Taiping Rebellion

• 1. Origins And Ideology

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  In 1837, a Hakka farmer named Hong Huoxiu failed his imperial examination for the third time. This failure triggered a nervous breakdown that would eventually birth a movement to overthrow an empire. During his recovery, Hong dreamed of visiting Heaven where he discovered a celestial family distinct from his earthly one. His heavenly father lamented that men were worshiping demons rather than himself and informed Hong that his given name violated taboos. The vision suggested "Hong Xiuquan" as the moniker ultimately adopted by him.

  By 1843, Hong had failed the imperial examinations for the fourth and final time. A visit by his cousin prompted him to examine Christian pamphlets he had received years earlier from a Protestant missionary. He came to believe these texts gave him the key to interpreting his visions. His celestial father was God the Father, the elder brother he had seen was Jesus Christ, and he had been directed to rid the world of demons including the corrupt Qing government. In 1847, Hong went to Guangzhou to study the Bible with Issachar Jacox Roberts, an American Baptist missionary. Roberts refused to baptize him and later stated that Hong's followers were bent on making their burlesque religious pretensions serve their political purpose.

  In 1844, soon after Hong began preaching across Guangxi, his follower Feng Yunshan founded the God Worshipping Society. This movement followed Hong's fusion of Christianity, Taoism, Confucianism and indigenous millenarianism. The Taiping faith developed into a dynamic new Chinese religion known as Taiping Christianity. By late 1850, local officials launched a campaign of religious persecution against this society. In early January 1851, a 10,000-strong rebel army organized by Feng Yunshan and Wei Changhui routed Qing forces stationed in Jintian.

• 2. Military Campaigns And Tactics

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  On the 19th of March 1853, the Taipings captured the city of Nanjing and Hong renamed it Tianjing or heavenly capital. Since the Taipings considered the Manchus to be demons, they first killed all the Manchu men then forced the Manchu women outside the city and burned them to death. Shortly thereafter, the Taiping launched concurrent Northern and Western expeditions to relieve pressure on Nanjing and achieve significant territorial gains. The Northern expedition was a complete failure but the Western achieved limited success.

  The rebels used brilliant unorthodox strategies that nearly toppled the dynasty but inspired it to adopt what one historian calls the most significant military experimentation since the seventeenth century. The Taiping army was marked by a high level of discipline and fanaticism. They typically wore a uniform of red jackets with blue trousers and grew their hair long so in China they were nicknamed long hair. Estimates of the size of the Taiping army are around 500,000 soldiers in 1852. Each army corps consisted of roughly 13,000 men placed into armies of varying sizes.

  In May 1860, the Taiping defeated imperial forces besieging Nanjing eliminating them from the region and opening the way for a successful invasion of southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The Taiping rebels were successful in taking Hangzhou on the 19th of March 1860, Changzhou on May 26, and Suzhou on June 2 to the east. While Taiping forces were preoccupied in Jiangsu, Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army moved down the Yangtze River. In December 1856 Qing forces retook Wuchang for the final time.

• 3. Social Reforms And Policies

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  The rebels announced social reforms including strict separation of the sexes abolition of foot binding land socialisation and suppression of private trade. They also outlawed the importation of opium into all Taiping territories. In regard to religion the Kingdom replaced Confucianism Buddhism and Chinese folk religion with Taiping Christianity God Worshipping which held that Hong Xiuquan was the younger brother of Jesus and the second son of God. Buddhist libraries were burned because Hong saw Confucianism as a shadow of its noble origin being now a tool of the Qing to tyrannize Han people.

  Separation of the sexes was strictly enforced in the first few years although it tapered off in later years. Part of the extremeness came from a mistranslation of the Ten Commandments which led to the seventh commandment also forbidding licentiousness as well as adultery. It was so severe that parents and children of the opposite sex could not interact and even married couples were discouraged from having sex. Traditionalist works like those of Confucius were burned and their sellers executed. The Taiping were especially opposed to idolatry destroying idols wherever found with great prejudice.

  In every area they captured the Taiping immediately exterminated the entire Manchu population. In the province of Hunan one Qing loyalist who observed the genocidal massacres wrote that the pitiful Manchus men women and children were executed by the Taiping forces. After capturing Nanjing, Taiping forces killed about 40,000 Manchu civilians. On the 27th of October 1853, they crossed the Yellow River in Cangzhou and murdered 10,000 Manchus.

• 4. International Relations And Foreign Intervention

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  The Taiping government maintained an ambivalent relationship with Western powers active in China during this period. Due to religious aspects, the Taiping government perceived Westerners as brothers and sisters from overseas. In 1853, Hong Xiuquan invited American missionary Issachar Jacox Roberts to come to Nanjing to aid in administration. After Roberts arrived in Nanjing in 1861 and met with Hong, he was commissioned by him as director of foreign affairs. While some missionaries like Roberts were enthusiastic in the first few years, Western skepticism existed from the inception of the rebellion.

