The Dakai Dynasty: Rise of the Heavenly Kingdom

Sabot Cat

Banned
The Dakai Dynasty: Rise of the Heavenly Kingdom

Preface: Stagnation and Struggle in the Qing Dynasty's China

“More than fifty years have passed since the founding of the Qing dynasty, and the empire grows poorer each day. Farmers are destitute, artisans are destitute, merchants are destitute, and officials too are destitute. Grain is cheap, yet it is hard to eat one’s fill. Cloth is cheap, yet it is hard to cover one’s skin. Boatloads of goods travel from one marketplace to another, but the cargoes must be sold at a loss. Officials upon leaving their posts discover they have no wherewithal to support their households. Indeed the four occupations are all impoverished!”

-Tang Chen (1790s)


China was a premier force on the world stage before the ascendancy of the Qing Dynasty. Unlike the nation-states in sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, China had all of the foundational features of an advanced culture, with its abundance of protein rich farmable plants and docile livestock, producing the food surplus necessary for a division of labor and specialization of professions. This in turn led to all of the civilized ailments and aids, including writing and superior weapons of war. For two millennia, these factors in aggregate helped China to be wealthier than any of the nations of the world (including the various kingdoms of Europe), abundant in a collective proclivity for inventions and innovations among them printing, the compass, and gunpowder.

The Ming Dynasty's China was also one of the first countries in the world where it was proven that the threshold from feudalism to capitalism did not have to be passed with bloodshed. The reigning rulers gave a light tax burden and regarded the market with a quiet non-interventionism, facilitating the replacement of serfdom with commercial farming and wage labor. This laissez-faire approach to economics also carried to the cultural sphere, as Confucianism was re-interpreted by heterodox thinkers like Wang Yangming and Li Zhi, while Christians were allowed to profess their faith in peace. The aristocracy coexisted peacefully with the merchants, enjoying mutually waxing splendor.

It thus should have been on the fast track for an industrial revolution, especially when one considers that China has the third largest coal reserves readily available in the Shanxi Province. If there is anything that can be surmised from the European imperialist humiliation, it's that the decline of Chinese hegemony was not the product of scarce resources, but the result of a maladaptive culture. Or to be more direct, a maladaptive ruling clique: the Ming Dynasty were overthrown at great cost by the Qing Dynasty, and the latter's troops indiscriminately massacred people, such as in the infamous mass murder at the city of Yanghzhou, or in the provinces of Jiangnan and Sichuan, and after settling into their positions of power, the Qing soon cast their bureaucratic shadow over the masses.

They were crusaders against cultural progress, murdering any scholars and burning any texts that dared to advance a new or inconvenient idea. They were a blight upon the economy, enforcing a strict quota on the number of operating merchants, encouraging subsistence agriculture, preventing new mines from being opened, making commerce noncompetitive through thirteen government guilds, and appropriating 10,666 square kilometers of arable land wherein serfdom once again became the order of the day. Perhaps most crucially, they dammed up the river of wealth that was international trade, until it was but a tiny stream in Canton.

In consideration of all of this, it's surprising (and unfortunate) that their dynasty clung to life for as long it did. The Anglo-Chinese War served as the first stab to its pulpy, decaying wooden base. This conflict was a less of “war” between two equals and more of a conquest, with only 69 British casualties for 20,000 Chinese casualties over the course of three years and five months. The casus belli was the opium trade, or the lack thereof. The war and everything to come from it would not have occurred without the lack of economic openness, and through trying to reduce opposition, they invigorated it, an ironic plight shared by those who nailed Jesus to the cross and slayed the first Christian martyrs. Perhaps the Qing were at least partly justified in restricting the flow of foreign ideas into the country, because as soon as the treaty ports were opened and a new wind blew upon the faces of the Chinese masses struggling in a stagnant squalor, revolution was upon the land.

Chapter 1: A Kingdom Rises and an Empire Falls

“In my hand I wield the Universe and the power to attack and kill,
I slay the evil, preserve the righteous, and relieve the people's suffering.
My eyes see through beyond the west, the north, the rivers, and the mountains,
My voice shakes the east, the south, the Sun, and the Moon.
The glorious sword of authority was given by the Lord,
Poems and books are evidences that praise Yahweh in front of Him
Taiping unifies the World of Light,
The domineering air will be joyous for myriads of thousand years.”


-St. Hong Xiuquan, Poem on Executing the Evil and Preserving the Righteous (1837)


The most important of the emergent anti-Qing vanguard would be the Baishangdi Hui (God Worshiping Society), a Christian sect founded in 1843 by Hong Xiuquan, Feng Yunshan and Hong Rengan. Their movement attracted thousands of followers from the oppressed masses, as they preached equality and salvation in God the Heavenly Father. A word war spanning generations, with millions of arbor casualties, has been waged over the founders' exact theology. What many religious historians seem to miss here is that this era was the equivalent to the doctrinally free-wheeling days of early Christianity. An attempt to find an orthodoxy here will be, and has been, frustrated time and time again because there is no orthodoxy to find. The only thing that can be discerned is an overriding mandate to purge China of all of its “demons”, such as Confucian idols and temples, but more importantly the ruling Qing Dynasty.

