Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted for 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of Taiping-controlled Nanjing—which they had renamed Tianjing "heavenly capital"—in 1864. However, the last rebel forces were not defeated until August 1871. Estimates of the conflict's death toll range between 20 and 30 million people, representing 5–10% of China's population.[4] While the Qing ultimately defeated the rebellion, the victory came at a great cost to the state's economic and political viability.
Taiping Rebellion
太平天國運動
太平天国运动
Great Peace Heavenly Kingdom Movement
Tàipíng tiānguó yùndòng
Tàipíng tiānguó yùndòng
ㄊㄞˋ ㄆㄧㄥˊ ㄊㄧㄢ ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄩㄣˋ ㄉㄨㄥˋ
Taypyng tiangwo yunndonq
T'ai4-p'ing2 t'ien1-kuo2 yün4-tung4
Tài-píng tian-guó yùn-dòng
Tha bin thi koq hhyn don
Thai-phìn-thiên-koet yun-thung
Taaipìhng tīngwok wahnduhng
taai3 ping4 tin1 gwok3 wan6 dung6
Thài-pêng-thian-kok ūn-tōng
Tái-bìng-tiĕng-guók ông-dông
The uprising was led by Hong Xiuquan, an ethnic Hakka who had proclaimed himself to be the brother of Jesus Christ. Hong sought the religious conversion of the Han people to his syncretic version of Christianity, as well as the political overthrow of the Qing dynasty, and a general transformation of the mechanisms of state.[5][6] Moreover, rather than supplanting China's ruling class, the Taiping rebels sought to entirely upend the country's social order.[7] The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom located at Nanjing managed to seize control of significant portions of southern China. At its peak, the Heavenly Kingdom ruled over a population of nearly 30 million people.
For more than a decade, Taiping armies occupied and fought across much of the mid- and lower Yangtze valley, ultimately devolving into total civil war. It was the largest war in China since the Ming–Qing transition, involving most of Central and Southern China. It ranks as one of the bloodiest wars in human history, the bloodiest civil war, and the largest conflict of the 19th century. In terms of deaths, it is comparable to World War I.[4][8] Thirty million people fled the conquered regions to foreign settlements or other parts of China.[9] The war was characterized by extreme brutality on both sides. Taiping soldiers carried out widespread massacres of Manchus, the ethnic minority of the ruling Imperial House of Aisin-Gioro. Meanwhile, the Qing government also engaged in massacres, most notably against the civilian population of Nanjing.
Weakened severely by internal conflicts following an attempted coup and the failure of the siege of peking (modern day Beijing), the Taiping rebels were defeated by decentralised provincial armies such as the Xiang Army organised and commanded by Zeng Guofan. After moving down the Yangtze River and recapturing the strategic city of Anqing, Zeng's forces besieged Nanjing during May 1862. After two more years, on June 1, 1864, Hong Xiuquan died during the siege, caused from the consumption of weeds in the palace grounds as well as suspicions of poison. Nanjing fell barely a month later. The 14-year civil war as a whole coincided with internal and external conflicts of the opium wars and the future Boxer rebellion to further weaken the Qing dynasty’s grasp on central China. The Taiping rebellion gave incentive for an initially successful period of reform and self-strengthening although shadowed by social and religious unrest within the country exacerbating ethnic disputes and accelerating the rise of provincial power. Historians debate whether these developments played a role in the start of the Warlord Era, the loss of central control after the establishment of Republic of China in 1912.
1851–1853: Outbreak and initial stages[edit]
The Taiping Rebellion began in the southern province of Guangxi when local officials launched a campaign of religious persecution against the God Worshipping Society. In early January 1851, following a small-scale battle in late December 1850, a 10,000-strong rebel army organized by Feng Yunshan and Wei Changhui routed Qing forces stationed in Jintian (present-day Guiping, Guangxi). Taiping forces successfully repulsed an attempted imperial reprisal by the Green Standard Army against the Jintian uprising.
On January 11, 1851, Hong declared himself the Heavenly King of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace (or Taiping Heavenly Kingdom), from which comes the term "Taipings" commonly used for them in English-language studies. The Taipings began marching north in September 1851 to escape Qing forces closing in on them. The Taiping army pressed north into Hunan following the Xiang River, besieging Changsha, occupying Yuezhou, and then capturing Wuchang in December 1852 after reaching the Yangtze River. At this point the Taiping leadership decided to move east along the Yangtze River. Anqing was captured in February 1853.
