The father of the Taiping Dynasty, Feng Yunshan, the King of the South
Feng Yunshan sculpture
"The Southern King, Feng Yunshan, studied at home, and his talents understood that among the first six people, the founder of the country came out of the Southern King's plot, and the former doers were all southern kings." - "Li Xiucheng's Self-Description"
In September 1851, the Taiping Army occupied Yong'an Prefecture, and Hong Xiuquan established a central government modeled on the model of the ancient Zhou Dynasty. As a sign of the establishment of an official imperial court, Hong Xiuquan made the generals of the Fifth Army of the Taiping Army kings: Yang Xiuqing, the chief general of the Chinese army, was named the 9,000-year-old king of the Eastern King, the former military commander Xiao Chaogui was made the 8,000-year-old western king, the rear military commander Feng Yunshan was made the 7,000-year-old southern king, the right army general Wei Changhui was named the northern king 6,000 years old, and the left army general Shi Dakai was made the wing king 5,000 years old, and the wing heavenly dynasty. Among the six kings of Juyi, the southern king Feng Yunshan was the first to die at Yidu, the western king Xiao Chaogui was subsequently sacrificed in Changsha, and only the eastern king Yang Xiuqing and the wing king Shi Dakai shined in the subsequent war against the Qing. However, Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, wrote in his self-description after his capture that "Feng Yunshan, the King of the South, studied at home, and his talents understood that among the first six people, the founder of the country was the plot of the Southern King, and the former ones who did things were all the Kings of the South", and the king who sacrificed the earliest won the general evaluation of the Father of the Nation. Li Xiucheng's evaluation is undoubtedly objective and fair, the predecessor of the Taiping Heavenly Pavilion worship god Society was created by Feng Yunshan, in the early history of the Taiping Heavenly Pavilion, his role surpassed that of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, and also surpassed the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing.
Feng Yunshan was Hong Xiuquan's distant cousin, one of the first to follow Hong Xiuquan, and he was baptized at the same time as another crucial figure, Hong Renjie. Hong Renjie and Feng Yunshan have a similar fate to Hong Xiuquan, all three are well educated, but they all failed in scientific examinations and can only teach in private schools in the countryside for a living. Christianity strictly put an end to idolatry, coupled with Hong Xiuquan's own fiery personality, Hong Feng and feng's rough destruction of traditional idols caused public indignation in the whole village, and the contradiction finally reached a climax during the Spring Festival: the village asked Hong Xiuquan, who had the best calligraphy, to write a link for the local deity, but was severely rejected by the two Christians, and the two sides immediately attacked each other with poems, and the village elders wrote, "The old clumsy and incompetent hope for future life, who knows that today is irrelevant." The scriptures are full of people's use, and they listen to rumors and stick to them", and Hong Xiuquan tit-for-tat "does not listen to rumors and disobeys his uncle's orders, but only respects God's dogma." Heaven and hell are strictly divided, how dare you be confused about this life." As it gradually escalated, the angry Hong Xiuquan smashed the Confucius tablet in the school, and the cost of the angry deeds was serious, and Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan were dismissed from their teaching posts by the village and lost their jobs. "The Prophet was never welcome in his hometown" – Luke's Gospel. Maybe it was out of shame, maybe it was an imitation of Jesus, maybe the three of them were ready to overthrow the Manchu Qing and restore China. In short, the three Christians decided to travel as far as Guangxi, but Hong Rengui was detained after being beaten up by his family, and only Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan embarked on a long journey accompanied by two tribesmen.
After more than ten days of arduous trekking, they arrived in Guixian County, Guangxi Province, and lived in the home of Prince Weizheng, the cousin of the nearby fang. Over the next three months, Hong Xiuquan immersed himself in theoretical creation, trying to combine the highest ideals of China and Christianity. By helping Wang Win the case, Hong Xiuquan recruited the first group of about a hundred followers. Hong Xiuquan returned home in the winter, while Feng Yunshan stayed, he wanted to find a suitable soil for the revolution. Feng Yunshan spent all his time and had to do the hardest work, including moving dirt and picking up pig dung. In 1845, Feng Yunshan finally reached his ideal revolutionary holy land, Bauhinia Mountain.
