S01E29 Taiping Rebellion: Introducing Zeng Guofan

Chinese Revolutions: A History Podcast

S01E29 Taiping Rebellion: Introducing Zeng Guofan

This week we regroup and look at the big picture of what the Taiping Rebellion is showing about the theme of our podcast, and we introduce Zeng Guofan, a guy we here at Chinese Revolutions (we as in the "more fun to say 'we' than 'I' because it makes it seem like I've got a whole department") have been excited to talk about for a long time.

The Taiping Rebellion made China's lack of sovereignty problem longer and worse. The rebels could trade with foreigners, making it seem like foreign powers could do whatever they wanted, whenever. Then the official side of the foreign powers decided to have a Second Opium War, knocking the official authorities flat.

Zeng Guofan

Zeng Guofan (1811-1872) was a Confucian scholar of the highest possible rank. He came from a poor but educated farming family in Hunan. Where his father tried to pass the lowest examination well into his 40s, Zeng Guofan passed at 22.

He will be appointed the task of suppressing the Taiping Rebellion not because he was a military man but because he could be trusted to handle the political question of how to recruit and deploy forces to crush the rebellion.

What Makes for a Successful Revolution?

We took a digression into what China's reconfiguration would have to look like, for a revolution to be successful. The conclusion for now is:

1. Restoration of Chinese sovereignty
2. Solidification of an economy that rewards free enterprise
3. Allotment of state power to protect the production of resources and rule-based distribution of rewards for that production

And we're only going to see this come through after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

We'll explore that thesis as the podcast goes on.

Books Cited in Today's Podcast

By Peter Padfield

• Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World, 1588–1782
• Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World, 1788–1851
• Maritime Dominion and the Triumph of the Free World: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World, 1852–2001

If You'd Like to Support the Podcast

1. Subscribe, share, leave a rating.
2. Give once, give monthly at www.buymeacoffee.com/crpodcast
3. Subscribe to the substack newsletter at https://chineserevolutions.substack.com/

Also...

Please reach out at [e-mail] and let me know what you think!