A History of China (64 page)

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mid-nineteenth-century convulsions in many regions of China reflected the Qing government’s decline and its inability to cope with economic, military, ethnic, and political problems. Faced with an ineffective government, local officials assumed some of its responsibilities, particularly through defense and military forces. These organizations were eager to maintain the peace but not to deal with some of the underlying problems, such as the exploitation and distress of the peasantry. The peasants’ position did not improve, providing recruits for greater disturbances. Peasants who were dependent on proper maintenance of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal were particularly concerned because the government’s mishandling of these infrastructure projects harmed both agriculture and transport of farm produce to markets and consumers. A corrupt and ineffective bureaucracy, powerful local landlords and gentry, and a growing class of impoverished peasants created a volatile stage. As evidenced by the development of secret societies and the early-nineteenth-century White Lotus uprisings, poor peasants and many on the fringes of existence in the countryside needed only a spark to join an antidynastic movement.

The Nian, a curious group composed of poor peasants, gangs, and secret-society members, was among the first to seek the overthrow of the Qing. Unlike some of the other rebels, the Nian (the term for a specific dialect) did not adhere to any religion but was an antidynastic movement. Its major deficiency was its lack of centralized leadership. In 1851, a Nian rebellion erupted after floods on the Yellow River drowned masses of people, and a second flood in 1855 exacerbated the population’s misery. The rebels would, on occasion, gather around a specific individual, but these alliances did not last long. Zhang Lexing (1810–1863) ­initiated the uprisings but, even after government troops killed him, the rebellion persisted. The Nian campaigns in Anhui, Henan, Jiangsu, and Shandong provinces, areas afflicted by the Yellow River floods, created considerable damage, and the Qing could not, at first, contain the rebels. Nian troops, boasting an excellent cavalry division and firearms, occupied a number of cities. Taking advantage of the Qing’s preoccupation with the more important Taiping Rebellion, they gained control of locations in Jiangsu, a formerly prosperous province, and denied the government the area’s rich tax revenues. However, the Nian forces harmed themselves by not establishing an administration to govern the regions they conquered, undermining regular relations with the local people, and instead alienating them by foraging for food on their lands. They appeared to be exploiters or criminal gangs engaged in marauding, raping, and destroying rather than offering relief from an oppressive government and elite.

Despite much Chinese antipathy toward them, the Nian were not easily suppressed. After Zeng Guofan (1811–1872) had crushed the Taiping, the Qing court ordered him to lead punitive expeditions against the Nian. He proved unable to defeat the Nian. Li Hongzhang (1823–1901) and Zuo Zongtang (1812–1885), two of Zeng’s chief lieutenants, eventually organized the so-called Huai army and, using recently bought European weapons, finally crushed the Nian in 1868. The Nian’s failures may be linked to its lack of an ideology and its inability or unwillingness to collaborate with the Taiping, which would have created a formidable force. This campaign was also the first of many crucial nineteenth-century events in which Li and Zuo would play vital roles. They were later among the dominant figures in late-nineteenth-century efforts at economic modernization and in relations with foreigners.

China’s borderlands were similarly restive, but ethnic problems complicated the difficulties. The southwestern province of Yunnan was home to a variety of ethnic groups, some of whom the Qing had mistreated. Hui or Chinese Muslims were particular targets, and several Chinese campaigns from the 1830s to the 1850s had resulted in the killing of numerous Muslims. Early-nineteenth-century migrations of Chinese into Yunnan had also exacerbated tensions. Perceived exploitation and oppression erupted into the so-called Panthay Rebellion, which lasted from 1856 to 1873. Although animosities between the Chinese and the Hui played a role in the accelerating violence, minority ethnic groups who were not Muslims also joined in the rebellion. “Panthay,” which derives from the Burmese term for Muslims, gives a misleading impression of the rebellion because it emphasizes only Muslim participation. In fact, Du Wenxiu (1823–1872), who became the leader of the rebellion and founded a so-called sultanate in the city of Dali, sought to attract the various non-Muslim peoples to his side. Recognizing that trade with Southeast Asia was vital for ­revenue, he cultivated the Tai, Yi, and other minorities who had links with the peoples in modern Thailand and Burma. Unity proved elusive, and he even had Muslim opponents – an indication that the rebellion was not simply a Muslim struggle against the Chinese and the Qing. On the other hand, some Chinese joined his cause, again challenging the view that the Panthay was exclusively a Muslim revolt. Defections by previous allies and a concerted Qing military effort turned the tide against Du and led to the collapse of his Dali sultanate.

The most significant of these revolts sprang from a new direction, a religion that had played only a minor role in Chinese history. Christianity, or at least a version of it, was the inspiration for the most devastating attack on the Qing. The rebels’ knowledge of Christianity was actually limited, partly due to the lack of reliable information as well as a somewhat inaccurate translation of the Bible. The Christianity espoused by those opposed to the dynasty adapted parts of the religion that suited their political and social purposes. Recognizing that the rebels were not well aware of and not implementing what the Western missionaries perceived to be Christian principles, those missionaries eventually turned against the rebels. Similarly, Western officials and merchants concluded that the rebels simply used Christianity without being devout. The various rebel groups made decisions that were often counterproductive and translated into loss of support from foreigners and from potentially sympathetic Confucian officials.

