About Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

I. Hong Xiuquan (18 14 ~ 1864) was the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Formerly known as Ren Kun. Guangdong Huaxian (now Huadu) people. Born in a peasant family, studied in a rural school, and tried and tested. 1843, the worship shrine was established. The following year, I went to Guixian (now Guigang) in Guangxi to publicize the true meaning of worship to Gu Cun. After returning to Huaxian County, I wrote Awakening by the Original Way and Awakening by the Original Way. 1August, 847, went to Feng Yunshan, Zijingshan, Guiping, Guangxi to organize forces and carry out political struggle. 185 1 year 1 month1kloc-0/day gathered more than 20,000 congregations in Yingpanling, Jintian to hold an anti-Qing armed uprising and establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; On the 3rd, in Wuxuan, "Deng Ji" was called "Skynet"; In February, 65438+ was enfeoffed to the kings in Yong 'an (now Mengshan). The following year, he attacked Guilin and Kequanzhou, occupying two lakes, and then descended from Wuchang along the Yangtze River and captured Nanjing. 1853 Nanjing, renamed Tianjing. Promulgated the "celestial eye system", and then divided into the northern expedition and the western expedition. As a result, the Northern Expedition failed and the Western Expedition won. After entering the heavenly palace, he lived in seclusion and lived in luxury, and the power was handed over to Yang. 1856, Taiping Army successively destroyed the camps of the Qing army in Jiangbei and Jiangnan, and Yang got carried away and forcibly sealed them for a long time. So he sent a secret letter to Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang, killing Yang, his family and more than 20,000 men. After 1857 left with 200,000 elite soldiers, Shi Dakai had to reuse Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng to turn things around. 1859, appointed Prime Minister Hong Rengan to be in charge of state affairs. The Qing court colluded with imperialism to step up the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Anqing, Suzhou and Hangzhou fell one after another, and Tianjing was besieged. He died before the fall of Tianjing on 1864.

After the Opium War, the Qing government passed on huge military expenditures and huge reparations to the working people. Due to the five-port trade, a large number of foreign industrial products flooded into China, and the high-quality and low-price industrial products excluded the traditional household sideline and handicraft industry in China, which made farmers and craftsmen in the southeast coastal areas bankrupt and lost their livelihood. At the same time, landlords have intensified their exploitation of farmers, and land annexation has become more serious. The taxes paid by the Qing government increased year by year, which made farmers overwhelmed. 1840- 1850, floods, droughts and locust plagues in Guangdong, Guangxi and many parts of the country continued year after year, and the farmers' homes were destroyed, resulting in heavy losses and desperate situation. Farmers have resisted 1 10 times. Especially in Guangdong and Guangxi, due to the direct influence of the Opium War, social unrest became more intense.

During this period, Hong Xiuquan was attracted by the single theocracy and the Christian concept of equality in the Book of Persuasion. He combined the Christian concept of equality with the average concept of "the world is peaceful" and "everyone is equal" of farmers in China. Starting from the requirements and interests of the peasant class, he successively wrote Salvation Song by the Original Way, Awakening by the Original Way and Awakening by the Original Way. At the same time, Feng Yunshan propagandized anti-Qing thoughts and organized sacrifices to gods among poor farmers and charcoal-burning workers in Bauhinia mountain area. 1849, more than 10,000 people worship God. Around 1850, the contradiction between worship of gods and landlord groups became increasingly acute, and the peasant uprising in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was brewed and launched under such a situation.

Jintian uprising:

185 1 year 1 month1day, Hong Xiuquan led an uprising in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi Province, which was called "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" in history. In March, the Taiping Army moved to Wuxuan Dongxiang, and Hong Xiuquan was officially called the "King of Heaven"; In September, the Taiping Army captured Yongan County. During his stay in Yong 'an, he had a rest and system construction, which initially laid the embryonic form of the political system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. 1In April of 852, Taiping Army broke through Yong 'an, surrounded Guilin in the north and entered Hunan. Feng Yunshan was killed in the battle of Quanzhou. On the way to Hunan, the Taiping Army issued important proclamations such as "Four Directions for Praying for Hubu", which clarified the purpose of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to "eliminate evil and eliminate China" and called on the masses to respond in succession. Trackers and boatmen on the Xiangjiang River; Porters and porters on the dock; Blacksmiths, vendors and carpenters in towns; As well as coal miners in Chenzhou and Guiyang mountainous areas, took part in the uprising, and the Taiping Army grew rapidly. 1853 65438+ In October, the Taiping Army conquered three towns in Wuhan, and its strength increased to 500,000, which was a great victory. In February, the Taiping Army went hand in hand, along the east of the Yangtze River, and even entered Jiujiang, Anqing, Wuhu and other important towns. /kloc-in March of 0/9, the Taiping Army occupied Nanjing, and Hong Xiuquan entered Nanjing City, announcing that Nanjing was changed to Tianjing and its capital was Tianjing. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established a peasant revolutionary regime against the Qing Dynasty.

