The Tianjing Incident[1] (Chinese:天京事變; pinyin:Tiānjīng Shìbiàn) was a major internal political conflict within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occurring during the late Qing dynasty from September 2 to October 1856. The conflict itself took place in the Taiping's capital city Tianjing. A few key leaders of the Taiping Rebellion were killed: the East King Yang Xiuqing, the North King Wei Changhui and the Yan King Qin Rigang. More than 27,000 other opposition rivals including soldiers perished in the conflict as well. The Tianjing Incident was said to be one of the factors which led to the eventual failure of the Taiping Rebellion, as well as the turning point in its fate.
In 1851, the Taiping Rebellion's leader Hong Xiuquan conferred the title of 'King' on five of his most loyal followers and placed them under the jurisdiction of the East King Yang Xiuqing. After the deaths of the South King Feng Yunshan and the West King Xiao Chaogui, most of the power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fell into the hands of Yang Xiuqing.[2]
In the early years of the Taiping Rebellion, the real power of the military was in the hands of the Military Advisor (軍師), the military East King Yang Xiuqing, who gained more power following the deaths of the South and West Kings. Hong Xiuquan declared in 1848 that the spirit of the 'Holy Father' (天父) would possess Yang Xiuqing and give him orders through Yang. This had allowed Yang to become even more influential and placed him in a position higher than Hong, as Yang often gave orders to Hong, who was supposed to be his superior,[3] in the name of the 'Holy Father'. When this happened, Hong had no choice but to follow the orders of the 'Holy Father', which were actually Yang's orders.
After the Taiping Army captured Nanjing and established its capital city there, renaming it to Tianjing, Yang Xiuqing's relationships with the other Kings gradually worsened. The North King Wei Changhui was flogged on Yang Xiuqing's orders once, as his subordinate had offended Yang. Later, Wei's relative had a dispute over property with Yang's relative, which angered Yang. Yang Xiuqing called Wei Changhui to decide the punishment for Wei's relative together, and Wei replied that his relative should be torn into five parts. Once, the Yi King Shi Dakai's father-in-law Huang Yukun offended Yang Xiuqing and was ordered to be flogged 300 times, and his nobility title removed and demoted. In the same incident, the Yan Prince Qin Rigang and another high-ranking official Chen Chengrong were also flogged on Yang Xiuqing's orders. Even the Heavenly King was not spared from being flogged, as Yang often pretended that the 'Holy Father' had possessed him and used the name of the 'Holy Father' to punish Hong Xiuquan. Yang Xiuqing monopolised the power of the kingdom and became increasingly influential, making him feared and hated by the others, but none dared to oppose him.
Events
On 20 June 1856, the Taiping Army defeated the Qing army led by Xiang Rong and lifted the three-year-long siege on Tianjing. Xiang Rong died on 9 August and news of his death reached Tianjing. The East King Yang Xiuqing saw that the Kingdom was functioning well and began to make his plans to seize power.[4]
Shortly afterwards, Yang Xiuqing pretended to be possessed by the 'Holy Father' and summoned the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan to his residence. There he asked the title of 'Ten Thousand Years' (Wansui) be conferred onto him in light of his contributions to the rebellion. Previously such a title was exclusively applied to Hong. Hong would outwardly agree, although he would later plan to have Yang executed which would ignite the incident itself.[5][6]
Shortly before seeking a title commensurate with Hong Xiuquan's, Yang dispatched Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, and Qin Rigang to separate provinces.[7] Hong, viewing Yang's request as treasonous, alerted the three generals to return at once.[7] Wei returned to Nanjing with three thousand troops on September 1, 1856, and found that Qin Rigang had already arrived.[8] In consultation with Hong Xiuquan and his allies, the two generals decided not to wait for Shi Dakai's arrival.[8] Instead, they and their troops immediately stormed Yang's palace and slew him before he could escape.[8] They then slaughtered his family and followers within the palace, despite having agreed with Hong that only Yang was to die.[8] At this point, six thousand of Yang's followers remained in Nanjing.[9] Hong and his generals agreed to set a trap for those men.[10] Hong pretended to arrest Wei and Qin Rigang for their actions and invited Yang's followers to watch as the two were beaten.[10] Once the majority of Yang's followers were inside, the beatings ceased and Yang's followers were imprisoned inside the halls from which they were watching the beatings.[10] The next morning, they were all systemically slaughtered.[11] Killings of Yang's followers continued for three additional months.[12]
