The Impact On The Eight Banners By Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement

The Eight Banners is an important topic in the research of Qing Dynasty history. The academic research about the decline of the Eight Banners has made certain achievements, but it is lack of research of the decline of the Eight Banners in the Late Qing Dynasty.The decline of the Eight Banners had existed for a long time, but before Opium War, the decline was slow, influenced subtly, thereafter the Eight Banners entered the quick decline time. The most fatal attack on the Eight Banners is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, of which the flames of war burnt most of China. After the serious attack of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, the Eight Banners was unable to recover its previous strong power truly in the military, thereafter the Eight Banners army survived in name only, and became the the serious burden of Qing Dynasty government. Military disastrous defeat of the Eight Banners caused a series of chain-reactions inevitably in banner troops society. As for economical aspect, because Qing Dynasty government defaulted and reduced the pay, the Eight Banners'livelihood worsened suddenly, the policy of boon raising trended disintegrates. And in the social aspect, it had enlarged the social burden that widowers, widows, orphans, and the childless increased in the banner troops which was caused by the sharp decrease of the capable and the strong; The back pay and the embezzlement caused the lower level Eight Banners soldiers to be discontented, the phenomenon of the Eight Banners soldiers revolt occurred frequently, and the social unstable factors increased; After the war, the banner troops were depressed, the morale sank lower, the Eight Banners lost the awe- function . Besides it caused crisis of the superior psychology and the privilege psychology of the Eight Banners that the Eight Banners had lost the superiority in the battlefield.This dissertation attempts to carry on the preliminary discussion about the military attack to the Eight Banners by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement and the indirect influence which produces from it, analyses the function of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement in the eight banners'decline process, combined the big background under which Qing Dynasty declined, hopes to explain the relations between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement and the decline of the Eight Banners, and reveal the influence which the quick decline of the Eight Banners produced in this time.The dissertation consists of four parts:Part one: Demonstrate the military attack on the Eight Banners which caused by the...