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ABSTRACT
Using an autobiography written by a Qing local official, Duan Guangqing (段光清, 1798–1878), this article explores the personal experiences of local officials who developed ways of coping with atrocities, trauma, and various local affairs during the Taiping War (1851–1864). Contrary to studies that focus on large-scale combat operations in Taiping China, this essay adopts a decentered approach to explore the small-scale wars in which local officials and various actors strategized their actions and manipulated their relationships. This article argues that the strategies and actions of local figures during small-scale conflicts provide a vivid and decentered picture of Taiping China.
Acknowledgement
Research for this article was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 788476). I would like to express my gratitude to the ERC and the ENP-China team for their support of my research. I would also like to thank Professor Peter Lorge, the editors of Small Wars & Insurgencies, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions regarding this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. * This project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 788476).
2. See, for instance, Wright, The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T’ung-chih Restoration, 1862–1874.
3. See, for instance, Jen, The Taiping Revolutionary Movement; Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents. For the life of the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全), see Spence, God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan.
4. See, for instance, Weller, Resistance, Chaos, and Control in China: Taiping Rebels, Taiwanese Ghosts, and Tiananmen; Wagner, Reenacting the Heavenly Vision: The Role of Religion in the Taiping Rebellion; Shih, The Taiping Ideology: Its Sources, Interpretations, and Influence. For recent studies that place the Taiping in the Christian context, see Reilly, The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire.
5. For the use of the stories of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, see Shih, The Taiping Ideology: Its Sources, Interpretations, and Influence.
6. For social and cultural aspects of the Taiping War, as well as personal trauma and moral responses to the war, see Meyer-Fong, What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in 19th Century China. For the tales of a family in the aftermath of the Taiping, see Esherick, Ancestral Leaves: A Family Journey Through Chinese History. For cultural responses to famine during and after the Taiping War, see Edgerton-Tarpley, Tears from Iron: Cultural Responses to Famine in Nineteenth-Century China. For the aspect of memory during the Taiping period, see Huntington, ‘Chaos, Memory, and Genre: Anecdotal Recollections of the Taiping Rebellion’. For the experiences of talented women during and after the Taiping War, see Mann, The Talented Women of the Zhang Family.
7. See, for instance, Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War.
8. See, for instance, Brown, ‘Rebels, Rent, and Tao Xu: Local Elite Identity and Conflict During and After the Taiping Occupation of Jiangnan, 1860–84’; Zheng, ‘Loyalty, Anxiety, and Opportunism: Local Elite Activism during the Taiping Rebellion in Eastern Zhejiang, 1851–1864’; Lo, ‘Local Politics and the Canonization of a God: Lord Yang (Yang fujun) in Late Qing Wenzhou (1840–67)’; Shao, ‘Taiping tianguo shiqi guojia, difang yu huidang guanxi – yi Tiandi hui qiyi wei li’. For the structure of violence and resistance during and after the Taiping era, see Rowe, Crimson Rain: Seven Centuries of Violence in a Chinese County; Bernhardt, Rents, Taxes, and Peasant Resistance: The Lower Yangzi Region, 1840–1950; Perry, Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845–1945.
9. For recent studies on the everyday experiences of local officials during the post-Taiping era, see Qiu, Wan Qing guanchang jingxiang: Du Fengzhi riji yanjiu.
10. The original script of Jinghu’s Personal Chronicle is stored in Anhui Provincial Museum. This paper uses the reprint version of the 1960 excerpt. See Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu.
11. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 7–8.
12. The original copy of Jinghu’s Personal Chronicle had never appeared in public until Duan’s descendants donated it to the Anhui branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1957, while the latter annotated and published its excerpt in 1960.
13. Black, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency,116.
14. Li, ‘Gu guanglu dafu Duan gong muzhiming’, 1417.
15. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, Preface; Huang, Zhongguo nianpu cidian, 502–503.
16. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 2.
17. Ibid.
18. Wu, Jibian liangmin: chuantong Zhongguo chengshi chunzhong jiti xingdong zhi fenxi, 315, 320–324.
19. Wu, Jibian liangmin, 172–173, 180–184.
20. Hung, Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing Dynasty, 135–167.
21. Perry, Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845–1945, 3–6.
22. Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644–1796, 231–286.
23. For the activities of Anhui merchants in the coastal provinces during the Ming-Qing period, see Ho, ‘The Salt Merchants of Yang-chou: A Study of Commercial Capitalism in Eighteenth-Century China’; Wang, Mingqing huishang yu Huaiyang shehui bianqian.
24. Da Qing Renzong Rui (Jiaqing) Huangdi Shilu, Jiaqing, 132: 793b.
25. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 7. For the datiao procedure and the system of late Qing expectant officials, see Will, ‘Expectant Officials in Provincial Capitals in the Nineteenth Century’, 12–13.
26. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 7–8.
27. Ibid.
28. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 9–10.
29. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 10.
30. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 11.
31. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 39–40.
32. Wang, (Guangxu) Haiyan xianzhi, juan 13, 14.
33. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 40.
34. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 40–41.
35. Matsuura, ‘Shindai Sekkō Chapu ni okeru Nippon bōeki to enkai bōeki no renkan’..
36. For a case study of a Jinshan pirate who raided Zhapu in the twentieth century, see Guo, ‘The Portraits of a Heroine: Huang Bamei and the Politics of Wartime History in China and Taiwan, 1930–1960’..
37. For the reforms of prisoner transfer in Qing China, see Guo, ‘The Speed of Justice: Summary Execution and Legal Culture in Qing Dynasty China, 1644–1912’, 190–217.
38. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 41–43.
39. See Schoppa, Chinese Elites and Political Change: Zhejiang in the Early Twentieth Century; Rankin, Elite Activism and Political Transformation in China: Zhejiang Province, 1865–1911; Zhang, Social Transformation in Modern China: he State and Local Elites in Henan, 1900–1937.
40. Kuhn, Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China: Militarization and Social Structure, 1796–1864, 165–188.
41. Meyer-Fong, What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in 19th Century China, 70–71.
42. The following analysis of Duan’s experiences during the Taiping era is revised from my dissertation. See Guo, ‘The Speed of Justice: Summary Execution and Legal Culture in Qing Dynasty China, 1644–1911’, 227–236.
43. For Xiaowei Zheng’s analysis of this riot, see Zheng, ‘Loyalty, Anxiety, and Opportunism: Local Elite Activism during the Taiping Rebellion in Eastern Zhejiang, 1851–1864’, 44–48.
44. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 50–51.
45. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 51–52.
46. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 52.
47. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 52–53.
48. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 53–56.
49. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 57.
50. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 58.
51. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 61–62.
52. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 58–61.
53. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 59–60.
54. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 61.
55. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 62–63.
56. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 63.
57. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 68–69, 72.
58. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 65: 856b–857a.
59. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 72.
60. Kuhn, Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China, 165–188.
61. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 49: 659a–659b.
62. Li, (Minguo) Xiangshan xianzhi, juan 9, 57–58.
63. Li, (Minguo) Xiangshan xianzhi, juan 9, 57–58; Yu, (Minguo) Taizhou fuzhi, juan 136, 1.
64. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 45: 617b–618a.
65. Xiamen shi defang zhi bian zuan weiyuanhui bangongshi, (Minguo) Xiamen shizhi, juan 23, 54–58.
66. Ibid.
67. For the surrender of Bu Xingyou, see Chen, Hai fen yang bo: Qing dai huan dong Ya hai yu shang de hai dao, 230–293.
68. Li, (Minguo) Xiangshan xianzhi, juan 9, 57–58.
69. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 49: 659a–659b.
70. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 50–51.
71. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 70.
72. Guo, ‘A Different Kind of War: Summary Execution and the Politics of Men of Force in Late-Qing China, 1864–1911’, 37–39.
73. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 71.
74. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 71–72.
75. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 65: 856b–857a.
76. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 72.
77. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 78–81.
78. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 80.
79. For the development of the Small Swords Society, see Perry, ‘Tax Revolt in Late Qing China: The Small Swords of Shanghai and Liu Depei of Shandong’; Dillon, ‘The Triads in Shanghai: The Small Sword Society Uprising, 1853–1855’..
80. On the operation of ju bureaus during the post-Taiping era, see Bernhardt, Rents, Taxes, and Peasant Resistance: The Lower Yangzi Region, 1840–1950, 117–160.
81. For the development of summary execution in Qing China, see Guo, ‘The Speed of Justice: Summary Execution and Legal Culture in Qing Dynasty China, 1644–1912’..
82. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 83–84.
83. Local constables handled affairs for local communities and officials. See Allee, Law and Local Society in Late Imperial China: Northern Taiwan in the Nineteenth Century, 157–158; Chü, Local Government in China Under the Ch’ing, 3–4; Hsiao, Rural China: Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, 64–6.
84. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 85–86.
85. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 85–86.
86. Guo, ‘The Speed of Justice: Summary Execution and Legal Culture in Qing Dynasty China, 1644–1912’..
87. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 103: 542b.
88. Ibid.
89. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 105: 576a.
90. Ibid.
91. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 91–92.
92. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 85–88.
93. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 105–107; Chu, (Guangxu) Shangyu xianzhi jiaoxu, juan 26, 36–37.
94. Jia, Chouban yiwu shimo: Xianfeng chao, juan 10, 33a–34b; Jia, Chouban yiwu shimo: Xianfeng chao, juan 11, 11a–11b; Li, (Minguo) Xiangshan xianzhi, juan 9, 58–62.
95. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 108–115.
96. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 248: 837b–838a.
97. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 270: 1179a; Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 137.
98. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 272: 1213a.
99. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 138–145. Also see Will, ‘Views of the Realm in Crisis: Testimonies on Imperial Audiences in the Nineteenth Century’, 144–145.
100. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 287: 208a–208b.
101. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 155–168.
102. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 311: 555b–556b; Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 311: 569a–569b.
103. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 312: 576a–576b.
104. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 314: 620b.
105. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 335: 990a–990b.
106. Da Qing Wenzong Xian (Xianfeng) Huangdi Shilu, Xianfeng, 342: 1077b.
107. Duan, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 189–197.
108. Da Qing Muzong Yi (Tongzhi) Huangdi Shilu, Tongzhi, 61: 186b.
109. Li, ‘Gu guanglu dafu Duan gong muzhiming’, 1417.
110. Duan Guangqing, Jinghu zizhuan nianpu, 206–212.
111. Li, ‘Gu guanglu dafu Duan gong muzhiming’, 1417.
112. Ibid.
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Weiting Guo
Weiting Guo is a Research Fellow in Chinese History at Aix-Marseille Université, France. He was previously a Limited-Term Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University (2015–2019). He is currently working for a digital-humanities project ‘Elites, Networks, and Power in Modern China’ that is sponsored by the European Research Council. He is the co-editor of a forthcoming volume, Routledge Companion to Chinese Legal History. He is the Secretary of the International Society for Chinese Law and History.