one
The rise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can not be separated from the support of farmers, but to get the support of farmers, we must attach importance to and take care of their interests.
Especially the farmers' land. Long before jintian uprising, Hong Xiuquan expressed great concern about the land problem and strong dissatisfaction with the landlord's land ownership according to the urgent desire of farmers to get rid of poverty and suffering. In The Way to Wake the World, Hong Xiuquan made a profound criticism of private ownership, holding that "the world is good and open-minded, people are thin, what they love and hate is private for one family". Shortly after the capital was Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom promulgated an economic program to solve the land problem-the celestial system. This reform plan centers on the problem of farmers' land, and requires the redistribution of land according to the principle of egalitarianism, that is, the land belongs to the father, the land is divided into nine grades, and the farmers divide the land equally. The so-called "all fields in the world are cultivated together." If it is insufficient here, it will be moved there, and if it is insufficient there, it will be moved here "; Products are equally distributed, and the rest belongs to the public, so that "everyone is evenly distributed everywhere and everyone is warm"; The ultimate goal is to establish an ideal society of "plowing together, eating together, wearing clothes together, making the same money, uneven everywhere and no one hungry". There is no doubt that this land reform program expresses the strong desire of the vast number of peasants who have lived in misery for thousands of years and is a bold denial of the landlord's land ownership. Although this plan could not be really implemented, in the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, this idea of dividing land equally really attracted many farmers and played a great encouraging role in mobilizing the broad masses of farmers.
In the early days of the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, although the Taiping Army did not completely follow the egalitarian land plan, many practical actions attacked the land ownership of landlords and promoted the partial solution of farmers' land problems. In some areas, the Taiping Army directly confiscated the land of landlords, and all the land was nationalized. Sometimes the Taiping Army, together with the poor peasants, deprived landlords of money and food and ordered rich households to pay tribute. With the support of Taiping Army, farmers in many areas launched a struggle to resist rent reduction. More importantly, wherever the Taiping Army went, it left a large area of land because it was eager to escape. These lands are owned and cultivated by farmers with the permission of the local Taiping Army. Under the attack of Taiping Army, the original land relations in many areas have changed. "There are many rich households, the land is easy to rent, and there are even seven or eight yeomen" (Tangxi County Records of the Republic of China, Volume III). In this way, many farmers who had no land or little land regained their land from the landlords with the support of Taiping rebels, which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of farmers to support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom not only attached importance to farmers' land issues, but also mobilized and relied on farmers politically. 185 1 Before the uprising, Hong Xiuquan made it clear that he would break the feudal ethics and replace it with "there are many men in the world who are all brothers; There are many women in the world, all of whom are sisters (The Way to Wake the World), trying to liberate farmers from political oppression. After jintian uprising, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom mobilized and relied on farmers to overthrow the rule of the Qing Dynasty. First, attach importance to the ideological mobilization of farmers. Wherever the Taiping Army went, it widely publicized the purpose of the Taiping Army to farmers and exposed the corruption and evil of the Qing Dynasty. To this end, the Taiping Army published a large number of popular pamphlets to publicize the revolution, such as Taiping Imperial Decree, Dogma Book, and Regulations on Treating People Well. At the same time, it also pays attention to oral propaganda to local farmers anytime and anywhere, which was called "reasoning" at that time. Secondly, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also relied on farmers to establish local political power. The Land System of China not only formulated the land reform plan, but also stipulated the forms and functions of the local political power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In order to facilitate the mobilization of farmers and ensure the normal supply of military supplies, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom implemented the township official system, which consisted of two levels: the general system and the military supervision, and most of them were controlled by the Taiping Army. Military supervision is divided into military commander, Shi Shuai, brigade commander, commander and two Sima officials, all of whom are held by local people. These township officials led the township soldiers, or maintained local order, or cooperated with the Taiping Army to participate in the battle. The township official system played an important role in the early days of the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zhang Dejian, a contemporary, also admitted in the Collection of Thieves: "It is our people who set up township officials everywhere to help thieves. "This shows that the system of township officials not only ensured the normal supply of military provisions and salaries in the early days, but also played an active role in protecting farmers' interests and mobilizing farmers to participate in the construction of local political power, thus giving the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom political power a solid social foundation.
two
If the support of farmers is the key to the early success of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime, then the subsequent decline of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime is related to the loss of farmers' support.
