[ 英文摘要 ]

We have had enough researches on Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; there are, however, few papers exploring the key of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom transferring from a group worshipping God to an armed force. At beginning of the revolt, religions played an important role. What reasons caused Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to turn to an armed force from a religious group? Under what forces were these changes made? These are the issues to be discussed in this paper.

God worshipping was born in the late Qing Dynasty where the feudal society of China was to collapse and western capitalism invaded. The birth and development have strong social background and reasons. Central authorities declined day by day and local powers increased, particularly in Guangxi Province. Decline of local government and rise of tuanlian offered opportunities to god worshipping. They also concealed the un-mixable confrontations. Corruptions in government sector and predation from the people led to wide participation of poor people in preaching of Hong Xiuchuan and Feng Yunshan in Guangxi. Thanks to the massive preaching and the characteristics of God worshipping, it quickly grew in Guangxi. Owing to objective situation development, Qing Dynasty government and local tuanglians started resisting God worshipping. The resistance finally caused revolt of God worshippers, which had strong social background and deep psychological mechanism factors. At the same time, contradiction and confrontation were also found within God worshippers. The doctrine also was deviated, which eventually led to the final failure.