On Mr. Wu Yannan's Researches In The History Of The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

In the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century, the world of history, Mr. Luo Ergang as a representative, thought that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom practiced the land system of "land to the tillers". According to plenty of historical materials, Mr. Wu Yannan pointed out that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom permitted landlords to collect ground rents in its territory, and some historical materials, which supported the viewpoint that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom practiced the land system of "land to the tillers" were not accurate. After analyzing the field certificates and the marsh certificates, he pointed out that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom allowed the landlords to collect ground rents and sustained the previous feudalist field connections. He thought that, not only in the later stage, but also in the earlier stage, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom not practiced the land system of "land to the tillers", but practiced the land system of feudal landlords owning land on the basis of "delivering tax grain and customs duty according to the previous regulations". Several years later, most colleagues in the world of history, including Mr. Luo Ergang accepted Mr. Wu Yannan's viewpoint, which later became the mainstream viewpoint in the aspect of research in the land system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.On the character of the regime, besides the viewpoint of a peasants' revolutionary regime and the one of a feudal regime, Mr. Wu Yannan held the one of a double character regime. He held that the regime was neither a totally revolutionary one, nor a totally feudal one, but a double one thathas the character of peasant's revolution and feudality at the same time. He thought that not only the central power, but also the village power was controlled by laborers, which caused the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to be a revolutionary regime, and that the village power had feudality to some extend, and the peasantry was a double class, thus the central power was with feudality to some extend. His viewpoint, supported by Mr. Luo Ergang, Lin Qingyuan, and Wang Tianjiang, thus became one of the typical representatives in the discussion of the character of the regime.Mr. Wu Yannan also made a thorough research in other aspects of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, such as the evaluation of the leaders, the research in the question of the pictures of figures, the research in the question of women, and etc. As to the evaluation of the leaders, he adhered to the way of "one divides into two", neither affirmed them fully, nor denied them totally. At that time, Li Xiucheng and Shi Dakai were treated as traitors. But Mr. Wu Yannan insisted that though they made great mistakes, they had made huge contributions to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. As to other leaders, he also evaluated them fairly and objectively.Mr. Wu Yannan made unforgettable contributions to the research in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In his study, he paid great attention to collecting and analyzing historical materials, of boldly bringing forth new ideas. His achievements and experience research are to enlighten the followers greatly.