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TAIPING REBELLION
IN CHINA
(1850-1864)


CONTENTS:

BACKGROUN
D
AGE OF
REVOLUTION




Chinese
American man
with queue

Manchu queue


BACKGROUND
• Among the many rebellions that enveloped China in the mid-19th
century, the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) caused most
devastation and posed the greatest danger to the Qing dynasty.
• By the early 19th century, the available land could no longer
sustain the burgeoning population, and there were no industries
to absorb the surplus labor force. Natural disasters in the 1840s
along the Yellow and Yangzi (Yangtse) River valleys further
devastated the economy. 

• Politically, the Qing dynasty was in decline, evident in the
pervasive corruption among the bureaucracy. Defeat by Great
Britain in the First Anglo-Chinese Opium war further discredited
the dynasty and brought to the fore latent anti-Manchu
sentiments among the majority Han Chinese.


- Hong Xiuquan is a resident of Huado district, Guangdong
province.
- Once again failed four time the imperial examination , Hong
fell ill and into a coma in 1837.
- In 1843, after carefully reading a pamphlet he had received
years before from a Protestant Christian missionary
- In 1847 Hong went to Guangzhou, where he studied the
Bible with Issachar Jacox Roberts, an
American Baptist missionary, gaining some knowledge of the
Old Testament. But he was not baptized.
- In 1844 his follower Feng Yunshan founded the Society of
God Worshippers and began preaching his version of
(Christianity, Daoism, Confucianism and
indigenous millenarianism, which Hong presented as a
restoration of the ancient Chinese faith in Shangdi) among
poor people in Guangxi province in southern China. 

(1814-1864)


AGE OF
REVOLUTION
 ESTABLISHMENT

:

South
king

• Led by Hong Xiuquan, the self-proclaimed brother
of Jesus Christ,
• The rebellion began in Guangdong where Bibles had
been brought into Guangzhou. Hong (a member of
the Hakka minority people) had by 1847 taken control
of the whole Guangxi province (The rebellion was
strongly supported by both Hakka and Miao ethnic
groups).
• Anuary 1851, following a small-scale battle in late
December 1850, a 10,000-strong rebel army organized
by Feng Yunshan and Wei Changhui routed Qing forces
stationed in Jintian (present-day Guiping, Guangxi).
Feng Yushan was to be the strategist of the rebellion
and the administrator of the kingdom during its early
days, until his death in 1852.
• Hong declared himself "Heavenly King" of a new
dynasty, the "Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace
( Taiping Heavenly Kingdom) which comes the term
“Taiping”.

North
King


-

The Taiping army pressed north into Hunan following the
Xiang River, besieging Changsha, occupying Yuezhou, and
then capturing Wuchang in December 1852 after reaching
the Yangtze River. At this point the Taiping leadership
decided to move east along the Yangtze River. Anqing was
captured in February 1852.


- On March 19,1853 the Taiping
captured Nanjing, and Hong declared it
the Heavenly Capital of his kingdom.
- In 1853 Hong Xiuquan withdrew from
active control of policies and
administration to rule exclusively by
written proclamations.
Hong disagreed with Yang in certain
matters of policy and became
increasingly suspicious of Yang's
ambitions.
-


In Hunan, a local irregular
army called the Xiang Army or
Hunan Army, under the
personal leadership of Zeng
Guofan.

December 1856 Qing forces retook

Wuchang for the final time. The Xiang
Army captured Jiujiang in May 1858
and then the rest of Jiangxi province
by September.


In 1859 Hong Rengan, a cousin of Hong, joined
the Taiping Rebellion in Nanjing, and was given
considerable power by Hong.
The Taiping rebels were successful in taking
Hangzhou on March 19th, 1860, Changzhou
on May 26th, and Suzhou on June 2nd to
the east. While Taiping forces were
preoccupied in Jiangsu , Zeng's forces
moved down the Yangtze River.

Hangzhou
Suzhou

Changzhou


Fall of Taiping

• August 1860 An attempt to take Shanghai
was repulsed by an army of Qing troops
supported by European officers under the
command of Frederick Townsend Ward .

• Imperial forces were reorganized under
the command of Zeng Guofan and Li
Hongzhang, and the Qing government's
reconquest began in earnest.


By early 1864, Qing control in most areas was well
established. hong declared that God defend Nanjing.
June 1864, with Qing forces approaching, he died of food
poisoning as the result of eating wild vegetables as the
city began to run out of food.
• Hong Xiuquan abdicated in favour of Hong Tianguifu,
his eldest son, who was 15 years old then. Hong
Tianguifu was unable to do anything to restore the
kingdom.


Nanjing fell in July 1864 to Qing
forces after vicious fighting in the
streets.

The retaking of Nanjing
by Qing troops


• Although the fall of Nanjing in 1864 marked the
destruction of the Taiping regime, the fight was not yet
over.

• It took seven years to finally put down all remnants of

the Taiping Rebellion. In August 1871 the last Taiping
rebel army, led by Shi Dakai's commander, Li Fuzhong
was completely wiped out by the Qing forces in the
border region of Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi.