A Brief Modern Chinese History. Haipeng Zhang

hoped for reinforcements.

      In December, 1853, Nanjing arranged relief troops. However, of the sixty thousand soldiers recruited, many were not well-disciplined, nor did they want to head north. By the following April, the reinforcements were utterly defeated. In June, 1854, Nanjing made a second vain attempt to save the NEA. Li Kaifang and Lin Fengxiang, the NEA’s two leading generals, were defeated and captured in the first half of 1855. They were later taken to Beijing and brutally executed. A leader in the Taiping Army reflected that the failure of the northern expedition had a bad effect on the entire rebellion.

      The Taiping Army’s western expedition aimed to capture the entire middle region of the Yangtze River and turn the region into a base to provide protection and supplies to Nanjing. Unlike the NEA, which was particularly good at fighting on the ground, the Western Expedition Army (WEA) made the best of its navy. In June, 1853, the WEA left Nanjing with a fleet of more than 1,000 ships. It captured several cities in Anhui and Jiangxi and attacked the strategic city of Nanchang. While attacking Nanchang, the WEA tried its utmost to transport grain to Nanjing. Lai Hanying, the WEA’s commander, underestimated the enemy, and the WEA finally failed to take Nanchang and had to end its siege in September. Lai was dismissed and replaced with Shi Dakai, the Wing King. The WEA began its retreat in October and started to attack Hubei.

      In November they concentrated on northern Anhui, attempting to capture Luzhou (present-day Hefei) in one go and in January of the following year, Shi achieved his goal. The Governor of Anhui had to drown himself in the river. The result was that the Taiping Army successfully controlled more than twenty prefectures and counties in Anhui.

      In the meantime, the Taiping Army attacked Hubei with greater force. They took Wuchang, Jingzhou and Yichang. When they began to head south, the Taiping Army encountered the Hunan Army led by Zeng Guofan 曾国藩 (1811–1872), the most ferocious yet. In Hunan’s Xiangtan, the southern brigade of the Taiping Army was almost completely wiped out by the Hunan Army. It was here that the Hunan army successfully defeated the Taiping Army. The Taiping Army was forced to give up the strategically important Wuchang. Just a month later both sides engaged in fierce fighting. In the face of the unstoppable Hunan Army, the WEA was put to rout all along the line. The Hunan Army continued its pursuit of victory and began to close in on Jiujiang, a city of strategic importance. It was in Hunan and Hubei that Taiping suffered the most humiliating and most disastrous defeat since the 1851 Jintian Uprising. The Taiping navy was entirely annihilated by the Hunan Army and had to give up their control of the Yangtze River.

      Shi Dakai was appointed to restore the western effort and was able to successfully defend Jiujiang, leading the Hunan Army to attack Hukou instead. Shi lured the Hunan Army into the Poyang Lake where it was forced to split in half. In the end, the WEA destroyed thirty-nine battleships of the Hunan navy and was even able to capture Zeng’s flag. Zeng himself fled in panic in a small boat. The WEA in Hukou and Jiujiang inflicted heavy causalities on the Hunan Army and launched a large-scale counteroffensive, recapturing Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang. As a result, the Hunan Army’s entire offensive collapsed. At this time, Hu Linyi, a famous general of the Hunan Army, was appointed the Governor of Hubei. He did his best to turn the tables on the Taiping Army but the situation in Wuchang grew worse again. Shi sent in more reinforcements and in January, 1856, the insurgents of the Tiandihui of Guangdong joined the WEA, giving Shi’s army an enormous capacity. Shi and his troops swept through Jiangxi, bringing most parts of Jiangxi under their control. Zeng, who was defending the besieged Nanchang, was desperately in need of Qing’s relief troops. Shi, however, was hastily recalled by Nanjing to attack Qing’s Southern Barracks, giving Zeng and his troops some breathing space.

      As mentioned above, Qing’s Southern and Northern Barracks posed a great threat to Nanjing, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang. Two years later, the imperial court ordered the Governor of Jiangsu, together with the Southern Barracks, to attack Zhenjiang. The defending forces in the first two months overwhelmed the Qing army and destroyed more than one hundred and twenty of Qing’s military camps. Then, in April, the Taiping Army retook Yangzhou. In May, they killed the Governor of Jiangsu and, in June, they forced the Qing army to retreat to Danyang. Soon, Shi and his troops joined the defending forces. Shi led the united army directly toward the Southern Barracks. He wiped out the Barracks and seized all its armaments and supplies. The head of Qing’s army fled and died in August. The threat from the Southern Barracks was thus neutralized.

The basic socio-political programs of the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace were religious, utopian and revolutionary. Hong aimed to create a universally harmonious and peaceful heaven on earth. In one of his treatises, he argued that the reason for social ills lay in selfishness and that men and women all over the world should live with one another as if they were the brothers and sisters of one family.7

After the Jintian Uprising, the leaders such as Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui told the public that their goal was to overthrow the Qing dynasty and liberate all oppressed people.8 They collaboratively started to rebuild after establishing the capital in Nanjing. They decreed that people should change their hair style and way of dressing as well as worship God. Men and women should live in separate camps, all private property should be abolished and replaced by the public treasury. They also strictly prohibited people from smoking opium, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes. While many social vices were eliminated as a result, urban life grew increasingly less vibrant. The Taiping administration in the rural areas did not recognize private ownership of land, yet they were not able to exert the strict control that they did in urban centers. The previous top-down taxation system was replaced with a bottom-up tribute. When going westward, the Taiping Army specifically told local residents that they would not cause any harm to their lives nor would they tax them. The peasants enthusiastically welcomed this news and some landlords and scholar-officials said that very many rural residents paid tribute to the Taiping Army.

Gradually a systematic program of social reform was created. In December, 1853 The Land Law of the Heavenly Dynasty (天朝田亩制度, hereinafter referred to as the Law) came into effect,9 the law that laid the blueprint for a completely new world, one giving full expression to the Chinese peasants, denying feudal rule and creating their dream of an ideal society.

      Compared to other proposals and plans formulated by other peasant revolts in the past two thousand years, the Law was the most scientific and the most complete. According to the Law, the whole of society should be reorganized in accordance with the military system. The xiangguan (sub-county official) played the leading role in governance at the grass-roots level. The xiangguan would take care of civil affairs as well as local residents’ economico-cultural life. In most cases the xiangguan was from a poor family and was always considered totally trustworthy. The xiangguan system was very similar to that of a military organization. Taiping society was comprised of twenty-five families, all of whom shared one public treasury and one church. The head of this group was the xiangguan and additionally held the title of liangsima (literally, the dual administrator of horses). Under the instruction of the liangsima, the families of this group took part in various economic, political, cultural and educational activities. At least one member of each family joined the armed forces or the police. The men and women enlisted took up farming during peacetime and joined battle in times of war. There were more superior posts in addition to the xiangguan. The Law also included some rules regarding the judicial system.

      The core of the Law lay in the regulation of land. One of the basic principles regarding land was that land must be equally shared by the people on a per capita basis, in contradiction to the feudal system of land ownership and the traditional Chinese desire to own land.

      Apart from the free and equal allotment of land, the Law tried to create an egalitarian society by abolishing private property. The goal of the Law was to ensure that the poverty, exploitation and the feudal system that dominated Chinese peasants would be eliminated and that the small-peasant economy was well maintained. Not only did the Law