The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lasted 14 years and reached the highest peak of the old-style peasant war, which was not only the first peasant war in China's history to rise in the south and affect all of China, but also a peasant war on an unprecedented scale in the history of the world.
However, it is undeniable that most of these "precedents" are crap.
Mr. Wang Qingcheng once humorously described the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as two families: "big family" and "small family". Everyone in the world is a descendant of God, a family, which is exactly what is called the "extended family." The "small family" is God's spokesman on earth, such as: Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother, that is, several Leaders of the Taiping Army with Hong Xiuquan as the mainstay.
The author believes that in addition to these two families, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also has a "third family", that is, Hong Xiuquan's descendants and horses. Until the Taiping Army was wiped out, there were not many adults in this group, but their status in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could not be ignored. The so-called "God Religion" is his own religion in Hong Xiuquan's eyes, and the "Kingdom of Heaven" is just his bag.
It can be said that Hong Xiuquan worked hard to compile a harmonious grand scene of a large family and a small family, in the final analysis, it is just to let the sons and nephews of the "third family" take over the country.
Hong Tianguifu is the eldest son of Hong Xiuquan, according to the internal records of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: the birth of this child is different, accompanied by Xiangrui: "When the young lord was born, there was a red round light on the eaves, and people in the distance saw that the suspicion was on fire, and when they approached, they found that this light gradually rose into the sky and became larger, and finally competed with the sun. This matter spread more and more widely among the Taiping Army, and gradually reached the point where everyone knew it, so that Hong Renjie, the leader of the Taiping Army who was later arrested, did not tire of talking about it.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had a set of feudal rule that worked to avoid it, and neither Hong Xiuquan nor the names of his sons were allowed to be mentioned. When the Qing army heard that Hong Xiuquan had an eldest son, they did not know his name, so they called him "Hong Fuyao" through the characters on the jade seal of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After Hong Tianguifu was captured, he confessed that after he was born, he was cast according to the local custom and gave himself a name called "Tiangui", and his father felt that this name was inappropriate, so he renamed his son "Guifu".
When Xiao Guifu became the young lord of the Taiping Army at the age of four, Hong Xiuquan felt that his son's name was not "high-end and atmospheric", so he took it upon himself to change the name of his eldest son to "Tianguifu". As for the characters on the young lord's jade seal, it was originally "True King Guifu", the reason why the Qing army pronounced "Fu Zhen" was because they pronounced the jade seal in reverse. Although Guifu swore to defend his name to the death in the prison, in the eyes of the Qing army, the so-called "young lord" was only after the anti-thief, and even his little life could not live for a few days.
In the end, on the judgment of Hong Tiangui, the young lord of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it was written the great name of "Hong Fuyao", and Hong Tianguifu was unable to "correct his name" for himself until his death.
Hong Tianguifu's education was very problematic, although, in Hong Renjie's mouth, the young lord was clever and clever, but this was not the case. Hong Xiuquan forbade his son to read any "useless books" and referred to ancient books as "demon books", allowing him to read only "Catholic" texts. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were very few Catholic books circulating on the market, most of which were Hong Xiuquan's "masterpieces". We don't care what Hong Xiuquan's level is, but from the perspective of quantity, the total number is less than forty, so it can be seen that Hong Tiangui can learn something every day.
Throughout the ages, rulers have attached great importance to the education of their children, and Hong Xiuquan is a different kind, and Hong Xiuquan has never asked his son for a teacher. Before Hong Tiangui was nine years old, all enlightenment education was completed by his sister Hong Tianjiao, and there is no record after the age of nine. Judging from the documents and verses of Hong Tiangui that have been preserved today, the whole piece of shit does not make sense, and there are many typos. As an intellectual, Hong Xiuquan actually cultivated his son into a garbage that did not understand the literature, which made people really inconceivable.
It is said that there are countless capable people in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it should not be a problem to find a qualified teacher for his son, right?
Hong Xiuquan did not pay much attention to the cultural level of the heirs, but he was strict with their life style. Hong Xiuquan once wrote a "Ten Rescue Poems" for his son-in-law Zhong Wanxin, and hoped that this young man could establish the concept of "great defense of men and women". In this "Ten Saving Poems", it is clearly stated that boys cannot sleep with their mothers or visit their grandmothers after they reach the age of seven; girls must be separated from their brothers and men after they reach the age of five, and it is forbidden to hold hands; after the younger brother reaches the age of seven, the sister is forbidden to go within one foot of the younger brother.
These constraints were very strange even in the Qing Dynasty, where feudal ideas were deeply rooted. For some reason, Hong Xiuquan signed the author of the Ten Saving Poems as Hong Tianguifu and transferred the intellectual property rights of the book to his son. As a result, the "Ten Saving Poems" has also become a nine-year-old Hong Tianguifu's education on how to "teach men and women not to be intimate", which makes people can't help but be funny. After 1860, Hong Tianguifu stepped onto the political stage at the behest of his father and began to review the performances of the civil and military officials.
After Li Xiucheng won the Battle of Suzhou, the commendation orders issued were signed by Hong Tianguifu.
It should be known that during this period, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom entered the period of "official explosion", and dozens or hundreds of officials had to be sealed every day, and some officials could be promoted eight or nine levels in a month, so the name of Hong Tianguifu frequently appeared in the edicts of the officials. And these edicts were all copied and promulgated by Hong Xiuquan after they were prepared by his son, which shows that Hong Xiuquan's bitter heart, he hoped that the hundred officials would be grateful to Hong Tianguifu's "great kindness" and serve the descendants of the Hong family.
