DATE

7/10/25

TIME

3:28 PM

LOCATION

Oakland, CA

General Tso and His Muskteers(ii): Taiping Rebellion

左宗棠和他的朋友们(ii):太平天国

左宗棠的好朋友除了湘军创始人曾国藩,还有和他俩一起发起洋务运动的李鸿章。李鸿章不是湖南人,是安徽合肥人,当时属庐州府合肥县,生于1823年2月15日,水瓶座。Chatgpt说,水瓶座的特质包括思维独立、理性而富有远见,崇尚理智、追求进步,有点孤傲,但很有主见,有时显得冷静梳离,甚至不太在乎世俗的评价,喜欢新事物,愿意推进改革,但方式可能比较务实、策略性强。我爸妈都是水瓶座,我结合对他们的了解,这些也许属实,但也是只是比较好的那一方面而已。水瓶座的奇怪,chatgpt倒是一点没提。

和李鸿章的两位朋友不一样,李鸿章19岁就中举,24岁考中进士,入翰林院成为庶吉士,师从曾国藩。早年以文人身份踏入仕途。这和现在的状况也差不多,没考上的成了考上了的少年的师傅。科举只是一条路,不必死磕。放今天也一样。曾国藩任命他为湘军干将,后来李鸿章在江浙一带自筹经费,自建淮军,参与围剿太平天国、捻军、回乱等。他的淮军也是晚清最精锐的地方武装之一。

太平天国是清朝晚期一次规模空前的农民起义,也是中国历史上死伤最惨重的内战之一。由一个叫洪秀全的哥们领导,起于广西,定都南京,那时候叫天京。他们和清政府对抗了十几年,最终还是被左宗棠和他的朋友平定了。太平天国的主要爆发原因是社会矛盾激烈,加上第一次鸦片战争后,清政府威信受损,民心动摇。

清朝中期之后,土地不断集中在少数地主、豪绅手中,大量中小农破产,成为佃农、雇农,或者被迫流民化。佃农没有自己的土地,只能靠租别人的地来种庄稼,收入的一部分或者大部分要交给地主作为租金。租金一般是稻谷、小麦,不是现金、银票。据说一般地主和佃农五五分成,或者地主六成、佃农四成。佃农虽不等于奴隶,但社会地位很低。他们缺乏保障,没地、没权、没声援,易被剥削。因为收成大部分被地主拿走,积蓄很难累积。不少家庭几代人都是佃农,很难摆脱。而雇农,则是没办法租地,只靠给别人打工来换取工钱的农民,社会地位更低、更不稳定。破产农民无以为生,聚集为帮、为会,成为起义的重要基础力量。

虽然朝廷宣布“摊丁入亩”“地丁归并”,但地方官吏层层加码,各类“暂税”“养廉银”层出不穷,远超法定税额。同时,衙门吃空额,虚报员额、克扣军饷、私设关卡。贫民无力缴纳者往往被捕入狱或家产被抄,民怨极深。太平军初起之时的宣传口号就是“替天行道,救民水火”,许多百姓宁愿跟随太平军,也不愿再受官府欺压。洪秀全所处的广西,是客家移民与本地人长期冲突之地,械斗频繁。太平军早期主要成员多为客家人。


很有趣的是,洪秀全还曾创“拜上帝教”,效仿西方基督教。洪秀全是寒门出生,曾多次参加科举不中。1837年,也就是洪秀全23岁的时候,再次落第。这次他精神崩溃了,陷入昏迷。

他梦中“升天受命”,得“天父”启示。他自称被天使带上天庭,见到“金阙玉宫”,庄严宏伟,有神兵列阵。他会见“天父”与“天兄”。“天父”是白发老人,自称“上帝”。“天兄”是年轻人,自称“耶稣”,与洪秀全为“兄弟”;天父赐他金剑和印信,命他“扫除世间妖魔”,是指佛道神像、祖宗偶像、清朝皇帝。天父还责备他以前未信真道,命其回人间传扬“真神之道”。洪秀全醒来后,情绪极为激动,自觉被选中成为上帝在人间的代言人,担负拯救中华、重建人间乐土的重任。

