All About My Brother: A Taiping Rebellion Timeline
- Thread starter subversivepancakes
- Start date
I click refresh and bang there's another update of this great TL! 
It only worked once though...
It only worked once though...
YESS!!!! The Dowager Empress is dead!! (aside: wretched woman...)
You know, panda, I really like the way you insert Chinese sayings into this: for those who knows Chinese (like myself), it brings authenticity to your TL; for those who don't, it's a good way to learn about Chinese culture. (kneeling on the ground, worshipping) You're amazing, man.
I'm not sure if I'm reading it right, but if I did, Qing's in a worse shape than OTL (Emperor Xianfeng and Senggelinqin died earlier, more territorial and manpower losses), but in the long run, China's in a better shape (because of Yongsheng's modernist views). Am I right? Or am I not?
Marc A
P.S. Oh by the way, I came from 香港 (Hong Kong). Sorry for the geographical pun
) You know, panda, I really like the way you insert Chinese sayings into this: for those who knows Chinese (like myself
), it brings authenticity to your TL; for those who don't, it's a good way to learn about Chinese culture. (kneeling on the ground, worshipping) You're amazing, man.I'm not sure if I'm reading it right, but if I did, Qing's in a worse shape than OTL (Emperor Xianfeng and Senggelinqin died earlier, more territorial and manpower losses), but in the long run, China's in a better shape (because of Yongsheng's modernist views). Am I right? Or am I not?
Marc A
P.S. Oh by the way, I came from 香港 (Hong Kong). Sorry for the geographical pun
Keenir
Banned
Sometimes parents get ideas in their heads.
("I know, I'll name them after my favorite literary figures")
Frederick Townsend Ward has a fan club on AH.com??!? Who knew? I haven't quite decided what to do with him, but he will pop up - probably not in the next post, but in the one after that.
Yeah, he's certainly not going to call for the Whateverth Crusade or anything. The problem is going to be that the Taiping think they're Christian, and will thus be insulted by attempts to send missionaries into their territory. So while there won't be any direct action, I do expect a statement from the Pope telling the Taiping, "Nice try, but what you've got going on over there? Not really Christianity."
I'll have to check that timeline out; it sounds interesting. And as for that quibble . . . damn, that's a good point.
/waves hands furiously
I'll have to find some suitably nefarious way for Yang Xiuqing to ensure that the Hongettes don't become a problem. Obviously they'll need to keep a few kids around - they'll need an heir and a couple of backups - but as for the others? They're going to get sent to live with a nice farm family.
YESS!!!! The Dowager Empress is dead!! (aside: wretched woman...
You know, panda, I really like the way you insert Chinese sayings into this: for those who knows Chinese (like myself
I'm not sure if I'm reading it right, but if I did, Qing's in a worse shape than OTL (Emperor Xianfeng and Senggelinqin died earlier, more territorial and manpower losses), but in the long run, China's in a better shape (because of Yongsheng's modernist views). Am I right? Or am I not?
Marc A
P.S. Oh by the way, I came from 香港 (Hong Kong). Sorry for the geographical pun
Yeah, you nailed it. Right now the Qing is in worse shape (although OTL Senggelinqin was also killed in an ambush by Nian rebels), but if they can hang on they're in much better shape for the future. And thanks a lot! Hopefully people who read this timeline will come away with an understanding of Chinese culture that extends beyond "The Chinese word for crisis means danger and opportunity!!!" (not even close to true) and "There's an old Chinese proverb that says 'May you live in interesting times.' Awesome!!!" (also complete bullshit).
I click refresh and bang there's another update of this great TL!
It only worked once though...
Hong Xiuquan will grant you three wishes . . .
Part #4: How to Make Friends and Influence Foreign Devils
“弱之胜强，柔之胜刚，天下莫不知，莫能行。是以圣人云，爱国之垢，是谓社棱主，爱国不祥，是为天下王。正言若反.”
Excerpted from “Barbarians at the Great Wall: 19th Century Western Imperialism in China,” by X. Egbert Fappington-Twatley. University of Leeds Press, 1989.
- China had been rudely disabused of its arrogance and complacency in 1839, when the British Empire swept aside the armies of the Middle Kingdom and forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the humiliating and unequal 南京条约 (Treaty of Nanjing) in 1842. The French and Americans stuck their feet in the door as well, and the Qing granted them trade privileges and extraterritoriality as well in the Treaty of the Bogue (1843) and the Wangxia Treaty (1844). The treaties were damaging to China in many ways; they undercut the nation’s traditional sense of superiority, allowed the opium trade to continue, and gave foreigners a privileged status above Chinese in several “treaty ports.” Yet the worst part about the unequal treaties was that in each one of them, a clause was inserted allowing for renegotiation after a dozen years had passed. Thus it was that in the mid-1850s the foreigners came back for more concessions – and with China in the midst of revolution, they couldn’t have arrived at a worse time.
The British and the French attempted to begin renegotiation of the treaties in 1855, hoping to gain further concessions, but made little headway with the representatives of the Xianfeng Emperor, a hardcore traditionalist. Had their patience run out and war been declared on the Qing, it certainly would have been the end of the dynasty. But the Xianfeng Emperor died in the spring of 1856 and was replaced by his half-brother, a firm supporter of modernization. The newly-crowned 永胜帝 (Yongsheng Emperor) was such an advocate of Westernization that his nickname at court was 鬼子六 (Guizi liu, or Devil Number Six), a reference to his fondness for the foreign devils and his position as the 六王爷 (Liu wangye, or Sixth Prince) (1). Needless to say, this nickname fell out of fashion once he had been crowned emperor. Yongsheng restarted the treaty renegotiation talks in the summer of 1856, quickly earning himself the admiration of the European negotiators. James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, the lead negotiator for the British Empire, wrote of Yongsheng, “The current emperor of the Celestial Kingdom sits with us for hours and dickers over the smallest clauses, a shocking departure from the remoteness of his predecessors . . . though his amity is beyond reproach and his clear interest in the broader world unquestioned, I wonder sometimes if his true calling is that of a particularly hard-fisted merchant, for on several occasions upon the conclusion of our sessions I have felt compelled to check my purse after leaving, just so as to ensure that it is still there . . .”
The negotiations were not without difficulties. While none of the parties were especially eager to mention it, they all knew that not only did the Qing Dynasty no longer control any of the five cities that had been designated as treaty ports, but even the city in which the treaty itself had been signed was now the capital of a new nation. Yet Yongsheng, knowing that the Qing could not survive another foreign war, persevered and managed to reach an accord with the British and French. The 天津条约 (Treaty of Tianjin) was signed in June of 1857. Naturally, the British and French got pretty much what they wanted – the right to establish embassies in Beijing, the right to travel freely in the internal regions of China, the right of foreign vessels to navigate freely on China’s rivers, and the opening of eight new treaty ports in territory still under Qing control. Furthermore, the opium trade was officially legalized. (2) An additional treaty with the United States was signed a few months later, more or less with the same clauses as the British and French versions. The Yongsheng Emperor had also requested British and French aid in the struggle against the Taiping Kingdom. While neither country was prepared to commit to a full-scale war in China to support the Qing, they did sell weapons and technology and allowed some of their soldiers to “resign” and join the Qing military (3). With the treaties concluded, the Yongsheng Emperor thought that he could turn his full attention back to fighting the Taiping. But there was one foreign power that he had overlooked . . .
Excerpted from “The Second Opium War,” by Svetlana Chandrasekhar. University of Bombay Press, 1955.
- As the Army of Heavenly Peace advanced through southern China – taking control of the treaty ports of 广州 (Guangzhou), 厦门 (Xiamen), 上海 (Shanghai), 宁波 (Ningbo), and 福州 (Fuzhou) in the process – the foreign powers realized that they had no choice but to deal with the fledgling Taiping Kingdom. Britain, France and the United States hoped to force the Taiping to recognize the Treaty of Nanjing and to open more ports to trade The Taiping, on the other hand, were almost naively endearing in their hopes. They assumed that as “fellow Christians”, the Western powers would be eager to form alliances with them and aid in the overthrow of the Qing. The negotiations began in the fall of 1856, and the speed with which each side managed to offend the other was perhaps unprecedented in the annals of diplomacy. The trouble began when the Westerners, still believing that Hong Xiuquan ruled the Taiping, demanded an audience with the Heavenly King himself. Of course, Hong had been under virtual house arrest for the past two years, and the kingdom was ruled by the 使徒会 (Council of Apostles), which was firmly in the pocket of Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai. Yang, who did not want to advertise the fact that he had overthrown Hong, tried to delay and prevaricate, but the foreigners continued – loudly and angrily – to demand a meeting with Hong. In desperation, Yang dressed one of his household servants up as the emperor and summoned the foreigners to meet with “Hong Xiuquan” at the Palace of the Heavenly King. The servant, known to posterity only as 小王 (Little Wang), had been ordered on pain of death to commit to no agreements with the foreign dignitaries. As the following transcription of the meeting (taken by secretary to the American delegation Caleb Henry) indicates, Little Wang took his orders all too seriously:
MR. PARKES (British representative): It is our strong desire that Your Majesty’s government recognize the provisions of the Treaty of Nanjing.
EMPEROR HONG (through an interpreter): Perhaps we will do this. But perhaps we will not.
M. DESJARDINS (French representative): I beg Your Majesty’s pardon?
EMPEROR HONG: We will no doubt comply with the provisions of the treaty.
MR. PARKES: That is wonderful news, and my government will be very pleased to hear it.
EMPEROR HONG: Yes, we will naturally comply. Of course we might not comply, in which case we certainly will not have complied.
MR. WILCOX (US representative): Could Your Majesty perhaps be a little . . . clearer?
EMPEROR HONG: Maybe.
M. DESJARDINS (to Mssrs. Wilcox and Seymour): What the devil is he playing at?
MR. PARKES: Maybe it’s an issue of translation.
MR. WILCOX: He looks quite pale, doesn’t he? [to the Emperor] Your Majesty, are you quite well?
EMPEROR HONG: It is difficult to say.
Aside from that comedy of errors, there were other issues that plagued the negotiators. Great Britain demanded legalization of the opium trade, which to the Taiping was completely unacceptable. Religion was another sticking point. The French were insistent on the right of missionaries to evangelize, which offended the Taiping, who insisted that they were already a Christian nation. As Yang Xiuqing famously put it, “应该送你们的传教士到罗马去” (You might as well send them to Rome instead!) (4). Both sides were disgusted with each other, and the casus belli came in December of 1857, when French missionary Auguste Chapdelaine was beheaded by local authorities in Guangxi province for “denying the divinity of the Heavenly King” (否天王之神性), thus leading many satirists to dub the conflict “The War of Chapdelaine’s Head.”
Whether one refers to it as the War of Chapdelaine’s Head or as the Second Opium War, the outcome of the conflict was never in doubt. The Army of Heavenly Peace may have been fanatical, battle-hardened, and disciplined, but it was no match for the Royal Navy. An Anglo-French expeditionary force under the command of Admiral Sir James Hope attacked and occupied 广州 (Guangzhou), while another force led by the French general Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros took Shanghai. In the piece de resistance of the whole affair, a Royal Navy squadron sailed into the mouth of the 长江 (Chang River) basin and bombarded the Taiping capital, 天京 (Tianjing, or the City Formerly Known as Nanjing). After this last flourish the Council of Apostles concluded that they had no choice but to sue for peace, and the 天京条约 (Treaty of Tianjing) was signed on January 14, 1859. The terms of the agreement were harsh – the Taiping were forced to recognize the earlier Treaty of Nanjing, legalize the opium trade, open nine more cities as treaty ports, cede the district of 九龙 (Jiulong) to Britain, and pay an indemnity of eight million taels (5). It is interesting to ponder what would have happened had the Qing been able to apply their full attention to the Taiping during the Second Opium War. But as fate would have it, they were embroiled in a foreign crisis of their own . . .
Excerpted from “The Amur War,” by Marcos Ndebele. 2000.
- For more than a hundred years, the Empire of all the Russias had desired a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean. Their ambitions were blocked by Qing China and by the Treaty of Nerchinsk, signed by the two nations in 1689, which assigned the land east of the Stanovoy Mountains to China. But as the power of the Middle Kingdom waned, Russia saw an opportunity to seize the moment and capitalize on the weakness of the Qing. Thus it was that after the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin Russia began to press for territorial concessions in the Amur River valley. Nikolay Muravyov, Governor-General of Irkutsk and Yeniseyisk, pressed an aggressive policy with regard to Russia’s eastern claims, believing that the Qing would back down and agree to negotiate. He would have been right – all evidence suggests that the Yongsheng Emperor was loathe to make war over what he regarded as a frozen wasteland – but Muravyov had underestimated the power of the traditionalist faction in Beijing. This group, which fervently believed in the superiority of China over the foreign barbarians, had been appalled when Yongsheng signed the Treaty of Tianjin, and began to make noises suggesting that should he grant yet more concessions to another foreign state it would be clear proof of his unfitness to rule. The only thing that Yongsheng wanted less than a war with Russia was a coup attempt at home, and so when Russian settlers continued to move into the Amur River basin in defiance of the Treaty of Nerchinsk, Yongsheng shocked everyone by declaring war in April of 1858. There were those who noticed that Yongsheng had appointed virtually all of the traditionalist faction to positions of responsibility in the army that he sent north. They were careful not to mention these observations too loudly.
