[Editor’s note]2021 is the 170th anniversary of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom jintian uprising. The Paper Liu Chen, assistant professor of the Department of Private History and Peking University History, invited scholars at home and abroad to write a series of manuscripts to introduce readers to the new direction and achievements of the research on Taishi, hoping to help related research.
In the Zhejiang occupied area in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were several local resistance forces led by civilians, the most famous of which were Bao Lishen Tuan Yong, Shen Zhangda Tuan Yong and the bandit troops of Gaitianwang, all of which were over 10,000 people. Generally speaking, the occurrence of these three large-scale mass mutinies is inevitable under the rule mode of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom tribute system in Zhejiang province [that is, collecting tribute from the people and the Taiping Army’s "pioneering" (plundering) and "sending large donations". According to the theory of class analysis, the above three forces are all "reactionary landlords’ regimentation", but in fact, unlike ordinary vigilante groups, they have no direct organizational connection with the Qing government; The main body of its leaders and participants are civilians, which can intuitively reflect the opinions and demands of ordinary people; Moreover, some political hostility consciousness is not obvious in the initial stage. Therefore, through the observation of these three civilian-led events against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, we may reveal the true face of the opposition between the people and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Jinhua, Zhejiang, the former site of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s Shi Wangfu
Bao Lishen and the "White-headed Army"
Bao Lishen, also known as "Li Sheng" and "Li Sheng" in historical materials, lived in Bao Village, Zhuji, Zhejiang Province for more than 20 years. He was illiterate. In the notes of scholars at that time and later, unofficial history recorded that he was a farmer, a farmer, a villager, a village tyrant and a family farmer. Not only farming, but also engaged in business. It is recorded that he "tasted selling lime from shoulder to shoulder", which shows that he is probably a yeoman. Bao Lishen’s family background is also not prominent. A family of 17 are all working in rural areas. Among the relatives, Feng Yangshan, a cousin, is only a petty official who has not entered the class. Therefore, it can basically be concluded that Bao Lishen and his family belong to the civilian class.
But he is a "special person" among ordinary farmers, or can be called a "civilian elite". Bao Lishen probably systematically studied some popular witchcraft among the people, and most historical materials think that he once studied daoist magic’s technique. It is not new to use witchcraft to organize the people. The uniqueness of Bao Lishen’s uprising lies in "controlling evil with evil", and he turned the spearhead of his struggle to the Taiping Army, which also started with "witchcraft" and "heresy". It shows that it has certain ability and strategy. Moreover, Bao Lishen has political ambitions. He claims to be "the leader", and his proclamations are all written in Jia Zi, not in the official lunar calendar of the Qing Dynasty, which is deliberately different from the Yong ying organized by Feng Za. Bao Lishen has also received the support of some small and medium-sized intellectuals, such as Zhu Zhilin, Yu Guanying, Fu Guantao and Shen Fangyi, all of whom are gentry. However, these literati are only driven, and most of them are "weak writers", and a few of them are counsellors and military aircraft, and only Bao Lishen is in charge of the overall situation and forbids it. Baocun’s armed forces are private armed groups with Bao’s family as their headquarters, and even the bureau responsible for military equipment is located in Bao Shangjie’s close friend’s home. Therefore, the leading position of "civilian elite" Bao Lishen is unshakable.
In the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), in September, the Taiping Army defeated Shaoxing and Zhuji, and Bao Lishen used the "witchcraft" as an excuse to swear, claiming to be a descendant of the "White Crane Real Person" and founding the "Whitehead Army", which fought dozens of battles with the Taiping Army. People in neighboring counties have cast their families. In May of the first year of Tongzhi (1862), Li Shixian, Dai Wang Huang Chengzhong, Ti Wang Lian Ye Kun, the first king Fan Ruzeng and Lai Wang Lu Shunde led more than 100,000 Taiping troops to encircle Baocun again, cutting off its water and route for providing foodstuff. On the first day of July, the Taiping Army came out of the tunnel, wiped out Bao Village, and Bao Li died. According to Jiang Yili, then the governor of nursing Zhejiang, there were "14,777 deaths" after Baocun was attacked by Taiping Army. Chiang Kai-shek only refers to the number of deaths in Baocun. Because the war has been delayed for nearly a year, every time there is a war, the dead must be buried; Bao Lishen often led troops to attack, and many people died in other places; Coupled with the deaths caused by non-war factors (such as hunger and thirst, epidemic disease, suicide, etc.), and considering the environmental carrying capacity of Baocun, it is reasonable to have a total of "tens of thousands" people killed. Taiping Army also suffered heavy losses.
