Panthay Rebellion: A Visual History

The Panthay Rebellion (1856-1873) was a rising of the Hui Muslims of Yunnan against Qing rule, sparked by a massacre of Muslims in Kunming in May 1856 after years of Han-Hui feuds over mines. Du Wenxiu took Dali in 1856 and proclaimed the Pingnan Guo, ruling western Yunnan as Sultan Suleiman with a mixed Hui-Han-indigenous administration for 16 years, while other Hui leaders like Ma Rulong besieged Kunming and then defected. After the Taiping's defeat the Qing under Cen Yuying reconquered the province; Dali fell in January 1873, Du Wenxiu took poison and was beheaded, and the population was slaughtered. Perhaps a million died and Yunnan's population fell by half.

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Yunnan population

Timeline of the Panthay Rebellion

1. 1856
   Kunming massacre; Dali taken
2. 1857
   First siege of Kunming
3. 1862
   Ma Rulong defects to the Qing
4. 1867
   Du's forces besiege Kunming and fail
5. 1872
   Mission to London; siege of Dali
6. 1873
   Dali falls; Du Wenxiu executed

Origins

Yunnan's Hui, descended from Central Asian Muslims settled under the Yuan, clashed with Han migrants over silver mines and land; officials sided with the Han. In May 1856 the Kunming authorities organised the killing of thousands of Hui. Hui across the province rose; Du Wenxiu, a Hui scholar who had petitioned Beijing in vain, seized Dali in September 1856.

The Dali sultanate

Du took the title Generalissimo (Qaid) and Sultan Suleiman, styled his state Pingnan ('Pacified South'), and used both Chinese and Islamic forms; his officials were Han, Hui and Yi. He sought British recognition, sending his son to London in 1872 with a gift of Yunnan marble, without result. Ma Rulong's eastern Hui besieged Kunming three times but he surrendered to the Qing in 1862 and turned his forces against Du.

Reconquest

Freed after 1864, the Qing sent Cen Yuying's provincial army into western Yunnan; town after town was taken and its Muslim population killed. Dali was besieged from 1872; Du Wenxiu, hoping to save the city, drank opium and gave himself up to be executed on 15 January 1873. The Qing broke their promise and massacred Dali's people, sending baskets of ears to Kunming. Surviving Hui fled to Burma, where 'Panthay' communities remain, and to Thailand and Laos.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Qing dynasty (1636 to 1912)
• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368)
• Russian Empire (1721 to 1917)
• Third Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)
• Empire of Japan (1868 to 1947)

Wars of the same era and region

• Taiping Rebellion (1850 to 1864)
• Burmese-Siamese wars (1547 to 1855)
• Russo-Japanese War (1904 to 1905)

8 surprising things about the Panthay Rebellion

1. 'Panthay' is the Burmese name for Yunnanese Muslims; in China the rising is the Du Wenxiu rebellion.
2. Du Wenxiu's envoy presented Queen Victoria's officials with a piece of Dali marble in 1872 as a token of a state that fell months later.
3. The Qing general Cen Yuying's troops sent 24 baskets of ears to Kunming from Dali as proof of slaughter.
4. The rebellion coincided with the Taiping and Nian risings and the Dungan revolt in the north-west, nearly bringing down the Qing.
5. Du Wenxiu wrote Chinese poetry and issued coins with the Chinese reign name Pingnan.
6. Yunnan's Muslim community today is largely descended from survivors who hid or fled and returned.
7. The Panthay refugees in Burma set up the trading town of Panglong and are still Muslim traders in Mandalay.
8. Yunnan's tea and copper trade routes were closed for a decade, ruining the province.

Sources

• Panthay Rebellion Wikipedia
• Panthay Rebellion Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Du Wenxiu Wikipedia
• David G. Atwill, The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion (2005) Stanford University Press

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