1837, Hong Renkun failed the list for the third time. This man always thinks highly of himself and has high hopes for the people. He suffered a great mental and psychological blow. When I got home, I was very ill and came back to life after being "dead for seven days". "Everything is just." According to him, Feng Yunshan and Hong Ren wrote many articles about this disease, especially Li Xiucheng's confession. In my opinion, there are several assumptions: first, show mask shame; Second, the inner struggle in extremely complicated torture; Third, mild mental illness caused by strong stimulation; Fourth, spiritual activities are mixed with fantasy and fantasy; Fifth, consider how to use superstition to rebel. With such a serious illness, there will naturally be obvious changes in personality, but it has not yet become a mental patient, so it can be cured without drugs and life does not need the care of others.
1842, he took the exam for the fourth time. Feng Yunshan, a book friend who failed in the exam, was extremely dissatisfied with the exam. From the perspective of astrology, he thinks that Hong Renkun is an "alien" and "quasi-king" and strongly urges him to lead the rebellion. Feng's persuasion was consistent with his previous thoughts and dreams when he recovered from a serious illness, so he gave up the imperial examination system. After Hong Renkun made up his mind to rebel, he said that God named him Junquan, the avenue of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and ordered him to be "sometimes called Hongxiu, sometimes Hongquan and sometimes HongXiuquan". Since then, Hong Renkun and Hong Huoxiu have been renamed as Hong Xiuquan. It takes a lot of thought to change the name, which means "I am the king of the people." To put it simply, the decisive reason for rebellion is that you can't enter school-you can't take the test of a scholar. Being the king of the people can not only achieve "waiting for yourself to take away all the literati in the world", but also "seize power and fight against Gankun" and kill all the people you hate. Of course, this is not only resistance and revenge, but more importantly, possession and enjoyment: possession of everything. These early outspoken views of "the grain is abundant" and "the world is mine" show Hong's original intention of "taking the revolutionary road".
The main ideas and theories of the worship of God led by Hong Xiuquan come from Liang Afa's folk sermon "Soul Escape". There is no comprehensive and systematic introduction of Christian teachings, and China's traditional views are occasionally cited to prove and convince the world. But it involves some theological knowledge, such as the Almighty Father, the redemption of Jesus, the only respect for God, non-idolatry, eternal happiness in heaven, eternal pain in hell and so on. It was used for reference by Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan and fermented continuously. From the crude map of the world in front of Skynet House, it can be seen that Hong Xiuquan knew almost nothing about the west and the world at this time. His search for truth in the west is some theological knowledge in biblical times. On this basis, he constantly sublated and injected some contents according to his own needs, thus establishing a god-worship society with him as the leader. Start with superstition, then gradually strengthen the control of followers, then launch rebellion, seize power, and establish a "paradise" on earth. From this process, the worship of God created by Hong Xiuquan will be similar to a kind of political worship.
First of all, it preaches that the savior will rule the whole country, even the whole world. All the cult leaders in the world think they are saviors. But most of them have no or no time to publicize by seizing political power and ruling the whole country and the world. Hong Xiuquan obviously regards this as the core content. He declared: "the supreme old man in the sky ordered all the people in the world to belong to me, and all the wanbao in the world belonged to me"; He accepted the orders of his father and brother and became "the only God in all countries". He is a member of God.
Second, the combination of doomsday theory and rebellion theory. Why the savior? Because this is the end of the world. This is also the same argument of all cults. 1850 In May, he concretized the doomsday theory, saying that he was inspired by God: "Thirty years after Daoguang, I will bring a catastrophe to the world. Those who believe will be saved, and those who don't believe will be plague. " Some fields are uncultivated and some houses are uninhabited. "Those who believe that" there is food and clothing every day, and there is no disaster and no difficulty ". When Yongan made a breakthrough in 185 1, he wrote another check and sealed an official wish. Enthusiasts "sealed the prime minister, self-discipline, commander-in-chief, generals, guards, at least the army is handsome, passed down from generation to generation, and brought the Dragon Robe Horn to China. "
Third, the witchcraft of words and deeds requires the soldiers and civilians to obey without reservation. Hong Xiuquan first preached that God had given him a sword and a seal, and then called himself "Sun Hong" in the imperial edict. It was a red sun, shining all over the world, asking followers to believe blindly. Inspired by his superstitious propaganda, Yang and Xiao Chaogui successively created the wizard-like images of the heavenly father and elder brother. After their death, Hong Xiuquan lost his restraint and even had no scruples about "Tianhua", even saying "nobody". He often writes some poems expressing "God" on goose yellow satin, and then hangs them with great fanfare. This kind of behavior is constantly creating self-gods, thus strengthening the mental control of Taiping officers and soldiers.
