Western Ephemera

PEH042

Complete 1912 issue of German periodical Simplicissimus with cover page satirizing the Chinese Revolution. N

Price: $120.00

PC148PC148

Complete issue of Le Rire, dated August 15, 1900, with Li-Hung-Chang on cover with Allied cannons aimed at him. During the Boxer Rebellion.

Price: $70.00

CPC 055CPC 055

Rare complete set of 18 Spanish trade cards by Chocolate Juncosa entitled La Guerra Civil en China. C1930. Deals with the civil war in China during the 1920's. Shows flag of Nationalist China. All described on back. MBB

Price: $720.00

CPC 053CPC 053

Imperial Chinese Government Loan to Russia, 1902. This bond was part of the reparations due from the Boxer Rebellion and part of the edict by the Chinese Emperor of May 29, 1901 and valued at roughly 182 million roubles. Romanov and Manchu imperial emblems adorn the top of the bond. MB2

Price: $180.00

CPC052

 Chapter on Italy during the Boxer Rebellion in Storia d'Italia, by Paolo Giudici. B

Price: $35.00

CPC 097CPC 097

Two complete Italian periodicals featuring a pilgrimage to Miao-Feng-Schang in 1936. B

Price: $80.00

CPC 048

Ilustrations from Le Petit Journal, with text, on Chinese theatre and acrobatics, 1911-1933. B

Price: $60.00

CPC 046CPC 046

A collection of 20 illustrated pages, with text, from European periodicals on the Taiping Rebellion, 1851-1864. B

Price: $600.00

Note: During the mid-nineteenth century, China's problems were compounded by natural calamities of unprecedented proportions, including droughts, famines, and floods. Government neglect of public works was in part responsible for this and other disasters, and the Qing administration did little to relieve the widespread misery caused by them. Economic tensions, military defeats at Western hands, and anti-Manchu sentiments all combined to produce widespread unrest, especially in the south.CPC 046CPC 046 South China had been the last area to yield to the Qing conquerors and the first to be exposed to Western influence. It provided a likely setting for the largest uprising in modern Chinese history--the Taiping Rebellion.

The Taiping rebels were led by Hong Xiuquan (1814-64), a village teacher and unsuccessful imperial examination candidate. Hong formulated an eclectic ideology combining the ideals of preConfucian utopianism with Protestant beliefs. He soon had a following in the thousands who were heavily anti-Manchu and antiestablishment . Hong's followers formed a military organization to protect against bandits and recruited troops not only among believers but also from among other armed peasant groups and secret societies. In 1851 Hong Xiuquan and others launched an uprising in Guizhou Province. Hong proclaimed the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (Taiping Tianguo, or Taiping for short) with himself as king. The new order was to reconstitute a legendary ancient state in which the peasantry owned and tilled the land in common; slavery, concubinage, arranged marriage, opium smoking, footbinding, judicial torture, and the worship of idols were all to be eliminated. CPC 046CPC 046The Taiping tolerance of the esoteric rituals and quasi-religious societies of south China--themselves a threat to Qing stability--and their relentless attacks on Confucianism--still widely accepted as the moral foundation of Chinese behavior-- contributed to the ultimate defeat of the rebellion. Its advocacy of radical social reforms alienated the Han Chinese scholar-gentry class. The Taiping army, although it had captured Nanjing and driven as far north as Tianjin, failed to establish stable base areas. The movement's leaders found themselves in a net of internal feuds, defections, and corruption. Additionally, British and French forces, being more willing to deal with the weak Qing administration than contend with the uncertainties of a Taiping regime, came to the assistance of the imperial army. CPC 046CPC 046Before the Chinese army succeeded in crushing the revolt, however, 14 years had passed, and well over 30 million people were reported killed.

To defeat the rebellion, the Qing court needed, besides Western help, an army stronger and more popular than the demoralized imperial forces. In 1860, scholar-official Zeng Guofan (1811-72), from Hunan Province, was appointed imperial commissioner and governor-general of the Taiping-controlled territories and placed in command of the war against the rebels. Zeng's Hunan army, created and paid for by local taxes, became a powerful new fighting force under the command of eminent scholar-generals. Zeng's success gave new power to an emerging Han Chinese elite and eroded Qing authority.CPC 046 Simultaneous uprisings in north China (the Nian Rebellion) and southwest China (the Muslim Rebellion) further demonstrated Qing weakness.

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CPC 045

Large fold-out illustration reportedly of the first Imperial Audience with the Foreign Legation in the Forbidden City, on the anniversary of the birthday of the Dowager Empress. Dated 1895. B

Price: $80.00

CPC 044

Collection of 13 illustrations, with text, from French and English periodicals, dated 1883-1895, on Formosa. B

Price: $400.00

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