On January 11, 1851, Hong Xiuquan's 37th birthday, on this day he announced the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi. In the Qing Dynasty, the longest, largest and most influential rebellion broke out. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement lasted 14 years and swept through the southern half of the Qing Dynasty, shaking the foundation of the Qing Empire's rule.
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement
Hong Xiuquan, born in 1814, a native of Huaxian County, Guangdong, came from a family of self-cultivators, nicknamed Huoxiu, and the big name was Hong Renkun.
In 1820, Hong Xiuquan was 7 years old and entered a private school.
In 1828, Hong Xiuquan was 15 years old, took the first hospital examination, fell off the list, and was called Tong Sheng.
In 1836, Hong Xiuquan was 23 years old, participated in the hospital examination for the second time, and failed the list, called Tong Sheng.
In 1837, Hong Xiuquan was 24 years old, participated in the hospital examination for the third time, and fell off the list, called Tong Sheng.
In 1843, Hong Xiuquan was 30 years old, participated in the hospital examination for the fourth time, and fell off the list, called Tong Sheng.
Disappointment, shame, sadness, anger? I think it should be the anger of renunciation. After 23 years of study, 4 exams in 15 years, even the lowest exams can not pass, to the family, and themselves can not be explained ah.
Statue of Hong Xiuquan
The Chinese people in the old society had very few ways out, and what was recognized by the mainstream values of society was to read and enter the world, and once they became officials in the gold list, they and their families made a big turnaround, and their lives were very different from then on. However, due to various reasons, very few people can really pass the examination to enter the military, and most of the readers cannot actually become officials.
People often ask for something too much, and once they don't get it, they will hate the thing they want after disappointment. Hong Xiuquan was like this, constantly falling off the list made him dissatisfied with the imperial examination system, made him dissatisfied with this decadent society, and out of anger, he decided to change everything.
Plaque
Don't underestimate the students who have fallen off the list, once the students without the strength of the chicken are angry, they will also burst out with amazing energy. The same fate as Hong Xiuquan did not develop a horn and launched the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and the Eastern Han Dynasty entered the era of warlord division, and the regime existed in name only. The Yellow Nest of the Tang Dynasty, which has been named Sun Shan many times, rose up and established the Daqi regime, kicking off the prelude to the demise of the Tang Dynasty.
When Hong Xiuquan took the imperial examination for the second time, he saw someone on the streets of Guangzhou handing out a "book", which was actually a "Good Word of Persuasion" written by an early Christian believer named Liang Afa. Hong Xiuquan also took a copy by the way, but he was not very interested in the book, and he threw it aside when he returned home.
A foreign priest who preached in China in the late Qing Dynasty
The failure of the third imperial examination the following year had a great impact on Hong Xiuquan, and his spirit was almost crushed, and he was carried back home. After returning home, Hong Xiuquan was in a coma for several days, and when he woke up, he told his family about his dream, and as for whether it was really dreamed, it is not known whether he made it up himself. In the dream, Hong Xiuquan ascended to heaven and met a respected, golden-bearded old man and a middle-aged man. The old man gave him a sword and several royal flags, and asked him to go back and slay demons, purify the world, restore order, and bring people back to christian doctrine.
Subsequently, Hong Xiuquan once again found the dusty "Good Words of Persuasion", and he thought that all this was a revelation given to him by heaven, so he carefully studied it. This careful study did not matter, Hong Xiuquan found himself to be God's "Chosen Son", his surname "Hong" and his nickname "Fire", which is mentioned many times in the Bible. It turned out that the old man in the dream was God Jehovah, the middle-aged man was Jesus, and he was the younger son of God, the younger brother of Jesus. Since then, Hong Xiuquan has studied the "Good Words of Persuasion" more carefully.
Foreign priests and Chinese believers
In 1843, Hong Xiuquan took the science and technology examination for the fourth and last time, and failed again, and he lost the opportunity to "reconcile" with Daqing in the end, if he could pass the examination this time, there might be no later things. On a certain day, Hong Xiuquan himself baptized himself and established the worship of God. A few days later, his good friend Feng Yunshan, who was also frustrated by the imperial examination, joined the Cult of Worship and became a loyal disciple and right-hand man of Hong Xiuquan.
Ancient imperial examination hall
In order to make a name for themselves, but also to vent their dissatisfaction with the imperial examination, Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan actually smashed the Confucius tablets in the private school, and the two people did not expect that along with them, there were also two people's teaching bowls and the resistance of the people around them. Confucius is the grandfather of all the readers in the world, is the face of all the readers, you smashed the tablet of Confucius, is to hit the face of all the readers in the world, naturally they are not tolerated.
The subsequent missionary activities did not go very well, and Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan finally had no choice but to try another place. Where to go? Go to Guangxi, this is Feng Yunshan's opinion. Why Guangxi? As I mentioned in the previous article, the chaotic situation in Guangxi, the poverty of the people, the complexity of ethnic contradictions, the relatively closed Guangdong, and the relatively weak control of the government are in line with the standards in Feng Yunshan's mind.
Guangxi village armed
In 1844, Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan went to Guangxi and lived in Hakka villages in Guangxi to promote the worship of God. The Hakka belong to the foreign population, are ostracized in Guangxi, and have sharp contradictions with other ethnic groups, and they are very united in order to protect themselves. At the same time, natural disasters and difficult lives make them urgently need a spiritual strength as a support, and the slogans of worshiping God, "One family under heaven, sharing peace" and "everywhere is uneven, no one is not full", cut to the pain of the people, and can gather people's hearts and minds. In the process of mission, Feng Yunshan's excellent organizational talent was displayed, and by 1847, Feng Yunshan had set up branches of the Cult of God in dozens of counties, and more than 20,000 people were armed into the regimental battalion.
The Taiping Army in the Western imagination
The growing cult of God has attracted the attention of the government, and the armed struggles of hundreds of people can be ignored, but once the large-scale religious activities and the armed organizations behind them are left unchecked and develop into a popular uprising, it will lose their heads. As a result, the government began to interfere in the activities of the cult of God, and the two sides also developed from small frictions to armed conflict. By the end of 1850, the backbone of the cult believed that military conflicts with the government were inevitable, and simply did not stop and rebelled. The date was chosen on the day of Hong Xiuquan's birthday, which is both commemorative and a good winner.