Why did Feng Yunshan choose the remote Bauhinia Mountain as the revolutionary base? There are several reasons for this. First, the terrain of the Bauhinia Mountains is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Second, the Bauhinia Mountain area is far from the big cities, the government and landlord forces are beyond the reach of the whip, and the influence of Confucian culture is less. Third, most of the inhabitants of the southern part of the Zijing Mountains were Hakka (Yao in the north), and the Hakka clashed with the Han and Zhuang people who had been scheduled for this period of time (i.e., Tuke weapon fighting). Coupled with the rampant banditry, the chaotic order offered the possibility for the development of new organizations. Fourth, and most importantly, the majority of the people in Bauhinia Mountain live in poverty, and most of the people do not have enough to eat even after years of toiling. A member of the Society of Worship of God later recalled that "my family was embarrassed, did not have enough to eat, made a living by ploughing the fields, cultivated the hillside terraces or went out as a hired worker, talked about living a day, knew that the fate was poor" "It was like living like the moon, and living the month was like a year, and suffering was unspeakable." Far from the Bauhinia Mountains ruled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the terrain is dangerous, the order is chaotic, and the life is poor, which is undoubtedly the ideal cradle of revolution.
After entering the Bauhinia Mountain, Feng Yunshan worked as a coolie to earn a living while preaching to his co-workers. By chance, Feng Yunshan was hired by a rich man as a private school teacher, and his job only required teaching more than a dozen children the most basic knowledge. At this time, Feng Yunshan had a stable income and a lot of free time for preaching. Feng Yunshan bravely and painstakingly walked into the mountains to propagate this new religious belief to the poor people, and his enthusiasm, eloquence and enthusiasm won him many followers. Most of the first people to attend the worship of God were poor people who worked all day in silver and coal mines, including Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui. Feng Yunshan named the believer organization the Worship of God Society, and formulated strict canon rules, and the most able believers were sent to other places to preach and organize branches of the Worship of God Society. As the actual founder and leader of the Worship of God Society, Feng Yunshan did not give up his loyalty to Hong Xiuquan, and in the process of preaching, Hong Xiuquan ascended to heaven and the story of accepting the Holy Order was told by him over and over again.
In 1847, Hong Xiuquan returned to Bauhinia Mountain. The leader of the Society of God returned, and the believers could not hide their joy and greeted them. With the gradual development and growth of the God Worship Society, other classes other than farmers and craftsmen such as landlords, scholars, and rich merchants also began to join, and the conflict between the God Worship Society and the gentry class also expanded. After an attempt to destroy the statue of King Gan, the local gentry Wang Zuoxin led a regiment to capture Feng Yunshan and another disciple, Lu Liu. Wang Zuoxin accused Feng Yunshan of seditting rebellion, and Feng Yunshan countersued Wang Zuoxin for extortion, and because of Feng Yunshan's calm response, the county order decided to suspend the verdict. Wang Zuoxin did not want the two to be acquitted, so he bribed the county to put them in prison. A few months later, Lu Liu died under severe torture, becoming the first victim of the Taiping Heavenly Order. The news of Lu Liu's tragic death shocked the Worship of God Society, and in order to avoid Feng Yunshan's misfortune, Hong Xiuquan began to raise funds to try to rescue Feng Yunshan by paying bribes. At the same time, the new county decree took office, and Feng Yunshan appealed again, writing that the worship of God was a traditional Chinese rite and that the governor of Liangguang had approved religious freedom, so he should be acquitted. The new county commander was nothing more than a faint and incompetent official, and in order to maintain the apparent peace under his rule, he released Feng Yunshan and sent a servant to escort him back to Guangdong. Halfway through, Feng Yunshan successfully transformed Ya Gong into a believer in the Cult of God and returned to Bauhinia Mountain. After returning, Feng Yunshan found that Hong Xiuquan was not in Zijing Mountain, and the leader of the Worship of God was running around trying to rescue Feng Yunshan. Hong Feng and Feng met in their hometown in the autumn, and Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan were at this time preaching to the villagers while planning to overthrow the Manchu Uprising.
