Muslim Rebellion and William Aldrich: Difference between pages

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{{otherpeople4|William Aldrich, the U.S. Representative from Illinois|William Farrington Aldrich, the U.S. Representative from Alabama|William F. Aldrich}}

The '''Hui Minorities' War''' is the modern term used by the [[People's Republic of China]] for what used to be called the '''Dungan Revolt''' or '''Muslim Rebellion'''. The term is sometimes used to refer to the [[Panthay Rebellion]] in Yunnan as well. It was an uprising by members of the [[Hui people|Hui]] [[minority]] from the [[Shaanxi]], [[Gansu]] and [[Ningxia]] [[Province of China|provinces]] of [[China]] between [[1862]] and [[1877]]. The uprising was directed against the [[Qing Dynasty]] and actively encouraged by the leaders of the [[Taiping Rebellion]]. When it failed, it instigated immigration of some of the [[Dungan]] people into [[Russian Empire|Imperial Russia]].

'''William Aldrich''' ([[January 19]] [[1820]] - [[December 3]] [[1885]]) was a [[United States House of Representatives|United States Representative]] from the state of [[Illinois]]. He was born in Greenfield Center in the [[Greenfield, New York|Town of Greenfield]] in [[New York]]. He attended local schools and taught school himself.

Aldrich moved to [[Michigan]] and then to [[Wisconsin]] where he worked as a shopkeeper and manufacturer. He moved to [[Chicago, Illinois]] in 1861 and opened another shop.

== Background ==

Chinese Muslims had been traveling to West Asia for many years prior to the Hui Minorities' War. In the 18th century, several prominent Muslim clerics from Gansu studied in [[Mecca]] and [[Yemen]] under the [[Naqshbandi]] [[Sufi]] teachers. Two different forms of Sufism were brought back to Northwest China by two charismatic Hui [[Shaykh of Sufism|sheikh]]s: [[Khafiya]] (also spelt [[Khafiyya]] or [[Khufiyah]]; {{lang-zh|虎夫耶}}, Hǔfūyē), associated with the name of [[Ma Laichi]] (马来迟, 1681-1766), and a more radical [[Jahriyya]] (also spelt [[Jahriya]], [[Jahariyya]], [[Jahariyah]], etc.; {{lang-zh|哲赫林耶}}, Zhéhèlínyē, or 哲合忍耶, Zhéhérěnyē), founded by [[Ma Mingxin]] (马明新 or 马明心, 1719(?)-1781). The coexisted with the more traditional, non-Sufi Sunni practices, centered around local mosques and known as ''gedimu'' (格底目 or 格迪目). The Khafiya school, as well as non-Sufi gedimu tradition, both tolerated by the Qing authorities, were referred to by them as the "Old Teaching" (老教), while Jahriya, viewed as suspect, became known as the "New Teaching" (新教).

He served as congressman from 1877 to 1883 after having earlier served in the [[Wisconsin State Assembly]].

Disagreements between the adherents of Khafiya and Jahriya, as well as perceived mismanagement, corruption, and anti-Muslim attitudes of the Qing officials resulted in attempted risings by [[Hui]] and [[Salar]] followers of the New Teaching in [[1781]] and [[1783]], but they were promptly suppressed.

Aldrich died in [[Fond du Lac, Wisconsin]]. He is buried in [[Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago|Rosehill Cemetery]] in Chicago.

== The course of the rebellion ==

As the [[Taiping]] troops approached south-eastern [[Shaanxi]] in the spring of 1862, the local [[Han Chinese]], encouraged by the Qing government, formed ''tuanlin'' (trad. 團練, simplfied 团练) militias to defend the region against the Taipings. Afraid of the armed Han, the Muslims formed their own tuanlian units.

==External links==

According to modern researchers (Lipman (1998), p. 120-121), the Muslim rebellion of started in 1862 not as a centralized planned uprising, but as coalescing of many local brawls and riots triggered by seemingly trivial causes.

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The prestige of the Qing dynasty being low and their armies being busy elsewhere, the rebellion that started in the spring of [[1862]] in the [[Wei River]] valley was able to spreadly rapidly throughout the southeastern [[Shaanxi]]. By late June 1862, the organized Muslim fighter bands were able to besiege [[Xi'an]], which was not relieved by the Qing general [[Dolongga]] ({{lang-zh|多隆阿}}, Duo Long-a) until the fall of 1863.

*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7671242 Find-A-Grave]

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A vast number of Muslim refugees from Shaanxi fled to Gansu. Some of them formed the "Eighteen Great Batallions" in eastern Gansu, intending to fight back to their homes in Shaanxi.

