On August 4, 1856, in the sixth year of the Xianfeng Dynasty of the Great Qing Dynasty, that is, on September 2, 1856, a bloody coup occurred within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was in its heyday, and the Northern King Wei Changhui and the Yan King Qin Rigang raided the Eastern Palace, and the "Chronicle of difficulties in Jinling Province" records that they "led more than 3,000 people into the South Gate, surrounded the Eastern Thief's mansion, brought several thieves with them, and killed the Eastern Thief and his wife and children", which was one of the most famous infighting in Chinese history - the Tianjing Incident.
The fundamental reason for this incident lies in the contradiction between the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan and the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing, for a long time, the military and political power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was controlled by Yang Xiuqing, and the Heavenly King became the de facto "virtual head of state", and in the later period, the contradictions between the two were almost irreconcilable, and finally the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan united with several other kings who were dissatisfied with Yang Xiuqing and used the most drastic method to get rid of Yang Xiuqing.
However, this is difficult to understand from the normal logic, because the process of removing Yang Xiuqing was too smooth, didn't it mean that the Eastern King almost controlled all military and political powers? How could such a heavyweight have almost no resistance during the coup d'état? And since Hong Xiuquan was only the head of the void, how could he suddenly have such a large amount of energy and be able to bulldoze Yang Xiuqing in one fell swoop?
In fact, this is because Yang Xiuqing's position in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, although high, is unstable.
Yang Xiuqing's own background is actually not deep, he is just a poor charcoal burner, but because he has rich social experience, so he is a vigilant, in the early stage of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cause encountered a crisis, he pretended to be "Heavenly Father under the mortals" (surrender) to appease the believers, "on behalf of the Heavenly Father rumors" The power was tacitly acquiesced, so he entered the leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In the early days of the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in fact, the various factions were mixed, not completely pulled up by Hong Xiuquan and others, there were also large and small mountains composed of families and sects, Yang Xiuqing himself was very weak, but because his political ability and military ability were indeed outstanding, so he later became the de facto supreme leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in 1851, the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan in the "Yong'an Sealing King", ordered the other four kings to return to the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing to control.
Yang Xiuqing's initial ally was Xiao Chaogui, the King of the West, who also had the privilege of "Heavenly Brothers Descending to Mortals" at that time, and these two people cooperated with each other to basically control the military and political power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and become staunch political allies; but what about Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King? Hong Xiuquan's old brother was actually the Southern King Feng Yunshan, who was the fact pioneer of the original foundation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the founder of the rules and regulations of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, second only to Hong Xiuquan in seniority, but later because Yang and Xiao were becoming more and more powerful, he only ranked fourth for the purpose of compromise.
Although there are some contradictions within Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, but on the whole, the top level of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is still relatively balanced, but later Feng Yunshan and Xiao Chaogui died in battle, which makes the power almost concentrated on Yang Xiuqing alone, for Yang Xiuqing, although this is what he desires, it is also a headache, because as mentioned above, Yang Xiuqing himself is from a very low birth, he does not have his own strong affinity, coupled with the fact that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leads the group dual, the status of the Heavenly King has a religious bottom, and everyone believes in it. But he did not have the Eastern King, and the rights of yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, were entirely due to his achievements that made everyone respected, and his status did not have much ideological legitimacy.
But this is only obedience, there is no sincere respect, Yang Xiuqing is not the Heavenly King, just the Eastern King, and his status comes entirely from ability, which has led to several other politically ambitious powerful parties having some ideas about him. Because the Eastern King and the other kings are not traditional monarchs and vassals, they have no political and ethical constraints and are not entirely a community of interests, but they also have some rival meanings. This is somewhat similar to the shogunate politics of ancient Japan, the emperor comes from the divine power, no one moves, but the position of shogun, who has strong strength can grab it. This is different from the ancient Chinese feudal dynasty, but all the stable dynasties in ancient China, unless the feudal state apparatus is really exhausted, the general power and foreign relatives are arrogant, and they will not be called emperors.
Yang Xiuqing actually replaced Hong Xiuquan in terms of real power
After Yang Xiuqing gained great power, he was naturally also trying to cultivate his own people, but after all, the foundation was too thin, so the achievements were really limited, he commanded the armies of other powerful factions, on the one hand, relying on long-term prestige, and later Li Xiucheng evaluated Yang Xiuqing like this: The Eastern King's political affairs, strict and orderly, legislation and peace of mind, and the people's admiration; on the other hand, it relied on some small tricks, that is, to install some middle- and lower-ranking officers in the army, so that Yang Xiuqing had some basic understanding of internal affairs, thus further strengthening the eastern king's status of "omniscient". Further enhance your prestige.
However, this degree of centralization of power is far from enough, after the fall of Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has in fact been seriously warlordized, and the various royal palaces have formed sectarian groups, and the antagonism is serious; the degree of division of the ruling class is far greater than that of ordinary feudal groups.
From the charcoal burner to the Eastern King, this huge leap made Yang Xiuqing lose his vigilance
It is not too easy to intensify this contradiction, and what is worse is that although Yang Xiuqing himself has considerable military and political ability, in the later period, he became increasingly arrogant, causing almost all other big men to stand against him, and Yang Xiuqing himself overdone, resulting in his low degree of defense against Hong Xiuquan, who made good use of power, and Wei Changhui, who was vicious, and these people could make Yang Xiuqing relax his vigilance with a little pretense; in this way, at the behest of the Heavenly King, the other kings quickly formed an anti-Yang alliance, but what about Yang Xiuqing? However, no countermeasures were taken, and even some of the troops commanded by his own brothers were sent to Jiangxi to fight, and Yang Xiuqing's position around Tianjing was not strong at all, so under a surprise attack, before it was too late to mobilize his own strength, Yang Xiuqing was killed.
Author: Yun Fan