Hong Xiuquan (1814–1864) led the movement that offered the greatest challenge to the Qing. Born to a poor family of the Hakka, or guest peoples, who were classified as such because they had moved from north to south China, he aspired to an official career but failed the civil-service examinations three times. Bitterly frustrated, he looked for a scapegoat to explain his failures. At this very time, he was exposed to Christianity in his native province of Guangdong and especially in Guangzhou or Canton. Missionaries had arrived there as early as the 1830s, and Hong gained some knowledge of Christianity through simple pamphlets they had written to describe the rudiments of the religion. Christianity offered him a means of expressing dissent and of ­identifying scapegoats. He had a dream or seizure that fused his two concerns. In his vision, he encountered a bearded old man, whom he identified as God, and Jesus, who told him to destroy the evil spirits who threatened Christianity. Hong referred to Jesus as his elder brother, implying that he too was a son of God and had now been entrusted with a mission to eradicate the demons, whom he identified as the Manchus. A fourth failure in the examinations and nothing to look forward to except a career as a teacher in countryside schools prompted him to take decisive steps to undertake his mission. His limited knowledge of Christianity notwithstanding, he started to explain its doctrines and to convert Chinese and Hakka and other minorities in the poverty-stricken province of Guangxi. He had fertile ground on which to propound his ideas, with a poor and largely uneducated populace who had grievances against both the local elites and the government. By the late 1840s, he had honed his ­message to identify the Manchu rulers as devils and the Confucian elite as abetting the Manchus and purveying a heretical philosophy. After a brief period of study with Issachar Roberts (1802–1871), an American missionary in Canton, he began to organize his Christian converts into a movement, the Society of God Worshippers, and to attack Confucian structures, be they ancestral shrines or temples.

The organization he and several charismatic followers devised was a curious blend of fundamentalism and utopianism. Yang Xiuqing (d. 1856) and Shi Dakai (1831–1863), important recruits, probably had as much influence as Hong in setting up a proper structure. They organized themselves in multiples of five into companies, squads, and battalions. Leaders of these units trained their forces, produced weapons, and attempted to inculcate an esprit de corps. Under this scheme, they were to ensure that all profits and wealth accrued to a Heavenly Storehouse and to divide land equitably. The amount of land allotted to families reputedly depended on their size. Once families were able to provide for themselves, the surplus produce would revert to the central organization. In theory, the surplus would be used in times of bad harvests or for ­others less fortunate. Similarly, the organization’s policies toward women challenged traditional values. For example, unlike in many periods of Chinese history, women could own property, work in the fields, and serve in government. Hakka women were quite independent and did not approve of arranged marriages, adultery, concubinage, or prostitution and did not enforce the ­practice of bound feet; these factors influenced the rebels’ policies. The rebel leaders lambasted Confucians and the Manchus for the restrictions they imposed on women. The leaders’ emphasis on equality attracted many women, prompting the more enthusiastic to take part in combat. However, these ideas and values were not always implemented.

The rebels’ fundamentalism also attracted adherents who despised what they believed to be the immorality of the times. The more educated converts also appreciated the rebels’ critiques of the superstitions associated with Confucianism, including ancestor worship. Instead of Confucian examinations, the rebels initiated their own civil-service examinations that emphasized knowledge of the Bible and of Hong Xiuquan’s writings. Yet the message of equality, which resonated with the majority of rebels, centered on destruction of an oppressive and evil government. The poor and powerless formed a natural constituency for the purported radical reorganization of society.

However, the leadership of this so-called Christian movement eventually turned out to be less supportive of change. Instead it set up a hierarchical structure that resembled the imperial system. As early as 1851, egalitarianism eroded. Hong proclaimed himself to be the Heavenly King of the Taiping Tianguo or “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace,” which became abbreviated to Taiping. He also appointed other kings, including his early supporters, Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai. To many, he appeared to be reverting to a dynastic system. An indication of his dynastic ambitions was his granting of the title of “king” to his son Hong Tianguifu (1848–1864), whom the official sources portray as spoiled and indulged. Hong Xiuquan seems to have conceived of creating his own dynasty. However, his son was quite young when extraordinary responsibilities were thrust upon him. Spoiled and indulged or not, he could not assume his position at such a young age. Qing troops captured and executed him when he was only sixteen years old. The more equitable structure that Hong Xiuquan pledged to implement was also not fulfilled. His other social and economic policies were scarcely carried out. To be sure, wars against the Qing and Chinese forces and the ensuing chaotic conditions interfered with plans to adopt some of the more radical programs that he and other leaders proposed. However, there is considerable evidence that the policies they pursued did not jibe with or reflect the Taiping message – perhaps the principal reason for their failure to oust the Qing dynasty.

Hong Rengan (1822–1864), one of Hong Xiuquan’s cousins, sought to stem the Taipings’ decline. A Christian who had been exposed to Westerners, including employment as assistant to James Legge, a translator of the Chinese classical texts, he attempted to foster Western-style reforms and to promote a better image of Westerners among the Taipings. He supported the building of railroads, the establishment of banks, and the development of a more efficient and reliable central administration. Leaders who profited from the status quo opposed his reforms and prevented their implementation. Nonetheless, he persisted in advocating change until Qing forces captured and executed him during the last days of the Taipings.

The rebel Taipings devastated China for about fourteen years before they were finally suppressed by the Qing. They succeeded at first in the rural regions, and from 1850 on moved gradually north from Guangxi through Hunan. By 1852, they had actually raided and occupied towns and cities, culminating in the capture of Nanjing in 1853. South China, in particular, was devastated. With the pomp and circumstance that he professed to despise and that undercut his egalitarian ideology, Hong moved into the palace in which the first Ming emperor had resided. Nanjing became his capital and the northernmost city he and his forces occupied. They initiated forays farther north but were unable to hold substantial territories north of the Yangzi River. Even within the lands they subjugated, traditionally minded Chinese were chagrined by their practices, their seeming fanaticism, and their incessant demands for supplies and taxes. The Taiping egalitarianism simply vanished, undermining political support among the oppressed.