By 1849, the Society of God had grown to tens of thousands, and the time was ripe for an uprising. Transforming God-worshippers into a warlike army requires not only weapons, but also good high-level commanders and effective military formations. Feng Yunshan and Hong Xiuquan discovered Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, and others, and later battles proved that they were indeed excellent generals. Feng Yunshan, with the help of another great Confucian, Lu Xianba, formulated the army structure of the Taiping Heavenly Pavilion according to the old system of the Zhou Dynasty, and this retro military system became one of the reasons for the tactical flexibility of the Taiping Army.
The Taiping Tianyuan army was formed
On the eve of the uprising, Yang Xiuqing, in order to usurp power, brought Jintian's conscription work to a standstill by pretending to be ill and suggesting that his followers were passively uncooperative. Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan were aware of the dangers of this behavior, but they were also aware of the importance of Yang Xiuqing's military talents. In the end, Feng Yunshan ceded the second position to Yang Xiuqing, making the preparations for the uprising smooth. In order to balance Yang Xiuqing, Hong Xiuquan Promoted Xiao Chaogui as the third person and married Hong Xiuquan's sister to Xiao Chaogui. With the military establishment, the determination of the leadership group, and the smooth progress of the recruitment work, Hong Xiuquan issued a general mobilization order, counting the sins of the Manchurian rulers, encouraging believers to accept the sacred mission and fight for the new king. Members of the Worship of God society from all over the country burned down their homes and assembled in Kaneda.
On January 1, 1851, in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi, a large-scale conflict between the Worship of God and the Qing Dynasty finally broke out. The Qing army that came to suppress the Worship of God was led by the Manchurian general Yiktanbu, and the soldiers attacked in three ways; the Worship of God Society also defended in three ways, with Yang Xiuqing commanding the Left Route Army, Xiao Chaogui commanding the Right Route Army, and Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan commanding the Middle Route Army. During the battle, Feng Yunshan was naked and led the soldiers to charge the Qing army, personally hand-bladed seven Qing troops, while Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui were surrounded from both wings, and the seven battalions of the Qing army collapsed under the attack of the Worship of God Society, and scattered and fled. Iqtambu fell off his horse on his way to escape and was beheaded by the Worshippers. On January 11, 1851, Hong Xiuquan's thirty-seventh birthday, Hong Xiuquan officially ascended the throne, adding the Tianwang. The new state was named Taiping Tianyuan (太平天囯), or "Heavenly Dynasty" for short.
Kaneda Uprising oil painting
After the Great Victory of Jintian, the Taiping Army marched all the way, capturing Yong'an on September 25 and establishing a central government here, and Feng Yunshan was given the title of King of the South 7,000 Years Old. The Taiping Army continued to move north, and when passing through Jeonju, the Qing soldiers in the city found that there were Taiping Soldiers carrying a large palanquin decorated with yellow strips, thinking that the person sitting inside must be an important leader of the Taiping Army, so they lit artillery fire, and the shell hit the palanquin, seriously injuring the people in the palanquin. As the Qing army expected, the person on the palanquin was Feng Yunshan, the southern king of the Taiping Heavenly Temple. Feng Yunshan was seriously wounded by the Qing army, hong xiuquan was furious, and immediately ordered the Taiping army to attack the city, and two days later, the city of Jeonju was destroyed, and the Taiping army killed thousands of people in the city as revenge. After the Battle of Jeonju, the Taiping Army was ambushed by the Qing army Jiang Zhongyuan at Yidu, with heavy losses, and Feng Yunshan was killed in this battle. The premature sacrifice of Feng Yunshan, the best spiritual teacher of the Taiping Heavenly Heavenly Circle and Hong Xiuquan's most loyal friend, has since been able to reconcile the contradiction between Yang Xiuqing's Xiao Chaogui Group and the Weichang Hui shi Dakai Group. Feng Yunshan's sacrifice and the fiasco of Yidu made it impossible for the Taiping army to directly capture Changsha. If Feng Yunshan had not died, perhaps there would have been no future Tianjing Incident, and the history of the Qing Dynasty would have been completely rewritten.