As for the cause of Bao Lishen’s uprising, it can be analyzed from two surviving essays. These two essays are programmatic documents of Bao’s resistance to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The first article is Bao Lishen’s campaign against Guangdong bandits. This essay was kept in the "A Brief Account of Yi Min Bao’s Establishment" compiled by Bao Zuqing in Shanyin, and it was signed "Written by Wang Xiaotie in Hangzhou". Its formation time was between the end of the eleventh year of Xianfeng and the beginning of Tongzhi Yuan, which revealed the main reasons for Bao Lishen’s uprising: First, the Taiping Army’s military discipline was corrupted; Second, the Taiping Army exterminated culture and trampled on customs.
The second article is "Dong ‘an Rebel Commander Bao Helped to Tell Qi Xin to Kill a Thief", which is included in Feng’s Huaxi Diary and Shen Zi’s Avoidance Diary in Haining. The formation time of this essay may be a little later than the first one, about shortly before March of the first year of Tongzhi. At this time, the people of Baocun had fought several large-scale battles with the Taiping Army, and both sides suffered casualties. It is inevitable that there are inaccuracies in the rhetoric of a campaign, and such absolute accusations as "regardless", "regardless", "all are", "everywhere" and "do everything" may be exaggerated. For example, the phenomenon of captive soldiers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom runs through all the time, which is really the harm of the early universal conscription system. However, in principle, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom pursues the conscription system, which is implemented in various places to varying degrees. Therefore, the term "regardless of industrial and commercial farmers, they are taken captive as soldiers" in a campaign is exaggerated. This essay announced the twelve major crimes of Taiping Army: 1. Inciting cults; 2. Indiscriminate killing of innocent people; 3. Adultery of women; 4. Sogon looting; 5. burning houses; 6. wanton abduction of soldiers; 7. Imposition and extortion; 8. cruel punishment law; 9. Extinction of culture; 10. overstepping the name; 11. Destroy Zhongliang; 12. trample on customs. The twelve major crimes can be divided into three aspects: first, the accusation of Taiping Army’s military discipline corruption (sins 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6); The second is the accusation against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s economic policy (sin 7); The third is the accusation against the social transformation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (sins 9 and 12). This shows that the main cause of Bao’s uprising lies in the military discipline of Taiping Army and the social, economic and political strategy of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.The remaining charges of inciting cults, cruel punishment, overstepping the name, and harming loyalty (Sins 1, 8, 10 and 11) are hostile to heresy from an orthodox standpoint, which should be the result of Bao Lishen’s intellectuals’ embellishment of the essay.
In terms of content, both essays emphasize that nature is an important reason for Bao Lishen’s trouble-the Taiping Army’s military discipline is corrupted and the customs are destroyed, while the second one emphasizes the economic factors that are almost completely omitted in the first one, which may be the most important thing for Bao Lishen, who is an ordinary peasant. In Bao Lishen’s second essay, there is a long paragraph accusing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of the heavy taxes and fees. Therefore, the peasant resistance movement, which is the largest, the longest lasting and the fiercest struggle in the occupied area of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, has comprehensive inducing factors, among which the root of the people’s resistance lies in the social panic caused by the social and economic bad behaviors that have been or may occur in Taiping Army, such as exorbitant taxes, corrupt military discipline and destruction of customs. At that time, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Shaoxing Fucheng and Zhuji County, it did not actually complete the political construction work for the vast rural areas, and most of the social and economic politics were not carried out in Baocun and its nearby areas. The opposition among the people in Baocun mainly originated from panic rather than practical feelings.
To resist tyranny.
