preface
The Taiping Rebellion was the largest peasant uprising of the mid-to-late 19th century.
Its anti-feudal nature has always been highly regarded.
But in the mouth of Qian Mu, one of the four great historians,
The Taiping Rebellion was not only called the "Hongyang Rebellion" by him, but was also considered a movement that, if successful, would have failed the entire history of China.
Why did the Taiping Rebellion become unbearable in his mouth?
Taiping Rebellion
In 1851, Hong Xiuquan, who founded the "God Worship Society", gathered a group of congregations and announced an uprising in Jintian, Guangxi, which kicked off the Taiping Rebellion.
With the assistance of Shi Dakai, Xiao Chaogui, Wei Changhui and others, the Taiping Rebellion developed rapidly. By January 1853, only two years later, the Taiping Army had conquered Wuchang, and in March occupied Nanjing, an important land in the south of the Jiangsu Province, with the capital Nanjing and renamed it Tianjing.
After that, the Taiping Army carried out military conquests of the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition, and achieved major results.
However, prosperity is bound to decline, and in 1856, the Tianjing Incident occurred, and Yang Xiuqing forced Hong Xiuquan to live Long Live on the grounds that Hong Xiuquan was possessed by his heavenly father. Yang Xiuqing was then killed by Wei Changhui, who threatened Hong Xiuquan.
Except for Xiao Chaogui and the others who had died in the battle before, there were not many generals left to help overthrow the prosperity of the Taiping Rebellion. This internal dispute became a turning point. Faced with the Qing government's strong massacre and the intervention of foreign armed forces, the Taiping Army gradually struggled.
In 1864, Tianjing fell, and the Taiping Rebellion, which lasted for 14 years, failed.
As a large-scale movement that had a strong influence on the Qing government and dealt a serious blow, it made some progress, but the drawbacks it presented were also very obvious.
Attack traditional culture and cause social instability
In the ancient peasant uprisings, many were achieved through sects, such as the Zhangjiao Yellow Turban Uprising led by the Taiping Taoist Sect and the White Lotus Rebellion in the Qing Dynasty.
The Taiping Rebellion was also a religious form of rebellion, but it was very different from the former.
Tianping Taoism and White Lotus Sect both originated from China's indigenous culture but were limited by traditional culture and ethics, while the Taiping Rebellion sect was a religion of worship.
After Hong Xiu fell to the top of the exam, he founded worship on the basis of Western Christianity, and successively wrote "The Original Way Salvation Song" and "The Original Way Awakening the World", in which the exposition of a better life in the future attracted a large number of believers.
Worship of God resists idolatry, so Confucius became their target,
The Confucian culture based on it has been eroded, and the traditional ethical culture has been discarded. His worship of God is antithetical to traditional culture.
Although traditional culture has its feudal backwardness, since the Han Dynasty, "only Confucianism",
The system it forms plays a central role in maintaining social stability. It not only protects the monarchy, but also allows the people to live and work in peace.
This ritual system, which had developed for more than two thousand years, gradually disintegrated under the propaganda of god worship. At the same time, the worship of gods founded by Hong Xiuquan did not form a complete system to replace it. This collapse cannot fill the gap. This situation has thrown society into chaos.
So
Some Confucians were born to stand on the opposite side of the Taiping Rebellion and became a weapon for feudal dynasties to criticize the Taiping Rebellion.
Hostility to Western powers has caused concern in China
In addition to the destruction of internal social institutions, another hidden concern of the Taiping Rebellion was its attitude towards the Western powers.
Perhaps in our view today, the weakness of the Qing government makes us feel inferior, but the attitude of the Taiping Rebellion can also make us look at modern society from a different perspective.
Although the teachings of the Taiping Rebellion are derived from Christianity,
However, Hong Xiuquan and others' attitude towards the great powers can be said to be a kind of hatred, and they vigorously oppose the dumping of Western goods.
In this context, it is not difficult to find
In the struggle to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, foreign armed forces, such as the foreign troops led by Wall, appeared.
This armed force was not only the force needed by the Qing government, but also a choice made by the Western powers. They needed to suppress the Taiping Rebellion in order to gain an advantage in China.
Therefore, once the Taiping Rebellion succeeds, as another brand-new feudal dynasty hostile to the Western powers, it will inevitably be baptized by the artillery fire of the Western powers. Or become another Qing government under baptism. And such a government with internal and external troubles is obviously much worse than the Qing government.
The limitations of the Taiping Rebellion
After the First Opium War, China's coastal areas faced dumping of Western goods. The feudal family economy, once based on a small-scale peasant economy, was affected, and life was already difficult. In addition, the Qing government faced huge reparations, which eventually led to heavy taxes on farmers.
Therefore, after the Taiping Rebellion, countless peasants responded and rose up to resist.
Fundamentally, the Taiping Rebellion was still a peasant uprising in feudal society due to social contradictions.
In the face of the double oppression of the impact of capitalism and feudal exploitation, this peasant uprising movement was unprecedented in scale and even more powerful.
Although Hong Ren, who later returned from Hong Kong, brought "A New Chapter of Senior Government", it did not change the nature of this peasant uprising.
In 1853, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was the capital of Tianjing, issued a programmatic document "The Tianchao Tianmu System".
Its main content is to "create" a Datong society in which fields are plowed together, rice eaten together, clothes are worn together, and money is spent together". Therefore, the Taiping Rebellion claimed that all land was national. Everyone, regardless of gender, has equal access to land.
For farmers who urgently need land, the "Tianchao Farm Mu System" obviously has a strong appeal, but in actual implementation, various unreasonable contents have appeared.
Even if farmers get the fields they need, excess grain and funds in excess of their daily needs must be handed over to the state treasury for centralized storage and distribution as needed.
This policy initially satisfied the wishes of the masses, but at the same time dampened the enthusiasm of the masses for production. Especially in the event of a disaster in a certain place, the eastern wall must be demolished with the treasury to replace the western wall, so that the people cannot see the fruits of their labor at all.
Not only that, under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Realm, there is also an unreasonable rule, that is, men and women separate, whether married or unmarried, men and women must live separately. Such regulations seriously violate people's common sense and have also caused certain negative effects.
A feudal dynasty that changed soup without changing medicine
The original intention of the Taiping Rebellion was very good, and it can even be said that it led the peasant uprising in one direction. But in practice, the gap is obvious to all.
The "cultivator has his own land" in the "Tianchao Field-Mu System" is an empty phrase from beginning to end.
In the middle and later stages, farmers within their jurisdiction must also pay taxes.
After Tianjing became the capital, a group of peasants who pursued egalitarianism eventually formed a feudal autocratic society.
The high-level rulers not only tried to monopolize power, but even caused chaos in the struggle for power, leading the Taiping Rebellion from victory to glory.
The people who followed the Taiping Rebellion not only did not get the land they sought and the so-called land, but entered another oppressed society.
end
As the last and largest peasant uprising movement in feudal society on the mainland, the Taiping Rebellion had a great influence. It caused a strong impact on the Qing government, so that the Qing government could no longer return to its previous appearance, and the Qing government could only step by step change and decline; At the same time, its negative effects should also be paid attention to.
Although it affected the power of the feudal dynasty, it also deviated from traditional culture, not only did not solve the needs of the peasants, but also caused social chaos. For this reason, Mr. Qian Mu believes that it overthrew not the Qing government, but the entire history of China.