Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a massive civil uprising in China that occurred from 1850 to 1864, resulting in an estimated 20 million deaths. Its roots can be traced back to the widespread socio-political turbulence of the 19th century, exacerbated by Western imperialism, government corruption, and a declining Qing Dynasty. The rebellion was spearheaded by Hong Xiuquan, a teacher who, after a personal crisis, claimed divine inspiration to challenge the ruling government and establish a theocratic state known as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The movement aimed to create a society based on Christian principles of equality and brotherhood, advocating for radical reforms including land redistribution, which directly threatened the traditional Confucian social order. Key victories for the Taiping forces included the capture of major cities such as Nanjing, which they established as their capital. Despite their initial successes, the rebellion ultimately faltered due to internal strife and the military might of Qing forces, culminating in the fall of Nanjing in 1864. The aftermath saw a shift in public sentiment, with many Chinese attributing their struggles to Western intervention, setting the stage for future anti-imperialist movements.
Taiping Rebellion
At issue: Political, social, and economic future of China
Date: 1850–1864
Location: China
Combatants: Society of Worshipers vs. Qing government
Principal commanders: Rebel (Society of Worshipers), Hong Xiuquan (1814–1864); Qing, Li Hongzhang
Principal battles: Wuchang, Nanjing, Canton, Shanghai
Result: The Taiping Rebellion was crushed by the Qing Dynasty
Background
The causes of the Taiping Rebellion reach back into the fifteenth century, when the Chinese emperor decided to adopt an isolationist policy. Over the next three and a half centuries, China’s power slowly declined, mainly because China refused to adjust to changes in the world order produced by new industrial and technological developments. China took the position that it had nothing to learn from the rest of the world. By the early nineteenth century, China was losing the battle to maintain its political, economic, and cultural autonomy because of the impact of Western imperialism.
By the early 1800’s, many segments of the Chinese population had been exposed to various aspects of Western culture. In particular, Western missionaries had made great strides in converting the Chinese to Christianity. The impact and power of the West reached a new level of dominance with the defeat of China in the First Opium War (1839–1842). The resulting Treaty of Nanjing (1842) forced China to pay $21 million in reparations and gave Hong Kong to the British. It also attacked the very foundation of Chinese sovereignty by forcing the government to accept the rule of extraterritoriality, which allowed Europeans who committed crimes against China to be tried in European courts.
Along with these diplomatic disasters, China’s population was being ravaged by a series of domestic problems because of the incompetence and corruption of its government. The Chinese countryside was in a state of chaos. Epidemics were common, and law and order had all but disappeared. Numerous antigovernment societies claiming to have solutions to China’s problems began to appear.
Action
This environment gave rise to the Taiping Rebellion, during which 20 million people would perish from injuries, famine, and disease. The Society of Worshipers, a vast number of disaffected peasants who had lost faith in the Qing Dynasty, formed the center of the rebellion. The leader of the uprising, Hong Xiuquan, was a teacher who suffered an emotional breakdown after failing his civil service exam. During his period of instability, he believed that he had traveled to heaven, where he discovered he was the younger brother of Jesus. While in heaven, he also successfully defeated an uprising of evil spirits against God. He believed that God had commanded him to return to earth and restore peace and harmony to the world by defeating the evil spirits represented by the Chinese government and setting up an earthly paradise, the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (Taiping Tianguo).
The rebellion was based on the basic Christian ideals of universal brotherhood and the equality of all people in the eyes of God. Its primary goal was the creation of a society based on social and economic equality, an idea that conflicted with the very foundation of Chinese civilization, which rested on the five Confucian relationships of superior to subordinate. The rebellion also called for total land redistribution, thereby threatening the landlord class. These and other goals were published in the rebellion’s revolutionary tract, the “Book of Heavenly Commandments.”
In 1853, the rebels seized Wuchang, then captured Nanjing, setting it up as the new capital, and took Canton and Shanghai. Hong’s armies advanced on Peking, but the flood-swollen Yellow River prevented them from reaching it. The rebellion ended when Manchu troops seized Hong’s capital at Nanjing in 1864. The government’s superior forces and internal dissension within the Taiping ranks ended the uprising, one of the most destructive in the world.
Aftermath
The Chinese government suffered a drop in prestige as a result of the rebellion; however, unlike after the First Opium War, the government was not regarded as the major source of China’s problems. Instead, angry Chinese began to look toward the West as a source of the nation’s difficulties. This would eventually lead to the anti-Western uprising known as the Boxer Rebellion.
Bibliography
Esherick, Joseph W. The Origins of the Boxer Uprising. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Gernet, Jacques. A History of Chinese Civilization. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Spence, Jonathan. God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Weller, Robert P. Resistance, Chaos, and Control in China: Taiping Rebels, Taiwanese Ghosts, and Tiananmen. London: Macmillan, 1994.