Chronology of Events of the Taiping Rebellion

• 1814- Hong Xiuquan was born in Hua County

• 1827- First attempt at official examination…. failed

• 1837- Second attempt…failed
• -Received Good Works For Exhorting The Age by Liang A-fa
• -At this point, Hong grew ill, started to have dreams of a man in black referring to him as his ‘son’
• -Name changed from Hong Huoxiu to Hong Xiuquan

• 1848- Hong’s friend Feng Yunshan creates the ‘God-Worshipping Society’
• -Went around and destroyed temples statues of idol worship

• 1850- ‘God-Worshipping Society’ begins to form armies. Qing begins to see them as threat
• -December 1850: “Jintian Uprising”, massive influx of recruits and converts

• 1851- ‘God-Worshipping Society’ changes into the ‘Taiping Tianguo’ or “The Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace”
• -Left Jintian and traveled to Yong’ an, city fell easy
• -Yong’ an then constantly harassed by Qing troops
• -Many social reforms came from occupation of Yong’ an
• Taiping Calendar
• Kings of North, South, East, and West. Attmept to create a new military strategy.
• Hong is known as the ‘Heavenly King’

• 1852 – April 5^th, Taiping flee Yong’ an
• Feng Yunshan killed on way past Quanzhou
• Hong turns around and Taiping troops slaughter everyone in the city
• Ambushed shortly thereafter, 10,000 Taiping troops dead
• Taiping retreat and hide out at Daozhou
• West King, Xiao Chaogui (Voice of Jesus), attacks city of Changsha preemptively. Xiao fails, and is killed in battle

• 1853 – March Northwest
• Wuchang captured, left city within a month
• March 19^th, Nanjing fell to the Taiping, capital established
• Hong and his East King, Yang Xiuqing (Voice of God), almost instantly make plans to capture Beijing, along with numerous other areas (Anhui province, Wuchang, Changsha, etc)

• 1856- Internal Disorder
• Yang’s messages from God increase, berating Hong and other followers
• The North King, Wei Changhui, grows tired of the abuse of power
• September, Wei along with two other commanders, plot to kill Yang
• Sent in Thousands of troops and made quick work of Yang
• Shi Dakai, a young officer, and popular with the troops, is furious with Wei for killing thousands of people (Yang’s family, palace women, etc)
• Wei plots to kill Shi Dakai and hold Hong captive
• Hong gets word of this and kills Wei instantly
• Hong from here on becomes trustworthy only of his family, despite how incompetent they are at military strategy

• 1860- Taiping make a move on Shanghai
• Commanders have optimistic view of westerners
• Let foreigners in the city know that they mean no harm to them
• Want to continue trade with west except for opium, alcohol, and tobacco
• Foreigners instead form their own militias and fight the Taiping
• From here, Taiping is now on the defensive
• ‘Ever-Victorious Army’

· 1864- Nanjing surrounded

o Hong dies on June 1^st

o Other commanders, seeing no way of winning, take flight, then captured within months

o Troops, offered no amnesty by the Manchu government, join other rebellions in the country

March of the Taiping and Manchu armies