Shen Zhangda, the only one in all kinds of historical materials named Huaxi Diary as "Shen Changda", was a vegetable farmer from Ganpu Town, Haiyan County, Jiaxing, who was "gardening for a living" and his family was "destitute". He was 61 years old when he started. Guangxu’s Haiyan County Records recorded its name in the list of Martyrs’ Gentlemen and Soldiers’ Surnames, and specially marked its identity as a "civilian" to show that it really belongs to the civilian class. On May 11th, the 11th year of Xianfeng, Shen Zhangda gathered more than a thousand villagers to the Ganpu Township Official Bureau to question the township official Yao Chengchu. Just when hundreds of villagers in Huangwan also complained, they jointly demolished the bureau house, bound Yao Chengchu and arrested the township official along the way. By May 13th, more than 10,000 rebel teams had gathered, and they cooperated with the Qing army to attack Tongyuan and Yucheng in Haiyan, and returned in defeat. On the 18th, the Taiping Army plundered Ganpu and claimed the first thing. On the 26th, Shen Sui stepped forward and was captured and killed.
The causes of Shen Zhang’s uprising are recorded in Huaxi Diary, which can be roughly divided into four categories: 1. Le Gong. In March of the eleventh year of Xianfeng, the Taiping Army took two grams of sea salt, which was adhered to according to the city. "In May, the thief Le Gong gradually crossed, and Tong Yuan Huang set up a trap from the thief, and paid more than 10,000 yuan in tribute to the seven maps, which was not enough for the people. Haiyan county nuclear office thirty-two thousand, to the seventh day of April, and add fifteen thousand, and want to levy silver, every two or seven discount two thousand and fifty ". 2. Taxation. At the beginning of May of the same year, "I wanted to divide the house numbers, write the number of people, and each card was B yuan and 40 cents, and each person was required to levy 20 articles a day, 100 per kitchen day, and 50 per kitchen." We can see that there are three names: house number fee, per capita tax and kitchen donation. 3. Collect rent after grain. On the ninth day of May, the Taiping Army authorities threatened with guns and boats that "after Tian Yin was chased, the scholars were afraid of the tiger’s potential, and they all lost all their money, and they still issued it as a series of tickets in Xianfeng for ten years, and by the eleventh, they had more than a thousand yuan", and "occasionally some owners took advantage of the situation to collect rent". 4. The township officials are greedy and cool. "chayuan Chen Yuchun … secretly gave directions to do tribute, claiming that he could deceive the public, and from the time of collecting silver, he occupied the bureau with Wang Zhuchuan, a traitor", "Gui Yingshan was also a thief, and first set up the silver bureau in his house, named Liu Quan Pavilion", "Five people visited the rich, and the letter was Shi Shuai, and the house number was set up ……. so the road was fat. If Xu Tu can collect fees item by item, the people may be able to cope, but the deterioration of the situation lies in "the ninth day of May,Unexpectedly, the doorplate, the kitchen expenses and the bank of Waizhuangtian were all launched, starting from the tenth day, without delay. Occasionally, the owners took advantage of the situation to collect rent, and they also threatened to chase it very tightly with guns and boats. "The people had nothing to accuse" and the people were already overwhelmed.
The reasons for the farmers’ resistance in Haiyan can be summarized as the harsh economic policies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the greed of township officials’ politics. Different from Bao Lishen’s uprising, the root of Shen Zhangda’s uprising lies in the people’s real feelings about the social, economic and political strategy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Among the above two points, the people hate the excessive collection of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom even more; Although the politics of township officials is greedy and cool, it can promote the chaos, but their actions are also the embodiment of implementing the economic policy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Four aspects of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s economic policy-paying tribute, taxation, paying off grain and collecting rent, in which paying tribute is the key to the antagonistic behavior of Haiyan people. Guangxu’s Haiyan County Records states that "from time to time, the thief’s first name, Kwai Tian Yu, came to the city to secure the public, called on the officials and people, and ordered the county to send high officials to invite people to do things, so sophistry would not disturb the place. A few days later, the four townships were ordered to contribute, and there was no empty day to chase. Zhang thief forced a huge sum of money to Nanxiang, and the women learned to take off their hairpin, and the scholars all hated it. " Grain and rent collection were not the main factors that triggered the revolt of Haiyan farmers. Although Haiyan authorities tried to restore the traditional social and economic order in the spring and winter of the eleventh year of Xianfeng, due to the constraints of subjective and objective environment, the collection of land tax in Haiyan area was not fully launched until December of the first year of Tongzhi, but the implementation was not good, and the traditional social and economic order failed to become the mainstream of the administration of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In April and May of the eleventh year of Xianfeng on the eve of the Shenzhang uprising, the official land tax and rent policy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had not been officially promulgated, and the collection work had not been fully launched.