1853, 19 In March, the Taiping Army conquered Nanjing, renamed Tianjing and made its capital. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjin its capital, it carried out the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition in order to consolidate and develop the victory. 1May, 853, entered Beijing with Li Lingbing. The Northern Expeditionary Army went out of Jiangsu, crossed Anhui, entered Henan, crossed the Yellow River, entered Shanxi, went straight to Zhili, approached Tianjin, and finally failed because of the solo expedition. In order to control the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and ensure the safety of Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan sent troops to the western expedition. 1In May of 853, Lai, Zeng Tianyang led the troops back to Jiangxi and captured the vast areas of Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei. In Hunan, he defeated the Xiang army organized by Zeng Guofan with the landlord Ying Yong as the backbone many times. 1In the first half of 856, the Taiping Army launched a fierce siege and breakthrough war outside Tianjing, and successively broke through Jiangbei Daying and Jiangnan Daying, reaching its military peak. /kloc-in the winter of 0/853, the "celestial system" was formulated and promulgated, and the principle that "all fields in the world are cultivated by all people in the world" was put forward. Strive to build an ideal society with "farmland to plow, food to eat, clothes to wear, money to earn, injustice everywhere, and no one is hungry". "China's farmland system" is a peasant utopia that maintains absolute equalitarianism on the basis of small-scale peasant economy, so it is impossible to put it into practice. However, it expresses farmers' strong desire to acquire land. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also practiced equality between men and women; Reform the examination system; Adhere to the independence of foreign relations.

Just as the Taiping Army was victorious on the battlefield of the Western Expedition, in August of A.D. 1856, something happened in Tianjing City. Yang blamed Hong Xiuquan and forced him to call him "Long live" under the guise of "Father". Hong Xiuquan felt that it was counterproductive and apparently agreed to Yang's request; Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai and Qin Rigang from the front line were secretly called back to Beijing for rescue. Wei Changhui immediately led 3000 soldiers back to Tianjing. In the early morning of September 2, with the cooperation of Qin Rigang, they surrounded the East Palace and killed Yang and his family, as well as more than 20,000 officers and men. Tianjin is a terrible capital. Shi Dakai came back from Hubei and rebuked Wei Changhui for killing innocent people. Wei Changhui tried to kill Shi Dakai again, so Shi Dakai had to flee Tianjing in the middle of the night, and Shi Dakai's family was killed by Wei Changhui. Wei Changhui's behavior aroused the indignation of all officers and men of Taiping Army and the people. After Shi Dakai rose up in Anqing, he demanded that Hong Xiuquan obey public opinion and kill Wei Changhui. 102 165438+ Hong Xiuquan killed Wei Changhui and more than 200 people in his inner circle, thus quelling this fratricidal civil strife. After Wei Changhui was executed, Shi Dakai was recalled to Beijing to "manage government affairs". After the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan didn't trust Shi Dakai either, so he made Hong Renfa and Hong Renda king to contain Shi Dakai. Shi Dakai has neither real power nor doubt. 1June, 857, he led 65438+ ten thousand soldiers to the southwest. Shi Dakai's team went it alone. 1June, 863, was besieged by the Qing army on the Dadu River in Sichuan, and was completely annihilated. Tianjing incident became the turning point of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from prosperity to decline.

The Tianjing Rebellion and Shi Dakai's departure forced Taiping Army to change from strategic attack to defense. The Qing army took the opportunity to counterattack, captured many places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, rebuilt camps in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, and besieged Tianjing. In order to save the decline, Hong Xiuquan promoted Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng and other young generals and entrusted them with important tasks. 1858 In August, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng called generals from all walks of life to hold a military meeting in Zongyang, Anhui. Qi Xin, an army of all walks of life, broke through Pukou, wiped out more than 10,000 enemy troops in one fell swoop, and defeated the camp in Jiangbei again. 165438+ 10, more than 6,000 elite Xiang troops were annihilated in sanhe town, Anhui province, forcing the Qing army to withdraw from Anqing, thus stabilizing the situation in the upper reaches of Tianjing.

