Panthay rebellion

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Chinese representation of the conquest of Dalis in 1872

The Panthay Rebellion was a major uprising by the Chinese Muslims (Hui) in Yunnan Province (1856–1872). It is often mentioned with the Dungan uprisings in northwest China. Their name is derived from a Burmese term for the Chinese Muslims (Panthay, Pang hse ပန်း သေး), which was apparently adopted by the British colonial power.

course

outbreak

In the 1840s tensions between the Han and Hui Chinese in Yunnan increased again . Several years of bloody dispute between these two population groups over the control of silver, gold and lead mines in central Yunnan (e.g. in Talang 1850, Shiyang 1854, Malong 1855: all attacks by a Han gang with hundreds of dead) finally began started a kind of raid against the Hui with thousands dead in many villages and several cities, which the government could not or would not stop. As the armed feuds increased, a paranoid imperial court official named Qingsheng instigated a massacre among Muslims in Kunming in May 1856, killing over 2,000. One governor lost his mind, another died by suicide, the Han gentry organized armed militias everywhere, as did Muslims, and the struggle for the cities and communities of the province began.

Du Wenxiu, Ma Rulong and Ma Dexin

The most notable leader of the Hui, Du Wenxiu (Sulaiman Tu Wen-hsiu, 1828–73) was a Muslim of Han Chinese origin and with a classical education. He established himself in Dali in September 1856 , titled himself as commander-in-chief and sultan, and organized his own administration, made up of both Hui Chinese and many Han Chinese. Islam, Confucianism, and tribal cults were equally respected. In the late 1960s he controlled roughly the eastern half of the province, more than fifty cities. He tried to establish contact with the Taiping rebels who intervened in Sichuan and gave them military support (1863).

A rival Muslim group under Ma Rulong (Ma Ju-lung, 1832–91) dominated mainly the south of Yunnan. He also attacked the provincial capital, Kunming, but submitted to the government in 1862 after being offered a post as brigadier general. Then he fought his former followers and Du Wenxiu together with the imperial. His stance was approved by Yusuf Ma Dexin (Ma Te-hsin, 1794–1874, hinger.), A well-known religious leader who initially supported the rebellion significantly and then tried to restore peace.

The suppression of the rebellion

The rebels around Du Wenxiu did not succeed or only briefly in getting the provincial capital Kunming into their hands. In 1871 the offensive to recapture the province began under the governor Cen Yuying (Ts'en Yü-ying). The government troops had been equipped with modern equipment and (with the help of French advisors) trained in the past decade and were now recapturing city after city. Du Wenxiu tried to get Great Britain to intervene and sent an embassy there under Liu Daoheng (his adopted son) in 1871, but this attempt came too late after he had more or less politely rejected a French and a British mission in 1868. In January 1873, Du Wenxiu was trapped in Dali and died by suicide with his family. The city's Muslim population was massacred after the surrender and the uprising was cruelly suppressed.

Between 1855 and 1884 the registered population in the province was more than halved due to the war and its consequences (famine, epidemics, emigration).

Remarks

  1. For example, there was a massacre in the small town of Mianning in 1839 (over 1,700 Hui dead) and in 1845 a massacre in the Baoshan Valley (approx. 8,000 Hui dead), the circumstances of which were massively concealed by Governor He Changling. In 1847 the Baoshan Hui massacre repeated itself, and now the new governor Lin Zexu reacted personally and arranged for the guilty to be handed over to him. Overall, however, he tended to blame the Hui, which left the problem unsolved.
  2. Cf. Bruce A. Elleman: Modern Chinese Warfare 1795-1989 (Warfare and History). Routledge, London 2001, ISBN 0-415-21473-4 , p. 64.

literature

  • David G. Atwill: The Chinese Sultanate. Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China, 1856–1873. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 2005, ISBN 0-8047-5159-5 .
  • John K. Fairbank , Kwang-ching Liu (Ed.): The Cambridge History of China. Volume 11: Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911. Part 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1980, ISBN 0-521-22029-7 .
  • Mary Clabaugh Wright: The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism. The T'ung-Chih Restoration, 1862-1874 (= Stanford Studies in History, Economics, and Political Science. Vol. 13, ZDB -ID 302432-5 ). Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 1957 (2nd printing, with additional notes. Ibid 1991, ISBN 0-8047-0476-7 ).

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