What were contemporary Japanese views on the Taiping Rebellion and Heavenly Kingdom?
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Initially, Japanese observers thought the Taiping Rebellion was a nationalist revolt by Ming China loyalists. This perception was encouraged by for instance the rebel slogan "Destroy Manchuria, Revive Han China (滅満興漢)". Thus, Japan believed the rebellion to be an attempt by the subjugated Han Chinese natives to free themselves form their Manchurian overlords.
当初の情報は、太平天国を、明の末裔朱氏による明朝復興運動、もしくは天地会の運動とみなして五三年には南京を占領し、ついで北京に迫った。この情報は、一八五二年以来、日本に伝えられている。
The original information is that Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a Ming restoration movement by the descendants of the Ming ruling house, or perhaps a movement by the Heaven and Earth Society. They conquered Nanking in 1853 and threatened Peiking. This information reached Japan from 1852 onward.
- Eto, J.
katsu kaishu zenshu[Complete Works of Kaishu Katsu]. Tokyo: Keiso Shobo (1970).
Japan was traditionally friendly towards the Ming dynasty. During the Manchurian conquest, many in the Tokugawa Shogunate wanted to dispatch an army of 40,000 strong to assist the beleaguered Ming defenders (in response to the request of Nicholas Iquan Gaspard, in the name of the Longwu Emperor). This was forestalled by the rapid collapse of Chinese defences and defection of Nicholas Iquan, but Japan continued to provide limited material support to the Ming remnant in Taiwan.
Consequently, the belief that the Taiping rebels were fighting to end the Manchurian occupation created favourable first impressions in Japan. Several works of fiction were produced around this time, for example the New Tales of Yunnan (雲南新話), depicting the restoration of Ming China in a war of liberation clearly inspired by the Taiping rebellion.
As more news reached Japan however, it became apparent that the Taiping Rebellion was primarily a religious conflict. Coupled with the widespread destruction and bloodshed the rebels were inflicting, Japanese opinions soured. For example, the Samurai Hibino Teruhiro, who was part of a delegation to Shanghai in 1862, writes that:
《日比野輝寛・贅肬録》 長毛賊以復明大義起兵 無可非議 惟以邪教惑滋愚民 釀成大亂 災及十省 難以遏禁
《Zeiyuuruku》 The Long Haired bandits launched their rebellion in the name of restoring Ming. That's not something we can criticise. However, by using cults to brainwash peasants, they caused a massive chaos. Ten provinces were afflicted by the disaster.
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The Japanese rebellion was caused by heavy taxes and Christians being persecuted. Its not like the taiping rebellion which was a cult organized by someone power hungry. So it probably didn't remind the Japanese of anything since there's such a big difference between what they are seeing in China, which was a deadly civil war, and their own much smaller uprising.
Taiping death toll is like 100x the numbers in Shimbara.
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