太平天国与中国早期现代化三题

TAIPING HEAVENLY KINGDOM AND EARLY MODERNIZATIONS OF CHINA

太平天国与中国早期现代化有着密切的关系。太平天国的革命纲领体现了先进中国人的思想,最早提出了中国早期现代化的主题。中国的早期现代化开始于洋务运动,而洋务派是在清政府镇压太平天国运动的过程中崛起的,大平天国是洋务运动的催生婆。太平天国运动改变了中国区域城市经济兴衰的格局,在受战争影响最大的长江下游地区传统商业城市扬州、苏州趋向衰落,现代工商业城市上海、无锡、常州崛起。

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the early modernization of China are closely related. The guiding principles of the Kingdom embodied some ideas of the progressive Chinese, in which one can find the earliest presentation of the theme of the early modernization of China. The early modernization of China began with the Westernization Movement, which rose in the course of cracking down of the Taiping Movement. Therefore the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom expedited the progress of Westernization Movement. Moreover, the Taiping Movement changed the regional urban economic pattern of China. Affected by the war, Yangzhou and Suzhou were on decline as traditional commercial cities in the lower reach of the Yangtze River, while Shanghai, Wuxi and Changzhou rose as modern industrial and commercial cities.