Shi Dakai finally reached Nanjing in October and blamed Wei Changhui for the excessive bloodshed.[12] Wei in turn suggested that Shi was a traitor[12] Having been warned that he could be assassinated next, Shi fled Nanjing, leaving the same day he arrived.[12] That night, Wei and Qin Rigang stormed Shi's mansion and slaughtered his family and retinue.[12] Shi then consolidated an army of 100,000 and demanded the heads of Wei and Qin.[12] Wei directed Qin to block Shi's advance and began plotting to imprison Hong Xiuquan.[12] Hong Xiuquan was able to preempt those plans, however, and had his bodyguards kill Wei.[12] Qin was lured back and killed shortly thereafter.[12]
Later, Hong Xiuquan granted the deceased Yang Xiuqing amnesty and acquitted Yang of his crimes of harbouring the intention of usurping the throne. Yang Xiuqing's death was later marked as 'The East King ascends to Heaven'.
After the Tianjing Incident, the leaders of the rebellion gradually lost popular support from the people, and the rebellion started to decline. The military's morale was greatly shaken and they started losing battles against the Qing armies. The turn of tide caused the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's territories to become gradually reduced and it fell towards the losing end.
After the deaths of the East King Yang Xiuqing and the North King Wei Changhui, the Yi King Shi Dakai was put in command of the Taiping Army and wielded control over the entire military. Hong Xiuquan was irate over Shi Dakai's popularity and feared that he might attempt to seize power again as Yang and Wei did, hence he appointed his brothers as Kings in order to weaken Shi Dakai's influence and prevent Shi from consolidating too much power. As Hong Xiuquan worked to undermine him, Shi Dakai realized that Hong's suspicions would not be dispelled, and that if he stayed he would either face murder or risk another civil war, Shi Dakai left Tianjing in 1857 with his army, which caused the Kingdom to be in greater peril. After the Tianjing Incident and Shi Dakai's departure, the position of Military Advisor (軍師) was not succeeded by anyone and existed only in name.
Notes
↑ Steven Platt refers to it as the Eastern King’s coup
The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of Taiping-controlled Nanjing—which they had renamed Tianjing "heavenly capital"—in 1864. However, the last rebel forces were not defeated until August 1871. Estimates of the conflict's death toll range between 20 and 30 million people, representing 5–10% of China's population at that time. While the Qing ultimately defeated the rebellion, the victory came at a great cost to the state's economic and political viability.
Hong Xiuquan, born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun, was a Chinese revolutionary and religious leader who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. He established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over large portions of southern China, with himself as its "Heavenly King".
Hong Rengan was an important leader of the Taiping Rebellion. He was a distant cousin of the movement's founder and spiritual leader Hong Xiuquan. His position as the Gan Wang resembled the role of a prime minister. He is a noted figure in history because of the sweeping reforms attempted under his rule, and because of his popularity in the West.
Yang Xiuqing, was an organizer and commander-in-chief of the Taiping Rebellion.
The Jintian Uprising was an armed revolt formally declared by Hong Xiuquan, founder and leader of the God Worshippers, on 11 January 1851 during the late Qing dynasty of China. The uprising was named after the rebel base in Jintian, a town in Guangxi within present-day Guiping. It marked the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion.
Heavenly King or Tian Wang, also translated as Heavenly Prince, is a Chinese title for various religious deities and divine leaders throughout history, as well as an alternate form of the term Son of Heaven, referring to the emperor. The Chinese term for Heavenly King consists of two Chinese characters: 天 (tiān), meaning "heaven" or "sky", and 王 (wáng), which could mean either "king" or "prince" depending on the context. The term was most notably used in its most recent sense as the title of the kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but is also used in religious contexts as well.
