Introduction
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a region which was, at first, a small poor and secluded location in Guangxi province. The region was the harbor of a great revolutionary decade which began when Hong Xiuquan; disappointed examination candidate in the civil service started developing visions about Christianity and capitalized on this to form his own profound political ideology. Hong believed that he was the little brother of Jesus who was sent to save China and with this mindset; he started offering teachings to members of that province (Geng 46). With the advancement of time, in 1847, his friend Feng Yunshan created the God Worshipper’s Society, a church that witnessed a massive influx of people who approved of its ideologies. Hong Xiuquan was a revered member of this establishment and in 1851; he proclaimed Taiping Tianguo to be his dynasty and assumed the title of Tianwang (Heavenly King).
The new Culture of the Kingdom
Being a religious faction, new rules were crafted to govern the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and this became the culture of this region for over a decade. The most striking practice that was built in this community was the culture of sharing property in common regardless of sex and social standing. All people had the obligation to worship only one true God, and they would not worship any other deity. Also the fact that the Taiping religion asserted that there is only one true God ensured a clear deviation from the previous polytheistic ideologies in the Chinese culture. This alongside loathsome principles against the foreign Manchu rulers of China attracted many farmers, peasants, and miners who were ravaged by hunger and famine. The governance of Hong organized the men into disciplined soldiers grouped into men and women and skilled them in the art of war. In addition to this, during this regime, the governance sought to simplify the Chinese language. Also, all men and women had equal standing within the society. Because all property in Taiping was held in Common, land was equally distributed in accordance with the ancient communism practices.
Since the region had borrowed its credence from Christianity, some of the biblical values found their way into the culture of Taiping. However, there is no way in which the traditional Chinese peasant would be totally assimilated into the Christian way of life . Therefore, the leadership majorly insisted on the values emphasized on in the old testament. As such, the teachings of Taiping Christianity focused greatly on the Old Testament more than the New Testament. For instance, the religion insisted that God demanded the people's obedience and worship. Practices such as slavery, prostitution, and foot binding were prohibited. On top of this, the culture would also not allow the use of tobacco or alcohol, smoking of opium, gambling and adultery. On the other hand, these teachings were silent on issues of forgiveness, kindness, and redemption as enshrined in the New Testament.
The Relationship between the Culture in Taiping and Modern day China
The culture introduced in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from 1851 to 1864 had a great bearing to some of the current practices within China Today. The decade and its cultures in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have been described to have occurred in a very retrogressive era that should not be allowed to recur again. That explains the reason as to why Currently in China there is widespread hatred and paranoia towards Christians and Tibetans or other minor religious factions. Amidst all these hatred and discredit, many subsequent political establishments have found themselves applying, at least, one or two principles enunciated in the Taiping revolutionary movement. While the China's Communist party started with fronting the ideas of communal ownership of all property in the country; the nationalist movement insists that all people are equal, and they have to be treated as such at all times. In addition to this, since the Taiping movement was predicated on teachings brought by foreigners, a culture of learning foreign languages has been developed in the country, and there are many institutions offering lessons in foreign languages.
Works Cited
Geng, Yunzhi. An Introductory Study on China's Cultural Transformation in Recent Times. Berlin: Springer. 2014. Internet resource.
