| dc.description.abstract | The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) led by Hong Xiuquan is perhaps the worst civil war in human history. It started from Jintian in Guangxi province, marched to the central Yangzi valley, and captured Nanjing together with the entire Yangzi Delta region, known as Jiangnan. The region had been economically most prosperous and culturally most advanced at least since the Song dynasty in the tenth century. In particular, Suzhou and Hangzhou were compared to “paradise on earth “ After many years of seesaw battles between Li Xiucheng, the Loyal King of the Taiping and the government forces, however, the once rich region laid in ruin: huge lives and countless properties were lost so much so that both cities and villages had virtually become ghost towns. Nanjing(Nanking), where Taipei set up its headquarters, had been the famous southern capital since ancient time. When it fell into the hands of the government forces, a terrible massacre took place, dead bodies reportedly found everywhere in streets, Following the conclusion of the war, the devastated Jiangnan was completed, even much of the cultural heritage was wiped out.
Instead of looking into the ideas, institution, and the nature of the war, my thesis will focus on the destruction and sufferings of the fourteen-year long civil war in mid-nineteenth century China. I try to show how the war dispossessed millions of people and left them dead or forced to be refugees and turned the rich and beautiful Jiangnan into a waste land. As Shi Dakai, the Taiping`s Wing king, noted in his celebrated poem that he could hear the cry out lound from the suffering people everywhere in southeast China.
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