Breaking the Dream of the Kingdom of Heaven: the "Civil Rebellion" during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Chen Feng/Wen

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement occupies an important position in the modern history of China. From the perspective of the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a rebellion that lasted for fourteen years, and it was a rebellion against the traditional ruling order. Taiping rebels, represented by Hong Xiuquan and Yang, became rebels of the Qing Empire. Since the Republic of China, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has always appeared as an anti-Qing and anti-Manchu. Luo Jialun, a famous educator in modern times, recorded in Chronicle of the Father of the Nation that Sun Yat-sen had taken Hong Xiuquan as an example since childhood. While propagating the revolution and calling on his compatriots, Sun Yat-sen also regarded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement as the forerunner of anti-Qing restoration and expulsion of Tatars. In their propaganda, they no longer used the words "long hair" and "thief" despised by the Qing court, but instead used "Taiping Army". 1929 After the formal unification of the Nanjing National Government, the Propaganda Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee formulated the Case of Prohibiting Slander of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and sent a letter to the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education for reference. The following year, the National Government defined the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as a nationalist movement in a narrow sense. On July 24th of that year, the Propaganda Department of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang issued an official letter. 1706, especially informing all localities not to despise the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom when compiling local chronicles. In Guangxi, the birthplace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the National Government also established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Memorial School through the establishment of memorial halls and monuments, which improved the status of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. 1949 after the founding of new China, jintian uprising, the first meaning of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, was carved into one of the eight groups of reliefs of the Monument to the People's Heroes, which became a representative event of the people's revolutionary struggle in China in 100 years.

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Liu Chen's research object is the "popular rebellion" at the bottom. The author thinks that "uprising" refers to the behavior of people (including scholars) gathering for "safeguarding their own interests or pursuing the same rights and interests"; Its manifestations include "collective riot" and "collective struggle", and there is no "strict boundary" between them; Uprising has the basic characteristics of spontaneity, suddenness, rationality and illegality, backward resistance and weak awareness of political rights.

Since the Taiping Army captured Jiangning in the third year of Xianfeng (1853) and built its capital here, the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom changed their strategy and began to pay attention to consolidating the national territory and the construction of local political power, that is, "attacking the city slightly and recovering a town from time to time". However, the corruption and extravagance of the ruling class of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the constant tug-of-war with the Qing army led to the gradual decline of Jiangnan, which was originally rich. Li Hongzhang recorded in "Raising Relief to Recover the Place, Exempting Cao Yin Film as appropriate": "Tea-drinking provinces are densely populated, mostly half villages and three towns, facing each other across the smoke, and chickens and dogs are familiar with each other. Looking at Pingwu and Jingzhen Road today, there are people who have no residents for several miles, and there are people who have no residents for twenty or thirty miles. There are broken walls, lonely and weak, and all the things left are pale and groaning. "

Faced with the difficulties of life, "rebellion" spread all over the south of the Yangtze River under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which rebelled against the Qing government and became the object of popular resistance. Tang's Diary of Loach Smell records that "within 10 days, farmers heard the news from all directions in the north, west and east of the country, and everywhere they went, they followed suit, killing fake officials, tearing down museums, burning houses, and there were endless fireworks day and night, shouting loudly." I heard that long hair came and went, the city stopped and it was quiet, and all the good people moved to the west. Sit everywhere, please be depressed when you go back to the city. It started in the countryside and was burned by thieves and soldiers. In the film warlords, one of the four unsolved cases in the late Qing Dynasty, Zhao Erhu played by Andy Lau, Jiang Wuyang played by Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Pang Qingyun played by Jet Li led the peasants who fled to the mountains, ambushed the Taiping Army's grain delivery team, robbed the Taiping Army's rations, and beat and killed Taiping Army officers and men.

There are deep-seated political and economic reasons behind the "uprising", showing the scene of "like cockroaches, like boiling soup" and "drastic changes". The long-term war made it impossible for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to obtain a peaceful construction environment. For a long time, the Taiping Army could only obtain troops and food supplies by force. The system of "tribute" (that is, collecting tribute from the people) and the "development" and "big donation" of the army were the main ways to obtain materials in the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This rude way directly caused the contradiction between the Taiping Army and the people, which is also the direct reason why a large number of corps in Hunan and Anhui provinces fought against the Taiping Army. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjing its capital, its ruling class began to "consciously change and broaden the channels of economic sources".

