Hong Tianguifu

Hong Tianguifu
Hong Tianguifu
Hanyu Pinyin	Hóng Tiānguì

Names
	Hong Tianguifu 洪貴福
Era name and dates
	太平囯: 6 June 1864 – 18 November 1864

Hong Tianguifu
Hong Tianguifu
	Hua County, Guangdong, Qing Empire
Died	18 November 1864 (aged 14); Nanchang, Jiangxi, Qing Empire
Spouse	Wang; Wang; Hou; Zhang;
Names
Names
	Hong Tianguifu 洪貴福
Era name and dates
	太平囯: 6 June 1864 – 18 November 1864
House	Hong
Father	Hong Xiuquan
Mother	Lai Lianying (賴蓮英)

Hong Tianguifu (23 November 1849 – 18 November 1864) was the second and last

king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He is popularly referred to as the Junior Lord (幼主). Officially, like his father Hong Xiuquan, he was the King of Heaven (天王). To differentiate, he is also called the Junior King of Heaven (幼天王).^{[citation needed}

]

History

Hong succeeded his father at fourteen and was not respected like his father by the princes, and he was spoken of poorly.

execution, Hong Tianguifu was described as "inexperienced", "spoiled" and "incapable".^[2]

Also, Hong Tianguifu never rode a horse, which was essential for leaders and commanders in wars.

Four months after his coronation,

Guangde County, Anhui first, they went to the town of Huzhou, Zhejiang on 13 August 1864 to rendezvous with the local Taiping Army commander Huang Wenjin (黃文金). The Qing dynasty sent Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang to attack the city, and Chen Xueming (陳學明), the Taiping army commander in charge of defending the southern gate of the town, surrendered on 26 August 1864. Hong Tianguifu, Hong Rengan and Huang Wenjin were forced to flee from the town next day, under the cover of night, and Huang Wenjin soon died of his wounds. The rest of the survivors attempted to escape to the border region of Jiangxi, Guangdong and Fujian to join the remnant Taiping forces led by Li Shixian, but on 9 October 1864, they were ambushed by the Qing army at Shicheng. Hong Tianguifu escaped to the mountains near Shicheng after his token force was wiped out, but he was caught on 25 October 1864 by Qing soldiers searching for him. Hong Rengan was captured and subsequently executed on 23^{[citation needed]} November 1864 at Nanchang

, Jiangxi.

While being escorted under guard, Hong Tianguifu and a Qing army soldier named

slow slicing on 18 November 1864 at the age of 14.^[3]

A glimpse of Hong Tianguifu's character can be seen by his remarks before his execution: "Guangdong is not a nice place, I do not want to go back in. I just want to study with Old Master Tang in Hunan, and I should be a great scholar, I want to be a good scholar". ("廣東地方不好，我也不愿回去了，我衹愿跟唐老爺到湖南讀書，想進秀才") This apparently innocent, pointless and irrelevant comment was considered by some as a desperate and futile attempt to avoid death by confusing the executioner of his identity. It may also have reflected his utter lack of understanding of what was happening to him, and to his lost kingdom.

Despite the short time he was a king, he was issued an official

seal (玉璽 yù xǐ), which is an exhibit in the Hong Kong Museum of History (香港歷史博物館).^{[citation needed}

]

Hong Tianguifu's name is unusual in that it contains a three-

character given name whereas almost all Chinese given names

have just one or two characters.

Bibliography

Mark Juergensmeyer & Wade Clark Roof, Taiping Rebellion, in Encyclopedia of Global Religion, Volume 1, SAGE, 2012, pp. 1257.
Nick Shepley, Sun Yat Sen and the birth of modern China: 20th Century China: Volume One, AUK Academic, 2013.
James Z. Gao, Taiping Rebellion, in Historical Dictionary of Modern China (1800–1949), Scarecrow Press, 209, pp. 350–352.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Note that the character uses the traditional printed form of 天 with a longer upper stroke. This is similar to the Japanese ten 天, but Unicode does not offer support as separate character, instead only displaying the Japanese version when Chinese functionality is disabled.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "洪天贵福亲书自述、诗句" (PDF). jds.cssn.cn (in Chinese). 1 September 1997.
^ Zhong Prince Li Xiucheng Describes Himself (《忠王李秀成自述》),
^ "洪秀全的儿子洪天贵福，在被清军抓捕之后表现如何？_唐家桐". Sohu.

Regnal titles
Preceded by Hong Xiuquan	Heavenly King of Taiping 1864	Succeeded by Position abolished

[characters-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Note that the character uses the traditional printed form of 天 with a longer upper stroke. This is similar to the Japanese ten 天, but Unicode does not offer support as separate character, instead only displaying the Japanese version when Chinese functionality is disabled.

[zishu-2] "洪天贵福亲书自述、诗句" (PDF). jds.cssn.cn (in Chinese). 1 September 1997.

[3] Zhong Prince Li Xiucheng Describes Himself (《忠王李秀成自述》),

[4] "洪秀全的儿子洪天贵福，在被清军抓捕之后表现如何？_唐家桐". Sohu.

[1]

[note 1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Taiping Rebellion
Battles and campaigns	Jintian Changsha Wuchang 1st Nanjing Western Expedition Northern Expedition Eastern Expedition 1st Jiangnan Tianjing incident Sanhe 2nd Jiangnan Ningbo Anqing Shanghai Guanzhong Cixi Changzhou 3rd Nanking Hubei Fujian
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leaders	Hong Xiuquan Hong Tianguifu Hong Xuanjiao Yang Xiuqing † Feng Yunshan † Xiao Chaogui † Wei Changhui † Hong Rengan Shi Dakai Li Xiucheng Chen Yucheng Li Shixian † Qin Rigang
Other rebel leaders	Zhang Lexing † (Nian Rebels) Su Sanniang Qiu Ersao † (Red Turban rebels)
Qing dynasty leaders and personnel	Xianfeng Emperor Empress Dowager Cixi Zeng Guofan Sengge Rinchen Guanwen Li Hongzhang Luo Bingzhang Jirhangga † Zuo Zongtang Zhang Guoliang † He Chun † Xiang Rong † Frederick Townsend Ward † Auguste Protet †
Other notable figures	Fu Shanxiang Hu Jiumei Yang Fuqing †
Miscellaneous topics	Noble ranks
See also: