Chapter 52 Section 5 The Essence of the Peasant Uprising

The peasant uprising in China is a unique phenomenon in the history of the world. Middle school history textbooks say that peasant uprisings are the "motive force" for the advancement of history.Therefore, since Qin Shihuang, every 100 years, there will be a peasant uprising on the land of China to "severely attack the rule of the landlord class", "adjust production relations", "force subsequent dynasties to adjust their ruling policies", and "promote the advancement of history". . Those large-scale peasant uprisings are familiar to everyone: Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, Red Turban and Yellow Turban, Wagangzhai Liang Shanbo, Li Zicheng and Hong Xiuquan... Except for these large-scale uprisings, regional and local uprisings have spread throughout every page of Chinese history.During the two hundred years of the Qing Dynasty alone, there were more than three hundred peasant uprisings scattered in the "Records of the Qing Dynasty".

However, if you look briefly at world history, people will be surprised to find that the law that "peasant uprisings are the driving force of history" is only valid in China.Peasant uprisings in the West were rare.From the eighth century onwards in Western Europe, peasant uprisings were recorded in the history books. From then to the sixteenth and eight hundred years, there were no more than seven or eight peasant uprisings in dozens of countries. No dynasty in the West was overthrown by peasant uprisings.The Western Roman Empire existed for more than a thousand years, and internal conflicts were once very acute, but there was no national revolution that led to a change of dynasty.

The mission of China's peasant uprising was to change the dynasty, and its scale was huge and its destructive power was astonishing.The peasant uprisings in the West are more like a social movement, far less destructive than in China. In 997, the peasants of Normandy staged a great uprising, which, according to a chronicler, was caused by the peasants wanting to "use the forest dependencies and water sources according to their own regulations". In 1024, the Brittany uprising in France aimed at restoring the ancient village community system. In 1525, the German Peasants' War broke out, the main purpose of which was religious appeal, in order to enhance "the glory of God" and realize "Christian brotherly love".

If the uprising is simply equated with revolution, we can almost draw the conclusion that Chinese peasants are the most revolutionary, martial, and politically concerned peasants in the world. But the fact is obviously not the case.As we all know, Chinese peasants are "the best ordinary people in the world", and they are the group with the strongest endurance, the most hard-working and the most able to bear social injustice in the world. Such people are willing to choose the uprising at the cost of their lives, and there can only be one explanation: desperate.