Yang Xiuqing Yang Xiuqing ( ) ( died 2 / 3 September 1856 ) , was an organizer and commander - in - chief of the Taiping Rebellion . Career . Yang was a firewood and charcoal seller in Guangxi before he joined the rebellion . In 1848 he converted to Christianity after reporting that he had experienced visions of God . In 1850 , perhaps in service of his political ambitions , he began to claim that he could miraculously heal true believers . He was an early participant in the rebellion and rose quickly to prominence ; in 1851 , when Hong Xiuquan took the title of Heavenly King for himself , he made Yang , in spite of having no military knowledge or experience , commander - in - chief of the army . Yang was further named " East King " , in keeping with three other leaders of the rebellion who were given titles as " kings " of the four quarters of the Heavenly Kingdom . In 1851 , Yang announced a vision in which it was revealed that there were traitors in the highest levels of the movement , and two years later that words of the Eastern King , that is , Yang himself , were divine . He devised an extensive network of spies to root out the intrigues of loyalists in the kingdom . By the 1850s Yang became the most powerful leader of the Taiping Rebellion . With this presumed divine guidance , Taiping troops captured the city of Nanjing ( Nanking ) , which became the capital of the Heavenly Kingdom in 1853 . Yang took control of the city . He disciplined the troops after an initial period of violence and slaughter by declaring that he would execute any officer who entered a private home . City residents were ordered to return to the work . Men and women were required to live separately , and were prohibited from walking together or even speaking to each other ( there continued to be male and female military units ) . As Hong , the Heavenly King , became less interested in politics and more interested in his harem , he named Yang as prime minister of the Heavenly Kingdom . Many of the basic laws and regulations were issued during this period of Yang ' s control . In August , 1856 , Yang defeated the government troops besieging Nanking . He first led them to divide their forces by forcing them to send relief forces to other cities , then sent all his own troops against them in a massed attack . Arrogance over victory , however , led to his downfall . Yang clashed with Hong over the rebellion ' s policies and views toward Confucianism and iconoclasm ; Yang believed that Confucian morality was essentially positive and that its basic tenets were compatible with the rebellion ' s interpretation of Christianity and that images of dragon s were not sacrilegious . Hong , however , rejected this notion and believed that Confucianism ought to be eradicated , as it was the work of the devil . Fall . Yang plotted to take the throne . First he demanded to be called " Wansui " ( Ten Thousand Years ) , a title reserved for the emperor ( Hong had assumed it in 1852 ) . After giving outward agreement , Hong secretly summoned the Western King and the able general Shi Dakai , who both despised Yang . In the three months that followed Yang ' s murder on September 2 , these two also killed Yang ' s family and 20 , 000 of his adherents . Within a few years , the fortunes of the Taiping Rebellion declined as the rebellion ' s leaders became involved in the ensuing conspiracies and intrigues .