The main cause of the Shenzhang incident was that the people could not bear the economic burden of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In all kinds of economic burdens, Le Gong of Taiping Army is the main aspect, and people’s resentment is boiling, which is aroused by Shen Zhang’s great enthusiasm and eventually leads to drastic changes.
"King Gai" who is troubled by "salt" and "food"
The uprising of "Gai Tianwang" was also forced by the participants’ real life. In August of the second year of Tongzhi (1863), Yan Xiao and Chen San gathered to revolt. "Gai Tianwang" is not the code name of the leader, but the spiritual symbol of the uprising team. The rioters gathered at the Three Temples in Huangwan, Haining, and pushed the three gods in the temple to be kings. "The so-called Gai Tianwang is also the Emperor Wu of the Yuan Dynasty in the temple." By September, there was a rumor among the people that "Gai Tianwang" was recruited by the Qing army in Shaoxing. The authorities in Jiaxing and Haining of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom arrested the troublemakers, but the results were not great. In October, the hungry people gathered more and more. "The hungry people were recruited, and the investors did not count, totaling more than 10,000." The Taiping Army "was also afraid of the situation and dared not move." Until the end of the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this local force, which is mainly composed of hungry people, has not been completely dispersed.
The team of "Gai Tianwang" is often called "bandits", but they have obvious political demands like Yong Ying, such as "flagging openly" and "uprising in the temple". The targets of the struggle are directed at the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom government and the Taiping Army, looting local banks, appraising villages, mountain products banks, etc., as well as township lawsuits, centurions’ homes, and even delivering documents to Zhejiang general He Xinyi to borrow food. Why are you afraid of it? On the 10th day of November, the second year of Tongzhi, the leader, Chen Sanyatou, led more than 1,000 people to fight with the Taiping Army in Huaxi towns, killing more than 30 people of the Taiping Army all the way, burning the cards at the city’s tip, burning the township official bureau, and attacking the Taiping Army camp at Zhuziqiao and Hualongqiao. Therefore, the team of "Gai Tianwang" is by no means a general bandit who robs houses and houses, and can be regarded as a "vigilante" and "uprising".
The "Gai Tianwang" incident is a typical case in which farmers in the occupied areas of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rose up and rebelled because of famine and hunger. In December of the second year of Tongzhi, the Tongxiang authorities of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom arrested three "Gaidang", and after being interrogated by the military commander Yao Futang, they recorded the following confession: "I was hungry and cold, so I planned to rob. ….. I wait for righteousness, so the robbery is selfless. If we are hungry, we will die. If we die, we will fight to kill. If the root cause is investigated, then the gods can’t get it; If you punish the party and the party, it will be everywhere, not less than tens of thousands of people, and you can’t win. " It’s hard to imagine that this generous statement of "people fear not death is afraid of death" came from bandits who were characterized as "rebellious" by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom government, but their background of starving people and their motivation to stand up for survival actually added some justice to this incident.
The formation of the hungry people is that the land can’t be cultivated because of the backward flow of seawater into the inland. "After the seawall falls, the brine in the paddy field can’t be planted, and the residents no longer eat grain. Because of the robbery, the number of people attached to it is increasing." The unemployment of salt vendors was attributed to the implementation of the public monopoly system of salt by the Taiping Army authorities, which led to the salt vendors’ no profit, so they made a living by looting. Salt monopoly system has existed since ancient times, and salt policy is a national plan, which was attached great importance by successive governments, and so was the Qing government. In the Qing Dynasty, the salt law was mainly in the form of official supervision and commercial operation, and private salt was repeatedly banned. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom implemented a complete monopoly, with township officials as daily managers or full-time managers, and the right to sell salt was returned to local governments. Banning the smuggling of salt can not only curb the loss of national wealth, but also prevent businessmen from hoarding and profiteering from it. It is understandable that successive governments have strictly enforced it. However, salt is a daily necessity of the people. The government monopolizes the price increase and makes profits on behalf of salt merchants. Not only are ordinary businessmen unprofitable, but even the basic needs of ordinary people’s families are deeply affected. For example, the "salt fee" levied in Changshu and Zhaowen is completely unfair and can only intensify social contradictions.
