TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > Factors Behind the 1851 Taiping Rebellion
Introduction
- Several Key factors important for the development of the Taiping Rebellion
- Decay of traditional Buddhism and Taoism
- Anti-Manchu sentiments creating anti-Confucian sentiments
- Restlessness of Chinese under Manchu Rule
- Corruptness of Officials
- Parasitical government
- Humiliation at the hands of foreign powers
- Disparity between the growing wealth of the rich south and poor northern sections of China
- Economic hardship and changes due to western trade
- Western dominance of treaty ports
- Western culture and beliefs moved slowly into the foreground in China.
- Especially the Christian doctrine spread by missionaries which found itself at the center of the Taiping ideology.
- Even radical quasi-Christian movements like the Taiping Rebellion made use of Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist ideas to develop its tenets.
- These led to deep disillusion with Manchu Dynasty
- Shook Manchu Dynasty to more unsteady foundations and led to the communist revolution nearly a century later
The Taiping Rebellion is one of the forerunners of China's awakening
- China had been slowly breaking away from tradition for several hundred years, and the Taipings only widened the rift between modern China and its ancestors.
- Secret societies like the Taipings had existed in China for as long as there were Emperors to oppose.
- Not only did the Chinese elite take notice of the Taiping Rebellion, but there were foreigners watching as well.
- The Taiping Rebellion marked the birth of China as a country among others, rather than the only nation under Heaven.
Decaying of Old Beliefs
- Chinese saw Christian god as ‘jealous’
- Buddhism accepted Confucian principals
- Many Chinese were ‘Confucian in thought but could attend various Buddhist ceremonies
- Mid 19th Century the great religions had degenerated and no longer influenced the precepts of most people
- Sole survivor was the worshipping of ancestors
- Confucian concepts still had a strong grip on society
The outburst of pro-Chinese thinking prompted an anti-Manchu feeling
- Especially in the south where Manchu rule had never been strong. The Manchus, only a century before given credit for China's success in conquest, were charged now with all of China's problems.
- Among the elite of China, an aversion to absolute rule was spreading. Scholars thought that the Manchus had outlived their use after a brief golden age, and that the time had come to place the rule of China in Chinese hands again.
- The foreign ideas and people who now streamed into China without hindrance were strongly resented.
- The Manchu dynasty, called the Ch'ing3, came to power after the Ming.
- Called in to aid a rebellion that the now-weak Ming dynasty could not control, the Manchus took over Peking in 1644 and turned over the rule of South China to the Chinese generals who had aided in their conquest.
- The Opium War and its aftermath had a great influence on the Ch'ing dynasty.
- Later, one of the Taiping leaders would state:
- “The problem the Manchus were faced with in China was their preservation as a ruling body despite their obvious minority, (only two percent of the entire population of China was Manchu). Intermarriage and trade with the Chinese was illegal.”
Manchu Decadence
- Through the success of the dynasty, the Manchu were now a decadent race
- The mandate of heaven was being withdrawn
- Social and Economic distress led uprisings that were suppressed by the government.
- Mood of despair amongst people because
- Manchu extorted more out of a weak and sick population every year for their own glory
- Manchu failed to protect the sovereignty of China form the westerners
- Growing population causing problems
- Food shortages due to increased demand
- Starvation
- Banditry
- Epidemics such as plague
- General Lawlessness
Economic Factors
- Trade in South, created uneven distribution of wealth
- “… the rise of the south and decay of the northwest. From the reign of Chien-lung onwards the south, and in particular the Yangtze delta and tea producing districts … became by far the wealthiest and most populous part of the empire … the focus of economic life.” – C.P. Fitzgerald: China
- Areas in south had always had the strongest Manchu opposition
- They also had greatest influence of western ideas
- They economic strength of this region was very important to the rebellion
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