The first bloodshed was not a clash between the nascent revolutionaries and the Qing Dynasty, but with the roving brigands that the Baishangdi Hui often countered at every turn. In revenge, a band of them ambushed and killed a prominent Taiping leader named Yang Xiuqing, on the night of June 14th 1849. He would be the zealous revolutionaries' first martyr, before they would be dealt another harsh blow in December 1850, when the Qing army commander at Xunzhou (Li Dianyuan) surrounded a residence of Hong Xiuquan in Huazhoushanren Village. There the rebel leaders were trapped, captured, and executed by beheading.

In the face of this catastrophe, Shi Dakai took on the mantle of leadership, and rallied the troops against the Qing in the memory of their martyred leaders. Shi Dakai was once just a young orphan, born in March 1831 in Guigang, Guangxi. Nonetheless, he persevered in his studies, and at the age of sixteen, he became a part of the Baishangdi Hui. Through his superlative genius in the battlefield and reputation for competency, as well as fairness in managing the Holy Treasury in its infancy, he was promoted to commander just three years into his service.

On January 1851, in Guangxi, Shi Dakai founded Taiping Tianguo (the Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping) and was promptly crowned as its king. The name of the realm wasn't just a reflect of its founders' and followers' Christian faith, but to further discredit the ruling Qing Dynasty. King Shi Dakai claimed that the current dynasty did not have the Mandate of Heaven because they did not have salvation in Jesus Christ, and that they could not rule over “all under heaven” if they acted in defiance towards the Lord above. Revisionists have claimed that this was more important arcana for philosophers than the common folk of the time, but it remained a fact that King Shi Dakai commanded tens of thousands of people in his army that were reportedly energized by his persona and rhetoric. However, his strength was not just in charisma or numbers: in May of that year he had led a victory against a Qing army 50,000 strong with just 300 soldiers at the Renyi river gate. He campaigned along the Yangtze river, absorbing more cities like Hunan and Wuhan while never losing a battle. In March 1853, his army captured Nanjing and christened it with the new name of Tianjing (Heavenly Capital).

He fortified the city of Tianjing and recreated the Holy Treasure as an emerging national currency, while continuing his much praised administration. He was especially popular with the peasants, as he had a modest dwelling and shared his poetry with them, and in turn they wrote folk songs in honor of him and his victories. He encouraged agriculture and commerce, lightening taxes and promoting people for their talent while imploring the citizens to report wrongdoing, in order to build a more efficient bureaucracy. He preached equality of the classes and sexes, with no private property ownership and female soldiers serving with male soldiers. He promoted monogamy, as he had an exclusive love of his wife Huang, while prohibiting polygamy and concubinage. Civil service exams, which were to be open to women, became rooted in Biblical rather than Confucian sources, while gambling, opium, tobacco, alcohol and prostitution were all outlawed.

By May 1853, the Taiping Kingdom had piqued the interest of Westerners, and henceforth the Dakai court hosted Sir George Bonham, Governor of Hong Kong and superintendent of the United Kingdom's trade in China. King Dakai was interested in opening up trade with the British Empire to stimulate commerce and strengthen evangelizing efforts. Unfortunately, the opium trade issue caused a clash between the two, with Shi Dakai sternly rejecting its legalization. Later on, the French attempted a similar mission, but they managed to also offend the court by referring to the Qing Emperor Xianfeng as “emperor”, a title reserved only for God in the Heavenly Kingdom. U.S. Commissioner Robert McLane carefully studied these cases, and hoped that he would have more luck through being introduced by Issachar Jacox Roberts, a Southern Baptist missionary that had been a friend of the court since its earliest days. Commissioner McLane secured a secret and exclusive trade agreement with Taiping, allowing the United States to outmaneuver France and the United Kingdom in the event that the Qing Dynasty would be overthrown.

King Shi Dakai had hoped to gain powerful allies in the Christian nations of the Western world before directly attacking Beijing, and with disappointment at the two foreign policy failures as well as the failure to secure an actual military alliance with the United States, he dispatched troops to try to recruit the disaffected Nian rebel bands. The Nian were skilled horsemen and salt smugglers that lacked a common ideology outside of anti-Qing sentiment among the peasants, but they shared a nostalgia for the Ming Dynasty. This was reflected by their incorporation of the Ming's signature color red in their banner and in the dye for their beards. Their leader was Zhang Lexing, although the word 'leader' might be too strong here, as there were sixteen distinct Nian groups each with their own “lodge master” who only consented to the loosest of centralization. The Nian thus aided the Heavenly Army in their campaigns in Huabei, where they captured numerous cities. By winter of 1854 they had taken Tianjin, a strategic location near to Beijing.

This was a flashpoint of revolutionary wave in China. In March 1855, a clash between Qing officials and Muslim miners in Yunnan sparked a general uprising of the Hui led by Du Wenxiu, who captured the provincial capital of Dali and declared himself the Sultan of Pingnan Guo (Pacified Southern State). The Miao peasants of the Guizhou, overburdened by taxes and seeing weakness in the Qing, rose up and took over in the name of Shi Dakai and the Taiping Kingdom by June 1855. The members of the Tiandihui in Guangdong province, led by Ling Shih-pa of the Baishangdi Hui, also cast off their oppressors and united with other rebelling Southern provinces. The Qing overstretched their military and supply lines in attempting to quell the revolts, while the Nian's incursions into Shaanxi inspired Muslims there to rise up in rebellion. With all of the Qing empire collapsing, King Shi Dakai was so confident that he dispatched an amban (equivalent to a protectorate's Resident) for Tibet, where he was received amicably. The king than rallied his forces and lead them triumphantly to Beijing in November 1855, achieving an overwhelming victory.

