Is the wing king Shi Dakai a hero of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, or a separatist? During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, the largest and most far-reaching peasant uprising in Chinese history, the Taiping Rebellion. Although this huge revolution failed under the oppression of the Qing government, it dealt a fatal blow to the Qing court, which was on the verge of decline. There was a very important figure during the Taiping Rebellion, he was the wing king Shi Dakai, one of the founders.
Shi Dakai was the main leader of the Taiping Rebellion and a formidable general. He is often portrayed as a positive figure in film, television and literature, but is controversial in history. In the dispute, some said that his merit was greater than his merits, some said that his mistakes were greater than his merits, and some said that his achievements were mixed. There was no consensus and no consensus.
Regarding Shi Dakai's merits, the author believes that we should follow the perspective of a materialist view of history, adopt the method of "not expanding merits and not aggravating shortcomings", and look at Shi Dakai objectively and realistically to evaluate. Only in this way can it be fair and reasonable. It's not fair. Let's analyze the development of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Shi Dakai's life deeds, and make a correct evaluation of him.
Figure 1 Shi Dakai (March 1831 – June 27, 1863), alias Shi Dangdang, was a Hakka family member in Guixian County, Guangxi (now Qishi Township, Gangbei District, Guigang City).
In the eleventh year of Daoguang (1831), Shi Dakai was born into a wealthy peasant family in Guixian, Guangxi. He grew up studying and doing business, and he was a cultured young man in the local area. Shi Dakai studied and practiced martial arts, and made friends with heroes all over the world. In 1847, he met Hong Xiuquan, Feng Yunshan and others who came to Guangxi as missionaries. Generate anti-Qing ideas and participate in "worship of God". Three years later, Shi Dakai led more than 4,000 peasants to participate in the "Jintian Uprising" and became a "general of the left army". In the battle with the Qing army, Shi Dakai was a pioneer, brave and resourceful, and made outstanding battle achievements. During the "founding of Yong'an", he was named the "Five Thousand Years Wing King" and promoted to the main leader of the Taiping Army.
In 1853, the Taiping Army conquered Jinling (present-day Nanjing), renamed "Tianjin", and established the "Taiping Rebellion". Shi Dakai remained in Beijing, assisting Hong Xiuquan, the king of heaven, and Yang Xiuqing, the eastern king, in managing government affairs and military affairs. In 1854, the Taiping Rebellion launched the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition, completely overthrowing the Qing government, opening up the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and consolidating Tianjing. Shi Dakai was the commander-in-chief of the Western Expedition. He lived up to expectations, defeated the Qing army many times, occupied Anqing, Jiujiang and other fortresses, and opened the western road for the Taiping Rebellion. In 1855, the Western Expeditionary Army was unable to fight the "Xiang Army" head-on due to the lack of warships. Shi Dakai adopted the tactics of "catching fish" and "dividing and encircling and suppressing" to defeat the Xiang Navy at the mouth of Jiangxi Lake. Zeng Guofan, the leader of the Xiang army, suffered a crushing defeat. He committed suicide by drowning and was rescued by his subordinates. From that moment on, Shi Dakai became famous, and his army also increased from more than 10,000 to 100,000. The Western Road Army of the Taiping Rebellion was in its heyday.
Figure 2 Nanjing Tianwangfu, capital of the Taiping Rebellion
In 1856, Tianjing was besieged by Qing troops. The situation is very urgent. Hong Xiuquan drove Shi Da back to the capital to become the king of Qin. He rushed to the capital overnight and destroyed the Qing army's "Jiangnan Camp" in one fell swoop, and Tianjing turned the corner. Shi Dakai left the western front, and Zeng Guofan was able to breathe. He made a comeback and attacked the Taiping Army. After the siege of Tianjing was lifted, Shi Dakai returned to Anqing on the western front, resisted the eastward advance of the Xiang army, fought successive battles, and then occupied 47 provinces in seven prefectures in Jiangxi. The Taiping Rebellion also achieved brilliant results on other battlefields and began its heyday.
In September of the same year, an incident occurred in Tianjing (known as the "Tianjin Civil Unrest"). Hong Xiuquan ordered Wei Changhui, the king of the north, to kill Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east. Wei Zao harbored hatred for Yang and took the opportunity to kill wantonly. More than 30,000 people of the Taiping Army died at his hands. Hong Xiuquan could not control the situation and ordered Shi Dakai to return to Beijing to stop the chaos. After Shi Dakai returned to Beijing, he rebuked Wei Changhui for killing innocents. Wei Yi "protected the Eastern King and wanted to kill him". Shi Dakai fled Tianjing alone when he heard the news, and all his relatives in Beijing were killed. Shi Dakai and his subordinates jointly wrote to the Heavenly King, demanding that Wei Changhui be killed in order to anger the people. In order to win over Shi Dakai, Hong Xiuquan ordered Wei Changhui to be killed one after another. He also announced that Shi Dakai would return to Beijing to "handle government affairs" and was appointed "General General of the Holy Spirit of Electric Power." Under Shi Dakai's careful management, order in Tianjing gradually returned to normal. Hong Xiuquan saw that Shi Dakai was very popular and became suspicious. He was afraid that the Yang Xiuqing incident would happen again, so he asked his two brothers to control Shi Dakai. According to historical records, Hong "ultimately distrusted him and refused to teach him any military skills." He stayed in town and did not use these skills". He even "intentionally caused harm".
