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Taiping Rebellion: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

A failed exam candidate who believed he was Jesus's younger brother led a revolt that killed 20 million people, the bloodiest civil war in history.

Fought
1850 to 1864
Duration
14 years
Dates
1850 to 1864
Deaths
About 20 to 30 million, mostly civilians from famine and disease
Rebels
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom under Hong Xiuquan
Government
Qing dynasty; Hunan and Huai armies; the Ever Victorious Army
Result
Qing victory; Nanjing retaken July 1864

The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was a vast civil war in southern China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, founded by Hong Xiuquan, a Hakka schoolteacher who after visions declared himself the younger brother of Jesus Christ. His God Worshippers rose in Guangxi, swept down the Yangtze and took Nanjing in 1853 as their Heavenly Capital, ruling much of the richest part of China for 11 years with a programme of shared land, banned opium and foot-binding, and radical Christianity. Internal massacres, failed northern expeditions and the provincial armies of Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, with some Western help, crushed it; Nanjing fell in July 1864. Perhaps 20 to 30 million died.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Taiping Rebellion. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

1550160016501700175018001850190019502000Taiping Rebellion (1850 to 1864)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Qing dynastyQing dynasty (1636 to 1912)Open: Russian EmpireRussian Empire (1721 to 1917)Open: Third Portuguese EmpireThird Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)Open: Second French colonial empireSecond French colonial empire (1830 to 1980)Open: Panthay RebellionPanthay Rebellion (1856 to 1873)Open: Empire of JapanEmpire of Japan (1868 to 1947)Open: Russo-Japanese WarRusso-Japanese War (1904 to 1905)Open: Chinese Civil WarChinese Civil War (1927 to 1949)

Estimated deaths in the world's bloodiest conflicts

017.53552.570Taiping Rebellion: 2525Taiping RebellionWorld War I: 1717World War IWorld War II: 7070World War IIAn Lushan Rebellion: 1313An Lushan RebellionMongol conquests: 3030Mongol conquestsmillions (approximate)

Timeline of the Taiping Rebellion

  1. 1837
    Hong Xiuquan's visions
  2. 1851
    Heavenly Kingdom proclaimed at Jintian
  3. 1853
    Nanjing takenThe Heavenly Capital.
  4. 1856
    Tianjing incidentYang Xiuqing and followers massacred.
  5. 1860
    Taipings threaten Shanghai
  6. 1862
    Ever Victorious Army under Gordon
  7. 1864
    Hong dies; Nanjing falls

The Heavenly King

Hong Xiuquan failed the civil service exams four times; after a breakdown in 1837 he read a Christian tract and understood his visions to mean he was God's second son sent to slay demons, meaning the Manchu Qing. Among poor Hakka in Guangxi his God Worshipping Society grew to tens of thousands. In January 1851 he proclaimed the Taiping Tianguo, the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, and his army, with women's units and iron discipline, broke out towards the Yangtze.

Nanjing and the Heavenly Kingdom

The Taipings took Wuchang, then Nanjing in March 1853, killing its Manchu population. Hong retreated into his palace with concubines while the East King Yang Xiuqing ran the state; in 1856 Hong had Yang and 20,000 followers murdered, and the general Shi Dakai left with his army. Land was to be shared, the sexes segregated, the Bible printed and Confucian temples smashed. Northern expeditions to Beijing failed. Britain and France stayed neutral, then leaned to the Qing after 1860.

Defeat

Zeng Guofan built a Confucian-motivated Hunan Army of gentry-led volunteers; Li Hongzhang's Huai Army and the foreign-officered Ever Victorious Army under Ward and Gordon defended Shanghai and retook the delta cities. The Taiping general Li Xiucheng could not break the ring; Hong died, probably of eating weeds, in June 1864 and Nanjing fell on 19 July with the slaughter of its defenders. Remnants fought until 1871. The Qing survived but power had shifted to provincial governors, and the war's memory shaped later Chinese revolutionaries.

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8 surprising things about the Taiping Rebellion

  1. Hong Xiuquan believed the Christian God was his father and Jesus his elder brother, and that he had been to heaven to receive a sword.
  2. The Taipings banned opium, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, prostitution and foot-binding, and made men and women live in separate camps.
  3. The war's death toll may have exceeded that of the First World War, from a population base of 400 million.
  4. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon, later killed at Khartoum, commanded the Ever Victorious Army for the Qing.
  5. Hong published his own edited Bible and printed the first mass Chinese editions of the Old and New Testaments.
  6. Zeng Guofan's men reportedly killed 100,000 in the three days after Nanjing fell.
  7. Sun Yat-sen grew up on stories of the Taipings and Mao Zedong hailed them as a peasant revolution.
  8. The Taipings called the Manchus 'demons' and cut off their queues; the queue-cutting later became a mark of anti-Qing revolution.

Sources

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