The Xianfeng Emperor was caught attempting to flee the city for his summer palace at Chengde by the revolutionaries, who resolved to take him and his brother Prince Gong. Afterward, it is said that Shi Dakai offered forgiveness to the captive royals, but they refused to admit the error of their ways. Whatever the case may be, they were executed with no surviving heirs willing or able to significantly challenge the new status quo at the moment. Their palaces were subsequently plundered by the invading armies.

It's hard to conceive of scenarios where the Qing Dynasty could not have fallen in the face of such strong, unified opposition to their rule, and it's amazing that they lasted for as long as they did. Nonetheless, the 'unified' quality of the opposition would be rapidly proven untrue.



[Author's Note: Pinyin and even Wade-Giles was butterflied of course, but I'm using unhistorical orthography because I'd rather not inflict Legge romanization upon you all. I'm also not a personal supporter of the Qing conquest theory, but it has more backers in this timeline. Updates will be weekly. :)]
 
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Interesting PoD, though I was slightly annoyed with the whole 'blame Qing' theory until I read your disclaimer.

Of course theology in the Taiping State is going to be important, since OTL that was what ticked off Western sympathizers of the revolt the most (attacking Shanghai didn't help things either of course). Hoping to see more of that ;)

Also a bit surprised by the lack of reaction from the Confucian gentry, though I guess without Western support it'll be harder for Li Hongzhang for Zeng Guofan to establish their armies.
 
Some doubts about this timeline :

1.The majority of Chinese are what you call adherents to Chinese folk religion which is a mix of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and local tradition.

There are also Muslims in China.

Shi Dakai does sound like a die-hard fanatic to me.

Does it mean that Shi Dakai will try to force convert other Chinese to Christianity ?

If he tries to do that then I guarantee that he will fail - disastrously.



2.I highly doubt that Shi Dakai will not have conflict with Catholic pope trying to impose his authority on him.

Since when does the ruler of China (whatever the title is) submits to the authority of foreigners ?

His followers will not accept that.


3. The word "Shangdi" has been used since at least the Shang dynasty and the word "Huangdi" which means "emperor" has been used since Qin dynasty.

Every Chinese know their difference and I don't see any reasons why Shi Dakai choose to not use the term "Huangdi" and use the term king (Wang) instead.

There is no reason at all to say that the term emperor cannot be used since it is supposedly reserved to "God"; just because the two terms happen to use the same character "di".


 
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Sabot Cat

Banned
Thanks for the commentary so far, although I'll have to avoid answering too much so I don't give away the [hi]story. :)

There are also Muslims in China.

Yes, they played a prominent role in overthrowing the Qing in the story so far. :confused:

3. The word "Shangdi" has been used since at least the Shang dynasty and the word "Huangdi" which means "emperor" has been used since Qin dynasty.

Every Chinese know their difference and I don't see any reasons why Shi Dakai choose to not use the term "Huangdi" and use the term king (Wang) instead.

You could ask OTL's Hong Xiuquan why he used 'Tian Wang' instead of 'Huangdi'; it was an original Taiping Kingdom custom.

There is no reason at all to say that the term emperor cannot be used since it is supposedly reserved to "God"; just because the two terms happen to use the same character "di".

This actually happened though, in OTL:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Po...g#v=onepage&q=The mood of the meeting&f=false

So it's not implausible; if anything it's too convergent.

Points one and two will be addressed later. :)
 
Lexical Nazi:

You have a "Hong Xiuqing" there
And "Gong Qinwang" is not a name, but a title: "Prince of Gong/Gungnecuke"
 

2.I highly doubt that Shi Dakai will not have conflict with Catholic pope trying to impose his authority on him.

Since when does the ruler of China (whatever the title is) submits to the authority of foreigners ?

His followers will not accept that.



The Taipings were Christians, not Catholics, so the pope isn't an issue.
 
Both fixed, thanks. :)

Although I am still confused on the latter considering encyclopedia articles like this. :confused:

It looks like Qinwang (亲王) is the translation of prince, so Gong Qinwang is the Prince of Gong. In this case, he was also known as Yixin, but I think Prince Gong is an fine translation. FWIW his name in modern Chinese style seems like it would be Aixin Jueluo Yixin, which is long and unwieldy...

I'm curious though - what is so different about Shi's Heavenly Kingdom that makes it so much more successful than Hong's? On the one hand, Hong pretty much became a nonentity after establishing his capital in Tianjing, but on the other hand, he was the unifying figure of the movement - basically the Mao of the Taiping movement if it could be said to have one. I don't think his presence was a net negative on the movement as a whole, so removing him wouldn't be enough to allow the success in TTL. I noticed that you also had Yang Xiuqing killed early on, which probably would have benefited the Taipings in the long run. However, I am wondering if the removal of the two ideological pillars of the movement so early on might not sap some of their messianic fervor and weaken the armies? It's your call though.

Shi Dakai was one of the more competent leaders in OTL and he did seem to be one of the few who didn't hypocritically promote monogamy, abstinence from drug use, etc. among his followers while smoking opium and maintaining a harem. Hopefully having him become Wang and thus confining him to Tianjing won't hurt the Taipings too much. But overall this looks good so far. Keep it up!!!!
 

