Panthay Rebellion
Encyclopedia
The Panthay
Rebellion
(1856–1873), known in Chinese as the Du Wenxiu Rebellion was a separatist movement of the Hui people
and other non Muslim ethnic minorities against the imperial Qing Dynasty
in southwestern Yunnan Province, China
, as part of a wave of Hui-led multi-ethnic unrest.
The name "Panthay
" is a Burmese
word, which is said to be identical with the Shan
word Pang hse. It was the name by which the Burmese called the Chinese Muslims who came with caravans to Burma from the Chinese province of Yunnan
. The name was not used or known in Yunnan itself.
with which the Hui
were treated by the imperial administration was the cause of their rebellions.
Some suggest that the Panthay Rebellion originated solely as a conflict between Han
and Hui miners in 1853, but Han-Hui tensions existed for decades prior to that including a three-day massacre of Hui by Han and Qing officials in 1845. Hui and Han were regarded and classified by Qing as two different ethnic groups, Hui was not an exclusively religious classification.
The "Encyclopædia of religion and ethics, Volume 8" stated that the Panthay Revolt revolt by the Muslims was set off by racial antagonism and class warfare, rather than the mistaken assumption that it was all due to Islam and religion that the rebellions broke out.
In 1856, a massacre of Muslims was organized by the Qing Manchu officials responsible for suppressing the revolt in the provincial capital of Kunming sparked a province-wide multi-ethnic insurrgency. In the western Yunnan city of Dali, an independent kingdom was established and led by a man called Du Wenxiu (杜文秀; pinyin
: Dù Wénxiù) (1823–1872), an ethnic Hui born in Yongchang.
Du Wenxiu was not aiming his rebellion at Han, but was anti-Qing and wanted to destroy the Manchu government. During the revolt Hui from provinces which were not in rebellion, like Sichuan and Zhejiang, served as negotiators between rebel Hui and the Qing government. One of Du Wenxiu's banners said "Deprive the Manchu Qing of their Mandate to Rule" (革命滿清), and he called on Han to assist Hui to overthrow the Manchu regime and drive them out of China. Du's forces led multiple non-Muslim forces, including Han Chinese, Li, Bai, and Hani. Du Wenxiu also called for unity between Muslim Hui and Han. He was quoted as saying "our army has three tasks: to drive out the Manchus, unite with the Chinese, and drive out traitors."
Du Wenxiu did not blame Han for the massacres of Hui, but blamed the tensions on the Manchu regime, saying that they were foreign to China and alienated the Chinese and other minorities.
Du Wenxiu also called for the complete expulsion of Manchus from all of China in order for China to once again come under Chinese rule.
Total war was waged against Manchu rule. Du Wenxiu refused to surrender, unlike the other rebel Muslim commander, Ma Rulong
. This may have had something to do with the sects of Islam practiced among the rebels. The Gedimu Hanafi Sunni Muslims under Ma Rulong
readily defected to Qing, while the Jahriyya
Sufi Muslims did not surrender. Some of the Jahriyya rebels in the Panthay Rebellion like Ma Shenglin were related to the Dungan revolt Jahriyya leader Ma Hualong
and maintained contact with them.
Du Wenxiu wore Chinese clothing, and mandated the use of the Arabic language in his regime. Du also banned pork. Ma Rulong
also banned pork in areas under his control after he surrendered and joined the Qing forces.
The Imperial Government was handicapped by a profusion of problems in various parts of the sprawling empire, the Taiping rebellion
being one of them. It was a time when China was still suffering from the shocks caused by the first series of unequal treaties, such as the Treaty of Nanking
. These circumstances favored the ascendancy of the Muslims in Yunnan.
, which became the base for the rebels' operations, and they declared themselves a separate political entity from China. The rebels identified their nation as Pingnan Guo (平南国 The Pacified Southern Kingdom); their leader Sulayman ibn `Abd ar-Rahman, known as Du Wenxiu [originally Yang Xiu]) (died 1873) was styled Qa´id Jami al-Muslimin ('Leader of the Community of Muslims'), but is usually referred to in foreign sources as Sultan) and ruled 1856 - 26 December 1872.
Governorships of the sultanate were also created in a few important cities, such as Momein (Tengyue
), which were a few stages from the Burmese border town of Bhamo. The sultanate reached the high watermark of their power and glory in 1860.
The eight years from 1860 to 1868 were the heyday of the Sultanate. The Yunnanese Muslim rebels had either taken or destroyed forty towns and one hundred villages.
Various rebel forces besieged the city of Kunming
repeatedly: in 1857, 1861, 1863, and 1868. Ma Rulong, a Hui rebel leader from southern Yunnan
, besieged the city in 1862, but he defected to the central government's forces after being offered a military post. His decision to quit the siege was not accepted by his followers, who took the opportunity of his absence to kill the Governor-General (Pan Duo) and to wrest control of the city from the Qing in 1863, with the intention of handing the city over to Du Wenxiu. However, before Du's forces could arrive, Ma Rulong — with the assistance of a rising Qing military officier, Cen Yuying — raced back to Kunming and regained control of the provincial capital.
. By degrees the Imperial Government had tightened the cordon around the Sultanate. The Sultanate proved unstable as soon as the Imperial Government made a regular and determined attack on it. Town after town fell under well-organized attacks made by the imperial troops. Dali itself was besieged by the imperial Chinese. Sultan Sulayman found himself caged in by the walls of his capital. He now desperately looked for outside help. He turned to the British for military assistance. He realized that only British military intervention could have saved his Sultanate.
The Sultan had reasons for his turning to the British for military aid. The British authorities in India and British Burma had sent a mission led by Major Sladen to Momien from May to July 1868. The Sladen mission had stayed seven weeks at Momien meeting with rebel officials. The main purpose of the mission was to revive the Ambassador Route between Bhamo and Yunnan
and resuscitate border trade, which had almost ceased since 1855 mainly because of the Yunnan Muslims' rebellion.
Taking advantage of the friendly relations resulting from Sladen's visit, Sultan Sulayman now, in his fight for the survival of the Pingnan Guo Sultanate, turned to the British Empire
for formal recognition and for military assistance. In 1872 he sent his adopted son Prince Hassan, to England, with a personal letter to Queen Victoria, via Burma, requesting British military assistance. The Hassan Mission was accorded courtesy and hospitality in both British Burma and England. However, the British politely, but firmly, refused to intervene militarily in Yunnan against Peking. Indeed, the mission was too little too late. While Hassan and his party were abroad, Dali was captured by the Imperial troops in January 1873.
The Imperial Government had waged an all-out war against the Sultanate with the help of French artillery experts. Their modern equipment, trained personnel and numerical superiority were no match for the ill-equipped rebels with no allies. Thus, in less than two decades of its rise, the power of the Panthays in Yunnan fell. Seeing no escape and no mercy from his relentless foe, Sultan Sulayman tried to take his own life before the fall of Dali. But, before the opium he drank took effect fully, he was beheaded by his enemies. The Sultan's head was preserved in honey and then dispatched to the Imperial Court in Peking as a trophy and a testimony to the decisive nature of the victory of the Imperial Manchu Qing over the Muslims of Yunnan. Manchu troops then began a massacre of the rebels, killing thousands of civilians, sending severed ears along with the head. His body is entombed in Xiadui outside of Dali.
One of the Muslim generals, Ma Julung, defected to the Qing side. He then helped the Qing forces crush his fellow Muslim rebels, and defeated them. He was called Marshal Ma by Europeans and acquired almost totla control of Yunnan province. Ma Julung's name in modern Chinese pinyin is Ma Rulong.
In the 1860s When Ma Rulong
, in central and west Yunnan, fought to crush the rebel precense to bring the area under Qing control, a great-uncle of Ma Shaowu
Ma Shenglin defended Greater Donggou against Ma Rulong’s army. Ma Shenglin was the religious head of the Jahriyya menhuan in Yunnan and a military leader. A Mortar killed him during the battle in 1871.
The scattered remnants of the Pingnan Guo troops continue their resistance after the fall of Dali. But when Momien was next besieged and stormed by the imperial troops in May 1873, their resistance broke completely. Governor Ta-sa-kon was captured and executed by the order of the Imperial Government.
. Many adherents to the Yunnanese Muslim cause were persecuted by the imperial Manchus. Wholesale massacres of Yunnanese Muslims followed. Many fled with their families across the Burmese border and took refuge in the Wa State
where, about 1875, they set up the exclusively Hui town of Panglong
.
For a period of perhaps ten to fifteen years following the collapse of the Panthay Rebellion, the province's Hui minority was widely discriminated against by the victorious Qing, especially in the western frontier districts contiguous with Burma. During these years the refugee Hui settled across the frontier within Burma gradually established themselves in their traditional callings – as merchants, caravaneers, miners, restaurateurs and (for those who chose or were forced to live beyond the law) as smugglers and mercenaries and became known in Burma as the Panthay.
