R.P. BenDedek
Taiping Heavenly King - Hong Xiuquan
By R.P. BenDedek
Apr 22, 2008 - 1:21:08 AM

In April 2008 I travelled to both Nanjing and Ningbo. I saw so many things and took so many photographs (about 600), that one or two articles can't contain them all.

What appears in this article, are photographs of one section of the Presidential Palace in Nanjing. That complex is huge and contains several historical buildings of cultural importance, predominantly related to the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kaishek.

One such building or series of buildings in the complex, was occupied by the 'self proclaimed' Emperor of China, Hong Xiuquan, who instigated the Taiping Rebellion - 1851 to 1864.  

Note: Text shown in Italics comes from signs on site.  Text with links obviously comes from internet sources that you may care to read.  

The Man Himself.

Resume of Hong Xiuquan

1814 Born in a peasant's family in Village Fuyuan-shui, Hua County. Guangdong 10th December of this year. His family moved to Village of Guanlubu when he was two years old.

1843 At the age31. Went to Guangzhou for the examination a fourth time and still failed to obtain. Glanced through "Good Words for Exhorting the Age" with Li Jingfang together and created the Bai Shangdi Hui (God-Worshippers Soceity) and called for destruction of traditional temples and Confucian idols.

1844 Thirty-two years old. after lost his teaching position. He with Feng Yunshan went out to preach everywhere and returned his hometown in November of this year after stayed a short time at Village of Cigu in Guizian County of Guangxi.

1849 He at age of thirty-seven went to Mount zijingshan from Huaxian County with Feng Yunshan again to plot uprising.

1851 Being 39, he announced uprising and the establishment of a new state. the Taiping Tianquo (Heavenly Kingdom of Taipiing), his troops were named as Taiping Army on 11th March in Township of Wuxuan Dongxiang. The Taiping Army occupied Yong'an (now Mengshan County) in September and conferred the titles of the Eastern King. Westarn King. Soutnarn King. Northarn King, and Wing King upon Yang Xiuquan. Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai, respectively.

1856 He was at the age of 44 and his troops broke the South of Yangtze River Miliatry Camp in April and the North of Yangtze River Military Camp in June. Yang Xiuqing and Wei Changhui were killed in intarnal power struggles began in Tianjing [Nanjing] in September.

1864 Hong Xiuquan had to live on wort dumpling for supply failure of grain and other foods in Tianjing and died of serious ill on 3rd June of this year when he was only fifty-two years old. Tianjing was occupied by the enemy on 19th July.

Qing Thrones in Forbidden City are identical.

Heavenly King, Hong Xiuquan's throne follows the same pattern as the thrones in the Forbidden City in Beijing. From 1851 to 1864 there were two Emperors of China. One in Nanjing and one in Beijing, and both Emperors came from Chinese Minority Ethnic Groups.

Secret room of the Heavenly King

Secret room of the Heavenly King

• Thomas Reilly argues that the Taiping faith, although kindled by Protestant sources, developed into a dynamic new Chinese religion whose conception of its sovereign deity challenged the legitimacy of the Chinese empire.

Magnificent Throne.

Taiping Tianguo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace), 1853-64

In December 1850, there was a peasant uprising in the Hakka village of Jintian in Guiping County, Guangxi Province.

It was called the Taiping Rebellion and the leader was Hong Xiuquan. Hong, a rural intellectual, was born into a family of Hakka peasants in Hua County in Guangdong Province in 1814.

The Taiping Rebellion's leaders were Hakkas: Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, Shi Dakai, Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng, Hong Rengan and many others.

Their aim was to overthrow the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty and restore Chinese rule in China.

The Manchus, a minority tribe, has ruled China for more than 200 years then.

And you thought your mother's wall unit was some 'Western Contraption'.

