Taiping Rebellion Scene from the Taiping Rebellion 1850 to 1864. His followers tied red cloths around their heads. But in the end, the Taiping threat to the Qing was finally put down. And who were the demons? Hong Xiuquan died of food poisoning in June of 1864, leaving his hapless 15-year-old son on the throne. In 1848, Hong accepted as authentic a Thistle Mountain charcoal burner named Yang Xiuqing who claimed to channel God, and a peasant named Xiao Chaogui, who said he channeled Jesus. But the Qing also took a somewhat desperate, but rather important, move to save themselves. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Hong believed Western governments sympathized with his movement and he tried to make overtures to them, but European forces eventually aided the Qing government in seizing back what the Taiping had conquered. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. You mean Taiping Kingdon of Heaven 太平天国? It was, in essence, the establishment of a new country, the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, in the southern part of China. At its peak, the Taiping Heavenly Army likely fielded approximately 500,000 soldiers, male and female. Hong was an unorthodox Christian convert who declared himself the new Messiah and younger brother of Jesus Christ. Worshippers claimed to visit heaven physically during prayers. But also—and this is one of the things that later got a young man named Mao Zedong very excited—a new social program. Various people had to learn the Ten Commandments, and if you didn't learn them right, you could actually be executed, so a certain kind of motivation for education. Ervin Staub reflects on what factors might lead someone to become empathic and altruistic. The Taiping Rebellion eventually failed, however, and led to the deaths of more than 20 million people. The plot was thwarted, Yang was beheaded and his family members slaughtered. But even more than that, it was one of the most bizarre civil wars in history because it was based on the premise that a young, unemployed man from southern China was, in his own view, in fact, the younger brother of Jesus Christ. The rebellion was sparked by a famine in Guangxi Province, and Qing government repression of the resulting peasant protests. Hong Xiuquan's teachings and the famine sparked a January 1851 uprising in Jintian (now called Guiping), which the government quashed. By 1849, the God Worshipping Society had expanded into four areas of China, which Hong treated as strategic points in his upcoming battle against demons—demons that Hong soon unveiled as the Qing Dynasty itself. The Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) was a millenarian uprising in southern China that began as a peasant rebellion and turned into an extremely bloody civil war. Hong was found dead in May 1864, believed to have been poisoned, though it’s unknown whether it was suicide or assassination. The Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) was a millenarian uprising in southern China that began as a peasant rebellion and turned into an extremely bloody civil war. Unexpectedly, the Taiping army was victorious in these first battles, but fighting continued over the following months as Hong proclaimed 1851 as the first year of “the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.”. Kublai (also spelled Kubla or Khubilai) relegated his Chinese subjects ...read more, The Watts Rebellion, also known as the Watts Riots, was a large series of riots that broke out August 11, 1965, in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles. It was the second-deadliest war in human history after World War II. In 1852, Taiping soldiers snuck out of Yongan and began a trail of bloodshed that resulted in their control of a significant portion of the land bordering the Yangzi River and the city of Tianjin, from which the Qing emperor was forced to flee. She has taught at the high school and university levels in the U.S. and South Korea. In 1847, Hong went to Thistle Mountain to join local God Worshippers and conspire against religious traditions in the area. It is also known as the Rebellion of Great Peace, and took place under the rule of the Qing Government. The Nian Rebellion (Chinese: 捻亂; pinyin: Niǎn Luàn) was an armed uprising that took place in northern China from 1851 to 1868, contemporaneously with Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) in South China. The Taiping forces were run as a cult-like group called the God Worshipping Society by self-proclaimed prophet Hong Xiuquan, and resulted in the rebels seizing the city of Nanjing for a decade. (It’s believed that Qing soldiers created the popular game of mahjong to pass the time during the lengthy siege.) Hong declared that his followers should not “commit adultery or be licentious” and should reject “the cast of amorous glances, the harboring of lustful thoughts about others, the smoking of opium and the singing of libidinous songs” or be punished with beheadings. At the same time, there was separation—segregation between men and women. In other words, the idea that each province of China might have its own strongman in charge—with his own army—who would pay very little attention to the central government, because he had plenty of men on horseback behind him. This clip features Kelby from the film BULLY. One of these, the channeler Yang Xiuqing, claimed that God wanted Hong dead. The Fall of China's Qing Dynasty in 1911–1912, The Boxer Rebellion in Editorial Cartoons, Biography of Sun Yat-sen, Chinese Revolutionary Leader, Qing Dynasty, China's Last Imperial Family, The Red Turban Rebellion in China (1351-1368), J.D., University of Washington School of Law, B.A., History, Western Washington University. But it did fall. Around 600 entire cities in Guangxi, Anhui, Nanjing, and Guangdong Provinces were wiped from the map. Though tainted by deadly dramas within the royal court, it is also known for its promotion of Confucianism as the state religion and opening the Silk Road trade route to Europe, ...read more. Hong Xiuquan's followers rose up against Yang in 1856, killing him, his family, and the rebel soldiers loyal to him. Cambridge Illustrated History of China. The Great Big Book of Horrible Things. And quickly, the Taipings managed to take over some of China's most prime real estate, including the major city of Nanjing, the former capital of China, which they made their capital. He saw a vision, it was a very particular vision, that in fact, he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, and that he, Hong Xiuquan, this young, poor man from southern China, had been brought onto earth to destroy the demons. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. This column provides evidence that this cataclysmic event significantly shaped China’s Malthusian transition and long-term development that followed, especially in areas where the experiences that stemmed from the rebellion led to better property rights, stronger local fiscal capacity, and rule