There comes time when ordinary people, being dissatisfied with the way they are treated in their own country by electable servants of the people or lifelong hereditary august royal family members. Of royal blood or of no royal blood, power time gets depleted for those in power as social contrasts become sharp and easier to notice. Where barriers between what is constitutionally legitimate and what is unacceptable for political leaders to do while in power are blurry, a grand-scale revolt occurs that has a massive potential of spilling into a war of attrition against those who only prove able to stuff their coffers, rather than replenishing treasury.
The Taiping Rebellion was a real civil war that was fevering China from 1850 to 1864 or one and a half decade that saw Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established and then going to rack and ruin close to the end of the period following military failures. However, what it did bring about were positive shifts reflected in Chinese history. Negative fallouts were not seldom since the regime was religious of nature, disproportionate and rather one-sided, led by Hung Xiuquan who believed himself to be Jesus’ brother. The point is the Taiping Rebellion is arguably the single bloodiest that has ever gone down the annals of history, bringing both positive and negative consequences for China. Nor did the notoriously known French Revolution come close to matching it in range and duration. The revolution in France brought down the institute of monarchy, as did the Taiping Rebellion that of the Chinese Empire, with people seeing the last of the Qing dynasty at the turn of the new 20-th century, 2 to 4 decades after the end of the rebellion as distinct from France that had the ruling dynasty of Bourbons executed.
Ohanjanian (134) claims that Chinese and Soviet historians do not share this common view on the Taiping agrarian policy that was a major motivity of the rebellion based on the dissatisfaction of the landless peasantry. The new “land system” revolved around an impartial distribution of land resources, which all but succeeded. Partial implementation of reforms was largely due to landlord ownership remaining in force as of mid-19th century (Ohanjanian, 134). By that, the expert hints at the Chinese Empire never fully making a transition from the feudal landowning state. Michael and Chang (930) clearly state that the authenticity of document that might shed light on the events of the revolution as well as economic reforms, including Nanking proposal and Taiping leaders moves, baffles an actual research and compromises its accuracy.
Ohanjanian (128) believes the relevant documentation to be the main reason that prevents historians and economy experts from conducting an adequate research. Even the attempt made by the People’s Republic government of studying the events from the 19th century timed to coincide with a hundredth anniversary of the Taiping Rebellion turned out to be a failure after Ch’ing dynasty had eradicated the memory of the uprising by destroying major historical records; however, the preserved document brought from abroad enabled the research of the events from political, military, and economic angles.
Najeeb (n.p.) suggests that the Taiping Rebellion became a transitional, unifying bridge between the pre-modern and the modern history of China. So important was the rebellion for the history of the whole country, launching the breakdown of a customary order, being by far more impactful than the two Opium Wars. High rent, heavy taxation, land desertion, population increase, insecurity, the augmentation of criminals, dynastic decline, and governmental corruption set the wheels of the rebellion in motion. According to Hall (n.p.), the Qing dynasty financial should be thought of as one of the key reasons for the rebellion to have taken place back in the 19th century. The expert adds trade misbalance and over-taxation to the already long list of reasons why China had room for the Taiping ideology and why the time was ripe for changes. Michaels (n.p.) admits that this was the first rebellion ever to be guided by a very strict ideology. What also distinguishes the Taiping rebellion from other attempts is that its leaders did attempt to solve the aforementioned issues, which was achieved in the course of the 20-year rebellion and short-lived Taiping country where peasants were relieved from heavy taxes, land was fairly distributed, crime was given a very decisive battle, and land was reclaimed.
According to Halsall (n.p.), Hung Xiuquan, a key figure of the revolt, had his views dominated by Christianity propounded by missionaries, whose ardent religious speeches led him to believe he was genetically linked to none other than Jesus Christ who, in turn, ordered Heavenly Kingdom to be established on earth. The doctrine of millenarianism helped him enlist the support of peasantry to embark on a fiercest strife, which came to be known as the Taiping Rebellion. Spanning over south and central China, the rebellion extended its geography as far south as Nanking, a southern capital of the Chinese Empire only for theocratic military government to be established following massive territorial gaining (Halsall, n.p.). According to Penn (n.p.), the political doctrine construed by Xiuquan was more of a mixture or the hybrid of Christianity and Chinese superstitions, which major task was to eradicate Manchu traditions and lifestyle as well as denounce Confucianism and certain Chinese traditions that were thought to be backward-looking (Penn, n.p.).