1859, Hong Rengan put forward "a new chapter of senior minister". Advocate "unification of power" and oppose "party alliance"; Open the way, "up and down the situation." Follow the example of the west and set up industrial, mining, transportation and financial undertakings; Allow private investment and employment of labor; Reward the folk skills of making utensils, allow their patents to be sold by themselves, trade freely between China and foreign countries and exchange equally, and set up schools, hospitals and social welfare institutions. As a political program in the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, New Chapters of Shangshu has obvious capitalist tendency. 1860 in the first half of the year, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng wiped out the Jiangnan camp and opened up the southern Jiangsu base area. 186 1 September, Anqing fell. In May of the following year, Chen Yucheng defeated Shouzhou and died after being captured. The western front of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is in irreparable danger.

After the Second Opium War, foreign invaders colluded with the Qing government to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom resolutely fought bravely against the invaders, and successively hit Chang, Chang 'an Army and Chang 'an Street Army, killing them and dealing a heavy blow to the aggressors. After the fall of Anqing, the Taiping Army's base areas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang also fell, leaving only Tianjing and its surrounding small areas. At this time, there is a shortage of grain and grass in Tianjing and no reinforcements outside, and the situation is becoming increasingly critical. Li Xiucheng put forward the idea of "not letting the city go" and created another base area, which was rejected by Hong Xiuquan. 1June, 864, Hong Xiuquan died of illness. /kloc-in July of 0/9, Xiang army dug a tunnel and smashed the city wall with gunpowder. After fierce street fighting, Tianjing fell. Most Taiping troops died heroically, and a few broke through. Young Heavenly Kings and Hong Rengan were captured in Jiangxi and sacrificed heroically. Li Xiucheng was captured when he broke through Tianjing and was killed by Zeng Guofan. The rest of the Taiping Army moved to the north and south of the Yangtze River until 1868.

This unprecedented peasant war of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the history of China lasted for 14 years, covering 18 province, shocking all of China, and finally failed under the joint strangulation of the Qing government and foreign invaders.

Ⅲ. Root causes and disadvantages. /kloc-In the middle of the 9th century, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolutionary War broke out on the vast land of our country, which lasted for 14 years and spread all over 18 provinces. This is the largest and most far-reaching peasant war in Chinese history. However, such a vigorous peasant movement failed to overthrow the feudal system and ended in failure. The fundamental reason is that many middle school history teachers used to think that "the reactionary forces at home and abroad are too strong to unite." This analysis only sees the surface of things, but does not see the essence of things. Personally, the fundamental reason for the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lies in the historical limitations and class limitations of the peasant class itself.

one

History tells us that in order to overthrow the feudal exploitation system and realize liberation, the peasant uprising must be led by the advanced class and its political parties. However, during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there was no advanced class and its political party, only the peasant class, which itself did not represent the advanced productive forces and could not put forward a correct revolutionary program. As far as the programmatic documents of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are concerned, the progress of the system lies in the measures of equally distributing land, which strongly reflects the farmers' desire for land and the need to get rid of feudal exploitation. However, the measure of dividing the land equally can not abolish the feudal exploitation system, nor can it realize the ideal society of "no one is hungry everywhere". Because dividing land equally can not only change the social structure of small-scale peasant economy, but also promote the development of private ownership, and the polarization between the rich and the poor will reappear. As Marx said, "the method of equal distribution will not have any results."