Sabot Cat

Banned
It looks like Qinwang (亲王) is the translation of prince, so Gong Qinwang is the Prince of Gong. In this case, he was also known as Yixin, but I think Prince Gong is an fine translation. FWIW his name in modern Chinese style seems like it would be Aixin Jueluo Yixin, which is long and unwieldy...

Much obliged. :)

I'm curious though - what is so different about Shi's Heavenly Kingdom that makes it so much more successful than Hong's? On the one hand, Hong pretty much became a nonentity after establishing his capital in Tianjing, but on the other hand, he was the unifying figure of the movement - basically the Mao of the Taiping movement if it could be said to have one.

He still kind of is: only as a martyr, cut down in his prime by The Enemy while doing his Holy Work.

I don't think his presence was a net negative on the movement as a whole, so removing him wouldn't be enough to allow the success in TTL. I noticed that you also had Yang Xiuqing killed early on, which probably would have benefited the Taipings in the long run. However, I am wondering if the removal of the two ideological pillars of the movement so early on might not sap some of their messianic fervor and weaken the armies? It's your call though.

I believe they were a net negative alive, because of Hong's idiosyncratic theology, sex segregation and other customs which aggravated the peasantry, as well as Yang's iconoclastic, uncompromising attitudes towards Confucianism, not to mention undermining their efforts by trying to take over in the 1856 Tianjing incident. Shi Dakai lacks all of these flaws, and as more of a military leader than religious thinker, I believe he would be better able to network allies within China than either of them. Nonetheless, even without a different leadership, the Taiping Kingdom were close to victory according to the history books I've read on the subject, so his administration is pretty much just icing on the cake, or the slight tipping point necessary for victory.

Shi Dakai was one of the more competent leaders in OTL and he did seem to be one of the few who didn't hypocritically promote monogamy, abstinence from drug use, etc. among his followers while smoking opium and maintaining a harem.

Indeed; his military competence, popularity, and practicing what he preached are all reasons why he'd be a better movement leader than those the Taiping had, in my personal opinion.

But overall this looks good so far. Keep it up!!!!

Thanks! :)
 
The Taipings were Christians, not Catholics, so the pope isn't an issue.

The Taiping were sort of vaguely Christian. 'Brother of Christ'?, seriously now? They thought they were but, their connexion to actual christianity was pretty loose.

Further from real Christianity than JWs or Mormons, slightly closer than Islam.
 
The Taiping were sort of vaguely Christian. 'Brother of Christ'?, seriously now? They thought they were but, their connexion to actual christianity was pretty loose.

Further from real Christianity than JWs or Mormons, slightly closer than Islam.

I call them Christians just because they called themselves Christians, which to me is why I also count Mormons and JWs as Christian. Mostly because in my experience, to attempt to classify groups as Christian or non-Christian based upon religious beliefs is mildly impossible and ends in flame wars (well, at least when discussing Mormonism).
 
Shi Dakai is a good military commander and he's also close to the people. I'll give him credit for that.

But in OTL it's not clear whether he will be willing to to give very important posts to people from other religions should he become the ruler of all China.

His failure when mediating Tianjing incident in OTL doesn't make me think that he's good in politics.

He does excel in managing administration though.

There are deep grudges against Western nations ganging against China in the Qing era, let's see how Shi Dakai deal with that in this OTL.

He cannot simply let it go or he will invite deep dissatisfaction with the people.

I also want to see whether he will be able to deal with Western nations trying to impose whatever they think is "right" to China.
 
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This is the sort of time when I wish I knew more Chinese history (despite being Chinese myself.)

With that said, some comments/questions on the (interesting :) ) timeline

- The start gives a pretty sympathetic view of the Ming (and correspondingly harsh view of the Qing); I'm assuming that this is due to different historiography given the different events of the TL?

- Nitpick: You misspell casualties as 'causalities' (which leads to some interesting philosophical interpretations.)

Perhaps the Qing were at least partly justified in restricting the flow of foreign ideas into the country, because as soon as the treaty ports were opened and a new wind blew upon the faces of the Chinese masses struggling in a stagnant squalor, revolution was upon the land.

Just so you're aware, a lot of the Taiping movement was based off resentment of perceived foreign influence/corruption/etc. (especially with opium) - that is, the Chinese public was upset about foreign trade, rather than being influenced greatly by Western ideas. Or perhaps the historian is just laying it on a bit thick.

St. Hong Xiuquan, Poem on Executing the Evil and Preserving the Righteous (1837)
Well, that speaks volumes succinctly, if Hong Xiuquan is recognized as a saint. I'm not too familiar with the Taiping brand of Christianity, but did it use sanctification/etc.? Most Chinese Christians were Protestant, thanks to those being the main missionaries, which makes sanctifying him seem slightly questionable to me.

King Shi Dakai claimed that the current dynasty did not have the Mandate of Heaven because they did not have salvation in Jesus Christ, and that they could not rule over “all under heaven” if they acted in defiance towards the Lord above.
I'm not too familiar with Shi Dakai and can't find much information on his religious beliefs (i.e. how committed he was to his form of Christianity) through a quick search, but this strikes me as a tactically poor move. OTL's Taiping movement already had great difficulty extending their appeal beyond ethnic minorities (especially the Zhuang/Kejia peoples who made up the base of the rebellion), and so such an untolerating religious argument when there were not many (I'd guess ~5%) Chinese Christians strikes me as less tactically astute than I'd expect from him. Then again, definitely not an expert on this.


