天下
Tianxia
"All Under Heaven"
Full Nation Name : Heavenly Kingdom | Heaven | Taiping — (天囯, Tiēnkuo)Majority/Official Culture : Hakka—Dai—Han Chinese or Heavenly People — (天国人 | Historically, the Chinese referred to themselves and their homeland as the Subjects of the Celestial Empire — (天朝子民) and the Celestial Empire — (天朝), though it took on a different meaning later on with the word, Celestial, which was used as a pejorative against Chinese immigrants living in the USA and elsewhere during the 19th century. For unrelated reasons, this changed once more during Taiping Rebellion when Hong Xiuquan insisted on the universal use of the word Heavenly — (天) to describe all things such as "Heavenly Dynasty, Heavenly Army, Heavenly Officials, Heavenly Commanders, Heavenly Soldiers, Royal Troops” and most notably "Heavenly People" in order to pay proper homage to Jehovah and distinguish the godly and virtuous new order from the pagan and morally bankrupt dynasties of old.)
Territorial Core : Heaven — China proper and Taiwan; the Selayar, Cocos, Chagos, Mauritius, and Réunion Islands; Madagascar, Mozambique (Northern), and Somalia.
Territorial Claim : Thy Kingdom Come — Tibet, Xinjiang, Manchuria, and Mongolia (Inner + Outer); China as it once was in other words, though no serious attempt has been made towards reunification following the Taiping Rebellion, nor is any concerted effort in the future likely as the Taiping rebrand themselves as the neutral mediator in Oriental affairs, all the while shifting their focus away from past nostalgia and towards the expansion of their relatively recent and growing colonial empire overseas.
Capital City : Tianjing, the Heavenly Capital — (天京). Formerly known as Nanjing — (南京市), but later renamed to "New Jerusalem" after the Taiping captured the city in 1853.
Population : ~383,000,000
Government Type : Celestial Empire (Commonwealth)
Government Ideology/Policies : Totalitarianism, Militarism, Fundamentalism, Nationalism, Paternalism, Feminism, Egalitarianism, Abolitionism, Marxism, and Cosmopolitanism—NOT Tianxia, Huaxia, and Sinocentrism — (中国中心主义 | The use of the word "barbarian" to describe Westerners and other foreigners was discouraged historically by the Heavenly King, who considered all people as equal “sons” and "daughters” of the same Heavenly Father. In his own sermons, he preached equality with Western brothers and sisters, and inserted the line “bless brothers and sisters of all nations” in his revision of the Lord’s Prayer.)Government Focus : "To rid the world of demon worship and establish paradise on earth" in the words of Hong Xiuquan.
Head of State : Heavenly King — (太平天王 | Her Grace, Hong Xuanjiao, the Heavenly King, Son of Heaven, Lord of Ten Thousand Years, and Empress of Great Peace and Equality)
- In short, holy war, revolution, reform, trade, and a general rebranding as a mediating power in the former Sinosphere and Orient separate from both Korea and Japan; a third force committed to maintaining stability in the region and a business friendly state open to trade, in contrast to the intransigence, isolationism, and cultural stagnation of previous Chinese dynasties like the Shun.
- Infrastructure and public works projects is also a large priority in regards to building schools, hospitals, roads, and laying down track, as part of an ongoing industrial and modernization program, the most ambitious of which is the renovation and fortification of the Great Wall into the most formidable, defensive line of fortifications, obstacles, and weapon installations in the world. Half of which has been completed since construction began in 1860.
- Historically, the Taiping also considered slavery as a great affront, the original sin. Cooperation with other abolitionist powers like the USA and Britain towards the ban of the slave trade globally would likewise be on their list of priorities. In the long term, once the sale of human beings has been outlawed, the abolition of the practice itself is the ultimate end goal, which would be to the ideological, spiritual, and material benefit of the Heavenly Kingdom.
- Further relations with American, British, and [REDACTED] beyond free trade and [REDACTED].
Head of Government : Prince Gan — (干王, literally the "Shield Prince")
Government Description : Originally a totalitarian theocracy under military dictatorship that transitioned into a federal parliamentary semi-constitutional theocratic monarchy under one—party revolutionary vanguard following the end of the Warlord Era when Hong Rengan's democratic reforms were implemented by the new Heavenly King — Hong Xuanjiao.
