Taiping << TY pihng >> Rebellion was a revolt against China’s ruling Qing dynasty, also called the Manchu dynasty, from 1850 to 1864. The war took place mainly in the provinces of Anhui, Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang in eastern China, but battles reached north to the outskirts of Beijing and west to Sichuan Province. At that time, rapid population growth, economic disruption, foreign intrusions, and opium addiction created difficulties for rural farmers. These facors fueled conflicts among farmers and with government officials, as well as between Manchu, Han, Hui, and other Chinese ethnic groups. Qing troops eventually crushed the rebellion, which cost the lives of more than 20 million people. The warfare was so devastating that many areas were still rebuilding through the end of the 1800’s. The term Taiping comes from the Chinese name of the Taiping Tianguo, or Great Kingdom of Heavenly Peace proclaimed by the movement’s leaders.
In 1837, Hong Xiuquan, a schoolteacher from the Hakka ethnic group (a Han subgroup of southern China), began to experience visions after repeatedly failing to pass the government civil service examinations. In 1843, after reading a Christian missionary tract, he decided that the visions had shown him to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ. He believed that God had commanded him to rid the world of “demons.” Hong’s “demons” included the gods of Chinese popular religion as well as all Manchus, including the Qing royal family. Hong’s sect, known as the God Worshippers’ Society, gained a large following in the 1840’s. The group combined Christian beliefs with ancient Chinese ideas for perfecting society. The society supported equality among people and the shared ownership of land. Hong also preached the overthrow of the Qing government, which led the government to try to suppress the growing sect. Hong and his followers then began a military campaign to cleanse China of demons. Because Hong’s movement sought to replace the imperial system with its own institutions, and because the word rebellion can imply sympathy with the Qing side, some scholars refer to the resulting conflict as a civil war.
In late 1850, Hong’s rebel group began attacking government forces in Guangxi province. The Qing government—busy with other revolts as well as foreign military intervention—could not respond in force, and the rebellion spread quickly. By 1854, the Taiping controlled large stretches of territory, including the cities of Wuchang and Nanjing. Hong made Nanjing the rebel capital and enforced strict military and religious doctrine. Despite the movement’s success, fighting between Taiping factions killed many thousands of people.
Taiping forces recovered in the early 1860’s, capturing Hangzhou and Suzhou. In 1860 and again in 1862, however, Qing troops repelled attacks on Shanghai. Qing forces—now heavily influenced by modern Western tactics and weapons of war—then began a successful counteroffensive, taking Taiping strongholds along the Yangtze River.
By early 1864, Qing forces had retaken most of the Taiping-controlled areas. In June, Hong Xiuquan died during the Qing reconquest of Nanjing. Major fighting ended with the city’s fall in July. However, scattered Taiping forces continued to resist for several years. The last organized Taiping forces were destroyed in 1871.
Most of the deaths caused by the rebellion did not occur on the battlefield. During the military campaigns of the Taiping Rebellion, agricultural areas were devastated, leading to famine that killed millions of people. More deaths were caused by sickness and disease spread by invading armies. Conquering armies often executed entire populations of fallen cities. In the months following the revolt, many thousands of Hakkas and suspected rebel sympathizers were also executed.
