Lin Shuangwen rebellion

Pacification of Taiwan
The Qing fleet returning from Taiwan
Date 1786–1788 Location Taiwan, Qing China Result Qing victory
Belligerents
Qing Empire	Taiwanese rebels
Commanders and leaders
Qianlong Emperor Fuk'anggan Ren Cheng'en [zh]	Lin Shuangwen [zh]   Zhuang Datian [zh]  (POW) Lin Da
Strength
3,000 police 10,000 troops sent to relieve Taiwan in 1786 20,000 troops brought by Fuk'anggan in 1788 including Green Standard Army and Eight Banners Quanzhou militia Hakka militia a minority of Zhangzhou militia	Zhangzhou militia (Minority of Quanzhou militia)
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Lin Shuangwen rebellion (Chinese: 林爽文事件; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Sóng-bûn sū-kiāⁿ; lit. 'Lin Shuangwen Incident') occurred in 1787–1788 in Taiwan under the rule of the Qing dynasty. The rebellion was started by the rebel Lin Shuangwen and was pacified by the Qianlong Emperor. Lin Shuangwen was then executed.^[1]

It started when the Qing Taiwan governor Sun Jingsui (孙景燧) outlawed the Tiandihui society and arrested Lin Shuangwen's uncles. Lin then murdered Sun and formed an army to resist. Lin's forces which were mostly Zhangzhou people attacked several Taiwan sites, and fought militias mostly made out of Quanzhou and Hakka people, however some Quanzhou fought on Lin's side and some Zhangzhou people were on the Qing side. The Qing sent troops to quell the rebellion and execute Lin and the rebels.^[2]

Events

Predecessors

Zhangzhou militias under Zhu Yigui rebelled against the Qing in 1721 and fought against militias mostly composed of Quanzhou and Hakka people.

Start of rebellion

Lin was an immigrant from Zhangzhou who came to Taiwan with his relatives in the 1770s. They were involved in the secret anti-Qing Tiandihui (Heaven and Earth Society). Intercenine fighting between Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Hakka plagued the island.

In 1786, the Qing-appointed Governor of Taiwan,

On January 16, 1787, Lin murdered Sun Jingsui and other officials. The number of insurgents quickly rose to 50,000 people. By February, in less than a year, the rebels occupied almost all of southern Taiwan except for Zhuluo County and Lugangzhen (鹿港镇). They managed to push out some government forces out of Lin's home base in Changhua and Tamsui.

In response, Qing troops were sent to suppress them in a hurry. The eastern insurgents defeated the poorly organized troops and had to resist falling to the enemy. However, Lin's Zhangzhou forces fought against militias made out of mostly Quanzhou and Hakka people - who together made up approximately half of the Han migrants to Taiwan, with Lin's Zhangzhou people comprising the other half. Militias made out of majority Quanzhou and Hakka people cooperated with the Qing army to defeat Lin's armies.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

The Tiandihui rebels under Lin Shuangwen performed rituals like cockerel sacrifice.^[8]

Quanzhou and Hakka

By this point, the fighting was drawing in Zhangzhou people beyond just the society members, and activating the old feuds; this brought out Quanzhou networks (as well as Hakka) on behalf of the government. Lin's forces were made mostly of Zhangzhou people, and the Zhangzhou and Quanzhou people were already feuding with each other, so the rebellion sparked a large-scale battle between the two sides. The Quanzhou faction formed their own army and cooperated with the Qing forces to resist Lin.

Zhangzhou militias also fought against Hakka militias. Hakka people from Taozhumiao (桃竹苗), Liudui (六堆), and other places organized a Taiwan Hakka volunteer army. The Hakka cooperated with the Qing army to defeat Lin's forces and defend their homes. Under the leadership of Chen Ziyun (陳紫雲), the Qing and Hakka forces battled in Hsinchu and other places.

