After Li Xiucheng was captured by the Qing army, he wrote a 33,000-word self-description in prison. After writing it, he should have been escorted to Beijing to await trial by the imperial court. Moreover, the imperial court also issued relevant orders, but Zeng Guofan did not do so, but could not wait to kill Li Xiucheng. The way to kill Li Xiucheng was not the Ling Chi execution that the Qing army was accustomed to using in dealing with "thief leaders". So, why did Zeng Guofan do this?
(Lee So-sung stills)
Zeng Guofan's own explanation was that Li Xiucheng was extremely evil and could not be indignant if he did not kill him as soon as possible. But this argument is clearly untenable. Those who have truly committed the most heinous crimes should be sent to the capital for trial and let more people know. Moreover, only by punishing this "most heinous sinner" through a public trial can the purpose of propaganda and deterrence be achieved. Besides, at that time, tianjing city had been breached, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement was nearing its end. At this time, public trial and accounting after the autumn are actually the most suitable. Why did Zeng Guofan rush to kill Li Xiucheng? What exactly was he afraid of?
Obviously, Zeng Guofan's rapid killing of Li Xiucheng must have been Li Xiucheng's confession of more than 30,000 words, writing something that Zeng Guofan could not stand. Zeng Guofan did not put Li Xiucheng to death or execute him in public, because he was afraid that Li Xiucheng would say something inappropriate in front of everyone.
According to Mr. Luo Ergang's analysis in the "Notes on Li Xiucheng's Self-Description of the Original Manuscript" and the research of many scholars, Zeng Guofan deleted and revised Li Xiucheng's confession that year. He deleted Li Xiucheng's unfavorable statements against him and added favorable places to his advantage.
(Zeng Guofan stills)
So, why did Zeng Guofan delete and revise Li Xiucheng's confession?
There are three reasons for this.
First, in Li Xiucheng's confession, there is no analysis of the Operational Mistakes of the Xiang Army. In fact, Zeng Guofan's Xiang army made many mistakes when fighting against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and thus fought many defeats. Li Xiucheng's confession is a review of the entire taiping rebellion. To review, it is necessary to involve the issue of fighting with the Xiang Army. However, in Li Xiucheng's confession, this aspect is very good. This is obviously not possible.
Second, Li Xiucheng's reasons for summarizing the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were questionable. At the end of his confession, Li Xiucheng summarized the reasons for the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and came up with a total of "Ten Mistakes of the Heavenly Dynasty". What is the significance of Li Xiucheng summing up this thing? Is it to provide a summary of experience when future generations rebel? This is obviously very absurd. If this matter is not absurd and logical, there must be relevant content in his previous narrative. In fact, there is no such content, obviously, it was deleted and modified by Zeng Guofan.
Third, whether Li Xiucheng surrendered has become a mystery. In many places where he confessed, Li Xiucheng wrote that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a "bandit", such as "the roots of the Heavenly Dynasty have gone, and all the people who can recover such people will come together to avoid the recurrence of the troubles of the Great Qing's henchmen, and the zhongtang and zhongcheng (丞) lords will become profitable in their names and be recovered as soon as possible, and the bandits will be prevented." Since Li Xiucheng wanted to surrender, what did he do when he summed up the gains and losses of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? This is also illogical.
(Network illustration)
The only explanation for so many perverse places is that Li Xiucheng's confession was deleted and revised by Zeng Guofan. Because of the deletions, there are many illogical places in Li Xiucheng's confession.
So, how do you make sense? Many historians believe that Li Xiucheng once made a confession with the meaning of stirring up Zeng Guofan's rebellion. If that's the case, it's easier to understand. Li Xiucheng did not involve the xiangjun problem, and summed up the mistakes of the Heavenly Dynasty, all of which were summed up for Zeng Guofan. Tell Zeng Guofan that as long as he does what he does, he will not repeat the mistakes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Then, why did Li Xiucheng think of rebelling against Zeng Guofan? In fact, as long as we look at historical events, we can understand that Li Xiucheng's idea is not self-made, and when such a large-scale peasant revolt occurs in the dynasty, it is often the time when the princes rise together, and it is also the time when the dynasty changes. For example, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the last year of the Tang Dynasty, and so on. Li Xiucheng felt that he had not met the Ming Lord, and Zeng Guofan was a Ming Lord. As long as Zeng Guofan can stand up and raise his arms, he can absolutely overthrow the Qing Dynasty.
Why didn't Zeng Guofan rebel at that time? I think there are four reasons: First, Zeng Guofan, as a Han Intellectual, had just been highly valued by the imperial court, and he was in a period of rise and was unwilling to rebel. Second, the situation at that time was different from that at the end of the Han Dynasty and the end of the Tang Dynasty, when there were also invasions and interventions by great powers. Zeng Guofan's rebellion may not be successful. Third, due to the long-term centralized and high-pressure rule of the Qing Dynasty, the ministers no longer have the momentum of the ancient ministers. Fourth, it has a lot to do with Zeng Guofan's own world view.
Since Zeng Guofan was unwilling to rebel, he had to revise Li Xiucheng's confession.
(Reference: Notes on the Original Manuscript of Li Xiucheng's Self-Statement)