At least 15 years after the collapse of the Panthay Rebellion , the original Panthay settlements in Burma had grown to include numbers of Shan and other hill peoples.
, who surrendered and join the Qing campaign to crush the rebel Muslims, was promoted, and became the most powerful military official in the province.
It was noted that the Qing armies only massacred Muslims who had rebelled, and spared Muslims who took no part in the uprising.
. After losing lower Burma to the British, Burma lost access to vast tracts of rice-growing land. Not wishing to upset China, the Burmese kingdom agreed to refuse trade with the Pingnan Guo rebels in accordance with China's demands. Without the ability to import rice
from China, Burma was forced to import rice from the British. In addition, the Burmese economy had relied heavily on cotton
exports to China, and suddenly lost access to the vast Chinese market. Many surviving Hui refugees escaped over the border to neighboring countries, Burma, Thailand
and Laos
, forming the basis of a minority Chinese Hui population in those nations.
Panthay
Panthays form a group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. Some people refer to Panthays as the oldest group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. However, because of intermixing and cultural diffusion the Panthays are not as distinct a group as they once were.-Etymology:...
Rebellion
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
(1856–1873), known in Chinese as the Du Wenxiu Rebellion was a separatist movement of the Hui people
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
and other non Muslim ethnic minorities against the imperial Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
in southwestern Yunnan Province, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, as part of a wave of Hui-led multi-ethnic unrest.
The name "Panthay
Panthay
Panthays form a group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. Some people refer to Panthays as the oldest group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. However, because of intermixing and cultural diffusion the Panthays are not as distinct a group as they once were.-Etymology:...
" is a Burmese
Burmese language
The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...
word, which is said to be identical with the Shan
Shan language
The Shan language is the native language of Shan people and spoken mostly in Shan State, Burma. It is also used in pockets of Kachin State in Burma, in northern Thailand, and in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Shan is a member of the Tai–Kadai language family, and...
word Pang hse. It was the name by which the Burmese called the Chinese Muslims who came with caravans to Burma from the Chinese province of Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
. The name was not used or known in Yunnan itself.
Causes
The discriminationDiscrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
with which the Hui
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
were treated by the imperial administration was the cause of their rebellions.
Some suggest that the Panthay Rebellion originated solely as a conflict between Han
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
and Hui miners in 1853, but Han-Hui tensions existed for decades prior to that including a three-day massacre of Hui by Han and Qing officials in 1845. Hui and Han were regarded and classified by Qing as two different ethnic groups, Hui was not an exclusively religious classification.
The "Encyclopædia of religion and ethics, Volume 8" stated that the Panthay Revolt revolt by the Muslims was set off by racial antagonism and class warfare, rather than the mistaken assumption that it was all due to Islam and religion that the rebellions broke out.
In 1856, a massacre of Muslims was organized by the Qing Manchu officials responsible for suppressing the revolt in the provincial capital of Kunming sparked a province-wide multi-ethnic insurrgency. In the western Yunnan city of Dali, an independent kingdom was established and led by a man called Du Wenxiu (杜文秀; pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Dù Wénxiù) (1823–1872), an ethnic Hui born in Yongchang.
Rebel Ideology
The revolt was not religious in nature, since the Muslims were joined by non-Muslim Shan and Kakhyen and other hill tribes in the revolt. A British officer testified that the Muslims did not rebel for religious reasons, and that the Chinese were tolerant of different religions and were unlikely to have caused the revolt by interfering with Islam. In addition, loyalist Muslim forces helped Qing crush the rebel Muslims.Du Wenxiu was not aiming his rebellion at Han, but was anti-Qing and wanted to destroy the Manchu government. During the revolt Hui from provinces which were not in rebellion, like Sichuan and Zhejiang, served as negotiators between rebel Hui and the Qing government. One of Du Wenxiu's banners said "Deprive the Manchu Qing of their Mandate to Rule" (革命滿清), and he called on Han to assist Hui to overthrow the Manchu regime and drive them out of China. Du's forces led multiple non-Muslim forces, including Han Chinese, Li, Bai, and Hani. Du Wenxiu also called for unity between Muslim Hui and Han. He was quoted as saying "our army has three tasks: to drive out the Manchus, unite with the Chinese, and drive out traitors."
Du Wenxiu did not blame Han for the massacres of Hui, but blamed the tensions on the Manchu regime, saying that they were foreign to China and alienated the Chinese and other minorities.
