在中国古代社会中，指导制定不同民族政策的基本思想观念主要有二：一曰夷夏之防、华夷之辨；二曰四海一家、华夷同体。由这两种不同观念指导制定的不同的民族政策，往往会产生不同的后果。明初的朱元璋虽以“种族革命”相号召而起兵，但他执行华夷同体、一视同仁的民族政策，缓和了民族矛盾，赢得了统一战争的胜利和新生政权的巩固。而太平天国政权及其领袖洪秀全以夏尊夷卑、华夷之辨观念为指导，制定了狭隘的名为种族革命而实为种族复仇的民族政策，将打击清王朝与排斥、仇杀满人相混淆，把反封建与反满人相等同，在实践中导致民族矛盾进一步激化，以至多次发生屠杀旗兵满人事件。太平天国政权的最终失败，其原因固非止一端，但错误的民族政策应是这诸多原因中的一个，这恐怕是没有疑问的 In ancient Chinese society, there are mainly two basic ideas that guide the formulation of different ethnic policies: one is the prevention of misfortune and the other is the discrimination of Chinese and Yi people; the other is the universal education of the Chinese and the Chinese. Different ethnic policies guided by these two different concepts tend to have different consequences. Although the Ming Dynasty started his army with the call of “racial revolution,” he implemented the national policy of equality between the two sides of the country and the same people, alleviating ethnic conflicts and winning the victory of the united war and the consolidation of the new regime. The Taiping Heavenly Power regime and its leader, Hong Xiuquan, guided by the concept of discrimination on the basis of esteem and humiliation in summer and formulated a narrow ethnic policy called “ethnic rage” that is actually a kind of racial avenge, confusing the Qing Dynasty with exclusion and revenge , The same is true of anti-feudalism and anti-Manchu, leading to further intensification of ethnic conflicts in practice and even repeated occurrence of the massacre of the flag-men in Manchurian events. The ultimate failure of the Taiping Rebellion is due to its solid foundation. However, it is doubtful that the wrong ethnic policy should be one of these many reasons.