Civil War Series: Taiping Rebellion

[Helsinkian]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion

Arguably the deadliest civil war in world history, though most casualties were caused by disease and starvation rather than combat.

Previously:

English Civil War
Jacobite rising of 1745
War in the Vendée

[The Govanah Jake]

Qing

[jaichind]

Qing

I always used another proxy to measure Right-Left in the Chinese context although it is mostly applicable to a Chinese regime.  This is

"What is your position on the Taiping Rebellion/regime?"

I consider a Chinese regime Left of they answered in the positive and Right if their position is in the negative.  

The Taiping rebellion which espoused a combination radical anti-traditionalist egalitarian principles of 1850-1864 was a mortal threat to the ruling Ching dynasty and ultimately was defeated as it did not live up to its principles and the Ching dynasty was able to rally behind Han Chinese traditionalism to defeat the Taiping.  This is ironic as the apex elite of the Ching were mostly Manchurians, Han-ized Manchurans for sure but Manchurians.  

The post-Taiping Ching which obviously was negative on the Taiping was for sure Right and oscillated  between Right conservatism and Burk style Right gradual reformism.  The revolutionary KMT which sought to overthrow the Ching saw itself as the successor movement of the Taiping for sure had positive views of the Taipings.  The Ching was replaced by the centrist BeiYang in 1912 which had neutral views on the Taipings while the radical revolutionary KMT opposition continued to hold pro-Taiping views, let along the even more radical CCP.  When the KMT overthrew the Beiyang in 1928 it continued to hold pro-Taiping views but that quickly changed by the early 1930s as the KMT shifted Right as it combated the revolutionary CCP and became critical of the Taipings.  In 1949 the CCP took over on Mainland China defeating the KMT regime and continued to hold positive views of the Taipings, especially in the Maoist era of the Cultural Revolution.  But as the Maoist era came to a close, the CCP views on the Taipings become more ambivalent in the 1980s as it became to shift away from the Left.  By the 1990s the CCP became fairly critical of the Taipings as it continued its transformation toward a Righist force.  This trend continued in 2000s and 2010s although the opposition New Left steam of the  CCP are challenging the new anti-Taiping consensus by taking a more positive assessment of the Taiping legacy.

For me, I pretty much rate the Taiping regime almost as badly as the Maoist CCP regime.  My support for different Chinese regimes most matches their shift on their Taiping assessment.  I backed the Ching and Beiyang against the KMT until the 1920s.  As the KMT shifted Right in policy and their assessment of the Taiping in the early 1930s I also shifted to back KMT.  I started to back the CCP in the early 1990s just around the same time they start to become more critical of the Taiping regime.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Jesus's brother.

[Zioneer]

The radical Christians.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The side which loved Jesus Christ.

[Mr. Smith]

Qing (reluctantly)

[Kingpoleon]

The side which loved Jesus Christ.

A false prophet, you mean?

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Not a fan of a lot of what the Taiping did, but considering that the Qing went on to basically destroy China from the inside...

Jesus's brother.