Du Wenxiu also called for the complete expulsion of Manchus from all of China in order for China to once again come under Chinese rule.
Total war was waged against Manchu rule. Du Wenxiu refused to surrender, unlike the other rebel Muslim commander, Ma Rulong
Ma Rulong
Ma Rulung was a Chinese Muslim who originally rebelled against the Qing dynasty along with Du Wenxiu in the Panthay Rebellion. He later defected to the Qing side. After officially surrendering in 1862 his forces effectively occupied the capital of Yunnan. He then helped the Qing forces crush his...
. This may have had something to do with the sects of Islam practiced among the rebels. The Gedimu Hanafi Sunni Muslims under Ma Rulong
Ma Rulong
Ma Rulung was a Chinese Muslim who originally rebelled against the Qing dynasty along with Du Wenxiu in the Panthay Rebellion. He later defected to the Qing side. After officially surrendering in 1862 his forces effectively occupied the capital of Yunnan. He then helped the Qing forces crush his...
readily defected to Qing, while the Jahriyya
Jahriyya
Jahriyya is a Sufi order in China that once existed in Persia and the Turkish World. Founded by Hadrat Abu Yaqub Yusuf Hamdani, it was brought to China in the 1760s by Ma Mingxin...
Sufi Muslims did not surrender. Some of the Jahriyya rebels in the Panthay Rebellion like Ma Shenglin were related to the Dungan revolt Jahriyya leader Ma Hualong
Ma Hualong
Ma Hualong , was the fifth leader of the Jahriyya, a Dungan Sufi order in northwestern China. From the beginning of the Dungan Revolt in 1862, until his surrender and death in 1871, he was one of the main leaders of the revolt.-Biography:Ma Hualong became the leader of the Jahriyya ca...
and maintained contact with them.
Du Wenxiu wore Chinese clothing, and mandated the use of the Arabic language in his regime. Du also banned pork. Ma Rulong
Ma Rulong
Ma Rulung was a Chinese Muslim who originally rebelled against the Qing dynasty along with Du Wenxiu in the Panthay Rebellion. He later defected to the Qing side. After officially surrendering in 1862 his forces effectively occupied the capital of Yunnan. He then helped the Qing forces crush his...
also banned pork in areas under his control after he surrendered and joined the Qing forces.
Revolution slogans of Du Wenxiu
Course of the war
The rebellion started as widespread local uprisings in virtually every region of the province. It was the rebels in western Yunnan under the leadership of Du Wenxiu who by gaining the control of Dali in 1856 (which they retained until its fall in 1872) who became the major military and political center of opposition to the Qing government. They turned their fury on the local mandarins and ended up challenging the central government in Beijing.The Imperial Government was handicapped by a profusion of problems in various parts of the sprawling empire, the Taiping rebellion
Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...
being one of them. It was a time when China was still suffering from the shocks caused by the first series of unequal treaties, such as the Treaty of Nanking
Treaty of Nanking
The Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China...
. These circumstances favored the ascendancy of the Muslims in Yunnan.
The Pacified Southern Kingdom
The rebellion successfully captured the city of DaliDali, Yunnan
Dali City is a county-level city in and the seat of the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, northwestern Yunnan province of Southwest China.-History:...
, which became the base for the rebels' operations, and they declared themselves a separate political entity from China. The rebels identified their nation as Pingnan Guo (平南国 The Pacified Southern Kingdom); their leader Sulayman ibn `Abd ar-Rahman, known as Du Wenxiu [originally Yang Xiu]) (died 1873) was styled Qa´id Jami al-Muslimin ('Leader of the Community of Muslims'), but is usually referred to in foreign sources as Sultan) and ruled 1856 - 26 December 1872.
Governorships of the sultanate were also created in a few important cities, such as Momein (Tengyue
Tengyue
Tengyue is a town in Tengchong County, Baoshan Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. It lies close to the border of Myanmar, where it traditionally goes by the name of Momein....
), which were a few stages from the Burmese border town of Bhamo. The sultanate reached the high watermark of their power and glory in 1860.
The eight years from 1860 to 1868 were the heyday of the Sultanate. The Yunnanese Muslim rebels had either taken or destroyed forty towns and one hundred villages.
