The History of China

In the summer of 1861, the strangest siege of the war took shape on the banks of the Yangtze. As Heaven itself sent forth cosmic signs – of victory or disaster, no one could be quite sure – an imperial army had a rebel city completely surrounded.Only for a different rebel army to surround that imperial ringing army.But they were, all of them, deceived... for somewhere out past the hills, another ring was made...

Inside the walls, the gardens were planted, the rations were holding, and the markets were open for business.They would stay open to the very end…Time Period Covered:Apr.–Sept. 1861 CEMajor Historical Figures:The Qing:The Xianfeng Emperor [1831–1861]Yixin, Prince Gong [1833–1898]Imperial Commissioner Zeng Guofan [1811–1872]Zeng Guoquan, commander of the siege of Anqing [1824–1890]Zhu Hongzhang, commander of the Guizhou divisionCommander Bao Chao [1828–1886]Duolonga, Manchu cavalry general [1817–1864]Zuo Zongtang, general holding Jingdezhen [1812–1885]Hu Linyi, Governor of Hubei [1812–1861]The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King [1814–1864]Hong Rengan, the Shield King [1822–1864]Chen Yucheng, the Brave King [1837–1862]Li Xiucheng, the Loyal King [1823–1864]Li Shixian, the Attending King [1834–1865]Lai Wenguang, commander at Huangzhou [1827–1868]Liu Canglin, commander at the Jixian PassYang Fuqing, commander of the last relief armyCheng Xueqi, the Brave King's vanguard commander; defected to the Qing [1829–1864]The British:Frederick Bruce, British Minister to China [1814–1867]Harry Parkes, interpreter & negotiator [1828–1885]Major Works Cited:Fairbank, John K., ed. The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10: Late Ch'ing, 1800–1911, Part 1.Jen, Yu-wen. The Taiping Revolutionary Movement.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War.
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By the autumn of 1860, the Qing Dynasty had run out of armies to lose. What was left of its war was being run out of a mountain valley in southern Anhui by a half-blind scholar-official who was, at that very moment, politely refusing a direct order from his emperor.

Downriver, the Taiping had a plan to end the whole thing. In March of 1861 the Brave King sprinted 200 miles in 11 days to pull it off, and arrived holding the strongest hand any Taiping commander ever would.

And then… the British showed up and had a little conversation. And everything went completely off the rails...

Time Period Covered:Oct. 1860–Apr. 1861 CE

Major Historical Figures:The Qing:Imperial Comissioner Zeng Guofan [1811–1872]Zeng Guoquan, commander of the siege of Anqing [1824–1890]Commander Bao Chao [1828–1886]Duolonga, Manchu cavalry general [1817–1864]Zuo Zongtang, general holding Jingdezhen [1812–1885]Senggelinqin, Mongol prince; commander in the north [1811–1865]

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King [1814–1864]Chen Yucheng, the Brave King [1837–1862]Li Xiucheng, the Loyal King [1823–1864]Hong Rengan, the Shield King [1822–1864]Li Shixian, the Attending King [1834–1865]

The British:James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, High Commissioner & Plenipotentiary [1811–1863]Frederick Bruce, British Minister to China [1814–1867]Rear Adm. Sir James Hope [1808–1881]Harry Parkes, interpreter & negotiator [1828–1885]

Visitors to Nanjing:Issachar Roberts, American missionary; once the Heavenly King's teacher [1802–1871]Griffith John, Welsh missionary of the London Missionary Society [1831–1912]Yung Wing, Yale graduate & tea trader [1828–1912]

Major Works Cited:Jen, Yu-wen. The Taiping Revolutionary Movement.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War.
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For two days in mid-October, ash fell like snow atop Beijing. All that remained of one of the greatest cultural storehouses in all of human history, put to the torch as an extremely personalized punishment... after everything not nailed down inside it had already been looted off, of course.

But the man it was meant to punish... wasn't even there. He'd already slipped out the back door of the Forbidden City weeks before - leaving an opera troupe to play on and cover his escape, as he left his own capital behind to its conquerors for the last time.

What was left was a city ready to be conquered, a conqueror who didn't want it at all, and who would negotiate a very favorable credit-extension deal instead... with a computable interest in the survival of the government he'd just humiliated, and in the quiet of the very ports the Taiping had spent all summer marching toward.

Time Period Covered:Aug.–Dec. 1860 CE

Major Historical Figures:The Qing:The Xianfeng Emperor [1831–1861]Prince Gong, the emperor's half-brother; imperial plenipotentiary [1833–1898]Senggelinqin, Mongol prince; commander in the north [1811–1865]Zaiyuan, Prince of Yi, imperial commissioner [1816–1861]Muyin, imperial commissionerHengqi, Qing officialZeng Guofan, imperial commissioner against the Taiping [1811–1872]The Qianlong Emperor [1711–1799]

The British:James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, High Commissioner & Plenipotentiary [1811–1863]Frederick Bruce, British Minister to China [1814–1867]Harry Parkes, interpreter & negotiator [1828–1885]Henry Loch, Elgin's private secretary [1827–1900]Thomas Bowlby, correspondent of The Times [1818–1860]Gen. Sir James Hope Grant, commanding the British force [1808–1875]Rear Adm. Sir James Hope [1808–1881]Capt. Charles Gordon, Royal Engineers [1833–1885]Robert Swinhoe, interpreter [1836–1877]Lord Macartney, ambassador to the Qianlong court, 1793 [1737–1806]Lord Amherst, ambassador, 1816 [1773–1857]King George III [1738–1820]Queen Victoria [1819–1901]

The French:Baron Gros, French PlenipotentiaryGen. Charles Cousin-Montauban, afterward Comte de Palikao [1793–1877]Felice Beato, photographer [c. 1832–1909]Jean Denis Attiret, Jesuit painter at the Yuanmingyuan [1702–1768]

The Russians:Count Nikolay Ignatiev, Russian envoy [1832–1908]

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Rengan, the Shield King [1822–1864]

Major Works Cited:Giles, Herbert A. A Glossary of Reference on Subjects Connected with the Far East.Gros, Baron. Négociations entre la France et la Chine en 1860.Hake, Alfred Egmont. The Story of Chinese Gordon.Leavenworth, Charles S. The Arrow War with China.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War.
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A suspicious ship of dubious registry is boarded by Qing marines off Canton, 12 of her crew are taken captive for piracy, and the British allege their flag was hauled down in the process. That last part, at least, was almost certainly untrue... not that that stops it all from spinning entirely out of control.

Within the month, the Royal Navy will be shelling the office of the viceroy who won't meet with them, Parliament's own better angels will be promptly overturned by the public itself at the polls, and the kickoff of a 4-year war… that no one could ever quite name an actual cause for: The Arrow War, AKA The 2nd Opium War.Time Period Covered:Oct. 1856 – 1860 CE

Major Historical Figures:The Qing:The Xianfeng Emperor [1831–1861]Ye Mingchen, Governor-General of Liangguang [1807–1859]Senggelinqin, Mongol prince; commander at Taku [1811–1865]The British:James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, High Commissioner & Plenipotentiary [1811–1863]Frederick Bruce, first British Minister to China [1814–1867]Harry Parkes, acting British Consul at Canton [1828–1885]Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong [1792–1872]In Parliament:Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister [1784–1865]William Gladstone [1809–1898]Benjamin Disraeli [1804–1881]The French & Americans:Baron Gros, French PlenipotentiaryFather Auguste Chapdelaine, missionary [d. 1856]Josiah Tattnall, U.S. Navy commodore [1795–1871]John E. Ward, U.S. Minister to China [1814–1902]The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King [1814–1864]

Major Works Cited:Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War.Twitchett, Denis, and John K. Fairbank, eds. The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10: Late Ch'ing, 1800–1911, Part 1.Wong, J. Y. Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism, and the Arrow War (1856–1860) in China.
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The Loyal King does everything right. He writes ahead to Shanghai to announce he's coming – as a friend! And only for the Qing parts of the city! His standing orders: no firing on the foreigners, you get your head chopped off. He even signs off wishing them all good health until he can meet them in person.

It's returned unopened. As is the second one.

And so, in the third week of August 1860, an army marching under orders
not to shoot back spends 5 days being shelled outside the walls of a
city they thought friendly… all culminating with the French burning
the suburbs to the ground, with everyone still inside.

And those soldiers holding that wall on the Qing’s behalf? They're the
rear echelon of an expedition sailing north to burn down the
dynasty's capital.Time Period Covered:June-Aug. 1860 CE

Major Historical Figures:The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Rengan, the Shield King (Gan Wang), Prime Minister [1822–1864]Li Xiucheng, the Loyal King (Zhong Wang) [1823–1864]

The Qing:Xue Huan, acting Governor of JiangsuWu Xu, the Shanghai DaotaiYang Fang, banker; head of the merchant syndicateHe Guiqing, cashiered Governor-General of Liangjiang [1816–1862]

The Foreigners…At Shanghai:Frederick Bruce, British Minister to China [1814–1867]Thomas Taylor Meadows, acting British Consul at Shanghai [1815–1868]Frederick Townsend Ward, commander, Shanghai Foreign-Arms Corps
[1831–1862]Thomas Francis Wade, first British Inspector of Customs at Shanghai [1818–1895]Horatio Nelson Lay, British Inspector of Customs from 1855 [1832–1898]Savage, English coastal pilot in Taiping service [d. 1860]In the North:James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, British High Commissioner; Frederick Bruce's elder brother [1811–1863]

Major Works Cited:Fairbank, John King. Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842–1854.Jen, Yu-wen. The Taiping Revolutionary Movement.Michael, Franz, and Chung-li Chang. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vols. I–III.Murphey, Rhoads. Shanghai: Key to Modern China.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War.Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan.Twitchett, Denis, and John K. Fairbank, eds. The Cambridge History of China,
Vol. 10: Late Ch'ing, 1800–1911, Part 1.
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