Background
The mid 19th century was characterized by a myriad of rebellions in China even as European culture and the Chinese people entered into a dispute during the Opium War. For instance, the Muslim rebellions took place between 1855 and 1873 (Bulliet et al. 231). Although all the mid-19th-century rebellions had their devastating impacts, the Taiping rebellion left devastating effects that were to be felt for a long. About 30 million people lost their lives in the rebellion which persisted for 15 years. The rebellion itself led to massive drought and famine episodes. The Chinese population significantly declined by a margin of 60 million people. The embarrassing defeat from European powers aggravated the situation and left China at the receiving end of the destructive war.
The Taiping rebellion was a combination of cultural patterns from China and Europe which eventually erupted in a very complex manner. The rebellion got its boost and strength from one Hsiu-ch’üan, who steered the resistance to fermenting levels. Gross corruption coupled with extremely high rent and tax systems were among the causes of traditional rebellions in China which had become very rampant (Perry 132). Additionally, there were a high number of people who had become landless and this caused a lot of murmur and displeasure to the suppressed population. Moreover, insecurity was a major concern for the people due to rising incidences of banditry activities. Owing to the prevalence of insecurity, local communities decided to arm themselves and form self-defense units which later came to aggravate the problem. Worse still, secret religious societies had heinous activities which would jeopardize peace at the slightest trigger (Reilly 187).
The Manchu dynasty was challenged by the Taiping rebellion. Additionally, the Confucian social order also found itself in the mix as a result of the rebellion. It is also imperative to note that the Taiping rebellion was characterized by Christian beliefs which were heterodox. It was through the belief system that the rebelling groups were able to enhance unity and boost their morale.
Poor governance
Right from the start of the 19th century, inefficiency and corruption had dominated the Ch’ing regime at alarming level (Reilly 51). The local districts could not be easily controlled by the central government. In most cases, the districts were poorly run with several cases of corrupt deals being reported. The majority of the local people expressed their discontent due to over taxation and poor landlordism among other grievances. Unfortunately, none of these cries were heard either by the local or central government. They were largely ignored and no corrective action was put in place (Shih & Shih 244).
Another perennial problem was that of corruption. This ranged from presents to graft. The Chen-Lung regime had the least grip of these misdeals and as a result, it persisted for long to the detriment of the Chinese people. Ho Shen who was the chief counsel of Chieng-Lung was executed on account of corruption after the latter died. His wealth was confisticated immediately after his death. Nonetheless, the misdeed of corruption did not fade away from the face of Chinese government in spite of the execution of Ho Shen. The armies were equally grossly affected by the deeply entrenched corruption until they could not deliver during the Opium war (Franz & Chang 58).
Kwangsi Feuds
Kwangsi province was the genesis of the Taiping rebellion (Spence 65). This was one region which had a totally complex pattern of people from diverse socio-economic and political background. There were mainly two groups which dominated the Kwangsi region. These were the local Kwangsi people who were also known as Punti. The other group comprised people who had secured their stay in Kwangsi as guests and were referred to as Hakka. Due to their long stay in Kwangsi province of china, the Punti happened to be the majority. The Hakka had merely migrated to Kwangsi from other locations in China.
In spite of integration of the two groups, they managed to maintain both their culture and dialect. Hence, one of the main sources of conflict between the Punti and Hakka was the remarkable difference in their lifestyles. It is also worth noting that Kwangsi province hosted quite a number of other minority groups who equally had ethnic feuds with others. Hence, negative ethnicity was a key divisive factor in Kwangsi. The presence of occupational social groupings to protect the interest of certain ethnic groups was another source of conflict in Kwangsi (Perry 176). For example, there were those groups which were formed by the boatmen and took total control of the water. Other monopolies were also created in occupations such as charcoal burning and mining. These groups were hardly friendly to each other and would rival quite often. As time went by, these occupational groups transformed into secret societies for the purpose of providing protection to their very own. They could even administer oaths aimed at keeping certain secrets and developing the spirit of brotherhood. Clear boundaries were drawn between different ethnic and occupational communities leading to the polarization of the region (Shih 254). To worsen the situation, the different groups which existed in Kwangsi were well armed to secure their interests. They were even capable of committing any form of atrocity in order to enrich themselves. The whole of Kwangsi province would erupt into one violent zone whenever these conflicts got out of control. This is exactly how the Taiping rebellion began in Kwangsi.
