Why did Taiping Army blow up Judy Hoonji Pagoda?

The Great Baoen Temple Tower stood in the south of Nanjing for more than 400 years, and was not destroyed until 1856. The "responsible person" for the disappearance of the Great Hoonji Pagoda is the Taiping Army ―― Xianfeng was burned by Hongyang in six years, and the brick warehouse was blown away.

"Six years of the salty year" is the year of 1856. In the autumn of that year, the Taiping Army suffered serious infighting, and the contradiction between Hong Xiuquan and Yang broke out. At that time, Wei Changhui, the king of northern Jiangxi, received a secret edict from the heavenly king (saying that there was no secret edict) and led his troops back to Tianjing for three thousand nights to kill the Yang family. Wei Changhui attempted to expand the situation and deliberately killed more than 20,000 people under Yang, which is known as the Tianjing incident. Wing king Shi Dakai ventured back to Tianjing and accused Wei Changhui of killing innocent people. Wei Changhui killed again and decided to murder Shi Dakai. Seeing that the situation was wrong, Shi Dakai fled to Anqing, Anhui Province overnight, mobilized troops to crusade against Wei Changhui, and demanded that Hong Xiuquan kill Wei Changhui. On the fifth day of October of the same year, Hong Xiuquan wrote to beg Wei, executed Wei Changhui, cut his title and demoted him to "death and evil".

The pagoda of Dabaoen Temple was destroyed in the confrontation between Shi and Wei. Wei Changhui was in the city at that time, fearing that Shi Dakai would use the height of the temple tower to fire at the city gate, he ordered the tower to be bombed. This "first tower" disappeared from the world's view.

The disappearance of the great Hong Ji witnessed the disaster in modern China. Before that, it was once looted by the British. 1840 During the Opium War, Britain forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the treaty of nanking, the first unequal treaty in China's modern history, at Jinghai Temple. During this period, I heard that there are many treasures in the "Great Magnetic Tower" (the Great Baoen Temple Tower), and the British army has robbed them many times. Decorative items such as golden Buddha and gold ornaments and the furnishings in the tower were taken away as "souvenirs". I also heard that the surface of the object was plated with gold, and some British soldiers took out their knives and cut the "gold skin" piece by piece. Later, it was strongly condemned by the Chinese side, and the British army paid some price for it.

After the tower was blown up by Wei Changhui, two giant "iron plates" at the top of the tower also fell to the ground. This is not an ordinary iron plate, but a "golden plate" in essence, wrapped in thick gold skin (the other is copper) for the Taiping Army to take away. Later, one stayed at the original site and moved to the entrance of Jinling Manufacturing Bureau (the arsenal built by Li Hongzhang in Nanjing) in the southeast of Taki. The plate was inverted on a brick platform. 1937 Before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, it was still at the door.

Zhang Zhengxiang, an old cultural relic worker who died in Nanjing Museum, visited Nanjing Museum. I mentioned it when I went to Mr. Zhang's home in 2004. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the top plate disappeared. It is said that it was smashed by the Japanese army and melted to make a gun. Confirmed by local residents, it was seen at 1943 and then disappeared.

From the history of Japanese invasion of China, it is found that in the year when the top plate disappeared, due to the lack of strategic resources, the Japanese army began to collect "scrap metal" everywhere in Nanjing.