China: The Surprising Epicenter of Humanity’s Deadliest Wars
How civil wars and internal strife made China the deadliest battlefield in history
China is often portrayed as a peaceful nation, but the reality is quite the opposite.
Did you know that 4 of the 10 deadliest wars in history occurred in China? In fact, if we consider both the frequency of wars and absolute death tolls, China has suffered the most over the past 5,000 years, making it arguably the most violent country in history.
Here’s the twist: much of this violence was internal. The majority of these wars were civil wars, with Chinese people fighting each other. Unsurprisingly, the deadliest civil war in human history also happened in China.
We’re not talking about the Nationalist-Communist civil war of the 20th century. The conflict we want to highlight took place 100 years before that. It caused between 20 and 70 million deaths, yet barely anyone outside China knows about it. Let’s dive into the story of the Taiping Rebellion.
十九世纪中国的这场内战，常常被写成一部传记，讲述一位梦想家如何掀起第一场革命运动的故事。1837 年，来自中国南方腹地广东省的失意考生洪秀全陷入幻觉，恍惚中见到了令他不安的幻景。六年后，他从几年前由传教士手中得到的一部基督教小册子里，为这些幻景寻得了解释。他声称自己是天父的次子，也就是耶稣的弟弟。他在家乡广收信徒，并从 1844 年开始，在广西山区发展出一个融合基督宗教和民间惯例的体系，替他日后挑战强大的王朝秩序奠定了基础。
内战 (nèizhàn): civil war
传记 (zhuànjì): biography
梦想家 (mèngxiǎngjiā): dreamer, visionary
掀起 (xiānqǐ): to initiate, to start (a movement or upheaval)
失意考生 (shīyì kǎoshēng): disappointed exam candidate
洪秀全 (Hóng Xiùquán): Hong Xiuquan
幻觉 (huànjué): hallucination, illusion
恍惚 (huǎnghū): dazed, distracted, in a trance
幻景 (huànjǐng): vision, hallucinated scene
传教士 (chuánjiàoshì): missionary
小册子 (xiǎocèzi): pamphlet, booklet
天父 (tiānfù): Heavenly Father
次子 (cìzǐ): second son
信徒 (xìntú): believer, follower
民间惯例 (mínjiān guànlì): folk custom, local practice
王朝秩序 (wángcháo zhìxù): imperial order, dynastic rule
奠定 (diàndìng): to lay (a foundation), to establish
This nineteenth-century civil war in China is often written as if it were a biography, telling the story of how a dreamer launched the first revolutionary movement. In 1837, Hong Xiuquan, a failed examination candidate from Guangdong province in the heart of South China, fell into hallucinations and saw troubling visions. Six years later, he found explanations for these visions in a Christian pamphlet he had obtained from missionaries a few years earlier. He claimed he was the second son of God—the younger brother of Jesus. He gathered large numbers of followers in his hometown and, from 1844 onward, developed in the Guangxi mountains a system that blended Christianity with popular folk practices, laying the groundwork for his later challenge to the powerful imperial order.
洪秀全早年曾接触基督教思想，创立拜上帝会，主张建立「天下为公」盛世，亦是太平天国运动的民变领袖。1851 年一月，在对官兵赢得了一场决定性的战役后，洪秀全自封为「太平天国」的「天王」，这一举动相当于宣告一个独立政权成立。太平军由广西向北杀出一条血路，占领沿途的战略城池要地。谣言四起，沿长江而下传到了三角洲乃至更广的地方，引起焦虑与不安。1853 年，太平军占领并定都于明初旧都南京，并将之更名为「天京」。他们推行新的货币和历法，宣扬自己的宗教，并构想了从未彻底实施的全新政府制度与地权制度。他们还把民众组织成生产与战斗单位，并依性别来隔离划分。
拜上帝会 (Bài Shàngdì Huì): God Worshippers’ Society
天下为公 (tiānxià wéigōng): “The world belongs to everyone” (a utopian ideal)
盛世 (shèngshì): prosperous era
太平天国 (Tàipíng Tiānguó): Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
民变领袖 (mínbiàn lǐngxiù): leader of a popular rebellion
自封 (zìfēng): to proclaim oneself (a title)
战略城池要地 (zhànlüè chéngchí yàodì): strategic cities and key locations
谣言 (yáoyán): rumor
焦虑与不安 (jiāolǜ yǔ bù’ān): anxiety and unease
定都 (dìngdū): to establish a capital
依性别来隔离划分 (yī xìngbié lái gélí huàfēn): segregated/divided by gender
Hong Xiuquan was exposed to Christian ideas early in his life. He founded the “God-Worshipping Society,” advocated the creation of a utopian world of “all under heaven shared by all,” and became the popular leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. In January 1851, after winning a decisive battle against government troops, Hong Xiuquan proclaimed himself “Heavenly King” of the “Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,” effectively declaring the establishment of an independent regime. The Taiping army fought its way north from Guangxi, seizing key strategic cities along the route. Rumors spread along the Yangtze River down to the delta and beyond, causing fear and anxiety. In 1853, the Taiping army occupied Nanjing, the former early-Ming capital, made it their capital, and renamed it “Heavenly Capital” (Tianjing). They introduced new currency and a new calendar, promoted their religion, and envisioned entirely new governmental and land systems, though these were never fully implemented. They also organized the population into production and military units, segregated by gender.