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| before=[[Bernard G. Caulfield]]

| after=[[Ransom W. Dunham]]

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While the Hui rebels took over Gansu and Shaanxi, [[Yaqub Beg]], who had fled from [[Kokand Khanate]] in 1865 or 1866 after losing [[Tashkent]] to the Russians, set himself up as the ruler in [[Kashgar]], soon taking over the entire [[Xinjiang]].

[[Category:1820 births]]

[[Category:1885 deaths]]

In [[1867]] the Qing government sent one of their best officials, [[Zuo Zongtang]], a hero of the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion, to [[Shaanxi]]. His forces were ordered to help put down the [[Nian Rebellion]] and he was not able to deal with the Muslim rebels until December [[1868]]. Zuo's approach was to rehabilitate the region by promoting agriculture, especially cotton and grain as well as supporting orthodox [[Confucianism|Confucian]] education. Due to the poverty of the region Zuo had to rely on financial support from outside the North-West.

[[Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois]]

[[Category:People from Chicago]]

After suppressing the rebellion in Shaanxi and building up enough grain reserves to feed his army, Zuo attacked the most important Muslim leader, [[Ma Hualong]] (马化龙). Zuo's troops reached Ma's stronghold, the city of Jinjibao in what was then north-eastern Gansu<ref>Jinjibao is spelt 金积堡 in simplified Chinese characters, or 金積堡 in traditional characters. The last character (堡) has several readings - bǎo, pǔ, bǔ, pù - which means that different English source spell the place name differently: sometimes Jinjibao, sometimes Jinjipu. This place was apparently located not too far from today's [[Wuzhong]] and [[Lingwu]] (灵武) in [[Wuzhong]] prefecture of [[Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region]] (formerly part of Gansu).</ref> in September of 1870, bringing [[Krupp]] [[siege gun]]s with him. After a sixteen months' [[siege]], Ma Hualong was forced to surrender in January of [[1871]].

Zuo sentenced Ma and over eighty of his officials to [[Death by a thousand cuts|death by slicing]]. Thousands of Muslims were exiled to different parts of China.

Zuo's next target was Hezhou (now known as [[Linxia]]), the main [[Hui]] people center west of Lanzhou and a key point on the trade route between Gansu and [[Tibet]]. Hezhou was defended by the Muslim forces of Ma Zhan'ao (马占鳌). Not a Jahriya (New Teaching) adherent, he was a pragmatic member of the Khafiya (Old Teaching) movement, ready to explore avenues for peaceful coexistence with the Qing state. After successfully repulsing Zuo's offensive against Hezhou in 1872, he offered to surrender his stronghold to the empire, and offered his assistance to the Qing for the duration of the war. His diplomatic skills are evidenced by the success he managed achieved in preserving his community: while Zuo Zongtang pacified other areas by moving the Muslims elsewhere (in the spirit of the 洗回 (xi Hui), "[[Ethnic cleansing|washing off]] the Muslims" approach that had been long advocated by some officials), in Hezhou it were the non-Muslims whom Zuo relocated out of the area. The Hezhou (Linxia) area remains heavily Muslim to this day, achieving the status of [[Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture]] under the [[PRC]].

Zuo's troops being reinforced by some of the Hezhou Muslims that have changed sides, he now planned to

proceed westward, along the [[Hexi Corridor]] toward Xinjiang. However, he felt it necessary to first secure his left flank by taking [[Xining]], which not only had a large Muslim community of its own, but also sheltered many of the refugees from Shaanxi. After three months' resistance, [[Xining]] fell to Zuo's commander Liu Jintang in the late fall of 1872. The defenders' commander Ma Guiyuan was captured, and thousands of armed defenders was killed. The Muslim population of Xining was spared, however; the Shaanxi refugees sheltered there were resettled or arable lands in eastern and southern Gansu, isolated from other Muslim areas.

Despite repeated offers of amnesty, many Muslims continued to resist at their last Gansu stronghold in Suzhou (now known as [[Jiuquan]]), which sits astride the [[Hexi Corridor]] in the western part of the province. The defence of the city was commanded by Ma Wenlu, originially from Xining; many Hui that had retreated from Shaanxi were there as well. After securing his supply lines, Zuo besieged Suzhou the city in September 1873 with 15,000 troops under his personal command. The Huis' rifles were no match to Zuo's siege guns, and the fortress fell on October 24. Zuo had 7,000 Muslims executed, and resettled the survivors in southern Gansu, to ensure that the entire [[Hexi Corridor|Gansu Corridor]] from [[Lanzhou]] to [[Dunhuang]] would remain Muslim-free, preventing any possibility of future collusion between the Hui of Gansu and Shanxi and the Turkic people (now known as [[Uyghurs]]) of [[Xinjiang]].