Had the Taiping Rebellion not been a factor, the traditionalists – headed by the Manchu noble 肃顺 (Sushun) and Yongsheng’s younger half-brother 醇贤亲王 (the 1st Prince Chun) – might have had a point. Russian forces in the Far East were small, scattered and poorly trained. But after seven years of war with the Taiping, the Nian, and Du Wenxiu, the Qing military cupboard was more than a little bare. Sushun marched north with an army of mostly local militia, poorly-equipped and poorly-trained with no combat experience. Murayovksy sensibly avoided a general engagement – his forces were vastly outnumbered – instead making use of his Cossacks and fighting a mobile campaign. Sushun’s army blundered back and forth on the frozen plains of Outer Manchuria until Russian reinforcements finally arrived and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Qing forces outside Khabarovsk. After this reverse Yongsheng had no recourse but to sue for peace and the 瑷珲条约 (Treaty of Aihun) was signed in May of 1859. The terms imposed on the Qing by the victorious Russians were harsh; not only did Russia gain territory on the left bank of the Amur River, but they also gained the Ussuri krai, which gave them access to the Pacific Ocean (6). Additionally, the Qing were forced to pay an indemnity of five million taels to Russia (7). In the final analysis, not only did the 黑龙江战 (Amur War) cost the Qing troops and money, it also diverted their attention from the south, where the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace refused to go quietly into that good night . . .
NOTES
(1) People actually did call him this IOTL, which in my opinion is yet another sign that he’s the perfect guy to be running Qing China right now.
(2) ITTL, Yongsheng does win one concession – there will be no missionaries in Qing China, as he convinces the foreign negotiators that Christianity is so closely associated with the Taiping that a missionary in a Qing village would last about as long as a snowball in hell. Plus, I just saved the 圆明园 (Yuanming yuan). You can thank me later.
(3) I promise that there will be a Frederick Townsend Ward sighting in the next post. Maybe Charles Gordon as well, although I’m not making any promises.
(4) Not an exact translation (which would be something like “You should just send your missionaries to Rome!”), but the interpreter responsible for translating the phrase had an ironic turn of mind.
(5) This is more or less what happened to the Qing after their ill-advised involvement in the Second Opium War IOTL.
(6) Again, these borders correspond to what happened IOTL, although there were two treaties and no wars instead of the sequence of events described above.
(7) Receiving this indemnity (which didn’t happen in real life, as there was no Amur War) will leave the Russians feeling a bit more flush than they did IOTL, and as a result they will not be trying to sell off Alaska.
*So the Taiping and the Qing both get involved in expensive and distracting foreign wars, and as a result kind of forget that they’re supposed to be fighting each other. This will all be detailed in the next post, which will be – drum roll – the end of part one of the timeline. There might be a map involved, although I suck at making them so don’t get your hopes up or anything. Thanks for reading, and please do let me know what you think of things so far.
“弱之胜强，柔之胜刚，天下莫不知，莫能行。是以圣人云，爱国之垢，是谓社棱主，爱国不祥，是为天下王。正言若反.”
Excerpted from “Barbarians at the Great Wall: 19th Century Western Imperialism in China,” by X. Egbert Fappington-Twatley. University of Leeds Press, 1989.
- China had been rudely disabused of its arrogance and complacency in 1839, when the British Empire swept aside the armies of the Middle Kingdom and forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the humiliating and unequal 南京条约 (Treaty of Nanjing) in 1842. The French and Americans stuck their feet in the door as well, and the Qing granted them trade privileges and extraterritoriality as well in the Treaty of the Bogue (1843) and the Wangxia Treaty (1844). The treaties were damaging to China in many ways; they undercut the nation’s traditional sense of superiority, allowed the opium trade to continue, and gave foreigners a privileged status above Chinese in several “treaty ports.” Yet the worst part about the unequal treaties was that in each one of them, a clause was inserted allowing for renegotiation after a dozen years had passed. Thus it was that in the mid-1850s the foreigners came back for more concessions – and with China in the midst of revolution, they couldn’t have arrived at a worse time.
The British and the French attempted to begin renegotiation of the treaties in 1855, hoping to gain further concessions, but made little headway with the representatives of the Xianfeng Emperor, a hardcore traditionalist. Had their patience run out and war been declared on the Qing, it certainly would have been the end of the dynasty. But the Xianfeng Emperor died in the spring of 1856 and was replaced by his half-brother, a firm supporter of modernization. The newly-crowned 永胜帝 (Yongsheng Emperor) was such an advocate of Westernization that his nickname at court was 鬼子六 (Guizi liu, or Devil Number Six), a reference to his fondness for the foreign devils and his position as the 六王爷 (Liu wangye, or Sixth Prince) (1). Needless to say, this nickname fell out of fashion once he had been crowned emperor. Yongsheng restarted the treaty renegotiation talks in the summer of 1856, quickly earning himself the admiration of the European negotiators. James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, the lead negotiator for the British Empire, wrote of Yongsheng, “The current emperor of the Celestial Kingdom sits with us for hours and dickers over the smallest clauses, a shocking departure from the remoteness of his predecessors . . . though his amity is beyond reproach and his clear interest in the broader world unquestioned, I wonder sometimes if his true calling is that of a particularly hard-fisted merchant, for on several occasions upon the conclusion of our sessions I have felt compelled to check my purse after leaving, just so as to ensure that it is still there . . .”
The negotiations were not without difficulties. While none of the parties were especially eager to mention it, they all knew that not only did the Qing Dynasty no longer control any of the five cities that had been designated as treaty ports, but even the city in which the treaty itself had been signed was now the capital of a new nation. Yet Yongsheng, knowing that the Qing could not survive another foreign war, persevered and managed to reach an accord with the British and French. The 天津条约 (Treaty of Tianjin) was signed in June of 1857. Naturally, the British and French got pretty much what they wanted – the right to establish embassies in Beijing, the right to travel freely in the internal regions of China, the right of foreign vessels to navigate freely on China’s rivers, and the opening of eight new treaty ports in territory still under Qing control. Furthermore, the opium trade was officially legalized. (2) An additional treaty with the United States was signed a few months later, more or less with the same clauses as the British and French versions. The Yongsheng Emperor had also requested British and French aid in the struggle against the Taiping Kingdom. While neither country was prepared to commit to a full-scale war in China to support the Qing, they did sell weapons and technology and allowed some of their soldiers to “resign” and join the Qing military (3). With the treaties concluded, the Yongsheng Emperor thought that he could turn his full attention back to fighting the Taiping. But there was one foreign power that he had overlooked . . .
Excerpted from “The Second Opium War,” by Svetlana Chandrasekhar. University of Bombay Press, 1955.
- As the Army of Heavenly Peace advanced through southern China – taking control of the treaty ports of 广州 (Guangzhou), 厦门 (Xiamen), 上海 (Shanghai), 宁波 (Ningbo), and 福州 (Fuzhou) in the process – the foreign powers realized that they had no choice but to deal with the fledgling Taiping Kingdom. Britain, France and the United States hoped to force the Taiping to recognize the Treaty of Nanjing and to open more ports to trade The Taiping, on the other hand, were almost naively endearing in their hopes. They assumed that as “fellow Christians”, the Western powers would be eager to form alliances with them and aid in the overthrow of the Qing. The negotiations began in the fall of 1856, and the speed with which each side managed to offend the other was perhaps unprecedented in the annals of diplomacy. The trouble began when the Westerners, still believing that Hong Xiuquan ruled the Taiping, demanded an audience with the Heavenly King himself. Of course, Hong had been under virtual house arrest for the past two years, and the kingdom was ruled by the 使徒会 (Council of Apostles), which was firmly in the pocket of Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai. Yang, who did not want to advertise the fact that he had overthrown Hong, tried to delay and prevaricate, but the foreigners continued – loudly and angrily – to demand a meeting with Hong. In desperation, Yang dressed one of his household servants up as the emperor and summoned the foreigners to meet with “Hong Xiuquan” at the Palace of the Heavenly King. The servant, known to posterity only as 小王 (Little Wang), had been ordered on pain of death to commit to no agreements with the foreign dignitaries. As the following transcription of the meeting (taken by secretary to the American delegation Caleb Henry) indicates, Little Wang took his orders all too seriously:
MR. PARKES (British representative): It is our strong desire that Your Majesty’s government recognize the provisions of the Treaty of Nanjing.
EMPEROR HONG (through an interpreter): Perhaps we will do this. But perhaps we will not.
M. DESJARDINS (French representative): I beg Your Majesty’s pardon?
EMPEROR HONG: We will no doubt comply with the provisions of the treaty.
MR. PARKES: That is wonderful news, and my government will be very pleased to hear it.
EMPEROR HONG: Yes, we will naturally comply. Of course we might not comply, in which case we certainly will not have complied.
MR. WILCOX (US representative): Could Your Majesty perhaps be a little . . . clearer?
EMPEROR HONG: Maybe.
M. DESJARDINS (to Mssrs. Wilcox and Seymour): What the devil is he playing at?
MR. PARKES: Maybe it’s an issue of translation.
MR. WILCOX: He looks quite pale, doesn’t he? [to the Emperor] Your Majesty, are you quite well?
EMPEROR HONG: It is difficult to say.
Aside from that comedy of errors, there were other issues that plagued the negotiators. Great Britain demanded legalization of the opium trade, which to the Taiping was completely unacceptable. Religion was another sticking point. The French were insistent on the right of missionaries to evangelize, which offended the Taiping, who insisted that they were already a Christian nation. As Yang Xiuqing famously put it, “应该送你们的传教士到罗马去” (You might as well send them to Rome instead!) (4). Both sides were disgusted with each other, and the casus belli came in December of 1857, when French missionary Auguste Chapdelaine was beheaded by local authorities in Guangxi province for “denying the divinity of the Heavenly King” (否天王之神性), thus leading many satirists to dub the conflict “The War of Chapdelaine’s Head.”
Whether one refers to it as the War of Chapdelaine’s Head or as the Second Opium War, the outcome of the conflict was never in doubt. The Army of Heavenly Peace may have been fanatical, battle-hardened, and disciplined, but it was no match for the Royal Navy. An Anglo-French expeditionary force under the command of Admiral Sir James Hope attacked and occupied 广州 (Guangzhou), while another force led by the French general Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros took Shanghai. In the piece de resistance of the whole affair, a Royal Navy squadron sailed into the mouth of the 长江 (Chang River) basin and bombarded the Taiping capital, 天京 (Tianjing, or the City Formerly Known as Nanjing). After this last flourish the Council of Apostles concluded that they had no choice but to sue for peace, and the 天京条约 (Treaty of Tianjing) was signed on January 14, 1859. The terms of the agreement were harsh – the Taiping were forced to recognize the earlier Treaty of Nanjing, legalize the opium trade, open nine more cities as treaty ports, cede the district of 九龙 (Jiulong) to Britain, and pay an indemnity of eight million taels (5). It is interesting to ponder what would have happened had the Qing been able to apply their full attention to the Taiping during the Second Opium War. But as fate would have it, they were embroiled in a foreign crisis of their own . . .
Excerpted from “The Amur War,” by Marcos Ndebele. 2000.
- For more than a hundred years, the Empire of all the Russias had desired a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean. Their ambitions were blocked by Qing China and by the Treaty of Nerchinsk, signed by the two nations in 1689, which assigned the land east of the Stanovoy Mountains to China. But as the power of the Middle Kingdom waned, Russia saw an opportunity to seize the moment and capitalize on the weakness of the Qing. Thus it was that after the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin Russia began to press for territorial concessions in the Amur River valley. Nikolay Muravyov, Governor-General of Irkutsk and Yeniseyisk, pressed an aggressive policy with regard to Russia’s eastern claims, believing that the Qing would back down and agree to negotiate. He would have been right – all evidence suggests that the Yongsheng Emperor was loathe to make war over what he regarded as a frozen wasteland – but Muravyov had underestimated the power of the traditionalist faction in Beijing. This group, which fervently believed in the superiority of China over the foreign barbarians, had been appalled when Yongsheng signed the Treaty of Tianjin, and began to make noises suggesting that should he grant yet more concessions to another foreign state it would be clear proof of his unfitness to rule. The only thing that Yongsheng wanted less than a war with Russia was a coup attempt at home, and so when Russian settlers continued to move into the Amur River basin in defiance of the Treaty of Nerchinsk, Yongsheng shocked everyone by declaring war in April of 1858. There were those who noticed that Yongsheng had appointed virtually all of the traditionalist faction to positions of responsibility in the army that he sent north. They were careful not to mention these observations too loudly.
Had the Taiping Rebellion not been a factor, the traditionalists – headed by the Manchu noble 肃顺 (Sushun) and Yongsheng’s younger half-brother 醇贤亲王 (the 1st Prince Chun) – might have had a point. Russian forces in the Far East were small, scattered and poorly trained. But after seven years of war with the Taiping, the Nian, and Du Wenxiu, the Qing military cupboard was more than a little bare. Sushun marched north with an army of mostly local militia, poorly-equipped and poorly-trained with no combat experience. Murayovksy sensibly avoided a general engagement – his forces were vastly outnumbered – instead making use of his Cossacks and fighting a mobile campaign. Sushun’s army blundered back and forth on the frozen plains of Outer Manchuria until Russian reinforcements finally arrived and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Qing forces outside Khabarovsk. After this reverse Yongsheng had no recourse but to sue for peace and the 瑷珲条约 (Treaty of Aihun) was signed in May of 1859. The terms imposed on the Qing by the victorious Russians were harsh; not only did Russia gain territory on the left bank of the Amur River, but they also gained the Ussuri krai, which gave them access to the Pacific Ocean (6). Additionally, the Qing were forced to pay an indemnity of five million taels to Russia (7). In the final analysis, not only did the 黑龙江战 (Amur War) cost the Qing troops and money, it also diverted their attention from the south, where the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace refused to go quietly into that good night . . .
NOTES
(1) People actually did call him this IOTL, which in my opinion is yet another sign that he’s the perfect guy to be running Qing China right now.
(2) ITTL, Yongsheng does win one concession – there will be no missionaries in Qing China, as he convinces the foreign negotiators that Christianity is so closely associated with the Taiping that a missionary in a Qing village would last about as long as a snowball in hell. Plus, I just saved the 圆明园 (Yuanming yuan). You can thank me later.
(3) I promise that there will be a Frederick Townsend Ward sighting in the next post. Maybe Charles Gordon as well, although I’m not making any promises.
(4) Not an exact translation (which would be something like “You should just send your missionaries to Rome!”), but the interpreter responsible for translating the phrase had an ironic turn of mind.
(5) This is more or less what happened to the Qing after their ill-advised involvement in the Second Opium War IOTL.
(6) Again, these borders correspond to what happened IOTL, although there were two treaties and no wars instead of the sequence of events described above.
(7) Receiving this indemnity (which didn’t happen in real life, as there was no Amur War) will leave the Russians feeling a bit more flush than they did IOTL, and as a result they will not be trying to sell off Alaska.
*So the Taiping and the Qing both get involved in expensive and distracting foreign wars, and as a result kind of forget that they’re supposed to be fighting each other. This will all be detailed in the next post, which will be – drum roll – the end of part one of the timeline. There might be a map involved, although I suck at making them so don’t get your hopes up or anything. Thanks for reading, and please do let me know what you think of things so far.
Great TL - a nice one on the Taiping Rebellion is hard to find anywhere, and though I must confess ignorance on the subject, you certainly seem to know what you're talking about when you write.
I particularly enjoyed the segment with 小王/Little Wang in your latest post, and am eagerly awaiting the next update.
I particularly enjoyed the segment with 小王/Little Wang in your latest post, and am eagerly awaiting the next update.
Hendryk
Banned
That does sound just like a real-life report. Good job with the realism.
Sounds just like the Sino-Soviet split in OTL, with each side insisting it has the purer doctrine.
That's a clever way to get rid of them. They'll bear the responsibility of defeat.
Aw, pity. I was hoping that Outer Manchuria would remain under Chinese control in OTL. Though there might be a way to claim it back yet, by quietly sending Chinese migrants settle the place before Russians show up in meaningful numbers.
Yup, that's a nice development. As a Chinese saying of the time went, "When the missionaries show up, the soldiers aren't far behind." And, well, about the Yuanming Yuan, the words of Victor Hugo come to mind:
So there is a Qing AND Taiping China! I love it--your timeline has a great combination telling what is happening while still remaining interesting, which is something not everybody can do. Props!
I was actually planning to have the Qing win, and then I thought about it again and realized that after seven years of constant war and three rebellions to fight off, there just wasn't any way that they could realistically hope to do well. But we definitely haven't seen the last of Outer Manchuria. No question about it.
Yeah, I'm proud of that one. Actually Chapdelaine was a real person, and OTL he was also beheaded by local authorities in Guangxi, and the French did indeed use the incident as a pretext for declaring war. But the head part was all me.
One quibble.
I think in OTL, the Taiping did not worship Hong as God--they were actually non-Trinitarian. Jesus and Hong were not divine, and neither was the Holy Spirit. Only God the Father was divine. I saw an online comparison to Arianism there.
Perhaps the local Taiping DID think Hong was God and that was what the French guy was preaching against. This way, you might not need to edit the TL as much (or just throw in that he was beheaded for preaching the Trinity).
In the long run, if the Taiping are perceived as "Arian with Chinese characteristics," the Catholic Church might be more skeptical of them. Thus far in TTL, though, they might not be familiar enough with the Taiping to figure this out just yet.
I think in OTL, the Taiping did not worship Hong as God--they were actually non-Trinitarian. Jesus and Hong were not divine, and neither was the Holy Spirit. Only God the Father was divine. I saw an online comparison to Arianism there.
Perhaps the local Taiping DID think Hong was God and that was what the French guy was preaching against. This way, you might not need to edit the TL as much (or just throw in that he was beheaded for preaching the Trinity).
In the long run, if the Taiping are perceived as "Arian with Chinese characteristics," the Catholic Church might be more skeptical of them. Thus far in TTL, though, they might not be familiar enough with the Taiping to figure this out just yet.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. OTL the Taiping most definitely did not worship Hong as a god - he was a prophet, or at most a demigod. I'm not familiar with the finer points of Christianity, but apparently they were into something called a "Oneness Theology." But ITTL, they do think he's a god. This is part of the POD - instead of tossing Hong off a cliff after the coup, Shi and Yang come up with another explanation for why no one will be seeing him around anymore. The party line is that Hong has retired from earthly affairs to commune with his father and brother - God and Jesus - and his divinity begins to be established. In fact, ITTL I have Yang (whose commitment to Christianity is more than a bit suspect) bring Confucianism back into the fold, and eventually it will be declared that Confucius himself was God's younger brother - as Hong was Jesus' brother; see a couple of posts back for details - and he'll be elevated to the pantheon as well in an attempt to merge Chinese folk religion and Christianity.
Susano
Banned
I do wonder how God can, theologically, have a brother. I mean, even leaving aside the question who would be the parents, it just goes contrary to theological perceptions of God in Christianity. Wouldnt it maybe more prudent to have Confucius be declared yet another sibling to Jesus and hence Hong? Especially since, well, hes been a living human, so he would fit in the same mould as Jesus and Hong, so to say.
Nice TL, by the way. I am no China expert, but it is written well. So, will one side win out, or will China end up divided, as it often was in history, between North and South? Or do you avoid any spoilers or hints for the future?
Nice TL, by the way. I am no China expert, but it is written well. So, will one side win out, or will China end up divided, as it often was in history, between North and South? Or do you avoid any spoilers or hints for the future?
I do wonder how God can, theologically, have a brother. I mean, even leaving aside the question who would be the parents, it just goes contrary to theological perceptions of God in Christianity. Wouldnt it maybe more prudent to have Confucius be declared yet another sibling to Jesus and hence Hong? Especially since, well, hes been a living human, so he would fit in the same mould as Jesus and Hong, so to say.
Nice TL, by the way. I am no China expert, but it is written well. So, will one side win out, or will China end up divided, as it often was in history, between North and South? Or do you avoid any spoilers or hints for the future?
