The Taiping Uprising

The Taiping Uprising was the largest peasant uprising in modern Chinese history. This uprising occurred in the late 19th century and was suppressed by the Qing government that ruled China. The initiator of the Taiping Rebellion was Hong Xiuquan, who organized farmers and other classes to launch an uprising.

The Taiping Rebellion is of great historical significance. It revealed the corruption and injustice of China's feudal society, and also exposed the corruption and weakness of the Qing government. The Taiping Rebellion also reminded people to demand reforms of the government and the ruling class to resolve the people's difficulties and injustices.

During the Taiping Rebellion, farmers organized themselves and launched an uprising to resolve their plight. They issued a strong protest to the government and ruling class, and at the same time made great contributions to China's political, economic and social development.

How disgusting is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?

How terrifying is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? The Taiping Rebellion was a peasant uprising that Chinese people are familiar with. Hong Xiuquan revolted in Jintian Village, Guangxi. He responded to every call and moved to more than a dozen provinces. He resisted the Qing government for more than ten years, and was finally ruthlessly suppressed by the Qing government.

Every plot seems to be played out like this. Various literary works such as TV series, novels, and novels continue to praise the great Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, but do you know the real Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement? How cruel is this movement?

1. Seventy million civilians were killed

We only know that the Taiping Rebellion was a peasant uprising against the Qing government, but few people know how many civilian casualties the Taiping Rebellion caused.

According to relevant research, the number of deaths directly caused by the Taiping Rebellion was 70 million; after the end of the Taiping Rebellion, China's population dropped sharply by 40%, with an absolute loss of 160 million.

This is not unrelated to the development model of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Every time the Taiping Army went to a place, they killed all the local gentry and landlords, robbed and burned the place, and coerced the local people. The people had no choice but to fight against the Taiping Army in order to make a living. Go, this is one of the reasons why the Taiping Army can develop rapidly.

The Taiping Army and the Qing Army fought fiercely for more than ten years, including many massacres of cities. In the densely populated Jiangnan area of ??Jiangsu, the population loss was even more serious. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a saying among the people in southern Jiangsu: "Liyang City is made of paper, Danyang City is blown by the wind, and Jintan City is made of iron."

Hong Xiuquan and his two attacks on Jintan in 1856 and 1860 City, in an attempt to open up the passage between Tianjing, Suzhou, and Changzhou, and break through the siege of Tianjing by the Qing army's "Jiangnan Camp".

The two defenses of Jintan City led to the massacre of the people in the city by the Taiping Army. There are poems to prove it. The late Qing Dynasty scholar Yu Huan recorded the siege event in his "Poems about the Siege of Jintan City": What is the reason for the blessed land? At the end of the day, they suffered a lot of military disasters and killed 70,000 corpses. Who could look up to the southeast city and see where to find a village? According to the local county annals, there were only more than 30,000 people left here after the war, with a population loss of more than 600,000, and a loss rate of more than 95%.

2. All kinds of torture were shocking

As a new peasant regime, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom not only failed to abolish all kinds of punishments, but instead reached the peak of history. It can be described as a time of violence.

In the hot summer, someone had a sore on his back and cut off his hair. He was falsely accused of being a witch. The punishment used was "in addition to kicking with a stick or a stick, or putting the hands and feet behind the back of a copper stove and using fire. He could not bear to hear the screams. He might take off all his clothes, heat them with iron and put a plate on his shin, but he would hear the sound of oily iron and the flesh would be rotten." "

Either they are burned red with fire and pierced into the buttocks, or they are driven into the valley with a cone. They all scream and are on the verge of death." The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom prohibited women from binding their feet. This was a good thing, but if anyone refused Women who remove the foot-binding cloths will be beaten with a stick, or have their feet chopped off.

In addition, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also included beheading, dismembering the body on five horses, languishing, lighting sky lanterns, and eating wine.

On the basis of applying all ancient punishments, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom created many of its own punishments. The scope of punishment was very wide. On the basis of association, one crime was punished with multiple punishments, and sentences were arbitrarily imposed. There was no detailed punishment system and favoritism. Fraud is serious, and such harsh punishment is actually against the trend of the times.

3. Indiscriminate killing and false accusations against the people

In the eyes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Qing officials, Manchu people, monks, nuns, Taoists, gentry businessmen, intellectuals, etc. were all regarded as "monsters" and plundered wantonly massacre. "Any captive who looks at his hands as if his palms are red and has no heavy calluses on his fingers will be regarded as a monster" and will be killed. The consequence of indiscriminate killing was that Yang Xiuqing suffered from an eye disease and offered a reward of 10,000 taels of silver to seek medical treatment. However, no one answered the call because the doctors were all killed.