A single ruling political party known as the United Front or Tongmenghu (TMH) — (中國同盟會) formed from the merger of various revolutionary and rebel groups is the backbone of the new government. It is comprised of the Taiping, Nian, Panthay, Red Turban, White Lotus, Small Swords Society and other remnants of former warlord cliques and regional factions.
Though the government is now a constitutional monarchy, it is functionally not too dissimilar from the Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Despite the establishment of checks and balances, the Taiping remain the dominant faction in the TMH, outnumbering the rest combined with an almost permanent super majority of two—thirds when including adjacent and closely aligned groups like the Nian and Red Turbans. In the unlikely event this changes, the Grand Chancellor remains little more than a glorified bureaucrat anyway. Real power is in the hands of the Heavenly King and the Zhili Clique over which she presides, a dynamic unlikely to change in the near or even far future.
Administrative Divisions of the Heavenly Kingdom (and their corresponding components)
- Sufu (also known as the Imperial Domain or Imperial Center) — (江南省): Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang
- East Kingdom — (東囯): Guangdong and Taiwan
- South Kingdom — (南囯): Guangzhi and Guizhou
- West Kingdom — (西囯): Shaanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan
- North Kingdom — (北囯): Zhili and Shanxi
- Flank Kingdom — (翼囯): Hexi and Qinghai (also known as the Hexi or Gansu Corridor)
- Formosan Republic — (台湾民主国): Taiwan
- Pingnan Guo — (平南国, literally the "Pacified Southern State"): Yunnan
- Ningxia — (宁夏): NHAR and Eastern Gansu
Majority/State Religion : God—Worshipping (拜上帝教, Bài Shàngdì Huì)
Religious Description : As a religious movement, the God-Worshippers centered their worship around the views of its founder, Hong Xiuquan, whose unique interpretation of Christianity combined Chinese folk religion and other religious traditions with faith in Shangdi (上帝, Supreme Deity | God). They believe in central tenets and scriptural concepts shared in the established Christian canon such as Divine filiation, which is the redemption of all Christians (and only Christians in their view), Trinitarianism, and Canonization of Saints, but differ widely when it comes to the belief that their founder Hong Xiuquan was "the son of God the Father and the younger brother of Jesus Christ who had been directed to rid the world of demon worship."
Economic Ideologies : Market Socialism underpinned by Christian Socialism and Liberation Theology. In practice, a mixed socialist market economy that can be considered a form of state capitalism depending on the definition.
Major Production : Too many to name, though a short list includes, but is not limited to traditional luxury goods such as silk, tea, salt, sugar, porcelain, saffron, and spice, which remain lucrative and in high demand, albeit in a more crowded place shared by newer manufacturing goods such as steel, motors, railways, textiles, synthetic dyes, photographic films, agricultural chemicals, and other consumer goods produced domestically. An emergent military industrial complex comprised of newly established arms, munitions, and shipbuilding corporations such as Hanyang Arsenal, Taiyun Arsenal, Foochow Arsenal, Great Hsi-Ku Arsenal, and Jiangnan Shipyard (JSY), are also responsible for the mass assembly of rifles, ammunition, artillery, bayonets, rockets, and warships at the behest of the government, from whom they are recipients to substantial subsidies.
Economic Description : A hybrid economy comprised largely of public ownership, cooperatives, and state—owned enterprises within a market system that also affords private businesses and investments opportunities to compete and flourish, albeit under strict government oversight and regulation. In most of the country, economic development is based on based a model of economic planning at seven year intervals, sometimes split between sets of three and four years when flexibility and adjustment is required, though this isn't the case everywhere.
The exceptions are former treaty ports along the coastline have been designated as Special Economic Zones or SEZs after a lengthy process renegotiating and unraveling the unequal treaties of yesteryear. Unlike the rest of the Heavenly Kingdom, SEZs operate under operate different business and trade laws to attract foreign investment through open markets and free trade, providing an opportunity to acquire a foothold into the largest consumer market in the world and tap into the vast wealth of China in the interest of trade, mutual profit, the further expansion of the economy.
In total, there are currently twenty designated SEZs or open cities, comprising of nineteen ports and the island province of Hainan.
- Free City — (自由港): Xiamen, Shantou, Shenzen, Zhuhai, Kashgar, Shanghai, Tianjin, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, Beihai, Qinhuangdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Dalian, Qingdao, Yantai, Ningbo, and Wenzhou
- Open Province — (开放省): Hainan
Currency : Holy Treasure (聖寶, Shèngbao)
Development: Modern/Semi—Industrial
Development Description : Uneven and very staggered due the sheer size of the land, with major urban centers and coastal cities such as Guangzhou and Shanghai among the first to industrialize, while more inland settlements and rural environs still range from developing to primitive. While there is still much work to be done, the local economies of individual Chinese cities alone are comparable to that of small countries, if not moderately sized Western states based on sheer size and scale. Guangzhou and the the Pearl River Delta from which its seated is home to tens of millions for example and was the first to industrialize with a strong manufacturing base to become the production center of China. Shanghai likewise is also host to multitudes of enterprising workers and consumers, developing its own trade and maritime empire from the banks of the Yellow River, and more importantly the entrance of the Grand Canal, which leads into the vast wealth of the interior. In short, the Heavenly Kingdom is greater than the sum of its parts and when put together, the economies of its powerful cities afford it the power to compete with its Western counterparts.
Army Description : The Heavenly Army — (天军) is the military arm of the United Front or Tongmenghui (TMH) and the regular army of the Heavenly Kingdom since its founding in 1853, though the institution itself predates both, its origins rooted in prophesy, wherein the Heavenly King was visited by the Heavenly Father in his dreams and was granted a golden sword and seal with which to slay the demons infesting heave with help of celestial older brother — Jesus, at the head of a Heavenly Army.
Much like the state it represents, the Heavenly Army is an inherently revolutionary institution that is an extension of the revolutionary vanguard responsible for well—being of peasants, workers, and the faithful congregations of proletarians. It is home to many peculiar elements that depart greatly from the martial tradition of the Orient with its distinctly Westernized professionalism and command structure, though it also deviates from those selfsame traditions through its radical gender politics of fully integrated units of men and women at arms, reflecting the precedents set by warrior women such as Su Sanniang, Qiu Ersao, and most notably, Hong Xuanjiao, the sister of Hong Xiuqan himself, as both soldiers and commanders during the revolution.
Though only a fraction of its former size in regards to the cumulative land forces of the various regional cliques and factions during the Warlord Era, it remains the largest, if not the largest standing army and peace-keeping force in the world with two million regulars in active service across roughly one hundred and forty two divisions of horse, foot and artillery organized into thirty five corps. Full mobilization would bring that number back up to ten million, comprising largely of veterans of former warlord factions.
Army Weakness : In the midst of rearmament and reorganization process that includes a sixty division plan to reduce the size of the army into a smaller force of well trained, elite divisions. A decision on which factions and troops to axe has yet to be made, though whatever the end result will result in inevitable tension. Variable quality and questionable loyalties of warlord troops in the reserves.
Naval Description : The Heavenly Navy — (天海军) is the maritime arm of the Heavenly Kingdom, comprised of the remainder of the four regional Beiyang, Fujian, Guangdong, Nanyang fleets of their former Shun overlords. It is the product of reorganization efforts to consolidate the former Shun navy into a proper, modernized blue water navy. While few of these original ships remain in active service, newer models comprising of hulking vessels of iron and steel ranging from destroyers, cruisers, and battleships produced from the Jiangnan Shipyards (JSY) have since bolstered its ranks to replace previously decommissioned and outdated vessels with respectable numbers capable of not only to defend the shores of the Heavenly Kingdom, but also its distant colonial possessions.
Naval Weakness : Inexperienced sailors. Navy is split into two between a larger home fleet and a smaller colonial fleet, which would take time to consolidate into a united force in the event of war.
Further Military Description : [[OPTIONAL]]
National Goals : Open up the country and and expand its colonial empire.
National Issues : Provincial unrest stemming from lingering regionalism and warlordism, religious tensions and sectarian violence within God Worshipping congregations, the widespread destruction of historical monuments and cultural sites, and the precarious state of religious minorities such as Buddhists and Confucians, who have been driven underground and to the brink of extinction.
National Figures of Interest :National Ambition/Aspirations : [[OPTIONAL]] [[Not really set objectives, but rather the big picture that your nation is drawing towards]]
History :RP Sample: susan took the kids
- 1836
- American evangelist and Protestant missionary named Edwin Stevens preaches to a young Hong Renkun about Christianity. Stevens hands him a crude, rough translation of the Bible into Chinese.
