Today is another memorable day in the history of revolts and revolutions: On 19 March 1853, the Taiping Heavenly Army seized Nanking: <http://herodote.net/dossiers/evenement.php5?jour=18530319&out=1>.
The Taiping Rebellion, 1851–1864, lasted a lot longer than the Pugachev Rebellion. It was led by Hong Xiuquan, a son of a poor peasant, who failed exams, learned about Christianity from a Southern Baptist minister (!) among other missionaries, and believed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ (!), and started a new anti-Manchu religious sect. The Qing Dynasty, alarmed, persecuted the sect, and the sect began its rebellion, establishing its Kingdom of Heavenly Peace, a theocratic state, with Hong as its ruler, founded on the program of abolition of private property, equality of men and women, abolition of slavery, polygamy, concubinage, foot-binding, gambling, alcohol, opium, and tobacco. It attracted millions of peasants, miners, and other lower-class people, and women served in its army who impressively defended themselves against Chinese imperial forces that included British and American officers such as Charles George Gordon and Frederick Townsend Ward. The Heavenly Kingdom, however, deteriorated as Hong withdrew from administration and military leadership, reportedly indulged in sensual pleasures, and eventually committed suicide by poisoning himself.
The mid-19th century must have been a very turbulent period, what with the revolutions of 1848 in Europe, the Civil War in the United States, Bábism* in Persia. . . .
* See Ervand Abrahamian, _Iran between Two Revolutions_ (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982, pp. 16-17):
In the course of the nineteenth century, Shi'ism developed
two major schisms: Shaykhism and Babism. The former was
founded in the 1810s by an Arab preacher named Shaykh
Ahmad 'Ahsa'i. A convert from Sunnism, the shaykh accepted
wholeheartedly not only the orthodox Shi'i premise that the Imams
were the true successors of the Prophet, but also the unorthodox
teaching of Mulla Sadra, the seventeenth-century Sufi mystic
who had argued that the Imams were divine, and that perfect
believers could communicate directly with the Hidden Imam.
The shaykh also added to these Sufi concepts the novel idea
that the community was in constant motion toward improvement,
and that God had given each generation a Perfect Shi'i --
also known as the Bab (Gate) -- to communicate with the
Hidden Imam and to lead the way.13 Although the mujtaheds
denounced these ideas as heretical, the shaykh and his immediate
successor, Sayyid Kazem Rashti, attracted numerous followers in
the main cities, especially in Kerman, Yazd, and Tabriz. But after
Rashti's death in 1843, their followers split into three rival groups.14
The first group, formed predominantly of merchants and craftsmen
in Tabriz, labeled itself the Shaykhis, and, while giving up the idea of
the Bab, remained committed to the concept of social progress.
The second group, led by a princely governor of Kerman named
Hajj Karim Khan, gave up the concepts of both progress and the Bab,
and turned highly conservative, preaching submission to the state
and denouncing all reforms, including modern schools, as dangerous
innovations. This group later adopted the label of Karimkhanis, and
dominated the city of Kerman. The third group, headed by a Mulla
Hussein Bushruyeh, remained true to the original teachings of the
shaykh, advocating progress and reform, and expecting the imminent
appearance of the Perfect Shi'i.
The expected messiah appeared in 1844 in the form of a young
merchant turned theologian named Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad. After
years of studying with Shaykhi theologians in Karbala, 'Ali Muhammad
declared himself the Bab, and, winning over many former disciples
of 'Ahsa'i, preached the need for social reforms, especially elimination
of corruption in high places, purging of immoral clerics, legal protection
for merchants, legalization of money lending, and improvement in the
status of women. Not surprisingly, his message gained him both the
enmity of the establishment and the support of some discontented
traders, artisans, low-ranking clerics, and even peasants. Fearing
the movement's rapid growth -- especially in the Caspian provinces --
the government in 1850 executed the Bab and initiated a bloody
campaign against the Babis.
One of the Babis was a woman poet and theologian, Fátimih Baraghání: <ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A1hirih>. -- Yoshie