Stephen R. Platt - Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
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- Book:Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
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The story begins in the early 1850s, the waning years of the Qing dynasty, when word spread of a major revolution brewing in the provinces, led by a failed civil servant who claimed to be the son of God and brother of Jesus. The Taiping rebels drew their power from the poor and the disenfranchised, unleashing the ethnic rage of millions of Chinese against their Manchu rulers. This homegrown movement seemed all but unstoppable until Britain and the United States stepped in and threw their support behind the Manchus: after years of massive carnage, all opposition to Qing rule was effectively snuffed out for generations. Stephen R. Platt recounts these events in spellbinding detail, building his story on two fascinating characters with opposing visions for Chinas future: the conservative Confucian scholar Zeng Guofan, an accidental general who emerged as the most influential military strategist in Chinas modern history; and Hong Rengan, a brilliant Taiping leader whose grand vision of building a modern, industrial, and pro-Western Chinese state ended in tragic failure.
This is an essential and enthralling history of the rise and fall of the movement that, a century and a half ago, might have launched China on an entirely different path into the modern world.
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ALSO BY STEPHEN R. PLATT
Provincial Patriots: The Hunanese and Modern China
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright 2012 by Stephen R. Platt
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the University of Washington Press for permission to reprint excerpts from The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, volumes two and three, by Franz Michael with Chung-li Chang, copyright 19661971 by Franz Michael.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Platt, Stephen R.
Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom : China, the West, and the epic story of the Taiping Civil War / by Stephen R. Platt.1st ed.
p. cm.
This is a Borzoi bookT.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-307-95759-7
1. ChinaHistoryTaiping Rebellion, 18501864. 2. ChinaRelationsWestern countries. 3. Western countriesRelationsChina. 4. ChinaHistoryTaiping Rebellion, 18501864Participation, Foreign. 5. Visitors, ForeignChinaHistory19th century. 6. EuropeansChinaHistory19th century. 7. AmericansChinaHistory19th century. 8. ManchusHistory19th century. 9. Ethnic conflictChinaHistory19th century. 10. ChinaEthnic relationsHistory19th century. I. Title.
DS759.P57 2012
951.034dc23 2011035137
Maps by Stephen R. Platt and David Merrill
Jacket image courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China
Jacket design by Brian Barth
v3.1
For Francie and Lucy
Blessed are the peacemakers:for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9
CONTENTS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CHRONOLOGY
1837
Hong Xiuquan has first visions.
18391842
Opium War between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty.
Hong Kong ceded to Great Britain.
Shanghai opened as treaty port.
1843
Hong Xiuquan begins preaching among the Hakkas.
1850
MARCH 9 The Xianfeng emperor accedes to the throne.
SUMMER First uprisings of the Society of God Worshippers in Guangxi.
1851
JANUARY 11 Hong Xiuquan announces founding of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Taiping Rebellion begins.
1852
Hong Rengan meets Theodore Hamberg.
18531854
Hong Rengan studies with Hamberg in Hong Kong.
18531856
Crimean War.
1853
JANUARY 8 Zeng Guofan receives instructions to organize militia in Hunan.
JANUARY 12 Taiping conquer Wuchang.
MARCH 19 Taiping conquer Nanjing, massacre Manchu population.
APRIL 27 British ship Hermes visits Nanjing.
1854
FEBRUARY Zeng Guofans Hunan Army begins fighting Taiping in Hunan.
MAY Hong Rengan travels to Shanghai, trying to get to Nanjing.
JULY 27 Yung Wing graduates from Yale University.
OCTOBER 14 Zeng Guofans militia forces take back Wuchang.
OCTOBER 25 Battle of Balaclava, Crimean War.
18551858
Hong Rengan in Hong Kong, employed by London Missionary Society.
1855
JANUARYFEBRUARY Disastrous defeat for Hunan Army at Jiujiang.
FEBRUARY 11 Zeng Guofan attempts suicide.
APRIL 3 Taiping reoccupy Wuchang.
SEPTEMBER Muslim rebellion breaks out in southwest China.
18561860
Arrow War (Second Opium War) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty.
1856
SEPTEMBER 2 The Eastern King and his followers killed in coup in Nanjing.
OCTOBER 8 Smuggling ship Arrow boarded by Qing authorities at Canton.
DECEMBER 19 Hunan Army recaptures Wuchang.
18571858
Sepoy Mutiny in India.
1857
APRIL 20 Lord Elgin appointed plenipotentiary to China.
DECEMBER 28 Allied forces bombard, occupy Canton (take possession January 1).
1858
MAY Hong Rengan leaves Hong Kong for Nanjing.
MAY 20 British and French fleet attacks Taku forts, goes on to invade Tianjin.
JUNE 27 Treaty of Tianjin signed between Britain and China.
NOVEMBERDECEMBER Elgins fleet sails up Yangtze River past Nanjing to Hankow.
NOVEMBER 1 Great Britain institutes direct rule of India; East India Company dissolved.
NOVEMBER 15 Major Taiping victory against Hunan Army at Three Rivers, Anhui.
Zeng Guofans brother Guohua killed.
1859
APRIL 22 Hong Rengan arrives in Nanjing, is promoted to Shield King on May 11.
JUNE 25 Repulse at Peiho River: British fleet devastated at the Taku forts.
1860
MAY Taiping armies rout imperial siege troops at Nanjing.
JUNE Zeng Guoquan lays siege to Anqing (will last until September 1861).
Frederick Townsend Ward enlists foreigners for rifle corps in Shanghai.
JUNE 2 The Loyal King occupies Suzhou.
JUNE 10 Zeng Guofan appointed acting governor-general of Jiangxi, Anhui, and Jiangsu; receives full appointment on August 10.
JULY 15 The Loyal King sends letter stating that the Taiping wont harm foreigners at Shanghai.
JULY 16 Frederick Townsend Wards militia captures Songjiang.
JULY 28 Zeng Guofan sets up headquarters in Qimen.
JULY 30 Frederick Townsend Ward attacks Qingpu, is defeated.
AUGUST 1 Allied fleet lands at Beitang.
AUGUST 2 Joseph Edkins and Griffith John arrive in Suzhou to meet Hong Rengan.
AUGUST 19 British and French forces attack Taiping rebels at Shanghai.
AUGUST 22 British and French forces capture Taku forts in north China.
SEPTEMBER 22 The Xianfeng emperor abandons the capital.
OCTOBER 13 British and French troops occupy Beijing.
Issachar Roberts arrives in Nanjing.
OCTOBER 18 British troops burn the Summer Palace.
OCTOBER 24 Sino-British Treaty of Beijing signed.
1861
FEBRUARY 9 Confederate States of America founded in Montgomery, Alabama.
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