Is it true that these practices were really the practices of the Taiping? If yes, I am forced to say I could never be in support of such a movement, and if I lived in these places at that time, would probably be one of those people in Hunan, Huabei,, or Shanghai that resisted them. They don't seem to be nice people to me, and I consider owning property, associating freely with other people (including women), and of course consuming the porn and drugs of my choice, to be a basic liberty of man. If a fight developed over those issues, I know which side I would pick.
The Taipings abolished footbinding because it is a Manchu sexual fetish. Manchu rulers and politicians loved women who had small feet because they want them to shove them up, well, you know what. In the beginning of the rebellion, the Taipings outlawed separation of the sexes ONLY in the army, and the ruling class, because they feared that the influences of women might interfere with the mens' ability to fight and to rule.
HOWEVER, in 1857, Emperor Hong Xiuquan had to deal with a case where a male soldier was caught visiting the female barracks because they were already married before they joined the Taipings, and they had a baby son, and the male was just at the females' barracks to care for the child. Nevertheless, according to Taiping military rule, any mingling between the sexes in the Heavenly Army is punished by beheading. Therefore, after the couple was beheaded, Emperor Hong Xiuquan decided that he has to adopt a more progressive form of rule. Therefore, after 1857, separation of the sexes ended. Separation of the sexes were never implicated in civilian life. However, as the Taipings are a form of socialist government, civilians are required to work certain time periods, such as the building of fortresses and processing steel to build siege guns. For example, the massive guns that were used to pound Nanjing's defenders into submission in 1853 were all built by the common folk. That is why the Taiping leaders ordered the artillerymen to be "sure and accurate with each shot", because each round fired represents the labor and sweat of the people.
Regarding theologies of the Taiping movement, the Taiping leaders did wage a war against Confucianism, because the Manchus' practice of Confucianism, despite their claims that they will lead honest and fidel lives, actually were very adulterous, worshipped fetishes and unnatural sex acts, such as sodomy with womens' feet, and of course, the Qing Dynasty was so corrupt that one statesman said that if you go into any Qing army barracks across the country, most of the soldiers would most likely be in a state of complete stupor from opium smoking. Almost half of the Qing government's budget was embezzled by military leaders and district leaders to purchase and trade opium. Therefore, the Taipings wanted to purify Confucianism, and they believed that the Confucianist principle of "obediance", is leading the Chinese to bow down to the hated foreigners. Therefore, they wanted to eliminate the cowardly ruling class and restore the Chinese race to their "Warring Kingdom" spirit, so they can drive out the foreigners and rebuild their country again. But how? How would they do that with the Manchus in power? The Manchus are a threat, and they had to go, all of them.
Prior to the rebellion, while Hong Xiuquan still lived in Guanlubu, he came down with a very serious illness. It was the year 1840, and one day during the winter, he suddenly fell deathly ill. So ill that no wise man, woman, wizard or alchemist from both provinces could cure him. Today, such phenomenon caused by bacterial sepsis and the release of toxins into the nervous system would be called "hallucinations". The illness that he was afflicted with was most likely meningococcal septicaemia, the case where the Meningococcal organism actually enters the patient's bloodstream. The bacteria itself does not kill any cells or tissues, but the cell wall of the Meningococcal organism is composed of a compound called Lippopolysaccharide A, or "Lipid A". This compound resembles the polysaccharides and other complex carbohydrate polymers that are present in all of our cells, and many bacterial cells have that substance in their protective cell walls, but lipid A is highly toxic to humans, simply because the enzymes in our body that normally break down carbohydrates could not recognize this substance. Thus, the patient could quickly go into septic shock due to the buildup of Lipid A in the bloodstream. Some symptoms of septic shock are vivid and terrifying hallucinations and delirium. So terrifying in fact, that patients in the years before antibiotics who contracted bacterial/viral sepsis would throw themselves out of windows, screaming that imaginary monsters are chasing after them.
In Hong Xiuquan's case, he went into stupor and delirium, and he believed that he ascended to Heaven for a period. There, he "met an elderly man with a golden beard as bright as the Sun, and holding aloft a mighty sword made of gold. That man was God, and Hong Xiuquan was to take that sword and smite down all the infidels (Manchus) that were the ruling elite of China. These infidels were responsible for the loss of Chinese military power in the Opium War, and they were responsible for moral decadence as well as encroachment onto their land by the English and the French colonial powers".
Therefore, the reason that Hong Xiuquan believed that God did not take him into heaven right now is because he still had a task to complete in this corporeal world, that is, to wage war against the infidels and lead the Army of Heaven to victory and bring the Middle Kingdom back to it's supreme power of the Han, Tang, and Ming Dynasties. Undoubtedly, a lot of his thinking is also influenced by the tracts of the Western Christian missionaries that he read prior to coming down with the illness.
For reasons unknown, Hong Xiuquan managed to fight the illness, and his body was able to recover from the bacterial sepsis without the use of any modern drugs. When he came out of his stupor approximately 40 days after he fell unconscious and deathly ill, he immediately realized what he was to do.
In fact, he became much more stronger than he was before the illness, and during the period of less than ten years, he rallied the unorganized peasant population of Guangxi and Guangdong into the vast and fearsome fighting force that would be known as the Taiping Heavenly Army. Thus, when he "spoke" to God during his coma, he realized he was in fact, the younger brother of Jesus Christ. As Jesus Christ died for the sins of the people and people has still sinned even to his day, he believed that he will go back to the corporeal realm and purge the land of sin and moral corruption with the Sword.
At that time, people are very superstitious, especially the farmers and fishermen who lived in Guangxi.
And the power which he used to rally these people, and the religious mysticism that he employed were in fact fearsomely strong. During the Battle of Jintian on December 9th, 1851, a largely outnumbered and outgunned Taiping Army faced a vast Imperial force led by one of the Qing Dynasty's most vaunted and skilled generals: Commander Ikedanbu. Partially for the reason of the Taipings being outnumbered is because most of the other Taiping units were elsewhere in the province, scattered in the mountains and abandoned coal mines, making gunpowder and smelting steel to build howitzers. The only Taiping units present at Jintian were the ones commanded by Hong Xiuquan's closest disciple Feng Yunshan, Xiao Chaoghui, and Yang Xiuqing. Also commanding another Taiping division was 14 year old Tan Shaokuang, a skilled martial arts practicioner and extremely skilled marksman. The total number of Taiping troops on scene during this fight was less than 20,000. However, Ikedanbu had almost 40,000 men under his command, and almost 10,000 of them were Manchu and Mongol cavalry, straight from the northern steppes, the best horsemen the world has ever seen. It was absolutely hot and hazy that day, the afternoon sun bathing the earth with a blazing yellow glare, as the two armies faced each other across hills right outise the village of Jintian.
Almost at once, the Qing batteries opened up, shells exploding all over the Taiping ranks, killing some of them and wounding many. However, the Taipings did not open fire, yet. They simply waited. As the Qing barrage ended, thousands of Imperial troops began to march down the hill, thousands upon thousands of halberds and rifles. The Taiping waited until the Manchus were within 500 yards. Then the order to fire was given. Suddenly, hundreds of cannons opened up, their fire aimed directly at the Manchu ranks before them. Brutal and accurate, the Taiping fire absolutely destroyed the battle formations. Exploding shells and shrapnel from canister ripped into the imperial ranks like scissors ripping through curtain fabric. Thousands upon thousands of Qing troops lay dead or dying. Nearby, thousands of dead cavalrymen lay on the bloodied ground, while the horses that escaped the terrific cannonade screamed and stampeded about.
Now, the order to charge was finally given. Almost 20,000 Taipings rushed the field at the same time. To the left of Ikedanbu's main column, Tan Shaokuang's division smashed straight into his unprotected left flank. Now the battle had become a melee. Swords, halberds, spears, bayonets and rifle butts. The Taiping fought mainly with their broadswords, hacking through the imperial ranks as quickly as they could mend them. Within an hour, the battle was over. Almost 35,000 Qing troops, including their commander Ikedanbu, lay dead, while over 15,000 Taipings are killed.
The battle at Jintian was the Manassas of China's Taiping Revolution, and like Manassas, a people with strength, determination, and filled with desire to protect their homes and children carried the day against overwhelming odds.