1. The Peasant War of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
Old-style peasant wars: simple peasant wars without the leadership of the advanced classes.
Peasant uprisings in China have occurred one after another, and the peasant war of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reached the peak of the old-style peasant war. The Taiping Rebellion was not only the first peasant war in the south of China that spread throughout China, but also a peasant war of unprecedented scale in world history. For example, he opposed the aggression of capitalist imperialism and put forward a whole set of programs, systems, and policies.
(1) The cause of the outbreak is that the peasants are the most important objects of oppression and resistance of the great powers and the feudal ruling class. There were two reasons for the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion: First, class contradictions were prominent. For a long time, under the oppression and exploitation of feudal landlords, the vast number of peasants in China lived in extreme poverty and without any political rights. Landlords and bureaucrats, who account for only 10 percent of the rural population, own the vast majority of land; However, the vast majority of peasants, who account for 90 percent of the rural population, live by renting the landlords' land, but they have to hand over more than half of the annual harvest to the landlords as rent. Class contradictions have always been the main contradiction in Chinese society. Second, the aggression of the great powers has intensified the class contradictions in the country. After the defeat of the Opium War, on the one hand, the Qing government increased the collection of taxes in order to pay huge war reparations and military expenses, and at the same time to make up for the financial deficit. The old taxes and new taxes, coupled with the arbitrary collection and extortion of the officials, made the peasants overwhelmed. On the other hand, the invasion of foreign powers led to the gradual disintegration of China's natural economy, which combined agriculture and cottage industry. Coupled with the flood of opium, the outflow of silver became more serious, resulting in the high value of silver. Selling six buckets of rice today, losing one mu of lessons is insufficient." The burden on peasants' land endowments has more than doubled. The brutal oppression and exploitation forced the peasants to embark on the road of resistance and struggle, and between 1842 and 1850, the peasants rebelled one after another, and the people of all nationalities revolted against the Qing Dynasty more than 100 times. It was against this background that the large-scale peasant uprisings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were brewed and erupted.
(2) Historical process: The Peasant War of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lasted 14 years (1851-1864) and affected 18 provinces. The approximate historical process is shown in the figure. The rise and fall of the Taiping Rebellion can be divided into several stages: the gestation stage (1843-1850): In 1843, Hong Xiuquan began to worship God, entered Guangxi from Guangdong, extracted the idea of universal equality and some religious rituals in the original Christian teachings, founded the worship of God, and organized and mobilized the masses. Uprising stage (January to December 1851): January 1851 (Guiping County, Guangxi) Jintian Uprising, established as the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom"; In December of the same year, the "Yong'an system" established its own system and sealed many kings. Transferred to Dingdu: (April 1852 to March 1853) In April 1852, he left Guangxi in the north and fought in Hunan and Hubei. In January 1853, Wuchang was captured. Then it went down the Yangtze River, like a bamboo; In March of the same year, it occupied Nanjing, designated it as the capital, renamed it "Tianjing", and established a peasant regime that confronted the Qing government. Military heyday (1853-June 1856): Northern Expedition, Western Expedition and Tianjing Siege Battle, fought to Tianjin and approached Beijing, controlling large areas of Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui and Suzhou; Crisis (September 1856 to December 1863): The "Tianjing Incident" that occurred in September 1856 became a turning point in the peasant war of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After that, the Taiping army broke through the camp in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, won the victory of Sanhe, and established a base in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Defeat (December 1863 – July 1864): Anqing was lost in January 1864 and Li Xiucheng was captured. "Tianjing Defense", Hong Xiuquan died of illness in June of the same year, Tianjing fell in July, the Hunan army slaughtered the city, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Peasant War failed. The remnants persisted in the struggle for four years.
(3) The program of the peasant movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
1. "Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System". In the winter of 1853, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established Tianjing as its capital, it promulgated a relatively complete social reform program centered on solving the land problem and involving political, economic, cultural, and military contents.
The basic contents of the "Heavenly Dynasty Farmland System" are: First, it establishes a plan for the equal distribution of land. According to the yield per mu of land is divided into 9 grades, good and bad, where men and women over 16 years old are equally distributed according to the population. Halving for those under 16 years old. Second, the establishment of the rural grassroots political power organization "two", which is responsible for managing the production and distribution of agricultural and sideline products, so as to practice the idea of equality; Third, the establishment of the earliest social security system "holy treasury". The surplus agricultural and sideline products and silver money from the distribution of the "two" will be "returned to the holy treasury", and "all weddings and happy events shall be used in the treasury". Widows, widows, lonely and sick people "are given the treasury to support".
The leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom hoped that through the implementation of the "Heavenly Dynasty Farmland and Mu System", an ideal society in which "there is land and ploughing, food and food, clothing and clothing, money and work, everywhere is uneven, and no one is unfed".
The "Heavenly Dynasty System of Fields and Mu" fundamentally negated the land ownership system of feudal landlords, developed and surpassed the ideas of "equal wealth and poverty" and "equal to the noble and low" in the previous peasant wars, and systematized, programmatized, and institutionalized the peasants' desire for land and the ideal of establishing a society free from exploitation and oppression. It was precisely because the "Heavenly Dynasty System of Fields and Mu" fully embodied the strong desire of the vast number of peasants to oppose the feudal land ownership system and demand equal distribution of land, and thus greatly aroused the enthusiasm of the vast number of peasants to participate in the revolution, and the peasant uprising of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom quickly swept the whole country. However, the "Heavenly Dynasty Farmland System" abolished private ownership and equalized all social wealth on the basis of small production; Its ideal kingdom of heaven is still a kingdom of natural economy and a lifestyle of male farmers and weavers; It is still a society with no commodity exchange and absolute average. This is an unrealizable utopia, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is still at war, so the plan of equal division of land in the "Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System" has never been implemented and cannot be implemented.
2. "A New Chapter of Senior Administration". The social reform and development program with capitalist overtones promulgated in the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In 1859, Hong Renyu came to Tianjing from Hong Kong and was named the king of the gods, and the prime minister of the government. Soon after, he formulated a reform program with a capitalist overtone, "A New Chapter of Capital Administration", in order to carry out some reforms in the superstructure of Chinese society and establish and develop a capitalist economy in China. Hong Xiuquan gave instructions one by one, agreed with most of the provisions, and ordered them to be engraved and promulgated. The main content of the "New Chapter of Senior Administration": In terms of politics, in view of the disadvantages of feudal politics, it advocates "banning the disadvantages of friends and parties", and at the same time requires learning from the West, formulating laws and systems, and strengthening the centralization of power. In terms of ideology and culture, it is proposed to get rid of feudal superstitions and outdated customs, set up information officers and museums, and advocate the establishment of schools, hospitals, and social welfare undertakings. In terms of economy, it advocates the development of modern industry, transportation, postal services, banking, and other undertakings, and rewards scientific and technological inventions and machine manufacturing. The most important thing is to expand the field of learning from the West to the field of production relations and advocate the capitalist wage labor system. "The prospective rich hire laborers," and the poor "should be ordered to work in order to receive what they deserve." In terms of diplomacy, he advocated equal exchanges, free trade, and "being on a par with the people", and foreigners were "allowed to defend the country and offer advice, and must not slander the laws of the country", and were not allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of the Celestial Empire. The importation of opium is strictly prohibited.
Since the "New Chapter of the Elder Administration" was not a direct product of the practice of peasant warfare, and was limited to the historical conditions of the time, it could not be put into practice. However, after all, it is a social development program that conforms to the trend of historical development, and provides useful reference and enlightenment for the revolution and reform of Chinese society in the future.
(4) The Tianjing Incident and the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were based on a society of small-scale production based on a combination of small agriculture and cottage industry, and although a temporary labor regime could be established, it would eventually evolve into a feudal autocracy.
From 1853 to the first half of 1856, while the Taiping army achieved major victories, the narrowness of the peasant class and the underlying contradictions and weaknesses within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were increasingly exposed. The ideology of the leading group rapidly deteriorated, and its relations with the broad masses of soldiers gradually became alienated. Soon after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established its capital, the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing, the Northern King Wei Changhui and other kings began to pursue pleasure in life, build a large number of buildings, compare luxury, "for the prosperity of the confused, pampered, specializing in sound and lust and profit". Hong Xiuquan's life is extravagant, and he is better than the feudal emperor. Politically, the kings flattered and favored and competed for power. The kings were "separated from each other, and suspicious of each other"; Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, "relied on his high merit and was good at everything", and finally developed to force Hong Xiuquan to crown him as "long live". In September 1856, Hong Xiuquan secretly ordered Wei Changhui, the king of the north, to "clear the monarch's side". Wei Changhui led his troops back to Tianjing to kill Yang Xiuqing and nearly 10,000 of his subordinates. Tianjing was in turmoil, and the situation was difficult to control. Hong Xiuquan urgently ordered the winged king Shi Dakai to return to the division to stabilize the situation. Shi Dakai led his troops to kill Wei Changhui and his generals, stabilizing the situation in Tianjing. Instead of appeasing the soldiers and civilians after the robbery and rewarding the soldiers who put down the rebellion, Hong Xiuquan blamed Shi Dakai for killing Wei Changhui and wanted to use the power of the kings to eradicate his power. Shi Dakai led more than 100,000 people under the remnants of the East King and the North King to flee south, and was later surrounded and annihilated by the Hunan army in the Dadu River on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan. This is the Tianjing Incident.
The Tianjing Incident seriously weakened the leadership and military strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and became a watershed in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's transition from prosperity to decline. In order to save the crisis, Hong Xiuquan promoted a group of young generals with military talents, such as Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, and in 1859, Hong Renwei was appointed as the king of cadres, leading the government and forming a new leadership core. But at this point, it is no longer possible to fundamentally reverse the defeat. Hong Xiuquan and other decision-makers failed to correctly handle issues such as political, organizational, and military lines and the distribution of power, but adopted the method of indiscriminately rewarding knights, thus exacerbating the contradictions. The kings "looked out for themselves, not for the bigger picture." Hong Xiuquan's own superstition has also reached its peak. He believed in heaven and did not believe in people, and stressed the need to "recognize the truth about the situation" in handling military and political affairs. Tianjing was besieged, and he rejected Li Xiucheng's suggestion to "let the city not leave" and set up another base, and insisted on defending Tianjing. In July 1864, Tianjing was breached by the Hunan army. The Taiping Rebellion failed.
2. The significance and limitations of the peasant struggle
(1) The Historical Significance of the Taiping Rebellion Although the uprising failed, it had indelible historical merits and great historical significance.
1. It dealt a heavy blow to the feudal ruling class and strongly shook the ruling foundation of the Qing government. The uprising mobilized millions of peasants, lasted 14 years, established a peasant regime, wiped out millions of Qing troops, and killed or fled a large number of feudal officials and bully landlords; an increase in the number of farmer homesteaders; In the process of marching, the Taiping army destroyed the Confucian Temple and shattered the tablet. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also set up a "Book Deletion Office" presided over by Hong Xiuquan himself, and deleted and revised the "Four Books" and "Five Classics". It attacked the orthodox authority of Confucius and the Confucian classics, weakened the spiritual pillar of feudal rule to a certain extent, and shook the feudal regime, feudal land system, and feudal ideology and culture. The uprising weakened the centralization of the Qing government and led to the rise of local power. In the late Qing Dynasty, local power reached a period of strength, and warlords were formed. At the same time, under the influence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, anti-Qing uprisings of people of all ethnic groups throughout the country surged. For example, the Twist Army in the north, the Tiandihui and the Little Knife Society in the south, and the uprisings of the Miao, Hui and Yi in the southwest; the Hui uprising in the northwest region, etc.; A nationwide anti-Qing uprising was formed, which accelerated the decline of the feudal autocracy.
2. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the highest peak of peasant warfare in feudal Chinese society. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom put forward the "Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System" that reflected the peasants' demand for land ownership, openly repudiated the feudal landlord land ownership system, and put forward the plan of "equal land rights", expressing the social ideal of absolute egalitarianism. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's "New Chapter of Capital Administration" was the first systematic development of capitalism in modern Chinese history. It reflects a new effort by Hong Xiuquan and others in the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to seek a way out through the development of capitalism. Hong Renzhi did not take part in the Jintian Uprising, but he had a lot of contacts with the missionaries in Hong Kong and had a deeper understanding of some of the conditions in the West, so he put forward the "New Chapter of the Capital Administration" and such a social reform and development program involving all aspects and with capitalist colors. Thus, the Taiping Rebellion became the culmination of the old-style peasant war.
3. It has effectively dealt a blow to and taught a lesson to foreign invading forces. This is also a new feature that has not been found in the peasant uprisings of previous generations in China. The leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom refused to recognize the unequal treaties imposed on China by the Great Powers, strictly forbade the opium trade, and "forbade what harms people." When the Chinese and foreign factions colluded to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they did not hesitate to deal heavy blows and lessons to the British and French forces and the "Changsheng Army", "Changjie Army", and "Foreign Gun Team" organized and commanded by foreign officers (picture of the Taiping Army's shelling United Kingdom warships), causing the invaders to "cry for help and have no one" and "dreams and souls repeatedly".
