Mavericks › Uprising Leaders
Yang Xiuqing
Taiping Eastern King from Guiping who spoke as the voice of God the Father, ran the Taiping state from Nanjing, and was killed by Wei Changhui in 1856
A mountain camp at night, with a beacon fire burning on a wooden platform at the upper left, several white tents on the slope and a red cloth tied to a rope; a wooden palisade with a gate stands at the right beyond a timber bridge over a rough river, under a clouded moon.
Also known as Dong Wang
- Roles
- Uprising Leaders
Yang Xiuqing was a charcoal-burner from the Zijing hills of Guiping in Guangxi who joined the God Worshippers founded by Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan. In 1848, with Feng under arrest and Hong away from Guangxi, he began to fall into trances in which God the Father spoke through him, holding the movement together and gaining an authority second only to Hong. When the Taiping leaders took titles at Yongan in 1851 he was made Eastern King, set over the other kings and given charge of the army. After Nanjing fell in 1853 and became the Heavenly Capital, he drew up most of the new state's institutions and directed its campaigns. In 1856 he broke the Qing Great Camp south of the Yangtze and then pressed Hong to hail him with the emperor's salute of 'ten thousand years'. That September the Northern King Wei Changhui returned on Hong's secret orders and killed him with his household and followers. Hong later rehabilitated him and made the day of his death a festival.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–1856 CE