3.24 Fall and Rise of China: Taiping Rebellion #1: Hong Xiuquan - Brother of Jesus

11/28/22 • 35 min

Age of Conquest: A Kings and Generals Podcast

Last time we spoke the entire Second Opium War of 1856-1860. The forces of Britain and France brought the Qing dynasty to its knees, forcing yet again unequal treaties and humiliation. While the opium wars were certainly a large contributor to the century of humiliation, the story we are about to talk about is arguably a lot more significant. During that five part series there was an ongoing and much more significant event occurring within China, that being one of if not the deadliest civil wars in human history, the Taiping Rebellion. Both the Taiping Rebellion and Second Opium War are intertwined, they influenced another greatly and together they are a large reason for the eventual downfall of the Qing dynasty. Buckle up folks because we are taking an extra long dive into an event that killed an estimated 20-30 million people.

#24 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 1: Hong Xiuquan the self proclaimed brother of Jesus

Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.

I first need to take a moment to explain something. I am literally writing this down after finishing the last page of my first draft of the entire series and without the last final touches I can tell it will be a whopping 10-12 episodes long gasp. I in no way expected this, I thought hell it would be the longest for sure, but maybe 6 episodes, not 12! But what really drove me to write so much, 99 pages to be exact cough, was fantastic sources I had not read until recently. One source looked at the event from a religious point of view, another was much older from the 1970’s which simply explained the events in a large picture, the old school way of history. Then a third source, which is a much more recent book tied up everything quite nicely with a lot of primary sources and feelings of the people from nobility to the commoners. I could not bring myself to cut down as a result and I do apologize if its a long venture, but for all of you who can rough it out I ensure it will be worth it. This is an incredible story filled with hardship, dramatic change, religion and insanity, and since the Qing dynasty is involved a hell of a lot of corruption. Stating all of that thank you so much to all those who have been listening you guys are awesome I greatly appreciate you all. If you want to reach out to suggest anything for the future, have critique and so on, please reach out to me by commenting at my Youtube channel the Pacific War Channel or if your are on the Kings and Generals discord shout out to me there! Please enjoy the Taiping Rebellion.

In 1852, Theodore Hamberg, a young Swedish Protestant missionary with a thin chinstrap beard was in Hong Kong. He was one of the first Europeans of his generation to brave the Chinese countryside, as he left the relative safety of Hong Kong, which was by this time a british colony to preach in a village 100 miles up the Pearl River. Hamburg was one of the first non chinese to learn and speak the dialect of the Hakka people. These were as described by one of my sources “a gypsy minority that thickly populate south CHina. They are sometimes referred to as the “guest people””. All of this amounted to nothing of too much importance, save for one short, round-faced Hakka, Hamburg converted named Hong Rengan. Hong Rengan had a incredible story to tell it seems.

Hamburg was surprised and found it a bit odd, that a lot of the Hakka he met already knew about God and Jesus despite these people being well beyond the narrow reach of the Hong Kong missionaries. Hamburg listened to Hong Rengan recount stories of battles, armies and congregations of christian believers all being led by a heavenly prophet, a Hakka one no less. This prophet claimed to be hunted by agents of the Qing dynasty and lived in disguise under an assumed name. He was once kidnapped, but escaped and lived in a forest for 4 days and a cave for 6. Hamburg confessed the stories this man told him were confusing “I could form no clear conception of the whole matter”. Hamburg did not know what to make of it all, so he asked Hong Rengan to write the stories down for him. Hamburg thought little of any of this for nearly a year, then in the spring of 1853 news came that Nanjing had fallen in a torrent of...

#24 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 1: Hong Xiuquan the self proclaimed brother of Jesus

Previous Episode

3.23 Fall and Rise of China: Second Opium War #5: Burning of the Summer Palace

Last time we spoke the Europeans licked their wounds after their nasty defeat to the Taku Forts. Elgin returned to China and a even larger coalition force now set itself on a warpath to march upon Beijing, but this time they went around the Taku Forts. They seized Kowloon, Chusan, Shanghai, Beitang, Tianjin, Danggu and then exacted their revenge upon the Taku Forts. The key to their success was the devastating Armstrong field gun which ripped asunder anything the Qing threw at them. Prince Seng lost the battle for Zhangjiawan utterly humiliating the Qing, but the great General did not simply call it quits, for now he reorganized the forces and put together a last stand at Baliqao. Could Prince Seng stop the European menace before they got to Beijing? Only time will tell.

#23 This episode is Part 6 of the Second Opium War: The Burning of the Summer Palace

Prince Seng and Prince Sengbao, the brother of Emperor Xianfeng had gathered a force of the Green Standard Army, reinforced by imperial guards of the 8 Banner Army, for a combined force nearly 30,000 strong. After their victory at Zhangjiawan, both Grant and Montauban were overly confident that they could simply march on Beijing. As they marched, the 101st regiment led by General Jamin arrived to increase their numbers. On the morning of September 21st as the European columns moved past Tongzhou they saw the Qing force in position in front of the Baliqao bridges. The Qing force was formidable with its left on the canal, reinforced by the village of Baliqao, another village in the center and a third on the far right. The road to Beijing passed through a rolling wooden terrain veering towards the canal and the Baliqao bridges. Seng had re-established order to his army and strengthened their resolve by bringing 100 guns and positioning them in the villages, on the other side of the canal and along his entire front. The Green Standard army were the majority, while the 8 Banner Army units were kept in reserve at the bridges. Seng also had of course a large cavalry force which was being led by Sengbao on their formation flanks.

