Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856)
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The Red Turban Rebellion of 1854–1856 was a rebellion by members of the Tiandihui (Chinese: 天地會, Heaven and Earth Society) in the Guangdong province of South China.
The initial core of the rebels were Tiandihui secret societies that were involved in both revolutionary activity and organised crime, such as prostitution, piracy, and opium smuggling. Many lodges were formed originally for self-defence in feuds between locals and migrants from neighboring provinces.[1] They were organized into scattered local lodges, each under a lodge-master (堂主) and in October 1854 elected Li Wenmao and Chen Kai as joint alliance-masters (盟主).[2]
In Summer 1854, 50,000 outlaws, proclaiming a restoration of the
Viceroy of Guangdong Xu Guangjin (徐廣縉) sent braves (勇, or irregular militia), to the border to deal with the situation, but most of them defected to the rebels. Provincial Governor Ye Mingchen then formulated a strategy of bribing lodge leaders to defect, which was successful in bringing Ling to heel, and the Emperor promoted him to Viceroy.[3] Ye would later be in charge of purging Guangdong of any anti-government outlaw. Over one million people from Guangdong were sentenced to death and executed.[7]
To fund the further defence of the province against the Taiping rebellion, heavy taxes begun to be levied on the population. That resulted in the people becoming alienated, and flooding of the
The Red Turbans did not succeed in taking the city of Guangzhou but fought through much of the country round it for more than a year.[10]: 473 Failure to co-ordinate had exhausted the supplies of the rebel alliance, which faltered during the attack on the provincial capital Guangzhou, where the gentry had succeeded in raising a force of militia to defend the city alongside the British Royal Navy, which intervened on the government side.[11]
By 1856, after failing to capture Guangzhou, Red Turban forces, hoping to regroup with the Taiping forces in Nanjing, retreated north, occupied parts of
Dacheng phase
The rebellion was led by Chen Kai (陳開) and Li Wenmao (李文茂), both of whom were
The Dacheng Kingdom army was joined by the forces of other Yue Chinese rebels such as Huang Dingfeng (黃鼎鳳), Li Wencai (李文彩) and Li Jingui (李錦貴), all of whom had rebelled against the Qing since the 1850s.
Other short-term rebel regimes were established alongside Dacheng, such as the Yanling Kingdom and the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom.[15]
In November 1856, Li Wenmao besieged and captured Liuzhou. In April 1857, Chen Kai captured Wuzhou. They advanced to Yongzhou (now Nanning) and captured the city. In September 1857, the Dacheng Kingdom managed to expand half of Guangxi, an area equal to northern Vietnam, and issued their own currency called Pingjing Shengbao (平靖勝寶).
In 1857, Li Wenmao attacked
In February 1861, the Qing army attacked Xiujing. The city fell after a six-month long siege. Chen Kai was killed in the battle. The rebellion then entered an insurgency phase of actively resisting the Qing army until the last rebel holdouts surrendered in May 1864.
Impact
The British involvement in the counter-insurgency involved selling British weaponry to government forces and allowing the Chinese shipping carrying them to avoid rebel attack by using the British flag. That would lead to the Second Opium War in which a pirate ship with a British flag was captured by Chinese government forces.[16]
References
- ISSN 1934-7227.
- ISSN 1934-7227.
- ^ a b Wakeman, Strangers at the Gate pp. 132-133
- ^ S. Y. Teng (December 1968). Strangers at the Gate: Social Disorder in South China, 1839-1861. by Frederick Wakeman (review) Political Science Quarterly 83 (4): 658–660. (subscription required)
- ^ Yeh Ming-Ch'en: Viceroy of Liang Kuang 1852-8 By J. Y. Wong, Senior Lecturer in History J Y Wong
- ^ Guangdong and Chinese Diaspora: The Changing Landscape of Qiaoxiang – Yow Cheun Hoe – Google Books
- ISBN 9780804746878.
- ISSN 1934-7227.
- ISBN 0520212398.
- ^ June Mei (October 1979). Socioeconomic Origins of Emigration: Guangdong to California, 1850–1882. Modern China 5 (4): 463–501. (subscription required)
- ISSN 1934-7227.
- ISSN 1934-7227.
- ^ Steven Platt (2012). Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom. Knopf
- ISBN 9781351610032.
- ^ China Encyclopedia: History of Tiandihui Archives 中國大百科全書:天地會之史料及其參考書目
- ISSN 1934-7227.