1814, that is, the 19th year of the Qing Dynasty Jiaqing . There were several major events this year: Napoleon abdicated and was subsequently exiled to the island of Elba; Stephenson invented the world's first steam train; and the Dutch king promulgated the constitution. On January 11 of this year, the Demon King, who was about to upend the entire Qing Dynasty, was born: he is Hong Xiuquan .
film and television drama Hong Xiu's full stills
remote area The devil's child was born:
experienced Kangxi ; Yongzheng ; Qianlong dynasty, a peaceful and prosperous era that lasted for 134 years, came to an abrupt end with the ascension of Emperor Jiaqing. Especially since Jiaqing's later years, social conflicts have been sharp and secret associations among the people have prevailed. Among them, the court had a headache: the Pao Ge club in Sichuan; the White Lotus Sect scattered all over the country; and the Tiandihui and Xiaodaohui founded in Fujian, etc. It can be said that the living conditions of ordinary people at that time were quite bad.
And Hong Xiuquan was born in Fuyuanshui, Hua County, Guangdong Province (now belonging to Huadu District, Guangzhou City) in this context. In fact, at the beginning, he didn't call him Hong Xiuquan, but named him Hong Renkun , and also had a nickname called Huo Xiu . The name Hong Xiuquan was changed by himself later. As for why we change the name, we will talk about it later.
Hong Xiuquan's former residence in Huadu District, Guangdong
Hong family gave birth to a big fat boy. Including his two brothers, the Hong family is prosperous in the local area. His father's name is Hong Jingyang, and he is the local village chief, equivalent to the current village cadre. It can be imagined that the cadre family will definitely be able to live a good life. It is said that his family is also a descendant of the Southern Song Dynasty officials, , Hong Hao, , and later moved south.
Back then, this place was definitely a remote place. There were very few families who could go to private schools for a few days to study. However, Hong Renkun is very lucky. His father saw that he was smart as a director since he was a child and knew the truth that knowledge changed his destiny. So I went to the local private school early.
When he was a child, Hong Renkun relied on his village cadre father and felt quite superior in their village. In addition, he is really smart and is studying well, and he has gradually become the boss among his classmates. The best relationship with him is that we later became familiar with him Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Nanwang Feng Yunshan . It can be seen that Hong Renkun has a little bit of a leader since he was a child!
has entered and left the imperial examination and failed many times:
Speaking of the imperial examination, this is definitely Hong Renkun’s most unbearable experience! However, his journey to the imperial examination was not entirely a failure. When he was seven years old, he was admitted to the local county school with excellent results and successfully became a child student. Don’t underestimate this child. This was also a great event at that time. Seeing his son's excellent academic performance, Hong Jingyang could not help but pay more attention to Hong Renkun's imperial examination and path. If he can pass the exam, he will be an official, which will be a great event for the family to shine.
imperial examination scene picture
A moment of surprise. When Hong Renkun was sixteen years old, he officially started his first exam in his life: he went to Guangzhou to take the office exam . If he could pass the exam, he would take the college exam next. If you pass the college entrance examination, you will be the familiar "scholar". In other words, if Hong Renkun passed the examination in the mansion, he was not a "scholar", but he was qualified to take the exam. But unfortunately, she failed the first round of the mansion test.
The first frustration in the imperial examination did not cause much damage to Hong Renkun. After all, he is still young and the road ahead is still long. After he came back, he analyzed and summarized and began to study hard.
In a blink of an eye, eight years have passed. In 1836, the twenty-five-year-old Hong Renkun went to Guangzhou to take the exam again. Unexpectedly, he studied hard for eight years and failed this time. The lost Hong Renkun began to find the reason for the failure. After thinking about it, he felt that the problem lies in his name. People nowadays change their names to seek luck. Not to mention the feudal era at that time.This change later made the Qing dynasty tremble: Hong Xiuquan
changed his name, and then the next year, he went to take the exam again, but unfortunately, he failed the exam. After failing this time, Hong Xiuquan really hurt his self-esteem. Not long after, he suddenly fell ill in his hometown.
The first major illness is cured. Dreamland:
This disease was lying in bed and unconscious for four days and four nights, just when he was half asleep and half awake and drowsy. A white light flashed across his head. He dreamed that an old man in a yellow robe appeared in the sky. The old man was tall and big, and he looked extraordinary at first glance. There was an old man kneeling in front of this old man, who was the Confucius of the master of all ages. I saw the old man in the robe scolding Confucius. The general meaning was that the people are now ignorant and numb, and there are problems everywhere. As a saint of a generation, why didn’t you take on the burden of helping the world?
As he said that, he asked Hong Xiuquan to go over and said to him, "You are my second son, I am the omnipotent God. Today I will give you the king of heaven and the king of Taoism, and pat you down to the mortal world to save the people from water and fire." After that, God floated away, and then Hong Xiuquan's illness was cured.
This bizarre dream is definitely not made up out of nothing and made up randomly. Instead, there is a historical book called "Taiping Tian Sun".
Of course, this record may not be reliable, because the authors of this book are all relatives of Hong Xiuquan, one is Feng Yunshan and the other is Hong Renyan .
