Why is Hong Xiuquan so powerful?

Hong Xiuquan is really a hero among the Han people. In the Qing Dynasty, hundreds of millions of Han people were enslaved and ruled by millions of Manchu Tartars. Manchu Tartars refused to let the Han people wear Han costumes and forced them to shave their pigtail hair. These Manchu Tartars also wanted the Han people to support them like parasites and sold out the interests of the country, especially the Han people. It was Hong Xiuquan who was the first to rise up and resist. He was a bloody and brave man.

The great Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement led by Hong Xiuquan awakened the people of China's consciousness of anti-feudalism, anti-oppression and anti-aggression. After that, a group of democratic revolutionaries who studied him appeared in China, which greatly promoted the development of China's history.

I don't know when a subversive wind began to prevail in China. Subversion of tradition, belief, morality, criticism-even history. I am not an old man or a representative of the so-called old forces. On the contrary, I am also a member of the post-8s generation who are active in various fields. I have never opposed change, and I have never opposed changing some wrong understandings. However, when all this became more and more fierce and seemed to subvert all inherent values, I had to question: What do they want?

I'm writing this article to talk about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, because I recently read an article criticizing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, and I was so overwhelmed that I had to pick up my pen and say something.

First of all, please note that I am defending the peasant uprising against oppression in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Speaking of this, I can't help feeling. In school before, like many people, I always felt that philosophy was a mysterious course with nothing to do but a full stomach. But now it is discovered that so many people really lack the ability to think philosophically about problems. They always look at problems simply, unilaterally, absolutely and impulsively, rather than dialectically, developmentally, objectively and deeply. I always like to draw a conclusion from one person's or even one person's affair that the whole career that this person is engaged in is not worth taking.

pathetic, alas! If China's decision-making power is held by such a group of narrow-minded and impetuous people, I really shudder for the future of the country.

get to the point, let's continue to talk about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

My contribution to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is to inspire people to resist oppression and establish the Taiping Army (of course, Feng Yunshan and others are indispensable). I am here to discuss whether the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement led by Hong Xiuquan is a great retrogression in history and a great destruction of social productive forces, as some people have said.

First of all, I want to sternly refute those ignorant people who accuse Taiping Army of being a cult. In fact, how much influence does religion have in the Taiping Army?

I don't deny that many Taiping soldiers at the lower level are afraid of and believe in what the Father said. However, they joined the Taiping Army and fought not only because they believed in God. China has never had a social atmosphere in which religion dominates everything, as in medieval Europe. On the contrary, China has had a strong social hotbed of realism since ancient times. It is not so much a pious belief that workers pray for God and Buddha, but in fact most of them seek psychological comfort. Secular thought has been the mainstream in the history of China for thousands of years. In this environment, the broad masses of people may join the Taiping Army, which everyone knows well is against the imperial court, just for psychological comfort. Will it destroy the Jiuzu and be beyond redemption?

In fact, some people always quote the view of one of the parties and say that it is the people who are "wrapped up". However, you believe in the documents of the Qing side so much, why don't you believe in the views on the other side? This is obviously unfair.

Opening the thick archives of Qing Dynasty and relevant documents of Britain and other countries involved in it are full of similar accusations against Taiping Army and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It is ridiculous that there are a large number of people in modern society, but instead take this as "conclusive" evidence and accuse the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of being a heinous mob. I would like to ask you, is the credibility of this hostile article from the enemy so high? Think about the mutual propaganda and slander between China and the United States during the civil war. How credible is it?

it is impossible for us to experience what happened more than 1 years ago. However, as a great movement that lasted for more than ten years, it also had a certain impact on the world. Some foreigners, who didn't know much about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing government, came to China out of curiosity and described the two sides from their perspectives. I think, for some people today, you disdained the records of conscientious Chinese at that time, so these foreigners' records, you should not be selectively blind, right?

There is an Englishman named Lingchui. Ben is a British navy, and he knows nothing about the history and present situation of the Far East. He came to China in 1859 and entered the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 186. We might as well see if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom he saw with his own eyes was, as his compatriot, the British envoy to Qing Dynasty, Pruss said, "a group of bandits and robbers who plundered for a living. They plundered women and were arrogant and extravagant." "Where (they) succeed, there will be complete destruction." Or as the British Consul General in Ningbo Xia Fuli said, they don't have any ability to organize the government? At first glance, it can be seen that these remarks are the origin of some people's campaign to vilify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom today.