"All evil songs and plays must be stopped. If anyone gathers to perform, they will all be beheaded." The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's criminal law can be said to be the result of barbarism and ignorance. Article 1: If you cannot become familiar with the book after three weeks, you will be beheaded and left alone. "If you are not good at reading, you will also be beheaded. This can be seen from this."

4. Destruction of human order

Wherever the Taiping Army went, they carried out heavy killings, and the gentry clan was slaughtered. In the society at that time, the countryside mainly relied on self-government, and this required the participation of the gentry.

Without the civil order, bandits are rampant. "I abandoned my wife and took my mother to hide in the mountains. I went on a hunger strike for three days. My mother was very hungry, so she went out to beg for food. When I met a thief, I never gave in when forced, and I kept scolding him. The thief was angry and cut him off." The meat of his legs was cooked and eaten. The more he scolded the thief, the thief cut open his belly and cut off his elbows and died." This shows how far the bandits have gone.

The Taiping Army stipulates that couples are not allowed to get together. They meet once a week and are supervised by a special person. Anyone who whispers about love will be killed without mercy. And "men's halls" and "women's halls" were set up in various places.

Husbands and wives and their families are not allowed to get together, and brothers and sisters are not allowed to see each other. This kind of measure destroys the family structure and human ethics. The abstinence from the relationship between men and women completely violates the natural attributes of human beings. How can this policy last long?

The influence and significance of the Taiping Rebellion

The historical significance of the Taiping Rebellion:

1. The Taiping Rebellion reached the highest peak of China’s old-style peasant war.

2. It dealt a heavy blow to the reactionary rule of the Qing Dynasty and accelerated the decline of the Qing Dynasty's rule.

3. Cracked down on foreign invaders and blocked China’s semi-indigenization process.

4. The Taiping Rebellion’s spirit of resistance inspired the Chinese people’s will to fight for revolution.

5. The Taiping Revolution was also part of the revolutionary struggle of the people of the world at that time. It promoted the national liberation movement in Asia and also shocked the European continent.

Important influence

The Taiping Rebellion was a great anti-feudal and anti-invasion peasant movement in modern Chinese history, and was the highest peak of Chinese peasant wars in thousands of years. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lasted for 14 years and expanded its power to 18 provinces, severely punishing Chinese and foreign reactionary forces. After occupying the prosperous areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River for many years, the war spread to half of China, severely damaging the Qing government's national power.

The deeds of the Taiping Rebellion and some of its propositions had a certain impact on the future anti-Qing revolution. Because it took place in an era of alternation between the old and the new after the Opium War, the times gave it new content and meaning, that is, while fighting feudalism, it also took on the task of opposing foreign aggression; at the same time, some leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom advocated learning from the West and in China The idea of ??developing capitalism was advanced at the time.

Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia - Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The three most miserable women in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

As we all know, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement was the largest peasant uprising in Chinese history. , and ultimately did not escape the fate of failure. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were four great beauties, namely Hong Xuanjiao, Su Sanniang, Lai Lianying and Fu Shanxiang, but their endings were not good.

01. Hong Xuanjiao

Hong Xuanjiao is the wife of the King of the West and Hong Xiuquan’s adopted sister. She is also a soul figure in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Hong Xuanjiao was not only beautiful but also very capable in combat. She was not inferior to men, and she also played a certain role in the Tianjing Incident. Together with Shi Dakai, she got rid of Yang Xiuqing, the then King of the East. But what is regrettable is that she lost track of her after this incident, and there is no news about her in history.

02. Su Sanniang

Su Sanniang was Hong Xuanjiao’s lieutenant at the time. Su Sanniang was just a street busker at the beginning, but after marrying the boss of the Tiandihui, she showed It shows her ability that is different from others. Not only was she resourceful, but she was also brave and good at fighting. Her ability enabled her to gain numerous military exploits and achieve a high status in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. She participated in the attack on the strategic location of Zhenjiang, but she also lost track of her after that. Some people thought she quit, while others thought she died in the battle.

03. Lai Lianying

Lai Lianying is Hong Xiuquan’s wife. Hong Xiuquan had her assistance from the beginning of leading the movement. She was also a very good female military general, and the female soldiers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were trained by her. But when Tianjing was about to be captured, she chose to go to the battlefield, but there were too many enemies to defend Tianjing. So, after she entrusted her son to others, she committed suicide by throwing herself into the river together with the soldiers and civilians.

04. Fu Shanxiang

Fu Shanxiang is also a legendary woman. If the above three are military generals, then she is a literary general. She was the female number one scholar during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the only female number one scholar in history. From here we can see her extraordinary talent. She was favored by King Dong because of her talent, but because of her beauty, she became King Dong's woman and lost her freedom. In the end, she did not die well and died together with King Dong in the Tianjing Incident.

In my opinion, the four beauties of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not have a good ending. Some disappeared, and some passed away early.