#345 - Taiping 21_ Heaven Below

For a thousand years, Suzhou and Hangzhou stood as synonyms for the next best thing to Heaven itself. Well, that was before 1860. As of now, Hangzhou is a fire-gutted ruin, and Suzhou is next on the target list. But the army that does the most damage… is not the invader. The Taiping arrive to find the dirty work done ahead of them, by the very Qing forces assigned to defend the great southern city, and a vast number of the city having decided to "take matters into their own hands." As such, when a party of missionaries sails upriver from Shanghai to find out just what happened to Suzhou, they'll have to wade through a literal riverful of the dead. Time Period Covered: May-Aug. 1860 CE Major Historical Figures: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King [1814–1864] Hong Rengan, the Shield King (Gan Wang), Prime Minister [1822–1864] Li Xiucheng, the Loyal King (Zhong Wang) [1823–1864] The Qing: The Xianfeng Emperor [1831–1861] He Guiqing, Governor-General of Liangjiang [1816–1862] Xu Youren, Governor of Jiangsu [d. 1860] Zeng Guofan, Governor-General of Liangjiang (from June 8, 1860); commander, Hunan Army [1811–1872] Ma Dezhao, Qing commander The Foreign Missionaries: Joseph Edkins, London Missionary Society [1823–1905] Jane Edkins, his wife [1841-1863] Griffith John, Welsh Congregationalist missionary [1831–1912] James Legge, London Missionary Society, Hong Kong [1815–1897] Major Works Cited: Jen, Yu-wen. The Taiping Revolutionary Movement. Michael, Franz, and Chung-li Chang. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vols. I–III. Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan.