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Taiping Civil War (Chinese Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Taiping tianguo, 1851–1864) presented a religious, ethnic and military challenge to the ruling ethnically Manchu Qing dynasty. It was part of a world of globalized and transcultural processes; it saw itself in this way, and it was seen so by its supporters and opponents. In the field of religion, its adoption and adaptation of Protestant Christianity interacted with the Second Great Awakening (1800–1850) that had brought many missionaries to China, who in turn saw the Taipings as the long-awaited outpouring of the Spirit among the heathen. Ethnically the Taipings defined the Manchu as dragons/demons/devils who were revering the devil and had invaded the heavenly land of China instead of staying in their hell, and it set out to liberate the Chinese brothers and sisters from this scourge and to bring them back to the true Chinese faith in one supreme god. This definition of the Manchu coincided with their perception by Westerners in Western media as “imperialists” or “Tartars” who had occupied China by force. Militarily the Heavenly Kingdom’s aim was to gain recognition by the Western powers on an equal footing as a friendly and Christian power while focusing on driving out the Manchu and winning back those Chinese who had sided with them. The ensuing civil war was fought with losses of life from direct and indirect effects of the war of up to 90 million, making it probably the most deadly episode of war not only in the 19th and 20th centuries but in human history altogether. It also resulted in the destruction of much of the cultural heritage (buildings, books, paintings) in the contested areas. On both sides of the conflict foreigners (missionaries, military men, diplomats) were involved. As a consequence of this global entanglement the Taiping and the civil war attracted international attention from the outset. Relevant printed and archival sources therefore come in many languages and are widely dispersed in China, Europe, and the United States. The end of the civil war was not the end of the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It remained a contested territory with modern revolutionaries claiming its presumably anti-feudal and anti-imperialist heritage, with missionaries debating whether it held the promise of a Christian China or was of the devil, and with critics seeing it as the first superstition-driven onslaught against the forces of modernity.
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  5. General Overviews
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  7. The Taiping Civil War has prompted widely diverging histories. These range from views of the Civil War as an outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Spielmann 1900, Oehler 1923); to an anti-Manchu (Hangong 1904), anti-imperialist, and anti-feudal peasant rebellion (Luo 1937, Luo 1991); to a result of the derailment of trade on account of the Opium War (Miyazaki 1965), and include interpretations of the insurrection’s either being a modernizing force (Ling 1923) or a phenomenon of anti-modernist superstition (Shi 2005, cited under Bibliography and Historiography), along with more even-handed overviews (Brine 1862, Jian 1896–1960, and Jen 1973).
  8.  
  9. Brine, Lindesay. The Taiping Rebellion in China: A Narrative of Its Rise and Progress, Based upon Original Documents and Information Obtained in China. London: John Murray, 1862.
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  12.  
  13. Based on extensive reading of available early Western-language reports and translations of Taiping documents, this first systematic history of the Taiping excels through its sober and knowledgeable analysis that keeps its distance from all sides in the conflict.
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  15. Find this resource:
  16.  
  17.  
  18. Hangong漢公. Taiping tianguo zhanshi: Qian bian (太平天國戰史: 前編). Tokyo: Zuguo zazhishe, 1904.
  19.  
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  21.  
  22. The first “history” of the Taiping civil war, written on the inspiration of Sun Yat-sen and published with a preface by him (who at the time referred to himself as “Hong Xiuquan the Second”). Although no Taiping sources were published in China at the time and the historical basis of the work was weak, it started a long career of the Taiping being mobilized for modern revolutionary (in this case anti-Manchu) propaganda purposes.
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  26.  
  27. Jen Yu-wen (Jian Youwen) 簡又文. The Taiping Revolutionary Movement. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973.
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  30.  
  31. Summary translation of the author’s extensive earlier version (cited as Jian 1896–1960) charting a chronological trajectory from the war’s origins to its demise. The sections are cross-referenced to the Chinese work.
  32.  
  33. Find this resource:
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  35.  
  36. Jian Youwen 簡又文. Taiping Tianguo quanshi (太平天囯全史). 3 vols. Hong Kong: Jian shi mengjin shuwu, 1896–1960.
  37.  
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  39.  
  40. The classic history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, written with deep knowledge of the religious and institutional dimensions as well as the actual development of the Taiping Civil War.
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  44.  
  45. Ling Shanqing (Guiqing) 淩善清 (桂清). Taiping tianguo yeshi (太平天國野史). Shanghai: Wenming shuju, 1923.
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  48.  
  49. Factual presentation of early Taiping history without the polemics of its source, the Hong Yang jishi 洪楊紀實, which was a version of the Zeiqing huizuan賊請匯纂, the Qing spy handbook for the Taiping. The Taiping are presented as the first modernizers. The preface claims that they prefigured many Republican institutions. Reprinted in 1936 under the name of the author of the first preface, Wang Wenru 王文濡.
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  53.  
  54. Luo Ergang 羅爾綱. Taiping tianguo shigang (太平天囯史綱). Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1937.
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  57.  
  58. Classical account of the Taipings as a bona fide “revolutionary” force by the scholar who was to dominate Taiping scholarship in the PRC after 1949 and was able to draw on a deep familiarity with sources to make his points.
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  61.  
  62.  
  63. Luo Ergang 羅爾綱. Taiping tianguo shi (太平天囯史). 4 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991.
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  66.  
  67. Using an arrangement taken from that of the Chinese dynastic histories, this work offers a systematic presentation of the author’s harvest from his lifelong Taiping tianguo studies. The work draws on a vast range of Chinese-language sources while staying within the PRC master narrative. It is unfamiliar with untranslated foreign language sources and scholarship.
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  70.  
  71.  
  72. Miyazaki, Ichisada. “The Nature of Taiping Rebellion.” Translated by Charles Peterson. Acta Asiatica 8 (1965): 1–39.
  73.  
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  75.  
  76. Basing itself on Qing sources about the Taiping, this study argues against PRC assumptions about the Taiping as a peasant rebellion. It claims that the Taiping rebellion was the direct result of the Opium War and the ensuing shift of China’s international commerce from Canton to Shanghai. The Taiping leadership consisted of opium smugglers and Triad members who had lost their source of income through this shift and who mainly recruited Triads and landless vagrants.
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  79.  
  80.  
  81. Oehler, Wilhelm. Die Taiping Bewegung: Geschichte eines chinesisch-christlichen Gottesreiches. Gütersloh, Germany: Bertelsmann, 1923.
  82.  
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  84.  
  85. Written from the perspective of revivalist missionaries, the work claims that the Christianization of China was prevented by British commercial interests. It highlights divisions in Taiping historiography along national as well as theological lines. China seemed to be a missionary field predestined for German workers and with Gützlaff and the broad support for his efforts he had organized in Germany a good beginning had been made.
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  88.  
  89.  
  90. Spielmann, Christian. Die Taiping-Revolution in China, 1850–1864: Ein Kapitel der menschlichen Tragokomödie. Nebst einem Überblick über die Geschichte und Entwickelung Chinas. 2d ed. Halle, Germany: Hermann Genesius, 1900.
  91.  
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  93.  
  94. For this author Hong Xiuquan had the mettle in him to become a savior of mankind, but his efforts were thwarted by British commercial interests. Part of a reading of Taiping history in the context of German criticism of British imperial postures.
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  97.  
  98.  
  99. Primary Sources
  100.  
  101. Primary sources for the Taiping are in Chinese, English, and to a much smaller degree in French. Because ownership of Taiping publications was a crime under the Qing, none of them survived in China proper, and only a small number of Taiping documents such as decrees, letters, and public announcements survive there in the Taiping Museum in Nanjing, the Nanjing Municipal Library, or in other places originally controlled by the Taiping. As the Taiping publications were given by them to visiting missionaries and diplomats, some of them have been preserved in libraries in France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, and the United States. This includes a small number of Taiping documents only preserved in translation. Taiping publications were first discovered in Western libraries by Japanese scholars. They brought them to the attention of Chinese colleagues, some of whom then went on to further explorations up to the 1990s. Since the 1920s many of these writings have again become accessible in China by being published there in books and journals. Most of the relevant missionary sources were published at the time in missionary journals or books written by missionaries. Missionary archives in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the United States often hold letters and diaries with unpublished relevant information. Sources of Chinese Taiping opponents are mostly preserved in China. This includes those dealing with the Qing government’s campaign as well as those from their private opponents. Western-Language Sources consist of accounts by missionaries, diplomats, and military men of visits to Taiping territory and interviews with Taiping leaders (sometimes contained in later memoirs); records by Westerners serving the Qing cause against the Taiping as well as Westerners who served the Taiping cause against the Qing; records of foreign office personnel of different Western countries; and records of public debates within these countries concerning government policies toward the Chinese civil war.
  102.  
  103. Chinese-Language Primary Sources
  104.  
  105. Archives
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  107. Qing government documents on Taiping civil war were filed in the Gongzhong dang宮中檔 with copies in the Junjichu dang軍機處檔 and further materials in the Neige daku dang’an內閣大庫檔案. Parts survive in Beijing, in the Zhongguo diyi, and in Taibei, in Guoli Gugong and Zhongyang. Communications of the Qing court with Great Britain are in London in the National Archives. Most original documents from the Taiping side have been collected in Nanjing, Taiping tianguo bowuguan.
  108.  
  109. Communications of the Qing Court. National Archives, London, Public Record Office.
  110.  
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  112.  
  113. Main repository of British government—including military—records concerning Taiping tianguo and the related negotiations with the Qing court, often with originals and translations of Chinese documents inserted. The consulates in the new Treaty Ports sometimes sent reports and documents relevant for research of local developments.
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  115. Find this resource:
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  117.  
  118. Qing Government Documents. Guoli Gugong Bowuyuan國立故宮博物院. National Palace Museum, Taibei.
  119.  
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  121.  
  122. Parts of the Gongzhong dang and the Junjichu dang archival materials are held here.
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  125.  
  126.  
  127. Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan太平天囯歷史博物. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum. Nanjing, China.
  128.  
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  130.  
  131. Main PRC repository of Taiping tianguo documents and artifacts.
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  133. Find this resource:
  134.  
  135.  
  136. Zhongguo diyi lishi dang’anguan中国第一历史档案馆. First Historical Archives of China, Beijing.
  137.  
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  139.  
  140. The principal repository for Qing government documents that have remained in Mainland China.
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  143.  
  144.  
  145. Published Archival Materials of the Contending Sides
  146.  
  147. The Beijing archive has made parts of its archival collection on the Taiping Civil War accessible in print (Zhongguo di yi lishi dang’anguan 1990–1996, Zhongguo di yi lishi dang’anguan 1996–2001, Zhongguo diyi lishi dang’anguan 1998a). The relevant holdings of the two institutions in Taibei are accessible online at Guoli Gugong Bowuyuan and Zhongyang yanjiuyuan, Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo. Archival Taiping records have been published in transcription and in facsimile (Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 1979, Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 1991).
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  149. Guoli Gugong Bowuyuan國立故宮博物院. Qingdai Gongzhong dang ji Junjichu dang zhejian ziliaoku (清代宮中檔及軍機處檔摺件資料庫).
  150.  
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  152.  
  153. These materials in the Palace Museum Archive in Taipei have been digitized. They contain records relevant for the Taiping civil war originally from the Palace and Grand Council Archives in Beijing. In Chinese.
  154.  
  155. Find this resource:
  156.  
  157.  
  158. Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 太平天囯歷史博物館. Taiping tianguo wenshu huibian (太平天囯文書彙編). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979.
  159.  
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  161.  
  162. Standard collection of 418 official Taiping documents in punctuated transcription such as orders and proclamations, which had been collected from various localities in the PRC. Supersedes publications with collections of such documents made since the 1930s by Xiao Yishan, Jian Youwen, and others. About a quarter of these were later published in facsimile (see Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 1991). Does not contain documents written in Manchu. In Chinese.
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  165.  
  166.  
  167. Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 太平天囯歷史博物館 and Luo Ergang 羅爾綱, eds. Taiping tianguo wenshu (太平天囯文書). Nanjing, China: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1991.
  168.  
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  170.  
  171. Photographic reproduction of 114 Taiping documents (letters, public notices, decrees) from various Chinese and foreign collections together with a short description in Chinese and English of each document. Most of them had been published with punctuated transcription into fantizi fonts. (Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 1979). Does not contain documents written in Manchu. In Chinese.
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  175.  
  176. Zhongguo di yi lishi dang’anguan 中國第一歷史檔案館. Qing zhengfu zhenya Taiping tianguo dang’an shiliao (清政府鎮壓太平天囯檔案史料). Vols. 1–2. Beijing: Guangming ribao chubanshe, 1990–1996.
  177.  
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  179.  
  180. Transcribed and punctuated official Qing government communications with its officials during the Taiping War as well as records of military information. Replaces and supplements the official 1872 Qing Chinese-language compilation Qinding jiao ping Yuefei fanglüe (欽定剿平粵匪方略). This important source is organized in chronological order from 1850 to 1866. It does not include Manchu documents. In Chinese.
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  184.  
  185. Zhongguo di yi lishi dang’anguan 中國第一歷史檔案館. Qing zhengfu zhenya Taiping tianguo dang’an shiliao (清政府鎮壓太平天囯檔案史料). Vols. 3–26. Beijing: Shehuikexue wenxian chubanshe, 1996–2001.
  186.  
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  188.  
  189. Continuation of these vital Qing government communications. In Chinese.
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  193.  
  194. Zhongguo diyi lishi dang’anguan 中国第一历史档案馆. Xianfeng Tongzhi liangchao shangyudang (咸豐同治兩朝上諭檔). 24 vols. Guilin, China: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 1998a.
  195.  
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  197.  
  198. Collection of edicts approved by the Xianfeng Emperor (vols. 1–11) including those concerning the Taiping civil war from the years 1850 through 1861 and by the Tongzhi Emperor (vols. 12–24), who officially ruled from 1861 (then being five years old), for the last and decisive years of the civil war, containing especially the communications with the Han Chinese commanders such as Zeng Guofan. Important for assessing the relative importance of the war for the court. In Chinese.
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  202.  
  203. Zhongyang yanjiuyuan, Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo 中央研究院歷史語言研究所. Neige daku dang’an (內閣大庫檔案).
  204.  
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  206.  
  207. Vast digitized trove of Ming and above all Qing administrative and legal documents as well as memorials preserved in the Grand Secretariat Storehouse kept in the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei. Contains significant sources concerning the government side in the civil war as well as its aftermath. In Chinese.
  208.  
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  210.  
  211.  
  212. Printed Sources from the Contending Sides
  213.  
  214. The Taiping from early on pursued a proactive policy of issuing official publications. Although printed in large numbers, only some of those given to visiting missionaries and diplomats and carried abroad survive. These have been published in facsimile editions (Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 1979, Wang 2004) as well as in punctuated transcriptions either alone (Wang 1986) or in collections containing materials from both sides (see Document Collections). The Qing side only printed one insider report about the Taiping, which served as a spy handbook (Zhang 1995–1999).
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  216. Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 太平天囯歷史博物館. Taiping tianguo yinshu (太平天囯印書). 2 vols. Nanjing, China: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1979.
  217.  
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  219.  
  220. This revised edition of the twenty-volume 1961 facsimile reproduction, with the same title of the books officially published by the Taiping, adds two documents not contained in the original edition. Vital because, depending on the date of their original publication, they contain changes to as well as information about other official Taiping publications.
  221.  
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  223.  
  224.  
  225. Wang Qingcheng 王慶成, ed. Tianfu tianxiong shengzhi (天父天兄聖旨). Shenyang, China: Liaoning renmin chubanshe, 1986.
  226.  
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  228.  
  229. Offers punctuated reprint of two official Taiping books, the Tianfu shengzhi 天父聖旨 (pp. 1–52) and the Tianxiong shengzhi (天兄聖旨) (pp. 53–128). Both works had been donated to the British Library in the early 1980s, and had been discovered there by Wang Qingcheng. Continuing the Tianfu xiafan zhaoshu 天父下凡詔書 in Luo and Wang 2004 (cited under Document Collections), these are protocols of interventions of the Heavenly Father and the Heavenly Elder Brother into daily Taiping matters between 1851 and 1853. Spence 1996 and Reilly 2004 (both cited under Christian Influences on the Taiping) have included them in their analysis.
  230.  
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  232.  
  233.  
  234. Wang Qingcheng 王慶成, ed. Yingyin Taiping tianguo wenxian shier zhong (影印太平天囯文獻十二種). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2004.
  235.  
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  237.  
  238. Reproduces official Taiping books and documents from the British Library that had not been located or had not been available for reproduction for the 1961–1979 Taiping tianguo yinshu. Of the Taiping editions of the Old and New Testaments only the passages with Hong Xiuquan’s comments have been reproduced here. The changes made in the different editions of these publications have not been included here. They will be found in the appendix to Wang 1993 (cited under Source Studies)
  239.  
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  241.  
  242.  
  243. Zhang Dejian 張德堅. Zeiqing huizuan (賊請匯纂). Xuxiu siku quanshu 445. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995–1999.
  244.  
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  246.  
  247. Originally printed in 1855, this is a knowledgeable report by a resident of Nanjing about the Taiping government and military organization provided to the Qing side and used as a spy handbook.
  248.  
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  250.  
  251.  
  252. Individual Writings
  253.  
  254. Some of the leaders of the Qing side kept diaries (Zeng 1999) or dealt with the war in memorials, letters, or other writings (Zeng 1995–1999, Zuo 1986, Li 2008, and Hu 2007) On the Taiping side we have some of the depositions made by leaders before their execution (Luo 1995; Hong Ren’gan and Lai Wenguang in Zhongguo shixuehui 1952, vol. 2, cited under Document Collections). Some diaries and other records from individuals have been published who had been living through the war and siding with the court but without having official roles (Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 1983–; Wang 1936; Fu 2006; and Zhang 1995–1999, cited under Printed Sources from the Contending Sides). Diaries and records of personal experiences by foreigners involved will be listed in the next section.
  255.  
  256. Fu Nanqiao 符南樵. Xianfeng sannian bikou riji (咸豐三年避寇日記). Beijing: Xueyuan chubanshe, 2006.
  257.  
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  259.  
  260. Facsimile edition of the 1853 diary of a Taiping opponent.
  261.  
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  263.  
  264.  
  265. Hu Linyi 胡林翼. Hu Wenzhong gong quanji (胡文忠公全集). 4 vols. Beijing: Beijing zhongxian tuofang keji fazhan youxian gongsi, 2007.
  266.  
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  268.  
  269. Collected works by this military leader associated with Zeng Guofan in the war against the Taiping. Contains relevant memorials and military writings.
  270.  
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  272.  
  273.  
  274. Li Hongzhang 李鴻章. Li Hongzhang quanji (李鴻章全集). 39 vols. Edited by Gu Tinglong 顧廷龍 and Dai Yi 戴逸. Hefei, China: Anhui jiaoyu chubanshe, 2008.
  275.  
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  277.  
  278. Collected works of Li Hongzhang, who started off as an associate of Zeng Guofan and then developed his own provincial army to defeat the Taiping. Contains relevant memorials.
  279.  
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  282.  
  283. Luo Ergang 羅爾綱. Zengbu ben Li Xiucheng zishu yuangao zhu (增補本李秀成自述原稿注). Beijing: Zhongguo shehuikexue chubanshe, 1995.
  284.  
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  286.  
  287. Carefully annotated study of the original manuscript of Li Xiucheng’s confession as well as Zeng Guofan’s edited version. Written after the Cultural Revolution to restore Li Xiucheng’s revolutionary credentials after he had been for years denounced as a traitor to the Taiping revolution.
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  290.  
  291.  
  292. Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan (太平天囯歷史博物館). Wu Xu Dang’an Xuanbian (吳煦檔案選編). 7 vols. Nanjing, China: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1983–.
  293.  
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  295.  
  296. Important archival source for the Taiping Civil War from an opponent of the Taiping who associated with Zeng Guofan and the Qing court.
  297.  
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  299.  
  300.  
  301. Wang Shiduo 汪士鐸. Wang Huiweng yi bing riji (汪悔翁乙丙日記). Compiled by Deng Zhicheng 鄧之誠. Beijing: Liu li chang wen yi ge, 1936.
  302.  
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  304.  
  305. Diary for the years 1855 and 1856 by a Nanjing resident whose hostility to the Taiping did not prevent him from noting down sharp observations about both sides in the conflict. Reprinted in Yunlong Shen, Jindai zhongguo shiliao congkan (近代中國史料叢刊) (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1967).
  306.  
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  308.  
  309.  
  310. Zeng Guofan 曾國藩. Zeng Guofan riji (曾國藩日記). 3 vols. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 1999.
  311.  
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  313.  
  314. Diary of Zeng Guofan, including the period between 1860 and 1864 when he led the Qing attacks against the Taiping.
  315.  
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  317.  
  318.  
  319. Zeng Guofan 曾國藩. Zeng Wenzheng gong shuzha (曾文正公書札). In Xuxiu siku quanshu (續修四庫全書). Vol. 1538. Shanghai: Shanghai kuji chubanshe, 1995–1999.
  320.  
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  322.  
  323. Letters by Zeng Guofan, some from the Civil War period.
  324.  
  325. Find this resource:
  326.  
  327.  
  328. Zuo Zongtang 左宗棠. Zuo Zongtang quanji (左宗棠全集). 20 vols. Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1986.
  329.  
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331.  
  332. Collected works of Zuo Zongtang, a military leader in the struggle against the Taiping associated with Zeng Guofan. Contains his relevant memorials.
  333.  
  334. Find this resource:
  335.  
  336.  
  337. Document Collections
  338.  
  339. This section contains collections of archival and printed sources from and about the Taiping civil war in facsimile or punctuated transcription for the use of the quickly growing community of scholars engaged in work on this civil war. A collection from the early PRC formed the basis (Zhongguo shixuehui 1952). It was later substantially expanded (Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 1961–1963), further documents were unearthed in London (Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo jindaishi ziliao bianji bu 1982) and a new “standard” edition was eventually produced (Luo and Wang 2004).
  340.  
  341. Luo Ergang 羅爾綱, and Wang Qingcheng 王慶成. Taiping tianguo (太平天囯). 10 vols. Guilin, China: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2004.
  342.  
  343. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  344.  
  345. An important supplement and improvement on Zhongguo shixuehui 1952. It contains Taiping official publications and documents, including the sections of the Testaments annotated by Hong Xiuquan, official documents, Taiping-related documents from the Qing side, and Chinese translations of foreign-language documents on the Taiping.
  346.  
  347. Find this resource:
  348.  
  349.  
  350. Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 太平天囯歷史博物館. Taiping tianguo shiliao congbian jianji (太平天囯史料叢編簡輯). 6 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1961–1963.
  351.  
  352. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  353.  
  354. This extensive addition to the Zhongguo shixuehui 1952 presents many private Chinese writings from areas under Taiping control other than Nanjing. While their authors were largely hostile to the Taiping, these records contain a wealth of factual information and allow for a detailed study of elite member attitudes toward the Taiping challenge. No Western sources in either original or translation have been included.
  355.  
  356. Find this resource:
  357.  
  358.  
