Tiêu đề taiping-and-boxer-movement.pdf ✅

Taiping and boxer movement BA (Hons.) History (University of Delhi) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by Suruchi Kumari ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|39389917
Question Critically evaluate the main currents within the Taiping and Boxer movements, with special reference to their popular character. Answer Traditional Chinese subscribed to the theory that domestic rebellion and foreign invasion occurred when the central power declined; they appeared together as symptoms of serious and upsetting internal weakness. If the ruling power had been strong, these troubles could have been met and stopped out of hand. (Hsu, 2000) Peasant uprisings were rampant throughout 19th century China, before, but especially after the Opium Wars. The Taiping Movement in the mid-19th century and the Boxer Movement in the beginning of the 20th century were the most important ones, although the Nien and Moslem uprisings deserve mention. These were demonstrations of China’s proto-nationalism that gave rise to the modern nationalism seen in the 20th century. A hundred and fifty years of peace and prosperity had nurtured a rapid growth in population, but that arable land had not increased correspondingly. The discrepancy between population and land growth resulted in a sharp decrease in per capita cultivation. Continuous shrinkage of individual landholdings could mean only increasing hardship for the peasant. When the yield of the small acreage could no longer sustain his life, he sold the land and became the tenant of a landlord. The result of this spiral was the ever-increasing concentration of land among the rich. The high concentration of arable land is illustrated by the fact that 50% to 60% of it was in the hands of the rich families. Another 10% was possessed by the bannermen and official villas, leaving only 30% for the rest of the 400 million. Sixty to 90 percent of the people had no land at all. (Hsu, 2000) The bannermen, who contributed much to the founding of the dynasty, had long since become lethargic due to the long period of peace. By the time of the White Lotus Rebellion in 1796-1, the Green Standard had lost its vigour, too, and the court was forced to use local militia. The bannermen and the Green Standard had forfeited the respect and fear of the people. Furthermore, defeat in the Opium War exposed the military weakness of the dynasty. Secret societies and ambitious Chinese were encouraged to intensify their nationalistic and racial revolution against the Manchus. Taking advantage of the fact that the Treaty of Nanking made no provisions against the import of opium, the foreign traders intensified their activities in this illicit but lucrative trade. Opium traffic practically became unrestrained, and the volume of import rose from 33,000 chests in 1842 to 46,000 chests in 1848, and to 52,929 chests in 1850. The resulting outflow of silver created an imbalance of the silver-copper ratio: a tael of silver which could be exchanged for 1,000 copper coins in the 18th century had a market value of more than 2,000 in 1845. In effect, this meant that the farmer’s land tax burden was doubled. (Hsu, 2000) The disruptive economic consequence of opium importation was further confounded by the general influx of foreign goods in the treaty port areas. Canton was particularly hard hit, because it had the longest history of foreign trade and the widest foreign contact. Local household industries were swept away and the self-sufficient agrarian economy suffered dislocation. Those who were adversely affected became a potential source of trouble. (Hsu, 2000) Downloaded by Suruchi Kumari ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|39389917
The economic distress in the south was complicated and sharpened by the social conflict between the “natives” (original settlers) and the “guest settlers” known as the Hakka, who were from Central China when the dynasty moved south under the barbarian threat. They were the social “out-group” and their different dialects, habits, and mode of life made it difficult for them to mix or assimilate with the natives. By the middle of the 19th century, a new factor of friction was introduced when many Hakka took up Christianity, while the natives persisted in their worship of idols and spirits. Men without deep social roots, the Hakka were on the whole more independent, daring, and prone to action than were the natives. It was here that potential revolutionary leaders recruited their followers. Hung Hsiu- chuan, leader of the Taiping Revolution, was also from a Hakka farming family in Hua-hsien, Kwangtung, located just outside Canton. (Hsu, 2000) Deeply influenced by Protestant Christianity, Hung had started his own secret society called the Association of God Worshippers. He avidly studied the Christian tracts but could not fully understand many of the concepts. Hung and his cousin Feng took the title “Heavenly Kingdom” to mean China and “God’s selected people” to mean Hung himself and his countrymen. He attacked opium-smoking, gambling, and drinking, and emphasized the egalitarian idea that all men are brothers and all women sisters. They went about to destroy idols in the temples and remove Confucian tablets from the schools. There is no doubt that Hung was using his new religion to build up a following for his revolutionary cause. By 1847, the Association of God Worshippers had already won more than 3,000 converts among the miners, charcoal-workers, and poor peasants, most of whom were Hakka. As the movement expanded, better educated and wealthier men also came into the fold. Hung’s order of Christianity was primarily protestant rather than Catholic, because Protestantism fitted better the nature of their movement, which was basically a “protest” against the existing order. (Hsu, 2000). During the great famine of I 849-50, members of the Heaven and Earth Society in Kwangsi rose to action under the pretext of “robbing the rich to aid