/kloc-in the 1960s, Li Xiucheng led the Taiping Army into the south of the Yangtze River, and successively opened two relatively stable base areas in Sufu Province and Zhejiang Province, so as to solve a large number of munitions problems by obtaining taxes to the maximum extent. The first tax policy implemented by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in these two areas was the system of "renting and paying grain". As we all know, in the feudal society of China, the main source of government revenue is tax, and grain tax is the bulk of tax revenue. Grain tax in Qing Dynasty includes Ding Yin and Tian Liang, which are collectively called Tian Fu. Folk land tax is commonly called "finished grain" or "delivered grain" The object of land tax collection is the land owner, that is, the grain is collected from the "owner", and the tenant only needs to pay the land rent without having to bear the land tax. This is the so-called system of "the landlord pays the grain and the tenant pays the rent". However, due to the war, a large number of tenants fled in Sufu and Zhejiang provinces controlled by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and farmers resisted renting. In order to complete the normal task of collecting land tax, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom implemented the system of "tenant paying food", that is, collecting food directly from tenants when they fled, which created an illusion of "tenant paying food but not paying rent" for tenants at that time. However, in order to stabilize the local political power, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had to rely on the local gentry class to restore and maintain social order on the premise of being unable to carry out comprehensive social changes. Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, while implementing the policy of paying grain by tenancy, also introduced two policies that are beneficial to landlords (local gentry), namely "inviting merchants to collect rent" and "collecting rent on behalf of merchants". "Inviting investment to collect rent" means calling on fleeing owners to return to their hometowns to collect rent, and "collecting rent on behalf of businessmen" means that the local government of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom set up special institutions to collect rent instead of owners. However, the three-pronged tax policy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom caused confusion in the relationship between landlords and tenants. Tenants not only pay food to the government, but also pay rent to the owners. The result of "collecting rent on behalf of the industry" is that "the rent of the owners is expropriated by the government or only a small amount of rent is obtained", which makes the owners and tenants dissatisfied with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom government, and makes the gentry class and small and medium-sized landlords who have been excluded or on the sidelines more and more resistant to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime, and also hurts the interests of ordinary people.

Without the cooperation of gentry, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom military government lacked local management experience and could not cultivate a high-level local administrative team in a short time. Instead, it relies too much on "local guards and small officials" as township officials. These old petty officials have been immersed in the lower officialdom of the former government for a long time and are completely corrupt. Corruption and social injustice were transplanted from the former dynasty, and phenomena such as "overcharging, overcharging food, local officials greedy for ink or embezzling food" occurred frequently. The people hated this and constantly resisted and retaliated. In addition, due to the propaganda of the Qing government and the slack discipline of the Taiping Army, people have a panic about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang called Taiping Army "Mao Wen". So when the Taiping Army arrived, except for a few who gave in, most of them either fled or committed suicide, or organized vigilantes to fight against the Taiping Army.

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During the period from 1853, when the Taiping Army began its westward expedition, to 1864, when Tianjing was invaded by the Xiang army, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established local political power mainly in five provinces, including Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and successively established political power in more than 300 counties. In the study, the author found that the "rebellion" under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had the following characteristics:

First of all, the "rebellion" mainly occurred in the 65438+60s, and during the 1950s of 19, the main activity areas of Taiping Army were Hubei, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. During this period, the Taiping Army mainly occupied cities, and the battle with the Qing army showed a rapidly changing battlefield and continued to see the situation. Therefore, the control over the countryside is weak, and this unstable state has also led to the "popular rebellion" under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is rarely recorded in history. By the 1960s of 19, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had shifted its military focus to southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang around Tianjing, and successively established two solid rear bases in Sufu and Tianjing provinces of Zhejiang. At this time, the retreat of the Qing army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the strength comparison between the East and West battlefields also provided conditions for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to establish local systems and implement various policies. This also provided conditions for Tian Ping's local policy mistakes to lead to "civil strife", so this period was the main period of civil strife.

Secondly, as far as the outbreak areas are concerned, the "popular rebellion" during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period mainly has three characteristics: more in southern Jiangsu and less in Zhejiang; Suzhou has the most; Mostly urban and rural riots. On the one hand, the reason why there are more southern Jiangsu and less Zhejiang is that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established local political power in most parts of Zhejiang late, and it was too late to rebuild the local ruling order, and there was less intervention in local grassroots society. The southern part of Jiangsu, represented by Suzhou, belongs to the area controlled by Taiping Army, and the grass-roots political construction is relatively complete. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's land tax policy and grain requisition, such as "paying grain by tenancy", "collecting rent by industry" and "collecting rent on behalf of industry", were thoroughly implemented. Due to policy mistakes, farmers have a heavy burden, leading to frequent civil strife. Most of the people in the Taiping Rebellion were towns, which was related to the "abnormal development of township economy" at that time. Years of war and social panic about "long hair" have led to a large number of urban population outflows, flocking to towns and villages. This makes the already severe "social ecology with narrow land and dense people" worse, and people's dissatisfaction is on the verge, which can easily lead to "civil unrest".

