This book's title promises a lot, and Stephen R. Platt delivers: "Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom" is an intricate and compelling historical narrative rich in military campaigning, vivid personalities and, above all, diplomatic misunderstanding. When Confederate artillery fired on Fort Sumter in 1861, the Taiping rebellion had been raging for 10 years, and it would continue until rebel supply lines collapsed in 1864. With a wonderful flair for storytelling, Platt explores the relationship between the two conflicts, the common element being British involvement. As Union ships sealed off Southern ports to trade, the Brits' need to open Chinese markets -- to buy textiles, guns and opium -- became all the more urgent.
The Taiping conflict was geographic and ethnic: Southern Chinese were fighting the forces of the Manchu dynasty. (In 1860 Britain found itself in combat with both sides!) It was moreover a religious conflict, at least among the leadership.
One of the root causes, as Platt sees it, was the "rage of a failed exam candidate," an ambitious Cantonese villager, Hong Xiuquan, who unsuccessfully attempted the Confucian-based civil service examination multiple times. Hong then fell ill, saw visions and converted to Christianity. He evangelized and drew large numbers of converts. As Hong's movement grew, it became a military force, engaging with the forces of the Manchu Emperor and ultimately overrunning the ancient capital of Nanjing. Secure in this stronghold, which commanded the upper Yangtze River, Hong installed himself as the Heavenly King.
Platt is clearly sympathetic to the Taipings, who determinedly (but unsuccessfully) attempted to win the support of Westerners. In 1860, Taiping emissaries traveled to Shanghai and asked a British naval commander to forward a note promising access to port cities and offering protection to foreigners. The commander kept the note as a souvenir. Soon afterward, when a group of Taiping naval vessels arrived outside Shanghai, the British opened fire on them.
A strength of "Autumn" is the gallery of morally complex men -- and one fearsome woman, the Empress Dowager Cixi -- who appear in its pages. The Heavenly King's remarkable younger cousin, Hong Rengan, another humble and congenial product of Protestant missionaries, became a civil administrator, essayist, printer, military strategist -- and Shield King for the Taipings.
Much attention is given to Zeng Guofan, a scholarly ethnic Chinese who assumed control of the Imperial forces in the Yangtze valley. Zeng appears to have been a brilliant strategist who was beset by doubts and depression. When cholera spread through the river basin, Zeng interpreted this as heaven's disapproval of him. Among the British we find parallel figures. There are those who saw China as India extended, who predicted that "the keys of every stronghold in this province will hang from the girdle of Britannia." Yet others, like the sympathetic plenipotentiary of China, Lord Elgin, viewed British "gunboat diplomacy" with disgust.
Authoritative and fascinating, Platt's work will interest both the specialist and the casual reader (like me) who wants to learn about an event that presaged China's entry into the modern world.
Tom Zelman teaches English at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.