洪秀全并没有立刻创教,而是在1843年,读到传教士梁发所写的基督教小册子《劝世良言》后,才将他梦中的“天父”“天兄”与“上帝”“耶稣”对接,从而完成了一个中西混合的“宗教解释体系”。他是“耶稣的弟弟”,他所奉的“上帝”是真神,其他神灵都是“妖魔”。他“受命救世”有了神学基础,不只是“梦”,而是“神启”。于是,洪秀全开始在广东、广西一带秘密传教,发展信徒,形成“拜上帝会”。信众多为下层百姓、失地农民和被压迫的客家人。

他开始宣传反偶像、破旧俗,严禁烧香拜佛、祭祖、请风水等传统宗教活动。他们砸毁寺庙道观,清除神像祖牌。拜上帝教称儒释道为“三妖”,清皇帝为“妖孽”,主张彻底铲除“异端”。社会道德改革方面,他也开始提倡清廉、节制、禁酒、禁烟、禁赌。男女有别但强调男女平等,反对蓄妾纳妾,鼓励读书识字、家庭伦理、互助合作。

但拜上帝教并非纯宗教团体,而是高度政治化、军事化。洪秀全为“天王”,其下设“五王”体系,东、西、南、北、翼王,兼宗教与政治双重身份。每个信徒必须参与军政事务,接受“训令”“读经”,在军营中举行“拜上帝”礼仪。教义通过“诏书”“天条”“礼制”等传达,融合儒家格式、基督教内容、中国语言、政治号召,形成独特的政治、宗教、军事共同体。


(work in progress)

Among Tso Tsung-t’ang’s dearest friends was not only Zeng Guofan, the founder of the Xiang Army, but also Li Hung-chang, who joined them in initiating the Western Affairs Movement¹. Unlike the other two, Li wasn’t from Hunan—he came from Hefei, Anhui Province, which at the time belonged to Luzhou Prefecture. He was born on February 15, 1823, making him an Aquarius. According to ChatGPT, Aquarians are known for independent thought, reason, and vision. They tend to prize intellect, seek progress, and come off as a bit aloof—yet firm in their convictions, drawn to novelty, and inclined toward pragmatic reform. Both my parents are Aquarians. Based on what I know of them, that may be true—but it’s only one side of the story. ChatGPT conveniently left out how strange Aquarians can be.

Unlike his two friends, Li passed the provincial exam at 19, and at 24 became a jinshi², earning entry to the Hanlin Academy³ as a junior compiler. He began his career in the literary tradition, studying under Zeng Guofan. In some ways, the situation hasn’t changed: those who fail the exam often end up teaching those who pass. The imperial exams were just one path—no need to take them as destiny. That holds true even now. Zeng later appointed him to command in the Xiang Army, and soon after, Li raised his own funds and established the Huai Army⁴ in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which he led in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion⁵, the Nian Rebellion⁶, and uprisings in the northwest. His Huai Army would become one of the late Qing’s most formidable regional forces.

The Taiping Rebellion was a peasant uprising of unprecedented scale, and one of the bloodiest civil wars in Chinese—or world—history. It was led by a man named Hong Xiuquan⁷, who launched his rebellion in Guangxi and seized Nanjing, renaming it Tianjing⁸, or “Heavenly Capital.” For over a decade, the Taiping regime resisted the Qing court, only to be eventually crushed by Tso Tsung-t’ang and his comrades. The rebellion erupted from deep social tensions, worsened by the Qing’s loss of legitimacy following the First Opium War⁹.

In the mid-Qing period, land was increasingly concentrated in the hands of landlords and local elites. Smallholders were driven to ruin, forced to become tenant farmers or hired laborers, or else drifted as landless migrants. Tenant farmers, lacking land of their own, cultivated plots leased from landlords. A large share—often half or more—of their harvest was paid as rent, usually in rice or wheat, rarely in coin. Typical arrangements gave landlords sixty percent, tenants forty. Though not slaves, tenant farmers lived with little dignity or protection. With most of their crop claimed by others, they had scant means to save or rise. Many families remained trapped in this status across generations.

Hired laborers were in even direr straits: unable to lease land, they worked for wages in others’ fields. Their incomes were low, their lives precarious, and their social status near the bottom. Ruined peasants, having nowhere else to turn, formed secret societies and brotherhoods—fertile ground for rebellion.