He encouraged agriculture and commerce, lightening taxes and promoting people for their talent while imploring the citizens to report wrongdoing, in order to build a more efficient bureaucracy. He preached equality of the classes and sexes, with no private property ownership and female soldiers serving with male soldiers. He promoted monogamy, as he had an exclusive love of his wife Huang, while prohibiting polygamy and concubinage. Civil service exams, which were to be open to women, became rooted in Biblical rather than Confucian sources, while gambling, opium, tobacco, alcohol and prostitution were all outlawed.
Not quite sure what to make of this. A lot/most of these reforms seem to be based off of OTL Taiping policies, but would Dakai really do the same? My impression of him is as a more moderate/pragmatic figure (if nothing else, he came from a landlord family in contrast to the peasant rebellion nature of the Taipings), and so utterly banning private property and uprooting the civil service exams to such a degree (which would, if nothing else, severely gut the civil service and alienate the vast bulk of non-Christian Chinese) seems a bit questionable. I do realize that the OTL Taipings did both, but they strike me as poor moves tactically. Also, trying to encourage commerce while simultaneously banning private property is slightly.... well, problematic. For instance, IOTL Hong Rengan (who was more moderate than his cousin, and was presumably killed alongside him ITTL) advocated relegalization of private enterprise/capital to encourage commerce/industry (he didn't succeed.)

The Xianfeng Emperor was caught attempting to flee the city for his summer palace at Chengde by the revolutionaries, who resolved to take him and his brother Prince Gong. Afterward, it is said that Shi Dakai offered forgiveness to the captive royals, but they refused to admit the error of their ways. Whatever the case may be, they were executed with no surviving heirs, and their palaces were plundered by the invading armies.
I'm half surprised that the entire Manchu royal family was in Beijing. You only mention the Xianfeng Emperor and Prince Gong; what about the other siblings (e.g. Prince Dun/Yicong and Prince Chun/Yixuan)?
 

Sabot Cat

Banned
This is the sort of time when I wish I knew more Chinese history (despite being Chinese myself.)

With that said, some comments/questions on the (interesting :) ) timeline

Thanks! :)

- The start gives a pretty sympathetic view of the Ming (and correspondingly harsh view of the Qing); I'm assuming that this is due to different historiography given the different events of the TL?

Indeed; it's also ignoring that the Taiping revolutionaries themselves indulged in book-burning and idol-smashing intolerance.

- Nitpick: You misspell casualties as 'causalities' (which leads to some interesting philosophical interpretations.)

Oops, haha. Corrected. :D

Just so you're aware, a lot of the Taiping movement was based off resentment of perceived foreign influence/corruption/etc. (especially with opium) - that is, the Chinese public was upset about foreign trade, rather than being influenced greatly by Western ideas. Or perhaps the historian is just laying it on a bit thick.

Definitely laying it on a bit thick, and also viewing the past with bias from later history [to come later!]


Well, that speaks volumes succinctly, if Hong Xiuquan is recognized as a saint. I'm not too familiar with the Taiping brand of Christianity, but did it use sanctification/etc.? Most Chinese Christians were Protestant, thanks to those being the main missionaries, which makes sanctifying him seem slightly questionable to me.

Heh heh, I think you're the first to pick up on this; all will be revealed. ;)

I'm not too familiar with Shi Dakai and can't find much information on his religious beliefs (i.e. how committed he was to his form of Christianity) through a quick search, but this strikes me as a tactically poor move. OTL's Taiping movement already had great difficulty extending their appeal beyond ethnic minorities (especially the Zhuang/Kejia peoples who made up the base of the rebellion), and so such an untolerating religious argument when there were not many (I'd guess ~5%) Chinese Christians strikes me as less tactically astute than I'd expect from him. Then again, definitely not an expert on this.

There's actually scholarly dispute if the King really did say this, as the historian here touches upon ['Revisionists have claimed that this was more important arcana for philosophers than the common folk of the time'] which she then counters somewhat illogically with a reference to his troop numbers.
The author here is an ardent adherent of the yet-to-emerge advanced epoch of Taiping Christianity, and despite ironically calling other historians 'revisionist', the reality is that Shi Dakai was much more pluralistic, which is demonstrated by his collaboration with Muslim and Nian revolutionaries, and had rather little taste in philosophizing and proclaiming theological edicts.

Sorry if this seems like I'm using a 'it's an in-universe bias' as a handwave for these criticisms, but how the historiography of religious and political movements can become the battlegrounds for current agendas is one of the reasons I made the timeline, and began with the preface as opposed to the point of divergence. :eek:

Not quite sure what to make of this. A lot/most of these reforms seem to be based off of OTL Taiping policies, but would Dakai really do the same? My impression of him is as a more moderate/pragmatic figure (if nothing else, he came from a landlord family in contrast to the peasant rebellion nature of the Taipings), and so utterly banning private property and uprooting the civil service exams to such a degree (which would, if nothing else, severely gut the civil service and alienate the vast bulk of non-Christian Chinese) seems a bit questionable. I do realize that the OTL Taipings did both, but they strike me as poor moves tactically.

He's appealing to the Taiping base, because despite the difference in supreme leadership, the revolutionaries themselves are still largely peasants who have agitated for these kind of changes.

Also, trying to encourage commerce while simultaneously banning private property is slightly.... well, problematic.

