The
Great Peace
The
Taiping Rebellion
A
Note
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| Taiping Imperial Seal |
In the mid-19th century China
was convulsed by a series of rebellions that almost overthrew the Qing, called
by foreigners the Manchu, Dynasty. The most serious of these challenges to Qing
rule was the Taping Rebellion that lasted more than 15 years before the last
embers were snuffed out. (1850-1866).1
Aside from the irony of a movement with
the name of “Great Peace” that instead inaugurated a spectacularly bloody
rebellion that cost at least 20 million, (That’s right at least 20 million
lives.),2 we have the fact that it lasted so long, involved massive campaigns
that sometimes took years spread out over a very large area. As can be seen in
this map.
3. Map showing location of Taiping Rebellion and
campaigns in China
The above map shows the various
movements of the main Taping armies during the war. Has can be seen the
campaigns covered a very large area of China.
This rebellion is very little known in
the west today. Although in terms of scale and duration it easily exceeds the
American Civil War and can probably be best compared to the Napoleonic Wars in
Europe during the period 1799-1815. Although it seems indisputable that in
terms of lives lost the Taping Rebellion easily exceeds the losses in Europe
during the Napoleonic Wars.
If this rebellion is little known in the
West it is not because the war lacks excitement or colour. It seems to lack
memory in the West because it is outside of the cultural traditions / history
of the West. Certainly the fact that this event is culturally less well known
in the West than the American Civil War is a bit strange, considering that in
sheer scale it easily dwarfs that war.
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| Painting of Fighting During the Taiping Rebellion |
The Taping Rebellion occurred during the long decline of the Qing Dynasty and marked both a reaction to both the effects of the decline of the Qing and the intrusion of Westerners into China, both culturally and militarily.
In the case of Westerners it is no
coincidence that the Taping Rebellion started less than ten years after the end
of the disastrous Opium war with Britain. An event that profoundly and
thoroughly humiliated the Qing Dynasty and to many signaled that the Qing
Dynasty had lost the Mandate of Heaven. The episode also reflects a low point
for the West in that Britain went to war in order to open up China even more to
the importation of Opium from India.4
After the war many felt that Qing had
failed and it was about time for a new dynasty.
The main centre for events that touched
off the Opium war and for much of the war itself was Canton, so not
surprisingly the instigator and head of the Taiping Rebellion came from nearby.
The man was Hong Xiuquan. Hong was a
failed participant in the Chinese examination system which he had taken four
times. He was inspired by a religious tract he had picked up in Canton while
taking the examinations there. The tract was a Chinese retelling of parts of
the Old and New Testaments designed to win converts to Christianity. Subsequently
Hong had a very vivid dream which many years after the dream he interpreted by
means of this tract. Perhaps at another time I will go into Hong’s vision and
religious impulse.
The end result was that Hong conceived
of himself has Jesus’ younger brother and the one destined to bring both the
true faith to China and to drive out the “Barbarian” Qing Dynasty.5
In
other words the Taping Rebellion was a religious crusade launched with
religious fever and fanaticism. The Taping movement despised much traditional
Chinese religion and actively attacked Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, as
idolatry.6
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| Painting of Fighting during Taiping Rebellion |
The Taipings has I said above emerged in
the aftermath of the defeat China suffered in the Opium war and the rebellion
erupted in southern China about 200 miles west of Canton in December of 1850
and from there on the Taiping armies moved and fought the armies of the Qing
dynasty until they established their central base and capital at the city of
Nanjing, near the Yangtze delta in 1853.7
Aside
from Hong Xiuquan who died a little over a month before the Qing retook Nanjing
the rebellion had some remarkable leaders. Perhaps the two most extraordinary were Shi
Dakai called the Wing King and Hong Rengan called the Shield King.
Both of them were early converts to the
new religion preached by Hong Xiuquan. Shi Dakai was an early leader who after
a vicious factional struggle emerged on top late in 1856 but left over
disagreements regarding policy with Hong Xiuquan. Shi than left on a long and
meandering campaign that covered over the next 6 years something like 6,000
miles during which he evaded, fought and defeated various Qing forces until he
was forced to surrender with a remnant of his forces in 1863.8
Hong Rengan was in many respects the
most extraordinary of the Taiping leaders. When the rebellion started he was
unable to join Hong Xiuquan and so stayed around and in Hong Kong where he
interacted with many Europeans, especially Englishmen and acquired a strong
appreciation of Western Science and learning. Further he learned to speak very
good English. When he finally joined Hong Xiuquan in Nanjing in 1858 he became influencial. With his
strong interest in Western culture Hong Rengan sought to change Taiping policy
and pursue a strategy and policy of Westernization. Thus Hong Rengan wanted
railways, newspapers and steam powered boats. All the paraphernalia of the West.9
In many ways Hong Rengan is a very
attractive figure in his efforts to control the millennial excesses of the Taiping's
and in his desire to reform China by adopting much Western lore / learning and
technology. In fact he is the hero of recent book about the fall of the Taiping
rebellion.10
For one of the less understood aspects of the
Taiping Rebellion was how much of a revolution it amounted to. I am not here so
much referring to the quasi millennial “Communism” exposed by the Taiping leadership
that they from time to time tried to implement, and generally failed to make
last. Although it helped to make the Taiping attractive to Chinese Communists later on. Such attempts at "Communism" did help to stir up much anti-Taiping sentiment.11 I am instead referring
to how the interplay between their religious views and policy views resulted in
a recasting of Chinese culture.
