The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was the culmination of the old peasant war in China. In modern times, the peasant class launched the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement based on its own class needs. Before the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, from 1842 to 1850, people of all ethnic groups in China rebelled against the Qing Dynasty more than 100 times. The Qing government mobilized troops to suppress it, but mass struggles still broke out one after another, and the scale of resistance became larger and larger, exceeding 1843. Hong Xiuquan absorbed the equality thought and some religious ceremonies that reflected the demands of the lower classes in primitive Christianity, reformed it from the needs of peasant struggle, founded the religion of worship of God, and used it to mobilize mass organizations. Based on the mass base established by Hong Xiuquan by worshipping God, in June, 5438+0851/kloc-0, Hong Xiuquan led an uprising in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a just struggle against the decadent rule of the Qing government and the oppression and exploitation of the landlord class. From Guangxi to Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui, all the way to Jiangsu, the Taiping Army swept six provinces. 1March 853, occupied Nanjing, made its capital, and renamed it Tianjing. Officially announced the establishment of the peasant regime in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. On the March, the Taiping Army resolutely suppressed and cracked down on bureaucrats, gentry and landlords, and burned down yamen, grain books, land titles and bonds, which effectively impacted the feudal ruling order. The Taiping Army has strict discipline, and all it does is "take clothes and divide poverty ... that is to say, rent-free and tax-free for the next three years". This made the Taiping Army welcomed and supported by the masses. Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement developed rapidly. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjing its capital, it successively carried out the Northern Expedition, the Western Expedition and the siege war outside Tianjing. By the first half of 1856, except for the failure of the Northern Expedition, the Taiping Army won a total victory in Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Tianjing and other places, controlling a large area and reaching its military heyday.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjin its capital, it carried out a series of system construction and promulgated the Land System of China. The Land System of China is a programmatic document that best embodies the social ideal of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the characteristics of this peasant uprising. The Land System of China is actually a relatively complete social reform plan centered on solving land problems. The Land System of China is actually a relatively complete social reform plan centered on solving land problems. As a matter of fact, the land sharing plan of the "celestial system" has never been put into practice. "China's farmland system" is unrealistic and utopian, and it does not go beyond the narrow vision of small farmers and producers. The ideal paradise it depicts is still a closed and self-sufficient natural economy, a traditional lifestyle combining small farmers with cottage industries, and an absolutely average society without commodity exchange. "China's Farmland System" completely expresses farmers' desire to own land for thousands of years.
The new chapter of senior minister is a social development plan promulgated in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The new chapter of senior minister is a conspiracy of capitalism. After reading it, Hong Xiuquan gave instructions almost one by one, agreed to most of the terms, and ordered it to be engraved and promulgated. However, due to the historical conditions at that time, it could not be put into practice. The New Chapter of Senior Minister is the first systematic plan to develop capitalism in China's modern history, which reflects the efforts of some leaders in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to seek a way out by learning from foreign countries.
At the same time, the potential contradictions and weaknesses within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are increasingly exposed. 1In September, 856, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had an infighting Tianjing incident. Wang Yang of the East and Wei Changhui of the North were killed successively, and Shi Dakai, the king of the Wing, led the troops and left. The Tianjing incident seriously weakened the leadership and military strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and became a watershed for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to turn from prosperity to decline. In order to rectify the military discipline and save the crisis, Hong Xiuquan promoted a group of young generals with military talents, such as Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng. 1859, named Hong Rengan as the dry king and prime minister. This has been unable to fundamentally recover the defeat. Hong Xiuquan's conservative superstition is becoming more and more serious. Hong Rengan was deprived of the power of prime minister in 186 1. 1June, 864, Hong Xiuquan passed away. In July, Tianjing was captured by Xiang army. The Taiping Rebellion failed.
The historical significance of the peasant uprising in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom dealt a heavy blow to the feudal ruling class and strongly shook the ruling foundation of the Qing government. This also reflects the significance and limitations of the peasant struggle. The significance is as follows: The Taiping Rebellion impacted the orthodox authority of Confucius and Confucian classics, and weakened the spiritual pillar of feudal rule to some extent. The Taiping Rebellion effectively cracked down on foreign aggression. In the Asian national liberation movement in the middle of19th century, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement was the longest, largest and most influential. It merged with the national liberation movements of other Asian countries and impacted the rule of western colonialists in Asia. The limitations are as follows: the peasant class is not the representative of the new productive forces and relations of production, unable to overcome the inherent class limitations of small producers, lacking the guidance of scientific ideas and theories, and lacking an advanced leadership class, so it is impossible to fundamentally put forward a complete and correct political program and social reform plan. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used religion to mobilize and organize the masses, but the doctrine of worshipping God not only failed to guide the struggle correctly, but also brought harm to the peasant war.
