The Qing Dynasty ruled China for
over 250 years, but they were not always strong leaders. The Qing
were unable to stop foreigners from taking over parts of the empire.
They also had to withstand the Taiping
Rebellion, a civil war that cost over twenty million lives and
permanently weakened the dynasty.
The rebellion
began in southeast China, a region that never fully accepted the
Qing, who came from Manchuria in northeast China. Hong
Xiuquan had learned of Christianity from missionaries. In 1843,
when he failed his examination for a government job for the fourth
time, Hong
exploded in rage at the Manchu domination of China. He read a translated
version of the Christian Bible, which told the story of how a chosen
group of people rebelled against their rulers with God's help. The
stories seemed to explain visions Hong had during an earlier mental
illness. Hong came to believe that he was the Son of God and the
younger brother of Jesus. His mission on earth was to rid China
of evil influences. They included Manchus, Taoists, Buddhists, and
Confucians. Hong's religion combined traditional Chinese ideas with
half-understood Christianity.
Many famine-stricken peasants, workers,
and miners were attracted to the new faith. The converts believed
that God ordered them to destroy Manchu rule and set up a new Christian
brotherhood. A small group of believers grew to more than one million
disciplined, zealous soldiers. In 1851, Hong proclaimed a new dynasty,
the Taiping, which means "Great Peace," and assumed the title "Heavenly
King." Two years later, the Taiping
army captured Nanking, a large city in central China.
Leadership rivalries weakened the
rebellion. Hong's top general, an illiterate former coal burner
named Yang, plotted to overthrow him. Hong ordered the general of
his northern army, Wei, to assassinate Yang. When Hong decided that
Wei had become too powerful, he ordered his assassination as well.
The soldiers who killed Wei feared for their own lives, so they
abandoned the rebellion and escaped to western China.
Local warlords led by Tseng
Kuo-fan and adventurers from America and Britain combined to
surround Nanking in 1862. When they defeated the city two years
later, more than 100,000 rebels, including Hong, committed suicide
rather than face capture.
The Qing Dynasty was so weakened
by the rebellion that they lost control of many parts of China to
local warlords. Both the Chinese Nationalists and the Communists,
two groups that later ruled the nation, claimed to have been inspired
by the Taiping Rebellion.