  359. Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo jindaishi ziliao bianji bu 中国社科院 近代史研究所 近代史资料编辑部. Taiping tianguo wenxian shiliao ji (太平天囯文獻史料集). Beijing: Zhongguo shehuikexue chubanshe, 1982.
  360.  
  361. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  362.  
  363. Documents by and about the Taiping, mostly from the Public Record Office in London, which have been unearthed by Charles A. Curwen and made available to Chinese researchers for publication and analysis.
  364.  
  365. Find this resource:
  366.  
  367.  
  368. Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo jindaishi ziliao bianjishi 中國社會科學院近代史研究所近代史資料編輯室. Taiping jun beifa ziliao xuanbian (太平軍北伐資料選編). Jinan, China: Qi Lu shushe, 1984.
  369.  
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371.  
  372. Collection of official sources from both sides of the conflict, from private sources, and from local chronicles about the eventually aborted Taiping campaign to the north in 1853–1855, which nearly reached Beijing and Tianjin.
  373.  
  374. Find this resource:
  375.  
  376.  
  377. Zhongguo shixuehui 中國史學會. Taiping tianguo (太平天囯). 8 vols. Shanghai: Shenzhou guoguang she, 1952.
  378.  
  379. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  380.  
  381. Collection of transcriptions of all known Taiping publications and official documents, including some documents of the Small Sword Society, writings of Taiping opponents, Chinese historical narratives of the civil war, translations of contemporary Western records, and writings by the Qing military official Xiang Rong. Principal source reference for PRC Taiping research. Now supplemented and in part replaced by Luo and Wang 2004.
  382.  
  383. Find this resource:
  384.  
  385.  
  386. Maps, Images, Artifacts
  387.  
  388. Great efforts have been made by the People’s Republic to gather and publish surviving Taiping non-textual materials. This includes objects (Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan and Luo 1992), maps (Wei, et al. 2002), and paintings (Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan and Luo 1994; Taiping tianguo bihua quanji bianji weiyuanhui 2011).
  389.  
  390. Taiping Tianguo lishi bowuguan (太平天囯歷史博物館), and Luo Ergang 羅爾綱. Taiping Tianguo wenwu (太平天囯文物). Nanjing, China: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1992.
  391.  
  392. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  393.  
  394. Reproductions with annotations of relics of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom such as seals, patents, and proclamations.
  395.  
  396. Find this resource:
  397.  
  398.  
  399. Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 太平天囯歷史博物館, and Luo Ergang羅爾綱. Taiping tianguo yishu (太平天囯藝術). 2 vols. Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1994.
  400.  
  401. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  402.  
  403. Reproduction of surviving artwork from Taiping residences.
  404.  
  405. Find this resource:
  406.  
  407.  
  408. Taiping tianguo bihua quanji bianji weiyuanhui太平天囯壁畫全集編輯委員會, and Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 太平天囯歷史博物館. Taiping tianguo bihua quanji (太平天囯壁畫全集). Shenyang, China: Liaoning meishu chubanshe, 2011.
  409.  
  410. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  411.  
  412. Annotated collection and reproductions of the frescoes and fresco fragments surviving from Taiping palaces and buildings.
  413.  
  414. Find this resource:
  415.  
  416.  
  417. Wei Zhengjin 魏正瑾, Yi Jiasheng 易家胜, and Taiping tianguo lishi bowuguan 太平天囯歷史博物館. Tianguo chunqiu: Taiping tianguo lishi tulu (天囯春秋：太平天囯歷史圖錄). Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2002.
  418.  
  419. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  420.  
  421. Collection of historical maps from the Taiping civil war in facsimile with commentary.
  422.  
  423. Find this resource:
  424.  
  425.  
  426. Gazetteers
  427.  
  428. After the end of the civil war, the Qing court encouraged localities to compile new gazetteers. While these largely followed the official master narrative of the court and are not sourced, they contain a wealth of concrete local information unavailable elsewhere not just on the war itself, but on local attitudes and the ways in which people dealt with the disruptions, deaths, and dislocations that came with the war. These local gazetteers follow a very similar pattern of organization for any given time. This facilitates localizing topical information across a large amount of such gazetteers. A rich database has made them accessible online (Zhongguo 2009).
  429.  
  430. Zhongguo fangzhi ku (中國方志庫). Beijing: Airusheng, 2009.
  431.  
  432. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  433.  
  434. This big database with pre-1949 local gazetteers has recently become accessible through major academic institutions. It includes the new gazetteers published during the Guangxu era after 1875, which cover, among other events and topics, the preceding three decades of the war and its aftermath. This allows for easy access to information on the relevant geographical areas and times as well as sections such as “martyrs” although it consists of scans of the originals and cannot be searched as a full text.
  435.  
  436. Find this resource:
  437.  
  438.  
  439. Western-Language Sources
  440.  
  441. As the Taiping Civil War was from the outset connected theologically, politically, and militarily with the Western presence in China, there was a huge international interest in news about it. It was satisfied through personal accounts, onsite reportages, translations of Chinese-language documents, and instant assessments, which were carried by newspapers, magazines (including missionary magazines), reports to government agencies, and books.
  442.  
  443. Personal Accounts of Foreign Military Men
  444.  
  445. Some of the foreigners fighting on the Qing side left reports about their exploits and experiences (Gordon 1885, Hake 1891, and Giquel 1985); only one such report has been published for the “Anglo-Tiping” contingent (Lindley 1866), which included military men from England, Sardinia, and Greece, as well as (probably) Gurkha soldiers who had defected from the British contingent.
  446.  
  447. Giquel, Prosper. A Journal of the Chinese Civil War, 1864. Edited and translated by Stephen A. Leibo. Honululu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985.
  448.  
  449. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  450.  
  451. Translation with introduction of the diary of the organizer of the Sino-French “Ever Triumphant Army of Chekiang,” with many details about the battle for one of the last Taiping strongholds, Huzhou. The introduction addresses important points about the role of these foreign-led contingents in convincing Chinese leaders of the need to establish military industries.
  452.  
  453. Find this resource:
  454.  
  455.  
  456. Gordon, Charles. General Gordon’s Private Diary of His Exploits in China: Amplified by Samuel Mossman. London: Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1885.
  457.  
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459.  
  460. This record of Gordon’s exploits in supporting the Qing against the Taiping with a small contingent of foreigners is based on Gordon’s own notes as previously published in the North China Herald. Mossman was editor of this newspaper and drew on the war intelligence it received to supplement the record. This publication was to counter Lindley’s defense of the Taiping cause in his Ti-Ping Tian-Kwoh.
  461.  
  462. Find this resource:
  463.  
  464.  
  465. Hake, Alfred Egmont. Events in the Taeping Rebellion: Being Reprints of MSS Copied by General Gordon C.B. in His Own Handwriting. London: Allen, 1891.
  466.  
  467. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  468.  
  469. Written by a junior member of the “Ever Victorious Army” under Gordon, this extensive work offers much detail on the British controversy concerning policies toward the Qing court and the Taiping as well as on Gordon’s level of information about Taiping affairs.
  470.  
  471. Find this resource:
  472.  
  473.  
  474. Lindley, Augustus E. Ti-Ping Tian-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures. With Lin-Li. 2 vols. London: Day and Son, 1866.
  475.  
  476. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  477.  
  478. An English naval officer, Lindley joined the Taiping side and formed an “Anglo-Tiping” contingent with Westerners from Corsica, Greece, and Sardinia. Supplementing the extensive records about Westerners in the service of the Qing court in this war—such as those by Burgevine, Ward, and Gordon—this extensive memoir shows to what degree both sides in this civil war were drawing on foreign support.
  479.  
  480. Find this resource:
  481.  
  482.  
  483. Personal Accounts of Missionaries and Other Foreigners
  484.  
  485. The Taiping considered themselves Protestant Christians, which fit the dreams of the early Protestant China missionaries for a worldwide Awakening (Reichardt 1859). Disregarding the sectarian divides among Protestant missionaries, they welcomed them to preach in their territory, presented them with their publications, and invited them to visit Nanjing, where one of them, the American Issachar Jacox Roberts, served in the Taiping government. Many missionaries, including some Catholic missionaries, published personal reports about their experience and assessments of Taiping Christianity (Meadows 1856, cited under Early Descriptions of the Taiping; Edkins 1863; and Moule 1898). Many more newspaper and periodical reports of this type have been reprinted and (if necessary) translated in Clarke and Gregory 1982, cited under Western-Language Sources: Document Collections.
  486.  
  487. Edkins, Joseph. “Narrative of a Visit to Nanking.” In Chinese Scenes and People. Edited by Jane R. Edkins, 241–307. London: Nisbet, 1863.
  488.  
  489. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  490.  
  491. Important document in detailing how missionaries sympathetic to the Taiping viewed the situation in Nanjing after the initial enthusiasm had waned. Also in Clarke and Gregory 1982, cited under Western-Language Sources: Document Collections.
  492.  
  493. Find this resource:
  494.  
  495.  
  496. Hanbury, Thomas. Letters of Sir Thomas Hanbury. London: West, Newman, 1913.
  497.  
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499.  
  500. The lecture and the letters of this British Quaker tea merchant from the 1850s and 1860s offer keen observations of the Small Sword Society and the Taipings on the one hand and their Qing adversaries on the other. Hanbury, entrusted by Chinese merchants with their property and by the Taipings with their messages, had unique information access.
  501.  
  502. Find this resource:
  503.  
  504.  
  505. Moule, George Evans. Personal Recollections of the T’ai-p’ing Rebellion, 1861–63. Shanghai: Shanghai Mercury, 1898.
  506.  
  507. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  508.  
  509. Based on the author’s experience of the Taiping conquest of Ningbo and their short rule there. The memoir reflects an ongoing ambivalence among some missionaries concerning the refusal of the Western powers to side with the Taiping as well as much respect for the valor of the rebels and their consistency in upholding a faith that seemed alien in China and was increasingly considered blasphemous by the foreign missionaries.
  510.  
  511. Find this resource:
  512.  
  513.  
  514. Reichardt, J. C. “Gützlaffs Eintritt in die Missionslaufbahn und seine Erweckung.” Evangelisches Missions-Magazin (1859): 450–460.
  515.  
  516. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  517.  
  518. Gützlaff, Roberts, and most other early Protestant missionaries heading for China were inspired by the Second Great Awakening that called for great missionary efforts prior to the expected millennium. This report from a roommate about Gützlaff’s experience of religious awakening offers a very personal view of the religious motivation of this man, whose reports about his China activities attracted missionaries from other parts of Europe and the United States.
  519.  
  520. Find this resource:
  521.  
  522.  
  523. Early Translations of Taiping Documents
  524.  
  525. The unique Taiping theology, with its jarring independence from missionary advice, prompted efforts by the missionary, merchant, and diplomatic/military communities to access Taiping writings for a better judgment on the religious nature and the political prospects of this new power. Translations provided this access. In most cases they are based on printed Taiping books that survive (Medhurst 1853), but in other cases only the translation survives (Roberts 1852, Hamberg 1854, Roberts 1856).
  526.  
  527. Hamberg, Theodor. The Visions of Hung-Siu-Tshuen and Origin of the Kwang-si Insurrection. Hongkong: China Mail Office, 1854.
  528.  
  529. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  530.  
  531. Quickly reprinted in London and translated in France, this volume provides the narrative of Hong Xiuquan’s visions as described in writing and orally by Hong Xiuquan’s cousin Hong Rengan to the Swedish missionary Hamberg in Hong Kong. Together with the first Taiping scriptures translated by Medhurst in the same year, this volume contained the best available information on Taiping Christianity. It contains many elements not found in official Taiping publications.
  532.  
  533. Find this resource:
  534.  
  535.  
  536. Medhurst, Walter Henry. Pamphlets Issued by the Chinese Insurgents at Nan-king: To Which Is Added a History of the Kwang-Se Rebellion, Gathered from Public Documents, and a Sketch of the Connection between Foreign Missionaries and the Chinese Insurrection, Concluding with a Critical Review of Several of the Above Pamphlets. Shanghai: North China Herald, 1853.
  537.  
  538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539.  
  540. First translations of the Taiping publications, together with the author’s own description of the background of the Taiping; the connection with the Issachar Roberts and Hong Rengan’s narrative to Hamberg as well as the tract Good Words to Admonish the Age by Liang Afa; and the analysis of the theology of the pamphlets. This work became the main reference for other early works on the Taiping.
  541.  
  542. Find this resource:
  543.  
  544.  
  545. Roberts, Issachar Jacox. “The Chinese Struggle: Letter to the Editor.” Chinese and Missionary Gleaner 2.9 (February 1852): 67–70.
  546.  
  547. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  548.  
  549. Under the name “I. J. R.,” this document provided the first detailed information to Westerners about the background of the Taiping and Hong Xiuquan, based on the document given by Hong Xiuquan to Roberts about his family background and religious experience, and the document given by Hong Rengan to Hamberg about his cousin Hong Xiuquan.
  550.  
  551. Find this resource:
  552.  
  553.  
  554. Roberts, Issachar J. “Tae Ping Wang. The Chinese Revolutionist.” Putnam’s Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science, and Art 8.46 (October 1856): 380–383.
  555.  
  556. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  557.  
  558. While Hamberg 1854 had claimed the authority of Hong Rengan’s report on Hong Xiuquan, Roberts’s article drew on his own personal contact with Hong Xiuquan and on a written statement brought by Hong to Canton in which he detailed his background as well as his religious experience.
  559.  
  560. Find this resource:
  561.  
  562.  
  563. Early Descriptions of the Taiping
  564.  
  565. From the outset, the Taiping attracted international attention well beyond the missionary community. To satisfy this interest, a new group of instant historians formed who would rush books to publication based on information spliced together from the press as well as from interviews (Callery and Ivan 1853, MacFarlane 1853), which often were translated as quickly. They were joined by authors with often excellent local (including language) knowledge (Meadows 1856) or competence in relevant fields such as military assessments (Fishbourne 1855, Blakiston 1862, Wolseley 1862).
  566.  
  567. Blakiston, Thomas W. Five Months on the Yang-Tsze: With a Narrative of the Exploration of Its Upper Waters, and Notices of the Present Rebellions in China. London: John Murray, 1862.
  568.  
  569. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  570.  
  571. Reflecting the international attention secured by the Taiping and the ensuing willingness of authors and publishers to serve this market, this book by a British artillery captain contains an eyewitness account of the situation in and around the Taiping Heavenly Capital (Nanjing) in 1861.
  572.  
  573. Find this resource:
  574.  
  575.  
  576. Callery, Joseph-Marie, and M. Ivan. L’insurrection en Chine, depuis son origine jusqu’à la prise de Nankin: Par MM. Callery et Yvan, avec une carte topographique et le portrait du prétendant. Paris: Librairie Nouvelle, 1853.
  577.  
  578. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  579.  
  580. Written with breathtaking speed, little firsthand information, much speculation, and great routine in telling a fascinating story, this work by a French translator and an author of travelogues was instantly translated into English, Portuguese, and German. It was the most successful of seven books in three languages published about the Taiping in 1853 and 1854 alone, all signaling the international attention given to the Taiping enterprise.
  581.  
  582. Find this resource:
  583.  
  584.  
  585. Fishbourne, Edmund Gardiner. Impressions of China and the Present Revolution: Its Progress and Prospects. London: Selley, Jackson, and Halliday, 1855.
  586.  
  587. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  588.  
  589. The report by a captain who went to Nanjing with the Bonham mission in 1853 provides detailed and sober early glimpses by a military man of the situation after the rout of the Qing forces in the Yangzi valley and the establishment of Taiping control.
  590.  
  591. Find this resource:
  592.  
  593.  
  594. MacFarlane, Charles. The Chinese Revolution: With Details of the Habits, Manners, and Customs of China and the Chinese. London: George Routledge, 1853.
  595.  
  596. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  597.  
  598. The work bases itself on more Western-Language Sources than Ivan and Callery as well as on much private oral and written information from Western residents of China. The author, a writer of contemporary political history with nineteen previous titles to his name, draws a parallel between China and Turkey, about which he had already written a book, arguing that given the decrepit state of the Qing dynasty, there is some likelihood that the Taiping “patriots” will prevail.
  599.  
  600. Find this resource:
  601.  
  602.  
  603. Meadows, Thomas Taylor. The Chinese and Their Rebellions. London: Smith Elder, 1856.
  604.  
  605. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  606.  
  607. Well-informed account of the Taiping by a British consular interpreter, based on written sources, interviews, and his own visit to Taiping territory. On comparison, Meadows thought that little was to be gained from British cooperation with the Qing court, but much from neutrality in the civil war.
  608.  
  609. Find this resource:
  610.  
  611.  
  612. Wolseley, Garnet J. Narrative of the War with China in 1860 To Which is Added the Account of a Short Residence with the Taiping Rebels at Nanking and a Voyage from Thence to Hankow. London: Longman, Green, 1862.
  613.  
  614. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  615.  
  616. Narrative by the later British army’s Chief of Staff about his participation in the Second Opium War, which resulted in fixing British support for the dynasty rather than the Taiping, and about his visit to the Taiping capital. Rich with details and critical observations.
  617.  
  618. Find this resource:
  619.  
  620.  
  621. Diplomatic and Parliamentary Papers Relating to the Taiping and the Civil War
  622.  
  623. The British and, to a lesser degree, American governments followed events in the Chinese Civil War most closely. With their Protestant backgrounds—as well as missionaries, merchants, and consular personnel on the ground in China—they were relatively well informed, but torn between the prospect of a “Christian China” and a total collapse of the Chinese state. The relevant materials from the British (British Parliamentary Papers 1971) and North American government Archives (Davids 1973) have been made available in print.
  624.  
  625. British Parliamentary Papers. Correspondence, Memorials, Orders in Council and Other Papers Respecting the Taiping Rebellion in China, 1852–64. China 32. Shannon: Irish University Press, 1971.
  626.  
  627. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  628.  
  629. Reprint of this important collection for the British diplomatic and parliamentary debate about policies regarding the Chinese civil war.
  630.  
  631. Find this resource:
  632.  
  633.  
  634. Davids, Jules. American Diplomatic and Public Papers: The US and China: Series 1, The Treaty System and the Taiping Rebellion 1842–1860. Vol. 7, The Taiping Rebellion. Wilmington, DE: Government Printing Office, Scholarly Resources, 1973.
  635.  
  636. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  637.  
  638. Documents relating to the Taiping collected and transmitted by US personnel to their home office.
  639.  
  640. Find this resource:
  641.  
  642.  
  643. Document Collections
  644.  
  645. A very fine selection of book excerpts, magazine and newspaper articles, and Western diplomatic records about the Taiping Civil War has become available (Clarke and Gregory 1982)
  646.  
  647. Clarke, Prescott, and John Stradbroke Gregory. Western Reports on the Taiping: A Selection of Documents. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1982.
  648.  
  649. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  650.  
  651. Western-language eyewitness accounts and background reports about the situation in the territory held by the Taiping, including some interviews with Taiping leaders. These accounts and reports by Protestant and some Catholic missionaries, businessmen, military men, mercenaries, and diplomats share with the other Primary Sources a strong dose of opinion and judgment that in itself is an important part of the historical record, as it guided the authors to action or counsel.
  652.  
  653. Find this resource:
  654.  
  655.  
  656. Newspaper and Magazine Coverage
  657.  
  658. Although the Taiping Civil War was covered by newspapers and magazines worldwide, the principal sources were a small number of newspapers and magazines that drew on firsthand knowledge of either the Protestant missionary community (Wong 2012, cited under Taiping Relations with Missionaries and Foreign Powers; Evangelisches Missionsmagazin; Missionary Herald) or of the secular merchant and journalist communities (Friend of China; North China Herald; China Mail; and Shanghai xinbao). Clarke and Gregory 1982, cited under Document Collections reproduces some of their articles.
  659.  
  660. China Mail. 1866–.
  661.  
  662. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  663.  
  664. This Hong Kong weekly paper focused on Hong Kong and its governance, but also carried reports by well-informed authors about the Taipings. From early on it editorialized that Taiping theology was not Christian so that the Taipings had no claim to support from Christian nations. As its readership was largely on the British Isles, it had sizable impact on British opinion.
  665.  
  666. Find this resource:
  667.  
  668.  
  669. The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle. 1813–.
  670.  
  671. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  672.  
  673. Connected to the evangelical missionary drive of the “dissenting clergy,” this London journal carried detailed reports about missionary work all over the world, including China. While often critical of government, it also claimed government protection for the work of the missions. As nearly all British Protestant missionaries in China up to 1860 were from “dissenting clergy,” these reports are an important source for British public opinion about the Taipings.
  674.  
  675. Find this resource:
  676.  
  677.  
  678. North China Herald. 1853–.
  679.  
  680. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  681.  
  682. Published in Shanghai near the Taiping capital and being without religious affiliation, the Herald became a key depository for and source of news about the Taipings since 1853. As many of its reports were carried or referenced in European papers, they had a sizable impact on international opinion.
  683.  
  684. Find this resource:
  685.  
  686.  
  687. Shanghai Xinbao 上海新報. 1861–.
  688.  
  689. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  690.  
  691. Issued by the North China Herald, this Shanghai paper, which mostly consisted of translations from the NCH, also carried original reports on the Taiping not found there.
  692.  
  693. Find this resource:
  694.  
  695.  
  696. Modern Scholarly Translations of Taiping and Qing Documents
  697.  
  698. The extensive PRC interest in the Taiping stimulated interest among sinologists and general historians. To provide a solid grounding for such work, annotated translations of key Taiping publications (Michael and Chang 1966–1971, Li 1977) as well as of some Qing documents (Cheng 1963) were published.
  699.  
  700. Cheng, James Chester. Chinese Sources for the Taiping Rebellion, 1850–64. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963.
  701.  
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703.  
  704. Important for its presentation in translation of vital source materials from the official Qing record, as well as Li Hongzhang’s private letters on topics such as the Taiping bible, Taiping Institutions, and currents in Taiping thought.
  705.  
  706. Find this resource:
  707.  
  708.  
  709. Li, Xiucheng. Taiping Rebel: The Deposition of Li Hsiu-ch’eng. Translated by Charles A. Curwen. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
  710.  
  711. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  712.  
  713. Li Xiucheng was one of the Taiping leaders caught by the Qing troops. This is a translation of the deposition he was required to write before his execution, and which was shortened and edited by his captor Zeng Guofan. For the Chinese text, see Luo 1995, cited under Individual Writings.
  714.  
  715. Find this resource:
  716.  
  717.  
  718. Michael, Frantz, and Chung-li Chang. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents. Vols. 2–3, Documents and Comments. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966–1971.
  719.  
  720. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  721.  
  722. This translation of the Taiping publications and many documents, which is based on their originals in various Western libraries as well as their reprints in in works of the Republican period, has been instrumental for bringing the voice of the Taiping themselves into the international historical debate. References to PRC collections of Taiping documents have been avoided while pre-1949 philological scholarship from authors prominent in PRC studies such as Luo Ergang is quoted.
  723.  
  724. Find this resource:
  725.  
  726.  
  727. Reference Works
  728.  
  729. A sign of the exponential growth of the community interested in Taiping-related research is this compilation of reference works. These would provide keyword-linked information about names, places, or battles (Guo and Shi 1995), or allow a quick dating of events (Guo 1946, Mao 2001).
  730.  
  731. Guo Tingyi 郭廷以. Taiping tianguo shishi rizhi (太平天囯史事日誌). Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1946.
  732.  
  733. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  734.  
  735. Indispensable reference work containing the day-by-day chronicle of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Taiping Civil War.
  736.  
  737. Find this resource:
  738.  
  739.  
  740. Guo Yisheng 郭毅生, and Shi Shi 史式. Taiping tianguo da cidian (太平天囯大辭典). Beijing: Zhongguo shehuikexue chubanshe, 1995.
  741.  
  742. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  743.  
  744. While strictly following the PRC master narrative on the Taiping as an anti-feudal peasant revolution, the authored articles in this handbook also offer a wealth of unsourced factual information.
  745.  
  746. Find this resource:
  747.  
  748.  
  749. Mao, Jiaqi 毛家琦. Guo zhu “Taiping Tianguo shishi rizhi” jiaobu (郭著<<太平天國史事日誌>>校補). Taibei: Taibei shangwu yinshuguan, 2001.
  750.  
  751. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  752.  
  753. Supplements and corrects some data in Guo 1946.
  754.  
  755. Find this resource:
  756.  
  757.  
  758. Source Studies
  759.  
  760. The efforts to integrate the Taiping into a modern revolutionary narrative came with a strong drive to signal professional reliability through careful source criticism. This includes studies on forged documents and wrong data (Luo 1948); on the reliability of historical accounts (Shi 1991); and careful comparisons of different editions of Taiping publications (Wu and Luo 1987, Wang 1993)
  761.  
  762. Luo Ergang 羅爾綱. Taiping tianguo shi kaozheng ji (太平天囯史考證集). Shanghai: Duli chubanshe, 1948.
  763.  
  764. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  765.  
  766. Careful study of the reliability of some Taiping documents and historical accounts.
  767.  
  768. Find this resource:
  769.  
  770.  
  771. Shi Shi 史式. Taiping tianguo shishi kao (太平天囯史實考). Chongqing, China: Chongqing chubanshe, 1991.
  772.  
  773. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  774.  
  775. Careful study of the reliability of certain historical claims about Taiping Institutions and terminology as well as the activities of the Taiping leader Shi Dakai.
  776.  
  777. Find this resource:
  778.  
  779.  
  780. Wang Qingcheng 王慶成. Taiping tianguo de wenxian he lishi—Haiwai xin wenxian kanbu he wenxian shishi yanjiu (太平天国的文献和歷史—海外新文献刊布和文献事實研究). Beijing: Shehuikexue wenxian chubanshe, 1993.
  781.  
  782. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  783.  
  784. Study of the holdings of Taiping writings in libraries in Great Britain, the United States, the Netherlands, France, and Germany, with a description of the substantial number of changes in different editions of these texts and an introduction to previously unknown texts. Shortly after this study had been published, Wang discovered other, and often earlier, editions of Taiping books in the Institute of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg.
  785.  
  786. Find this resource:
  787.  
  788.  
  789. Wu Liangzuo 吳良祚, and Luo Wenqi 羅文起. “Taiping Tianguo yinshu jiaokan ji (太平天囯印書校勘記).” Taiping Tianguo Xuekan(太平天囯学刊) 3 (1987): 266–282.
  790.  
  791. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  792.  
  793. Study of the changes in different editions of the official Taiping publications.
  794.  
  795. Find this resource:
  796.  
  797.  
  798. Bibliography and Historiography
  799.  
  800. The sheer volume of PRC writing on the Taiping Civil War prompted efforts at compiling bibliographies (Jiang 1984, Wu 2013, Tiedemann 2009) and the entanglement of the writing of Taiping history and PRC politics called for historiographic studies on Taiping scholarship (Teng 1962, Weller 1987, Shi 2005).
  801.  
  802. Jiang Bingzheng 姜秉正. Yanjiu Taiping tianguo shi zhushu zongmu (研究太平天囯史著述總目). Beijing: Shumu wenxian chubanshe, 1984.
  803.  
  804. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  805.  
  806. With some five thousand entries of Chinese and foreign language studies on Taiping tianguo history, this massive bibliography signals the importance accorded to the Taiping civil war, especially in PRC historiography. The many mistakes in the entries on foreign-language contributions signal a lack of actual familiarity with and access to most of these works.
  807.  
  808. Find this resource:
  809.  
  810.  
  811. Shi Shi 史式. Taiping tianguo bu tai ping (太平天國不太平). Taibei: Zhishufang chubanshe, 2005.
  812.  
  813. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  814.  
  815. Written by a veteran PRC Taiping scholar, the second half of this book gives a good overview of the rise of the Taiping as a forerunner of the various Chinese revolutions, but on the basis of largely nonexistent factual information. However, that in turn led to vast organized efforts to unearth and publish historical sources. The glorification of Taiping revolutionary achievements gave way to more critical assessments in China after it had reached its peak during the Cultural Revolution.
  816.  
  817. Find this resource:
  818.  
  819.  
  820. Teng, Ssu-yü. Historiography of the Taiping Rebellion. Cambridge, MA: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1962.
  821.  
  822. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  823.  
  824. Still useful overview of the history of the discovery of Taiping publications in Western libraries, first by Japanese scholars, then through their gradual publication in China, followed by Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Western scholarship.
  825.  
  826. Find this resource:
  827.  
  828.  
  829. Tiedemann, Rolf, ed. Handbook of Christianity in China. Vol. 2, 1800–Present. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009.
  830.  
  831. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  832.  
  833. Detailed bibliography of Western-Language Sources on the Taiping. See in particular pp. 31–91, 115–192, and 361–404.
  834.  
  835. Find this resource:
  836.  
  837.  
  838. Weller, Robert P. “Historians and Consciousness: The Modern Politics of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.” Social Research 54.4 (1987): 731–755.
  839.  
  840. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  841.  
  842. Explores the ideological and political implications of Taiping historiography in the PRC with a focus on the treatment of religion in a base-superstructure framework and the treatment of the relative importance of leading individuals and “masses.”
  843.  
  844. Find this resource:
  845.  
  846.  
  847. Wu Shanzhong 吳善中. Taiping tianguo shixue shulun (太平天囯史學術論). Beijing: Shehuikexue wenxian chubanshe, 2013.
  848.  
  849. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  850.  
  851. Useful overview of work done in China on compiling relevant sources and on the “nature” and uses of the Taiping according to the master narrative of the day; of specialized studies of institutional aspects of the Taiping as well as regional sources on the civil war; of systematic historical presentations of the Taiping; and of bibliographical studies. It largely reduces Taiping tianguo historiography to PRC historiography on the subject.
  852.  
  853. Find this resource:
  854.  
  855.  
  856. Religious Background
  857.  
  858. Christian Influences on the Taiping
  859.  
  860. From the outset, the Christian nature of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was controversial (Forrest 1867, Boardman 1952). While a widely quoted study (Yap 1954) reduced it to the “mental illness” of the leader and PRC scholars described it as a “cloak” to fool the masses (Xia 1992), the direct connection to Protestant missionaries is well documented (Schlyter 1946 and Clarke 1973, both cited under Gutzlaff’s Chinese Union; Treadgold 1973; Bohr 1978; Deng 1965; Doezema 1993; Reilly 2004) and the importance of Taiping Christianity as a guide for their actions has been shown (Wagner 1984, Spence 1996).
  861.  
  862. Boardman, Eugene P. Christian Influence upon the Ideology of the Taiping Rebellion, 1851–1864. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1952.
  863.  
  864. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  865.  
  866. One of the first studies focusing on the role of religion in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In a manner found since missionary criticism of the Taiping started in the 1860s, it checks Taiping theology against an assumed canon of Protestant theology rather than assumptions shared by those involved in the Second Great Awakening. It finds it a deficient copy although it shows that the Taiping themselves justified all of their plans and actions with their faith.
  867.  
  868. Find this resource:
  869.  
  870.  
  871. Bohr, Paul Richard. “The Politics of Eschatology: Hung Hsiu-ch’uan and the Rise of the Taipings, 1837–1853.” PhD diss., University of California, Davis, 1978.
  872.  
  873. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  874.  
  875. Following the lead of Treadgold, this dissertation explores the link between the theology of the Great Awakening and that of the Taiping. It integrates its analysis of Liang Afa’s Quanshi liangyan into the presentation of Taiping theology.
  876.  
  877. Find this resource:
  878.  
  879.  
  880. Deng Siyu 鄧嗣禹. “Quanshi liangyan yu Taiping tianguo geming zhi guanxi (勸世良言與太平天國革命之關係).” In Quanshi liangyan (勸世良言). Edited by Liang Afa, 1–24. Taibei: Xuesheng shuju, 1965.
  881.  
  882. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  883.  
  884. An introduction to Liang Afa’s tract and its impact on Taiping theology.
  885.  
  886. Find this resource:
  887.  
  888.  
  889. Doezema, William R. “Western Seeds of Eastern Heterodoxy: The Impact of Protestant Revivalism on the Christianity of Taiping Rebel Leader Hung Hsiu-ch’üan, 1836–1864.” Fides et Historia 25.1 (1993): 73–98.
  890.  
  891. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  892.  
  893. Drawing on both micro-historical materials such as diaries and letters and macro-historical studies of revivalist theology and missionary efforts, the study offers an informed view of Issachar Roberts, Hong Xiuquan’s teacher.
  894.  
  895. Find this resource:
  896.  
  897.  
  898. Forrest, Robert James. “The Christianity of Hung Tsiu Tsuen, A Review of Taiping Books.” Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 4 (1867): 187–208.
  899.  
  900. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  901.  
  902. Sober and well-informed account of Taiping books and narratives together with unique observations on the sympathetic attitude of the foreign community toward the Taiping by the British Consul in Ningbo at the time.
  903.  
  904. Find this resource:
  905.  
  906.  
  907. Reilly, Thomas H. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.
  908.  
  909. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  910.  
  911. Focusing on the religious and Christian character of the Taiping, this study sketches the Taiping religious delegitimisation of Chinese (not just Manchu) imperial rule. It argues that the Old and New Testaments were more important for Taiping theology than Liang Afa’s Good Words, and shows that Qing loyalists saw the Taiping as an offspring from the Catholic missions (the “Heavenly Lord sect”).
  912.  
  913. Find this resource:
  914.  
  915.  
  916. Spence, Jonathan D. God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. New York: Norton, 1996.
  917.  
  918. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  919.  
  920. Historical narrative of Hong Xiuquan’s role in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with a special focus on his religious experience and trajectory. Spence was the first to explore the newly discovered record of the interventions (through mediums of the Heavenly Father and the Heavenly Elder Brother into the early management of the Taiping Kingdom.
  921.  
  922. Find this resource:
  923.  
  924.  
  925. Treadgold, Donald. The West in Russia and China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
  926.  
  927. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  928.  
  929. Challenging both Chinese Marxist assumptions about Taiping religion as a disguise of a truly revolutionary program and the assumptions of authors seeing Taiping theology as a defective and dangerous deformation of true Protestant theology, this pioneering study suggests a focus on Taiping historical interaction with “Protestant pietism (or fundamentalism).”
  930.  
  931. Find this resource:
  932.  
  933.  
  934. Wagner, Rudolf G. Reenacting the Heavenly Vision: The Role of Religion in the Taiping Rebellion. China Research Monograph 25. Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asia Studies, University of California, 1984.
  935.  
  936. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  937.  
  938. Based on Taiping official documents and missionary reports, argues that the vision of the Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan was of crucial importance in providing symbolically coded guidance to the development of Taiping Institutions and to Taiping decision making. Rather than being primarily defined as a form of local religion drawing on Chinese traditions, the Taiping were part of (and were seen by Protestant missionaries as part of) the “Second Great Awakening” before the impending Millennium. Also available online.
  939.  
  940. Find this resource:
  941.  
  942.  
  943. Xia Chuntao 夏春涛. Taiping Tianguo zongjiao (太平天国宗教). Nanjing, China: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 1992.
  944.  
  945. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  946.  
  947. A first PRC effort to address the importance of religion in the Taiping enterprise and critically evaluate the claims that Taiping religion was just a disguise to fool the masses.
  948.  
  949. Find this resource:
  950.  
  951.  
  952. Yap, Pow-meng. “The Mental Illness of Hung Hsiu-ch’uan, Leader of the Taiping Rebellion.” Far Eastern Quarterly 13.3 (1954): 287–304.
  953.  
  954. DOI: 10.2307/2942280Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  955.  
  956. Using retroactive psychological analysis, this widely quoted article argued that Hong’s visions were the result of mental illness. It does not address the question how and why such a person should have been able to hold sway over hundreds of thousands and even millions of people to the point of them being willing to risk their lives.
  957.  
  958. Find this resource:
  959.  
  960.  
  961. Gutzlaff’s Chinese Union
  962.  
  963. In 1844, the Moravian Karl Gūtzlaff set out to train “native evangelists,” as he was convinced that the few foreign missionaries would not be able to handle the urgent evangelization of China. The Bible translation he had done with Walter Medhurst and others was adopted by the Taipings and many of his “native evangelists” joined the Taiping cause with possibly substantial impact on Taiping theology.
  964.  
  965. Clarke, Prescott. “The Coming of God to Kwangsi, A Consideration of Influence of Karl Gutzlaff and The Chinese Union During the Formative Period of the Taiping Movement.” Papers on Far Eastern History 7 (March 1973): 145–181.
  966.  
  967. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  968.  
  969. Based on missionary reports, this study collects the evidence for the move of many members of Gutzlaff’s Chinese Union to join the Taiping.
  970.  
  971. Find this resource:
  972.  
  973.  
  974. Schlyter, Hermann. Karl Gützlaff als Missionar in China. Vol. 1. Copenhagen: Publications of the Swedish Society for Missionary Research, 1946.
  975.  
  976. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  977.  
  978. Based largely on missionary writings in Western languages, including those by Gutzlaff himself, the study explores the Moravian background and missionary activity of this founder of the Chinese Union. Many members of this organization eventually joined the Taiping.
  979.  
  980. Find this resource:
  981.  
  982.  
  983. Attitudes of Missionaries Concerning the Taiping
  984.  
  985. For many missionaries their assessment of the Taiping was bound up with their own theological sectarian concerns, which also underwent some changes as the Awakening enthusiasm cooled. (Littell 1928, Gregory 1963, Coughlin 1972). Of special importance was the attitude of Issachar Roberts, who introduced Hong Xiuquan to Awakening Christianity (Teng 1963), became a high official in the Taiping government, defended the Taiping against missionary criticism, and eventually turned against them (Wagner 1998).
  986.  
  987. Coughlin, M. M. “Strangers in the House: J. Lewis Shuck and Issachar Roberts, First Baptist Missionaries to China.” PhD diss., University of Virginia, 1972.
  988.  
  989. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  990.  
  991. Provides knowledgeable background on these two revivalist missionaries and reproduces Robert’s rare report about his first meeting with Hong Xiuquan.
  992.  
  993. Find this resource:
  994.  
  995.  
  996. Gregory, John Stadbroke. “British Missionary Reaction to the Taiping Movement in China.” Journal of Religious History 2.3 (1963): 204–218.
  997.  
  998. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9809.1963.tb00264.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  999.  
  1000. Following up on the study Littell 1928 about American missionary attitudes toward the Taiping, this article draws on British archival and printed sources to show the shift in British missionary attitudes from a support ranging from guarded to enthusiastic to a nearly unanimous rejection that was buttressed with theological arguments.
  1001.  
  1002. Find this resource:
  1003.  
  1004.  
  1005. Littell, John B. “Missionaries and Politics in China—The Taiping Rebellion.” Political Science Quarterly 43.4 (1928): 566–599.
  1006.  
  1007. DOI: 10.2307/2142730Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1008.  
  1009. Pioneering and still relevant study on the attitude of American missionaries toward the Taiping, the efforts by the different denominations to influence them, and their conflicts with the American government. Based on missionary writings and on archival records, parts of which were in China and are not accessible (or even extant) anymore.
  1010.  
  1011. Find this resource:
  1012.  
  1013.  
  1014. Teng, Yuan Chung. “Reverend Issachar Jacox Roberts and the Taiping Rebellion.” Journal of Asian Studies 23.1 (1963): 55–67.
  1015.  
  1016. DOI: 10.2307/2050633Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1017.  
  1018. Reviews the role the practices in Roberts’s chapel at Canton played in the layout of some Taiping Institutions, and the changing attitude of Roberts toward the Taiping king, his one-time inquirer.
  1019.  
  1020. Find this resource:
  1021.  
  1022.  
  1023. Wagner, Rudolf G. “Understanding Taiping Christian China: Analogy, Interest and Policy.” Paper presented at a symposium held 14–16 February, 1997, in Freising, Germany. In Christen und Gewürze. Konfrontation und Interaktion kolonialer und indigener Christentumsvarianten. Edited by Klaus Koschorke. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1998.
  1024.  
  1025. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1026.  
  1027. Study of the conflict between revivalist and post-revivalist Protestant missionaries, beginning in the late 1850s, in their evaluation of the Taipings and the ensuing difference in attitudes toward Western policies dealing with the Taipings.
  1028.  
  1029. Find this resource:
  1030.  
  1031.  
  1032. Taiping Ideology and Traditional Chinese Sects
  1033.  
  1034. Anthropological and historical scholarship has been hesitant in accepting the Taiping proclamations of their Christian faith, and has either argued that they had an ideology sui generis (Shih 1967), or were just a variant of Chinese sectarian traditions (Naquin 1976; Kuhn 1977; Bohr 1985; Bohr 2004; Weller 1994; Xia 1992, cited under Christian Influences on the Taiping; and Xia 2006).
  1035.  
  1036. Bohr, Richard P. “The Heavenly Kingdom in China: Religion and the Taiping Revolution, 1837–1853.” Fides et Historia 17.2 (1985): 38–52.
  1037.  
  1038. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1039.  
  1040. This study inserts the rise of the Taiping into the social, economic, and spiritual environment of Guangxi province, claiming that after a radical break with current religious beliefs at first, the Taiping later linked up with shamanistic and sectarian traditions.
  1041.  
  1042. Find this resource:
  1043.  
  1044.  
  1045. Bohr, Richard P. “The Taipings in Chinese Sectarian Perspective.” In Heterodoxy in Late Imperial China. Edited by Kwang-Ching Liu and Richard Shek, 393–430. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.
  1046.  
  1047. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1048.  
  1049. Overview of the eschatological themes that may be found in the Chinese sectarian tradition and the Taiping. The study argues that particular Christian elements, however, gave the Taipings their greater power and impact.
  1050.  
  1051. Find this resource:
  1052.  
  1053.  
  1054. Kuhn, Philip A. “Origins of the Taiping Vision: Cross-Cultural Dimensions of a Chinese Rebellion.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 19.3 (1977): 350–366.
  1055.  
  1056. DOI: 10.1017/S0010417500008756Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1057.  
  1058. Study of the changing meaning of Liang Afa’s Good Words to Admonish the Age for Hong Xiuquan—with his background in a Hakka village in the densely populated and intensely cultivated Guangdong lowlands—and the Hakka dwellers in the frontier region of Guangxi province where the Taiping started their military contest with the Qing. For Hong, the tract presages the need for a spiritual conversion and return to the original faith; for the Guangxi Hakka, a fundamental confrontation between good and evil.
  1059.  
  1060. Find this resource:
  1061.  
  1062.  
  1063. Naquin, Susan. Millenarian Rebellion in China: The Eight Trigrams Uprising of 1813. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1976.
  1064.  
  1065. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1066.  
  1067. Often quoted study in Taiping research emphasizing a continuity between the Taiping and Chinese millenarian traditions that was strenuously rejected by the Heavenly Kingdom.
  1068.  
  1069. Find this resource:
  1070.  
  1071.  
  1072. Shih, Vincent Y. C. The Taiping Ideology: Its Sources, Interpretations, and Influences. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967.
  1073.  
  1074. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1075.  
  1076. Offers a systematic treatment of the religious, moral, social, economic, political, and military aspects of Taiping ideology; of the presumable origins of it in previous rebel ideologies with Christian, Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist elements added on; and of the historiography of the Taiping in Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholarship, largely excluding writings from the PRC because of the ideological predictability of the arguments proffered.
  1077.  
  1078. Find this resource:
  1079.  
  1080.  
  1081. Weller, Robert. Resistance, Chaos, and Control in China: Taiping Rebels, Taiwanese Ghosts, and Tiananmen. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
  1082.  
  1083. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-13203-4Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1084.  
  1085. Exploring an anthropological perspective that privileges local practices, the Taiping section in this work deals with the role of the local Guangxi tradition of spirit possession in establishing and securing authority for the Taiping leadership and in establishing Taiping religion as a religion sui generis that had shed its Christian features.
  1086.  
  1087. Find this resource:
  1088.  
  1089.  
  1090. Xia Chuntao 夏春涛. Tianguo de yunluo: Taiping tianguo zongjiao zai yanjiu (天国的陨落: 太平天国宗教再研究). Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2006.
  1091.  
  1092. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1093.  
  1094. Written in the context of the PRC denunciation of Falun Gong as an “evil cult” and the CCTV TV series Taiping tianguo (2000) with its scenes of spirit possession that led to a similar assessment, this volume argues that the Taiping “god religion” (rather than “Taiping Christianity”) was at the heart of their enterprise, that it was closely connected to traditional folk religion, and that earlier simplistic denunciations of religion as “opium for the people” were of little use.
  1095.  
  1096. Find this resource:
  1097.  
  1098.  
  1099. Taiping Relations with Missionaries and Foreign Powers
  1100.  
  1101. The Taiping set out to establish a kingdom devoted to the same god to whom the Christian nations were committed. Relationships with Christian missionaries as well as Christian nations were therefore of crucial importance to them (Liang 1965; Teng 1963, cited under Attitudes of Missionaries concerning the Taiping; Teng 1968; Wagner 1984). The governments of the Christian nations, on the other hand, had a range of interests and preconceptions that were not adjusted to their Christian claims and were very often at variance with those of Western missionaries (Gregory 1969, Mao 1992, Wong 2012, Platt 2012). The China policies of these governments might have unwittingly contributed to the rise of the Taiping (Wakeman 1965; Miyazaki 1965, cited under General Overviews).
  1102.  
  1103. Gregory, John Stradbroke. Great Britain and the Taipings. New York: Praeger, 1969.
  1104.  
  1105. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1106.  
  1107. Unsurpassed study of the motives and political process that progressed from a British policy of neutrality in the Taiping civil war to one of support for the Qing court and intervention. It includes a detailed account of the public British debate with which the Palmerston government had to deal when implementing its China policies and an appendix that contains Medhurst’s fascinating exchange with Yang Xiuqing, with Medhurst asking about trade, and Yang about the physical appearance of God.
  1108.  
  1109. Find this resource:
  1110.  
  1111.  
  1112. Liang Afa 梁阿發. Quanshi liangyan (勸世良言). Taibei: Xuesheng shuju, 1965.
  1113.  