This 'abolition of private property' is a bit overstated on our historian's part; largely this means that current land claims have been significantly reformed, with sizable assets seized and distributed among the peasantry. There is no actual antagonism towards the concept of private property itself, which is clear from the perpetuation of the Holy Treasure banking system. The author was simply overzealous in her attempt to portray Shi Dakai as a friend to the common people that nonetheless possessed noble ideas.

For instance, IOTL Hong Rengan (who was more moderate than his cousin, and was presumably killed alongside him ITTL) advocated relegalization of private enterprise/capital to encourage commerce/industry (he didn't succeed.)

He may or may not be actually coming later, and may or may not be responsible for many of the things you've touched upon so far. ;)

I'm actually extremely happy with your critiques, because you've touched on all of the subtle seams I was hoping would be noticed. :D

I'm half surprised that the entire Manchu royal family was in Beijing. You only mention the Xianfeng Emperor and Prince Gong; what about the other siblings (e.g. Prince Dun/Yicong and Prince Chun/Yixuan)?

A slight exaggeration; although Prince Chun hadn't been born yet, Prince Dun was at Rehe, and there are various royals scattered about, just none that are willing or able to defend the dynasty after such a decisive defeat.

I admit this is phrasing is actually an error on my part, and I'll revise it. =)
 
Oops, haha. Corrected. :D
Missed one: "A word war spanning generations, with millions of arbor causalities" :D

I don't quite think 'arbor casualties' is correct either, but not quite sure what this is supposed to be.






There's actually scholarly dispute if the King really did say this, as the historian here touches upon ['Revisionists have claimed that this was more important arcana for philosophers than the common folk of the time'] which she then counters somewhat illogically with a reference to his troop numbers.
The author here is an ardent adherent of the yet-to-emerge advanced epoch of Taiping Christianity, and despite ironically calling other historians 'revisionist', the reality is that Shi Dakai was much more pluralistic, which is demonstrated by his collaboration with Muslim and Nian revolutionaries, and had rather little taste in philosophizing and proclaiming theological edicts.

Sorry if this seems like I'm using a 'it's an in-universe bias' as a handwave for these criticisms, but how the historiography of religious and political movements can become the battlegrounds for current agendas is one of the reasons I made the timeline, and began with the preface as opposed to the point of divergence. :eek:

Hey, totally cool. The author being quite pro-Taiping explains away a lot of the questions I have.



He's appealing to the Taiping base, because despite the difference in supreme leadership, the revolutionaries themselves are still largely peasants who have agitated for these kind of changes.
Here's when I begin to wonder though, since I was under the impression that the Taipings were stymied later on by their lack of outreach. Being a primarily minority-based rebellion (Kejia, Zhuang, Yue speakers, and I do notice that you have the Miao rebellion joining up with them ITTL) will greatly help their support in Southern China, but at the same time, greatly hinder them in central/northern China. I do agree that a stronger Taiping could capture Beijing/etc., but holding it will be a severe issue. Doubling down on the Christianity will exacerbate it as well.

Has Shi Dakai found any Han Chinese leaders to co-opt and make his rule seem less like another foreign dynasty? (Well, that's an exaggeration; the Kejia/Zhuang were not on the same level as the Manchu, but would still be viewed with some question I think.)


This 'abolition of private property' is a bit overstated on our historian's part; largely this means that current land claims have been significantly reformed, with sizable assets seized and distributed among the peasantry. There is no actual antagonism towards the concept of private property itself, which is clear from the perpetuation of the Holy Treasure banking system. The author was simply overzealous in her attempt to portray Shi Dakai as a friend to the common people that nonetheless possessed noble ideas.
Ah, I see. Starting to wonder if China ends up adopting a sort of Christian Communist society ITTL, which would certainly be surprising, but also perhaps explain some of the author's biases. So anyways, it sounds like Shi Dakai is more anti-aristocracy (ironic, since his father was a landlord) than anti-merchants, which explains how he's managing to encourage commerce and industry nevertheless. There'd probably be at least some worry among the merchants about the expropriation of property though.


He may or may not be actually coming later, and may or may not be responsible for many of the things you've touched upon so far. ;)
It certainly sounds like he was killed alongside his cousin in that village, but okay :)

I'm actually extremely happy with your critiques, because you've touched on all of the subtle seams I was hoping would be noticed. :D
Thank you! Or perhaps we just looked up the same Wikipedia pages ;)


A slight exaggeration; although Prince Chun hadn't been born yet, Prince Dun was at Rehe, and there are various royals scattered about, just none that are willing or able to defend the dynasty after such a decisive defeat.

I admit this is phrasing is actually an error on my part, and I'll revise it. =)
Ah, okay. But Yixuan/Prince Chun not being born yet - is this a PoD? Or are you referring to someone other than this guy?

I'd definitely think though that the Manchus could at least keep their independence (perhaps even with crowning an emperor in exile) what with the chaos and infighting that will probably follow among the rebels. If nothing else, the Russian Empire would probably like to have the legitimate Manchu heir propped up in exile, so that they'd have an excuse if they wanted to intervene/invade a bit later.
 

Sabot Cat

Banned
Missed one: "A word war spanning generations, with millions of arbor causalities" :D

I don't quite think 'arbor casualties' is correct either, but not quite sure what this is supposed to be.

It's means that many brave trees gave their lives in these scholarly battles. :p


Hey, totally cool. The author being quite pro-Taiping explains away a lot of the questions I have.