the poor.” The God Worshippers benefited from the disturbance. Many naively believed that with their foreign religion the God Worshippers were immune to official intervention. By the spring of 1850, Hung had built up a following of 10,000. In June 1850 all God Worshippers in the different areas were asked to sell their properties and bring the proceeds to a public treasury at Chin- tien, his headquarters, from which all drew their sustenance. The idea of mutual sharing had a great appeal to the poor. The Taipings maintained a delicate relationship with the secret societies. Hung found their idol-worship reprehensible and regarded their objective of restoring the Ming at cross purposes with his own scheme of creating a kingdom. However, their anti-Manchu stand was consonant with his revolutionary aim. Hung wanted to use them to advance his own cause without being used by them. He decided that members of the secret societies might join the Taipings provided they renounced idol worship, took up God-worship, and accepted the Taiping Commandments and discipline. In the Taiping kingdom, religion, civil and military administration, culture, and society in general were all interwoven. The capital was called the Heavenly Capital, the leader the Heavenly King, his palace the Heavenly Palace, his orders Heavenly Rescripts, and his treasury the Sacred Treasury. Opium-smoking, the use of tobacco and wine, prostitution, foot-binding, sale of slaves, gambling, and polygamy were all prohibited. There was a definite puritanical spirit in the early period of the Taipings, and the leaders conceived of many worthy institutions and innovations. The basic document of state was called “The Land System of the Heavenly Kingdom.” (Hsu, 2000) Downloaded by Suruchi Kumari ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|39389917
Perhaps the most radical of the Taiping innovations was the abolition of the private ownership of land and property, because all children of God must share his blessings, must be free from want, must have land to till, rice to eat, clothes to wear, and money to spend. To achieve this, a radical land reform was needed. They divided land into nine classes according to yield. All men and women over sixteen received a share or land, and everyone under sixteen received half a share. The distributed land did not become the property of the recipient; he was merely given the right to use it for production. All surplus products beyond one’s needs had to be surrendered to the public storehouse. Savings and private property were prohibited. The idea of communal utilization of land can be found in the ancient Chinese work ‘The Rites of Chou.’ The Taipings revived the doctrine with great visionary idealism, but unfortunately, due to incessant warfare and the unsettled conditions in the countryside they could not put it into practice except in a few experimental pockets. (Hsu, 2000) The Taiping military institutions were derived from ‘The Rites of Chou’ and the systems developed by the Ming general Ch’i Chi-kuang. The peculiar feature was the unity of the military with the civilian administration. Soldiers were farmers, and officers were assigned civil as well as military duties. The military officers were also civil administrators. Every twenty-five families formed a basic social unit, each with a public storehouse and a church under the charge of the master sergeant. He administered the civil, educational, religious, financial, and judicial matters of his twenty-five families and took charge of their litigations, marriages, and funerals. All the expenses of these affairs were paid out of the public storehouse, but there was a limit to what each event could cost. In time of peace the soldiers and corporals performed public works. On Sundays, the corporals led the people to church. The hymnal was different from the Protestant hymnal, and although the ritual of the service in general followed the Protestant tradition, there were deviations, too, such as the use of drums and firecrackers and the serving of cakes and fruits, like the Buddhists and the Taoists did. Additionally, the Taipings forbade ancestor-worship, and destroyed idols and temples whenever they were discovered. In the Taiping kingdom, the inculcation of Christian ideas among the people was a primary undertaking. A new ‘Three-Character Classics’ of 478 sentences and 1,434 words, based on Hung’s interpretation of the Bible. the vernacular was used, with punctuation, to facilitate easy reading and wide circulation. (Hsu, 2000) Despite its religious leanings, the Taiping Kingdom cannot be called a theocracy as it functioned more like a totalitarian dictatorship. The leadership was under one person who was the religious, civil and military leader. And the laws that were promulgated were based on the whims and fancies of the leader, not the religion they followed. The Taipings held civil service examinations, too, in which the plain language was used in place of the classical style of writing required in the Ch’ing examinations. The theses in the Taiping examinations were not taken from the Confucian classics, but selected from the Bible, Christian tracts, and Taiping proclamations. The examinations were open to men and women alike. Applicants for the examinations came from all walks of life. The standards of these examinations were not rigorous; it was said that in certain examinations 800 out of 1,000 candidates passed. This won the good will of many, but compromised the original purpose of selecting talents for public service. (Hsu, 2000) Men and women were equal in the Taiping kingdom. Women were allowed to serve in the civil and military administration, and there were reportedly 100,000 female soldiers and officers under the command of Hung’s sister. Women’s Residential Halls operated at Nanking in the early days of the Taipings for the young and unmarried, as well as for those women Downloaded by Suruchi Kumari ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|39389917