Fourth, the overall control of the participants. Through superstitious propaganda, Hong Xiuquan not only controls the spirit of the congregation, but also has a set of rules and measures to fully control people, families and property. At the beginning of the rebellion, he asked the participants to "sell the property at a low price" and "sell the property that is easy to realize and turn it over to the state treasury", while the old houses that could not be sold were set on fire. Therefore, if one person participates and the whole family participates, it will become a pawn to cross the river, and there is no retreat. Soon, every time we occupied a place, we concentrated on "reasoning" with gongs. All the living people, who didn't escape, were brought into the Taiping Army whether they wanted to or not, that is to say, they were completely threatened. After receiving it, all the belongings were not handed in, and even more than five taels of silver were hidden. "it is evil, that is, its sin is great"; If you can't recite exhortation for more than 2 1 day, there is no reason not to listen to reasoning twice, which is a serious violation of the prohibition law; Those tools, complaints and complaints that are unconditionally disobedient and unwilling to be tamed are called "the devil's heart has not changed"; Anyone who can't stand being abandoned at night is called "the third night"; Anyone who violates rules and orders is called "demonization", and all the above crimes will be beheaded. Many other dogmas and prohibitions, including husband and wife observing self-discipline, ordering the above-mentioned official vehicles not to kneel on the side of the road, gathering loudly, discussing the army privately, drinking at parties, and having their hair cut and shaved, are all "beheadings". Those who "rebel" are sentenced to death for "lighting a lamp" and "chopping five horses". Strict control makes people become tools without family property, thoughts and feelings, personal freedom and personal dignity.
Fifth, women should be widely used as personal tools. Before Hong Xiuquan publicly rebelled, there were many wives and concubines. To occupy Xiao Yong 'an, there are already 36 people. After entering Nanjing, Meng Ding gave him six beauties on his birthday every year. Every spring, Meng Ding will choose beautiful women for Hong Xiuquan at Gate 13 in Tianjin. There is even a clear stipulation: "All young women and beautiful women are ready for the heavenly king to choose." When the Taiping Army was defeated, Tianwang had 88 wives. Needless to say, there is an 8-foot-wide carved queen bed in the palace. Because Hong Xiuquan has too many wives and concubines, she can't remember her surname, so she simply calculated it. Moreover, he wrote hundreds of "father poems" to discipline his wives and let them recite them, so these good women became his indulgent sexual tools. Therefore, Hong Xiuquan developed the possession of women by emperors and cult leaders to the extreme.
China's temmoku system is superficial.
1In March of 853, the Taiping Army occupied Nanjing. The original documents and regulations are not enough to encourage rebellion, publicize the blood of the savior, and control the thoughts, words and deeds of officers and men. As a result, the dogma written or presided over by Hong Xiuquan was promulgated. Experts in the 20th century praised these 26 words, such as "plowing, eating, dressing, making money, uneven everywhere, tepid", and even called them "the great anti-feudal project". In fact, not to mention that it has not yet been implemented. Judging from the full text of this document, these 26 words are just window words. The actual content is to transform the occupied countryside into a society integrating military, agriculture and education. Hong's fallacies and heresies were used to unify thoughts, with the small leader of the Taiping Army as the leader, making farmers tools for wartime operations and peacetime work. Farmers hand over all the harvest, except for "taking over the new valley", which is not enough for rations. In other words, in order to "make meritorious deeds and establish officials" and "cultivate and donate their fields", there are rewards in the world. This is a job that deprives the bottom people.
At the same time, the Taiping Army clearly stipulated that "all bad styles in the old society should be eliminated" and all social customs, beliefs and morals should be eliminated. Men, women and children should be instilled into the militarized organizational system and make full use of it. Its purpose is to establish and consolidate pagoda rule and deprive floods.
Here, I would also like to talk about the "new chapter in elderly affairs" which is regarded as a golden signboard by experts. This was done by Red Man on 1859. He came to Hong Xiuquan to talk about tons of movies for the rest of his life. Less than 20 days after arriving in Nanjing, he was promoted to King Gan, strategist and second in command. This caused strong dissatisfaction with the meritorious generals of Taiping Army, and some people deliberately sent him into the army by "asking for help". In this case, he can't play dumb. Hong Xiuquan also longed for him to display his talents quickly, discuss problems peacefully and serve the generals. So he wrote a 10,000-word memorial. Hong Ren, who has lived in Hong Kong for many years, introduced foreign countries, especially praised Britain and the United States, and described France, Germany, Russia and Japan. Drawing lessons from foreign experience, this paper puts forward 28 suggestions from economic, political and social aspects. Although the introduction of China Yard System to foreign countries is far less comprehensive and accurate than the new official chapter edited by Lin Zexu, and far less rich and substantial than the Four Continents compiled by Wei Yuan on this basis, it is still commendable from the point of view of making clear suggestions.