Grant kept inline with what he had done in the previous battle, he took the left while Montauban took the center and right to protect his flank. Montauban used the wooden terrain to hide his lack of numbers, sending the first column to hit the Qing center. General Jamin moved to Collineau’s right to hit the Qing left. Grant moved to the far left of Collineau hoping to flank the Qing. General Collineau took the advance guard consisting of the elite companies of the 101 and 12nd regiments, two companies of the 2nd Chasseuers a pied, an engineer detachment, two batteries of horse artillery and a battery of 4 pound foot artillery. Montauban and Jamin commanded the 101 regiment along with the 2nd Chasseurs a pied, a battery of 12 pounders and a Congreve rocket section.

Collineau’s infantry sped through the woods towards the Qing center and their speed shocked Sengbao as he moved most of the cavalry from the wings to protect the center. The French advance guard moved into skirmish order forming a long line towards Baliqao. Montauban ordered Jamin to go forward as two large bodies of Qing cavalry, around 12,000 charged at each of the French columns. Collineau’s artillery rained hell into the Mongol and Manchu cavalry, while the elite company's rifle fired from secure locations along the sides of the main road. The accurate rifle fire took a massive toll on the cavalry, but Collineau soon found himself embroiled in hand to hand combat. Montauban and Jamin also used their artillery to devastating effect while their infantry formed two squares before the cavalry hit their position. The French 12 pound battery was positioned between Collineau and Jamin, continuously shelling the enemy. After some time the Qing cavalry broke off their attack having failed to break the French square formations or to overrun Collineau’s men. A brief lull allowed Montauban to re-form and advance upon the villages being defended by Green Standard battalions.

Prince Sengbao and Seng did not renew their cavalry assaults, because Grants column was marching onto their ri...

Next Episode

3.25 Fall and Rise of China: Taiping Rebellion #2: March to Nanjing

Last time we spoke Hong Xiuquan attempted four times to pass the imperial examination, but was met each time with failure. The stress put upon him was too much, causing him to have multiple mental breakdowns and to see visions leading him to realize he was the brother of Jesus Christ. God and the elder brother Jesus taught Hong Xiuquan had to fight demons and gave him a magical sword to rid the world of them. Hong Xiuquan knew the Manchu were demons and it was he who could usher in a heavenly kingdom on earth. He began to preach to the masses gathering those he called god worshippers and this began to raise concerns with the Qing officials who sought to stamp out what looked like the White Lotus Rebellion 2.0. Now the Qing forces led by Xiang Rong were trying to surround the god worshippers to end the menace before it became an even larger problem.

#25 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 2: The March to Nanjing

The Taiping had taken Jintai, but were being pursued constantly by multiple Qing armies always seeking to encircle and quell the rebellion. By this point the Taiping numbered around 60,000 men and they sought to seize the first major town, that of Yong’an, present day Mengshan town. Now before I get to this I just want to describe a bit the forces at play. The Taiping like I said were around 60,000 strong and were as you can imagine more of a peasantry type of group. They did not have much in the way of firearms, most were armed with spears ranging from 8-18feet long halberds, knives or swords such as the Liuyidao. There were those with bows and arrows, but archery in this time period was more specialized in northern china than southern china. For example the eight banner army had manchu and mongols who were extremely proficient in archery, but in the south it was simply not as great. There were some firearms, consisting of the usual suspects, firelock muskets and the every hilarious jingalls. Women took part in the initial battles, such as at Jintian, but there is pretty much no evidence of Taiping women fighting battles after 1853, it seems it was a necessity in the beginning but later on it was not employed. Later on in 1858 there would be an official women garrison under the Taiping, but they seem to be a ceremonial group.

Now the Qing military is quite complex at this point and although I have described it a bit in the past I would like to refresh memories here because the Qing military will evolve during this conflict. In the 1850’s, the Qing military was roughly 3.4 million strong, quelling the Taiping rebellion while simultaneously fighting the Europeans during the second opium war. The eight banner army consisted of Manchu’s, Mongolians and Han Chinese, roughly 250,000 men strong. They were much more of an imperial guard and stationed around Beijing. Then there was the Green Standard army consisted pretty much exclusively of Han Chinese. They were around 600,000 strong and were the real military might of the empire. Their creation was mostly because of the lack of efficiency within the eight banner army and ironically another type of military force would be created later on in this story because of the Green Standard armies lack of efficiency. There would also be varying groups of Europeans involved in this conflict, but that all comes later.

Now the last time we spoke, the Taiping were fleeing their stronghold in the Thistle Mountains, and sought to attack Yong’an. With their large force of 60,000 they took Yong’an easily on September 24th of 1851. A large reason Yong’an fell so easily was because there was an extreme lack of coordination on the part of the Qing forces. Meanwhile the Taiping had their 5 king system, the north,south,west,east and flank kings who were coordinating their military efforts quite well to fend off encirclement efforts by the Qing. It was at Yong’an that Hong Xiuquan enacted a lot of reforms. One of them was to replace the classic lunar calendar with a solar calendar. The lunar calendar is based on the monthly cycles of the moon’s phases while the solar calendar’s dates are based on the position of the sun, ie; seasons. Hong Xiuquan also began to develop man...