However millenarian, the regime adopted policies that heralded a large modernization of China that came in the shape of the ban against opium smoking and gambling, polygamy, the use of wine and tobacco, prostitution, and most importantly, the bargaining of slaves (Halsall, n.p.). Leung (n.p.) admits that Karl Marx was right to link the reason of the rebellion to opium wars with Britain that forced the country into bankruptcy; still, economic reasons behind opium problem could have hardly been the only driving force for the “God Worshippers” to rise against the Qing dynasty. The new authority hugely promoted the unprecedented for the then Chinese society equality of sexes, with foot binding abolished and women promoted to administrators and officers in the Taiping army (Halsall, n.p.). Penn (n.p.) claims that women were allowed to visit school, take official exams and occupy offices, which used to be uncharacteristic of the Chinese Empire prior to it disturbed by the revolt. Women’s serving in army was quite a novelty for the whole world as of 19-th century; however, China was one of the first countries to make it happen. As far as foot binding is concerned, this torturing excruciating practice used to be in place for centuries, which can be explained in terms of a somewhat sadistic quest for ultimate beauty through forcing feet growth to stall in an unnatural way by constraining the size of shoes to an unnaturally ideal one. In common with Chinese women, their middle- and upper-class European counterparts would not stop applying the now defunct corset at times for reducing waist until the 20-th century when feminist movements reached their apex. The new anti-discriminative trend could well have been exported from China where the liberation process began in the preceding century.
What Hung Xiuquan and his political associates were also trying to do were abolishing private ownership of property and land and developing a program for the equal and fair distribution of land. The division of land was based on the principle of how many individuals constituted a household, regardless of sex; however, the more sharers there were, the larger track of land they were bound to obtain. One family members were obliged to receive both poor and good quality land in equal proportion while its deficiency used to cause people to be removed to another piece of land, and so on, until efficiency was reached. Thus tried the new authority to establish all-strata equality under one God. Every individual to have reached the age of 16 years or beyond was to receive twice the size of land of those who were 1 year their junior. Hence, the increase in the size of land allotted was directly proportionate to the age of a recipient (Halsall, n.p.). Ohanjanian (129) admits that the Taiping land system was largely influenced by Christian ideas of common ownership and land equality as well as the Confucian teaching called “Great Unity”. It is exactly from the teachings of Confucius that the rebellion inspirers and ideologists derived their ideas of land distribution based on the above-mentioned equality of sexes, and the number of family members. As mentioned before, land reform was not fully implemented as the territory to the south of the river Yangtze had always been populated by Taipings while in the northern part large landowners were flourishing even following the revolt, which is why reform sprouted on the entire territory of China (Ohanjanian, 129).
If one should go further studying the subsequent provisions of the program, he or she should see the true rudiments of communism in flesh sprouting gradually, in other words, it was the never before seen political regime at least on Chinese soil on its training wheels. Seeing that China of today is the People’s Republic, the 19-th century democratic shifts were instrumental in shaping its current social and political system to a certain extent. It was a much-needed move that all sovereigns-ruled countries or empires did at some point and in their time, similar to France transitioning from feudalism and later from imperial political structure in the time of the French Revolution and under Bonaparte. Land sharing was a rigid must that was long overdue inasmuch as the better part of lands was in sole possession of the imperial dynasty, pushing the lowest social stratum to their limit. Modernization for a stagnating conservative empire was needed the sooner the better. Undemocratic country ruled by emperors was a political atavism on its last legs around the time; hence, reforms could not have come at a better time, though slightly communistic in their essence.
Halsall (n.p.) suggests that women were liable to rearing silkworms and spinning silk as well as watching that cattle bring breed on a yearly basis, without missing the high time for this to happen, with the number of poultry and livestock strictly regulated. The surplus of grain was meant to be placed in a depository or a public granary so that every individual might have food in abundance (Halsall, n.p.). Although the practice of distributing food per the needs of every family might seem fair and essential for eliminating famine, if such; however, what it does do is make it impossible for the surplusage of grain or any other food staples to be sold at the market as is usually implemented if there is no such policy in place. That being said, the above policy is a double-edged weapon as, though reducing poverty, it de facto halts a large economy engine, aka market, accountable for taxpaying, generating middle class, and performing a number of other functions.
