After the Taiping Rebellion began, the armed forces successively developed to Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Shanxi, Zhili°, Shandong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Guangdong provinces, conquering more than 600 cities.
This massive uprising, which lasted for more than 10 years, directly caused at least 54 million overkill deaths in Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Hubei provinces, and if we take into account the population losses in other battlefields such as Hunan, Guangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, and other provinces, then the Taiping War brought at least 100 million people to China, and directly caused 70 million excess deaths.
The guiding ideology of the Taiping Rebellion was a superficial or even extremely crude application of Christian theology. As a result, the culture of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regressed seriously.
Everywhere the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom went, they were very repulsive to the original Confucian Confucian culture, they wantonly burned Confucian classics, and burned down Confucian temples or other cultural things, which was very damaging to Chinese culture. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wins, it is very likely that the inheritance and connection of Chinese culture will be severed. A regime that destroys culture is a catastrophe for a nation.
As for Hong Xiuquan himself, what he yearns for is the life of the emperor. After the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he proclaimed himself the King of Heaven, and lived a luxurious and corrupt life, far from being comparable with some emperors in history who were clean and honest. His palace in Nanjing was unbelievably large, and the eunuchs they used were all prepared according to the emperor's specifications. And his restraint on women is also very serious, and he requires his concubines to strictly obey him. In practice, the idea of equality put forward by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom does not reflect the so-called so-called land cultivation for all.
Therefore, even if the Taiping Rebellion was victorious, the imperial dynasties established after that would only repeat history. At that time, China needed a new idea to guide the revolution and completely reorganize and integrate the old system and the interest groups and national wealth and strata of the time. It can be seen that although the Qing Dynasty government at that time was rotten and the people were struggling to make a living, it would not necessarily be a good thing if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom overthrew the Qing Dynasty.
Finally, share a few real photos from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period:
At that time, the Europeans had already invented the photographic technology, and they also brought the technology to China (the first photograph in China was already available in 1844)! This novel foreign affair, and instead of treating it as a demon law (there was a ban in the Taiping army), some of the brave people in it also enthusiastically invited photographers to take pictures of themselves, leaving precious photographic materials, so that those of us who came after us could get a glimpse of the true state of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The picture below is a photo of Dai Wang Huang Chengzhong, a general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In 1862, Huang Chengzhong led the Taiping Army to capture Ningbo, killed the leader of the "Foreign Gun Team" Wall, and was named King Dai for his merits. At the time of this photo, Huang Chengzhong was 36 years old.
The picture below shows a captured female soldier of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. They wore a large flail around their necks, and it felt like they were about to rush to the execution ground, but they could not see the horror.