Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom

Stephen R. Platt reconstructs the Taiping Rebellion from the early 1850s to the fall of rebel-held Nanjing in 1864. The movement founded by Hong Xiuquan challenged Qing rule with a radical religious and social programme, drawing support from communities damaged by poverty, ethnic tension and ineffective government. Its expansion created a civil war of exceptional scale across central and southern China.

The narrative concentrates on competing leaders and the international decisions that shaped the rebellion’s outcome. Zeng Guofan built the regional armies that restored Qing authority, while Hong Rengan attempted to give the Taiping state a modern administrative and diplomatic programme. British and American intervention, commercial interests and warfare along the Yangtze helped determine why the rebellion failed and how the Qing dynasty survived.