The Taiping Rebellion – Also known as the Taiping Civil War
Qing dynasty – The last imperial dynasty in China, ruled by the non-Han Manchu people who invaded China and stayed in power from 1644 to 1912; their reign was followed by the Republic of China in 1912 (and then by the People’s Republic of China in 1949).
Manchu – People from Manchuria, an area northeast of the Great Wall in China, who were farmers and descendants of the Jurchen people
Taipings – A group of peasants in the Christian-inspired rebel movement led by Hong Xiuquan that aimed to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and establish a “Heavenly Kingdom”
Confucianism – A way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century BCE. These practices were the dominant social theory (not a religion) in China for more than two millennia. It remains a source of learning, a basis for values, and a social code upheld in Chinese society.
Second Opium War (1856–1860) – Fought between the United Kingdom and France against the Qing Dynasty of China. The conflict centered on foreign demands for expanded trade rights, including the importation of opium, and ended with another Qing defeat and the legalization of the opium trade.
Ever Victorious Army – American Frederick Townsend Ward’s army, so named to disguise the fact that it was a foreign-led contingent of Chinese soldiers
Names of Note
Hong Xiuquan (sh-yo-chu-an) – Leader of the Taiping Rebellion (Heavenly King). Born into a Hakka family in Guangzhou, southern China.
Hong Rengan – Cousin of Hong Xiuquan and eventual prime minister of the Taiping. He spent six years in Hong Kong, learned English, worked with missionaries, and planned modernizing and westernizing reforms, including free trade, contingent on foreign support.
Frederick Townsend Ward – An American mercenary who initially joined the Taiping, then changed sides and trained Chinese soldiers to fight against them
Charles Gordon (Gordon of China) – British mercenary who took over command of the Ever Victorious Army from Ward
Zeng (Jung) Guofan – Confucian scholar, government official, and general
Li Hungzhang (hong-jahng) – Confucian scholar, government official, and protégé of Zeng Guofan
Significant Events During the Rebellion
1853 Capture of Nanjing – The Taiping seized the city of Nanjing and massacred the Manchu population. The Taiping made Nanjing their capital for thirteen years (March 10, 1853 – July 1864). The Qing capital at this time was Beijing.
Outline of Presentation – with [Timecode]
Introduction
This was the largest civil war in human history, taking place between the 1850s and 1864, during which 20–30 million people died [0:15]
China was ruled by the Manchu Qing dynasty, who were not ethnic Chinese; they came from north of the Great Wall and had invaded China in 1644 [0:27]
The Taiping rebels were a religious-political group led by Hong Xiuquan, who believed he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, sent by God to restore ethnic Chinese rule, destroy Confucianism, and bring Christianity to China. In the early 1850s he proclaimed the coming of a Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (Taiping) [0:50]
By 1853, the Taiping rebels had more than half a million soldiers; they conquered Nanjing and ruled millions of people at their height [1:28]
Although the Qing eventually suppressed the Taiping, the war was long, bloody, and vicious; this video focuses on the surprising end of the conflict [1:59]
Second Opium War (1856–1860) Occurring Simultaneously
The Qing were fighting both the Taiping Rebellion and Britain and France in the Second Opium War at the same time, making a Qing victory extremely unlikely [2:09]
The Second Opium War was driven by British and French desire for more trading rights and was completely unrelated to the Taiping Rebellion [2:43]
In 1860, Britain and France invaded Beijing, sent the emperor into hiding, and destroyed looted, and burned the beautiful and symbolically important Summer Palace and its gardens [3:11]
(Editor’s note: the “Summer Palace” was to the Chinese emperors equivalent to what Windsor Castle is to the British monarchy; its destruction was a stunning humiliation)
Unlikely Survival of the Qing Dynasty
Europeans occupied Beijing, the emperor hid in Manchuria, and the Taipings took control of eastern China, but while the Qing dynasty nearly ended it somehow survived – in part due to local militias (personal armies) from the provinces [3:50]
Confucian scholar-generals led these armies from interior China and were very independent of the emperor; they were also helped by foreign forces to fight the Taiping [4:35]
Portrait One: Hong Rengan – After spending 6 years in Hong Kong learning English and helping foreign missionaries, returned to the Taiping in 1859 and became second in command; he planned modernizing and westernizing reforms, including free trade, but they depended on foreign support [6:45]
Portrait Two: Zeng Guofan – Came from rural Hunan province and was an elite national Confucian scholar and government official. The emperor asked him to assemble an army [10:25]
Zeng Guofan was physically weak and lacked military training, yet he managed to build a personal army composed primarily of his family members and loyal Hunan men. He is known as the most influential military strategist of modern China, whose writings were used to help fight communist rebels nearly 100 years later [14:00]
By the 1860s, Zeng Guofan had a loyal army of 120,000 soldiers; he became the most powerful man in China, which led many to fear he would try to replace the emperor, but as a loyal Confucian, he served the Qing [15:00]
Portrait Three: The Foreign Role and Its Ironies – British, French, and some American assistance in China were key to the Qing victory; they helped the dynasty, although they had just defeated the Qing in the First and Second Opium Wars [16:13]
General Zeng Guofan led a provincial Chinese army; he hated the foreign Christian religion; he did not want humiliating foreign help to put down what he saw as a foreign-influenced mercenary Christian uprising (as the Taipings were Christian, a Western religion) [16:42]
Hong Rengan advocated a policy of friendly diplomacy with the West, although it is Zeng Guofan who ultimately received their help [17:16]
It’s ironic the Qing dynasty survived with foreign support is ironic because initially
Americans supported the Taipings partly because they were Christian, and because they were seen as fighting off a foreign (Manchu) leadership – it was a war of national liberation, like the American Revolution, and seen as morally just [17:40]
Britain did not support the Qing; they were neutral and forbade subjects from intervening [18:43]
Why did foreigners suddenly support the Qing against the Taiping? [19:07]
Humanitarian reasons: The British had a crisis of conscience and wanted to rectify what they did to destabilize the Chinese government and society during the Second Opium War [19:11]
The missionary community suddenly rejected the Taipings as fake Christians after having supported them for years [19:50]
Opportunists/Mercenaries arrived and tried to take advantage of the chaos, people like Frederick Townsend Ward, who helped build American support for the Qing
Significance of American Civil War happening Simultaneously (1861–1865)
The most crucial factor affecting support for the Qing dynasty was the American Civil War (1861–1865) because the disruption threatened British trade with the US, its second-largest external market. Trade relations were also threatened by the Taiping Rebellion. But instead of intervening in the US Civil War to repair trade relations, the British intervened in the Chinese civil war, the Taiping Rebellion, to restore trade relations [22:17]
Americans supported the Qing in part because they saw a comparison in that both their national governments were being attacked by rebels from within: the American Union by the South, and the Chinese Qing by the southern Taiping [23:33]
By 1862, the British had demonized the Taiping as thugs and butchers and took the side of the Qing [24:13]
The British took over the Ever Victorious Army led by Charles Gordon, known as Chinese Gordon, and the Taiping were soon crushed [25:12]
Britain’s primary interest in interfering in the war was to keep the treaty ports they had conquered during the Opium Wars open for trade [27:03]
Yet the British glorify their involvement and British historians claim Britain single-handedly saved China from the Taiping [28:27]
Chinese historians claim that the war was won exclusively by Chinese leaders alone: Zeng Guofan and his deputy Li Hongjiang [28:42]
The Qing dynasty was nearly destroyed and limped through another fifty years severely weakened [29:47]