  1114. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1115.  
  1116. Originally published in 1832, this is a collection of excerpts compiled by the first Protestant convert in Canton from the Hebrew and Christian testaments with comments as well as homiletic matte. The text became for the later Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan an important source of reference for making sense of what he saw and heard during his vision of a sojourn in Heaven in 1837, before he got hold of the full translation of the Testaments.
  1117.  
  1118. Find this resource:
  1119.  
  1120.  
  1121. Mao Jiaqi 毛家琦. Taiping Tianguo yu lieqiang (太平天國與列強). Nanning Shi, China: Guangxi renmin chubanshe, 1992.
  1122.  
  1123. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1124.  
  1125. A study mostly focused on the British government’s perception of the Taiping and the policies resulting from it. It does little to address the deep divisions among the British public (and the China community) on this issue or the Taiping perception of this relationship.
  1126.  
  1127. Find this resource:
  1128.  
  1129.  
  1130. Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.
  1131.  
  1132. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1133.  
  1134. Focusing on the interaction between Manchu, Chinese, foreign mercenary, foreign diplomatic, and military actors, as well as British public opinion between 1860 and the taking of Nanjing, this study challenges standard accounts blaming the Taipings alone and not both sides for the gigantic carnage and claiming a unified “British” opinion where there was widespread opposition to Lord Palmerston’s China policies in British public opinion and Parliament.
  1135.  
  1136. Find this resource:
  1137.  
  1138.  
  1139. Teng, Yuan Chung. “The Failure of Hung Jen-kan’s Foreign Policy.” Journal of Asian Studies 28.1 (1968): 125–138.
  1140.  
  1141. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1142.  
  1143. Details the unsuccessful efforts of the Taiping prime minister to counteract the shift of Great Britain against the Taiping and toward support for the Qing.
  1144.  
  1145. Find this resource:
  1146.  
  1147.  
  1148. Wagner, Rudolf G. “God’s Country in the Family of Nations: The Logic of Modernism in the Taiping Doctrine of International Relations.” Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Peasant Studies, 1982, University of British Columbia. In Religion and Rural Revolt. Edited by János Bak and Gerhard Benecke, 354–373. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1984.
  1149.  
  1150. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1151.  
  1152. Disputes the “anti-imperialist” label given to the Taipings based on records of the Taiping notion of cooperation and equality among Christian nations and their actual interaction with Westerners.
  1153.  
  1154. Find this resource:
  1155.  
  1156.  
  1157. Wakeman, Frederic, Jr. Strangers at the Gate: Social Disorder in South China, 1839–1861. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.
  1158.  
  1159. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1160.  
  1161. While not dealing with the Taiping directly, this study provides background on the social tensions in South China and antiforeign currents in the wake of the Opium War, which were not taken up by the Taiping.
  1162.  
  1163. Find this resource:
  1164.  
  1165.  
  1166. Wong, Ching Him Felix. “The Images of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as Shown in the Publications in France, Germany, and Italy during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Chinese Studies 55 (July 2012): 139–174.
  1167.  
  1168. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1169.  
  1170. Study of the imagery used to explain the Taiping in European writings in the context of the conflicting interests of European powers.
  1171.  
  1172. Find this resource:
  1173.  
  1174.  
  1175. Taiping Struggles with the Qing, Qing Mercenaries, and Their Local Opponents
  1176.  
  1177. The Taiping Civil War went through stages with substantial changes on both sides. In the first stage, until the establishment of the Heavenly Capital in Nanjing in 1853, the Taiping army consisted of a host of ill-armed men with their families, rapidly expanding with the addition of new recruits. Their opponents were Qing troops consisting of well-trained and equipped Manchu Bannermen. After 1853, the Taiping moved to form regular armies that included some foreigners, while the Qing side began developing Han-Chinese local armies led by Han-Chinese commanders (Hail 1927; Kuhn 1980; Cui, et al. 2003) and hiring foreign mercenaries (Smith 1978). In the areas under Taiping control, some local opposition formed (Cole 1981). The war’s ravaging of provinces along the Yang-tse had long-term demographic effects (Ge, et al. 1999; Hua and Cai 2007)
  1178.  
  1179. Cole, James L. The People versus the Taipings: Bao Lisheng’s “Righteous Army of Dongan.” China Research Monographs 21. Berkeley, CA: Institute of Chinese Studies, 1981.
  1180.  
  1181. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1182.  
  1183. Study of a local opponent of the Taiping who, inspired by an encounter with an “immortal,” organized a militia against them.
  1184.  
  1185. Find this resource:
  1186.  
  1187.  
  1188. Cui Zhiqing 崔之清, Yan Anlin 严安林, Zhang Dexun张德顺, Chen Yunxi陈蕴茜. Taiping Tianguo zhanzheng quanshi (太平天囯戰爭全史). 4 vols. Nanjing, China: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 2003.
  1189.  
  1190. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1191.  
  1192. Detailed history of the evolving structure of the Taiping military, its strategies and tactics, and its engagements with both Qing banner troops and the local braves organized by Zeng Guofan and his associates.
  1193.  
  1194. Find this resource:
  1195.  
  1196.  
  1197. Ge Jianxiong 葛剑雄, Hou Yangfang 侯杨方, and Zhang Genfu 张根福. Renkou yu Zhongguo de xiandaihua: 1850 yilai (人口与中国现代化: 1850 以来). Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 1999.
  1198.  
  1199. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1200.  
  1201. After first suggestions in English-language publications that the overall death toll of the Taiping civil war might have been between twenty and thirty million—mostly in the provinces adjacent to the Yang-tse river—the Taiping-related section in this study tried to compute all persons missing, whether because of death from war, hunger, disease, non-occurring births, or flight from the area; these results suggested an overall toll of eighty to ninety million.
  1202.  
  1203. Find this resource:
  1204.  
  1205.  
  1206. Hail, William James. Tsêng Kuo-fan and the Taiping Rebellion: With a Short Sketch of his Later Career. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1927.
  1207.  
  1208. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1209.  
  1210. Still the only monograph in any language on the role of Zeng Guofan in the Taiping Civil War, this study defies the vilification of Zeng Guofan as a Manchu collaborator and butcher of the Taiping revolution through a sober and detailed account of Zeng’s efforts to build regional armies in order to replace the defeated Manchu troops, counter the Taiping, and compete for their support base.
  1211.  
  1212. Find this resource:
  1213.  
  1214.  
  1215. Hua Qiang 華強, and Cai Hongjun 蔡宏俊. “Taiping tianguo shiqi Zhongguo renkou sunshi wenti” (太平天囯时期中国人口损失问题) In Wan qing guo jia yu shehuiax Edited by Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan, et al., 64–75. Beijing: Shehuikexue wenxian chubanshe, 2007.
  1216.  
  1217. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1218.  
  1219. Useful critical overview of the different foreign and Chinese assessment of the toll of the Taiping civil war in terms of human lives and the ensuing inner Chinese migrations as well as the types of data on which these assessments are based. It concludes that estimates which put the cost in human lives in the order of magnitude of ninety million are not plausible, especially if compared to World War I, which involved many more regions and people.
  1220.  
  1221. Find this resource:
  1222.  
  1223.  
  1224. Kuhn, Philip A. Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China: Militarization and Social Structure, 1796–1864. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980.
  1225.  
  1226. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1227.  
  1228. Argues that in order to defeat the Taiping, the Qing court had to rely on Han Chinese leaders such as Zeng Guofan who would in their turn rely on Han Chinese armies loyal to them personally. The consequence was a militarization of society and a shift in the power relations between Manchus and Han Chinese that led to a breakdown of the traditional state.
  1229.  
  1230. Find this resource:
  1231.  
  1232.  
  1233. Smith, Richard J. Mercenaries and Mandarins: The Ever-Victorious Army in Nineteenth-Century China. Millwood, NY: KTO, 1978.
  1234.  
  1235. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1236.  
  1237. Insightful history of a small band of foreign mercenaries who organized an Anglo-Chinese contingent, the “Ever Victorious Army,” that was paid by the Qing to support their fight against the Taiping.
  1238.  
  1239. Find this resource:
  1240.  
  1241.  
  1242. Taiping Institutions
  1243.  
  1244. The Taiping developed the beginnings of an institutional framework (Jian 1958). While much of this was focused on the war effort (Withers 1983), they also drafted plans for a series of bold new structures of use beyond their immediate wartime needs (So and Boardman 1957). One of the early institutions to be fully developed was religious propaganda (Wagner 1993).
  1245.  
  1246. Jian Youwen 簡又文. Taiping Tianguo dianzhi tongkao (太平天囯典制通考). 3 vols. Hong Kong, China: Jian shi mengjin shuwu, 1958.
  1247.  
  1248. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1249.  
  1250. Standard work on the political, military, social, and religious institutions of the Taiping by a scholar who had spent many decades collecting, collating, editing, and analyzing Taiping and Taiping-related documents. It treats the Taiping as a genuine but independent Chinese form of Christianity.
  1251.  
  1252. Find this resource:
  1253.  
  1254.  
  1255. So, Kwan-wai, and Eugene P. Boardman. “Hung Jen-kan: Taiping Prime Minister, 1859–1864.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 20.1–2 (1957): 262–294.
  1256.  
  1257. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1258.  
  1259. Explores the role of Hong Xiuquan’s nephew Hong Rengan as Taiping prime minister between 1859 and 1864. The special focus is on the administrative reforms proposed by Hong Rengan in his New Work for Aid in Administration, a work accepted by the Taiping leadership as official policy but never enacted.
  1260.  
  1261. Find this resource:
  1262.  
  1263.  
  1264. Wagner, Rudolf G. “Operating in the Chinese Public Sphere: Theology and Technique of Taiping Propaganda.” In Norms and the State in China. Edited by Chun-chieh Huang and Erik Zürcher, 104–141. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1993.
  1265.  
  1266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1267.  
  1268. Deals with the Taiping appropriation of the methods of print propaganda, which had been used by Protestant missionaries, to spread their own message.
  1269.  
  1270. Find this resource:
  1271.  
  1272.  
  1273. Withers, John L. “The Heavenly Capital: Nanjing Under the Taiping, 1853–1864.” PhD diss., Yale University, 1983.
  1274.  
  1275. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1276.  
  1277. Considering private documents of Taiping residents mostly hostile to the Taiping, as well as reports by Westerners from the city, this important—sadly never published—dissertation explores the social and cultural tensions in the Heavenly Capital of Nanjing as the Taiping tried to pursue and impose their millennial vision.
  1278.  
  1279. Find this resource:
  1280.  
  1281.  
  1282. War Economy
  1283.  
  1284. Fighting a civil war put a huge strain on both sides as well as the general population. While the Taiping were operating with volunteers who were clothed and fed from a collective booty chest and had only started developing taxation, the Qing had to pay its troops and mercenaries. Its state finances largely depended on the customs collected for them by the foreign-run customs office, and it developed a new inland tax, likin, to finance the new local armies after the defeat of the Manchu Banner troops (Beal 1958). This new system led to a rearrangement of the relationship between the court and the provinces as well as among the provinces (Kaske 2011).
  1285.  
  1286. Beal, Edwin George. The Origin of Likin, 1853–1864. Cambridge, MA: Chinese Economic and Political Studies, Harvard University Press, 1958.
  1287.  
  1288. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1289.  
  1290. Traces the imposition of the likin tax on interprovincial trade to finance local effort to resist the Taiping.
  1291.  
  1292. Find this resource:
  1293.  
  1294.  
  1295. Kaske, Elisabeth. “Fund-Raising Wars: Office Selling and Interprovincial Finance in Nineteenth-Century China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 71.1 (2011): 69–141.
  1296.  