"King Gai" was troubled by "salt" and "food", which are the most basic needs of the people. It can be seen that the governments of Haining and Haiyan Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have not even completed the basic social appeasement. Although the political nature of the whole incident against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is remarkable, it cannot conceal the simple original intention of the people to join in the resistance, that is, to survive. Compared with the other two incidents, because the composition of this bandit team is basically people struggling on the verge of death, the color of "officials forcing the people to rebel" is even stronger.
It needs to be specially explained that because of the strong nature of the civilian-led militia, it is easy to misunderstand their battle with the Taiping Army as "farmers beating farmers". Jane Youwen once said: "Is it because most of the Taiping Army soldiers are farmers, so it is called the peasant revolution?" However, aren’t the Hunan soldiers who attacked and destroyed the counter-revolutionary Taiping Army farmers in Xiangxiang area? It is clear that farmers beat farmers. "(Jane’s essay: A Complete History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Volume I, Hong Kong: Jane’s Rushing into the Bookstore, 1962, with preface and supplementary note on page 3)The soldiers and brave fighters of the regiments led by the Qing army and local gentry also come from the people. Under the control of various political forces, there will be fundamental conflicts between the Taiping Army and their classes and interest groups, and most of the people who participate are organized. The interests and political demands of organizers and leaders are not exactly the same as those of the vast majority of the people. Therefore, this kind of opposition can not be completely regarded as the opposition between the people, but more of a political opposition between leaders. For these civilian-led resistance teams, their leaders and main participants are all from ordinary people, and their demands are relatively consistent, and the interests represented by the leaders and organizers have not been obviously alienated in the resistance. Therefore, the opposition between the civilian-led resistance team and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can be regarded as the opposition between the people and the ruling class of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but it cannot be regarded as the opposition between the people and the people.
Compared with Bao Lishen, Shen Zhangda and Gai Tianwang, the three causes of armed incidents led by civilians, whether due to social panic or practical tyranny oppression, all reflect the simple original intention of the people to survive and seek security, that is, the content of resistance is basically an economic issue related to people’s livelihood. Although the specific protest content of each incident is different due to the type of incident, the place of occurrence and the socio-economic background, and the focus of the causes is also different, the people’s dissatisfaction with the social, economic and political strategy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom through the actual actions of resistance is consistent, and the common protest content is such as economic policies such as donation and contribution, as well as the principles, methods and effects of policy practice. From the analysis of the object of protest, the main object of protest of the people is the township officials. The greed and disorder of township officials’ politics-the deviation of policy implementers-are the common factors that form these protest events, but the township officials’ politics of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom mainly focuses on the practice of Taiping military authorities in economic policy. It can be seen that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not realize the transformation and alternation between the old society and the new society in the occupied areas, on the contrary, it regressed from the old social order. The disadvantages of the parallel social order of tribute system and the traditional social and economic order were constantly exposed. In some areas, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not even maintain the basic livelihood, which inspired the people to resist the social, economic and political strategy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This shows that the opposition between ordinary people and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is mainly the opposition of their own interests, not the opposition of political positions. Therefore, as long as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can safeguard the interests of the general public, it can win the initiative in the long-term anti-Qing war. In the early days,The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom described and promised a complete and beautiful vision for the general public, which represented the interests of the general public to a certain extent, so as to widely mobilize the people to join the rebellion, which was unprecedented in scale and intensity and dealt a heavy blow to the decadent Qing Dynasty. However, under the conditions of long-term war, the policies and measures of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the performance of government officials at all levels and Taiping Army officers and soldiers at all levels may deviate from these goals, triggering political resistance events led by civilians like Bao Lishen, Shen Zhangda and Chen Sanyatou. This shows that the grass-roots governance of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did have serious problems of irrationality and violent oppression.