Yang Xiuqing

Yang Xiuqing ( Chinese  楊秀清  /  杨秀清 , Pinyin Yáng Xiùqīng , W.-G. Yang Hsiu-Ch'ing ; * around 1820 in Guiping County , Guangxi ; † September 2, 1856 in Nanjing ) was one of the political, military and religious leaders of the Taiping Uprising at the end of the Chinese Qing Dynasty .

Yang was the son of a poor peasant family in eastern Guangxi Province. His parents died when Yang was a young child. He grew up in his uncle's family, where he helped out in the fields and charcoal . This left him practically illiterate , but his intelligence allowed him to take over the leadership of the farmers in his home district.

In 1846 he became a member of the Society for Worship of God , headed by Hong Xiuquan . He got many members of his clan to do the same, which made this organization in Guiping very popular. Two years later, he claimed to be possessed by God and able to speak on his behalf. In 1850 he claimed to have been cured of deafness and dumbness by a divine miracle. This brought further popularity to Hong's society.

Yang's military career began in 1849 when he formed a blood brotherhood with Jesus Christ , Xiao Chaogui , Wei Changhui , Shi Dakai , Hong Xiuquan, and Feng Yunshan to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and transform China into a Christian kingdom. In 1851, Qing troops attacked worshipers' villages, but were defeated in the Jintian uprising . Hong Xiuquan then proclaimed the Heavenly Realm of Great Peace and installed Yang as the commander of the Taiping Army. Yang led his troops first west, then north-east, where they captured Yong'an (today's Mengshan ). It was there that Hong established his government and named Yang one of five kings who were directly subordinate to Hong as the Heavenly King. In the winter of 1851/82, 30,000 Qing soldiers besieged Yong'an, but the Taiping troops managed to break out in April 1852. Their escape took them via Guilin , which they besieged unsuccessfully, and Quanzhou to Daozhou , from where they threatened Changsha . Here Yang and Xiao Chaogui called on the whole nation to revolt against the ineptitude of the Qing and announced that they would found a godly, peaceful and prosperous kingdom. Xiao Chaogui's death in the failed attack on Changsha opened the way for Yang to even greater power. In March 1853, the Taiping troops captured Nanjing and declared the city their capital.

In Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan appointed Yang Xiuqing as prime minister. After Hong withdrew more and more to his palace, Yang worked on the foundations of the kingdom. Many decrees on taxes, social policy, reforms, calendars, and the military were drafted by Yang. Yang's northern campaign of 1853 with the aim of conquering Beijing ended in 1855 in a heavy defeat. The western campaign with the aim of getting the agricultural areas on the Yangtze River under the control of the Heavenly Kingdom also failed; he was stopped by Zeng Guofan's troops . In 1856, Yang led the defense of Nanjing against a powerful attack by the imperial forces and inflicted a crushing defeat on them. Inspired by this success, he tried to take the throne of Hong Xiuquan. Hong therefore had him killed by his rival Wei Changhui: the Tianjing incident is considered one of the events that led to the overthrow of the Heavenly Kingdom.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Thomas L. Kennedy: Yang Xiuqing . In: Leung, Pak-Wah (Ed.): Political leaders of modern China: a biographical dictionary . 1st edition. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 2002, ISBN 0-313-30216-2 , pp. 186-188 .