Various rebel forces besieged the city of Kunming
Kunming
' is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It was known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan, and is the seat of the provincial government...
repeatedly: in 1857, 1861, 1863, and 1868. Ma Rulong, a Hui rebel leader from southern Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
, besieged the city in 1862, but he defected to the central government's forces after being offered a military post. His decision to quit the siege was not accepted by his followers, who took the opportunity of his absence to kill the Governor-General (Pan Duo) and to wrest control of the city from the Qing in 1863, with the intention of handing the city over to Du Wenxiu. However, before Du's forces could arrive, Ma Rulong — with the assistance of a rising Qing military officier, Cen Yuying — raced back to Kunming and regained control of the provincial capital.
Decline
The Sultanate's power declined after 1868. The Chinese Imperial Government had succeeded in reinvigorating itself. By 1871, it was directing a campaign for the annihilation of the obdurate Hui Muslims of YunnanYunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
. By degrees the Imperial Government had tightened the cordon around the Sultanate. The Sultanate proved unstable as soon as the Imperial Government made a regular and determined attack on it. Town after town fell under well-organized attacks made by the imperial troops. Dali itself was besieged by the imperial Chinese. Sultan Sulayman found himself caged in by the walls of his capital. He now desperately looked for outside help. He turned to the British for military assistance. He realized that only British military intervention could have saved his Sultanate.
The Sultan had reasons for his turning to the British for military aid. The British authorities in India and British Burma had sent a mission led by Major Sladen to Momien from May to July 1868. The Sladen mission had stayed seven weeks at Momien meeting with rebel officials. The main purpose of the mission was to revive the Ambassador Route between Bhamo and Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
and resuscitate border trade, which had almost ceased since 1855 mainly because of the Yunnan Muslims' rebellion.
Taking advantage of the friendly relations resulting from Sladen's visit, Sultan Sulayman now, in his fight for the survival of the Pingnan Guo Sultanate, turned to the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
for formal recognition and for military assistance. In 1872 he sent his adopted son Prince Hassan, to England, with a personal letter to Queen Victoria, via Burma, requesting British military assistance. The Hassan Mission was accorded courtesy and hospitality in both British Burma and England. However, the British politely, but firmly, refused to intervene militarily in Yunnan against Peking. Indeed, the mission was too little too late. While Hassan and his party were abroad, Dali was captured by the Imperial troops in January 1873.
The Imperial Government had waged an all-out war against the Sultanate with the help of French artillery experts. Their modern equipment, trained personnel and numerical superiority were no match for the ill-equipped rebels with no allies. Thus, in less than two decades of its rise, the power of the Panthays in Yunnan fell. Seeing no escape and no mercy from his relentless foe, Sultan Sulayman tried to take his own life before the fall of Dali. But, before the opium he drank took effect fully, he was beheaded by his enemies. The Sultan's head was preserved in honey and then dispatched to the Imperial Court in Peking as a trophy and a testimony to the decisive nature of the victory of the Imperial Manchu Qing over the Muslims of Yunnan. Manchu troops then began a massacre of the rebels, killing thousands of civilians, sending severed ears along with the head. His body is entombed in Xiadui outside of Dali.
One of the Muslim generals, Ma Julung, defected to the Qing side. He then helped the Qing forces crush his fellow Muslim rebels, and defeated them. He was called Marshal Ma by Europeans and acquired almost totla control of Yunnan province. Ma Julung's name in modern Chinese pinyin is Ma Rulong.
In the 1860s When Ma Rulong
Ma Rulong
Ma Rulung was a Chinese Muslim who originally rebelled against the Qing dynasty along with Du Wenxiu in the Panthay Rebellion. He later defected to the Qing side. After officially surrendering in 1862 his forces effectively occupied the capital of Yunnan. He then helped the Qing forces crush his...
, in central and west Yunnan, fought to crush the rebel precense to bring the area under Qing control, a great-uncle of Ma Shaowu
Ma Shaowu
Ma Shaowu was a Hui born in Yunnan, in Qing dynasty China. He was a member of the Xinjiang clique during the Republic of China.- Family history :...
Ma Shenglin defended Greater Donggou against Ma Rulong’s army. Ma Shenglin was the religious head of the Jahriyya menhuan in Yunnan and a military leader. A Mortar killed him during the battle in 1871.
The scattered remnants of the Pingnan Guo troops continue their resistance after the fall of Dali. But when Momien was next besieged and stormed by the imperial troops in May 1873, their resistance broke completely. Governor Ta-sa-kon was captured and executed by the order of the Imperial Government.
Atrocities
Though largely forgotten, the bloody rebellion caused the deaths of up to a million people in YunnanYunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
. Many adherents to the Yunnanese Muslim cause were persecuted by the imperial Manchus. Wholesale massacres of Yunnanese Muslims followed. Many fled with their families across the Burmese border and took refuge in the Wa State
Wa State
Wa State is an unrecognised state in Myanmar and is currently subsumed under the official Wa Special Region 2 of the Northern Shan State. The administrative capital is Pangkham . The name Wa derives from an ethnic group, who speaks a language in the Austroasiatic family of languages...
where, about 1875, they set up the exclusively Hui town of Panglong
Panglong
'Panglong' can refer to one of three towns in Shan State. Of them, the most well known one is Panglong, where the Panglong Conference took place. Second, Panglong in the Wa regions near the China border is a town founded by Chinese Muslim settlers in the trans-Salween Wa States...
.
For a period of perhaps ten to fifteen years following the collapse of the Panthay Rebellion, the province's Hui minority was widely discriminated against by the victorious Qing, especially in the western frontier districts contiguous with Burma. During these years the refugee Hui settled across the frontier within Burma gradually established themselves in their traditional callings – as merchants, caravaneers, miners, restaurateurs and (for those who chose or were forced to live beyond the law) as smugglers and mercenaries and became known in Burma as the Panthay.
At least 15 years after the collapse of the Panthay Rebellion , the original Panthay settlements in Burma had grown to include numbers of Shan and other hill peoples.
Positive Impact on Muslim Power
The Qing dynasty did not massacre Muslims who surrendered, in fact, Muslim General Ma RulongMa Rulong
Ma Rulung was a Chinese Muslim who originally rebelled against the Qing dynasty along with Du Wenxiu in the Panthay Rebellion. He later defected to the Qing side. After officially surrendering in 1862 his forces effectively occupied the capital of Yunnan. He then helped the Qing forces crush his...
, who surrendered and join the Qing campaign to crush the rebel Muslims, was promoted, and became the most powerful military official in the province.
It was noted that the Qing armies only massacred Muslims who had rebelled, and spared Muslims who took no part in the uprising.
Impact on Burma
The rebellion had a significant negative impact on the Burmese Konbaung DynastyKonbaung dynasty
The Konbaung Dynasty was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. The dynasty created the second largest empire in Burmese history, and continued the administrative reforms begun by the Toungoo dynasty, laying the foundations of modern state of Burma...
. After losing lower Burma to the British, Burma lost access to vast tracts of rice-growing land. Not wishing to upset China, the Burmese kingdom agreed to refuse trade with the Pingnan Guo rebels in accordance with China's demands. Without the ability to import rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
from China, Burma was forced to import rice from the British. In addition, the Burmese economy had relied heavily on cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
exports to China, and suddenly lost access to the vast Chinese market. Many surviving Hui refugees escaped over the border to neighboring countries, Burma, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, forming the basis of a minority Chinese Hui population in those nations.
See also
- PanthayPanthayPanthays form a group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. Some people refer to Panthays as the oldest group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. However, because of intermixing and cultural diffusion the Panthays are not as distinct a group as they once were.-Etymology:...
- Islam in ChinaIslam in ChinaThroughout the history of Islam in China, Chinese Muslims have influenced the course of Chinese history. Chinese Muslims have been in China for the last 1,400 years of continuous interaction with Chinese society...
- Islam during the Qing DynastyIslam during the Qing DynastyQing Dynasty . The Qing rulers were Manchu, not Han, and were themselves a minority in China. The Qing Dynasty witnessed five Muslim rebellions.-Early revolts in Xinjiang, Shaanxi and Gansu:...
- Yusuf Ma DexinYusuf Ma DexinYusuf Ma Dexin was a Hui Chinese scholar of Islam from Yunnan, known for his fluency and proficiency in both Arabic and Persian, and for his knowledge of Islam.- Hajj :...
, a prominent Muslim scholar in Yunnan at the time of the rebellions - Taiping RebellionTaiping RebellionThe Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...
- Nien RebellionNien RebellionThe Nien Rebellion was an armed uprising that took place in northern China from 1851 to 1868, contemporaneously with Taiping Rebellion in South China...
- Miao Rebellion (1854–73)
- Nepalese-Tibetan WarNepalese-Tibetan WarThe Nepalese-Tibetan War was fought from 1855 to 1856 in Tibet between the forces of the Tibetan government and the invading Nepalese army.- Background :...
- Dungan revolt (1862–1877)
- Punti–Hakka Clan Wars