![]() ![]() The scholar Jian Youwen is among those who refer to the rebellion as the "Taiping Revolutionary Movement" on the grounds that it worked towards a complete change in the political and social system, rather than working towards the replacement of one dynasty with another. In modern China, the war is often referred to as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, due to the fact that the Taiping espoused a doctrine which was both nationalist and communist, and the Taiping represented a popular ideology which was based on either Han nationalism or protocommunist values. It was also dismissively referred to as the Red Sheep Rebellion ( 紅羊之亂) because "Hong-Yang" sounds like "Red Sheep" in Chinese. They often referred to it as the Hong-Yang Rebellion ( 洪楊之亂), referring to the two most prominent leaders. Instead, they referred to the tumultuous civil war as a period of chaos ( 亂), rebellion ( 逆) or military ascendancy ( 軍興). During the 19th century, the Qing did not describe the conflict as either a civil war or a movement because doing so would have lent credibility to the Taiping. The terms which writers use for the conflict and its participants often represent their different opinions. Historians debate whether these developments foreshadowed the Warlord Era, the loss of central control after the establishment of Republic of China in 1912. It exacerbated ethnic disputes and accelerated the rise of provincial power. The 14-year civil war combined with other internal and external wars weakened the dynasty but provided incentive for an initially successful period of reform and self-strengthening. After two more years, on June 1, 1864, Hong Xiuquan died and Nanjing fell barely a month later. After moving down the Yangtze River and recapturing the strategic city of Anqing, Zeng's forces besieged Nanjing during May, 1862. Weakened severely by internal conflict, an attempted coup, and the failure of the siege of Beijing, the Taipings were defeated by decentralized, provincial armies such as the Xiang Army organized and commanded by Zeng Guofan. Meanwhile, the Qing government also engaged in massacres, most notably against the civilian population of the Taiping capital, Nanjing. Taiping soldiers carried out widespread massacres of Manchus, the ethnic minority of the ruling Imperial House of Aisin-Gioro. The war was characterized by extreme brutality on both sides. 30 million people fled the conquered regions to foreign settlements or other parts of China. In terms of deaths, the civil war is comparable to World War I. It ranks as one of the bloodiest wars in human history, the bloodiest civil war, and the largest conflict of the 19th century. ![]() It was the largest war in China since the Ming-Qing Transition, involving most of Central and Southern China. The Taipings established the Heavenly Kingdom as an oppositional state based in Tianjing and gained control of a significant part of southern China, eventually expanding to command a population base of nearly 30 million people.įor more than a decade, Taiping armies occupied and fought across much of the mid and lower Yangtze valley, ultimately devolving into total civil war. Rather than supplanting the ruling class, the Taipings sought to upend the moral and social order of China. ![]() Its goals were religious, nationalist, and political in nature Hong sought the conversion of the Han people to the Taiping's syncretic version of Christianity, to overthrow the Qing dynasty, and a state transformation. The uprising was commanded by Hong Xiuquan, an ethnic Hakka (a Han subgroup) and the self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ. After fighting the bloodiest civil war in world history, with over 20 million dead, the established Qing government won decisively, although at a great price to its fiscal and political structure. It lasted from 1850 to 1864, although following the fall of Tianjing (now Nanjing) the last rebel army was not wiped out until August 1871. The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. T'ai 4-p'ing 2 t'ien 1-kuo 2 yün 4-tung 4 ![]()
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