Figure 3 The jade seal embodies the worship of the gods
Unable to gain Hong Xiuquan's trust, Shi Dakai failed to leave Beijing in May 1857 for Anqing.
In September, the king sent messengers to summon Shi Dakai back to Beijing, but Shi Dakai refused. However, he still sent major generals Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Wei Jun and others back to Beijing for reinforcements, and left with 200,000 Taiping troops (say thousands). Anqing, everything starts again.
After Shi Dakai left Anhui, he still carried the banner of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the team gradually grew. He first entered Jiangxi, traveled through Zhejiang and Fujian, and then returned to Jiangxi. Everywhere he went, he failed to establish a reliable base and fought the Qing army all the way. In 1859, Shi Dakai entered Hunan to launch the "Baoqing Campaign", which failed. This surprised his subordinates and left him for Tianjing. Shi Dakai's troops were severely reduced and could no longer fight the Qing army.
In 1861, Shi Dakai entered Hunan from Guangxi, traveled through the three provinces of Xiang, Gui, and Sichuan, crossed the Jinsha River, and reached Zida on the south bank of the Dadu River, preparing to go north to occupy Chengdu. And dominate Sichuan. At that time, there were no Qing troops guarding the north bank of the Dadu River, and the pursuing Qing troops had not yet arrived. The next day, there was a torrential downpour, which lasted for three days. The river rises and it is impossible to cross it (one theory is that Shi delayed crossing the river because he was celebrating the birth of a child). At this time, Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Sichuan on the opposite bank, had transferred troops, and the pursuers also arrived, forming a siege. Shi Dakai failed to cross the border many times, ran out of food and grass, and fell into a desperate situation. He decided to negotiate with the Qing army on the condition that the lives of the remaining soldiers be preserved (some say a fake surrender). Luo Bingzhang agreed, and first sent away the four thousand Taiping troops. On June 27, Shi Dakai led more than 2,000 soldiers to the Qing camp to negotiate. Luo Bingzhang immediately changed his mind, first imprisoned Shi Dakai, and then killed all the more than 2,000 members of the Taiping Army.
Figure 4 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Edict of the Heavenly King
Shi Dakai was taken to Chengdu for trial. He delivered an impassioned speech with great righteousness. He was then executed in Lingchi and died heroically at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve. When Shi Dakai was about to be executed, he "spoke neither humble nor impetuous, nor uttered a word of pleading." The audience lamented that he was a "strange man" and was admired by posterity.
For the strengths and weaknesses of characters in history, we must fully consider the era and political background in which he lived, and make objective and divergent evaluations. You can't beat someone to death with a stick, and you can't pretend to be guilty. Throughout Shi Dakai's history, he can be regarded as a loyal general with outstanding achievements and outstanding political achievements in the early and middle periods of the Taiping Rebellion. He made outstanding contributions to the establishment and development of the Taiping Rebellion, as is confirmed by historians and the public. This can also be confirmed in the instructions of Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang to the Qing court: "The most powerful thing you can do is to use stones to track down the thieves in the canal." "Shi Qiao is cunning and brave, and has always won the heart of thieves, and his intelligence surpasses all thieves."
Figure 5 Pictures of officers and soldiers of the Taiping Rebellion
However, Shi Dakai's practice of leading part of the Taiping Army to break away from the "Kingdom of Heaven" and build a new mountain in 1857 is still controversial. The author believes that although he left under the banner of the Taiping Rebellion and declared: "I will go to war to serve the country, and one day I will successfully return the forest, but he has shown his loyalty." This actually divided and weakened the power of the Taiping Army and gave the Taiping Rebellion. It caused immeasurable losses and buried great hidden dangers for its demise. From this point of view, Shi Dakai should be a separatist or even a "rebel" of the Taiping Rebellion. Although Shi Dakai's practice of "sacrificing life and protecting the three armies" in the final negotiations with the Qing army was naïve, it was certainly a righteous act and should be upheld.
After the above analysis, we can make an honest evaluation of Shi Dakai's advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the author fully agrees with his "mixed achievements" assessment.
Text: Mu Bingsen
The text was created by the History University team, and the illustrations come from the Internet. The copyright belongs to the original author.