White Lotus Rebellion

The White Lotus Rebellion (Chinese: 川楚白蓮敎起義; pinyin: Chuān chŭ bái lián jiào qǐ yì, 1794–1804) was a rebellion initiated by followers of the White Lotus movement during the Qing dynasty of China. Motivated by millenarian Buddhists who promised the immediate return of the Buddha, it erupted out of social and economic discontent in the impoverished provinces of Hubei, Shaanxi, and Sichuan (including modern Sichuan and Chongqing). The rebellion began in 1794, when large groups of rebels claiming White Lotus affiliations rose up within the mountainous region that separated Sichuan province from Hubei and Shaanxi provinces.^[1] A smaller precursor to the main rebellion broke out in 1774, under the leadership of the martial-arts and herbal-healing expert Wang Lun in Shandong province of northern China.

Although the rebellion was finally crushed by the Qing government after eight years of fighting, it marked a sharp decline in the strength and prosperity of the Qing dynasty. The government had to depend on more Han Chinese recruits (Green Standard) since there were not enough Manchu. The rebellion was ended by the deaths of some 100,000 rebels.^[2]^[3]

^ Spence, Jonathan (2013). The Search for Modern China (Third ed.). New York: W. W. Norton Company. pp. 111–112.
^ "Eighteenth Century Death Tolls". necrometrics.com.
^ "Deletion notice | Scribd". Archived from the original on 2020-04-12. Retrieved 2017-09-18.

[1] Spence, Jonathan (2013). The Search for Modern China (Third ed.). New York: W. W. Norton Company. pp. 111–112.

[2] "Eighteenth Century Death Tolls". necrometrics.com.

[3] "Deletion notice | Scribd". Archived from the original on 2020-04-12. Retrieved 2017-09-18.

[1]

[2]

[3]