In terms of land policy, although the reform plan of "China Land System" played an active role in mobilizing farmers, it became less and less attractive to farmers. Because from the form of distribution, it is completely unrealistic to distribute land according to the principle of absolute egalitarianism, and it cannot be implemented concretely. From the perspective of ownership structure, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom advocated sharing farmland, farmers only had the right to use land, but they did not have ownership. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom emphasized that the land belongs to the father, and "everything belongs to the Lord". In fact, this not only denies the land ownership of landlords, but also denies the land ownership of farmers. In addition, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also implemented the "sacred warehouse" system, abolishing the ownership of farmers' means of production and means of subsistence. This greatly harms the interests of farmers and goes against their wishes. According to the report, when reflecting the economic policies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the villagers were as puzzled as if they were dreaming. But this order is ignored and cannot be done "(Zhang Runan's" Jinling Omission "). It is true that it was reasonable for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to implement the "sacred bank" system in order to mobilize the needs and publicize egalitarianism in the early days of the establishment of political power. However, the problem is that after the capital is Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still regards these ideas as the economic program of the new regime, so it is difficult to get the support of the broad masses of farmers and it is simply not feasible. What's more, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was forced by the situation and asked farmers to "pay food and pay taxes as usual". Although this measure temporarily eased the supply difficulties of Taiping Army, it did not help solve the problem of farmers' land, but recognized the landlord's land ownership. In some areas, the Taiping Army stipulated that "the rich and the poor should be fully accommodated" and "the tenants should be instructed to reduce their rents as usual" (Documents of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, pp. 1 18, 134). The Taiping Army also issued land certificates to landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, set up rent collection bureaus, publicly protected the interests of landlords, forced farmers to pay rents, and stipulated that "tenants should return their rents to landlords and must not resist debts" (Diary of Shen Zi's Refusal from Koukou). Moreover, in many areas ruled by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the burden on farmers has not been alleviated, but has been increasing. Some additional taxes, such as land donations directly collected by Taiping Army from tenants, caused more dissatisfaction among tenants.
For farmers in modern China, without land, they would lose everything, and they would not have positive political enthusiasm. Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can't really solve the problem of farmers' land, we can't expect farmers to continue to support it. In fact, after the capital was Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's regime was rapidly alienated, and its leaders established a strict hierarchical system, stipulating that different levels enjoyed different privileges, from anti-imperial power to infatuation with imperial power. The heavenly king Hong Xiuquan became the "only true god". In order to deify himself, he claimed to be "born with God and destined to be a king". The entire leadership is "confused by prosperity", extravagant and wasteful, increasingly corrupt, and completely divorced from the broad masses of farmers. With the imperial power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the grass-roots organizations in rural areas gradually alienated. The system of township officials was originally a grass-roots organization to mobilize farmers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but it was gradually dominated by landlords and local ruffians and rogues. "Military commanders invite local valuable people to act as them, and teachers will act as bookworms and local tyrants" (Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, vol. 5, p. 370). These people used their power to bully in the countryside, "extorting money and forcing farmers to do anything" (Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Volume VI, page 649). Township officials and township official system are increasingly unable to safeguard the interests of farmers, and even go to the opposite of farmers, which greatly shakes the political foundation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Finally, in the face of the joint attack of Chinese and foreign enemies, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can only be helpless because it can no longer get the support of farmers.
three
There have been many dynasties in the history of China, but through historical appearances, we can easily find that the rise and fall of these dynasties are all related to farmers. The so-called "periodic law" in the history of China is essentially caused by the peasant problem, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is one of them. At the beginning of the movement, its leaders took the worship of God as the center, combined the enlightenment of Jesus God with the practical needs of farmers in China, took political equality and economic average as the slogan of political mobilization, and directed the struggle at the corrupt Qing Dynasty. This not only aroused the fighting spirit of the Taiping Army soldiers, but also won the support of the peasants, thus making the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's ranks grow stronger and stronger, and the peasant movement was in full swing. However, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjing its capital, it did not take practical measures to protect farmers' interests according to the need of consolidating and expanding political power, so as to further mobilize farmers' political enthusiasm. The absolute egalitarian economic program formulated by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom-"China's land system" is not only difficult to implement in reality, but also goes against the wishes of farmers. In fact, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom never implemented the "land system in China". On the contrary, out of a temporary need, they ordered farmers to "pay taxes according to the regulations", recognized the old rural order, and even condoned the extortion of rogue township officials, which increased the burden on farmers and made many farmers feel disappointed with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Without the support of farmers, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lost its legitimacy foundation at the lower level. Not only that, after the capital was Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom put farmers under a new hierarchical rule, and its top management began to be completely corrupt, and even serious infighting occurred because of the struggle for power and profit. The idea of political equality, economic equality and public ownership of all property was originally an inspiring slogan for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to mobilize the peasant uprising, but now it has become a cover for the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to use the peasants, seek personal gain and enjoy privileges. In this way, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom denied another backward thing with one backward thing; Starting from farmers, but it can't really solve farmers' problems; From relying on farmers to losing farmers, they were finally abandoned by farmers. This is the tragedy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it is also the tragedy of all peasant regimes.