Though the Qing state promised reforms like “consolidating land and head taxes,”¹⁰ local officials piled on levies of their own—temporary surtaxes, “clean governance stipends,” endless pretexts to extract silver. Officials reported fake personnel to skim off salaries, withheld soldiers’ pay, and set up illegal tolls. Those unable to pay were jailed or had their homes seized. Resentment ran deep. When the Taiping rebels rose, their slogan was “Enforce Heaven’s will, deliver the people from fire and water.” Many commoners preferred their uncertain promises to the certainty of Qing oppression. Hong Xiuquan came from Guangxi, where Hakka migrants¹¹ and native locals had long clashed in violent rivalry. Many early Taiping followers were Hakka, a fact that shaped the rebellion’s early energy and cohesion.


What’s especially curious is that Hong didn’t just launch a rebellion—he founded a new religion: the God Worshipping Society¹², inspired by Christianity. Hong was from a poor family and had failed the imperial exams multiple times. In 1837, at age 23, after another failed attempt, he suffered a mental collapse and fell into a prolonged delirium.

In that dream, he claimed to have ascended to heaven, where he received divine revelation. He was led by angels to a golden palace, majestic and radiant, guarded by legions of heavenly soldiers. There he met the “Heavenly Father” and the “Heavenly Elder Brother.” The former, an old man with white hair, called himself Shangdi¹³—God. The latter, a young man, was named Jesus, and said he was Hong’s elder brother. The Heavenly Father bestowed on him a golden sword and seal, commanding him to “rid the world of demons”—meaning Buddhist and Daoist idols, ancestral tablets, and the Qing emperor himself. He also reproached Hong for not having followed the true way sooner, and sent him back to Earth to spread the faith. When Hong awoke, he felt chosen: a divine emissary charged with saving China and restoring paradise to the world.

It wasn’t until 1843, after reading Good Words to Admonish the Age by Chinese Christian preacher Liang Fa¹⁴, that Hong began to identify his “Heavenly Father” and “Heavenly Brother” with the Christian God and Jesus. From there, he constructed a hybrid belief system: he was Jesus’ younger brother, Shangdi was the true God, all other deities were demons. What he had experienced was not a dream, but a revelation. He began proselytizing in Guangdong and Guangxi, building a following among the landless, the dispossessed, and the Hakka poor.

The movement denounced idol worship and old superstitions—no incense, no ancestor rites, no feng shui. They smashed temples, burned shrines, destroyed spirit tablets. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism were denounced as the “Three Demons.” The Qing emperor was “the Great Demon.” The call was for total eradication of the old ways. In terms of morality, the Society promoted frugality and discipline: no gambling, no alcohol, no opium. Though men and women were segregated, gender equality was emphasized. Concubinage was condemned. Literacy was encouraged, family virtue praised, mutual aid idealized.

But the God Worshipping Society was never just a religion—it was a militarized, theocratic movement. Hong declared himself the Heavenly King¹⁵, with five subordinate kings—East, West, South, North, and Wing—each holding both political and spiritual authority. Believers had to join the army or administration, follow divine edicts, study doctrine, and participate in mass rituals. Teachings were delivered through “Heavenly Edicts,” “Royal Proclamations,” and “Ritual Codes,” combining Confucian formalism with Christian vocabulary and revolutionary intent. What emerged was not a church, but a full-fledged religious-political-military state.



Notes:

¹ The Western Affairs Movement (also known as the Self-Strengthening Movement, c. 1861–1895) was a state-led effort to modernize China by adopting Western technology while preserving Confucian values.

² Jinshi (進士): The highest academic degree in the imperial examination system, conferring eligibility for elite state posts.

³ The Hanlin Academy (翰林院) was an elite scholarly institution of imperial China, serving as a think tank and talent pool for high government offices.

⁴ The Huai Army (淮军) was a regional military force founded by Li Hung-chang, distinct from the Xiang Army and funded through local resources.

⁵ The Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) was a massive civil war against the Qing dynasty led by Hong Xiuquan, resulting in over 20 million deaths.

⁶ The Nian Rebellion (1851–1868) was another large-scale uprising in northern China, often occurring alongside the Taiping Rebellion.

⁷ Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全) was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion and founder of the God Worshipping Society.

⁸ Tianjing (天京) was the Taiping capital, formerly Nanjing.

