Hakka Elites, Christianity And Modern Chinese Political And Social Change

The western countries had opened the door of China by force after Opium war, meanwhile, they also brought western advanced systems, science and technology, culture, drugs opium as well as Christianity. In fact, Christianity played a very important role in China's own searching for modernization. Reviewing of the Chinese modern history, we can see that Christianity had a profoundly influence on the famous movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Revolution of1911.When we search historical materials we can be surprised to find that there were a lot of Hakkas widely distributing in Guangdong province and Guangxi province. We know that many ordinary people and elites of Hakka became the participants of revolutionary movement in the historic transformation. And these people had all been affected by the influence of Christian and western democracy thought which derive from the Christian thought.In the modern political and social changes, Guangdong and Guangxi province walked in the forefront of the revolutionary although they always played a little role in Chinese political stage. The movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Revolution of1911are very important part in the modern history of China comparing with the other political events, such as Westernization Movement, Reform of Hundred Days in Qing Dynasty, Yihetuan Movement and so on. Historical research shows that, in the game of Chinese modernization process, the Hakka elites had played a key role, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the revolution of1911which leaded by the Hakka elites have far-reaching influence on China's political and social changes. But these two revolutions had same background but different results.Hong Xiuquan had failed imperial examination many times, but later on, he knew Christianity haphazardly, then he had great interest in it. On the basis of the reconstruction of the orthodox Christianity, Hong created a "freak" religious organization-Worship God which includes traditional thoughts but different with orthodox Christian thought. The spreading of worship god in Guangdong province was frustrated, but in Hakka area of Guangxi province it had developed vigorously under specific historical background. Worship god brought the leading thoughts and organizational strength to the movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It fought against government of the late Qing dynasty, it disseminated equality, equitable, economic development thoughts, but because of own limitations, the final destination is to build "little heaven" on the ground which is same with the model of traditional dynasty replaced, which is far away from the policy of establishing a modern nation state, implement separation between church and state. But this did not affect the position and function of movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in modern Chinese political social change. Anyway, it is a meaningful try in the process of modernization searching for Chinese people.The political and social background in the Revolution of1911was far from the period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Chinese in modern times suffered setbacks inprocess of modernization. The Westernization Movement caused by defect of system fell flat after the Sino-Japanese War from1894to1895. The Hundred Days Reform in Qing dynasty launched by the intellectuals finally turned out to be a flash in the pan for its vulnerability in front of the power of the royalists. The widely spread of Christian and the rise of oversea elite group push the Christian group participate actively in the process of Chinese modernization. Early in the revolution in1911, the Christian elite group lead by Sun Yat-sen became the mainstream strength of the revolution. The religious belief and spirit of Christian has been the corn power to launch the revolution. The Three People's Principles advocated by Sun Yat-sen is the product in the influence of the combination of Chinese convention and western Christian. The Christian spirit absorbed by Sun Yat-sen is the important basis of the thought of the three people's principles. The campaign of Hundred Days Reform considered the late feudalist Qing dynasty directly to be the enemies, with the aim to overthrow the rule of feudalism while establishing a modern nation state on the basis of mirroring the western civilization development. Different from the movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Sun Yat-sen regulated the policy of divorcing religion from government on the basis of generalizing the experiences and lessons of Chinese revolution movements and integrating the development of the western Christian civilization, which reflects the nature of democracy of Hundred Days Reform in Qing dynasty under the leadership of the Hakkas Christian elite group.Through contrast between the Taiping Rebellion and the Revolution of1911, we can see clearly that Christianity and the Hakka elites played a key role in the different periods of early Chinese modern policy and social development, which is very helpful to understand Chinese changes and development of early modern society.