Atlas / Organisations / Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
1851–1864 · China · Millenarian · Held state power · coding confidence low
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
A Christian-derived millenarian order abolishing private landholding, opium, footbinding and the Confucian examination system at once.
Economic model
All land held in common and redistributed by household size; communal treasuries; abolition of private trade.
Organisation of powers
Theocratic kingship under a leader claiming to be the younger brother of Jesus; total military organisation of civil life.
Reading note
The deadliest civil war in recorded history, and a warning against assuming that radical land collectivism is a modern or a Marxist idea.
Check a claim about Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored −09
At the floor: all land held in common and redistributed by household size.
- Programme textThe Land System of the Heavenly Kingdom (1853) abolished private landholding and private trade.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +06
Coded +6: footbinding and opium banned, alongside a theocratic moral code.
- Documented act or statuteSexes were segregated into separate camps and adultery was capital.
AU · Organisation of power · scored +10
At the ceiling: theocratic kingship with no institution outside it.
- Programme textThe leader claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus and ruled by revelation.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +09
Coded +9: total military organisation of civil life.
- Programme textThe population was organised into military units of twenty-five families.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +06
Coded +6: anti-Manchu ethnic exclusion and religious exclusivity.
- Documented act or statuteManchu populations of captured cities were killed; Confucian and Buddhist practice was banned.
CH · Method and tempo · scored +10
At the ceiling: fourteen years of war estimated among the deadliest conflicts in history.
- ScholarshipDeath toll estimates range from 20 to 30 million.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
Countries
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