Yay :D

Here's when I begin to wonder though, since I was under the impression that the Taipings were stymied later on by their lack of outreach. Being a primarily minority-based rebellion (Kejia, Zhuang, Yue speakers, and I do notice that you have the Miao rebellion joining up with them ITTL) will greatly help their support in Southern China, but at the same time, greatly hinder them in central/northern China. I do agree that a stronger Taiping could capture Beijing/etc., but holding it will be a severe issue. Doubling down on the Christianity will exacerbate it as well.

Has Shi Dakai found any Han Chinese leaders to co-opt and make his rule seem less like another foreign dynasty? (Well, that's an exaggeration; the Kejia/Zhuang were not on the same level as the Manchu, but would still be viewed with some question I think.)

It's almost as if you've read the next chapter, heh. :3

Ah, I see. Starting to wonder if China ends up adopting a sort of Christian Communist society ITTL, which would certainly be surprising, but also perhaps explain some of the author's biases. So anyways, it sounds like Shi Dakai is more anti-aristocracy (ironic, since his father was a landlord) than anti-merchants, which explains how he's managing to encourage commerce and industry nevertheless. There'd probably be at least some worry among the merchants about the expropriation of property though. It certainly sounds like he was killed alongside his cousin in that village, but okay :)

Well, in ITL he was separated from the movement and resided in Hong Kong around this time; he may or may not resolve the issues you're talking about. Maybe. ;)

Thank you! Or perhaps we just looked up the same Wikipedia pages ;)

Probably... :p

Ah, okay. But Yixuan/Prince Chun not being born yet - is this a PoD? Or are you referring to someone other than this guy?

Oh I thought it was this guy, sorry. Oops. X3

I'd definitely think though that the Manchus could at least keep their independence (perhaps even with crowning an emperor in exile) what with the chaos and infighting that will probably follow among the rebels. If nothing else, the Russian Empire would probably like to have the legitimate Manchu heir propped up in exile, so that they'd have an excuse if they wanted to intervene/invade a bit later.

This is an excellent idea, actually... shall think more on this.
 

Sabot Cat

Banned
Chapter 2: The Clash of the Empires

Chapter 2: The Clash of the Empires

“It is a general truism of this world that anything long divided will surely unite, and anything long united will surely divide”
-Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms

At first it seemed as though the Nian were peaceably assimilated into the Heavenly Kingdom during its northern expedition, as the same folk songs in honor of Shi Dakai were sung from Guangdong to Shaanxi. But after the fall of their common enemy, animosity began to grow among the Nian lodge masters, and especially Lord Zhang Lexing, who quietly began to reinforce Nian villages with earth walls. This opposition to the Taiping rule stemmed from the perceived foreign nature of the Heavenly Kingdom, and the Christian religion that its leaders preached.

This perception was not helped when, after the fighting died down, Hong Rengan came to Tianjing from Hong Kong. He had been separated earlier from the movement during the onset of hostilities, but Shi Dakai made him a member of the court in recognition of his status as a founder of the God Worshiping Society, before his impressive breadth of knowledge and mind for reforms compelled the Heavenly King to promote him to the newly created office of Chancellor. In the time that he was gone, Hong Rengan had learned a great deal about economics, geography, astronomy and Western politics from his studies at Ying Wa College, where he also worked with Reverend James Legge translating Chinese classics. In addition to his appreciation for the past, he's considered the founder of Chinese modernism, and some of his initial reforms include the establishment of the Royal Taiping Post Office, the Taiping Patent Office, and the Tianjing Banking Corporation, as well as two newspapers: the Tianjing Good Words and the Shanghai Good Words. In these publications, he popularized Christianity by relating its ancient history in China as embodied in the Nestorian Stele, with which he was especially familiar because of his studies. Shi Dakai went on to recognize him as a fellow Elder of the God Worshiping Society, and he did much in the way of establishing church doctrine and practices.

As the Taiping Kingdom began to settle down and bureaucratize with its area of control lying in the coastal south, the Qing Dynasty's remnant reemerged without the fear of imminent attack. In February 1856, Yixuan or Prince Chun leveraged himself as the new Emperor of China from Chengde, where a small number of Qing officials had resided during the Taiping revolutionaries' assault on Beijing. Although the Chinese Empire still had dominion over swaths of Hebei and Manchuria, even that was threatened by Russia in April 1856. Czar Nicholas I hoped that the Imperial Russian Navy could recoup prestige and power by expanding eastward, especially after its influence in the Black Sea was reduced by the Treaty of Paris. They docked at Lüshun, declaring it Vladivostok, and Emperor Yixuan didn't wait for bloodshed to occur before seeking a settlement with the Russia, noting that 'our nation lacks the numbers to survive a European bullet shower, and we need every man we can muster to counter the rebels in our midst'.

This culminated in the Chengde Agreement, which gave Russian citizens and military the right to settle or travel throughout the entire Chinese Empire, as well as the ability to establish their own system of settler laws; Kulja, Priamurye, and Primorye were annexed outright. Most importantly, the treaty conferred exclusive access to excellent naval points in the Pacific in Vladivostok and Haishenwai, the latter of which they named Port Nicholas. In exchange, much needed funding would be injected into the Qing government from Russian coffers, although the amount was negligible for what essentially amounted to selling one's country.

