Alisa Lai

Ms. Barnett
AP World History
March 6, 2017
Impact of religion and politic in Chinese rebellions

Throughout the history of China, the occurrence of rebellion led by commoners

was one of the most prolonged continuity as its earliest case took place in 209 BCE

and its latest case occurred in 1989. In those rebellions, religion and politics were two

dominant roles that united and organized people to fight for their idealized society and

against the social unjust. Though the important role of religion that united people in

the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Taiping Uprising slowly transformed into politics as

a major role to inspire the rebels in the Tiananmen square movement and Red Guard

movement, these rebellions continued to target against the government officials and

the upper-class.

In Yellow Turban Rebellion and Taiping Uprising, religions such as Daoism and

Christianity were used as strategies to persuade and unite people to target against the

useless government, and the outlooks of both religions were slightly adapted to the

different needs of the rebels. Document 1 recorded the role that Daoism played in the

Yellow Turban Rebellion as its preternatural elements and envision of a utopian

society attracted massive peasant followers. Due to the adoption of Confucianism as

the governing philosophy in the Han dynasties, Confucian scholar gentry was placed

at the highest in the social hierarchy while the peasants and merchants was placed at

the last and therefore suffered from the oppressions of its higher class. The leader of

Yellow turban rebellion, Zhang Jiao, organized peasants who suffered from the famine

and rigid social hierarchy to rebel against the greedy government officials, and

landlord who imposed too much tax and tramples their livelihood. People hated the

government that failed to address issues of famine and high revenue, and hence they
tried to overthrow the government. By using Daoisms magical healing therapy to

cure the superstitious and uneducated peasants who were left behind by the

government, the leader gained support from peasant who then regarded him as a

savior and healer. The organization of rebels was further strengthened as some

outlooks of Daoism was incorporated into its ideology and goals. Daoisms outlook of

human harmony with nature was changed into social harmony and equality to fit the

need of angry peasants who wished to rebuild a society where everyone enjoyed the

equally distributed resources.

Similar religious strategy to organize followers was used in the Taiping Uprising.

According to document 2, the official prayer of the Heavenly Kingdoms believer,

Christianity was regarded as the ideology of the Taiping Uprising. Taiping Uprising

took place in 1850-1864, when China was intruded and weakened by the opium war

and opium. Social order was perturbed, and government was corrupted, and millions

of Chinese citizens lived in turmoil and chaos. Claiming himself as the son of god and

brother of Jesus, Hong believed he would save the commoner from the addictive

opium and Manchurian government. The Taiping uprising targeted against the useless

Manchurian government which failed to deal with incessant imports of opium that

weakened Chinese people, the foundation of China. The Manchurian government

imposed taxes on the peasant after Lin Zexus opium czar because the Britain Empire

demanded compensation of their opium products. Commoner grew outraged at their

governments decision of raising revenue to pay the compensation for Britain and

their inability to destroy the Nanjing treaty and the following uneven treaties. The

prayer (document 2) served as a remorse claim for people who wanted to convert to

Christianity and joined the organization of the Heavenly Kingdom. Hong used the

prayer to convince his follower that they can go to heaven ultimately if they follow
the instruction of Hong, the son of god. Hong also adapted some of the outlook of

Christianity to fulfill his need. Not only did he incorporate element of Daoism and

Confucianism into Christianity to make people accepting more easily, Hong also

changed the definition of sin as smoking opium, prostitution, and working for the

Manchurian government to serve his interest in fighting the foreigner and Manchurian

government. By changing some doctrines, Hong convinced his followers to quit from

smoking opium and stop working for Manchurian and to help him fight the

government more effectively.

As the imperial system gradually weakened and collapsed, politic had replaced

religions role of leading and encouraging people, but the target of rebellion remained

to be the authoritarian and corrupted government official in the Red Guard movement

and Tiananmen movement. Founded in 1911, Chinese Communist party and its leader

Mao Zedong had successfully led the country transformed from a Dynastic China to a

Communism China. In the Communist Era, Maos cultural revolution largely opposed

the old custom and feudal religions and cultures. During the cultural revolution, Mao

claimed that in order to achieve the ultimate utopian society, capitalism and feudalism

must be destroyed. Maos cultural revolution explained why religions role had been

replaced by politic in the upcoming rebellious movement. In the Red Guard

movement that was led by students, politic of communism drew students together to

fight against the corrupted government officials and intellectuals who believed to be

the shameful bourgeois class. This statement can be supported by document 4, a

propaganda poster of the red guard. In this poster, students were wearing greenish

tunic suit and red armband. Those apparels were the typical garment of the red guard.