Ha! I struggled with exactly this same question myself, before deciding that they would declare Confucius the son of God to make it clear to one and all that Confucianism was on the same plane as Christianity - if he was just another brother of Jesus, then I thought it might seem like Confucianism was sort of an offshoot of Christianity. Ultimately, this is an attempt by the new powers in the Taiping - who are not too concerned with the nitty-gritty of traditional doctrine - to reconcile Confucianism and Christianity, thus reassuring the upper class (China's scholar-bureaucrats) in the process and bringing them into the fold. But I'm really not conversant with the details of Christianity, and if you think it's really just way too much I'm definitely open to changing that bit . . .
As for spoilers, I'm usually in favor of them. But the next update will be online in about an hour, if I can get my act together and finish it, and that will make it really clear where I'm going. So you'll have to wait!
Susano
Banned
I understand it is meant to be probably as heterodox as possible, but I just find it to strange to only deify a philosopher (and for all veneration I think Confucius saw himself as just that) but also to elevate him to brother of the central deity. It just doesnt really mesh. I can understand the socio-political reasons, but (though here my lacking expertise on China may show) would it not maybe make more sense to elevate "Confucian deities" so to say to equals of God? Of course there arent really any such per se, but in practice Confucianism often did and does mix with Chinese folk religion, doesnt it? So maybe Tian, or the Heavenly Bureaucracy as a whole... or integrate God into the Heavenly Bureaucracy...
Part #5: A Peace of the Pie
“以道佐人主者，不以兵强天下. 其事好还. 师之所处，荆棘生焉. 大军之后，必有凶年.”
Excerpted from “The Taiping Rebellion, 1857-60: The Final Years,” by Marmaduke Tickled-Pinkington. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
- After the debacle that was 1855 and 1856, the Qing Dynasty managed to achieve some notable successes in 1857, the last year of full-scale combat in the Taiping Rebellion. In the north, 左宗棠 (Zuo Zongtang) continued his campaign against the Nian rebels. His capture in 1856 of 张乐行 (Zhang Lexing), the charismatic leader of the rebels, proved to be the point at which momentum shifted from the rebels to the Qing, and in 1857 Zuo’s forces managed to pin the Nian cavalry – which had previously been so effective – behind the walls of rebel-controlled cities in the provinces of Henan and Shandong. Thus, Qing forces were able to take the offensive for the first time, and concentrated on clearing the countryside of rebels and besieging these fortified citadels, which proved difficult to breach due to the defensive walls that had been constructed around them over a period of decades (1). The artillery that the Qing had been able to purchase from Britain and France after the signing of the 天津条约 (Treaty of Tianjin) was a powerful equalizer to these walls, though, and by the end of 1857 the Nian Rebellion was well on its way to defeat.
The Qing also found success in the southwest, where the forces of both the Taiping and Du Wenxiu’s 平南国 (Pingnan guo, or Peaceful Southern Country) had been threatening to break into the heartland of 四川 (Sichuan) Province. In response to this threat, the Qing sent an army under the command of one of 曾国藩 (Zeng Guofan)’s subordinates, who had distinguished himself in the fighting of the previous years. His name was 李鸿章 (Li Hongzhang). Li’s Army of the Southwest was able to force the Taiping and Pingnan Guo troops back during the summer of 1857, culminating in the Battle of Leshan, which resulted in the defeat of the combined armies of the Taiping Kingdom and Pingnan Guo and their subsequent withdrawal from 四川省. Li Hongzhang continued to secure the Qing’s southwest flank throughout the fall and winter of 1857, putting down a rebellion in 重庆 (Chongqing) that threatened Qing control of eastern Sichuan late in that year. Nevertheless, the Taiping Kingdom also made gains in 1857 as well. Most notably, in September the brilliant naval strategist 唐正才 (Tang Zhengcai) masterminded the Taiping assault on the lightly defended island of 台湾 (Taiwan), which was fully controlled by the Taiping Kingdom at the end of the year (2). It was Tang’s last major victory; he was decapitated by a British cannonball the following year in the War of Chapdelaine’s Head (also known as the Second Opium War).
All of these campaigns were perceived as mere sideshows by the powers in both Beijing and Nanjing, whose attention was riveted on the Anhui-Hubei front, where the armies of Zeng Guofan and Shi Dakai continued to batter each other into increasingly smaller pieces. Neither side was able to gain much of an advantage in the clashes – Shi and Zeng were too familiar with each other at this point, and their armies were evenly matched – so the battles continued inconclusively, with no end in sight for the weary soldiers and citizens on both sides of the fight. Foreigners also began to see action in the war, as well. After the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin, Great Britain and France allowed their soldiers to “resign” and sign on with the Qing, in the hopes of bolstering their new ally without having to do any of the dirty work themselves. One of the most prominent of these volunteers was Charles George Gordon, a captain in the British Army who took service with the Qing and helped to re-organize their armies into a more cohesive force. Gordon’s career ended abruptly when he was killed in a skirmish outside the town of Lu’an in Anhui Province in the spring of 1858, but others followed in his footsteps. The Taiping had their share of 外国专家 (waiguo zhuanjia, or foreign experts) as well, chief among them being the American adventurer Frederick Townsend Ward, who is primarily remembered today for commanding the Black Flag Army during both the 1st and the 2nd Tonkin Incident . . . (3)
Excerpted from “The Phony War,” by Helen Ware. University of Auckland Press, 1951.
- In 1858, the Taiping Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty both became embroiled in foreign disputes – the War of Chapdelaine’s Head for the Taiping and the Amur War for the Qing. Had one of these powers been able to avoid foreign war, they might have gained the upper hand in the seven year war that had ravaged China. But neither of the warring states was able to resist war with the foreigners, and both suffered costly and time-consuming defeats. Thus it was that for the better part of 1858 and 1859, the Taiping Rebellion entered a strange state of stasis, with both the Qing and the Taiping as opposed to each other as ever, but neither able to muster the strength to sally forth in force and deliver a decisive blow to the opponent. Along the nearly 2,000 mile front that extened from 连云港 (Lianyungang) in the east to 成都 (Chengdu) in the west there were numerous skirmishes, but almost no general engagements between the spring of 1858 and the fall of 1859. Citizens on both sides began to call the conflict 假战 (Jia zhan, or the Phony War). Both Beijing and Tianjing issued endless proclamations declaring that victory was imminent, but to the war-weary populace on both sides of the fight it seemed as if the rebellion was destined to go on forever . . .
Excerpted from “The Tacit Peace,” by Harold Jordan. 1919.
