Hong Xiuquan’s famous sayings
1. God turns out to be an old relative, the water source is like a tree, and we are all in the same country. It is unjust for animals to kill each other, and it is unkind for neighbors to kill each other. It is natural to cultivate harmony, and everyone can enjoy peace with each other.
2. Mount Tai doesn’t care about soil, so it can reach its height; rivers and seas don’t care about small streams, so it can reach its depth.
3. In ancient times, business was done by people.
4. When there is chaos, there is order; when there is darkness, there is light. This is the way of heaven.
5. Hold the power of killing in the universe, kill the evil and leave the good to solve the people's problems. When you get lost, speed back up and hurry up, cheer up and rush forward.
6. From the beginning, if the blessing is large, the quantity is large, and if the quantity is large, the person is a big person; if the blessing is small, the quantity is small, and if the quantity is small, the person is a villain.
7. There are many men in the world, and they are all brothers; there are many women in the world, and they are all sisters.
8. I am subject to millions of Tartar monsters with fifty thousand Han people, how can there be such a great shame in the world!
9. In the world of mortals, divided into ten thousand countries, speaking collectively, it is one family.
10. Xianghe corrects himself and others, Xianghe becomes the mainstay in the middle of the tide, and he helps to turn back the tide that has fallen. Seeing the world as one family, everyone enjoys peace.
11. Old friends do not only care for their relatives, nor do they only have children for their children, so that the old will have their end, the strong will be useful, the young will grow, and the widowers, widows, loneliness, and the sick will all be supported. Men have their share, and women have their home. If the goods are disgusted and thrown away on the ground, there is no need to hide them in oneself; if the power is disgusted and they do not come from the body, there is no need to hide them for oneself. This is why evildoers and evildoers seek to close the country but not prosper, thieves and thieves do not commit crimes, and households outside the country do not close to each other. This is called Great Harmony.
Character profile of Hong Xiuquan:
Early years of Hong Xiuquan
Hong Xiuquan was born in Guangdong and into a farming and studying family. He attended a village school from the age of 7 and was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics. and some other ancient books. The elders in the village were optimistic that Hong Xiuquan would be able to obtain fame and honor his ancestors, but he failed the three provincial examinations. The third time he failed in Guangzhou, he was already 25 years old (in 1837, when he was born as one year old). After returning home, he was devastated by this. He became seriously ill and fell into a coma. During his illness, he had hallucinations. An old man said to him: According to the will of God, he was ordered to come to the human world to kill demons. From then on, Hong Xiuquan became silent and behaved strangely. At this time, Hong Xiuquan was not reconciled to failure in the exam. Six years later, in the spring of 1843, he took the Guangzhou Provincial Examination again, but he still failed.
At this time, Hong Xiuquan looked through the book "Good Words to the World" by Christian Liang Fa that he had received when he was taking the exam in Guangzhou. He compared the content in the book with the hallucinations he had when he was seriously ill, and believed that he was suffering from Ordered by God to come down to earth to kill demons, he threw away the books of Confucius and Mencius, stopped being a Confucian scholar and converted to Christian teachings, and simply replaced the Confucius tablet at home with a tablet of God. Although he had never read the Bible, Hong Xiuquan began to promote the Christian doctrine he understood to everyone he met, calling it "the religion of worshiping God."
Hong Xiuquan said: "If people's hearts are too bad and politics is corrupt, there will be great disasters in the world. Only those who believe in God and join the religion can avoid disaster. Those who join the religion, regardless of their dignity, are equal to men and women. Men are called brothers. The girl called her sister. "Hong Xiuquan respected Jehovah as his heavenly father and Christ as his heavenly brother. However, Hong Xiuquan's "God worshiping religion" was very different from mainstream Christianity in terms of doctrine. Hong Xiuquan claimed to be the brother of Jesus and the second son of the heavenly father, who came down to earth. Come to do justice for heaven.
