A CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE
The White Lotus War (1796-1804) in central China marked the end of the
Qing dynasty's golden age and the fatal weakening of the imperial system
itself. What started as a local rebellion grew into a serious political
crisis, as the central government was no longer able to operate its
military machine.
Yingcong Dai's comprehensive investigation reveals that the White Lotus
rebels would have remained a relatively minor threat, if not for the
Qing's ill-managed response. Dai shows that the officials in charge of
the suppression campaign were half-hearted about the fight and took
advantage of the campaign to pursue personal gains. She challenges
assumptions that the Qing relied upon local militias to exterminate the
rebels, showing instead that the hiring of civilians became a pretext
for misappropriation of war funds, resulting in the devastatingly high
cost of the war. The mishandled demilitarization of the militiamen
prolonged the hostilities when many of the dismissed troops turned into
rebels themselves. The war's long-term impact presaged the beginning of
the disintegration of the Qing in the mid-nineteenth century and
eruptions of the Taiping Rebellion and other uprisings.
The White Lotus War will interest students and scholars of late
imperial and modern Chinese history, as well as history buffs interested
in the warfare of the early modern world.