- 1843
- Hong Renkun fails the imperial examinations in his fourth and final attempt. In the aftermath, he has a mental breakdown and becomes deathly ill, dropping in and out of a hallucinatory, if not miraculous state, during which he claims to have gained entry into heaven, and communed with God, Jesus, and others.
- Upon awakening, he is a changed man. After declaring himself the second son of God the Father and the younger brother of Jesus Christ based on his visions, his family immediately fears he has gone insane, but his personal charisma wins them over. As time passes, they note that Renkun is more careful, friendly, and open while his pace has become imposing and firm as if his height and size increased.
- Renkun reveals that his given name violates certain taboos according to Jehovah. Therefore, he adopts a new name. Hong Xiuquan or "Quan" for short.
- Two giant swords known as the demon-slaying swords (斬妖劍) are forged to aid Hong Xiuquan in his quest to rid China of idols.
- 1847
- Hong Xiuquan is baptized in Guangzhou by the Southern Baptist missionary Issachar Jacoxx Roberts, whose sermons of fire and brimstone, judgement and eternal damnation leave a lasting impression on Quan, further radicalizing him in the process. Roberts is unaware of Quan's unique interpretation of the faith.
- The Society of God Worshippers is founded by Quan's cousin, Feng Yunshan, comprised of a growing number of converts to former's unique brand of Christianity. Quan assumes leadership shortly after.
- Quan begins his translation and adaption of Gospel into what would become the Taiping Bible.
- 1850
- The God Worshippers have grown to a size of 30,000 converts. Alarmed Shun officials send imperial troops to disperse the growing sect, but are instead routed in a battle, where a the Shun deputy magistrate is slain.
- A full scale attack is launched by the Chinese Imperial Army against the sect's headquarters in Jintian, but once again are repelled. The victorious zealots behead the Shun commander, sparking the Jintian Uprising, evolving into what later became known as the Taiping Rebellion.
- 1851
- Hong Xiuquan christens himself as the Heavenly King and his followers, the Taiping.
- The rebels capture Yongan. Quan's army swells with new converts and receives support from large portions of the working poor and peasant populations, who are drawn by promises of land reform and wealth redistribution.
- Quan is joined by his sister, Hong Xuanjiao or "Jiao", who arrives with an army of women. She is thereby promoted as a general of the rebellion.
- A navy for the fledgling Taiping state is formed, comprised of captured Shun vessels that operate along the Yangtze and its tributaries.
- 1852
- Siege of Nanjing begins. Yang Xiuqing, the East King, is wounded during the battle and is incapacitated for the rest of the war.
- Jiao is introduced to Xiao Chaogui, the North King by her brother. They marry later that year.
- 1853
- In March, the Taiping capture Nanjing, the former capital of the Ming dynasty. Quan renames the city "New Jerusalem" and declares it the capital of the newly established Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, which now controls a population base of 30 million people.
- Hong Xiuquan reveals himself to be the reincarnated Melchizedek, the messianic priest—king who anticipated David in the Old Testament and Christ in the New.
- Industrialization begins at limited scale with the establishment of military facilities such as ammo presses and arsenals capable of producing imitations of western equipment weapons and equipment as was the case historically.
- 1854
- The Northern Expedition — (太平天國北伐) is launched to capture the Shun capital of Beijing and end the war.
- Xiao Chaogui and his wife, Hong Xuanjao are chosen to lead the offensive. They leave Tianjing that same year.
- 1855
- Xiao Chaogui is killed by a Shun ambush on the way to Beijing, putting the Northern Expedition in peril.
- In the moment of truth, Hong Xuanjio is forced to step in Heavenly King's sister and manages to rally the expedition to a successful conquest of the Northern Capital, where she stays and rules as de facto North Queen in her late husband's place for next twenty years.
- 1857
- Two years after the fall of Beijing, the Heavenly Kingdom controls much of the former Shun Dynasty. In the immediate reorganization of government, the old ruling class is replaced by a new aristocracy of former revolutionary leaders, largely comprised of both commoners and foreign missionaries, with many intermarrying and establishing new great houses such as the Yang, Feng, and Wei, many of whom also claim descent from celestial parents among the Trinity much like Hong Xiuquan before them.
- 1858
- Hong Rengan joins his cousin at the Heavenly Court. He proposes a series of reforms that would later prove influential.
- 1860
- Over ten million are dead left in the wake of the Taiping Rebellion, many of which are the new government's fallen enemies. With armed revolutionaries roaming the country, and the newly christened Heavenly Church ascendant, few remain to oppose the will of the Celestial Palace (天宫, Tiāngōng) in the year following the revolution's end. In what became known as the Heavenly Restoration (太平恢复), in reference to Hong Xiuquan's teachings about an ancient Chinese past that was both notably prosperous and more importantly - Christian - that predate the lies of Confucius and Buddha, they move quickly in reversing much of Shun policy and implementing sweeping reforms in line with the Heavenly King's teachings, leading to a tumultuous period of radical social change and rapid industrialization.
- Mandatory indoctrination, propaganda and reeducation programs are also launched that also proved quite effective with the youth, much more so than the old, comprising the Heavenly Kingdom's most zealous base of support.
- Countless precious texts are burned and rampant vandalism of Buddhist and Confucian icons is encouraged. Mobs of angry zealots in particular flush the cities clear of demonic influence and maleficarum with such hate and ferocity that centuries of ancient Chinese cultural icons and scripture considered "demonic" in origin is destroyed in less than a decade.
- 1864
- Hong Xiuquan is killed in an attempted coup by the East King, Yang Xiuqing. He is succeeded by his son, Hong Tianguifu (洪天贵福, Hóng Tiānguìfú) as the next King of Heaven (天王), though neither he nor his brothers survive during the apocalyptic slaughter that followed in the capital that later came to be known as the Tianjing incident.
- 1865—1877
- The Heavenly Kingdom is plunged into chaos as Quan's death creates a power vacuum that spreads across China proper in the regions of Sichuan, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong, Guangxi, Gansu, Yunnan and Xinjiang. It is characterized by constant civil war between different factions, growing to a scale that surpassed even the Taiping Rebellion.
- This period is also marked by a scramble among various warlords to try and industrialize their respective territories based on Hong Rengan's guidebook in an attempt to gain an edge on their rivals in a Darwinist struggle for supremacy like that of Medieval Europe.
- 1875
- Hong Xuanjiao who marches south from Beiping for the first time in over two decades to defeat the squabbling and weakened warlords, rallying the rest of China as the next of kin of Xiquan and rightful heir to the Taiping.
- Yang Xiuqing is forced to flee his seat in Guangdong after a defeat at the hands of Jiao and her Zhili Clique.
- 1876
- Jiao sails forth from Guangdong to chase after brother's killer after a year long delay in assembling a sizable fleet on relatively short notice.
- She finds the former East King at Sulawesi, where he somehow managed to seize control of the island after a diplomatic incident involving Korean merchants. Yang is killed in the ensuing battle and most of his surviving fleet defects, though a small contingent flee towards open waters and evade capture.
- 1877
- Upon her return to the mainland, Jiao finds herself at the scene of a country at war once more. During her absence, various warlords recant their allegiance and try to seize the Heavenly Kingdom for themselves.
- Jiao and the Zhili Clique emerge victorious in the Central Plains War, involving more than one million soldiers initially before ballooning to four million in the span of fourth months.
- Her victory marks the end of the Warlord Era.
- 1878—1890
- Hong Xuanjiao officially ascends the throne as the new Heavenly King. For the first time since the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion less than three decades ago, China enjoys the longest period of peace since the founding of the Heavenly Kingdom.
- There is cohesive, national undertaking by Jiao, who builds upon progress up to this point with her own industrialization program. Her reign is marked by years of economic growth, expansion, accompanied with various social and political reforms.
- 1884
- Contact is reestablished with the small contingent that escaped from Sulawesi during that fateful battle nearly a decade prior. In the aftermath, they had sailed all the way to Africa, where they conquered the coastline of Northern Mozambique and created a rump state, which they now offered as gift to the Taiping in exchange for pardons and to avoid nearby European powers from seizing the colony, which had become an increasingly likely outcome prior to their decision.
- 1887
- Words are exchanged. A promise is made. A pact between [REDACTED].
#AltDiv (do not delete this, it's for keeping track of the apps)