A while back, I spent some time looking at “Princess” Der Ling, a fascinating figure who lived during the end of the Qing dynasty. Now, I went back a bit further in time to the Taiping rebellion, or as Platt characterises it, “the Taiping civil war”.

Although he started this research with the opinion that “Western historians have long tended to exaggerate the role of foreigners in Chinese history, and the British in Shanghai unquestionably had an inflated sense of their own importance to the country – even as their understanding of what was actually happening in the interior was extremely limited“, Platt eventually found that the foreigners did have an impact on the Taiping civil war, although mostly through accident as the British (and others) had a neutrality policy. In this book, he aims to show the interconnectedness of the world at that time, and how events happened in various parts of the world influenced what happened.

In general, however, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom serves as a chronology of the Taiping Civil War, with a large focus on how Li Xiucheng (one of the rebel generals) and Zeng Guofan (the key imperial general) fought their battles. There’s also significant time spent on Hong Rengan, the cousin of the heavenly king who sought to cultivate the allyship of the foreign powers after his time in Hong Kong.

It is a fascinating tale and I cannot help but imagine how things might have imagined if just a few key figures had different viewpoints. What would have happened if Frederick Bruce, the man who was so influential on British foreign policy because of his position as British minister to China, believed that the Taiping faction were the legitimate authority in China (Especially as there was some popular support for Taiping as a result)? Or what if civil servants like Thomas Wade (of the Wade-Giles romanisation fame) did not hew to the elites but instead followed the stance of the missionaries in China and had more sympathy with the lower classes? Or what if the foreign mercenary armies did not exist? What if Hong Rengan did not return to his cousin but stayed as a local preacher in Hong Kong?

All that showed me that history really turns on coincidences.

Another thing that the book impressed on me was the global nature of his rebellion (Platt succeeds in his aims here). I did not realise the Taiping rebellion had attracted so much attention in the UK and America, to the extent where it was debated in the UK parliament a few times and was the subject of editorials in papers in both countries. Tracing the support for and against the Taiping faction was truly fascinating.

While I generally enjoyed the book, I did wish for two things to be different:

Firstly, Platt could have spent more time on the Han/Manchu divide and how the ruling Manchus intentionally separated themselves from their Han subjects in terms of administration, the civil examination, where they lived, etc. A bit more information here might have been useful as Platt mentions that many followers of the Taiping leaders were partially attracted by “the oppression of the Manchu imperial government”. Because of this like Manchu & Han by Edward Rhoads (which I read but did not review) ended up being good background for this book because it helped me fill in the blanks.

Second, I wanted more about the inner workings of the Taiping government. Platt gives us broad outlines and he makes it clear that the imperial effort against the Taiping army comes from Zeng Guofan, but I felt like the politics between the “kings” in Taiping were a bit sketchy. We know most about Hong Rengan and Li Xiucheng, but I did not feel like Hong Xiuqan, the originator of the whole rebellion/civil war, was discussed in detail. Neither was his rise and fall from power; how did his government operate, how did the various ministers/kings come to an agreement, was this a decentralised power or was it all controlled by a few key people, all these are questions that I can’t quite answer despite just having read the book. Perhaps it’s because Platt didn’t want to focus on the origins of the war, but at some points I really wondered what was the point of the book – just to tell me about the wars? Or was I to understand more about the Taiping rebels and how they fit into the international system? All I knew is that they wanted to be on friendly terms with the allies, but I didn’t know what happened internally while and after their efforts failed.

Then again, I’m not sure if this is a source problem. Platt mentions that Zeng Guofan edited things to make his army look good, and perhaps there is a lack of documentation from the Taiping side that could have added more information about their inner workings.

Finally, one note about the book that’s more related to my personal interest. Although Cixi’s rise to power is briefly covered here, this book is focused on men. We do not, for example, hear about Changmei, the daughter of a banker who was given to a foreign mercenary named Ward as a business arrangement in much detail. In a way, Changmei reminds me of Emma de Gauder, whose marriage was used as an opportunity to plan a rebellion against William the Conquerer and hence hardly features in her own story.

But although the emphasis is on a few key male figures, we do get some heartbreaking stories here and there – the brief accounts of cannibalism are horrifying, as is the testimony of Huang Shuhua, a sixteen-year-old girl whose whole family was murdered and she herself kidnapped to be the unwilling wife of an imperial soldier. She managed to write her story down (which intrigues me – were girls in Taiping being taught to write or was she an exception) before killing both the soldier and herself. It’s these stories, as well as little mysteries such as a Chinese soldier that British forces allegedly took orders from, that caught my attention most and I’m glad Platt worked it into the narrative.

Overall, this is a sweeping book about a complex time in the Qing dynasty. It is perhaps impossible to write a book that covers everything in detail, but if you’re looking for something that focuses on both the foreign relations and military aspects of the war, I think Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom would be up your alley.

Featured Image: Photo from Canva