Taiping Rebellion occurred under modern background contained some modern thought which the peasant wars did not have before. It introduced some Western ideology against tradition culture in Chinese history for the first time, to attempt to break up Chinese old value system with Western cultural factors. The “Taiping Field System in Tian Dynasty” demonstrated the modern wishes to direct the peasant war to escape the traditional fate in virtue of the Western value form of “perfect idea”. The advanced thinker of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom opens “ the new page for guiding politics”, manifesting the modern trend in option of industrial civilized revolution in order to avoid the historical circulating law. However, due to the historical limitation of the old culture of the peasant class of revolutionary main force, The possibility with the modern factors in the Taiping rebellion can not be realized practically. Therefore, Taiping rebellion still belongs to the category of classical type of peasant war.
Since Marxism is a guiding ideology in China, the value of Marx’s theory of human liberation should be regarded as the basis of judgment in the construction of our contemporary values. The guiding function of this theory has been exhibited in three aspects. First, when we reflect on our traditional goal in view of this theory, we find that we ought to give up the Great Harmony (Datong) as our ideal of social civilization. Secondly, when we consider our present ideals in the perspective of this theory, we think it is necessary for us to cultivate the values of individuality in our socialist market economy. Finally, when we look to our future in the light of the sense of human liberation, we understand that we must make severe critical remarks on human alienation that has been brought about by material dependence.