The Role of Hung Hsiu-chuan in the rebellion
Hung was the man in charge of charcoal burners in Kwangsi. He belonged to the Hakka tribe. As mentioned earlier, Hung had reached the verge of losing hope after he failed his examinations for a considerable long period of time. Therefore, he joined a religious grouping as a way of recollecting himself and restoring his lost hope. He had a huge following of Christian believers who were fellow charcoal dealers. In order to ferment their faith, they pursued the heterodox type of Christian belief which would unite them both in body and spirit. They later formed a religious group which was identified by the name God Worshippers Society. The activities of this society were secretive and it largely took the form of a sect. for instance, Hung had a strong conviction that he was the second born to the sons of God. He taught and preached to his massive followers who numbered close to 10,000. At the onset of the Taiping rebellion, Hung took the advantage of the volatile situation in the province and flared off the violence which lasted for two decades (Franz & Chang 15).
His followers formed a military outfit which would act as protective wing to the sect members. The followers had to be protected from a myriad of attacks which would emerge from either the well armed groups or the peasant farmers who were equally unfriendly. In addition, there were other secret societies whose activities would sometimes jeopardize the operations of Hung’s followers. Hence, a fully fledged military wing was the only way to go as far as matters of security were concerned. In one of his many teachings and belief system, He proclaimed Taiping which literally meant the “heavenly kingdom of Great Peace”. He believed that he was the king of the moment. His broad mission appeared appealing; no wonder he gathered such a heavy following around him in spite of his tinted Christian teachings. For example, he wanted to restructure and completely transform some of the social ills which were deeply rooted in Kwangsi and the whole of china. One of the changes he wanted to reconstitute was the smoking of opium. Moreover, he wanted to eliminate the practice of slavery and judicial torture which was coupled with sentence without trial. Nonetheless, the rebellion was eventually defeated (Li, Li, Têng & Ingalls 67).
The gentry class who were the Han group was socially sidelined when the Hung followers proposed the radical social changes. The Taiping army did not manage to create peaceful operating areas in spite of capturing Nanjing. Internal feuds coupled with corruption caught up with the leaders of the movement making it cumbersome to achieve any significant success. Furthermore, the imperial armies were assisted by the British army together with French soldiers who were not ready to let go of the Taiping regime (Spence 32).
The imperial forces were already so demoralized to an extent that they could not triumph the rebellion. Hence, a stronger army in addition to military help from the West was highly needed to crush down the Taiping rebellion. Consequently, Zeng Guofan was later appointed as a commissioner to oversee and strategize on how the activities of the Taiping rebellion could be brought under control. He was also to serve in the capacity of the governor-general in those regions where Taiping rebels had gained control. He eventually emerged as a very skillful leader having brought down the dominance of the Taiping rebels
Secret Societies and Militarization
The failure by the local and central government to offer basic security to the people led to the formation of military gangs to defend the local people. This happened against the wish of the government. It was a tendency that was picking up very first among the different ethnic groups. On the side of the government, it was perceived that maintaining a formal military unit under the custody of the government was the best way to deal with security challenges facing the local population. In any case, it was against the law for common people to arm themselves. Nevertheless, local defense military units would sometimes be allowed to operate especially when the imperial government forces appeared weak, defeated and demoralized (Franz & Chang 102). This was the only instance when arms were allowed for use by the local community but purely restricted to the appointed defense teams these local military gangs gained so much prominence that they transformed into powerful and respectable defense organs at the local level. Settling of disputes between different communities as well as applying of force to settle a conflict was sometimes under the docket of the local militia. It was unfortunate that the government forces would easily be overwhelmed whenever communal feuds arose and they could simply step aside and watch as events unfold. The government soldiers were only keen and committed with the process of collecting tax but would largely ignore arising matters to do with security. As time went passed, these military units became so formidable to the society that it was difficult to disband them.
In addition to militarization of the local communities, secret societies also played a key role in fuelling up the Taiping rebellion. The idea behind the formation of these societies was to provide mutual help to followers which would also go a long way in developing strategies to protect the very members. The concept of brotherliness was being promoted in these secret societies (Bulliet et al. 144). It was not the existence of these secret societies per se that was the challenge but the heinous beliefs and ideologies practiced that posed the greatest danger to the wider community.
Conclusion
In recapping this paper, it is worth to note that the Taiping rebellion was the most protracted and devastating rebellion witnessed in China during the mid 19th century. Although Hung Hsiu-chuan is considered to be the key architect in the rebellion, there were a myriad of forces and factors which were critically instrumental in the flaring up of the resistance which lasted for close to two decades. One such contributing factor was the growing feeling of discontent among the local people especially in Kwangsi province of china. There were several grievances which were basically caused by poor governance right from the central government to the local district level. The local population cried foul of the high level of corruption which had engulfed the local government authority. Besides, the inability of the government forces to maintain peace and security whenever there was need in addition to high taxation, landlessness and negative ethnicity gave rise to other secondary factors which gave an impetus to the rebellion leaving millions of people dead. Nonetheless, the rebellion was eventually suppressed when a new Military Commissioner was appointed to deal with the rebel activities. Moreover, western forces came to the assistance of the newly reconstituted imperial army.
Works Cited
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