A.F. Lindley: The Englishman who Became a Taiping Rebel

One of the longest and bloodiest civil wars ever waged in history was China's Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864). The Taiping rebellion was launched by the "Heavenly King" (天王) Hong Xiuquan and his followers. Hong claimed to be a brother to Jesus Christ who aimed to end Qing rule and establish a "Heavenly Kingdom" in China with Christianity as its official religion. The rebellion claimed at least thirty million lives and caused massive destruction across the country in a war of attrition waged by both sides. Throughout the course of the conflict, a number of Westerners came to the aid of the Qing (or Manchu) Dynasty as it attempted to crush the rebellion. Many of these were mercenaries or officers dispatched by Western countries such as the US and UK. The most famous of the pro-Qing mercenaries were the Shanghai Foreign Arms Corps, later rechristened the Ever Victorious Army, which was created and organized in 1860 by the American Frederick Townsend Ward. However, there were a smaller number of Western mercenaries who joined the Taiping rebels as well.

Bust of Li Xiucheng (1823-1864). (John Smith/Wikimedia Commons)

The most prominent Western Taiping rebel was the Englishman Augustus F. Lindley. Lindley was a British soldier who was dispatched to Hong Kong in 1859 to serve aboard a steamer. The following year, while delivering a load of silk into Taiping territory in and around Suzhou (which had been the scene of fighting and had just fallen to the rebels) for a private company, Lindley got to see the Taipings up close. He had heard much about their "savagery" from others who supported the Qing, but he was shocked at the beauty and humility of the people and countryside of the Heavenly Kingdom that he personally saw. In Lindley's autobiography Ti-ping Tien-kwoh (Taiping Tianguo, or "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom"), he discusses how mesmerized he was by the "kindness, hospitality, and earnest friendship" he received from the people living in the Taiping-controlled areas. Also during his trek, he met and interviewed the Chung Wang (忠王, or 'devoted king') Li Xiucheng. Li was one of Hong Xiuquan's military commanders. During this interview, Lindley learned more about the Taiping Rebellion and how the West was aiding and arming a corrupt and highly unpopular Qing government while claiming to be Christian nations.

Lindley grew so enamored with the Taiping cause that he decided to join the rebels. Like many other Westerners who joined their ranks, the rebels' cause appealed to his Christian beliefs and his love of the Chinese people and culture. He resigned from his commission and was granted a commission as a Taiping officer from the Chung Wang. After departing his steamer at Hangzhou, Lindley and two pro-Taiping European friends proceeded to the Heavenly Capital Nanjing, where they became artillery instructors to the rebels. Lindley also became an English "voice of the rebels" who regularly courted the Westerners in Taiping territory for the Taiping cause, as well as weaponry and supplies for the rebels. He also wrote a number of letters to English-language newspapers in China criticizing the Western stance toward the rebels.

An illustration of Qing forces occupying Suzhou in 1863. (Wikimedia Commons)

Over time, Lindley grew increasingly involved in the armed conflict. He grew very close to Hong's inner circle during his time in the Heavenly Kingdom. He served in combat and was wounded on more than one occasion (including one ambush in which his wife Maria was killed). In response to the creation and success of the Ever Victorious Army, Lindley and his friends attempted to set up the Loyal and Faithful Auxillary Legion, which served very much the same purposes as the Ever Victorious Army, which was now under the command of the British officer Charles "Chinese" Gordon. This legion would be under the command of his fellow European officers and all the soldiers in it would be trained in Western weaponry and combat tactics. Unfortunately for Lindley (and for Hong Xiuquan), the vast majority of European officers - including Lindley's two friends - were killed in action when the Qing retook Suzhou in 1863.

Also during this time, Lindley and a group of mercenaries carried out a secret mission: To steal the Imperial steamship 'Firefly'. Their mission was accomplished and they were paid $20,000 - a princely sum at the time. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of rebel fighters and mercenaries were paid nothing! The 'Firefly' would be used in action against regular Qing forces - as well as Gordon and his Ever Victorious Army.

Lindley remained in the Heavenly Kingdom and stayed close to his comrades and the Taiping leadership until the death of Hong Xiuquan and the fall of the Kingdom in 1864. After the end of the rebellion, A.F. Lindley returned to Britiain and continued to act as the rebels' "spokesman." In 1866, he published his two-volume autobiography, in which he details his experiences in the rebellion and offers a scathing criticism of the Qings and the British government in its support for the Qing Dynasty. To this day this autobiography is the only detailed look the West has had at the Taiping Rebellion from the rebels' point of view. For the British public, there was plenty of food for thought about British foreign policy in the pages of these books as the government of the time was growing increasingly involved in China. Unfortunately, just three decades later, Britain and the West would find themselves at war with the Qing Dynasty itself during the Boxer Rebellion.

It's hard to say what A.F. Lindley saw - or believed he saw - during that first trip into the Heavenly Kingdom. He may have wandered into one of history's greatest bloodbaths, but one thing is for sure: Lindley gained much greater insight into the Chinese people and culture that many other Westerners living in the time could ever have hoped to gain.