  According to historian Eugene P. Boardman, the Christian nature of the Taiping opened up possibility for a more cooperative trade partnership. Many Western officials visited the capital of Taiping between 1863 and 1864. American commissioner Robert Milligan McLane considered granting official recognition of the Taiping government. However, after the conclusion of the Second Opium War, Royal Navy officer Sir James Hope led an expedition to Nanjing in February 1861. This expedition was the largest party of Westerners to visit Taiping territories including many British military personnel entrepreneurs missionaries other unofficial observers and two French representatives.

  In late 1861, Hope made a brief visit to Nanjing to agree with rebels not to attack Shanghai but this proposal was refused by the Taiping government. According to Clarke, this refusal of cooperation and Taiping's occupation of Ningbo in December led to limited intervention against the rebellion by the British and French in following years. Western assistance for the Qing was also driven by fear that a successful rebellion would lead to a stronger China able to resist Western power.

• 5. The Fall Of Nanjing

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  In May 1862, the Xiang Army besieged Nanjing. Attempts to break the siege by the numerically superior Taiping Army failed. Hong Xiuquan declared that God would defend the city. The city's food supplies ran low. Hong contracted food poisoning from eating wild vegetables; the intent may have been suicide. He died in June 1864 after a 20-day illness. Hong was succeeded by his eldest son Hong Tianguifu who was 15 years old. The younger Hong was inexperienced and powerless.

  Nanjing fell in July 1864 to imperial armies after protracted street-by-street fighting in the Third Battle of Nanjing. Tianguifu and few others escaped but were soon caught and executed. Most of the Taiping princes were executed. On the 1st of August, Zeng Guofan ordered Hong's body exhumed for verification and desecrated as spiritual punishment. After exhumation, it was dismembered, cremated, and its ashes were fired from a cannon to scatter them irretrievably.

  A small remainder of loyal Taiping forces had continued to fight in northern Zhejiang rallying around Tianguifu. After Tianguifu's capture on the 25th of October 1864, Taiping resistance was gradually pushed into highlands of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and finally Guangdong. One of the last Taiping loyalists, Wang Haiyang, was defeated on the 29th of January 1866. In August 1871, the last Taiping army led by Li Fuzhong was completely wiped out by government forces in border region of Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi.

• 6. Demographic Catastrophe And Death Toll

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  With no reliable census at the time, estimates of death toll are speculative. The most widely cited sources estimate total number of deaths during almost 14 years of rebellion to be approximately 20 to 30 million civilians and soldiers. Most deaths attributed to plague and famine. Some analysts have claimed that death toll may have reached 100 million. Thirty million people fled conquered regions to foreign settlements or other parts of China.

  The destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom meant majority of any records it possessed were destroyed; percentage of records said to have survived is around 10%. Over course of conflict, around 90% of recruits to Taiping side were killed or defected. Famine, disease, massacres, and social disruption led to sharp decline in population especially in Yangtze delta. Result was shortage in labor supply for first time in centuries making labor relatively more valuable than land.

  Anhui Southern Jiangsu Northern Zhejiang and Northern Jiangxi were severely depopulated and had to be repopulated with migrants from Henan. Landed gentry of Lower Yangtze region were reduced in numbers and concentration of land ownership was reduced. In province of Guangdong, one million were executed because after collapse of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Qing dynasty launched waves of massacres against Hakkas that at their height killed up to 30,000 each day.

• 7. Legacy And Historical Interpretation

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  Beyond staggering human and economic devastation, Taiping Rebellion left changes within late Qing dynasty. Power was to limited extent decentralized and ethnic Han Chinese officials were more widely employed in high positions than previously been. Traditional Manchu banner forces upon which Qing dynasty depended failed and gradually replaced with gentry-organized local armies. Franz H. Michael wrote these evolved into armies used by local warlords who dominated China after fall of Qing dynasty.

  Taiping example of insurgent organization and its mix of Christianity and radical social equality influenced Sun Yat-sen and other future revolutionaries. Some Taiping veterans joined Revive China Society whose Christian members organized short-lived Heavenly Kingdom of Great Mingshun in 1903. Although Karl Marx wrote several articles about Taipings, he did not perceive a social program or agenda for change only violence and destruction. Chinese Communist historians following lead of Mao Zedong characterized rebellion as proto-communist uprising.

  Both Communist and Nationalist commanders studied Taiping organization and strategy during Chinese Civil War. American General Joseph Stilwell praised Zeng Guofan's campaigns for combining caution with daring and initiative with perseverance. By 1865, five of eight viceroys were Hunanese. The Hunanese gentry based on their experience with Taiping were more guarded against influence of Westerners than other provinces.