With the help of some people, I saw this comic booklet about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom a long time ago. I found that the illustrations inside are extremely exquisite, and this booklet is also not easy to find. So I OCRed it and made a pure image version (some text and images are too closely combined in the middle and were kept). Sharing it here with everyone. The original version with text will be posted later when I have time. Below is the PDF version.
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Since the Opium War of 1840, imperialist powers such as Britain, France, Russia, and the United States have continuously carried out military and economic invasions of China, dumping large quantities of opium and foreign goods, leading to the collapse of domestic commerce, the bankruptcy of handicraft artisans, and a scene of depression in both urban and rural areas.
The reactionary and decayed Qing government, surrendering to imperialism externally and strengthening control and repression internally, carried out various brutal exploitations. This forced the broad masses of working people to live in dire poverty and suffering.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance; where there is exploitation, there is struggle. At that time, people of all ethnic groups in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, and other places with a glorious revolutionary tradition rose up under banners such as “Official Oppression Causes Rebellion” and “Robbing the Rich to Help the Poor.”
After long-term planning and secret coordination, the peasant revolutionary army, led by Hong Xiuquan, launched an armed uprising in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi, on January 11, 1815, solemnly declaring the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
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Later, in order to inspire the peasant masses to break through the comfort of feudal traditional ideas, Hong Xiuquan once created a story, using the authority of the “Emperor God” to severely criticize Confucius’s books as “many errors,” which corrupted people.
The “Emperor” is furious and orders an angel to whip Kong Lao Er. Kong Lao Er kneels repeatedly to beg for mercy, pleading endlessly. This “Emperor” is the embodiment of the revolutionary farmers fighting for liberation. The story vividly depicts the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolution’s resolute opposition to Confucianism.
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It is unexpected that the image of the Emperor God here is actually that of the Taiping Army and the working people themselves. Previously, the Emperor God was always thought of as a figure similar to the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan himself. Upon careful consideration, this image also correctly reflects the working people rising up to liberate themselves and overthrow the Confucianism, this evil spiritual shackles. Therefore, the folk song “The Emperor God whips Confucius, and the streets and alleys are filled with joy” could widely gain recognition and spread among the working people.
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That’s how it is. So this picture has high artistic and political value.
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Indeed, I once saw a picture somewhere of the emperor whipping Kong Laoer, and the emperor’s attire looked quite similar to that of an emperor (though it is also possible that my memory is biased). When I first saw this picture, I felt it was somewhat strange and thought it did not depict the image of the working people. Now, seeing your discussion, I feel that portraying the working people is indeed the most appropriate, as this truly reflects Hong Xiuquan’s ideology.
Hong Xiuquan believed that the reactionary思想 of Confucius was the ideological root of all evil under feudal rule. Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom declared the Confucian classics as “heretical books” and explicitly prohibited their recitation.
After establishing the capital in Nanjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also set up a “Book Deletion Office,” personally headed by Hong Xiuquan, to review and revise the Confucian classics, including the “Four Books” and the “Five Classics.” As a result, they considered the entire content to be “heretical words.” It is evident that their critique of Confucius’s思想 was quite resolute.
Wherever the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolutionary army went, any temples and ancestral tablets (spirit tablets) of Confucius were set on fire and destroyed, expressing their immense anger and deep hatred towards Confucius and his reactionary ideas.
Hong Xiuquan’s creation of “Yuan Dao Awakening World Teachings”, “Yuan Dao Enlightening World Teachings”, “Yuan Dao Salvation Song”, and later promulgated “Tian Chao Tian Mu System” all target feudal patriarchal ideas and systems, pointing to Confucius’ reactionary thoughts as his theoretical foundation.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom firmly criticized the reactionary思想 of Confucius promoting “male superiority and female inferiority,” and proposed revolutionary demands for the liberation of women. To ensure women are economically equal to men, the “Heavenly Dynasty Land System” stipulated that “land should be divided according to population, regardless of male or female.”
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In the revolutionary ranks of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, women could participate in politics and hold official positions, fight alongside men, and take imperial examinations, ensuring women were equal to men in politics, military affairs, and culture.
To improve the social status of women, it was also explicitly stipulated: “Marriage under the heavens shall not consider wealth,” prohibiting the buying and selling of marriages, banning slavery, and abolishing foot binding and other insulting customs against women. The broad masses of working women all applauded enthusiastically.
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The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolution’s negation and criticism of Confucius’s reactionary ideas caused extreme panic and deep hatred among the Qing dynasty feudal ruling class and imperialist agents.
The executioner who suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolution, Zeng Guofan, lamented: “The benefits of thousands of years of Chinese ethics, poetry, and classics are swept away in one fell swoop.” The curses and laments of the opposition also indirectly show that the Taiping movement against Confucius was hitting the core of the feudal ruling class.
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Below are the PDF version with text and the original high-quality image compressed package (the previously uploaded version without text is uncompressed, so it will not be uploaded separately).
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Picture Album (Text Version).zip (8.9 MB)
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Anti-Confucius Struggle Story (Text Version).pdf (6.1 MB)