The public ownership of property in the "system" completely violates the wishes of farmers. In the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were notices in some occupied areas: "Gu Mi, a farmer and businessman in the world, belongs to the heavenly father and belongs to the holy treasury. They should give a big mouth a stone and a small mouth five buckets, thinking that they are just eating. " But what happened? "When this was said, the confused villagers felt like dreaming. However, this command was ignored and could not be done. Therefore, a sectarian order was issued. " Because public ownership of property is not feasible and military reserves are indispensable for a day, we have no choice but to return to the old order that allowed landlords to continue to collect rents. What is the reason? On the one hand, the system attempts to transform the social economy into a unified small-scale peasant economy, on the other hand, it attempts to impose a primitive and backward organization similar to the rural commune on the small-scale peasant economy, which will inevitably lead to the contradiction between the original private ownership and artificial public ownership. Moreover, if farmers' surplus products are publicly owned, whoever has a strong labor force and more income will be much more publicly owned. This will lead to the unreasonable phenomenon of "more work and less gain, less work and more gain", and it is inevitable for farmers to "complain". At that time, when the development level of productive forces was low, the "uneven everywhere" society could only be a distant vision. Historical facts show that the measures of public ownership of property violated the laws of economic development at that time and exceeded the scope allowed by history. This enlightens us that the attack on private ownership and the demand for public ownership are not revolutionary and correct under any conditions. However, the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not realize this. They ignored the objective, did not respect the economic laws, and pursued "greatness" and "fairness" unilaterally, and finally their ideals failed, which fully showed the narrowness and blindness of the peasant class in feudal society.

two

The inferiority of the peasant class led to the psychological behavior of the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was loose, corrupt and selfish. The change of thought made the feudalization of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime particularly serious in the later period. After the capital was Tianjing, both the official system, the hierarchical system and the ritual discussion generally followed the feudal autocratic regime model. They could not get rid of the influence and bondage of feudalism, and soon turned the power seized in the revolution into their own feudal privilege. For example, the "Tiantiao" stipulates that all officers and men are not allowed to marry the people, but the heavenly kings and princes can "buy concubines widely". "Wuchang chooses 40 concubines and Jiangling chooses 100 concubines, and the number is increasing one after another, which is less than 200." Hong Xiuquan also built the Heavenly Palace in Tianjing. "There are more than ten miles around this city, and the walls are several feet high. Outside is Sun City, inside is Jinlong City, the temple is Jinlong Hall, and the garden is Lin Yuan, which is exquisite and resplendent. " Hong Xiuquan shut himself in the palace wall of "Lin Yuan Fang Fei, Gui Lan Butterfly Clothes" and lived a life of "happy ever after, Happy". When I am bored, I can only write some jingles that praise myself and exhort concubines: "All nations come to Korea, mountains and rivers shake, Wan Li is full of eyes, and merits are well known." He repeatedly said that he was the moon or the sun. Often reprimand your empresses. It can be seen that the feudalization of political thought is accompanied by corruption in life.

Tianjing event is an important event of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This is a great chaos, a great tragedy. It made some leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom die by the sword of the "heavenly kingdom" brothers, not for the ideal of peasant uprising. Thousands of battle-hardened peasant revolutionary soldiers fell in a pool of blood in Tianjing, not on the battlefield of fierce fighting with the Qing army. This great tragedy turned the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was in the ascendant in the southeast half, from prosperity to decline. However, since the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan not only failed to draw useful lessons from blood shed, but also never believed in physical names. First, Shi Dakai, the wing king, was forced away, and then he monopolized the power and announced that "the master is also doing it, and the strategist is also doing it"; In North Korea, he practiced cronyism, first reusing his grandson Xiao Youhe and then his brothers Hong Renfa and Hong Renda. When Xiao Youhe was only ten years old, his influence had reached the point where "the Queen Mother of the West ordered him to be punished together if he didn't go with the Queen Mother of the West". Later, he actually wanted to turn the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom into a country of "father, son and grandson" and "the national luck will last forever".

Originally, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom took the anti-feudal thought of "one family in the world, enjoying peace" as its starting point, but it took the feudal regime of "suppression is the greatest, one person hangs on the top, and all the people die" as its destination, and its roots were deeply hidden in the material and economic facts. Farmers are minority players. They are scattered and backward. They can only hope for a supreme authority to represent them and dominate them, and this authority can't find anything else except the "emperor". Therefore, it is not surprising that the leaders of the old peasant uprising often conquer the world with the idea of equality, while the idea of emperors is to enjoy the success.

To sum up, the fundamental reason for the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lies in the limitations of the peasant class. Due to the lack of leadership of advanced political parties, there is no scientific theory as a guide. They engaged in feudal autocracy too early and too quickly, hoping to realize the ideal society of "one family in the world, enjoying peace" by worshipping God. This way of struggle under the cloak of religion is narrow and blind. With the development of the struggle process, the weakness of the peasant class is gradually exposed, which inevitably makes the leading group of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom make political and military mistakes of one kind or another, thus doomed the revolution to failure.