Discuss historical works about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-1864) [established by Hong Xiuquan (Hong Xiuquan) as the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a theocratic country, and religion, military and political affairs, culture and society are generally intertwined. The capital is called Tianjing, the leader is called Tianwang, the palace is called Tiangong, the important document is called Tiantiaoshu, and the national treasury is called Shengku. Smoking opium, alcohol and tobacco, whoring, pedicure, buying and selling slaves, gambling and polygamy are all prohibited. There was an obvious Puritanism spirit in the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, and the leaders came up with many valuable systems and inventions. The basic document of the country is called the "celestial system", which stipulates not only the land system, but also the military, internal affairs, finance, justice, education and other systems, similar to the Constitution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

[Land System] Perhaps the most important of the many inventions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the abolition of the private rights of land and property. The spirit behind this invention is that all God's people must enjoy his grace, be free from want, and have farmland, food, clothes and money to spend. To achieve this ideal state, it is necessary to fundamentally change the existing land system. So the Taiping Army divided the fields into nine grades according to the output. /kloc-Men and women over 0/6 years old are equally divided into fields,/kloc-Men under 0/6 years old are equally divided into half fields. In this way, if a person gets 1 mu of farmland, his children under 15 will get half an acre of farmland with the same quality. A family of six was given equal amounts of fertile land and poor land, that is, three people were given fertile land and three people were given poor land. The divided land will not become the property of the landowner; He has just obtained the right to use it for production. Surplus products that exceed personal needs must be turned over to the state treasury, and savings and private property are prohibited.

This idea of common land use can be found in China's ancient book Zhou Li, which was put into practice by Wang Mang, a usurper of the Han Dynasty, in the short-lived new dynasty (8-23 AD). Taiping Army restored this idealistic concept which was quite divorced from reality. Unfortunately, due to the constant war and the unstable situation in rural areas, this system has not been realized, and it has only been tried in a few places.

[Integration of Military and Political Affairs] The military system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom originated from the system invented by Zhou Li and Qi Jiguang, a general of the Ming Dynasty, which is characterized by the integration of military and political affairs. Soldiers are also farmers, while officers and assistants hold both military and political positions. Every 13, 156 households have a military commander, and each military commander has five divisions, and each division has five brigades. Each brigade commander has five commanders, each commander has four second Sima, each second Sima has five commanders, and each commander has four foot soldiers. In this way, an army consists of 65,438+00,000 infantry and 3,65,438+056 officers, making a total of 65,438+03,65,438+056. When more families are established, new military units are established.

Officers are also civil administrators, and every 25 families form a basic social unit. Each unit has a treasury and a church, which are in charge of two Sima. He manages the civil, educational, religious, financial and judicial affairs of his 25 families, and is responsible for litigation, weddings and funerals. The cost of all these affairs is paid from the national treasury, but the cost of everything is fixed. Usually, foot soldiers and corporal perform official duties. Children from 25 families go to church every day to listen to Professor Sima's Bible and Christian works written by Hong Xiuquan. On Sunday, the corporal led his men to the church, and men and women sat up separately to listen to the sermons of two Sima. The difference between the hymns of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Protestantism. In addition, although the worship ceremony basically follows the Protestant tradition, there are some changes, such as using gongs, drums and firecrackers and providing cakes and fruits like Buddhism and Taoism.

It is forbidden for Taiping Army to worship ancestors. When idols and temples are found, they will be destroyed. Officers and assistants usually preach to the residents of new places where the team goes.

[Integration of Culture and Religion] One of the primary tasks of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is to instill Christian ideas into the people. According to Hong Xiuquan's interpretation of the Bible, the new version of the Holy Amethyst has 478 sentences 1 434 words, which is written for children. The beginning is "Emperor God, made heaven and earth, made mountains and seas, prepared everything, made everything in six rigid rooms ...". There are also "poems for children" and some hymns praising God and Jesus as the true saviors of mankind. All these poems are written in vernacular, punctuated, so as to be easy to read and widely circulated. Some progressive writers today believe that this popular and clear writing style is the pioneer of the new culture movement in the early 20th century.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also conducted imperial examinations. In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom exam, vernacular Chinese replaced the ancient Chinese required by the imperial examination in Qing Dynasty. The topics of the Taiping Examination are not taken from Confucian classics like the Qing Dynasty examination, but from the Bible, Christian works and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom letters, such as "The true God is the only emperor" and "Who does everything for the heavenly father?" Why did Jesus lay down his life? "and so on. The Taiping Examination can be held for both men and women for the first time on the birthdays of Hong Xiuquan and Young Wang. But later, March 5th and March13rd of the Taiping calendar were designated as the annual examination days for Wen Xiu Cai and Wu Xiucai. May 5th and May15th are the days when Kao Wu Wen will be awarded a prize. September 9th and September 19 are the days for Wu Wen to take an examination of Jinshi. Candidates come from all walks of life, including fortune tellers and wizards. It is conceivable that the standards of these exams are not very strict; It is said that 800 candidates in a scientific research 1000 in Hubei Province actually won the top prize. Because of this, these exams have won the favor of many people, but they violate the original intention of selecting talents.

[New Calendar] The calendar adopted by the Taiping Army is unique. It is neither a lunar calendar nor a solar calendar, but something in between. A year is divided into 366 days, 365,438+0 days per month and 30 days per month. The drawback of this calendar is that there are three more days every four years, or 30 more days every 40 years. In order to make up for this defect, a leap year is set up every 40 years, which the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom calls "mediation" every 40 years. Leap year is divided into 28 days every month, and 1 year has 336 days, which is exactly 30 days more than normal year. 65438+1 October1February 4th of the first year of Taiping 1852.

The social policy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, equality between men and women, allowed women to work in military and political institutions. It is said that Hong Xiuquan's younger sister has 654.38 million female soldiers and officials. In the early years of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a "Women's Hall" was set up in Nanjing for unmarried young women and women whose husbands were killed or went out. They are under the jurisdiction of Hong Xiuquan's sister and are not subject to outside interference. Missionaries visiting Nanjing were deeply impressed by the female members of Taiping Army walking freely or riding horses in the street.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has also taken some social welfare measures to help the sick, the disabled and the lonely. The egalitarian and ascetic spirit of this movement is also reflected in the aforementioned policy of banning opium smoking, prostitution, slavery and prostitution. In a word, the society of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is very different from that of the Qing Dynasty.

-Excerpted from Xu Zhongyue's Struggle for China 1600~2000.