⁹ The First Opium War (1839–1842) resulted in Qing defeat and the cession of Hong Kong to Britain, eroding the dynasty’s authority.

¹⁰ “Tanding rumu” (摊丁入亩) and “diding guibing” (地丁归并) were Qing tax consolidation policies, widely abused in practice.

¹¹ The Hakka are a Han Chinese subgroup with a distinct dialect and migration history, often marginalized in southern China.

¹² The God Worshipping Society (拜上帝会) was a Christian-inspired religious movement founded by Hong Xiuquan.

¹³ Shangdi (上帝) is a traditional Chinese term for a supreme deity, adopted by Chinese Christians as a translation for “God.”

¹⁴ Liang Fa (梁发) was one of the first Chinese Protestant evangelists; his tract Good Words to Admonish the Ageinfluenced Hong Xiuquan.

¹⁵ The Heavenly King (天王) was the title assumed by Hong Xiuquan as both political and spiritual ruler of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.


Recommended Readings:

  1. For an overview of the Western Affairs Movement, see Mary C. Wright, The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T’ung-Chih Restoration, 1862–1874 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1957).

  2. Benjamin A. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 155–60.

  3. Wolfgang Franke, The Reform and Abolition of the Traditional Chinese Examination System (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 112.

  4. David Pong, “The Huai Army and Its Principal Commanders,” Modern Asian Studies 30, no. 4 (1996): 993–1028.

  5. Jonathan D. Spence, God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), 3–25.

  6. Mark Levene, The Crisis of Genocide, Volume 1: The European Rimlands 1912–1953 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 29–30. (For comparative civil war casualties.)

  7. Thomas H. Reilly, The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004), 45–67.

  8. Spence, God’s Chinese Son, 142.

  9. Julia Lovell, The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China (London: Picador, 2011), 183–200.

  10. Madeleine Zelin, The Magistrate’s Tael: Rationalizing Fiscal Reform in Eighteenth-Century Ch’ing China(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 210–15.

  11. Melissa J. Brown, Is Taiwan Chinese? The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 42.

  12. Reilly, The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 87–102.

  13. Daniel H. Bays, A New History of Christianity in China (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 36.

  14. Liang Fa, Good Words to Admonish the Age, trans. Carl T. Smith (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2003 [originally published 1832]).

  15. Spence, God’s Chinese Son, 287–305.


sunnyspaceundefined@duck.com

website designed by Daiga Shinohara

©2025 Double Take Film, All rights reserved

I’m an independent creator born in 1993 in Changsha, now based in California. My writing started from an urgent need to express. Back in school, I often felt overwhelmed by the chaos and complexity of the world—by the emotions and stories left unsaid. Writing became my way of organizing my thoughts, finding clarity, and gradually, connecting with the outside world.


Right now, I’m focused on writing and filmmaking. My blog is a “real writing experiment,” where I try to update daily, documenting my thoughts, emotional shifts, observations on relationships, and my creative process. It’s also a record of my journey to becoming a director. After returning to China in 2016, I entered the film industry and worked in the visual effects production department on projects like Creation of the Gods I, Creation of the Gods II, and Wakanda Forever, with experience in both China and Hollywood. Since 2023, I’ve shifted my focus to original storytelling.


I’m currently revising my first script. It’s not grand in scale, but it’s deeply personal—centered on memory, my father, and the city. I want to make films that belong to me, and to our generation: grounded yet profound, sensitive but resolute. I believe film is not only a form of artistic expression—it’s a way to intervene in reality.

我是93年出生于长沙的自由创作者。我的写作起点来自一种“必须表达”的冲动。学生时代,我常感受到世界的混乱与复杂,那些没有被说出来的情绪和故事让我感到不安。写作是我自我整理、自我清晰的方式,也逐渐成为我与外界建立连接的路径。


我目前专注于写作和电影。我的博客是一个“真实写作实验”,尽量每天更新,记录我的思考、情绪流动、人际观察和创作过程。我16年回国之后开始进入电影行业,曾在视效部门以制片的身份参与制作《封神1》《封神2》《Wankanda Forever》等,在中国和好莱坞都工作过,23年之后开始转入创作。


我正在重新回去修改我第一个剧本——它并不宏大,却非常个人,围绕记忆、父亲与城市展开。我想拍属于我、也属于我们这一代人的电影:贴地而深刻,敏感又笃定。我相信电影不只是艺术表达,它也是一种现实干预。

sunnyspaceundefined@duck.com

website designed by Daiga Shinohara

©2025 Double Take Film, All rights reserved

I’m an independent creator born in 1993 in Changsha, now based in California. My writing started from an urgent need to express. Back in school, I often felt overwhelmed by the chaos and complexity of the world—by the emotions and stories left unsaid. Writing became my way of organizing my thoughts, finding clarity, and gradually, connecting with the outside world.