Halsall (n.p.) goes on to note that sergeant were tasked with assigning corporals to a certain number of families that had a common public granary for him to supervise excessive food being handed over. Pulse, hemp, wheat, cloth, silk, fowls, dogs, and allegedly money were in the list of items for sharing. When once people used to get married or expect a child to be born, they were in line for money and grain (Halsall, n.p.). Beyond doubt, equal sharing is a wise move to do; however, for every citizen fed there is one citizen discontented with not being able to increase earnings by selling surplus. Also, military men being involved in grain takeover may be a disturbing sign of a militarism. A slightly similar policy was implemented in the USSR at the early stages of its existence, in 1920s; still, unlike there and then, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom never applied grain seizure and famine as suppression tools. Instead, though communal as well, the regime considered it the highest priority to provide for the least protected of citizens. If so, Chinese new political elite of the earl second half of the 19-th century should be considered for what it rightfully is – a socially equal an economically stable country.
Religious aspects received a particular focus in the newly established moral principles for citizens to follow. Daily church attendance was regarded as a must-do practice for young boys who were read the Old and the New Testament by sergeants. Men and women were supposed to visit church on Sabbath; however, with a proviso that they had to seat in separate rows. Army enlistment suggested that, of one family there must be at least one soldier while there was no enlisting recruits from among the disabled, the childless, widowed, and orphans (Halsall, n.p.). Gender segregation is hardly a good idea, as is obligatory church attendance, especially when supervised by military men.
According to Najeeb (n.p.), there was too much religious zeal in theocratic Taiping China, with Nanking proclaimed the “Heavenly Capital”, Hung made his subjects refer to him as the “Heavenly King” while his decrees and treasury were also given a holy status. Unlike China, other countries, governments were striving to laicize political power and reduce the influence of church on this secular power. Apart from being excessively dominated by religion, the Taipings failed to stop the accumulation of privileges and wealth. The top echelon official end up exempting themselves from sternness imposed on ordinary people, relishing luxurious clothes, large harems, and unmatched diets (Najeeb, n.p.). Hence, Taiping leaders seem to be no different to the soviet communists of the 20th century who were the only individuals to enjoy the privileges of unrestrained life unlike their people who just happened to worship the same ascetic lifestyle as the 19th century Chinese Taipings did. Even worse, oligarchic ruling pattern was characteristic of the Taiping political system. All they did was strengthen hierarchical principles of the new Chinese society (Najeeb, n.p.). “Brethren principle” soon came to be eclipsed by preferment for Kwangsi men, washing away the promise of equal and fair treatment of all, without the like-minded being given a priority or preference.
These were the main reasons that compromised the Taipings and kept them from conducting a true social revolution. The religious power did come up short in their attempts to build an equal society, guided by egalitarian mentality; however, there should be no denying this attempt was by no means a complete failure since the rebellion itself was unprecedented in force and the range of its geography. Constant military involvement took its toll on consolidating efforts made by the Taping followers to unite under one banner (Najeeb, n.p.). Reilly (14) believes that the Taiping movement was meant to have completely destroyed the office of emperor, the so-called Confucian cultural apparatus and the hierarchal society to erect a brand-new religious culture on the ruins of the dismantled empire; however all this only was to have happened, without coming to fruition, except for the disestablishment of the imperial institution later on.
Speaking of the devastative impact made by the revolt, according to Taiping Rebellion 1850-64 (n.p.), 16 provinces were ravaged by the rebellion over 14 years and as many as 600 cities were utterly destroyed. The number of people killed ranges from 20 to over 30 million individuals. Grave were the demographic and economic outcome of the revolt insofar as the number of the civilians perished in the course of a civil war or any other conflict has not been as high. In accordance with “Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)”, the death toll of the estimated 20 million was twice that of the World War 1. Cities to bear the major brunt of the rebellion had not been completely restore even by 1950s, more than 100 years following the beginning of the revolt. More than that, the central government spent millions of dollars to bring the uprising down, which could not but impact the taxpayers as well as the entire economy that already had to incur heavy fiscal losses needed for the complete restoration of the destroyed social infrastructure.
However, being a religious power that it was, the Taiping government failed to completely eliminate feudalist, fairly share land resources and abide by the parity principle, which had been set in stone as a firm dogma of their political doctrine. The top brass enrichment, the formation of oligarchy, and the strengthening of societal hierarchy took their ultimate toll on the community that was on no account egalitarian, being dominated by the principle of preference, not equality. Such way or another, the Taiping Rebellion did blaze a trail for a feminist movement, spreading in Europe in the subsequent century as well as laying foundations for the current Chinese state system, which is less utopian, more impartial, and incomparably economically prosperous.
Sources Cited
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