Hong Xiuquan
Hóng Xiùquán (洪秀全,
Wade-Giles: Hung Hsiu-ch'üan, born
Hong Renkun 洪仁坤,
Courtesy name Huoxiu 火秀;
January 1,
1814-
June 1,
1864) was a
Hakka Chinese Christian who led the
Taiping Rebellion and established the Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping, in which he was known as the Heavenly King (天王/Tīan wáng).
He was born in Fuyuanshui Village (福源水村), Hua County (Fa Yuen in Cantonese) (花縣) (now
Huadu (花都市)),
Guangdong to Hong Jingyang (洪競揚) and Wang-shi (王氏). His grandfather was Hong Guoyou (洪國游), who was, like his
ancestors, a
farmer. He later moved to Guānlùbù Village (官祿[土布]¹村).
Hóng Xiùquán started studying in Book Chamber Building (書房閣), a private school (私塾), at age seven. He was able to recite the
Four Classics after five or six years. Then he tried to take the first-degree (秀才)
civil service examinations in
Guangzhou at the age of 22, in 1836, but he failed. He tried three times or twice more, and never succeeded.
He later got the position as an instructor (塾師) at Book Chamber Building and several
schools in Lianhuatang ("花塘) and other villages.
He came under the influence of
Christian missionaries. One night, in a
trance-
vision, he dreamed of a man in
black cloak telling him to purify the land of evil. In Guangzhou, after his second attempt in the exam, he received a copy of the booklet
The Benevolent Words to Advise the World (《勸世良言》), written by
Protestant missionary Liang Fa. After reading it in 1843, believed that the man in black in his vision was
God, and that he was the younger
son of God, the
brother of
Jesus, on earth with a mission to found a new kingdom - a new
Messiah.
However, it is possible that these divine signs are his
post hoc rationalization to gain legitimacy for the Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping.
First, in his house, he burned all
Confucian and
Buddhist statues and
books. As this act was considered
sacrilegious and
insane, he was attacked by Confucians. So in
1844, he fled to
Guangxi, where with Feng Yunshan (馮雲山), he began a new
iconoclastic sect called the God Worshippers (拜上帝會), which initially included only a few of his relatives.
He then preached to a large number of Hakka
coal-burning workers on Zijin Mountain (紫金山) in Guiping District (桂平縣), many of who became members of the sect as Hong himself was a Hakka. He preached a mix of
Christianity and
communal utopianism. In 1847, he formally studied the
Old Testament for four
months under
Issachar Jacox Roberts (羅孝全) (
1802-
1871), a
Protestant missionary from the
United States, but he was never
baptized.
As a symbolic gesture to purge China of Confucianism, in 1843, he asked for two giant three-
chi (尺) long and nine-
jin (斤) heavy
swords, called the "Swords that Execute the Vicious" (斬妖劍), to be forged.
In the Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping he established in
1851, he dictated several
reforms that would have improved the lives of his subjects, but they were implemented harshly and ineffectively in the
Taiping Rebellion. Beginning in 1853, Hong began to retreat from the political life as a king and became obsessed with his faith and engaged in sensual activities. In 1856, his health deteriorated.
He committed
suicide by
poison on
June 1, 1864 at the age of 52 after the Chinese authorities finally gained a decisive military advantage and all hope of maintaining his kingdom was lost. His body was discovered later in a
sewer. However, in other sources, he was said to have died of
illness.
He was succeeded by his teenage son,
Hong Tianguifu.
*
The Imperial Decree of Taiping《太平"書》(1852)
* The
Instructions on the Original Way Series (《原"救世"》系列) (1845 - 48): included in
The Imperial Decree of Taiping later. The series is proclaimed by
PRC's National Affairs Department (國務院) to be Protected National Significant Documents (全國重點文物) in 1988.
**
The Instructions on the Original Way to Save the World (《原"救世"》)
**
The Instructions on the Original Way to Awake the World (《原"'世"》)
**
The Instructions on the Original Way to Make the World Realize (《原"覺世"》)
*
The New Essay on Economics and Politics (《資"新篇》 ) (1859)
The following
poem, called "The Poem on Executing the Vicious and Preserving the Righteous" (《斬邪留正詩》), written in
1837 by Hong, illustrates his faith and goal that later leads to the establishment the Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping. Note that in the second last line, the name of the then yet-to-come kingdom is mentioned. This, and other poems of his, are considered by some scholars, then and nowadays, to be of low quality, because the lack of use of classical phrases.
Holding the Universe in the hand, : I slay evil, preserve justice, and improve the lives of my subjects.: Eyes can see through beyond the west, the north, the rivers, and the mountains, : Sounds can shake the east, the south, the Sun, and the Moon. : The glorious sword of authority was given by
Lord, : Poems and books are evidences that praise
Yahweh in front of Him.: Taiping [perfect Peace] unifies the World of Light,: The domineering air will be joyous for myriads of thousand years.
手握乾坤殺伐權，斬邪留正解民懸。眼通西北江山外，聲振東南日月邊。'劍光榮存帝賜，詩章憑"誦爺前，太平一統光世界，威風快樂萬千年
The
transliteration of
Yahweh was Yehuohua (火華). It is now Yehehua (耶'華).
In his birthplace, in 1959, the
PRC established a small
museum called Hong Xiuquan's Former Residence Memorial Museum (洪秀全故居紀念館), where there is a
longan tree planted by him. The museum's plate is written by the famous literary figure,
Guo Moruo (郭沫若) (
1892-
1978). The residence and Book Chamber Building were renovated in 1961.
*
紀念館 (The Memorial Museum) (in Chinese) with a picture of Hong's huge longan tree.
1 Bù [土布],
one obscure character used only in few
placenames, is "㘵" (#13877) in
Unicode, but the character currently does not appear on some browsers/operating systems.
