Did the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom abolish private property? What did they eat when they first started fighting?

Whenever the land is divided, the land is divided according to the population, regardless of the number of men or women, and the number of people in the family is calculated. If there are more people, there will be more divisions, if there are fewer people, there will be fewer divisions, and the mixture will be divided into nine grades. ... Let the people of the world enjoy the great blessings of our Heavenly Father, the Lord and the Emperor, with fields to work together, food to eat, clothing to wear, money to work with, equality everywhere, and no one without food and warmth. ―――"Celestial Land System"

"If you have fields, you can work together, if you have food, you can eat together, you can wear the same clothes, and if you have the money, you can work together" is a slogan-like summary, or it is what most people think of. The most profound memory of the peaceful paradise economic policy is closely followed by the criticism of the "egalitarian" utopian ideals of the peasant class, but this was supplemented by the "big canteen"-style "holy treasury" and "segregated camps for men and women" system According to the description, the image of Taiping Paradise as an "advanced" revolutionary organization that tried to eliminate private industry and distribute public ownership has been deeply engraved in the minds of many people.

The problem is, just because a lot of people believe it, doesn’t mean it’s the truth.

The basis for the compilation of textbooks is actually the research conclusions of previous scholars. However, these conclusions bear a very clear mark of the times, and can even be said to be the fact that "discussions replace history". Therefore, vast and Historical data with conflicting conclusions were ignored by them.

The earliest time when the "God Worship Association" abolished private property and implemented the "public ownership of the holy treasury" system was on the "eve of the Jintian Regiment Camp". The basis is the following record in "The Peaceful Paradise Uprising": Announcement Catholic believers from all counties were concentrated in one place. Previously, all believers had felt the need to unite as one body to defend against public enemies. They have sold their properties and houses for cash and paid everything into the public treasury. All food and clothing are paid for from public funds and are equally distributed.

The original title of the book "The Peaceful Paradise Uprising" is "The Visions of Hung-Siu-Tschuen and Oringin of the Kwang si insurecion" (The Visions of Hung-Siu-Tschuen and Oringin of the Kwang si insurecion), a Swedish Han Shan's Diploma was compiled based on Hong Ren's dictation. It was published in Hong Kong in 1854 and was immediately reprinted in installments in the English newspaper "Beihua Jiebao" in China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was included in "Peaceful Paradise" edited by the Chinese Historical Society. Volume 6 of the Historical Materials Series is also regarded as the main historical material in the early days of the Taiping Paradise Uprising.

However, as mentioned above, the source of this book is Hong Ren’s dictation in Hong Kong before 1854, and he himself did not participate in the Jintian Uprising. The understanding of sports is limited, but it is actually based on "brain enhancement".

In fact, long before the Jintian Camp, the God Worshiping Association, as an organizational entity, already had the need for daily expenses of "gathering people", and the solution at that time was to accept the "tribute" from the congregation, see "Brother Tian's Imperial Edict": (Brother Tian said on the seventeenth day of the first lunar month of the Gengxu year:) Xiuquan, when brothers come, they will be unified with gifts, but they will be the same without gifts.

This is Xiao Chaogui giving instructions to Hong Xiuquan in the form of "brother heaven coming to earth", requiring that believers who come to vote "with gifts" and "without gifts" should be treated equally, which means that Hong Xiuquan existed at that time. Congregants with "gifts" and "without gifts" should not be treated like a bowl of water, otherwise there would be no need to invite "Brother Jesus" to talk nonsense.

What’s even more interesting is that “Brother Tian” is still very humane. Not long after, on the fifth day of February, when Hu Yihuang and others wanted to “pay tribute”, he also specifically emphasized that his family could be saved. Only after 10 days can he be taken in... Otherwise, everyone must take it home.

In other words, the "tribute" system is a behavior that coexists with the private ownership of family property. It is not either/or. Because of this, the "tribute" and "eating" of property are "Big households" actually coexisted. On June 20th of the Gengxu year, "Brother Tian" asked Huang Qimei: Huang Qimei, your family respects the elders, and brothers and sisters come to your house from time to time. Are you afraid that your family will eat all the food?

The future deeds of this "Huang Qimei" are not obvious. Like most of the nearly 200 people mentioned in "Brother Tian's Imperial Edict", she only had a major involvement in the early days of the Lord Worship Movement. What is known is The situation is that when Hong Xiuquan's family traveled from Guangdong to Guangxi in June of the Gengxu year (1850), they were accompanied by Qin Rigang, Chen Cheng, and Huang Qimei. Therefore, some scholars speculate that Huang Qimei came from the family of Hong Xiuquan's cousin Huang Shengjun in Cigu Village, Guangxi. So he was sent to accompany the female relatives.

However, it is obvious that this family assumed the function of "transportation station" or even "organization" during this period. Many people they interacted with came to "eat the rich", similar to Wei Changhui. According to the records of "Tingping Paradise in Guangxi", the wealthy family grew to several thousand people, so they opened a barn at Wei Changhui's house to provide food for everyone.

If people who are not familiar with the history of the late Qing Dynasty see these records, they may think that they are all "initiatives" of the Taiping Paradise. In fact, the proliferation of Liuhe organizations in Guangxi has long had so-called "rice owners" "The system, that is, organized congregations go together to eat with the rich members, and after eating at one restaurant, they go to another restaurant. This kind of behavior still exists at least in some underground religious traditions in Sanjie's hometown 10 years ago.

In other words, during the Catholic Church missionary period before the Jintian Uprising, the "public ownership" policy of completely turning over the congregation's property was not implemented, even when the Jintian regiment camp was established and crowds began to gather to prepare for the uprising. , that is, at the time described in "The Uprising of Peaceful Paradise", the members of the Lord Worshipers who came to seek refuge still used "paying tribute" as their main method.

In the "Miscellaneous Notes of the Taiping Paradise" written by Mr. Jian Youwen, it was recorded that at that time, eight "Triads" (i.e. Tianhehui) troops wanted to join the Taiping Army, and Hong Xiuquan agreed. Therefore, these troops "offered cattle, pigs, rice, grain and other materials to the Hong army", that is, "paid tribute", and were also recycled. The Hong leader of "Longyan Dayue" sent sixteen people to these troops. He sent an army to preach the doctrine, and the leader of the Triads gave a lot of money to these sixteen people. In the end, fifteen of them turned it over to the public treasury. One person hid the gift and did not report it, so he was beheaded by Hong Xiuquan, " To warn the future.”

Regarding this treatment, some senior scholars believed that it was evidence that the God-Worship Society prohibited "private property". In fact, it was wrong, because the execution of this person was clearly stated to be "handled strictly according to the law." At this time, the Tatism Army's " "Law" is the "Book of Heavenly Rules" that has been promulgated a long time ago. What it violates is Article 10: "Don't be greedy... When you see a person's property is good, you will think about the person's property." To put it bluntly, it is "killing the heart." Rather than "killing".

To sum up, at the beginning of the Taiping Paradise, there was basically no prohibition on "private industry", let alone "absolute public ownership". In essence, it was not the same as civil organizations such as Liuhehui. Different, to put it further, this method of attack is also very similar to the "Tianli Sect" that attacked the Forbidden City during the Jiaqing period. According to the confession of its leader Lin Qing, it was originally for "seeking wealth", but it was only when the family business became bigger that it became I just wanted to sit in the Jinluan Hall.