For more about A.F. Lindley and the Taiping Rebellion, please see:
-http://books.google.com/books?id=zMwNAAAAIAAJ (Ti-ping Tien-kwoh, Vol. I. This is the first book of A.F. Lindley's autobigraphy.)
-http://books.google.com/books?id=jI4xAQAAMAAJ (Ti-ping Tien-kwoh, Vol. II. This includes not only his account of the rebellion, but Taiping documents, texts, and prayers as well. If you're studying the Taiping Rebellion, you might want to give this a look.)
-http://history.emory.edu/home/assets/documents/endeavors/volume2/AlexanderGouzoules.pdf (A paper about the usage of foreign mercenaries and soldiers in the Taiping Rebellion.)

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Ji and the Qin and Han Dynasties

If you've been following the past two blog posts, you've read about the beginnings of today's city of Beijing through its foundation as Ji state and its rise as the capital of Yan after Ji was crushed and annexed by Yan state. If you've been following these posts, let's continue on with the history of Ji during the Qin and Han Dynasties!

After the state of Yan was defeated by Qin in 222 BCE, it ceased to exist. As a result Ji lost its status as a capital city. However, it remained the most powerful city in northeast China. It was a city of strategic importance and the regional hub for transportation.

A statue of Qin Shi Huang. (Prosopee/Wikimedia Commons)

During Qin rule, Emperor Qin Huangdi (Qin Shi Huang) implemented a commandery system (郡, or 'jun') on the former Zhou vassal states as part of the military occupation. This divided each county in a state into a special adminstrative zone that made the county system of ancient China essentially irrelevant. The 36 commanderies he established (in addition to 12 others in the Qin territories that were created during the Warring States period) each carried their own weight militarily. Ji became the capital of the Guangyang commandery.

After the fall of Qin, the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 AD) took possession of Ji, officially renamed the city Fanyang and made it the administrative capital of Youzhou prefecture, which encompassed much of the area around today's Beijing, Hebei province, and Tianjin. Also during this time Ji was transferred to Yuyang commandery and made its capital.

During Han rule, the old states were transformed into "regional kingdoms" by Han Emperor Liu Bang and given a little more autonomy than they had under the Qin. Also, a system of prefectures was also established. Ji was made the capital of Youzhou prefecture.

Ji was involved in a number of conflicts with the surrounding regional powers both inside and outside of China. When the Yellow Turban Revolt broke out in AD 184, Ji came under assault from the revolting peasants who were led by Zhang Jue, leader of the secretive Taoist societies which organized and instigated the revolt.

According to the classical Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in AD 189, Yuyang Commandery was the scene of a dramatic rebellion staged by the rebels Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun. The two launched a rebellion against Liu Yu (governor of Youzhou) and the Ten Eunuchs, took control of Yuyang, and organized an army. After Zhang Chun started becoming tyrannical toward his own soldiers, he was murdered by one of his own officers. The rebel army surrendered to Han forces afterwards. Zhang Ju, who at that time was isolated and desperate, commmitted suicide.

After the collapse of the Han Dynasty in the year 220, the ancient city of Ji would undergo keep changing hands and undergo many changes for centuries to come.......

The City of Ji and Yan State

Yesterday I talked a little about the state of Ji and how the city of Beijing has its roots in that ancient city-state. Today we'll take a look at Ji during its time as capital of the state which conquered and annexed Ji, Yan.

Soon after its conquest by Yan, Ji became the capital of Yan State and was known alternately as Ji or Yanjing (燕京, meaning "Yan capital") - a name for Beijing which has persisted well into the modern age. It remained northern China's regional powerhouse for many more centuries to come. As the authority of the King of Zhou waned, Yan emerged as one of China's most powerful states. Throughout the period of the Warring States (475-221 BCE), Yan remained at war with Zhao and Qi states, as well as the nomadic peoples to the north. It was invaded a number of times by all three.

For the next several hundred years, Ji remained the most powerful city in the region. It was naturally one of Yan's fortified cities. In fact, the walls that surrounded Ji and other regions of Yan state predate the Great Wall by some 1,500 years! The Lotus Pond and its location along the major north-south trade route where traders from the central states and the steppes of northern Asia stopped made Ji a strategically valuable city. Throughout most of Yan's existence during this time, Ji was not only the main capital (Yan had one other city - Xiadu - which occasionally served as Yan's capital city) of Yan, but was also a military base and the economic and political center of the state.

In 227 BC, most of the neighboring states had fallen to and were absorbed by the powerful Qin state (778-07 BCE). They started massing troops on Yan's borders to prepare for its eventual conquest. Prince Dan of Yan sent the assassin Jing Ke to assassinate the Qin king Qin Shi Huang, aka the "tiger of Qin ". His attempt failed and the king, who personally killed Jing Ke, was enraged. He ordered his army to crush Yan and make it part of Qin. A year later, Ji fell to the Qin armies after the defeat of the vast majority of the Yan army on the banks of the Yishui River. Three years later, the rest of Yan state fell to the Qin and King Xi was captured.