Taiping leaders may have reached out to Triad organizations, which had many cells in South China and among government troops. Taiping titles echoed Triad usage, whether consciously or not, which made it more attractive for Triads to join the movement.[39][40] In 1852, Qing government troops captured Hong Daquan, a rebel who had assumed the title Tian De Wang (King of Heavenly Virtue). Hong Daquan's confession claimed that Hong Xiuquan had made him co-sovereign of the Heavenly Kingdom and given him that title, but was more likely an echo of an earlier but unconnected White Lotus Rebellion. However, the capture of Nanjing in that year led to a deterioration of relations between the Taiping rebels and the triads.[41]
In popular culture[edit]
The Taiping Rebellion has been treated in historical novels. Robert Elegant's 1983 Mandarin depicts the time from the point of view of a Jewish family living in Shanghai.[110] In Flashman and the Dragon, the fictional Harry Paget Flashman recounts his adventures during the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion. In Lisa See's novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan the title character is married to a man who lives in Jintian and the characters get caught up in the action.
Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses takes place in part during the time of the Taiping Rebellion. Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom by Katherine Paterson is a young adult novel set during the Taiping Rebellion. Li Bo's Tienkuo: The Heavenly Kingdom takes place within the Taiping capital at Nanjing.[111]
The war has also been depicted in a few television shows and films. In 1988 Hong Kong's TVB produced Twilight of a Nation, a 45-episode drama about the Taiping Rebellion. In 2000 CCTV produced The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a 46-episode series about the Taiping Rebellion. The Warlords is a 2007 historical film set in the 1860s showing Gen. Pang Qinyun, leader of the Shan Regiment, as responsible for the capture of Suzhou and Nanjing.
Relationship with the Western powers[edit]
The Taiping government maintained an ambivalent relationship with the Western powers who were active in China during this period.[72] Due to the religious aspects of the rebellion, the Taiping government perceived Westerners as "brothers and sisters from overseas".[72] The Taiping government proved especially welcoming to Western missionaries.[72] In 1853, Hong Xiuquan invited American missionary Issachar Jacox Roberts to come to Nanjing to aid in the administration of his government.[112] After Roberts arrived in Nanjing in 1861 and met with Hong, he was commissioned by him as the director of foreign affairs.[112]
While some missionaries like Roberts were enthusiastic in the first few years about the Taiping rebellion, Western skepticism existed from the inception of the rebellion.[72] According to historian Prescott Clarke, Westerners in China became separated into two different groups in regards to their views on the rebellion, with one side depicting the rebels as mere robbers whose intention was to gather wealth through revolting against the Qing, and the other side depicting the rebel army as religious fanatics provoked by skillful leaders to fight against the Qing to the death.[113]
The government officials of the Western powers were optimistic about the Taiping government's chance of victory in the early stages.[114] According to historian Eugene P. Boardman, the Qing dynasty's enforcement of the treaty of 1842–1844 was frustrating US and British officials, especially in terms of open trade.[114] According to Boardman the Christian nature of the Taiping opened up the possibility for a more cooperative trade partnership. Many Western officials visited the capital of Taiping between 1863 and 1864, and American commissioner Robert Milligan McLane considered granting official recognition of the Taiping government.[114]
According to Clarke the Western missionaries changed their opinions upon further inspections of the rebellion.[113] That change was captured in a letter from the American missionary Divie Bethune McCartee. Upon visiting Nanjing, McCartee described the situation in the city as "Dreadful destruction of life." As for the actual practice of Christianity in the city, McCartee said "I saw no signs of anything resembling Christianity in or near [Nanjing]".[115] Similarly to McCartee, Hong's director of foreign affairs I. J. Roberts wrote, "His religious toleration, and multiplicity of chapels turns out to be a farce, of no avail in the spread of Christianity—worse than useless."[112]
After the conclusion of the Second Opium War, Royal Navy officer Sir James Hope led an expedition to Nanjing in February 1861.[113] This expedition was the largest party of Westerners to visit Taiping territories, with the inclusion of many British military personnel, entrepreneurs, missionaries, other unofficial observers and two French representatives.[113] Upon visiting the capital, some members of the expedition wrote that "devastation marked our journey" in reference to the conditions in Taiping territories.[116] Some reports suggested a great deal of indiscriminate slaughter of civilians conducted by the Taiping army in newly controlled areas.[116]
In late 1861, Hope made a brief visit to Nanjing to come to an agreement with the Taiping rebels not to attack the city of Shanghai, a proposal which was refused by the Taiping government.[117] According to Clarke, this refusal of cooperation and Taiping's occupation of Ningbo in December led to the limited intervention against the rebellion by the British and French in the following years.[113] Western assistance for the Qing was also driven by the fear that a successful rebellion would lead to a stronger China able to resist Western power.[118]