Author: Hong Rengan
The main content is: In politics, the emphasis is on "finding ways to employ people." "Treatment" means formulating laws and systems, opposing party alliances, and strengthening the unified leadership of the central government; some measures with a democratic flavor are proposed: 1. When one person commits a crime, one person will be held responsible, and family members and children should not be involved. Only under certain circumstances can they be arrested and punished; otherwise, they should be treated kindly and comforted. 2. The crimes are different and should be treated separately; they should be released after serving their sentences to facilitate their rehabilitation. 3. For capital crimes, the crime and execution date must be announced to educate the public. Compared with the feudal criminal law that implicated the nine clans and other criminal laws, this is a big improvement. The so-called "employing people" means that people should be put to their best use, rewards and punishments should be strict, talents should be recruited, opinions should be widely solicited, and everyone should be encouraged to strive for progress. At the same time, he is opposed to asking for private visits and relying on the power of his father, brother, and friends to pursue an official career. If such a thing is discovered, he will be dismissed from his post immediately and punished for both crimes. Hong Rengan also advocated following the example of Western capitalist countries in establishing newspapers, setting up suggestion boxes, and setting up press officers in each province to collect news for the King of Heaven to consider, so that the central government could make "clear decisions" based on listening to everyone's opinions. He proposed that to protect the country, we must eliminate evil and protect good people. They believe that improper employment of people is enough to break the law; improper use of ideas is enough to harm people. Only by taking both into account can “power be restored to one”. Economically, it advocates following the example of Western capitalist countries in developing transportation, manufacturing steamboats, steamships, and steamships, which are strong and light; developing manufacturing, mining, and smelting industries, with owners enjoying patents and the state protecting them. For minerals such as silver, copper, iron, tin, etc., those who find them will be rewarded and allowed to recruit people to mine; to develop financial and postal services, the state will set up postal booths to deliver court documents, and private citizens can set up letter houses to communicate all kinds of family letters, and permission will be granted Privately founded bank. In terms of culture and education, he advocates opening schools to learn Western scientific knowledge. All "serious skills" such as ships, trains, clocks, etc. must be learned; he believes that cultural heritage is not without merit, but opposes arrogance and extravagance. In terms of social reform, opium was strictly prohibited, superstition was outlawed, infanticide and slavery were prohibited, and social welfare undertakings such as hospitals, homes for the lame, blind and deaf-mute, orphanages for widows and widows, and nurseries were established. Diplomatically, it opposed a closed-door attitude and advocated free trade and cultural exchanges with capitalist countries. However, foreigners were not allowed to violate the national laws of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and were not allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of the country. In short, "New Chapter of Zizheng" is the first relatively complete capitalist construction plan in modern China, and it has obvious progressive significance. However, it is not the product of peasant war practice. It only represents the social development plan of a small number of intellectuals who have accepted the influence of Western capitalist ideas. Therefore, it does not mention the land issue that farmers urgently demand. At the same time, this proposal was raised during the Second Opium War. The construction plan does not involve the issue of fighting foreign aggression at all. These are the two main shortcomings of "The New Chapter of Zizheng". Hong Xiuquan agreed with all the above reform proposals and only had reservations about certain clauses. It was just that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom itself did not have the class foundation and social conditions to implement the capitalist construction plan, and was restricted by the war environment, so it could not be implemented.