The Taiping Rebellion and its failure showed that in semi-colonial and semi-feudal China, farmers had great revolutionary potential, but they could not shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle to win. A simple peasant war cannot accomplish the historical task of striving for national independence and people's liberation.
Second, the feudal landlord class's early exploration of the country's way out.
In order to save the ruling crisis of the Qing government, some members of the feudal ruling class had turmoil. Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo and Zhang Zhidong. It advocates the introduction and imitation of western weapons and equipment and the study of western science and technology, the establishment of modern enterprises and the establishment of westernization. These officials are called "Westernization School".
The purpose of establishing Westernization was to buy and manufacture foreign guns to suppress the peasant uprising. In this way, we will strengthen coastal defense and border defense, and take the opportunity to develop the political, economic and military strength of the group.
The establishment of the guiding ideology of Westernization was first fully expressed by Feng Guifen's "School Award to Lu Protest", "based on Chinese ethics, supplemented by the skills of enriching Qiang Bing." It is emphasized that in order to meet the challenges from the West, China urgently needs to carry out reforms. He put forward many suggestions for reforming official management, saying that only by reforming the imperial examination system can we learn science and technology from the west; It is suggested that the excellent craftsmen in arsenals and shipyards should be given the reputation of jury, and those who can improve western products should be given the reputation of being buried with them. Later, there was Zhang Zhidong's "Persuading Learning": "Middle school is the body, and western learning is used." The so-called "Chinese style and western use" means that the ruling order maintained by feudal ethics in China is the main body, supplemented by modern western industry and technology, and the former dominates the latter.
186 1 year, the establishment of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Prime Minister marked the rise of the Westernization Movement. First, establish modern enterprises, such as private enterprises, China Merchants, Kaiping Mining Bureau, etc. There are also military enterprises, such as Jiangnan Manufacturing General Administration, Jinling Machinery Bureau, Fuzhou Shipping Bureau and Tianjin Machinery Bureau. Although controlled by bureaucrats and their development is greatly restricted, these private enterprises run by officials and businessmen are basically capitalist modern enterprises. Second, establish a new navy and army, such as Beiyang Navy and Guangdong Navy. Third, establish new schools, send overseas students, translation schools, train translators, technical schools, train telegraph, railway, mining, western medicine and other professional and military schools, and train new naval talents.
During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Beiyang Navy, which had been managed by the Westernization School for many years, was completely annihilated, which marked the failure of the Westernization Movement with the goal of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth".
The historical role of the Westernization Movement, the Westernization School put forward the idea of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth", concentrated on giving priority to the development of military industry through the state power it mastered, and tried to "share the interests of foreign businessmen" and develop some civilian enterprises, which objectively played a certain role in promoting the development of China's early industry and national capitalism. However, the Westernization School initiated the new Westernization policy mainly to maintain feudal rule, not to make China develop into an independent capitalism. During the Westernization Movement, a number of new schools were established and the earliest official students were sent, which was the beginning of modern education in China. A number of modern natural science books were translated, which brought new knowledge to China at that time and broadened people's horizons. During the Westernization Movement, with the appearance of the capitalist mode of production, the traditional ideas such as "emphasizing the capital and restraining the end" were impacted, and the social atmosphere and values began to change, and the status of industrialists and businessmen rose, which was conducive to the development of capitalist economy and the change of social atmosphere.
The failure of Westernization Movement and its causes. First, the Westernization Movement was feudal. The guiding ideology of the Westernization Movement is "Learning from the Middle School as the Body, Learning from the West for Use", which attempts to maintain and consolidate China's feudal rule by absorbing modern western production technology, which determines its inevitable fate of failure. Second, the dependence of the Westernization Movement on foreign powers. Western powers don't want China to be really rich and strong. Westernization officials advocate "harmony but difference", and all the enterprises they set up depend on foreign countries. Their attempt to rely on foreign countries to achieve the goal of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth" is tantamount to trying to get the eggs from the tiger's skin. Third, the management of westernization enterprises is decadent. Although some new enterprises founded by the Westernization School have certain capitalist nature, their management is basically feudal yamen-style.
The military industry run by the Westernization Group is completely controlled by the government and its management is unprofitable. The guns and ships produced are often of poor quality.
Third, summarize the final experience and lessons.
The failure of the above two movements shows that in semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China, it is simply not feasible to try to take the road of top-down improvement through the rulers. The semi-colonial and semi-feudal social system under the joint rule of imperialism and feudalism must be overthrown by revolutionary means.
From the exploration of the country's way out by different social forces in the early days, we can know that in China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement showed that the peasant class was a class with great revolutionary spirit, but its class limitations prevented them from leading the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution independently.
Although the Westernization Movement introduced western advanced technology, which provided objective conditions for the development of Chinese national capitalism and started the early modernization process of China, their purpose of maintaining decadent and backward feudal rule was doomed to failure.