In September, the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and the city of New Capital is filled with a festive atmosphere.
On both sides of the main street in the north of the city, shops and storehouses are lined up in a row all the way to the end of the street. Densely packed ordinary Chinese people walk through and stop in front of different shops to buy food, fruits or sacrifices to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
At the end of the street, two brand-new Chinese-style palaces and pavilions stand on the open spaces on the east and west sides.
Not long after the palace was built, the red paint on the ten main beams even glowed bright red.
The bustling market quickly calmed down when we arrived here. Thousands of Chinese outside the palace consciously lined up in six rows, preparing to enter the palace to worship.
The two palaces are not new palaces built for Li Mingyuan, but shrines dedicated to Haotian God Taiyi and the fallen soldiers.
In the early days of the Peruvian uprising, Li Mingyuan had to declare an uprising in the name of God in order to boost the morale of the Taiping remnants. However, after Rio Grande do Sul was officially established, the God-worshipping religion full of religious flavor was no longer suitable for the future development of the National Defense Forces.
To weaken the possible adverse effects of worshiping God in the future, Li Mingyuan began de-religionization at the same time as the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The God-worshipping religion is a variation of Western Christianity introduced by Hong Xiuquan to Indonesia. The God worshiped by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is the God of the West. Li Mingyuan’s first step in religious reform was to change the identity of God and define God as the ancestor of the Chinese people in the pre-Qin period.
The supreme god worshiped by the Haotian God, named Taiyi, was the supreme god worshiped by the Han people before the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Later, with the introduction of Buddhism and the influence of other religions, the Haotian God Taiyi gradually faded out of the sight of ordinary Han people.
, and was replaced by the Taoist immortal system headed by the Jade Emperor.
Taiyi Existence is the supreme god who existed during the Qin and Han Dynasties in China. The name of Haotian God is roughly equivalent to the name of the God worshiped by God Worshipers. Haotian God replaces the Western God. As the supreme god of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom belief, it is psychologically more important.
Traditionally accepted by the Han people.
After redefining the identity of God, Li Mingyuan began to implement the second step: reorganizing the God Worship Cult.
The reorganization of the God-worshipping religion began with reforming the doctrine. Li Mingyuan convened hundreds of famous scholars in the government, deleted the outdated and Western religious customs in the God-worshipping doctrine, and added the later nationalism advocated by Li Mingyuan such as patriotism and national self-improvement.
The content of the new doctrine has been changed into a propaganda book full of national beliefs and national self-improvement. The original content about religious beliefs in the doctrine has also been changed into a weak religious content that promotes primitive religious worship and opposes idolatry.
Compared with general religious doctrines, the revised doctrine of worshiping God has lost the role of religious fanaticism. Instead, it has become a propaganda book for establishing self-reliance, self-reliance, national spirit and good personal upbringing, completing the transformation from religious books to national beliefs.
The changes in books are more consistent with the current national conditions of Rio Grande do Sul.
After the reform of religious doctrines and religious customs and etiquette, the name of God Worshiping Sect was also changed to Taiyi Sect.
Taiyi Religion is the state religion of Rio Grande do Sul, and Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity are legal religions. The government encourages citizens to believe in Taiyi Religion and does not interfere with the freedom of citizens to believe in Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity. However, some inciting believers to fanaticism and refuse to integrate
Religions in Chinese civilization are strictly prohibited. If any Chinese believe in fanatical religion and abandon their traditional cultural beliefs, the government will expel them from Rio Grande do Sul citizenship and forcibly expel them from the country.
During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the right to interpret the doctrine of the God-worshipping religion was in the hands of Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing and other senior officials of the Heavenly Kingdom. Yang Xiuqing, Hong Xiuquan and other five kings of Jintian Shouyi died one after another. After the demise of the Heavenly Kingdom, Li Mingyuan launched the Peruvian Chinese Labor Uprising, and the right to interpret the religion of the God-worshipping religion was lost.
It fell into Li Ta's hands.
Li Mingyuan is the only person who can verify the fulfillment of God's prophecy. After the Chinese established the country of Rio Grande do Sul, ordinary Chinese workers who came all the way from Peru worshiped Li Mingyuan as a god. Therefore, when religious doctrines are more logical and loose,
After the emergence of the God-worshipping sect, which was renamed as the Taiyi sect, most citizens accepted the improved religion under the explanation of the preachers in the settlements. A small number of believers who sincerely believed in the God-worshiping sect also chose to believe in Li Mingyuan due to their fanatical belief in it.
Li Mingyuan proposed the theory and turned to believe in the newly improved Taiyi Sect.
