A woman from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?

The failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: caused by the jealousy of a wanton woman?

First of all, a statement: The Hong Xuanjiao mentioned in this article is considered by many historians to be a fictitious figure in the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The earliest book about Hong Xuanjiao is "Unofficial History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" written by Ling Shanqing, a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. This book has smooth writing and vivid stories, so it has been widely circulated. Many people have quoted it and firmly believe that there is Hong Xuanjiao. This article is based on this, whether it is unofficial history or legend, it should be listened to as a story:

In the summer of 1856, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was at its peak, the famous Tianjing Incident occurred. The Tianjing Incident was an internal conflict between Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, and Wei Changhui who competed for the leadership of the Kingdom of Heaven. After the incident, except for Hong Xiuquan and Shi Dakai, all the most righteous kings in the Kingdom of Heaven died. It caused extremely heavy losses to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and quickly put it on the road to failure. However, the internal strife was actually caused by the jealousy of a woman who was "promiscuous" and "jealous". This woman was Hong Xuanjiao, who played a decisive role in the fate of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Hong Xuanjiao is Hong Xiuquan’s half-sister. That is, Hong Xiuquan was born to his father's second concubine; Hong Xuanjiao was born to his third concubine. After Hong's father died, the family fell into decline, and the children divided things among themselves in order to make a living. Hong Xiuquan founded the Society of God after repeated attempts and failed, and was promoted as the leader; Hong Xuanjiao joined a gang of wandering artists and made a living by performing arts everywhere. Once, Hong Xuanjiao came to Wuxuan Luludong as a performer. Xiao Chaogui, the son of a wealthy local farmer, redeemed his life with 50 taels of silver and lived with her without marrying a matchmaker. Soon, Hong Xuanjiao encouraged Xiao Chaogui to join Hong Xuanjiao and join the Church of God without telling his family.

Hong Xuanjiao met Yang Silong, a frequent guest of Xiao's family, at Xiao's house. Yang Silong is a wealthy man in the Dahuang River area of ??Guiping. Hong Xuanjiao often took him out to collect intelligence. Gradually, the two of them flew together and suddenly became lovers again. Xiao Chaogui, who had already held an important position in the Church of God, couldn't help but become jealous and on the verge of a tense situation. Finally, with the intervention of Hong Xiuquan, Yang Silong apologized to Xiao Chaogui in person, and Xiao Chaogui wanted to express his understanding. Yang Silong naturally joined the God Association and changed his name to Yang Xiuqing. Unexpectedly, he came from behind and took the second place in the God Association.

In order to raise funds for the event, Hong Xiuquan noticed the Wei family, a large conglomerate in Jintian Village, Guiping. Although Old Master Wei is very orthodox and rigid, Young Master Wei Changhui is a hot-blooded prison student who loves to fight against injustice. A few days later, a tavern hosted by Hong Xuanjiao opened near Wei's house. Although the food was good, the prices were astonishingly high. Most people did not dare to pay attention to it. However, children from wealthy families like Wei Changhui frequented it and were greeted by Hong Xuanjiao's gentle words. With the comfort and encouragement, he joined the Church of God and at the same time donated a large amount of money and material support.

In the 30th year of Daoguang's reign, the number of believers in the Church of God has grown to tens of thousands. Hong Xiuquan believed that the time was ripe and called on believers from all over the country to sell off their property, purchase weapons, and organize all personnel into combat teams. In Jintian Village Raise the flag of the Taiping Army. The following year, Yong'an was captured. During the half-year defense, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established. Hong Xiuquan claimed to be the Heavenly King and named Yang Xiuqing the East King, Xiao Chaogui the West King, Feng Yunshan the South King, Wei Changhui the North King, and Shi Dakai the Wing King. All the conferred kings were controlled by the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing. As a princess, Hong Xuanjiao made the decision by Hong Xiuquan and married Xiao Chaogui, temporarily ending her special status as a "popular lover". But soon Wang Xiao Chaogui died in the battle to siege Changsha City, and Hong Xuanjiao became a widow in an instant.

Changsha could not be captured for a long time. The Taiping Army took a detour to capture Yuezhou, then entered the Yangtze River by water, took Wuhan directly, and attacked Nanjing by land and water. Finally, in the third year of Xianfeng, they captured the city of Nanjing, and then Nanjing was designated as the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and renamed Tianjing. During this time, at Hong Xuanjiao's suggestion, all the female relatives accompanying the camp were gathered together to establish the "Female Camp", which was led by Hong Xuanjiao. After arriving in Nanjing as the capital, the "Women's Camp" was changed to the "Women's Pavilion", with Dongwang Yang Xiuqing serving as the general manager and Hong Xuanjiao as the inspector. From then on, the old relationship between the two relapsed.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom initiated the imperial examination for women, and China had a female number one scholar. The first female number one scholar was Fu Shanxiang. The first title she got was that of the Commander-in-Chief of the Women’s Hall, becoming the leader of tens of thousands of women. However, she was very disgusted with the strict military life. After becoming the commander of the Central Military Commission, she advocated reforms and tried to avoid letting the members of the military do the menial work of digging soil and picking bricks, and arranged for them to do some sewing, cooking, etc. class work.

Hong Xuanjiao, the general leader of the women's hall, came from the war and still has some deep feelings for the militarized system. Therefore, the set of management measures implemented by Fu Shanxiang after taking office displeased her, and a fierce conflict broke out between them.