In recent years, remnants of the old Yan capital have been found some 30 miles (48 km) southwest of what is now downtown Beijing. At one site which was discovered near the Liuli River in Fangshan district in recent decades, remnants of the city walls, moats, Yan palaces, and various artifacts were unearthed by archaeologists. This was the location of the ancient capital of Yanjing, which had expanded well beyond the borders of the old city-state of Ji.

For more about Yanjing, check out the following link:
http://www.archaeology.org/beijing/songnian.html (A very interesting interview with one of China's "veteran" archaeologists about ancient Beijing.)
http://www.bjchinese.bjedu.cn/englishHome.do?method=article&&articleId=221 (Details about the Yanjing archaeological dig and a little history of the ancient Yan capital.)

(Map copyright: Philg88/Wikimedia Commons)

Ji State and the Beginnings of Beijing

Over the next several days I'm going to write a series of blog posts about one of the great capital cities of our time: Beijing. In these posts we'll explore the history of Beijing and how it went from being a tiny city-state to the massive city it gradually became over the past millinea.

Beijing is a city that is both the capital of China and a major technological and industrial hub. But many people in the West are not aware that many centuries ago on the site of one of modern-day Beijing's residential districts, a whole different city-state once existed! In its time this city-state - and the capital city it remained for many centuries after the fall of the state - was also regarded as a major metropolitan area and a military power to be reckoned with. It was also the city where Beijing itself has its roots.

Along Liulichang Street in what is now the Xicheng district of Beijing once stood the city of Ji. Ji City was the capital of Ji State (11th century-7th century BCE), which was essentially the city itself. Ji was a walled city which was inhabited by people said to be descendants of the Yellow Emperor. It was one of eight states which were the vassal states that founded the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE).

For some three hundred years during the Spring and Autumn period of the Zhou Dynasty (771-476 BCE), Ji remained a powerhouse in the region. It was certainly a tiny city-state compared to the neighboring states, but it had a powerful army. The city-state depended on Lotus Pond, which is now located in Beijing, for its water supply. This gave the city a huge natural advantage that lasted well beyond the demise of Ji.

During the 7th century BCE (approx.), the more powerful neighboring state of Yan (11th century-222 BCE) defeated Ji in a war and absorbed it into Yan. Soon afterwards, it became the capital of Yan State and was known alternately as Yanjing or Ji. 

Ji State might have fallen, but Ji City itself remained as strong as ever.

If you want to read more about the state of Ji and the discovery by Chinese archaeologists of the ancient sites of Ji City and the Yan capital it became, be sure to have a look at the following article:
http://www.archaeology.org/beijing/songnian.html

Im Kkeok-jeong: The Real-Life Korean Robin Hood

One of Korea's most legendary real-life "outlaw heroes" was the Joseon-era outlaw Im Kkeok-jeong (Kr. name 임꺽정; 林巪. Born ?-1562). While very little is known of him in the English language, his story was made into the 1996-97 TV drama  from South Korean broadcaster SBS that shares his name. Also, Im Kkeok-jeong is supposedly an inspiration for Heo Gyun's classic novel The Tale of Hong Gil Dong, which is Korea's equivalent of Robin Hood. The only difference is that Hong Gil Dong is a work of fiction. Im Kkeok-jeong isn't.

 In 16th century Joseon dynasty-era Korea, the yangban aristrocracy who governed the countryside were imposing a multitude of taxes on the ordinary peasants. They were having to pay land taxes, military taxes, corvee taxes, and tribute taxes, which were the hardest-hitting. In addition, the land allotments of the yangban were growing ever-larger and the peasants were losing land. They were growing more and more desperate by the hour.

During the mid-16th century, one man decided to rise up and challenge the status quo. That man was Im Kkeok-jeong. He organized a large group of peasants and together they became a major thorn in the side of the yangban in Gyeonggi and Hwanghae (located in modern-day South and North Korea respectively) provinces. They robbed the wealth of the yangban officials and redistributed their booty to the poor, suffering peasants. They raided the government granaries and distributed the plundered food to the peasants, many of whom were starving.

In 1562, Im Kkeok-jeong was captured by Joseon officials and beheaded. However, they were not able to stamp out the legend surrounding him and he remained an inspiration to the Korean people for generations to come.

In modern-day South Korea, the cave where Im hid with some of his men has been turned into a tourist attraction at the Chiljangsa Temple, which is located in Anseong, Gyeonggi province.

Im Kkeok-jeong is a true hero to the people of Korea. He defended them from a corrupt system of government and, ultimately, gave his life so the Korean peasants could keep on living and have a better future.

*Portions of this blog entry were referenced from "A Handbook of Korea" (Seoul: Korean Overseas Information Service, 1980).

Back from the Dead

As you may have noticed, it's been a few months since I last posted on this blog. I am terribly sorry for not having posted here in such a long time. If you've been following my work on Hubpages, you can probably guess my hubs there have kept me very busy this year!

Now that I've turned my full attention to my blogs, I have some new and exciting plans for new entries here and in my other blogs. So please, stay tuned over the coming days and weeks! Hopefully you'll find the upcoming posts on this blog to be interesting, informative, and entertaining! And again, all apologies for having let this blog go over the past six months or so!