The Taiping Kingdom History Museum is a museum dedicated to artifacts from the Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864). It is located on the grounds of the Zhan Yuan Garden, a historical garden in Nanjing, China.
Shi Dakai, born in Guigang, Guangxi, also known as the Wing King or phonetically translated as Yi-Wang, was one of the most highly acclaimed leaders in the Taiping Rebellion and a poet.
Xiao Chaogui was an important leader during the early years of the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty of China. He was a sworn brother to Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taipings, and claimed to serve as a mouthpiece for Jesus Christ. Because of his importance to the rebellion, he was awarded the title of the "West King."
Feng Yunshan was the South King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a distant cousin and early accomplice of Hong Xiuquan, and an important leader during the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing government. He was one of the first Taipings to be baptized and established the first group of God Worshippers during the 1840s. He was killed during the initial stages of the rebellion, prior to the establishment of the Taiping's capital of Tianjing at Nanjing.
Wei Changhui was the North King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during the Taiping Rebellion.
Jiangnan Daying or the Jiangnan Battalion; was an army group assembled by the Qing dynasty. The army group consist of mostly Green Standard Army, and their goal was to quell the Taiping Rebellion around the Jiangnan region. The army group twice encircled Nanjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but were defeated by the Taiping forces on both occasions.
Qin Rigang, né Qin Richang (秦日昌), was a Hakka military leader of the Taiping Rebellion, known during his military tenure as the King of Yen (燕王). He served under Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Administration and led Taiping forces to many military victories. He was executed by Hong Xiuquan in 1856 because he had killed the family and followers of Shi Dakai during the Tianjing Incident. Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng were trained and taught by Qin.
The First rout of the Jiangnan Battalion took place between 1853 and 1856 when the Qing government raised the Green Standard Army to fight against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The action involved Qing forces surrounding the city of Nanjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, or the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (1851–1864), was a theocratic monarchy which sought to overthrow the Qing dynasty. The Heavenly Kingdom, or Heavenly Dynasty, was led by Hong Xiuquan. Its capital was at Tianjing, present-day Nanjing. The unsuccessful war it waged against the Qing is known as the Taiping Rebellion.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a Chinese television series based on the events of the Taiping Rebellion and the rise and fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the late Qing dynasty. The 48-episode series was first broadcast on CCTV in China in 2000. The series was also broadcast on STAR Chinese Channel in Taiwan and on ATV in Hong Kong.
The God Worshipping Society was a religious movement founded and led by Hong Xiuquan which drew on his own unique interpretation of Protestant Christianity and combined it with Chinese folk religion, based on the faith in Shangdi, and other religious traditions. According to historical evidence, his first contact with Christian pamphlets occurred in 1836 when he directly received American Congregationalist missionary Edwin Stevens' personal copy of the Good Words to Admonish the Age. He only briefly looked over and did not carefully examine it. Subsequently, Hong claimed to have experienced mystical visions in the wake of his third failure of the imperial examinations in 1837 and after failing for a fourth time in 1843, he sat down to carefully examine the tracts with his distant cousin Feng Yunshan, believing that they were "the key to interpreting his visions" coming to the conclusion that he was "the son of God the Father, Shangdi, and was the younger brother of Jesus Christ who had been directed to rid the world of demon worship."
Fu Shanxiang was a Chinese scholar from Nanjing who became Chancellor under the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a rebel Chinese state opposed to the Qing dynasty in the 1850s. Fu is known as the first female Zhuangyuan in Chinese history.
Hong Xuanjiao, also known as Yang Yunjiao and Yang Xuanjiao, was a Chinese general and rebel leader during the Taiping Rebellion. She was said to be the younger sister of the leader of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan, and is the wife of Xiao Chaogui, the West King. She led women into the battlefield against the Qing dynasty for the Taiping cause.
Hu Jiumei (1830–1856) was a Chinese rebel during the Taiping Rebellion. A leading follower of Hong Xiuquan, she was known as one of the "Three Hu's".
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