4. Fought against Western colonial forces and promoted and supported Asian national liberation movements. The Taiping Rebellion was the longest, largest, and most influential national liberation movement in Asia in the mid-19th century. It merged with the national liberation movements of other Asian countries and challenged the domination of Western colonialists in Asia. such as the national uprising in India; It also created good international conditions for the Meiji Restoration in Japan. At that time, there were also some Western righteous people who supported the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, such as the United Kingdom's Gully who joined the Taiping Army and helped the Taiping Army buy ships, arms, and wars. After returning to China, he wrote "Personal Experiences of the Taiping Revolution".
(2) The reasons for the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the objective reasons for the lessons: The reactionary forces are extremely powerful. Chinese and foreign reactionary forces colluded to suppress it. Qing Army, Local Regiment Training, Hunan Army, Huai Army, Foreign Gun Team, Anglo-French Coalition Army (in the later period of the Second Opium War, the Qing government "borrowed teachers to help suppress").
Subjective reasons: the inability to overcome the inherent limitations and weaknesses of the peasant class. Without the leadership of the advanced classes and the guidance of correct theories, there is no way to overcome the limitations of the peasant class.
1. The increasing feudalization and corruption of the regime. The peasant class could temporarily establish the power of the working people, but eventually it would have to evolve into a feudal autocratic centralized regime. This is the case with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established, all the kings pursued feudal privileges and a life of pleasure. In Tianjing, a large number of construction projects were built, such as "Tianwang Mansion" and "East Wangfu" of various specifications were built, and the pomp and circumstance surpassed that of the feudal emperors. The palace has a large number of princesses and palace maids, and their extravagance is more than that of the feudal emperor.
2. The ideological degeneration of the leaders of the regime and the struggle for power and profit with each other. The Taiping regime could not maintain the unity of the leadership for a long time, and eventually developed from fighting for power and profit to cannibalism. The "Tianjing Incident" is a very typical example. In 1856, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reached its heyday, but the struggle for power in its leadership intensified. Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, pretended to be rumored by his father, you are long live the king of heaven, why is the king of the east not long live? proposed to Hong Xiuquan to seal himself as a long live; Wei Changhui, the king of the north, took the opportunity to kill the king of the east and a large number of his subordinates; Wing King Shi Dakai led his troops back to Tianjing to kill Wei Changhui; But he still couldn't get Hong Xiuquan's trust, so he led his troops to flee and defeat the Dadu River. The Tianjing Incident severely weakened the military power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It collapsed its leadership collective, and a large number of backbone leaders and veterans were killed, greatly damaging their vitality, and became a turning point in the peasant war of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from prosperity to decline. Fortresses are easiest to breach from within. The fratricidal fighting of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leadership group ruined the good situation.
3. The lack of scientific theoretical guidance, the limitations of political programs and social reform programs, and policy failures. The "Heavenly Dynasty System of Fields and Mu" is an absolutely egalitarian land program, which should return to the era of self-sufficient natural economy, move against history, and do not advocate a commodity economy. At the same time, since it is an absolute average, no matter how much you produce, it is evenly distributed, so it is impossible to arouse the enthusiasm of the peasants for production. It is also practically impossible to implement the programme. Although Hong Renji's "New Chapter of Capital Administration" put forward a plan for the modernization of Chinese social capitalism, it could not be implemented under the historical conditions at that time. It ignores the land issue, which is the most critical issue for China's social development and the most concerned land issue for farmers. In terms of policy, it was once necessary to cancel commerce; In addition, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is divided into camps for men and women, and a family cannot live together, and the king can have concubines and palace maids.
4. Religion is used to mobilize and organize the masses, but later the negative role of religion is exposed. The worship of God in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom absorbed the primitive Christian idea of equality, "all men in the world are brothers, and all women in the world are sisters", as well as many disciplinary canons. In the early days of the movement, it produced a positive call and agitation effect, but after all, it was not a scientific theory, but relied on superstition and the idea of destiny to mobilize the masses. For example, Hong Xiuquan's "Rumors of Heavenly Brother" and Yang Xiuqing's "Rumors of Heavenly Father", God possessed him and spoke. Tianjing was besieged, food was in difficulty, and the army was reduced, but Hong Xiuquan said, "My heavenly soldiers are as many as water, and God will send us nectar to eat." Superstition could not mobilize the morale of the soldiers, but brought harm. In addition, foreign aggressors were called "foreign brothers" at the beginning, and they lacked a rational understanding and necessary vigilance against the aggressors.
The defeat of the peasant war in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom showed that in semi-colonial and semi-feudal China, the peasants were a class with great revolutionary potential, but they could not shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the victory of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle. A simple peasant war could not accomplish the historical task of fighting for national independence and the liberation of the people.