Hong Xiuquan, the King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, initially preached near Guangzhou, but he did not achieve great success. In 1844, Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan moved to Guangxi to preach. Hong soon returned to Guangdong, and Feng stayed to develop the church, and the number of local believers increased day by day. From 1845 to 1846, Hong Xiuquan wrote works such as "The Original Way Awakens the World", "The Original Way Awakens the World", and "Baizhengge" in his hometown. In early 1847, Hong Xiuquan studied in a Christian church in Guangzhou for several months and asked to be baptized, but the priest believed that Hong Xiuquan did not know enough about the doctrine and refused. Hong then went to Guangxi to join Feng Yunshan, and successively formulated the rules and rituals of the God Worship Association.
The conflict between Hong Xiuquan's God-Worship Association and the local government deepened day by day. In 1850, Hong Xiuquan and others decided to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and stepped up preparations. Congregants came to the Jintian regiment camp one after another in the second half of the year, and officially announced the uprising in January 1851.
Establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
In early 1851, Hong Xiuquan was proclaimed Heavenly King and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In 1852, the Taiping Army left Guangxi and entered Hunan. In 1853, they captured Nanjing, renamed it Tianjing and established its capital here. In the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, major military and political affairs were in charge of military advisors. Hong Xiuquan retreated behind the scenes and took charge of government affairs. Feng Yunshan and Xiao Chaogui were dead, and power fell into the hands of the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing. After the capital was settled in Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan advocated that the Four Books and Five Classics be listed as banned books. Yang Xiuqing disagreed and used "Heavenly Father Comes Down to Earth" to force Hong Xiuquan to give in. The latter had no choice but to agree that the Four Books and Five Classics could be published and circulated after revision. However, it was not published until the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. . Later, Hong Xiuquan revised the Bible, changed the content according to political needs and personal likes and dislikes, and promulgated it in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The conflict between the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan and the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing is deepening day by day. Hong Xiuquan knew that the Northern King Wei Changhui, the Yi King Shi Dakai and the Yan King Qin Rigang were dissatisfied with the Dong Wang. In 1856, he secretly ordered the three to kill the Dong Wang. In September, the Tianjing Incident occurred, and the Dong Wang, Bei Wang and Yan Wang were executed successively. Yi Wang Shi Dakai ruled in Tianjing for a period of time and was tabooed by Hong Xiuquan. Hong Xiuquan made his brothers Hong Renfa and Hong Renda kings to contain Shi Dakai, which caused Shi Dakai's dissatisfaction. In 1857, Shi led his army to flee, breaking away from the command of the King of Heaven. After the Tianjing Incident and King Yi's departure, although Hong Xiuquan took control of the political power, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began to decline.
The Tianjing Incident
In June 1856 (the sixth year of Xianfeng), the Taiping Army broke through the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army Xiangrong and solved the three-year siege of Tianjing. After Xiang Rong died on August 9, the news of his death reached Tianjing soon after. Seeing that the situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was very good at that time, the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing had other plans. He pretended that "Heavenly Father has come down to earth" and forced the King of Heaven to confer him the title of "Long Live".
At this time, the Northern King Wei Changhui asked the Heavenly King to kill the Eastern King, but the Heavenly King refused. Later, Chen Chengrong reported to the King of Heaven that the King of the East had an attempt to regicide and usurp the throne. The King of Heaven secretly ordered the King of the North, King Yi and King Qin Rigang of Yan to eradicate the King of the East.
Wei Changhui arrived in Tianjing on September 1st and entered the city at night with Qin Rigang. They raided the Dongwang Mansion in the early morning of the 2nd. Yang Xiuqing and his family were killed. Dongwang’s subordinates, their families and other soldiers and civilians were killed. More than 20,000 people were also killed, which was known as the "Tianjing Incident" in history.
After Yi Wang Shi Dakai arrived in Tianjing, he accused Wei Changhui of indiscriminate killing. The two broke up unhappy. Shi Dakai escaped from the city that night. Wei Changhui then killed Shi Dakai's family members in Yi Wang's palace.
Shi Dakai raised troops from Anqing to denounce Wei Changhui. At this time, most of the Taiping Army outside Tianjing supported Shi Dakai. Hong Xiuquan executed Wei Changhui on November 2 to quell public anger, and soon after executed Qin Rigang and Chen Chengrong.