- In retrospect, it seems insane that the Qing and Taiping would have considered any course of action other than ending the war between them in 1860. Both sides were exhausted – there had been ten solid years of war, with no end in sight. Both sides were also broke, due to the expense of equipping their armies and paying war indemnities stemming from their ill-fated foreign wars. Moreover, the people on both sides had simply had enough of war, whether they lived in Qing or Taiping China. Rebellions broke out in the Qing-controlled region of Turkestan in the spring of 1860, necessitating the formation of yet another pacifying army, while in the Taiping Kingdom the merchants of Guangdong grew restless at the constant disruption of the trade that was their livelihood. Yet political considerations on both sides meant that a peace could not simply be negotiated and agreed upon in public. While the traditionalist faction in the Qing court had been weakened in the wake of the Amur War they were still powerful, and in their eyes it would be absolutely unthinkable for any emperor to sign away more than a third of Great Qing. Meanwhile in the Taiping Kingdom, the Council of Apostles had issued a decade’s worth of proclamations stating that only total victory would be acceptable; furthermore, a crisis of leadership was brewing, as the relationship between Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai had steadily deteriorated over the past few years (4). Neither side could talk peace, but both knew that a cessation of hostilities was of paramount importance.
In the spring of 1860 石达开 (Shi Dakai), the Wing King, Lord of Five Thousand Years and one of the two most powerful men in the Taiping Kingdom, took matters into his own hands and secretly sent emissaries to the man he had spent the better part of five years fighting, Zeng Guofan. Zeng reacted cautiously to Shi’s initial overtures – sending his own coded messages to the 永胜帝 (Yongsheng Emperor) seeking guidance – but upon receiving an enthusiastic reply from Yongsheng urging him to find any way possible to end the conflict, Zeng sent secret emissaries of his own to Shi urging a meeting between the two men. These negotiations were pursued so circumspectly that historians are still unaware of the date when an agreement was signed, or even if there was a written agreement at all. But by the summer of 1860 it became clear to observers on both sides that hostilities had ceased between Qing China and Taiping China. Thus began the Tacit Peace, or as it is known in Chinese, 心昭平 (xin zhao ping) – a reference to the idiom 心照不宣 (xin zhao bu xuan), or “to achieve a tacit mutual understanding.” After ten years of war, the Taiping Rebellion had come to an end, and now there was not one China, but two . . . (5)
NOTES
(1) OTL the Nian rebels were famous for making use of the defensive walls that ringed the cities of Shandong and Henan, and the rebellion was not completely crushed until 1873.
(2) If ITTL the Taiping hadn’t seized Taiwan, I imagine some enterprising foreign power would have showed up, taken advantage of the Qing weakness, and made a nice little colony for themselves.
(3) A Frederick Townsend Ward sighting (yes, I know he fought for the Qing OTL; ITTL it’s different because . . . well, because I say so)! Hooray! By the way – all that stuff about the Black Flag Army and the Tonkin Incidents? Major foreshadowing . . .
(4) OTL Yang grew more and more jealous of Shi as the latter’s reputation grew. ITTL they join forces for the Silent Coup early enough that there’s no friction, but by now it has definitely developed and will be an issue in the future.
(5) I was going to make a map but didn’t, because I remembered that I suck at cartography. I have it on good authority that a thousand words is worth a picture, so here’s the situation: at the Tacit Peace, the Taiping control OTL provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangsu, plus Taiwan. Yunnan is a client state of the Taiping (平南国, or the Peaceful Southern Country). The Qing control the rest of China, plus all of Mongolia, plus Korea is a tributary state of the Qing. Their suzerainty is rather theoretical in Xinjiang and Tibet, though. In real life I’m aware that things wouldn’t break down so neatly on current provincial borders, but this will make it way easier for me to calculate population and the like later on, so that’s the way it’s going to be. And if anyone wants to take it upon themselves to make a map . . . Hong Xiuquan bless you.
*And that’s the end of the first section of this timeline. Originally it was going to be the end of the whole thing, but I’ve since realized that there are a number of interesting directions that I can go with this, and will thus keep on writing for a while. The next series of posts will be about the development of both Qing and Taiping China – government, economy, society, and so forth. I’d be eager to hear people’s ideas and input about where I should go with the timeline – all of my ideas are quite unformed from here on out. And thanks for following this! I hope you’ve had as much fun reading this timeline so far as I’ve had writing it. More to come soon.
“以道佐人主者，不以兵强天下. 其事好还. 师之所处，荆棘生焉. 大军之后，必有凶年.”
Excerpted from “The Taiping Rebellion, 1857-60: The Final Years,” by Marmaduke Tickled-Pinkington. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
- After the debacle that was 1855 and 1856, the Qing Dynasty managed to achieve some notable successes in 1857, the last year of full-scale combat in the Taiping Rebellion. In the north, 左宗棠 (Zuo Zongtang) continued his campaign against the Nian rebels. His capture in 1856 of 张乐行 (Zhang Lexing), the charismatic leader of the rebels, proved to be the point at which momentum shifted from the rebels to the Qing, and in 1857 Zuo’s forces managed to pin the Nian cavalry – which had previously been so effective – behind the walls of rebel-controlled cities in the provinces of Henan and Shandong. Thus, Qing forces were able to take the offensive for the first time, and concentrated on clearing the countryside of rebels and besieging these fortified citadels, which proved difficult to breach due to the defensive walls that had been constructed around them over a period of decades (1). The artillery that the Qing had been able to purchase from Britain and France after the signing of the 天津条约 (Treaty of Tianjin) was a powerful equalizer to these walls, though, and by the end of 1857 the Nian Rebellion was well on its way to defeat.
The Qing also found success in the southwest, where the forces of both the Taiping and Du Wenxiu’s 平南国 (Pingnan guo, or Peaceful Southern Country) had been threatening to break into the heartland of 四川 (Sichuan) Province. In response to this threat, the Qing sent an army under the command of one of 曾国藩 (Zeng Guofan)’s subordinates, who had distinguished himself in the fighting of the previous years. His name was 李鸿章 (Li Hongzhang). Li’s Army of the Southwest was able to force the Taiping and Pingnan Guo troops back during the summer of 1857, culminating in the Battle of Leshan, which resulted in the defeat of the combined armies of the Taiping Kingdom and Pingnan Guo and their subsequent withdrawal from 四川省. Li Hongzhang continued to secure the Qing’s southwest flank throughout the fall and winter of 1857, putting down a rebellion in 重庆 (Chongqing) that threatened Qing control of eastern Sichuan late in that year. Nevertheless, the Taiping Kingdom also made gains in 1857 as well. Most notably, in September the brilliant naval strategist 唐正才 (Tang Zhengcai) masterminded the Taiping assault on the lightly defended island of 台湾 (Taiwan), which was fully controlled by the Taiping Kingdom at the end of the year (2). It was Tang’s last major victory; he was decapitated by a British cannonball the following year in the War of Chapdelaine’s Head (also known as the Second Opium War).
