Lesson 3: Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement

Hong Xiuquan and the Jintian Uprising

The defeat of the Opium War further deepened the ruling crisis of the Qing government. With the increase of exploitation, the conflict between the ruling class and the working masses became increasingly acute. Peasant resistance struggles continued to take place everywhere, and a great storm was coming. Hong Xiuquan, who had repeatedly failed in the imperial examinations, founded the "God-worshipping Society" in 1843 and went to Guangxi with his classmate Feng Yunshan as a missionary. In more than two years, they developed a congregation of more than 2,000 people among the poor peasants in the mountains, including Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai and other key elements.

On January 11 0, 1851, Hong Xiuquan launched an armed uprising in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi, building the name Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the rebel army was called "Taiping Army".

Soon, Hong Xiuquan called the "King of Heaven". After conquering Yongan, Hong Xiuquan appointed Yang Xiuqing as the East King, Xiao Chaogui as the West King, Feng Yunshan as the South King, Wei Changhui as the North King, Shi Dakai as the Wing King, all the kings were under the control of the East King. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was initially established as a regime.

Settling the capital at Tianjing

In the spring of 1852, the Taiping Army broke out from Yong'an and marched north, besieging Guilin and Changsha and capturing Wuchang. Although Feng Yunshan and Xiao Chaogui died during the march, the army grew to 500,000 men. In the spring of the following year, the Taiping army abandoned Wuchang and moved eastward along the Yangtze River by land and water, capturing Nanjing in March 1853 and renaming it Tianjing as the capital.

After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom set its capital in Tianjing, it promulgated the Tianchu Tianmu System, which stipulated that land would be distributed equally according to population and age, regardless of gender. Through this program, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wanted to establish an ideal society in which "all fields were cultivated together, all food was eaten together, all clothes were worn together, and all money was used together, so that there was no place that was not evenly distributed and no one was not satisfied. However, the "Tianchao Tianmu System", which advocated the abolition of private ownership and the equalization of social wealth on the basis of small-scale production, could not be realized and was not practiced in practice.

In 1853, in order to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and consolidate its power, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began its northern and western expeditions. The Northern Expeditionary Army had approached Tianjin and was eventually wiped out. The Western Expedition, on the other hand, was a major victory. After more than three years of campaigning, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom took control of towns along the Yangtze River from Wuchang in Hubei to Zhenjiang in Jiangsu, and mastered parts of Anhui, Jiangxi, eastern Hubei and Jiangsu, entering its military heyday.

The Fall of Tianjing

In the autumn of 1856, Yang Xiuqing forced Hong Xiuquan to crown him "Longevity" with the intention of usurping the throne. As a result, Yang Xiuqing was killed, Wei Changhui was executed, and Shi Dakai led his troops away. The Tianjing Incident caused the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to go from strength to weakness.

In order to change the unfavorable situation, Hong Xiuquan made Hong Rengan, who came to Tianjing from Hong Kong, the king of the dynasty; he promoted a group of young generals such as Chen Yucheng and Patrick Li. Hong Rengan wrote the "New Book of Capitalism", proposing a series of political, economic, cultural and diplomatic ideas such as learning from the West and reforming internal affairs, which was appreciated by Hong Xiuquan. However, due to the constraints of historical conditions at that time, the New Book of Capital and Government could not be put into practice. Chen Yucheng and Patrick Li fought in concert and achieved great victories at Pukou and Sanhe, but they failed to fundamentally change the unfavorable military situation.

In 1860, Zeng Guofan's Xiang army surrounded Anqing. Chen Yucheng and Patrick Li led a failed rescue attempt and Anqing fell. Later, Chen Yucheng was captured and sacrificed. Patrick Li led the Taiping army to conquer Hangzhou and pushed into Shanghai, which was resisted and counterattacked by the foreign guns led by Wahl and the Huai army led by Li Hongzhang.

In 1862, the Xiang army besieged Tianjing. Patrick Li returned from Zhejiang and Shanghai to rescue them. In the summer of 1864, Hong Xiuquan died of illness. The Xiang army collapsed the city walls and stormed the city. The defenders of the city fought with the enemy and most of them died while the rest broke out. The fall of Yangjing marked the defeat of the fierce Taiping peasant movement.

The Taiping Rebellion was one of the largest peasant wars in Chinese history. Due to the limitations of the peasant class, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was unable to come up with a realistic revolutionary program, stop and overcome the corruption of the leadership group, or maintain the unity of the leadership group in the long run. However, it persisted in its struggle for 14 years, fought for half of China, dealt a heavy blow to the Qing Dynasty and foreign capitalist aggression, and wrote a magnificent chapter in the modern history of China.（904words）