Right now, I’m focused on writing and filmmaking. My blog is a “real writing experiment,” where I try to update daily, documenting my thoughts, emotional shifts, observations on relationships, and my creative process. It’s also a record of my journey to becoming a director. After returning to China in 2016, I entered the film industry and worked in the visual effects production department on projects like Creation of the Gods I, Creation of the Gods II, and Wakanda Forever, with experience in both China and Hollywood. Since 2023, I’ve shifted my focus to original storytelling.


I’m currently revising my first script. It’s not grand in scale, but it’s deeply personal—centered on memory, my father, and the city. I want to make films that belong to me, and to our generation: grounded yet profound, sensitive but resolute. I believe film is not only a form of artistic expression—it’s a way to intervene in reality.

我是93年出生于长沙的自由创作者。我的写作起点来自一种“必须表达”的冲动。学生时代,我常感受到世界的混乱与复杂,那些没有被说出来的情绪和故事让我感到不安。写作是我自我整理、自我清晰的方式,也逐渐成为我与外界建立连接的路径。


我目前专注于写作和电影。我的博客是一个“真实写作实验”,尽量每天更新,记录我的思考、情绪流动、人际观察和创作过程。我16年回国之后开始进入电影行业,曾在视效部门以制片的身份参与制作《封神1》《封神2》《Wankanda Forever》等,在中国和好莱坞都工作过,23年之后开始转入创作。


我正在重新回去修改我第一个剧本——它并不宏大,却非常个人,围绕记忆、父亲与城市展开。我想拍属于我、也属于我们这一代人的电影:贴地而深刻,敏感又笃定。我相信电影不只是艺术表达,它也是一种现实干预。

sunnyspaceundefined@duck.com

website designed by Daiga Shinohara

©2025 Double Take Film, All rights reserved

I’m an independent creator born in 1993 in Changsha, now based in California. My writing started from an urgent need to express. Back in school, I often felt overwhelmed by the chaos and complexity of the world—by the emotions and stories left unsaid. Writing became my way of organizing my thoughts, finding clarity, and gradually, connecting with the outside world.


Right now, I’m focused on writing and filmmaking. My blog is a “real writing experiment,” where I try to update daily, documenting my thoughts, emotional shifts, observations on relationships, and my creative process. It’s also a record of my journey to becoming a director. After returning to China in 2016, I entered the film industry and worked in the visual effects production department on projects like Creation of the Gods I, Creation of the Gods II, and Wakanda Forever, with experience in both China and Hollywood. Since 2023, I’ve shifted my focus to original storytelling.


I’m currently revising my first script. It’s not grand in scale, but it’s deeply personal—centered on memory, my father, and the city. I want to make films that belong to me, and to our generation: grounded yet profound, sensitive but resolute. I believe film is not only a form of artistic expression—it’s a way to intervene in reality.

我是93年出生于长沙的自由创作者。我的写作起点来自一种“必须表达”的冲动。学生时代,我常感受到世界的混乱与复杂,那些没有被说出来的情绪和故事让我感到不安。写作是我自我整理、自我清晰的方式,也逐渐成为我与外界建立连接的路径。


我目前专注于写作和电影。我的博客是一个“真实写作实验”,尽量每天更新,记录我的思考、情绪流动、人际观察和创作过程。我16年回国之后开始进入电影行业,曾在视效部门以制片的身份参与制作《封神1》《封神2》《Wankanda Forever》等,在中国和好莱坞都工作过,23年之后开始转入创作。


我正在重新回去修改我第一个剧本——它并不宏大,却非常个人,围绕记忆、父亲与城市展开。我想拍属于我、也属于我们这一代人的电影:贴地而深刻,敏感又笃定。我相信电影不只是艺术表达,它也是一种现实干预。