All of these campaigns were perceived as mere sideshows by the powers in both Beijing and Nanjing, whose attention was riveted on the Anhui-Hubei front, where the armies of Zeng Guofan and Shi Dakai continued to batter each other into increasingly smaller pieces. Neither side was able to gain much of an advantage in the clashes – Shi and Zeng were too familiar with each other at this point, and their armies were evenly matched – so the battles continued inconclusively, with no end in sight for the weary soldiers and citizens on both sides of the fight. Foreigners also began to see action in the war, as well. After the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin, Great Britain and France allowed their soldiers to “resign” and sign on with the Qing, in the hopes of bolstering their new ally without having to do any of the dirty work themselves. One of the most prominent of these volunteers was Charles George Gordon, a captain in the British Army who took service with the Qing and helped to re-organize their armies into a more cohesive force. Gordon’s career ended abruptly when he was killed in a skirmish outside the town of Lu’an in Anhui Province in the spring of 1858, but others followed in his footsteps. The Taiping had their share of 外国专家 (waiguo zhuanjia, or foreign experts) as well, chief among them being the American adventurer Frederick Townsend Ward, who is primarily remembered today for commanding the Black Flag Army during both the 1st and the 2nd Tonkin Incident . . . (3)
Excerpted from “The Phony War,” by Helen Ware. University of Auckland Press, 1951.
- In 1858, the Taiping Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty both became embroiled in foreign disputes – the War of Chapdelaine’s Head for the Taiping and the Amur War for the Qing. Had one of these powers been able to avoid foreign war, they might have gained the upper hand in the seven year war that had ravaged China. But neither of the warring states was able to resist war with the foreigners, and both suffered costly and time-consuming defeats. Thus it was that for the better part of 1858 and 1859, the Taiping Rebellion entered a strange state of stasis, with both the Qing and the Taiping as opposed to each other as ever, but neither able to muster the strength to sally forth in force and deliver a decisive blow to the opponent. Along the nearly 2,000 mile front that extened from 连云港 (Lianyungang) in the east to 成都 (Chengdu) in the west there were numerous skirmishes, but almost no general engagements between the spring of 1858 and the fall of 1859. Citizens on both sides began to call the conflict 假战 (Jia zhan, or the Phony War). Both Beijing and Tianjing issued endless proclamations declaring that victory was imminent, but to the war-weary populace on both sides of the fight it seemed as if the rebellion was destined to go on forever . . .
Excerpted from “The Tacit Peace,” by Harold Jordan. 1919.
- In retrospect, it seems insane that the Qing and Taiping would have considered any course of action other than ending the war between them in 1860. Both sides were exhausted – there had been ten solid years of war, with no end in sight. Both sides were also broke, due to the expense of equipping their armies and paying war indemnities stemming from their ill-fated foreign wars. Moreover, the people on both sides had simply had enough of war, whether they lived in Qing or Taiping China. Rebellions broke out in the Qing-controlled region of Turkestan in the spring of 1860, necessitating the formation of yet another pacifying army, while in the Taiping Kingdom the merchants of Guangdong grew restless at the constant disruption of the trade that was their livelihood. Yet political considerations on both sides meant that a peace could not simply be negotiated and agreed upon in public. While the traditionalist faction in the Qing court had been weakened in the wake of the Amur War they were still powerful, and in their eyes it would be absolutely unthinkable for any emperor to sign away more than a third of Great Qing. Meanwhile in the Taiping Kingdom, the Council of Apostles had issued a decade’s worth of proclamations stating that only total victory would be acceptable; furthermore, a crisis of leadership was brewing, as the relationship between Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai had steadily deteriorated over the past few years (4). Neither side could talk peace, but both knew that a cessation of hostilities was of paramount importance.
In the spring of 1860 石达开 (Shi Dakai), the Wing King, Lord of Five Thousand Years and one of the two most powerful men in the Taiping Kingdom, took matters into his own hands and secretly sent emissaries to the man he had spent the better part of five years fighting, Zeng Guofan. Zeng reacted cautiously to Shi’s initial overtures – sending his own coded messages to the 永胜帝 (Yongsheng Emperor) seeking guidance – but upon receiving an enthusiastic reply from Yongsheng urging him to find any way possible to end the conflict, Zeng sent secret emissaries of his own to Shi urging a meeting between the two men. These negotiations were pursued so circumspectly that historians are still unaware of the date when an agreement was signed, or even if there was a written agreement at all. But by the summer of 1860 it became clear to observers on both sides that hostilities had ceased between Qing China and Taiping China. Thus began the Tacit Peace, or as it is known in Chinese, 心昭平 (xin zhao ping) – a reference to the idiom 心照不宣 (xin zhao bu xuan), or “to achieve a tacit mutual understanding.” After ten years of war, the Taiping Rebellion had come to an end, and now there was not one China, but two . . . (5)
NOTES
(1) OTL the Nian rebels were famous for making use of the defensive walls that ringed the cities of Shandong and Henan, and the rebellion was not completely crushed until 1873.
(2) If ITTL the Taiping hadn’t seized Taiwan, I imagine some enterprising foreign power would have showed up, taken advantage of the Qing weakness, and made a nice little colony for themselves.
(3) A Frederick Townsend Ward sighting (yes, I know he fought for the Qing OTL; ITTL it’s different because . . . well, because I say so)! Hooray! By the way – all that stuff about the Black Flag Army and the Tonkin Incidents? Major foreshadowing . . .
(4) OTL Yang grew more and more jealous of Shi as the latter’s reputation grew. ITTL they join forces for the Silent Coup early enough that there’s no friction, but by now it has definitely developed and will be an issue in the future.
(5) I was going to make a map but didn’t, because I remembered that I suck at cartography. I have it on good authority that a thousand words is worth a picture, so here’s the situation: at the Tacit Peace, the Taiping control OTL provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangsu, plus Taiwan. Yunnan is a client state of the Taiping (平南国, or the Peaceful Southern Country). The Qing control the rest of China, plus all of Mongolia, plus Korea is a tributary state of the Qing. Their suzerainty is rather theoretical in Xinjiang and Tibet, though. In real life I’m aware that things wouldn’t break down so neatly on current provincial borders, but this will make it way easier for me to calculate population and the like later on, so that’s the way it’s going to be. And if anyone wants to take it upon themselves to make a map . . . Hong Xiuquan bless you.
*And that’s the end of the first section of this timeline. Originally it was going to be the end of the whole thing, but I’ve since realized that there are a number of interesting directions that I can go with this, and will thus keep on writing for a while. The next series of posts will be about the development of both Qing and Taiping China – government, economy, society, and so forth. I’d be eager to hear people’s ideas and input about where I should go with the timeline – all of my ideas are quite unformed from here on out. And thanks for following this! I hope you’ve had as much fun reading this timeline so far as I’ve had writing it. More to come soon.