The Huangchao Rebellion黃巢之亂 of the Tang dynasty was full of peasant participants, and so was the Taiping Rebellion of the Qing dynasty. However, the Taiping rebels起事者 included not only peasants but Hakkas客家人, Chinese Christian converts信徒 and unemployed porters who had served the Cohong merchants. They joined the Taiping Rebellion with many expectations期望. A peasant rebellion was usually led by a few educated men; similarly, the Taiping Rebellion was under the leadership of such scholars士人 like Hong Xiuquan and his nephew Hong Rengan洪仁玕.
In the Huangjin Rebellion黃巾之亂 of the Second Han dynasty, Taoism道教 was manipulated被利用 to incite唆使 people to revolt作亂. In the late Yuan era元朝, the White Lotus Society白蓮教 also made use of religions. The Taiping leaders manipulated Christianity and some popular民間 native本土 religions. Hong Xiuquan himself was God’s second son. All men were brothers while all women were sisters. Equality between sexes was introduced. Women could join the civil service examination科舉 and became officials. Thus, woman liberation婦女解放 was introduced for the first time to China. The Christian Testaments新約和舊約 were fundamental最重要 in education and examinations. A new calendar was also created. On the other hand, although Taoism, Buddhism佛教 and Confucianism儒家思想 were not encouraged, yet Hong Xiuquan borrowed many of their ideas like filial piety孝順, fatalism命數, 18 hells十八層地獄 and writings著作 like the Rites of Zhou周禮 to strengthen加強 his own position and indoctrinate思想灌輸 his followers. However, nobody could worship崇拜 idols偶像 and ancestors祖先. Comparing the Taiping Rebellion to a traditional peasant rebellion, we may find that both were led by educated people who manipulated religions to attract followers. The major difference is that the Taipings used a western religion. The Taiping Kingdom was more institutionalized制度化. Ideas were easily understood while unprecedented 史無前例的reforms were carried out.
A traditional peasant rebellion was aimed at improving the peasants’ economic well-being福祉 and at overthrowing the existing government. Other than these objectives目的, the Taiping Rebellion intended打算 to set up a new order秩序 in China based on both Christianity and the Rites of Zhou. Peasants of a traditional rebellion simply fought鬥爭 for lands; however, the Taiping system did not provide peasants with private ownership of lands私有土地. Peasants cultivated耕種 the land but had to share the harvests收獲 with others. Franz Michael therefore says that the Taiping Rebellion was NOT for peasants. Neither亦非 was it an event of class struggle, because the Taiping enemies were not landlords but peasants. Zeng Guofan’s曾國藩 Hunan Braves湘勇 and Li Hongzhang’s李鴻章 Huai Army淮軍 consisted包括 mainly of peasants. Class consciousness階級意識 did not exist in China, either. Jian Youwen簡又文 points out that in the hierarchy of ranks身份層次 of the Taiping Kingdom peasants were placed in the lowest stratum階層. In the economic sense, primitive communism原始共產主義 was implemented推行 in the Taiping institutions制度. However, the political system was like that of a traditional Chinese dynasty. There were kings諸王, generals眾將 and master sergeants官吏. Moreover, the Taiping leaders struggled to get the throne皇位, which was a traditional selfish motive動機.
Organizations of a traditional peasant rebellion were usually loose鬆散 and poor, whereas但是 the Taiping rebels had an efficient military organization learnt from Qi Jiguang戚繼光of the Ming dynasty明朝. Men and women were kept apart分開 from each other in the camp軍營; so men fought in the front前線while women supplied materials in the rear後方.
Traditional peasant rebellions seldom鮮有 concern 涉及nationalism. The White Lotus Society that was aimed at overthrowing the Mongolian蒙古 rulers was an exception例外 in Chinese history. Another exception was the Taiping Rebellion. It was aimed at expelling驅逐 the Manzhu and restoring the Chinese sovereignty主權 to the Hanzhu漢族. For example, nobody could keep the pigtail留辮. Furthermore, anti-foreign feeling was encouraged to withstand抵抗 western aggression, an unprecedented feature特色 of the Taiping Rebellion. Hong Xiuquan claimed宣稱 that he would abolish取消 the unequal treaties with the West.
