Wei Changhui

Wei Changhui (simplified Chinese: 韦昌辉; traditional Chinese: 韋昌輝; pinyin: Wéi Chānghuī) was the North King of the Taiping Rebellion.

Pre-Rebellion involvement

Wei Changhui was a wealthy native of Jintian, Guiping, Guangxi, who owned both land and a pawnshop.^[1] Wei was also educated and a member of a prosperous clan that had ensured that the market town of Jiantin was a safe haven for the God Worshippers.^[2] During the early days of the movement during the 1840s, Wei was converted to Christianity by Feng Yunshan and Hong Xiuquan. During the summer of 1848, Wei entered into a sworn brotherhood with Hong Xiuquan, Feng Yunshan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Shi Dakai, and Jesus Christ.^[3]

During the Rebellion

Wei was a principal Taiping general since the early days of the rebellion.^[4] On December 4, 1851, Hong Xiuquan declared Wei to be the North King, Lord of 6,000 Years.^[5] Once the Taiping captured Nanjing, Wei began to coordinate the defense of the surrounding region and managed Nanjing's food supplies.^[6]

Tianjing Incident and Death

In order to consolidate his power, Yang Xiuqing began to humiliate and threaten Wei.^[7] Shortly before seeking a title commiserate with Hong Xiuquan's, Yang dispatched Wei, Shi Dakai, and Qin Rigang to separate provinces.^[8] Hong, viewing Yang's request as treasonous, alerted the three generals to return at once.^[8] 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.^[9] Instead, they and their troops immediately stormed Yang's palace and slew him before he could escape.^[9] They then slaughtered his family and followers within the palace, despite having agreed with Hong that only Yang was to die.^[9] At this point, six thousand of Yang's followers remained in Nanjing.^[10] Hong and his generals agreed to set a trap for those men.^[11] Hong pretended to arrest Wei and Qin Rigang for their actions and invited Yang's followers to watch as the two were beaten.^[11] 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.^[11] The next morning, they were all systemically slaughtered.^[12] Killings of Yang's followers continued for three additional months.^[13]

Shi Dakai finally reached Nanjing in October and blamed Wei for the excessive bloodshed.^[13] Wei in turn suggested that Shi may be a traitor^[13] Having been warned that he could be assassinated next, Shi fled Nanjing, leaving the same day he arrived.^[13] That night, Wei and Qin Rigang stormed Shi's mansion and slaughtered his family and retinue.^[13] Shi then consolidated an army of 100,000 and demanded the heads of Wei and Qin.^[13] Wei directed Qin to block Shi's advance and began plotting to imprison Hong Xiquan.^[13] Hong Xiuquan was able to preempt those plans, however, and had his bodyguards kill Wei.^[13] Qin was lured back and killed shortly thereafter.^[13]

References