But as mentioned above, this is not the product of Hong Xiuquan's initiative to "seek truth from the West", but the practical need to surrender the generals. List the names of some foreigners from the book and say "be kind to your brother" to show off, especially to illustrate this point. After seeing it, Hong Xiuquan approved the sculpture. The direct reason is that he established prestige for Hong Ren, saying that he is good at absorbing talents' wisdom. Another deep-seated reason is that in the beginning and full text of the monument, "the power belongs to one person" and "the solid foundation is weak at the end", that is, the measures to prevent local generals from rebelling are exactly what Hong Xiuquan wants. Despite this, Hong Xiuquan not only criticized eyebrows in several places, but also clearly expressed different accidents, and only approved the memorial of the Imperial Decree for the reference of ordinary officials. Therefore, senior generals, including Li Xiucheng, disapprove of The Atlas of Sea Countries. What's more noteworthy is that in 1862, Hong Xiuquan re-promulgated the New Chapter of Senior Officials, and took this basic policy document as a reference material, denying or even at least canceling the "China Tianmu System". Therefore, we can't give Hong Xiuquan a beautiful hymn just because of the progress of advanced affairs.
Spokesman of God, but without love and faith.
Hong Xiuquan is a tyrant. Before he became king, he often killed his wife. After entering Nanjing, he repeatedly said in the new chapter of advanced things that what made him angry was capital crime. If he is angry, he will kill people. Everyone should kneel down and calm down together. Don't be light. Hong Xiuquan treats his wife and maids like this, not to mention those who are dissatisfied with his hostility. From the beginning of his determination to resist, he wrote poems, expressed his ambitions and wrote letters according to the rules. He is always ready to kill, punish, chop without leaving, chop without leaving, punish without extinguishing, and boldly kill demons. Can be said to be obsessed. Because of his constant appeals, clear rules and direct orders, killing people casually is like mowing grass in a non-combat situation. Hong Xiuquan's cruelty can only be seen in the process of Taiping Army invading Nanjing and destroying "devils". Honest officials, Manchu people, monks and nuns, businessmen, Confucian scholars and even doctors, shop assistants and artists are all regarded as demons. It is no problem to plunder and slaughter them. "Every prisoner looks at his hands, such as ruddy palms, and there are no heavy cocoons on his fingers. His constant finger is a demon, or he was killed at a glance, or he was killed after a question and answer, or he was killed by a demon without punishment, or he was killed by a demon. " For Manchu people, men, women and children were killed. Many Han officials, gentlemen and literati who couldn't escape and didn't want to die at the hands of Taiping Army committed suicide together. In this bloody horror, Hong Xiuquan knelt in the Taiping Army and walked into Tianjin with infinite scenery.
Hong Xiuquan is not soft on Taiping rebels. Most Taiping soldiers who violated laws and prohibitions were killed. 1856 fought side by side with Yang, not only killing Yang's whole family, but also singing with Wei Changhui, killing more than 20,000 people under Yang. Then let Wei Changhui kill Shi Dakai's family. Later, he was frightened by Shi Dakai's army and killed Wei Changhui, Qin Rigang and Chen. And this Wei Changhui has always been called "a congenial brother" by him. He also returned to Nanjing from Jiangxi to assassinate Yang. Qin Rigang and Chen Yizhi were his cronies and helped Wei Changhui kill Yang and his men. They were also two commanders under Shi Dakai, and under the secret order or acquiescence of Hong Xiuquan, they led troops to attack the city. It can be seen that Hong Xiuquan only talks about his actual needs, without love and faith.
