The Miao rebellion of 1854–1873, also known as the Qian rebellion () was an uprising of ethnic

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

and other groups in

Guizhou ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province , map_caption = Map s ...

province during the reign of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. Despite its name, Robert Jenks estimates that ethnic Miao made up less than half of the uprising's participants.Jenks, 58-73 The uprising was preceded by Miao rebellions in 1735–36 and 1795–1806, and was one of many ethnic uprisings sweeping China in the 19th century. The rebellion spanned the Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods of the Qing dynasty, and was eventually suppressed with military force. Estimates place the number of casualties as high as 4.9 million out of a total population of 7 million, though these figures are likely overstated. The rebellion stemmed from a variety of grievances, including long-standing ethnic tensions with

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

, poor administration, grinding poverty and growing competition for

arable land Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

. The eruption of the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...

led the Qing government to increase taxation, and to simultaneously withdraw troops from the already restive region, thus allowing a rebellion to unfold. It also inspired the ethnic minorities in Guizhou to revolt.

Millenarianism Millenarianism or millenarism () is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarianism exists in various cultures and re ...

was an influence especially on the non-ethnic Miao participants.The New Way: Protestantism and the Hmong in Vietnam, By Tm T. T. Ng The rebellion started in March 1854, when "Yang Yuanbao, a farmer of the Buyi ethnic group from

Dushan County Dushan County () is a county of 346,000 people (2007) in Guizhou province, China. It is under the administration of Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, in the south of the province, bordering Guangxi to the south. The county seat is the t ...

, led hundreds of people to revolt". By May 1854, the Qing army had "brutally suppressed" this revolt. In March 1855, Zhang Xiumei from Taigong led a Miao rebellion which was followed by other groups in the wider region. In May 1869 several rebel groups won a battle against the Chu Army at Huangpiao. After capturing several towns, the rebels, together with the Taiping attacked the provincial capital

Guiyang Guiyang; Mandarin pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, alternatively as Kweiyang is the capital of Guizhou, Guizhou province in China. It is centrally located within the province, on the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, eastern part of the Yun ...

. Guizhou governor Zhao Deguan was killed in an ambush by the rebels. Once the Taiping rebellion was suppressed, the Qing government defeated the Miao rebels one-by-one. The aftermath of the rebellion left many areas of Guizhou depopulated, with farmland being overgrown and towns destroyed, causing many Miao, Hmong and other groups to migrate into

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

and

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

. The term "Miao", explains the anthropologist Norma Diamond, does not mean only the antecedents of today's Miao national minority; it is much more general term, which had been used by the Chinese to describe various aboriginal, mountain tribes of Guizhou and other southwestern provinces of China, which shared some cultural traits. They consisted of 40–60% population of the province. English language accounts of the Miao Rebellion include the first-hand memoirs of William Mesny in his magazine "Mesny's Chinese Miscellany" (1895–1905); David Leffman's biography of Mesny, "The Mercenary Mandarin"; and "Insurgency and Social Disorder in Guizhou" by Robert D. Jenks. Most contemporary records from the uprising comes from Qing officials who were sent to quell the rebellion.

See also

Miao rebellions

Rebellions (non-Miao)

Other topics

References