Speaking of Hong Xiuquan, many people will give him a thumbs up, and in the late Qing Dynasty, he set off a mighty peasant uprising and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The uprising, which lasted 14 years, swept through much of China and left the Qing government restless all day. Although it did not achieve the final victory, it had a far-reaching impact on China's modern history.
The reason why this uprising was able to spread rapidly throughout most of China is inseparable from the concept advocated by Hong Xiuquan to pursue equality for all.
However, the failure of the uprising was not only related to the limitations of the peasant uprising, but also had a direct impact on Hong Xiuquan's style of work in the later period. It is said that after the occupation of Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan's harem concubines were numerous, how many women did he occupy?
Landing four times, changing fate because of a dream
Born in a family of cultivators and readers, Hong Xiuquan has been in the academy since the age of 7 to study the Four Books and Five Classics and other ancient books. In the county examination, Hong Xiuquan's results ranked among the best, which also made the villagers have high hopes for him, hoping that he could benefit the township in high school.
However, he landed on the ground in four consecutive government tests, and Hong Xiuquan had a serious illness for this, and it took more than 40 consecutive days to get better.
During his illness, Hong Xiu had a strange dream in which an old man who was high above told him that he was the one sent by heaven to the human world to save the suffering.
Later, Hong Xiuquan read the same description as the scene in his dream in the book "Persuasion to the World", and he began to believe in God and preached everywhere.
Hong Xiuquan called on everyone to jointly build a new country under the heavens and share the Taiping, which quickly expanded the church to more than 2,000 people.
When the time was ripe, Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing and others launched an anti-Qing campaign and succeeded
target
The Kaneda Rebellion of 1851 was carried out. Hong Xiuquan's teachings were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and he became the Heavenly King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Everywhere they went, they were supported by the local peasants, and soon after they captured Nanjing, changed Nanjing to Tianjing and built the capital here.
And all this seems to be so smooth, and there is a serious contradiction behind it. After the capture of Nanjing, there was no new breakthrough in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement.
The number of concubines is jaw-dropping
Hong Xiuquan began to live a hedonistic life in the Nanjing mansion, although he promulgated some policies advocating equality for all, but this constraint was only for ordinary people, such as the implementation of monogamy, advocating equality between men and women, but for those with relatively high official positions, they could still have wives and concubines.
In the case of Hong Xiuquan himself, men were not allowed to enter his mansion in Nanjing, and even the waiters inside were female officials.
And every year at the birthday party, Hong Xiuquan's men will collect some beautiful women to dedicate to him. It is not difficult to see from here that Hong Xiuquan still has feudal ideas and hierarchical concepts in his thinking.
According to statistics, Hong Xiuquan only had one male in the harem, and all the concubines plus the female officials who served had a total of more than 2300 people, of which 88 concubines were as high as 88, and even the Xianfeng Emperor at that time had only 18 concubines.
For the 88 concubines, Hong Xiuquan did not give any titles, but only replaced them with numbers.
Not only that, in the management of harem concubines, Hong Xiuquan also spent a lot of thought, he formulated a lot of rules to restrain women, such as the so-called ten should be played, so that all women in the harem must be familiar with it.
If someone violates the ten and beats, they cannot make a sound while receiving punishment.
After the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the empress dowager did not go
Of course, not all women can enter Hong Xiuquan's harem, they must be born with backgrounds, and they also need to check their innocence to enter.
For so many beauties in Hong Xiuquan's harem, in addition to serving Hong Xiuquan, they also do other work.
For example, the construction of houses in the palace was completed by the harem beauties under the supervision of Hong Xiuquan, and even the guards of the inner city wall were women.
These women are in the harem
That is, yes
Red clothes can also be armed, but Hong Xiuquan does not care about these women, and the solidity of the harem is only to show his prestige.
Hong Xiuquan's governance of the harem was completely contrary to the ideas of the original uprising, and his absurd and lascivious approach eventually ushered in the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In 1864, Hong Xiuquan died of illness, and not long after, his sons also died in Nanchang, and in the same year Tianjing fell. According to historical records, Hong Xiuquan's body after his death was buried by the beauties of the harem.
After the fall of Tianjing, some of these women followed Hong Xiuquan.
Although Hong Xiuquan did not have much sincerity for these women, some women still admired him in their hearts.
Some of the women took up arms to confront the Qing soldiers, and the remaining part of the women were captured by the Qing army, and the outcome was tragic.
If it were not for Hong Xiuquan for his own selfish desires to bring so many beautiful women into the harem, after the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they would not have had such a tragic fate.
epilogue
In the beginning, Hong Xiuquan was able to establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from the idea of equality for all, which really gave many people an expectation of building an equal society.
Then, when the people supported Hong Xiuquan's uprising, Hong Xiuquan's approach in the later period did not discriminate, but only cared about his own pleasure, which undoubtedly accelerated the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Judging from Hong Xiuquan's practice of occupying so many women after capturing Nanjing, there was still a serious hierarchy in this uprising, and corruption fundamentally led to the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
If, after the capital is Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan and others can base themselves on the original intention of the founding of the country, abandon enjoyment and privileges, and strive to put the idea of equality into place, perhaps the outcome will become different.