Why is it said that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will be defeated? Hong Xiuquan's funny decree illustrates a lot of problems
Hong Xiuquan's "miracles" and the logic of failure
As a large-scale peasant uprising that influenced the towering modern history of China, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had a magnificent course and ended in failure. The reason for this is often attributed to the inherent limitations of the peasant movement, which believes that "the failure of the peasant uprising is inevitable". However, a closer look at the rise and fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reveals that it is not so simple. On the contrary, the key to its success or failure lies in the thoughts and decisions of its leader, Hong Xiuquan.
Hong Xiuquan, a legendary leader of the peasant uprising. When he fell ill at home after failing in the village test, he met God in his sleep and firmly believed that he was the "second son of the Heavenly Father" and was ordered to go to earth. After that, he founded the "God Worship Society", calling on believers to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and restore the Han people. In fact, Hong Xiuquan did not deliberately use this doctrine as a cover for political goals, but sincerely believed that he was a messenger of God. This almost fanatical religious belief deeply influenced his later political behavior.
In the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, Feng Yunshan, the king of the south, and others were in charge of government affairs, and Hong Xiuquan himself focused on teaching affairs. But as time went by, these people who had previously assisted him left one after another, and Hong Xiuquan had to take charge of government affairs alone. However, although Hong Xiuquan was born a talented person, he showed obvious deficiencies in his ability in actual political management.
Especially at the critical moment when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was on the verge of collapse, Hong Xiuquan showed complete incompetence. At that time, the Taiping Heavenly Army was defeated and retreated, and Tianjing became an isolated city, and the loyal king Li Xiucheng earnestly persuaded Hong Xiuquan to abandon the city and find another way. However, Hong Xiuquan not only did not take this wise suggestion, but instead boasted about his "Mandate of Heaven" and "Heavenly Soldiers" in a sacred posture, believing that there was a "Heavenly Brother Jesus' Divine Decree" to protect him, and he did not bother to listen to the opinions of experienced military strategists at all.
This kind of fantasy self-aggrandizement not only made Hong Xiuquan give up grasping the last chance of life, but also fully exposed his incompetence at the political, military and other practical levels. After that, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom finally collapsed, and Hong Xiuquan also ended his life by committing suicide.
A closer look at Hong Xiuquan's series of actions and remarks shows that the root of it comes from his fanatical identification with his identity as "Heavenly Father and Second Son". In his heart, his fate has been doomed by God, as long as he adheres to his "destiny", he will definitely be able to win the battle and finally realize the great cause of dynasty restoration. This kind of established religious belief seriously distorted his perception of objective reality, and made him make a series of extremely wrong decisions at critical moments.
The defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not so much due to the inherent limitations of the peasant movement as to the shortcomings of its leaders' own thinking and decision-making. Hong Xiuquan's fanatical identification with his own "divinity" made him completely lose his mind at a critical moment, refusing to adopt the opinions of military experts, and instead believing in his fantasy of "heavenly soldiers and generals", and finally pushed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom into a situation from which it could never be recovered.
History is always made by people. The rise and fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reflects how the ideological limitations of a peasant leader determined the fate of a peasant movement. The success or failure of any major event is inseparable from the vision and decision-making of its leader. Hong Xiuquan's failure is also a profound lesson. Only by maintaining a sober understanding, calmly facing the reality, and carefully formulating policies can we ensure the ultimate success of a cause.
This is also a revelation worth pondering for us today. In today's world, we also face many serious challenges, and we need visionary leaders to lead us through them. Only by abandoning ourselves and indulging in illusions and maintaining objective and rational thinking can we better cope with all kinds of tests in the future and write a new chapter in history.
Hong Xiuquan's fanatical identification with his own "divinity" made him completely lose his mind at the most critical moment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, we cannot ignore the influence of other important factors on the eventual defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The first is the premature establishment of the capital Tianjing. In the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan and his core subordinates were fascinated by the beautiful and rich city of Tianjing. They were infatuated with the luxury of gold dust of the Six Dynasties here, and gave up the opportunity to take advantage of the Northern Expedition to attack the Qing court, and finally missed the opportunity to dominate the world. This was undoubtedly a major mistake on the road of development of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
At the same time, there was a serious power struggle within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The "Tianjing Incident" caused the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to suffer a heavy blow and greatly damaged its vitality. After that, Hong Xiuquan firmly held the power in his own hands, and the heroes around him were killed or expelled one after another, and no one could challenge his dictatorship. Such political rigidity also seriously hindered the subsequent development of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In addition, the decision to defend Tianjing in the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is also questionable. At that time, the Taiping army was losing and retreating, and the Qing army was approaching the city of Tianjing, Li Xiucheng and others persuaded Hong Xiuquan to abandon the city and find another way out, but Hong Xiuquan was still resting on his laurels, resulting in the loss of the last opportunity. This once again shows Hong Xiuquan's extreme incompetence in political choices.
An overview of the rise and fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom shows that its failure did not stem entirely from the inherent problems of the peasant movement itself, but more to the personal thinking and decision-making of its leader, Hong Xiuquan. His fanatical belief in his own "divinity" not only caused his insanity at a critical moment, but also led to a high concentration of power within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which eventually led to its collapse.
At the same time, a series of major decision-making mistakes, such as the premature establishment of the capital of Tianjing, internal power disputes, and the insistence on Tianjing, further exacerbated the desperate situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The combined effect of these factors finally made it difficult for this once-turbulent peasant uprising to escape the fate of failure.
Hong Xiuquan's life is undoubtedly full of legends, but at the same time, it also gives people a deep warning. The rise or fall of a cause often depends on the ideological quality and decision-making level of the person at its helm. Only by maintaining a clear understanding and acting cautiously can we ensure the lasting development of the cause.
For our society today, this is undoubtedly a revelation worth pondering. In the face of various major challenges, we need visionary and down-to-earth leaders to lead everyone through difficulties and write a new chapter in history with the right way of thinking and scientific decision-making. Only in this way can we avoid repeating the mistakes of Hong Xiuquan and his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and write a glorious chapter that belongs to the contemporary era.