No previous peasant rebellion dealt with應付 the West, but the Taiping leaders needed to do so. Owing to their anti-imperialism反帝國主義, cooperation with the West was impossible. As a result, the Western Powers organized the Ever Victorious Army常勝軍 to help the Qing government suppress鎮壓 the Taiping Rebellion. In the Second Han and Tang dynasties, peasant rebellions were suppressed mainly with the forces軍隊 of the central government. By contrast, the Taiping Rebellion was crashed粉碎 mainly with regional forces地方團練, the Hunan Braves and Huai Army, with the help of a small auxiliary輔助性 western army. Like previous peasant rebellion, nevertheless雖然如此, internal dissension內鬨 and strategic mistakes戰略失誤 led to the failure of the Taiping Rebellion.
A traditional large-scale大規模 peasant rebellion used to 經常cause serious economic destruction破壞, thus weakening削弱 the foundation基礎 of the existing government and speeding up加速 its decline衰落. The Taiping Rebellion did so. In addition to this normal result, the Taiping Rebellion had more far-reaching深遠的 effects. As it was suppressed mainly with regional forces, so power was getting vested給予 in the hands of regional Chinese officials after 1864. The outstanding突出 persons were Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang左宗棠. More posts職位 of governors巡撫 and governor-generals總督 were given to the Han Chinese漢人. Since then自此, the central Manzhu government had to consider the provincial opinions各省意見. Likewise同樣地, the Grand Council內閣 and Grand Secretariat軍機處 in Beijing absorbed吸納 more Han Chinese officials. For instance例如, Weng Tonghe翁同龢 became the first Chinese Grand Secretary軍機大臣. Sometimes Chinese opposition might block阻撓 the decisions of the Manzhu rulers. For example, in 1898 Empress Dowager Cixi慈禧太后 failed to depose廢黜 Emperor Guangxu光緒帝. In 1900 most southern Chinese regional officials refused to support the Boxer Uprising義和團起事. Worst still, the Taiping Rebellion sowed the seeds播下種籽 of warlordism軍閥割據, because it gave rise導致 to private armies. Li Hongzhang did not disband解散 the Huai Army but used it as the basis基礎 of his Beiyang Fleet北洋艦隊.
The Tongzhi Restoration同治中興 of 1862-74 was aimed at restoring恢復 China to the established order. Yet something had to be done to wipe out消除 the influence of the Taiping legacy遺下來的事物. Traditional ideologies思想 and private ownership were restored. Measures措施 were taken to remedy治療 the widespread廣泛的 economic devastation破壞. At the same time, the Self-Strengthening Movement自強運動 was launched展開 with limited western reforms, because western weapons had been used in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion. The Western Powers also felt happy with the Second Treaty Settlement第二批不平等條約 of 1858-60. So immediately after the Taiping Rebellion there was a honeymoon蜜月期 between China and the West.
On the contrary相反地, the Taiping Rebellion indirectly led to more losses of China’s sovereignty. During the Rebellion the British started to take charge管理 of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service中國海關 while foreign settlements租界 in Shanghai expanded擴張.
The more important influence of the Taiping Rebellion lay在於 in its impacts影響 upon the future political and social revolutions. Hong Xiuquan’s work inspired激勵 Dr. Sun Yixian孫逸仙 to take up a revolutionary career事業. The Taiping remnants太平遺老 supported Dr. Sun while some ideas of the Taiping Movement were borrowed in his Three Principles of the People (Sanmin Zhuyi三民主義). Hence因此, compared to a traditional peasant rebellion which simply caused economic destruction, the Taiping Rebellion did much more because it provided with a blueprint藍圖 for the unprecedented Chinese republican revolution of 1911. The use of the plain language白話文, punctuations標點符號 and ideas of woman liberation during the Taiping Movement were advocated提倡 again in the New Cultural Movement新文化運動 of the early twentieth century.
To sum up, apart from除了 the reasons for peasant discontent, quality of both the leaders and followers, manipulation of religions and economic destruction, the other elements元素 and impacts of the Taiping Rebellion were greatly different from a traditional peasant rebellion. It had its own unprecedented characteristics.