Hong Xiuquan had doubts. After the infighting, he became more crony. First of all, his two brothers, Hong Renfa and Hong Renda, were named Wang An and the Axe King respectively. They put their two brothers under the oppression and supervision of power. Later, Hong Xiuquan was forced by Manchuria to cancel two fatuous brothers, but he still listened to their opinions. Later, he changed his name to Xin Wang and Wang Yong, and always intervened in government affairs. They are all extremely selfish, greedy, stupid and savage people. They all have bad ideas, but Hong Xiuquan trusts them the most. During the Tianjin crisis, Hong Xiuquan made it clear that Hong Renda was in charge of the government. As mentioned earlier, Hong Ren is Hong Xiuquan's cousin. Because my family is more reliable, not as vulgar as my two brothers, so I immediately rose to the third level. Hong Ren _ Although he is just an armchair strategist, he has repeatedly lost and committed crimes, but he is still entrusted with an important task. My cousin Hong changed his official position without any credit or guilt, and then sealed a T-shirt for the King. A dozen relatives and nephews, all surnamed Wang. Hong Xiuquan's nephew Xiao Youhe is very popular with Hong Xiuquan. Shortly before his death, Hong was appointed as a receptionist. Hong Xiuquan's son-in-law Zhong Wanxin, Huang and Huang are also very popular. They are all kings. These royal families, wang hong in a broad sense, can't fight or do anything. Almost all of them are greedy for more and bullying less. In Nanjing, everyone is afraid and hates it. They were hated and despised everywhere in the Taiping Army, but they were helpless.
The most important confidant is Meng Deen, who was originally in charge of women's camp and Tianwangfu affairs in Tianjin. He served Hong Xiuquan well, especially his love for floods. He is good at beauty contests and has won Hong's favor. After infighting, he was appointed as the leader of China's army and Prime Minister Zhao Gang. However, Meng can neither direct the battle nor control the overall situation. He only worked for the Hong brothers and suppressed the rising stars, so that "people's hearts change, politics is different, and people's hearts are the same." When Hong Xiuquan asked Hong Ren _ to be the second in command instead of Menden, he was still very kind to him. He was crowned king and abdicated to be the third in command, leading an extremely luxurious and decadent life. Love me, love my dog, love my dog. After his death, his son Meng attacked him as a young king and helped Hong Ren do the same thing with another man.
Hong Xiuquan's government is in disorder and his words are interrupted, so he can do whatever he wants. The nepotism mentioned above is actually an aspect of irregular legislation. For another example, after Shi Dakai was forced to leave his post, he announced that "I am the master and I am also a strategist." He became emperor and served as the head of military and political affairs himself. However, he is only good at "talking nonsense" and bragging. He didn't have military and administrative ability and didn't want to spend more time on practical affairs, so he changed his mind at 1859. For another example, in February of 186 1, he announced that his title would be changed to "Heavenly King, Heavenly King, Heavenly King", which met with resistance from generals, especially Li Xiucheng and Li Shixian. But the most serious harm is the confusion of titles and the sale of royal titles. Titles are very important, and the Taiping Army has certain rules. But after 1856, it was chaotic until it became a pool of sludge. It turned out that under the king, Hong Xiuquan became the minister of justice, public security, happiness, beauty, jade, Hou and so on. Soon, "the world is at peace", and Fu, Yan, Yu and Hou are all gone. 1857, Hong Xiuquan declared that he would never be king, but just over a year later, he made Hong Ren king. In order to eliminate the dissatisfaction of the generals, Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng and other major generals were given titles. Soon, in order to weaken the military strength of the lords, especially Li Xiucheng, he wanted to make a fortune and let his younger brother accept bribes from Chen Kunshu. Chen Kunshu was afraid that Li Xiucheng would be punished for his crime, so he was named Chen lord protector. He thinks he kills two birds with one stone, which is an excellent deal. When the door opened, many people followed. At the same time, in order to dispel the resentment of those old brothers who made meritorious deeds and did not pay bribes, they also sealed some kings. Kings have many titles. Some titles of kings have been given to one person, but will soon be given to another. With the sale of princes, simply cancel the price difference and call them kings. Later, they lowered the price and sold it cheaply, locking up many people and turning them into "dust", co-authored by Xiao Wang. According to Wang, more than 2,700 kings were blocked, so there were few towns in the occupied area. More than 2,700 substances, including dust, have been difficult to detect. Hong Xiuquan's younger brother sold the baron, making people who want to be promoted desperately look for bribes. When they get knighthood, they can further search, build palaces and engage in corruption legally. At the same time, people who are made princes by the king, on the one hand, do not buy each other, and it is difficult to command and coordinate; On the other hand, they compare with each other, resulting in a lot of dissatisfaction and resentment. As a result, there was internal corruption, and the king just wanted to have fun and had no fighting spirit. Everyone built a hill, like a loose sand; The lower-level soldiers and civilians, struggling and overwhelmed, condescended to go up the mountain. Therefore, Hong Xiuquan's plan to sell Wang Jue is actually a comprehensive poisoning.