根据一般常引用的数字，1850 年到 1864 年间的太平天国战争，导致了两至三千万人丧生。据此，它被称为人类史上最惨烈的内战。近来几篇研究对此时期流失多少人口莫衷一是，这显示要回头去做精确（甚或是粗略的）死亡人数统计是不可能的。
常引用 (cháng yǐnyòng): often cited, frequently referenced
丧生 (sàngshēng): to lose one’s life, to die
莫衷一是 (mòzhōng yī shì): unable to reach a consensus; opinions differ
精确 (jīngquè): precise, accurate
甚或 (shènhuò): or even, possibly even
粗略 (cūlüè): rough, approximate
According to commonly cited figures, the Taiping Civil War from 1850 to 1864 caused the deaths of twenty to thirty million people. Because of this, it is often referred to as the deadliest civil war in human history. Recent studies have produced conflicting estimates of population loss during this period, showing that it is impossible to accurately — or even roughly — calculate the true death toll in retrospect.
当时的记载显示发生过规模惊人的屠杀和破坏，战后所编纂的回忆录及方志都以骇人听闻的频率，屡屡提及人口的巨大折损（长江下游市镇丧失将近 50％ 的人口，甚或更多），以及人们遭受了难以言说的痛苦。但无论这些数字精确与否，死亡人数显然远大于同时期的美国内战──约有六十二万名士兵及五万名平民死于该内战。
记载 (jìzǎi): record, account
规模惊人 (guīmó jīngrén): astonishing in scale, massive
编纂 (biānzuǎn): to compile, to edit
回忆录 (huíyìlù): memoir, recollections
方志 (fāngzhì): local gazetteer, local historical record
骇人听闻 (hàirén tīngwén): shocking, horrifying
屡屡 (lǚlǚ): repeatedly, over and over
长江下游 (Chángjiāng xiàyóu): Lower Yangtze River region
难以言说 (nányǐ yánshuō): indescribable, unspeakable
士兵 (shìbīng): soldier
平民 (píngmín): civilian
Contemporary records describe massacres and destruction on an astonishing scale. Postwar memoirs and local gazetteers repeatedly mention the massive population loss — in some lower Yangtze towns nearly 50% of the population, or even more, disappeared — along with unspeakable human suffering. Regardless of whether these numbers are precise, the death toll was clearly far greater than that of the American Civil War (1861–1865), in which about 620,000 soldiers and 50,000 civilians died.
可是，姑且不论这场战争的毁灭性有多强，在中国以外的地方，太平天国战争与那些照理说涉及范围与影响都较小的事件相比，仍相对地罕为人知。即使是在中国研究领域内，关于太平天国的记述也惊人地缺乏血肉：我们只关注抽象的意识形态，而非战争所造成的伤害。关注十九世纪晚期上海如何崛起的学者们，常常会提及移民从繁荣、风雅的江南地区来到上海，却从未叙述那场驱使他们背井离乡的毁灭性战乱。
姑且 (gūqiě): for the time being, for argument’s sake
不论 (búlùn): regardless of, no matter
毁灭性 (huǐmièxìng): destructive nature, devastation
罕为人知 (hǎn wéi rén zhī): little known, rare to be known
血肉 (xuèròu): flesh and blood, human detail
抽象 (chōuxiàng): abstract
意识形态 (yìshí xíngtài): ideology
崛起 (juéqǐ): to rise, to emerge
风雅 (fēngyǎ): refined, elegant, cultured
背井离乡 (bèijǐng lí xiāng): to leave one’s hometown, to be uprooted
战乱 (zhànluàn): war, military chaos
Yet despite its catastrophic scale, the Taiping Civil War remains relatively unknown outside China, especially when compared with other historical events that were arguably smaller in scope and impact. Even within the field of Chinese studies, accounts of the Taiping War often lack human depth: scholars focus more on abstract ideology than on the suffering caused by the war. Researchers studying the rise of late nineteenth-century Shanghai frequently mention migrants arriving from the prosperous Jiangnan region, yet rarely acknowledge the devastating conflict that forced them to flee their homes.
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