  1297. DOI: 10.1353/jas.2011.0006Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1298.  
  1299. Traces the impact of the likin tax, which had been imposed to finance the government expenses in the Taiping Civil War (but not abolished afterwards) on interprovincial trade, and takes issue with the assumption that this war had indirectly contributed to a strengthening of provincial autonomy.
  1300.  
  1301. Find this resource:
  1302.  
  1303.  
  1304. Memory and Trauma
  1305.  
  1306. Practically no records have survived of Taiping adherents concerning their personal experience of the war and its aftermath beyond the confessions the leaders were to write before their execution (see Luo 1995, cited under Individual Writings). On the side of their opponents, things are not much better, as there seems to have been a general reluctance even on their side to speak about these years beyond the court’s triumphalist claims (Yixin, et al. n.d.; Zhang 1999). Some recent studies have explored hitherto neglected sources that shed light on the way in which gentry sympathetic to the court’s side handled the memory and trauma of the war. (Huntington 2005, Meyer-Fong 2013, Daye 2014, Woodbridge 2015) The cultural journals published by the Shenbaoguan in Shanghai since 1872 (Xunhuan suoji and its successors) carry some as yet unexplored materials, especially commemorative texts about women who died during the War, but had left behind writings.
  1307.  
  1308. Daye, Zhang. The World of a Tiny Insect: A Memoir of the Taiping Rebellion and its Aftermath. Translated by Xiaofei Tian. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014.
  1309.  
  1310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1311.  
  1312. Translation of the manuscript copy of a memoir of life in contested lands during the civil war, mostly covering the years 1861–1863. An extensive introduction inserts the text into the history of Chinese travel literature and the framework of trauma writing.
  1313.  
  1314. Find this resource:
  1315.  
  1316.  
  1317. Huntington, Rania. “Chaos, Memory, and Genre: Anecdotal Recollections of the Taiping Rebellion.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) 27 (2005): 59–91.
  1318.  
  1319. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1320.  
  1321. Overview of collections of “brush notes” published during the 1870s and 1880s, which contain memoirs relating to the Taiping and the civil war together with anecdotes about lingering ghosts from that period.
  1322.  
  1323. Find this resource:
  1324.  
  1325.  
  1326. Meyer-Fong, Tobie. What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in 19th Century China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013.
  1327.  
  1328. DOI: 10.11126/stanford/9780804754255.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1329.  
  1330. Based on local Gazetteers and contemporary writings encouraging charity, the study shows how local communities dealt with the huge death toll of the Taiping civil war in frequent disregard for the ideological divide but in cooperation with the post mortem honor system of the Qing court.
  1331.  
  1332. Find this resource:
  1333.  
  1334.  
  1335. Woodbridge, Chuck. “What Literati Talked About When They Talked About Memory: Commemorating Resistance to the Taiping in Nanjing’s Yu Garden, 1900–1911.” Twentieth Century China 40.1 (2015): 3–24.
  1336.  
  1337. DOI: 10.1179/1521538514Z.00000000051Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1338.  
  1339. Commemorating a planned coup against Taiping rule in Nanjing, the participants in these meetings used traditional literati rhetoric and genres to reassert their values and lifestyle against an environment that pushed for modernization and increasingly claimed continuity with the Taiping agenda.
  1340.  
  1341. Find this resource:
  1342.  
  1343.  
  1344. Yixin 奕訢, Zhu Xueqin 朱學勤, et al. Qinding jiaoping Yuefei fang lüe (欽定剿平粵匪方略). n.d.
  1345.  
  1346. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1347.  
  1348. The official military record of the Qing efforts to put down the Taipings, and part of a series of such records of Qing triumphs over rebellions in mid-19th-century China. While the documents used are mostly accessible unabbreviated elsewhere, it remains an important source for the Qing court’s perception and presentation of its efforts to defend itself against internal challenges and secure or restore order in the empire. Written as a chronological narrative without scholarly ambition at analysis. With a preface dated 1872 Guangxu period.
  1349.  
  1350. Find this resource:
  1351.  
  1352.  
  1353. Zhang, Hongxing. “Wu Youru’s ‘The Victory Over the Taiping’: Painting and Censorship in 1886 China.” PhD diss., University of London, 1999.
  1354.  
  1355. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1356.  
  1357. Study of the paintings to commemorate the victory over the Taiping that had been ordered by the Qing court.
  1358.  
  1359. Find this resource:
  1360.  
  1361.  
  1362. The Taiping and the Chinese Revolutions
  1363.  
  1364. The Taiping heritage was claimed by diverse Chinese revolutionary groups, from Marx (Marx 1902, Marx 1980) to Sun Yat-sen; from the Guomindang, whose officials in 1928 forbade the use of the slanderous terms current in polemical writing against the Taiping, to the Chinese Communist Party (Jing and Lin 1961). Valuations of the Taiping and individual Taiping leaders in the PRC were often geared toward contemporary debates (Nanjing daxue lishixi Taiping Tianguo shi yanjiushi 1982, Qi 2011). While not scholarly in nature, many of these writings assume the language of scholarship and claim its status.
  1365.  
  1366. Jing Heng 景珩, and Lin Yanjiao 林言椒, comps. Taiping tianguo geming xingzhi wenti taolun ji (太平天囯革命性质问题讨论集). Beijing: Sanlian, 1961.
  1367.  
  1368. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1369.  
  1370. Collection of PRC essays from 1951 to 1961 showing the “revolutionary” rather than religious nature of the Taiping. Buttressing the affirmative decision in a 1951 People’s Daily editorial, the articles collected here claim that the Taiping civil war was a “peasant rebellion” with an “anti-feudal” as well as “anti-imperialist” focus.
  1371.  
  1372. Find this resource:
  1373.  
  1374.  
  1375. Marx, Karl. “Chinesisches.” In Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Werke. Vol. 15. By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 514–516. Berlin: Dietz, 1980.
  1376.  
  1377. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1378.  
  1379. Siding with British diplomats, Marx denounced the Taiping as “lacking any germ of a new formation.” Important as statement of high authority with an assessment opposite to the one from 1850 and against which PRC politicians and historians had to develop their own assessment of the “Taiping revolution.” Originally printed in Die Presse 186, 7 July 1862.
  1380.  
  1381. Find this resource:
  1382.  
  1383.  
  1384. Mehring, F.. Aus dem literarischen Nachlass von Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels und Ferdinand Lassalle. Vol. 3. Stuttgart, Germany: Dietz, 1902.
  1385.  
  1386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1387.  
  1388. Based on Gutzlaff’s speeches in Germany, Marx predicted in this pre-Taiping article a “socialist” rebellion in China that would doom British trade and lead to revolution in England. Originally published in Neue Rheinische Revue, 31 January, 1850 (pp. 444–445).
  1389.  
  1390. Find this resource:
  1391.  
  1392.  
  1393. Nanjing daxue lishixi Taiping Tianguo shi yanjiushi (南京大學厤史係太平天国史 研究室), ed. Taiping Tianguo shi xintan (太平天国史新谈). Nanjing, China: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1982.
  1394.  
  1395. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1396.  
  1397. Collection of essays by younger Taiping scholars outlining new approaches to Taiping history. In a critical departure from the praise for Taiping revolutionary egalitarianism and the supreme role of Hong Xiuquan, the articles adjust Taiping evaluation and research foci to the new priorities of the beginning of the post–Cultural Revolution reforms.
  1398.  
  1399. Find this resource:
  1400.  
  1401.  
  1402. Qi Benyu 戚本禹. Ping Li Xiucheng (评李秀成). Hong Kong, China: Tiandi tushu youxian gongsi, 2011.
  1403.  
  1404. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1405.  
  1406. The written confession made by Taiping commander Li Xiucheng before his execution became the platform to indirectly discuss revolutionaries accused of becoming “capitulationists.” Qi Benyu, whose 1963 article on Li Xiucheng (“Guanyu pingjia Li Xiucheng wenti de taolun ziliao”关于评价李秀成问题的讨论资料, Lishi yanjiu 4 (1963): 1–18）started this discussion, here provides background after his own release from prison.
  1407.  
  1408. Find this resource:
  1409.  
  1410.  
  1411. Fictional and Film Treatments of the Taiping
  1412.  
  1413. Novels and films about the Taiping were as important in shaping the public perception of the civil war in memory as were histories, schoolbooks, and scholarship. This was true for England (Mossman 1876), but especially true for China, where the ancestry of the Taiping was claimed by revolutionaries from Sun Yat-sen to the Chinese Communist Party (Huang 1906, Longtanjushi 1920). A Hong Kong TV series depicted the Taiping as imbued with a superstitious belief that adopting Christianity would make China rich and strong (Siu 1988), while a CCTV series from 2000 moderated the traditional PRC master narrative that discounted religion by emphasizing the conscious use by Taiping leaders of elements from folk religion to gain support among the populace (Chen 2000).
  1414.  
  1415. Chen Jialin 陈家林, dir. Taiping tianguo (太平天国). Online video. Beijing: CCTV TV, 2000.
  1416.  
  1417. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1418.  
  1419. This television series presented the official version of the Taiping at the time as an anti-imperialist anti-feudal peasant rebellion that used religion as a cloak, including a hoax about spirit possession. Available for viewing on the Youku website. In Chinese.
  1420.  
  1421. Find this resource:
  1422.  
  1423.  
  1424. Huang Shizhong 黃世仲. Huitu Hong Xiuquan yanyi (繪圖洪秀全演義). China: n.p., 1906.
  1425.  
  1426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1427.  
  1428. This fictionalized biography of Hong Xiuquan that came with a preface by the revolutionary (and philologist) Zhang Taiyan began a long list of fictionalized treatments of the Taipings for contemporary purposes. It used the Taiping precedent to advocate a military uprising against Manchu rule.
  1429.  
  1430. Find this resource:
  1431.  
  1432.  
  1433. Longtanjushi 龍潭居士. Taiping tianguo yanyi (太平天國演義). Shanghai: Shangwen shudian, 1920.
  1434.  
  1435. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1436.  
  1437. Using the novel form but claiming serious historiographical intent, and with an earlier preface from 1912, this work gives the Taiping “heroes” their due as a force trying to recuperate China from Manchu occupation.
  1438.  
  1439. Find this resource:
  1440.  
  1441.  
  1442. Mossman, Samuel. The Mandarin’s Daughter. A Story of the Great Taiping Rebellion, and Gordon’s “Ever-Victorious Army.” London: Griffith and Farran, 1876.
  1443.  
  1444. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1445.  
  1446. Fictional treatment of the ever more “impious” Taiping and their eventual triumphant defeat at the hands of British mercenaries under Gordon. The author of this novel, an earlier version of which had been serialized in the popular journal Leisure Hour, claimed that the “amount of fiction” it contained “is infinitesimal.”
  1447.  
  1448. Find this resource:
  1449.  
  1450.  
  1451. Siu Sang監製, prod. Taiping tianguo (太平天国). Online video. Hong Kong, China: TVB, 1988–.
  1452.  
  1453. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1454.  
  1455. This television series in forty-five parts of forty-five minutes each, starring Rai Lui as Hong Xiuquan and Felix Wong as Yang Xiuqing, presents the Taiping as connected to Chinese secret societies and explains their acceptance of fundamentalist Christianity as based on a promise by Roberts that this would make China rich and strong and dissuade foreign powers from bullying the nation. In Cantonese.
  1456.  
  1457. Find this resource:
  1458.  
  1459.  
  1460. Yu Deshui 于得水, dir. Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全). Television series. Canton, China: Zhujiang TV, 1989.
  1461.  
  1462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1463.  
  1464. This series, in which Hong Xiuquan was played by Xing Ming 辛名, does not seem to be accessible at this point.
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