The religious reform in Rio Grande do Sul did not cause much disturbance and was quickly implemented in the country. At the same time, the construction of temples dedicated to God Haotian and the memorial service to the fallen soldiers were also implemented successively.
Due to religious considerations, the construction of the temple began in February 1869, two months after the religious reform. The Hall of Heroes, where the memorial tablets of fallen soldiers are placed, was built later than the temple, on March 12th.
The construction started on the same day.
From a purely economic perspective, it is not difficult to build the Shrine of Heroes. More than a thousand Chinese workers can complete the shrine construction project within half a year. However, the shrine is easy to build, but how to arrange the list of offerings in the shrine is a problem.
No small problem.
Li Mingyuan was the successor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Prince Li Shixian. The reason why he was able to call on the Chinese laborers to stage an uprising was largely due to his status as the prince's son.
His status as the prince's son gave Li Mingyuan the appeal he needed most in the early days of the uprising. But after the country stabilized, his status as the prince's prince also brought him a lot of trouble.
First of all, the nominal rulers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were Hong Xiuquan and his heirs. Although Hong Xiuquan died of illness and nine of his ten sons died, only the youngest son lived in the countryside and has no news. However, some ambitious people may
Acting in the name of a descendant of Hong Xiuquan, he even participated in the internal affairs of Rio Grande do Sul to cause trouble for Li Mingyuan.
Li Mingyuan was a person who liked to plan for a rainy day. Even if Hong Xiuquan's youngest son was lucky enough to survive and was instigated by someone who wanted to seize power in Rio Grande do Sul, Li Mingyuan still believed in the loyalty of his subordinates and ordinary Chinese people to him and would not obey Hong Xiuquan's son's orders.
However, even if the descendants of Hong Xiuquan cannot shake Li Mingyuan's rule over Rio Grande do Sul, Li Mingyuan does not want to see it cause damage to the already stable domestic order.
Enshrining Hong Xiuquan in the Hall of Heroes of the Guardian is equivalent to acknowledging his status as the leader of the Kingdom of Heaven. Some people with flexible minds may have undue ambitions, so he hesitated for a long time. Li Mingyuan took the initiative to raise this issue with Liu Pu.
After discussion, Chen Guozhu and other senior generals of the army decided not to enshrine Hong Xiuquan's tablet in the Hall of Heroes of the Protector of the Country, but only to enshrine the generals and soldiers who died fighting the Qing army and other enemy armies.
Li Shixian is Li Mingyuan's nominal father. In the eyes of Liu Pu and others, Li Mingyuan is the monarch of Rio Grande do Sul, and Li Shixian is the founder of Rio Grande do Sul's national cause. When the Principality of Rio Grande do Sul was established, Li Shixian should be given the honorific title.
And he named Li Mingyuan's ancestor for more than three generations.
Chen Guozhu, Li Sandou and other guards left behind by the king once vaguely raised this matter with Li Mingyuan, but they were not recognized by Li Mingyuan. When the Hall of Heroes of the Protector of the Country was built, Hong Xiuquan was excluded from the list of enshrinements. Chen Guozhu and others once again established the general.
Li Shixian was placed in the first place of worship.
On the one hand, he did not agree to give Li Shixian the honorary title because he was worried that too much movement in Rio Grande do Sul would arouse the vigilance of the Manchu government. On the other hand, Li Mingyuan planned to serve Li Shixian, Li Xiucheng and others in a glorious manner after conquering Argentina.
Taiping generals rectified their names.
The delay in giving Li Shixian the honorary title was due to practical considerations, and making Li Shixian the first sacrificed soldier to be enshrined in the Hall of Heroes of the Guardian can not only highlight Li Mingyuan's legal rationality as the successor to the imperial court, but also achieve the purpose of promoting the martial spirit of the Chinese.
Without the suggestion of Chen Guozhu and others, Li Mingyuan also planned to put Li Shixian at the top of the list of sacrifices. Chen Guozhu and others took the initiative, and Li Mingyuan agreed.
After determining the first person to be worshiped in the Hall of Heroes of the Protector of the Country, Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng, Shi Dakai, Luo Gangyou, Su Sanniang and other senior generals of the Kingdom of Heaven also arranged the order according to everyone's opinions.
Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng were the two most important young generals in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Considering that Li Xiucheng was Li Shixian's cousin, Li Mingyuan ranked Li Xiucheng's tablet second only to Li Shixian, Shi Dakai, Xiao Chaogui, Chen Yucheng,
Luo Gangyou, Su Sanniang and others were arranged one after another.