Hong Xiuquan viewed his movement not
just has an attempt to overthrow the “Barbarian” Qing dynasty but has an
attempt to purge China of all decadent,
corrupt and “ungodly” traits. In other words a grand purification of Chinese
culture and society, getting rid of all the “corrupt” influences.
It was not through the imposition of new
Western religion – Christianity – but the recreation of an alleged pure and “true”
faith that had existed before the "corruption" seeped in. Of course the problem with
that was that it involved the systematic elimination of much that was part of
Chinese culture in the mid-19th century. In effect the Taiping
rejected the culture of Imperial China that had existed since the late 3rd
century B.C.E.
Thus we get the Taiping’s systematic
elimination of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism all of which were declared
corrupt. This attacked parts of Chinese culture that were absolutely
fundamental to it.12
This eventually produced a reaction.
Although the Qing were also dealing with several insurrections at the same
time, the most serious being the Nien rebellion in the region just north of the
Taiping stronghold of Nanking the Qing were able to enlist the services of a
remarkable series of scholar soldiers who raised armies, equipped and paid for
them and fought the Taiping for years and years.13
The most remarkable man of these scholar
soldiers was Zeng Guofan. Who fought the Taiping with his private army for more
than ten years and eventually captured their capital Nanjing in 1864. He was a
man scandalized by the wide ranging attack that the Taiping were making on what
he thought was true Chinese culture. As such he fought them relentlessly,
viciously and in the end successfully; saving for the time being the Qing
dynasty which tried to make some efforts in the aftermath of defeat by
foreigners and widespread rebellion to reform.14
And of course foreigners were involved.
Not just in the second Opium War, (1858-1860), which ended with another humiliation
for the Qing dynasty including the humiliating occupation of Beijing by English
troops and the destruction of the Summer Palace just outside Beijing.
Later, however, as the Taiping
approached Shanghai in 1860 foreigners provided extensive support for the Qing
military forces. The foreigners based in Shanghai eventually formed the so-called
Ever Victorious Army, which was for a time under the command of Charles Gordon
who was later killed in the Sudan in 1885.15
Still crushing the rebellion took years
and the last of the Taiping armies were not destroyed until 1866. Further remnants
of the Taiping joined the Nien rebellion which was not crushed until 1868.16
Probably with China’s rise in the world
we will, in the west, slowly become more aware of this almost apocalyptic
struggle.
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| Fighting during the Taiping Rebellion |
2. Platt, Stephen R., Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, Vintage
Books, New York, 2012, p. 358-359. Prof. Platt quotes sources that give losses
of up to 100 million!
3. Franz et al, p. 216.
4. Spence, 1990, pp. 143-164.
5. See Spence, Jonathan D., God’s Chinese Son, W. W. Norton &
Co., New York, 1996, pp. 34-
65.
6. IBID, pp. 172-191.
7. Franz et al, pp. 64-71.
8. Spence, 1996, pp. 316-317.
9. Spence, pp. 273-279.
10. That book is by Prof. Pratt listed
above. In my opinion Prof. Pratt is far too rosy about the prospects for the
Taiping at that late date. By 1858 the rebellion was doomed and only a near
miracle could save it from failure.
11. Spence, 1996, pp. 172-191.
12. See Reilly, Thomas H., The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, The University
of Washington Press, Seattle WASH, 2004. The book argues that the Taiping
ideology was almost entirely Chinese, however this doesn’t gainsay that it
still represented a heated attack on much of its fundamentals has they were understood in
the mid-19th century.
13. Pratt, pp. 113-139, Wolf, Eric R., Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century,
HarperTorch books, New york, 1969. pp. 123-124.
14.IBID, Rowe, William T., China’s Last Empire, Harvard University
Press, Harvard CONN, 2009, pp. 185-190, Kuhn, Philip A., The Taiping Rebellion, in Editor, Fairbank, John K., The Cambridge History of China, v. 10, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1978, pp. 264-317, at 281-290.
15. Fairbank, John K., The Creation of the Treaty System, in Fairbank, pp. 213-263, at pp. 243-260, Rowe,
pp. 190-193. For a contemporary account of the Ever Victorious Army see for
example Anonymous, Twelve Years in China,
Hamilton, Adams and Co., London, 1860 and Blakiston, Thomas W, Five Months on the Yang Tsze, John
Murray, London, 1862.
16. Franz et al, pp. 175-188.
Pierre Cloutier
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