On April 27th of the third year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1864), Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Daping Heavenly Kingdom, died at the age of 51 in the Tianwang Mansion in the city. Because he died at a time when the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Tianjing (now Nanjing), was under siege by the Qing army, and later generations had different opinions about the cause of his death. At present, there are two main opinions.
The first statement is: suicide.
After Li Xiucheng, the main leader of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was captured by the Qing army, in his self-report, there is this record of Hong Xiuquan’s death: “The king of heaven (Hong Xiuquan) was always anxious and irritable every day, that is, he took poison on April 27. Died." Hong Rengan, the main leader of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, wrote "Hong Rengan's Self-narrative" after being captured by the Qing army, in which there is such a statement: "The suicide of the heavenly king has made the whole situation even more chaotic." The Hunan army leader Zeng Guofan also played to the court. The manuscript said: "The first rebellion against Hong Xiuquan was that in May of this year, the officers and soldiers took poison and died during a fierce attack."
According to the above historical records, many historians believe that Hong Xiuquan's death was suicide and a "suicide by poison."
The second argument is: death from illness. Zeng Guofan's "Xiangxiang Zengbabentang·Li Xiucheng's Handwritings" has this record: "At this time, it is about the end of March and the beginning of April. At this time, I will be on the East Gate City, and the king is always sick. It is very heavy, because of April 21 (the calendar)." "This person's disease does not take prescriptions, and he does not take medicine if he is sick. So he died on April 21.... …The disease of the king of heaven was caused by the exposure of food, and he refused to take the prescription, so he died.” This clearly describes that Hong Xiuquan died of illness.
At the same time, some scholars pointed out that after Li Xiucheng was captured, he wrote "Li Xiucheng's narrative" which was tampered with by Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan’s staff, Zhao Liewen, stated in the article on the seventh day of July in the "Diary of the Nengjing Resident": "Li Xiucheng's confession is not very reasonable in literature and science, but the situation is true. Only the banknotes are sent to the military plane for investigation." The contribution of Li Xiucheng presented by Zeng Guofan was "revised". The reason is that Zeng Guofan said in the previous memorandum that Hong Xiuquan committed suicide, so it is reasonable to "change" the death of Hong Xiuquan from Li Xiucheng's confession to suicide. The latter part of "Hong Rengan's Self-report" says that Hong Xiuquan committed suicide, which may not be Hong Rengan's original intention, because the original manuscript has been lost.
The young king Hong Fulan (Hong Tianguifu) said in his "Section": "On April 19 this year, the old heavenly king died of illness. On the 24th (the calendar), all the courtiers helped me to the extreme." Zhao Liewen, "Nengjingjushi" "Diary" on the 6th day of May: "Heard and Tan reported that the rebellious leader Hong Xiuquan died of illness on April 8th (April 20)." All confirmed that Hong Xiuquan died of illness.
Therefore, in the end, Hong Xiuquan is most likely to die.
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