring people to cut rice. Therefore, Hong Tianguifu shaved his head, blended in, and became a care worker. But as a young heavenly king, from a young age, how could he bear this kind of suffering, not long after, in the qing army's search, he was discovered, and then, caught by the Qing army, and more than a month later, in Nanchang, he was executed by Ling Chi. Moreover, in the same year, Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was captured by Qing forces.
After entering Tianjing, the Qing army carried out a massacre of humanity, and also carried out a very cruel massacre of the soldiers of the Taiping Army. Countless female soldiers of the Taiping Army suffered the punishment of "riding a wooden donkey" on the streets, and then were "executed by Ling Chi". Both men, women and children were brutally killed by the Qing army, some were stabbed to death by the Qing army directly from the chest with a knife, and some were opened by the Qing army, in short, it was very inhumane. The Qing army also spared the infant in its infancy, and after taking it directly from the mother's arms, it stabbed it to death with a knife.
There are many records in the history of the Qing Dynasty that those who were abused by the lingchi were usually cut with blood flowing, and often had to be tortured for several hours before they lost their breath, which was unbearable to see. In short, for these rebel armies, the Qing government was never soft, and it would not let go of the young heavenly king. Therefore, after Hong Tianfugui was captured, it was expected that he would be killed by the Qing court.
However, for a teenager, it is too cruel to be tortured.