Thirdly, as far as the participants in the "uprising" are concerned, the author thinks that among the leaders, "the proportion of intellectuals composed of scholars and marginal people is much higher than that of hooligans, farmers and businessmen". The author thinks that the reason why intellectuals are in the leading position in the "civil rebellion" lies not only in their cultural knowledge of mobilizing or directing the movement, but also in their familiarity with officialdom, rich leadership ability, struggle skills and contingency experience in dealing with local social affairs accumulated in long-term practice. In addition, the author believes that the prestige of local intellectuals at the grass-roots level is also an important reason why they are in a leading position in the "popular uprising". Jiangnan attaches great importance to cultural traditions, which makes intellectuals have a high reputation among the people, so they are also willing to accept the encouragement of intellectuals and participate in the "civil rebellion." Due to the long-term war, the city has shrunk, which has reduced the strength of the rogue class and the merchant class, making them less involved in the leadership of the "popular rebellion." On the other hand, the peasant class acts as the support of manpower and material resources in the movement, and less participates in leadership. Because the benefits gained by the uprising were far less than the risks taken, the farmers' initiative was low, and their original intentions and demands were relatively simple, and their demands were mainly reflected in the economy.

As far as the types and launching methods of "rebellion" in Jiangnan during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period are concerned, the main types of "rebellion" at that time can be roughly divided into: food riots, resistance to serving, resistance to changing customs, resistance to military rent, resistance to looting, collective legal struggle and so on. Through comprehensive statistics, the author found that among them, food riots accounted for more than half of the total number of "civil riots" during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In addition, opposing "official corruption and military discipline corruption of Taiping Army" is second only to food riots. In the form of organization and launching, the mainstream of the Taiping Uprising still "did not get rid of the original mobilization organization form, and the clan organization linked by blood and clan was still inherited and continued in the Heavenly Uprising." However, the main mobilization method of "popular rebellion" is still "gathering people", which is different from the traditional use of religion to launch "popular rebellion" Due to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's radical policy of changing customs and cracking down on folk religions, many temples were destroyed, thus "making the popular uprising lose the space and legitimacy of mobilizing by using folk beliefs."

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The "rebellion" seriously affected the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In order to maintain internal stability and concentrate on dealing with the Qing army, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom promulgated ten policies to ease the contradiction between the government and the people, namely "ten policies and regulations". These policies include compiling books for the people, recruiting and banishing, managing Susong, controlling bandits, establishing regimental training, enforcing military discipline in consolidation, ensuring agriculture, building water conservancy projects, reducing taxes and limiting rents, and recruiting talents through imperial examinations. Although these ten policies are not all aimed at uprisings, they are objectively conducive to preventing uprisings.

Although these ten policies cover all aspects of political construction, such as politics, economy, ideological education, culture and social life, they have not formed a systematic and complete program. Moreover, due to the inefficient regime construction and fragmented political situation of the local government of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it is difficult to implement these policies. Due to the limitation of subjective and objective conditions, the content of regulation that has been implemented has not achieved the expected purpose of the rulers. For example, the author notes that "the policy of tax reduction and rent restriction is biased in implementation, which causes the opposition between two types of tenants;" Because of the needs of the war, the efforts to rectify military discipline also went up in smoke. The national policy of "anti-Confucianism and anti-Confucianism" failed to completely change its course, and the lenient recruitment standards were not recognized by scholars; The eternal policy based on attracting people and relying on rural areas lacks the necessary political management. "

I think the failure to implement these policies is also related to the political characteristics of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established local political power in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the central government's policies could not be thoroughly implemented at the local level, and each place acted in its own way, which could not guarantee the thorough implementation of these policies. In addition, the continuous war with the Qing army made the army's position in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom highly respected. Therefore, when the Taiping Army plundered in order to obtain materials and personnel, the local government had neither the courage nor the ability to admonish and restrain it. In addition, the corruption of grass-roots township officials and the financial situation of "poor and weak" can not guarantee the smooth implementation of these policies. The perennial tug-of-war with the Qing army could not create a peaceful external environment for the implementation of these policies.

Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used force to suppress the "rebellion" in concrete practice. Although repression by force is direct and effective, it cannot eradicate the social roots of the "popular rebellion". The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is still in a state of war, also dispersed a large number of front-line troops, which led to the Taiping Army losing ground on the battlefield. All these factors have caused the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is beset by internal and external difficulties, to be unable to become the real "heaven" for its propaganda. Tianjing, which was besieged by the Xiang army for three years, fell in July 1864, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement finally failed under internal contradictions and external military pressure, and finally faced the end that the "rebels" themselves were "resisted".