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| 1851–61 |
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| The XIANFENG REIGN of Emperor Wenzong revealed the rapid disintegration of the dynasty. Agrarian unrest due primarily to official exactions, natural calamities, and absentee landlordism fed the movement into antiestablishment causes. | 1 |
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| 1850–64 |
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| REBELLION OF THE TAIPING TIANGUO (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace). The Taipings were a Christian-inspired movement founded in Guangxi by Hong Xiuquan (1813–64) and Feng Yunshan (1832–62). Its core was made up of the Hakka minority. After several failed attempts to pass the civil service examinations, Hong had a fever-induced vision, which he later interpreted as Jehovah calling him to heaven for an audience and to meet his (Hong's) “elder brother,” Jesus Christ. In 1847 he joined a Chinese Christian group founded earlier by Feng, the Society of God Worshipers. Two years later their numbers reached 10,000, and twice that number in 1850. Hong soon began to understand his calling from God to be the destruction of the Qing dynasty and all the “demons,” as he termed them, who supported it. His followers lived a communal life, sharing everything, strictly segregating the sexes, praying as a group, and forbidding opium and all corruption on pain of death. | 2 |
| Hong was aided by a brilliant strategist, Yang Xiuqing (d. 1856), who effectively took over the day-to-day operations of the rebel movement, as Hong became largely a spiritual leader. The government forces attacked them (Dec. 1850) and were badly defeated. The next month Hong announced that he was the “Heavenly King,” and the rebellion was launched. Their well-disciplined military fought through Guangxi and Hunan to the Wuhan tri-cities (1852–53) and down the Yangzi River past Nanjing, his capital (1853–64), to the Grand Canal. An expeditionary force sent toward Beijing was deflected through Shanxi by floods of the Yellow River, which shifted its bed north of Shandong (1853), and this force was repelled (1855). The Taipings' failure to provide conquered territory with either protection or constructive administration proved disastrous to their cause. They also failed to work with other contemporaneous rebel bands because of their extremist religious lifestyle. Hong's particular brand of Christianity ultimately alienated the Westerners as well: Hong preached an ascetic Christianity, while he and his fellow Taiping leaders all lived lives of extravagance and debauchery. | 3 |
| Persuaded to come out of ritual mourning, Zeng Guofan (1811–72), together with his younger brother Zeng Guoquan (1824–90), Li Hongzhang (1823–1901), Zuo Zongtang (1812–85), and other prominent Han Chinese officials came to the aid of the faltering Manchu dynasty. They were helped by the “Ever-Victorious Army,” a group of mercenaries led by Frederick Townsend Ward (1831–62) and, later, Charles George Gordon (1833–85). They retrieved Anqing (1861) from the Taipings, Suzhou (1863), and finally Nanjing (1864). All told, over 20 million perished in this conflict. | 4 |
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| 1851–68 |
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| The NIAN were an organized group of rebels from Anhui, northern Jiangsu, Shandong, and later Shanxi, led by Zhang Luoxing (d. 1863), many of whom had joined after losing everything when the Yellow River shifted directions. They took advantage of the Qing troops' preoccupation with the Taipings and the foreigners to rise in rebellion. Qing general Senggelinqin (d. 1865) won victories against them and killed Zhang, but he was later killed by them. They were suppressed (1865–68) by the same men who put down the Taipings: Zeng Guofan and later Li Hongzhang were sent to quell the uprising; both had great difficulty. The Nian were finally defeated (Aug. 1868). | 5 |
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| 1855–73 |
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| Muslims (Panthays) in Yunnan revolted, after years of friction with the local Han Chinese and excessive taxation by the central government, and set up an independent state, “Kingdom of the Pacified South,” at Dali, the ancient capital of Nanzhao. There was also a Muslim revolt in the northwest (Shaanxi and Gansu, 1862–73), eventually put down by Zuo Zongtang. | 6 |
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| 1855–81 |
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| Hmong tribesmen in Guizhou seized the opportunity to revolt. | 7 |
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| 1856, Oct. 8 |
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| After several years of efforts by Britain, France, and the United States to secure new rights and privileges through treaty revisions, the Arrow Incident in Guangzhou provided the British with an opportunity to force the Chinese militarily. Claiming that the vessel Arrow was registered in Hong Kong and had been illegally searched by Qing officials, the British moved and seized Guangzhou in Dec. 1857. British vessels then began to move north to force the central government's hand. | 8 |
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| 1858, June 26–29 |
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| The TREATY OF TIANJIN was concluded between China, Great Britain (negotiated by Lord Elgin (1811–63)), France, the United States, and Russia. China opened 11 more ports and permitted legations in Beijing, and trade and Christian missions in the interior; subsequent tariff and rules of trade (Nov.) established a maritime customs service with a foreign inspector general (Horatio N. Lay) and staff, and legalized the importation of opium. The Treaty of Aigun, signed by Yishan (d. 1878) and Nicholas Muraviev (c. 1809–81), ceded the north bank of the Amur River to Russia. | 9 |
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| 1859 |
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| The Qing refused British demands for the admission of foreign diplomats into Beijing. The British attacked the Dagu forts (June 25) but were repulsed. | 10 |
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| 1860, Oct. 12 |
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| The result was the occupation of Beijing by 17,000 British and French troops. The Summer Palace (Yuanming yuan) was burned to the ground (Oct. 18) to punish the court for seizing British envoys under a flag of truce. The emperor had fled the city to the north, and his younger brother “negotiated” the Beijing Convention (Oct. 24 with Britain, Oct. 25 with France), which increased indemnities, and the French secured the right of Catholic missions to hold land. Russian envoy Muraviev secured the cession (Nov. 14) of the Maritime Province. Now the British became the Qing's strongest ally against domestic rebellion. | 11 |
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| 1861, Nov. 11 |
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| The Zongli Yamen was created to handle foreign affairs, under the effective leadership of Prince Gong (1833–98). Wheaton's Elements of International Law, translated into Chinese by missionary W. A. P. Martin (1827–1916), was accepted by Prince Gong as the foundation for international interaction (1863). A school for interpreters was opened in the capital, with other foreign language schools opening later elsewhere. | 12 |
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| 1862–75 |
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| The TONGZHI REIGN of Emperor Muzong witnessed a restoration of Qing control over the empire with the quelling of all the midcentury rebellions. His mother, the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), ruled in conjunction with a prince and several high officials until 1873. Under the leadership of Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, and numerous others responsible for returning the country to Manchu hands, a solid foundation for reform in many areas was put in place. The “Self-Strengthening Movement” (or early Westernization movement) began; by studying Western subjects and skills, it was argued, China would become stronger. Arsenals and shipyards were built and outfitted with machinery from the United States; schools teaching how to use the machines and sail the vessels were attached to the arsenals. When Tongzhi died at the age of 18, Cixi controlled the succession and played a major role in all affairs of state until her death, the most powerful woman in the entire Qing period. Though far from the evil creature that subsequent Chinese and foreign critics have portrayed her to be, she was conservative and wasted money. | 13 |
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| 1863–1908 |
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| Sir Robert Hart (1835–1911) built up the Imperial Maritime Customs Service as a mainstay of government revenue and credit, with collateral services to train men, light the coast, improve rivers and harbors, and organize a postal service (1896; independent, 1911). | 14 |
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