As Ling Zuo entered the Taiping Army area from the Qing Dynasty at that time, he had a profound feeling about the different contrast between the two sides. He pointed out that people under the yoke of Manchu feudal rule, their hopes and spirits were suppressed and destroyed, and they were stupid, cold and full of slave-like attitudes. In the occupied area of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, "because they got rid of the slave status in both physical and mental aspects", the whole character also showed surprising superiority, especially women, whose status was greatly improved and their appearance was obviously more cheerful and beautiful than that of women in Qing Dynasty. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom "abolished opium and prostitution", and there was no exorbitant taxation. I used to do business between the Qing side and the Taiping Army, that is, buy silk from the Taiping Army, and then buy food from the Qing side and transport it to the Taiping Army. He said: In the Qing Dynasty, he met dozens of checkpoints, large and small, all of which extorted money at will, raised the tax price, and stragglers wandered around and robbed. In the occupied area of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, only one entry tax is paid, that is, it is unimpeded. This point, even in the Qing dynasty, had to be simply affirmed in the book "The Cape Continuation". This monk, because of his deep personal feelings, finally decided to join the Taiping Army, and finally died in the Taiping Army with his British girlfriend.

Let's talk about the destruction of social productive forces by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which has been talked about by some people. As we know, the Taiping Army occupied the richest area in China. Since 186, all silk-producing areas and most tea-producing areas have been under the jurisdiction of the Taiping Army. To judge the development of social productive forces, we might as well directly examine the output of silk and tea during this period. As these materials are exported, they are on record. In the eight years before the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Nanjing its capital, China exported no more than 26, bales of silk every year. In June, 186, the Taiping Army occupied Suzhou, an important silk producing area, and later seized Jiaxing, another silk producing area. By the end of May, 1861, the silk output had suddenly increased to 88,754 bales, and each bale came from the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. A few years later, when the Qing army counterattacked and the Taiping army was forced to retreat from the silk-producing area, the output immediately dropped by half. So, is it clear at a glance who is destroying the productive forces and who is developing them?

As for the population decline in the south of the Yangtze River, it is even more unjust to attribute it to the Taiping Army. As Ling said, after the Qing army occupied Wuxi, it slaughtered more than 6, civilians on the charge that they were from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Some people are keen to say how many so-called landlords and gentlemen the Taiping rebels have slaughtered, but why hasn't anyone with a conscience come forward to speak for the ordinary people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who have been slaughtered more? Because of their low status, can their life and death be ignored? )

On his way back to Shanghai, Mr. Ling continued to see with his own eyes the villages that were prosperous under the jurisdiction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom a few months ago, all of which were burned and plundered by the Qing army, and the dead bodies were everywhere, with ten rooms and nine empty rooms. He also made his own statistics. From 186 to 1864, the number of soldiers and civilians killed by the Qing army in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was more than 2 million!

these, I think, are by no means fabricated? Because we all know who said that "Nanjing will be laid for three days", and we all know that the slogan shouted by the Qing army in "warlords" is "rob money! Grab food! Grab a woman! " In the face of this obvious evidence, what is it to blame the Taiping Army for the depression in the south of the Yangtze River, instead of hitting yourself in the mouth?

Ling Zuo also pointed out sharply that those Europeans who opposed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement were "all people involved in opium trade (opium was forbidden in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom), all British officials who represented Irving's China policy, all mercenary businessmen and foreign mercenaries." A large number of foreign friends of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are those who are "broad-minded, care about the sufferings of mankind and the happiness of the oppressed nation, and just businessmen who are not enthusiastic about the opium trade."

Some people complain that the Taiping Rebellion delayed the modernization movement in China. It's a joke, not to mention that the real cause of the Taiping Rebellion is that the people are in poverty and can't live any longer. Let's say that a group of backbones of the Westernization Movement didn't start from suppressing the Taiping Army. It was this great movement that indirectly led to the emergence of Westernization School and began to influence the political situation in China.

Finally, I have to pay my respects to the heroes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In that Qian Qian, in order to get rid of the slave status of selling children and women, to stop begging at the feet of evil slave owners, to stop being inferior and starving to death on the streets, and to fight back, thousands of heroes and heroines emerged in the Taiping Army, trying to establish a new society. Their deeds are as bright as the sun and the moon! Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Feng Yunshan, Chen Yucheng, Kai Wing Lam and so on, a large number of resounding names, lit up the dark sky. We saw the heroic city of Jiujiang City, Chen Yucheng's unyielding death, the great achievements of the Taiping Army in catching and killing Sengqin, and the men, women and children who tied leggings, let go of foot binding, disbanded the pigtails of slaves, set themselves on fire in Tianjing City, and never became slaves again ... Without them, a clear page would be bleak, and the clank of the Chinese nation would not be passed on.

The past is gone. I have no intention to beautify all aspects of this peasant uprising against oppression, but I will never allow it to be defiled or subverted. Just as we can't belittle what utopian socialists do and even their beautiful ideals because they are unrealistic. However, we should know that thousands of Taiping soldiers, their purpose is to stop selling children, women, cattle and horses as slaves, but for their ideals! What is God? It's just a symbol, a spokesman, just looking for a symbol to support the facade, but underneath it is a just struggle for survival and development.

The real representatives of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement should be the Taiping rebels, the proud representatives of human beings who were brutally oppressed by slave owners!

Needless to say, history has its own fair evaluation, and I believe everyone's conscience also has judgment.