Hong Xiuquan, who had just recovered from a serious illness, suddenly felt refreshed and had a little fantasy about his dream, so he wrote a poem:
Hold the power of killing the universe and killing the evil, leaving the righteous and helping the people.
eyes are open to the northwest rivers and mountains, and sounds shake the sun and the moon in the southeast.
It seems that the road is small, why do you fear the way of the Han Dynasty?
Wind and thunder are inspiring three thousand waves, and it is easy to be like a flying dragon in the sky.
From then on, Hong Xiuquan was like a different person, often speaking to the people in the village: I am the king of heaven and the king of Taoism, and the people of the world are my control! It should be said that at this time, Hong Xiuquan had already begun to rebel.
Hong Xiuquan's calligraphy circulated online
last try. In the exam room:
Dream is a good dream, but unfortunately I woke up. After returning to reality, Hong Xiuquan, who was unwilling to give up, decided to take the exam again in the last time. Although he hated the government and the imperial examination, he was lucky and hoped to be in the court class. In fact, this is not a contradiction. Under the educational background at that time, there were many such scholars. But Hong Xiuquan, he didn't know that his wild thoughts and literary style that were not bound by form had no room for development in the everyday framework of the eight-legged essay at that time. As expected, the fourth imperial examination, which had been preparing for a long time, failed again! Four exams, four failed. This time Hong Xiuquan really gave up. Back in my hometown, I worked as a private school teacher in the nearby Lianhuatang Village.
Cousin visits, worshiping God's religion emerged:
Just when Hong Xiuquan was bored, his distant cousin Li Jingfang visited. After some greetings, Hong Xiuquan took out a book and asked Li Jingfang to read it. This book was the "Good Words to Encourage the World" he brought back when he went to Guangzhou for an exam. This book is actually the Christian church propaganda brochure at that time. The author Liang Fa is also a missionary in Guangdong. It was originally an ordinary promotional brochure, but Li Jingfang was shocked and flocked to the contents inside. Hong Xiuquan next to him secretly noticed the deep meaning behind this through his cousin's actions, that is, the infectiousness of religion and its strength!
Shi Liangyan Book
As mentioned earlier, various secret associations were prevalent during the Jiaqing period, such as the Pao Ge Society, the Tiandi Society, the Xiaodao Society, and the White Lotus Sect, with a few thousand members ranging from tens of thousands.
So after careful consideration, Hong Xiuquan decided that he would also set up a new church, that is, worship God’s Church!
partner with Feng Yunshan. The worship of God Church has grown rapidly:
As the saying goes: Everything is difficult at the beginning! At the beginning, the surrounding villages only thought Hong Xiuquan was crazy and no one paid attention to it.So Hong Xiuquan found Feng Yunshan who supported him and began to do some earth-shaking things, such as: knocking down the statue of Confucius. I wanted to make a splash and improve my prestige. Who would have thought that this time he stabbed the feng wool: the villagers were filled with righteous indignation every month, wishing they could kill these two bandits. For this reason, Hong Xiuquan's private school teacher's job was also lost.
But Hong Xiuquan was not discouraged. In order to promote his own ideas, Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan decided to leave Huaxian and go to other places to spread. First of all, they were near Guangzhou, and then they arrived at Pearl River Delta . In 1844, they came to Guangxi. Soon they decided to develop their members separately. Hong Xiuquan returned to his hometown in Huaxian . On the one hand, they were to organize and improve the teachings of worshipping God, and on the other hand, they were also to see the development of their hometown in recent years.
, Feng Yunshan, who was fighting alone in Guangxi, not only took the opportunity to attract the rich man Wei Changhui and the rich man Shi Dakai to join the meeting, but also developed thousands of members. It can be seen that Feng Yunshan does have two tricks.
Feng Yunshan
Just like that, worshiping God’s religion is like a snowball, with a growing reputation and increasing number of people. He was not only a charcoal worker who burned charcoal in the Zijing Mountain area. These people were all poor and had a large number of people. They were not suitable for one word, so it was easier to encourage. And Yang Xiuqing ; Xiao Chaogui is the person who talked to these charcoal workers. As soon as they joined the association, tens of thousands of poor people nearby also joined. By 1850, the number of worshipers of God's religion had reached 70,000 to 80,000. Among them, there are more than 20,000 strong laborers.
Jintian Uprising Established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:
Seeing Hong Xiuquan's worship of God becoming more and more powerful, local officials began to panic and secretly dispatched troops to wipe out this force. Hong Xiuquan also knew that now the arrow is on the string, and we must make a decisive move, and if we do not, we will be surrounded and wiped out.
1850, that is, the 24th year of Daoguang. Hong Xiuquan issued a mobilization order, calling on the worship of God's church to gather in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi.
Jintian Uprising
After half a year of preparations, on January 11, 1851, on Hong Xiuquan's 37th birthday, he assembled more than 20,000 troops, and announced the uprising and founding the country called the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Subsequently, a senior leadership group with Feng Yunshan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai as the core was formed. From then on, the prelude to the 14-year battle with the Qing Dynasty was revealed!
