太平天国应对社会危机的政略实践及得失——兼谈太平天国的评价问题

江南是太平天国建立较稳定统治并有力推行各项政策方略的地区。太平天国政府作为该区域的政治实体,在应对社会危机和基层社会治理方面均有不同程度的尝试和努力,主要采取了“应变十策”,旨在完成由“打天下”向“坐天下”执政理念的转型。但因主客观条件限制,太平天国应对社会危机的成效不大,调控社会秩序的预期没有实现;但某些地区的太平天国地方当局在内忧外患的非常时期,仍能于社会建设领域有所建树,所以过去认为太平天国“重立不重建”的政权建设惯性也仅是相对而言的。政府调控和应对社会危机的政略实践,还是国家统治技术和社会战略的体现。太平天国的社会战略展现了太平天国时期国家与社会关系的特殊实态。我们发现太平天国的政治权力以较为积极的姿态向乡村社会渗透,不同于该时期绅权扩大的一般势态,占领区的绅权呈现被压缩的另面镜像。太平天国战争之后,清政府在重整社会秩序工作中有意识地继承江南绅权被压制的趋势,在更广范围内限制和约束绅权,激发了国家权力与地方社会的新一轮角逐,并对晚清政局产生了影响。这一视角还为我们客观理性地认知太平天国的历史地位提供了切入点,呈现了太平天国复杂多重的历史面相。

The Strategy Practice of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Coping with the Social Crisis and An Evaluation of the Taiping Rebellion

Jiangnan(江南)was the region where the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established a stable rule and vigorously implemented various policies.As the political entity in the region,the government of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made different attempts and efforts to deal with social crisis and grass-roots social governance which includes 10 kinds of measures aiming to complete the transformation of ruling idea.However,due to the constraints of subjective and objective conditions,Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has not achieved much in dealing with the social crisis,and the expectation of regulating social order has not been realized.Nevertheless,some local governments made some achievements in social construction during the period of internal and external troubles,which indicates that the view that the Taiping paid little attention to construction of political power is not absolute.The strategy and practice of coping with the social crisis is also the embodiment of the technology and social strategy of the ruling class.The social strategy of the Taiping shows the special situation of the relationship between the state and the society.We found that the political power of the Taiping penetrated into the rural society positively,which was different from the general trend of the expansion of gentry power in this period.The power of gentry in the district occupied by the Taiping was restricted and weakened.The Qing government made further efforts to restrict the power of the gentry when recovering the social order after defeating the Taiping,which stirred up a new competition between the government and the local society,and also had effects on the political situation in late Qing Dynasty.This perspective also provides a starting point for us to understand objectively and rationally the historical status of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and presents its complicated historical aspects.