This alarmed the Dakai court, as Tianjing and Beijing were both vulnerable to a Russian naval assault on behalf of the Chinese Empire. However, France and the United Kingdom disputed the legitimacy of the newly emerged Chinese Empire, and insisted that the Taiping Kingdom was the true legal successor to the China. This was primarily because the binding payments and trade stipulations of the Treaty of Nanking were meaningless when applied to a rump state mostly confined to Manchuria. Emperor Yixuan attempted to donate a token amount of the debt owed to the U.K. and France, accompanied with an offer to open ports to the south if they would aid in fighting the Taiping, but the two powers were suspicious of him. His extensive prior collaboration with Russia made him a mere puppet, and they further believed that his rump state had little chance of regaining ground. They thus persisted in withholding any diplomatic recognition of his state, and in pressuring the Taiping Kingdom to come to terms.

With an intervention of Russia, the United Kingdom and/or France seemingly on the horizon, Chancellor Rengan dispatched Taiping Ambassador to the U.S. Yung Wing to Washington D.C. in order to follow up on Commissioner McLane's secret treaty. President Franklin Pierce was eager to expand the United States' prestige and presence on the world stage as it happened in the Perry Expedition, while King Shi Dakai trusted the United States more than the British Empire, with the precedent of the Treaty of Wanghia, which had affirmed the illegality of the opium trade, and promised that any offenders would be handed over to the Chinese government despite being rather lax in the enforcement.

By July 1856, the Treaty of Tianjing was ratified between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the United States of America, under which the former became a sort of protectorate of the latter. American merchants were granted limited tariff fixing rights, while Formosa was to be a base of operations for the U.S. East Indian Squadron as long as they would defend the kingdom. Furthermore, all citizens of the United Kingdom, France, and any other Western nation which the Taiping Kingdom assents to, has the right to extraterritoriality, as well as free travel and trade at designated treaty ports; this provision was negotiated specifically to deter any European power from challenging the entire arrangement. Through this agreement, the Taiping Kingdom hoped to put itself on equal footing with the Russian-backed Chinese Empire, and to leverage the best deal with the Europeans before they inevitably found a pretext to arrive with their gunboats outside of Tianjing.

Nonetheless, domestic reception was mixed, and when Lord Zhang Lexing caught wind of the Treaty of Tianjing, he declared that “We have been betrayed again by a foreign king to barbarians!” and assembled the Nian army to capture Beijing, which had been demoted to a provincial capital by the Taiping Kingdom. Zhang Lexing claimed that he truly had the Mandate of Heaven, and staged an elaborate coronation for himself as the new Emperor of China, taking his place on the Dragon Throne on January 23rd 1857. Shi Dakai immediately sent an envoy to the Sultan Du Wenxiu of Pingnan Guo in order to confirm his loyalty to the Taiping Kingdom. He was reported to have sent the following message: “Muslims and Christians are brothers; our bonds are whole.”

Treaty ports that had just been opened in Hebei through the Treaty of Tianjing were attacked by the Nian armies, who drove out and sometimes killed any Westerners they could find in retaliation for the perceived foreign encroachment upon their homeland. The United Kingdom used the murder of British missionary Rev. James Campbell in March 7th 1857 as a casus belli, and formed a maritime intervention coalition with the French Empire. The United States protected its interests by offering its “assistance” in preempting British forces with the United States Navy's Pacific Squadron, who asserted themselves on behalf of the Taiping Kingdom, while the Imperial Russian Navy rounded off the atmosphere of a standoff at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Diplomatic machinations ensued to prevent a three-way naval melee between the British-French, American and Russian forces. In lieu of global industrialized war, an agreement to internationalize Beijing and divide it among themselves was concluded in secret. Shortly thereafter on April 2nd 1857, the Battle of Beijing commenced, with the Four Power Alliance utterly destroying the Nian defensive forces with a ludicrously unfavorable casualty ratio racked up in just four days. “We fired at a fly with a G-----n cannon,” said one U.S. naval officer, before adding, “well, four G-----n cannons, really.” No matter the number of 'Goddamn' cannons there were, Emperor Zhang Lexing refused to surrender or negotiate, drawing his forces into the interior of the country. After such devastating losses though, the Nian lodge masters and their armies concluded that they would not be able to hold Beijing, thus renouncing Zhang Lexing as Lord of the Alliance as well Emperor, before tendering a complete surrender of Beijing to the Westerners.

The charter to establish the Beijing International Settlement was assented to by the four powers on July 27th 1857. The government was modeled completely after Shanghai; in short order the Beijing Municipal Settlement Council, the Beijing Municipal Police, and the Beijing Volunteer Corps were founded. The BMSC would have equal representation from among the four nations, while the entire city had been divided into roughly equal, semi-autonomous quadrants. Some historians claim that this was a watershed moment in international diplomacy, and United States presence on the world stage. In this particular historian's opinion, the orderly divvying up of foreign real estate was nothing revolutionary.

The more immediate and evident short-term impact was the change of domestic policy for King Shi Dakai. Seeing that the Western powers were not going to seriously back the Chinese Empire once and for all, he decreed that "the so-called 'Emperor' sits upon a throne of paper, and at the appointed time, both will be consumed by hell-fire". Emperor Yixuan reciprocated, labeling Dakai a "regicidal crusader who wears an ill-fitting, ill-gotten robe still dripping with the blood of my family".

Relations would not improve in the future.


Author's Note: Consultation credit goes to Seleucus for this chapter, who helped me revise things to be more plausible~
 
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