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China The Taiping Rebellion, 1851-64
During the mid-nineteenth century, China's problems were
compounded by natural calamities of unprecedented proportions,
including droughts, famines, and floods. Government neglect of
public works was in part responsible for this and other disasters,
and the Qing administration did little to relieve the widespread
misery caused by them. Economic tensions, military defeats at
Western hands, and anti-Manchu sentiments all combined to produce
widespread unrest, especially in the south. South China had been
the last area to yield to the Qing conquerors and the first to be
exposed to Western influence. It provided a likely setting for the
largest uprising in modern Chinese history--the Taiping Rebellion.
The Taiping rebels were led by Hong Xiuquan (1814-64), a
village teacher and unsuccessful imperial examination candidate.
Hong formulated an eclectic ideology combining the ideals of preConfucian utopianism with Protestant beliefs. He soon had a
following in the thousands who were heavily anti-Manchu and antiestablishment . Hong's followers formed a military organization to
protect against bandits and recruited troops not only among
believers but also from among other armed peasant groups and secret
societies. In 1851 Hong Xiuquan and others launched an uprising in
Guizhou Province. Hong proclaimed the Heavenly Kingdom of Great
Peace (Taiping Tianguo, or Taiping for short) with himself as king.
The new order was to reconstitute a legendary ancient state in
which the peasantry owned and tilled the land in common; slavery,
concubinage, arranged marriage, opium smoking, footbinding,
judicial torture, and the worship of idols were all to be
eliminated. The Taiping tolerance of the esoteric rituals and
quasi-religious societies of south China--themselves a threat to
Qing stability--and their relentless attacks on Confucianism--still
widely accepted as the moral foundation of Chinese behavior--
contributed to the ultimate defeat of the rebellion. Its advocacy
of radical social reforms alienated the Han Chinese scholar-gentry
class. The Taiping army, although it had captured Nanjing and
driven as far north as Tianjin, failed to establish stable base
areas. The movement's leaders found themselves in a net of internal
feuds, defections, and corruption. Additionally, British and French
forces, being more willing to deal with the weak Qing
administration than contend with the uncertainties of a Taiping
regime, came to the assistance of the imperial army. Before the
Chinese army succeeded in crushing the revolt, however, 14 years
had passed, and well over 30 million people were reported killed.
To defeat the rebellion, the Qing court needed, besides Western
help, an army stronger and more popular than the demoralized
imperial forces. In 1860, scholar-official Zeng Guofan (1811-72),
from Hunan Province, was appointed imperial commissioner and
governor-general of the Taiping-controlled territories and placed
in command of the war against the rebels. Zeng's Hunan army,
created and paid for by local taxes, became a powerful new fighting
force under the command of eminent scholar-generals. Zeng's success
gave new power to an emerging Han Chinese elite and eroded Qing
authority. Simultaneous uprisings in north China (the Nian
Rebellion) and southwest China (the Muslim Rebellion) further
demonstrated Qing weakness.
Data as of July 1987
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