CHAPTER XI
REFLECTIONS ON THE TAIPING
REBELLION
Rebellions and revolutions in China are not
new and rare historic occurrences. There have
been at least twenty-four dynasties and as many
attendant rebellions or revolutions. But with
the exception of the Feudatory period, revolutions
in China (since the consolidation of the
three Kingdoms into one Empire under the
Emperor Chin) meant only a change of hands
in the government, without a change either of
its form, or principles. Hence the history of
China for at least two thousand years, like her
civilization, bears the national impress of a
monotonous dead level — jejune in character,
wanting in versatility of genius, and almost
devoid of historic inspiration.
The Taiping Rebellion differs from its predecessors in that in its embryo stage it had taken onto itself the religious element, which became the vital force that carried it from the defiles and wilds of Kwangsi province in the southwest to the city of Nanking in the northeast, and made it for a period of fifteen years a constantly
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