The Inner Room of the Palace of the Heavenly Kingdom

It's the place where Hong xiuquan, the Heavenly King and the Empress and imperial concubines lived and slept. According to records of historical documents, the concubines of the Heavenly King were addressed Niangniang (Your Ladyship). Therefore their rooms were Called 'niangniang Palace". The room where the Heavenly King's second wife (Empress Lai) was called "You zheng Yue Palace".

Oh take me back to the simple life before Modernization!

Traces of the Official Residence of the Liangjiang Governor-General

The Official Residence of Liangjiang Governor-general overlapped the former site of that of Prince Han of the Ming dynasty.

Successive governors-general lived and worked in the compound of Official Residence for more than 200 years, with the exception of the period when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied and chose Nanjing as its capital, the field headquarters of the Liangjiang Governor-general set up in Changzhou.

When the Residence was renovated in the Tongzhi reign, the Governor-general temporarily worked at the Office of Jiangning (Nanjing) Prefecture and Jiangnan Salt Control Circuit.

The area known as Liangjiang in the Qing dynasty, which comprised the region of Jiangnan (the provinces of Jiangsu and Anhuui) and Jiangxi provinces, was a galaxy of talent and an important source of revenue for the Qing Government.

In the 247 years from 1665 (the fourth year of the Kangxi Emperor) to 1911 (the third year of the Xuantong Emperor), there were altogether 80 persons appointed as Loangjiang Governor-general, which comprised 98 terms of office.

The first Governor-general was Lang Tingzuo, and the last one was Zhang Renjun who fled from Jiangning (Nanjing) on the eve of the 1911 Revolution.

Wouldn't you just love to stick that screen in your back pocket and take it home?

Chinese Cultural Studies The Taiping Rebellion, 1851-1864

• There were many other revolts, but this was by far the most serious. Lasting from 1851 to1864 it took control of large swerves of south and central China, including the southern capital of Nanking. There a theocratic­military government was established.
  
  Although it was millenarian in form, the Taiping leaders adopted many policies which would later become the marks of modernizers in China: prohibition of opium­smoking, gambling, the use of tobacco and wine, polygamy, the sale of slaves, and prostitution. The promoted the equality of the sexes: they abolished foot-binding and appointed of women as administrators and officers in the Taiping army. They also tried to abolish the private ownership of land and property, and they developed a program for the equal distribution of land.

Where have we seen this before?

Having finished at the Heavenly Kingdom displays, we were looking for a way out of the complex when we came across this Marble boat. Now we know where Cixi The Dowager Empress got her idea for her Marble Boat at the Summer Palace.

Shortly afterwards we went through a gateway in a wall, and on the other side I took this picture, which I thought to be worth a thousand words.

Gateway at the end of the Taiping Trail.

From the gateway we went across to an official type building wherein there were some photographs and items of historical significance in the history of China.

Leaving that building we were trying to find our way back to the entrance when we happened across a room with a beautiful carving out front.

Wonderful furniture with a fantastic stone carving out front.

I have no idea what this building was and forgot to take photographs of whatever signs may have been there. From memory it had something to do with honoring ancestors.

It was at this point that we finally - finally decided to get out of the place. It had been a tiring day. But the task of leaving was not quite so simple, because this is really a big complex.

We ended up following a pathway that had branching off it to the right and left, more minature museums and display rooms, that included officers rooms, stables, music rooms and the like.

I did snap a few photographs of those rooms beside the path but was too tired to keep wandering away from my intended goal - which was to get out!

Perhaps I will, when I have finished presenting all the various sections of this trip, provide some sort of montage that chronologically presents our trip from beginning to end.

For now - this is the end. I hope you enjoyed these photographs.

More and Larger Photographs at Kingscalendar

R.P.BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

Already Published in this series:

• Nanjing Ming Tomb Part 1.
• Ming Tomb Part 2.
• Cathedral of the Assumption Ningbo City

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (http://www.kingscalendar.com/), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China.

Photographic Stories from China at Magic City

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.