The male student who stood in the middle and the female student were holding Maos

little red book. Both of them stood in powerful positions and had confident looks in
their face as if they were encouraged by the little red book that they held. Maos little

red book served as the politic ideology that unify the student in the red guard

movement. Maos little red book represented the communist ideology. By holding

high the communist ideology from the little red book, students were unified and

persuaded that communism would lead people to a future of equality and harmony.

Although politic such as communism took the unifying role of religion, the target of

those revolutions were still the upper-class and government officials. In the lower side

of poster, two male students held a paper that wrote: defeat all the bourgeoisie and

capitalist official within the government. The capitalist government official and the

bourgeoisie class were the targets of the red guard movement. Students were

convinced that those capitalist government officials and bourgeoisie were the upper-

class victims who gained their benefit from oppressing the commoners and prevented

the revolutionary people from building a new harmonious and equal China. Therefore,

those officials and capitalist were labeled and targeted as opponent who need to be

punished or even killed.

After the Maoist era, politic such as democracy acted as the role that collaborated

student and working class to target against the Chinese government in Tiananmen

square movement that took place in 1989 as well. During this time period, Deng

Xiaoping came to power and reformed Chinese economic system. He changed the

Chinese communist economy into capitalist economy without adopting democracy.

The communist government still had the monopoly of controlling China. Under this

communist regime and capitalist economy, huge inequalities between the upper-class

(most of them are government officials) and the lower-class were generated, and the

hypocrisy of this communist government disappointed Chinese people. Communism

was no longer the ideal politic that people valued and vision in the red guard
movement. Democracy replaced Communism as an ideal politic that unified the

rebels. Both Document 3 and 5 proved that democracy unified the rebels in the

Tiananmen square movement. Document 5, a students poster of the Tiananmen

square movement, criticized Chinese press that provided false and incorrect

information and news to its people. By criticizing the press and the government,

student hoped to gain freedom of press, which is one fundamental aspect of

democracy. Document 3 as well proved students wish of gaining democracy. This

student poster contained the word TOEFL. TOFEL refers to the English test that

students were required to take in order to study abroad, especially in America. By

bringing up the word, the designer of the poster suggested that many Chinese students

desired to go aboard for their ideal democracy. These two student posters (document 3

+ 5) proved that democracy played a role that united student to fight against the

despotic rule of the communist government. Similar to the Yellow turban rebellion,

Taiping uprising, and Red Guard movement, the target of Tiananmen square

movement continued to be the authoritarian government. Document 5 highly

criticized governments control of press, through which the government officials

hided truth from the innocent commoner. Document 3 pointed out that government

was full of hypocrites who secretly enjoyed the fortune that they gained through

oppressing people while claiming equality for all people. This kind of despotic and

insincere government displeased people who were under their control and forced

people to rebel against it.

Revolutions in Mexico resembled the Chinese rebellions, in which their role of

unifying rebels changed from religion to politic, but they continued to target

government and the upper-class. The Hidalgo-Morelos rebellions represented the

early Chinese rebellions that were unified by religions. Similar to the Taoist priest
leader of the Yellow turban rebellion, Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Hidalgo-Morelos

rebellion, Miguel Hidalgo and Jose Morelos, were also two priests. While the yellow

turban rebellion gained support from Daoism and used Daoism doctrine to unified

people, the Hidalgo-Morelos rebellion used help from church to rally people. The

Mexican Revolution that took place on 1910 is rallied by ideal politic form of

democracy against the government and the dictatorship of Porfrio Diaz. Similar to the

Tiananmen square movement, Mexican Revolution held democracy as an ideal

politics that would lead Mexico to a brighter future. From Hidalgo-Morelos rebellion

to the Mexican Revolution, the role of inspiring the rebels changed from religion to

politic. However, similar to Chinese rebellion, the target of those rebels continued to

be the government. The Hidalgo-Morelos rebellions revolted against the White elite

creole class and their governing of Mexican people. Government maintained their role

of being overthrow in the Mexican revolution. Mexican Revolution targeted the

dictator Porfrio Diaz and his government who gave more privileges to the foreigner,

especially the American, and largely ignore the living condition of the Mexican

people.

The oppression and corruption of the government always provoked the working-

class, peasants, and intellectuals, who then expressed their rage in forms of rebellions

and revolutionary movements. In these four rebellions: Yellow Turban Rebellion,

Taiping Uprising, Red Guard Movement, Tiananmen square movement, religions role

of collaborating people evolved into politics, yet governments and elites who enjoyed

their privilege were the enduring target that held against people.

Citation

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Yi, Mu, and Mark V. Thompson. Crisis at Tiananmen: reform and reality in modern
China. San Francisco: China Books & Periodicals, 1990.

Cabrera, Luis. "The Mexican Revolution: Its Causes, Purposes and Results." The
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 69 (1917): 1-17.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3804613.