Eventually, the government sent sufficient force to restore order. The governors of Zhejiang and Fujian then sent Fuzhou general Hengrui (恆瑞) and 4,000 troops to Taiwan to help quell the rebellion. After April 23, another 10,000 Qing troops were sent to Taiwan, and then another 7,000 were added.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Qing reinforcements

Finally, in December 10, the Qing imperial court sent Fuk'anggan to quell the rebellion with a force of 20,000 soldiers, while Hailancha [zh], Counsellor of the Police, deployed nearly 3,000 people to fight the insurgents with the majority from the Green Standard Army and a minority from the Eight Banners. These new troops were well equipped, disciplined and had combat experience which proved enough to route the insurgents.

The Qing annihilated Lin's army and captured Lin on February 10, 1788. As many as 300,000 took part in the rebellion. The Ming loyalists had lost the war, their leaders were executed, and the remaining rebels hid among the locals.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Punishment

Lin Shuangwen was executed, and the Heaven and Earth Society was dispersed to

Imposing a penalty of castration upon the sons of rebels and murderers of 3 or more people was part of a new Qing policy to ensure a supply of young boy eunuchs since the Qianlong emperor ordered young eunuchs to be shifted towards the main imperial residence in the Summer Palace. Norman A. Kutcher connected the Qing policy on obtaining young eunuchs to the observation that young boy eunuchs were prized by female members of the Qing Imperial family as attendants, noted by the British George Carter Stent in the 19th century.[16]^[17] Norman Kutcher noted that George Stent said young eunuchs were physically attractive and were used for "impossible to describe" duties by female imperial family members and they were considered "completely pure". Kutcher suggests the boys were used for sexual pleasure by Qing imperial women, connecting them to the boy eunuchs called "earrings" who were used for that purpose.^[12]

Sons of murderers above 15 were not beheaded unlike sons and grandsons of rebels and instead they were also castrated as eunuchs in the palace. The wives and daughters of murderers would be given to the murder victims' relatives if they still lived unlike wives and daughters of rebels. Qianlong and the Imperial Household Department under Heshen later decreed that sons of murderers who were 16 years old and older would be exiled as slaves to

During Qianlong's reign, Li Shiyao [zh] was involved in graft and embezzlement. Li Shiyao was demoted of his noble title and sentenced to death. However, after assisting in quelling the Lin Shuangwen rebellion, his life was spared.^[4]

Aftermath

After the rebellion, local feuds between the Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Hakka people appeared only sporadically through the early 19th century, coming to an end in the 1860s. However, they never again were serious to push out the government or encompass the whole island. There were more than a hundred rebellions during the early Qing. The frequency of rebellions, riots, and civil strife in Qing Taiwan is evoked by the common saying "every three years an uprising; every five years a rebellion" (三年一反、五年一亂).^[30]

In total, the Qing deployed fewer than 40,000 troops, and it took over one year to stamp the rebellion. However, through clever use of ethnic relations, forming good relations with the aborigines, and taking advantage of the feuds between the Taiwan internal factions (the Zhangzhou, Quanzhou migrants), the Qing successfully annihilated Lin's family and forces. In 1787, the Qianlong Emperor changed the name of Zhuluo County to Jiayi County (嘉義縣) to reward the Zhuluo people in helping resist and defeat Lin Shuangwen.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Gallery

• 
  Battle of Dabulin
• 
  Attack on Douliumen (Zhuluo)
• 
  Conquest of Douliumen (Zhuluo)
• 
  Conquest of Dali
• 
  Attack on the mountain Xiaobantian
• 
  Battle of Kuzhai
• 
  Capture of the rebel chief Lin Shuangwen
• 
  Battle of Jijipu
• 
  Battle of Dawujing
• 
  Capture of Zhuang Datian
• 
  Crossing the ocean and triumphant return
• 
  Victory banquet of the emperor to greet the officers who attended the campaign against Taiwan.

See also

• Taiwan under Qing rule

References