Chapter 3: The Twin Palaces of Beijing
"The wise man who has charge of governing the empire should know the cause of disorder before he can put it in order. Unless he knows its cause, he cannot regulate it."
-Mozi
Taiping-Qing enmity would intensify on August 7th 1857, when the Russian quadrant of Beijing hosted Emperor Yixuan at the former Summer Palace; ten days later, North Prince Wei Changhui of the Taiping Kingdom arrived at the Old Summer Palace in the American quadrant. Both the Taiping and the Qing refused to recognize the presence of the other in the city, and this unstable state of affairs, combined with the frightening display of Western power in the Battle of Beijing, swallowed up lingering feelings of conservatism in the Dakai court.
King Dakai promptly promoted Ambassador to the U.S. Yung Wing to Minister of Education, a newly created post; Minister Wing had long-standing desires for reform of the Taiping Kingdom, and was given a better hand to do so with the current situation after he returned from the United States. The autumn and winter of 1857-1858 saw the establishment of the following in the Taiping Kingdom, at least on paper:
1. The standardization and codification of the Heavenly Army's military organization, which consisted of princedoms, armies, divisions, regiments, and companies under princes, generals, division-generals, colonels, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, and privates, as well as three classes of brigades depending on time spent in service.
2. The foundation of the Heavenly Navy, with ranks modeled on the United States Navy, and further, complete subordination to the King with no princely intermediates.
3. The creation of the Taiping Kingdom Military Academy and the Tianjing Naval Academy for training.
4. The broadening of civil service exams to include knowledge pertinent to one's position, such as science, mathematics, economics, geography, engineering, etc.
5. The establishment of the metric system as the standards for weight and measure for the Tianjing Banking Corporation, as well as all regulated trade and travel.
6. The opening of graded schools for the people, with locations first opening in Tianjing, Guangzhou, Wahau, et. al. Its structure was modeled after American schools, while content was geared toward scientific and Biblical civil service exams.
7. The creation of industrial schools to teach trades and care for neglected children.
To fulfill his lofty goals, Ambassador Yung Wing organized a mission to send hundreds of Chinese students abroad to learn in American schools, while Western professionals to head institutions of higher education, and to advise in various ministries.
In the spring of 1858, the Taiping Kingdom saw massive gains in other areas. Local Hui and Salar Muslim revolutionaries in the western provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang ousted remaining Qing troops and officials, loosely under the command of Ma Hualong, leader of the Sufi order Jahriyya. Ma Hualong financed the war through the profits of the caravan trade that went through Jahriyya's headquarters in Jinjipu, although their victories were also made possible through support from the neighboring Pingnan Guo sultanate, and by having capable generals like Ma Zhan'ao of Linxia, Ma Guiyuan of Xining, and Ma Wenlu of Suzhou.
King Shi Dakai confirmed Ma Hualong as the regional leader of the area that would come to be known as East Turkestan. Ma Hualong and his generals reciprocated by pledging loyalty to the Taiping Kingdom. Expeditions were sent to Greater Mongolia, which had established independence from the Qing after their collapse under the regional Mongolian Buddhist leader, the seventh Jebtsundamba, named Agvaanchoyjivanchugperenlaijamts. His officials radiated an aura of disinterest and possibly disrespect with the Taiping diplomats, maintaining a line of neutrality in the Taiping-Qing conflict. The Mongols were thus the exception to the generally harmonious relations curried with the regional cliques that had emerged in the post-revolutionary order.
The Tianjing Banking Corporation meanwhile was receiving sizable funding from dues on trade and travel with their client states as well as foreign merchants. Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in particular were all quickly becoming sources of profit, as the Taiping Kingdom taxed European and American exports into the Chinese mainland. These financed Wing's educational reforms, as well as the building of a more stable civil government.
One of the biggest problems for the kingdom discovered by this new civil administration at the time was the enforcement of the tobacco, alcohol and opium prohibitions, as well as the prevention of gambling and prostitution. King Dakai was warned that the heavy-handed manner in which some Princes were enforcing these laws, up to and including capital punishment, was detrimental to the image of the Taiping Kingdom. Further, criminal networks starting to emerge to distribute these goods and services.
In September 1859, a royal decree was promulgated to address these concerns, legalizing alcohol, tobacco and gambling but levying a large excise tax upon them. Opium and prostitution were still prohibited, and thus illegal trade remained. Bribery was rampant among enforcement officials because of it, but King Dakai was completely unwilling to moderate his policies. On November 10th 1859, the court was shocked when Prince Li Xiucheng was stabbed to death in broad daylight by opium dealing bandits.
Prince Chen Kunshu, Minister of Justice, suggested that the murder was a result of the populace not knowing the difference between what is right [shi] and what is wrong [fei] saying, “our people require models [fa] of upright action, and it is the duty of the benevolent man to seek to promote what is beneficial, and eliminate what is harmful.” Prince Kunshu had been influenced by Mohist philosophy, and helped to engender a neo-Mohist revival among members of the court in the aftermath of the Prince Xiucheng's assassination. King Dakai decreed an excise tax for 'books that promote wrong' on the advice of Chancellor Rengan in November 1859, as many Ministers and Princes started to oppose decadent musical performances and elaborate burial practices on the basis that they 'did not benefit the people', as they needed to provide better models for them. Prince Kunshu did not, however, adopt a harder stance in regards to criminal punishment as Minister of Justice. This was because Mozi had stated that heavy-handed justice was one of the four disasters that unrighteous rulers inflict upon their subjects, and thus Prince Kunshu felt that the opiate trade would be mitigated once the people were furnished with better standards to conform upwards to.
Chancellor Rengan believed this to be a mistake, and suggested the creation of a secret police force to stem the tide of corruption and maintain the integrity of the banking system, which was suffering from the growing opiate trade. In March 1860, he founded the Heavenly Jinyiwei, which were given autonomy to arrest, interrogate, and punish anyone. They were to be royal guards, political commissars, and prosecutors of the enemies of the sovereign, distinguished from other police and military groups by their ever present firearms. The same year, Chancellor Rengan also presided over the Heavenly Navy's first fleet at Formosa, while the size of the civil government grew with the new educational standards.
A new political crisis soon emerged however, due to events unfolding abroad. Anti-slavery President William Seward of the Republican Party was elected in November 1860, and in a wave the slave-holding states seceded and formed the Sovereign States of America, sparking the American Civil War. The U.S. Navy left from the shores of Taiping Formosa, and the Royal Navy swept in after them.