In 1864, Hong Xiuquan died, and Hong Tianguifuzi inherited his father's business and became the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, where does Hong Tiangui, who has no ink in his chest, have the ability to govern the country? He could only transfer power to his uncles and uncles. After that, all the edicts of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were drawn up by them, and then copied by Hong Tianguifu.
Although Hong Tianguifu rarely made decisions in government affairs, this young heavenly king had an absolute right to speak in life. When Hong Xiuquan was alive, he forbade his son to drink alcohol and was not allowed to eat pork, and now, hong Tianguifu, who has no restraint, has no scruples and drinks wine and eats meat every day. Previously, Hong Xiuquan forbade Hong Tianguifu to read the "Demon Book", and the first thing Hong Tianguifu, who was the master of the house, did after ascending the throne was to order people to prepare four boxes of "Demon Books" to read in the palace.
Hong Tianguifu's good life did not last long, and less than two months after he ascended the throne, the Xiang army had already attacked Tianjing, and the imposing Chaotian Palace was forced to come. The desperate Young Heavenly King abandoned his wife and brother and fled to king Zhong's house, and Li Xiucheng arranged for a group of soldiers disguised as Qing soldiers to escort Hong Tianguifu out of Nanjing and come to Anhui to join Hong Rengui.
On August 28, Hong Rengui's army was scattered by the Qing army, and Hong Tianguifu ran into the mountains and wandered around like a headless fly for six days, trying to escape the Qing army's search among the refugees.
A guy dressed in a different way and unable to even say where he was from his place of origin naturally could not escape the Qing army's eyeliner. As the "first rebel" of the Taiping Army, even without basic common sense of life, many Qing Dynasty soldiers doubted the identity of this mentally handicapped. Unexpectedly, Hong Tianguifu actually took out a large number of official documents and wrote a bunch of confessions in one breath, proving that he was "like a fake bag exchange".
Ironically, Hong Tianguifu still dreams of one day regaining his freedom after he was imprisoned. He deeply resented the fact that he was born in a "long-haired" family, and until the day he was executed by Ling Chi, he still expressed his loyalty to the Qing Dynasty. In prison, Hong Tianguifu wrote a lot of typo poems, one of which was like this: "Now I don't do long hair, I am dedicated to assisting the Qing Dynasty; long live the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and it is always difficult for the chaotic courtiers and thieves to run." I don't know how Hong Xiuquan, who is under the Nine Springs, feels when he sees his son's "high talk"?
Hong Xiuquan's two elder brothers were illiterate and mediocre, but they had many sons. Hong Xiuquan attached great importance to these nephews, placed them in various important positions, and gave them military powers. After supporting Hong Tiangui to take power, Hong Xiuquan ordered manchu military attaches to form an army in a certain proportion among their domestic servants and relatives to "draw one out of three dings and two out of five". This army was known as the "Royal Forest Army" and was ruled by Hong Xiuquan's nephews.
The nephews who led the troops were arranged by Hong Xiuquan to guard strategic places such as the Gate of Tianjing City and the Passes of Various Places. At the instigation of two wealth-greedy fathers, they issued an official bond "flood ticket", and any goods that wanted to pass through the gate of guankou guarded by the sons of the Hong family must pay a certain amount of "flood ticket", otherwise, they were exempt from talks. With Hong Xiuquan's acquiescence, Hong Xiuquan's "cousins" (the nephew's official title) made so much money that most of the assets in the Tianjing market flowed into the Hong family.
Most of Hong Xiuquan's nephews were unknown after the fall of Tianjing, and it is said that Hong Heyuan, Hong Liyuan, and Hong Yuyuan were surrounded and suppressed by the Qing army and died under the sword. However, in Hong Tianguifu's testimony, it is said that Hong he fled with him to Guangde, and after hearing that his father committed suicide by jumping into the river, he committed suicide by swallowing opium. Although the whereabouts of Hong Xiuquan's "cousins" are unknown, this group of "nephews" were generally young at the time of the fall of Tianjing, and most of them were not yet ten years old, so it was difficult to survive this catastrophe.
In addition to his sons and nephews, Hong Xiuquan also paid special attention to his "army of donkey horses", Huang Dongliang and Huang Wensheng were both Hong Tianwang's horses, although these two were minors, but they were still deeply loved by Hong Xiuquan. According to the political ranking of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the status of these two people is even higher than that of Li Xiucheng and Shi Dakai, and they are the "second in command" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, in the eyes of Li Xiucheng, Shi Dakai and other founding heroes, this is completely an insult.
Before his death, Li Xiucheng wrote down a statement about Hong Xiuquan's appointment of these "doll officials", in which he expressed strong dissatisfaction with Hong Tianwang's arrangement. Not long after, Hong Renjie also became a prisoner of the order, and qing soldiers showed Li Xiucheng's materials to Hong Renjie, but unexpectedly, Hong Renjie was furious after reading the materials, and took a pen to refute Li Xiucheng's views one by one, saying: The way Hong Tianwang appointed "doll officials" was both humane and cultivated fresh blood for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Li Xiucheng's idea was unreasonable.
However, the end of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is the best touchstone, and King Hong Tianwang entrusted these stinking "pillars of heaven" with heavy responsibilities, whether it is right or wrong, can't Hong Renjiu, who has recently died in prison, not be able to see it?
Therefore, many scholars believe that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is inherently flawed, and that there is a rational regression under the representation of its progress.