Hong Xiuquan wants to "sit comfortably in China" and be extravagant. Here, I will simply say that Skynet is long, sparse and not leaking. It was originally established on the basis of the office of the governor of Liangjiang for half a year. It soon caught fire and burned down. At the beginning of 1854, Tianjin expanded and rebuilt despite the siege of Tianjin by the Qing army and the crisis of the Northern Expedition. Fiona Fang is more than ten miles long, more than twice as long as the Forbidden City in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and its architecture is more gorgeous. When he was in the post-Lin Yuan era, he asked the ladies-in-waiting to take a carriage for sightseeing. As usual, he wrote an oblique poem: "The cart faces the road and looks back at Dou Ping. There is resistance. " The parade in the garden is really interesting. There are hundreds of birds playing and cars. "The chopsticks he used, even the toilet and chamber pot were made of gold, so Shengku was once eager for gold. He had a good time in the palace and had little time and thought to sit in front of him. He even went out of the palace only once in 1 1 year because "Father went to heaven". At that time, there was a rumor in Nanjing that the treasures in the palace were "like mountains and seas", so people from Ceng Guoquan rushed to Skynet House to grab them after entering Nanjing. Afraid of being investigated by the Qing court, they robbed and set fire to it. As a result, even Hong Xiuquan's body could not be found. Of course, setting fire to Skynet House is an unforgivable atrocity.
Sweep away China's traditional culture with political culture.
Hong Xiuquan is hostile to China's traditional culture and takes everything except what he needs. Temples, colleges, historical sites and cultural relics were either burned or destroyed, or transformed into barracks, warehouses and slaughterhouses. In particular, Hong Xiuquan devoted himself to the construction of Tianwangfu in the whole city, which almost destroyed the ancient buildings since the Six Dynasties, such as the world-famous Nanjing Dabaoen Temple Tower, and was violently blown up. The Forbidden City was demolished in the Ming Dynasty, leaving only a broken gate. These are just the most important two, and countless other cultural relics have been destroyed. As for the book, "you can keep it and throw it away after going to the toilet, but you can't burn it or burn it with water." Readers are jealous, recipients are jealous, and buyers and sellers are jealous together. The father's poems in Wenhui Pavilion in Yangzhou and Wenzong Pavilion in Zhenjiang were burned by Taiping Army. Yang dismissed this crazy behavior and thought that "books handed down from generation to generation cannot be destroyed". Hong Xiuquan could not disobey, so he set up a book deletion office in his own hands to delete "bad words" until his downfall, and only deleted a few publications. As mentioned above, the living cultural carrier, not the Taiping Army, is regarded as a "demon" and dare not kill it. Even a few people who have read books and joined the Taiping Army in the early stage are often discriminated against, humiliated and hit in the anti-cultural atmosphere and power struggle. Only one or two people lost their lives. They may have escaped, and the result was tragic.
Hong Xiuquan's sweeping of China's traditional culture was not exclusive, but was replaced by his political culture. For example, he promulgated the complete works of Si Ku Quan Shu, The Book of Destiny, The Book of Heaven, The Poem of Father, etc. And constantly waving flags, shooting the absurd poems published by Tiangong. Another example is to abolish the lunar calendar and replace it with a scientific "calendar"; Abolish traditional festivals and replace them with new royal festivals, such as "Tiger and My Dungeon Festival". Another example is that he created dozens of new words, created a large number of new words, adopted a large number of argots and dialects, changed the meaning of many words, printed in official books and various documents, and widely implemented in enemy-occupied areas; In order to avoid taboos, it is necessary to publish Peace in Heaven, which makes Chinese difficult to read. What's more, Hong Xiuquan had long wanted him to test people, but he didn't choose officials, but spent his birthday with several kings. After-1857, he asked the examinees to write hymns. These have not only aroused strong opposition from scholars, but also aroused great dissatisfaction from illiterate people. Hong Xiuquan tried to overthrow the traditional culture of China and replace it with political cult culture, but failed.
The Taiping Uprising led by Hong Xiuquan also brought historic disasters to the Chinese nation. In Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces alone, 70 million people died of overpopulation. At that time, the richest area in China suffered a severe economic blow. Wherever the Taiping Army went, the culture suffered irreparable damage. At the same time, Russia took advantage of the advantages of the Qing government and the Taiping Army to fight for life and death. The armies of China and North China are empty, occupying more than 600,000 square kilometers of land north of Heilongjiang and south of Xing 'an Mountains. This also led to the British and French allied forces easily capturing Tianjin and Beijing, looting and burning the Yuanmingyuan. Based on my honest understanding of Hong Xiuquan and Taiping Army, I personally think that when talking about history and historical figures, the premise is to respect the facts and take whether it is conducive to people's happiness and social civilization and progress as the standard. Secondly, writing practical historical papers is a hidden danger in history. Everyone who writes history is actually writing his own history.