Fu Shanxiang's position is the head of the women's palace, but his official status is under the Dongwang Palace, so his relationship with Yang Xiuqing is naturally close. At this time, Hong Xiuquan, the king of heaven, was obsessed with drinking and enjoying life and no longer cared much about affairs. The military and political power of the kingdom of heaven was actually in the hands of Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east. Fu Shanxiang took advantage of Yang Xiuqing's favor for him and ordered the dissolution of the women's hall. For Hong Xuanjiao, the Women's Pavilion is undoubtedly a political and spiritual support. Once it disappears, it will feel like the kite has been disconnected. So they took advantage of the time when the pavilion was closed to incite Taiping soldiers and soldiers to go to the women's pavilion to choose wives and concubines. All of a sudden, you were fighting for it, and a group of orioles were flying around, making a big fuss.

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The swallow with red lapel is pampered and pampered, and the goose with yellow handkerchief helps the shy;

Unexpectedly, the little maid said that her wish was fulfilled, and she had the title of a great beauty, Mo Chou.

Although the poem has no title, it is clearly directed to Hong Xuanjiao. She compared Hong Xuanjiao to a pampered little maid, while she was Mochou, a great lady with status and background. She just wanted to ridicule Hong Xuanjiao's humble background and petty style. This poem soon reached Hong Xuanjiao's ears, and she was so angry that her mouth was filled with smoke. She complained to the King of Heaven with a poem: "This is obviously looking down on the Taiping Army from our peasant background! How dare a woman with no foundation dare to make such arrogant remarks. Maybe King Dong is behind it!"

The King of the East soon heard the news that the King of Heaven was on guard against him. In order to stabilize his position, he had no choice but to throw away soldiers to protect his chariot. He took advantage of an opportunity when Fu Shanxiang secretly took a few sips of opium to punish him. Not only was she removed from her official position, she was also put in shackles, paraded on the streets, and imprisoned. Yang Xiuqing had no intention of getting into trouble with Fu Shanxiang. When the situation calmed down, he ordered the release of Fu Shanxiang and his return to his original position. Hong Xuanjiao became jealous and completely gave up all illusions about Yang Xiuqing.

Yang Xiuqing monopolized power in Tianjing, and King Hong Xiuquan and many Taiping generals were dissatisfied with him. Hong Xuanjiao was aware of the state of the world and people's hearts, and worked hard to unite a group of anti-Yang forces, including the Queen's younger brother, Deputy Prime Minister Lai Hanying, King Qin Rigang of Yan, and the former Prime Minister Luo Qiongshu. Due to the strong power of the Eastern King, Hong Xuanjiao instigated Lai Hanying to encourage the Heavenly King to secretly summon the Northern King Wei Changhui back to Beijing to plan for great things. The King of Bei hurried back to Tianjing from the battlefield in Anhui. During this period, Hong Xuanjiao changed from his normal behavior and took the initiative to walk into the Dongwang Mansion. He was particularly warm to Yang Xiuqing. Yang Xiuqing was overjoyed, thinking that she had ignored her past grievances and actually listened to Hong Xuanjiao's suggestion and stepped forward to defend Bei. The king held a grand cleansing banquet.

On September 2, 1856 (July 27, 6th year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom), there was a big banquet in the Dongwang Mansion. At that time, under the arrangement of Hong Xuanjiao, Lai Hanying led tens of thousands of soldiers to ambush near the East Palace. Luo Qiongshu, Qin Rigang, Wei Changhui and others were all prepared to attend the banquet. While the wine was in full swing, Hong Xuanjiao quietly glanced at Wei Changhui. Wei Changhui put down his wine glass and stood up in a hurry. Before anyone in the East Palace could understand what was going on, he quickly pulled out his sword and stabbed Yang Xiuqing in the chest. , the knife went straight out of the back. Lai Hanying immediately commanded the ambush troops to rush into the mansion. The soldiers of Dongwangfu drew their swords to resist, and the two sides fought for a whole day. Dongwang Yang Xiuqing and his 20,000 elites all died under the swords of Wei Changhui, Qin Rigang and others. Qin Rigang also died in the chaos. Shi Dakai returned to Beijing after hearing the news and accused Wei Changhui of killing innocent people indiscriminately, and Wei Changhui wanted to kill Shi Dakai. Shi Da opened the city and fled. That night, Wei Changhui bloodbathed the Yiwang Mansion and drove out Shi Dakai's family and all the people in the Yiwang Mansion. Then Hong Xiuquan issued an edict to arrest Shi Dakai. Shi Dakai fled to Anhui to raise troops to quell the disaster. Hong Xiuquan was forced to issue an edict to punish Wei because all the troops outside Tianjing City were focused on Shi Dakai.

After the incident subsided, Shi Dakai was jointly elected as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Heaven. Hong Xiuquan was unwilling to hand over real power. Not only did he not appoint Shi Dakai as "Military Advisor" (a position that held real power in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom), he instead appointed his eldest brother Hong Renfa as Prince An, and his second brother Hong Renda, who had just been released from prison, as Prince Fu, in order to contain Shi Dakai and even Attempted murder. Shi Dakai led his troops away angrily. After Shi Dakai left, amid the protests from the civil and military subjects of the Manchu Dynasty, Hong Xiuquan had to revoke the titles of his two royal brothers to thank the world, but he still failed to recall Shi Dakai and the hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers he led to Tianjing.

The vitality of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was greatly reduced, and in the end, only the loyal king Li Xiucheng remained among the kings. By June of the sixth year of Tongzhi, the Qing army finally broke through Tianjing City, and the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came to an end.

There are different opinions on the fate of Hong Xuanjiao, the culprit of civil strife in heaven. Some unofficial histories say that she died in battle on the day Tianjing City was destroyed. Others say that she disguised herself as a civilian woman and followed the fleeing people to Shanghai. Then she traveled to the United States with foreign missionaries and started practicing medicine in San Francisco. However, as long as she doesn't die, she may be a disaster wherever she goes.