Hong Xiuquan in his later years
The Qing army began to invade Tianjing. With the support of Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng and others, the Taiping Army blocked many Qing offensives in a few years. In 1859, his younger brother Hong Rengan arrived in Tianjing. Hong Xiuquan was overjoyed and appointed Rengan as military advisor and king of heaven. He was nominally the prime minister of the affairs of the Kingdom of Heaven, but he refused to hand over the power of military advisor to him. Since Hong Rengan was granted the title of king without any meritorious service, Hong Xiuquan was afraid that others would be dissatisfied and would grant him the title of king with a different surname again. Later, in order to win over people's hearts and disperse the power of the kings, Hong Xiuquan began to grant royal titles indiscriminately. In the last year, more than 2,000 people were crowned kings. In December 1861, British Navy Admiral Robert Ho and Counselor Park Li went to Tianjing and proposed to Hong Xiuquan to assist the Taiping Rebellion in defeating the Qing Dynasty on the condition that China would be divided equally upon completion. After discussing with the ministers, Hong Xiuquan decided not to accept the British suggestion, and said: "I fight for China, and I want the whole map. If it succeeds, the world will laugh. If it fails, I will introduce ghosts into the country." In 1862, Chen Yucheng After being killed by the Qing army, the situation took a turn for the worse, and the strongholds near Tianjing fell one by one. ( ) In his later years, Hong Xiuquan was not only narrow-minded and conservative in his thinking, but also fell into the sad quagmire of religious superstition. He once changed the name of the country to "God's Heavenly Kingdom". After everyone objected, it was changed to "Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother, Heavenly King and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom".
Li Xiucheng knew that Tianjing could not be defended for a long time, so he suggested to Hong Xiuquan to abandon Tianjing and fight in the Central Plains, but Hong Xiuquan reprimanded him. Faced with the dilemma, Hong Xiuquan did not take appropriate countermeasures, but declared to the soldiers that soldiers from heaven would come down to earth to drive away the Qing soldiers.
The mystery of the cause of Hong Xiuquan’s death
In March 1864, after the siege of Tianjing, there was a shortage of food in the city. Hong Xiuquan took the lead in eating "sweet dew" (grass balls) to satisfy his hunger, which caused him to fall ill. On June 1, 1864 (April 27 in the third year of Tongzhi), Hong Xiuquan died of illness in Tianjing (Qing records stated that he committed suicide). The Qing army destroyed his body after the city fell.
Another theory is that Hong Xiuquan died of suicide. Before the 1960s, most people believed that Hong Xiuquan died of suicide.
Li Xiucheng was a major general in the late Taiping Rebellion. When Hong Xiuquan died, he was in charge of the defense of Tianjing. He should have a more accurate understanding of the situation in Tianwang Mansion. In the "Autobiography of Li Xiucheng" published by Zeng Guofan, it mentioned the death of Hong Xiuquan: "The King of Heaven (Hong Xiuquan) was anxious at that time and irritable every day, so he took poison and died on April 27." The second half said: "The King of Heaven (Hong Xiuquan) was anxious at that time and was irritable every day." His suicide made the whole situation more chaotic." Zeng Guofan, the leader of the Hunan Army and the opponent of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, said in his memorial: "The first rebellion against Hong Xiuquan was actually in May of this year, when the army attacked fiercely, and he died of poison on the seventh day of July in the same year. The memorial said: "There is a fake palace maid, a woman named Huang from Daozhou, who buried the corpse with her hands. I personally interrogated her. According to the confession, before Hong Xiuquan was alive, he had not seen his officials for many years. On April 27, he was killed by the officers and soldiers. He rushed to attack and died by taking poison, but the mourning was kept secret. However, the bandits in the city and the officers and soldiers outside the city spread the publicity and announced it after more than ten days. "Based on the above information, most historians believe that Hong Xiuquan committed suicide by taking poison." Guo Tingyi said that Hong Xiuquan's death was "according to the theory of taking poison"; Jian Youwen pointed out in "The Complete History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" that Hong Xiuquan committed suicide as a "fact"; Luo Ergang's "History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" based on the content of "Li Xiucheng's Autobiography", believed that Hong Xiuquan committed suicide "He died after taking poison on April 19th (celestial calendar, June 1, 1864)." However, scholars at that time had a certain degree of doubt about the theory of Hong Xiuquan's suicide.