== The rebellion in Xinjiang ==

[[Image:Zerrspiegel-Taifurchi-shooting-exercises-i125.png.jpeg|thumb|right|Shooting exercises of [[Yakub Beg]]'s Dungan and Chinese ''taifurchi'' (gunners)]]

=== Rebels seize the north ===

The Muslim uprising spread to central [[Xinjiang]] in the summer of [[1864]], when the Hui soldiers of the [[Urumqi]] garrison rebelled. Large parts of the city were destroyed, the tea warehouses burned, and any [[Manchu]]s stationed there lost their lives. Then the rebels started advancing westward thru what is today [[Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture]], taking [[Manas County|Manas]] (east of today's [[Shihezi]]) and [[Wusu]].

By the early August 1864, the Hui population of [[Kuldja]], the main city of the [[Ili River|Ili]] Valley region, rose too, perhaps in anticipation of repressions from the authorities; Kulja's [[Taranchi]]s (Turkic-speaking farmers who were to form later part of the [[Uyghur people]]) joined. When the local Muslim [[Kazakh people|Kazakh]]s and [[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]] people felt that the rebels are gained the upper hand, they joined it as well; on the other hand, the [[Buddhist]] [[Kalmyk]]s and [[Xibe]] mostly stayed loyal to the Qing government. After 12 days of heavy fighting in the streets of [[Shuiding]]<ref>Russian sources of the time would often use the word ''Kuldja'' for both [[Yining]] and [[Shuiding]], as well as the surrounding region. To distinguish the two, the former (an [[Uighur]] commerical town) would be described as the ''Old Kuldja'' or ''[[Taranchi]] Kuldja'', while the latter (the [[Qing Dynasty|Qing]]-built military and administrative town and fortress some 40 km to the northwest of Yining) would be described as the ''New Kuldja'' or ''Chinese Kuldja''. When sources talk of the ''Kuldja citadel'', they thus refer to the fortress in Shuiding.</ref>

(the town that was at the time the seat of the imperial administration in the Ili Valley), the Hui and Uyghur rebels started to retreat; the local [[Han people|Han]]s, seeing the Manchus winning, joined forces with them.

However, the Qing forces' counter-offensive failed. The imperial troops lost their artillery. The Qing militray governor himself (the ''Ili Jiangjun'', [[:zh:总统伊犁等处将军|伊犁将军]]), [[Ming Xu]] (明绪), barely escaped capture. With the fall of [[Wusu]] and [[Aksu]], the Qing garrison, entrenched in the [[Shuiding]]

fortress, was completely cut off from the rest of empire-controlled territory; [[Ming Xu]] had to send his communications to [[Beijing]] via [[Russian Empire|Russia]].

While the Qing forces in [[Shuiding]] successfully repelled the next attack of the rebels (12 December, 1864), the rebellion kept spreading thru the northern part of the province, [[Dzungaria]], where the Kazakhs were glad to take revenge on the Kalmyks that used to rule the area in the past.

[[Image:Vereshchagin-Ruins-of-the-Theater-in-Chuguchak.jpg|thumb|"Ruins of the Theater in [[Tacheng|Chuguchak]]", painting by [[Vereshchagin]] (1869-70)]]

For the Chinese New Year of 1865, the Hui leaders of [[Tacheng]] (Chuguchak) invited the local Qing authorities and Kalmyk nobles to assemble in the Hui mosque, in order to swear a mutual oath of peace. But once the Manchus and Kalmyks were in the mosque, the Huis seized the city armory, and started killing the Manchus. After two days of fighting, the Muslims were in control of the town, while the Manchus were besieged in the fortress.

However, with the Kalmyk help, the Manchus were able to retake the Tacheng area by the fall of 1865. This time it was the Huis turn to be locked up in the mosque. The fighting resulted in the utter destruction of Tacheng and the surviving residents fleeing the town.

Both the Qing government in Beijing and the beleaguered Kulja officials asked the Russian for assistance against the rebellion (via Russian envoy in Beijing, G.A. Vlangali, and via the Russian commander in [[Semirechye]], General Gerasim Kolapakovsky ([[:ru:Колпаковский, Герасим Алексеевич|Колпаковский]]) respectively). The Russians, however, were diplomatically non-committal: on the one hand, as Vlangali wrote to Saint Petersburg, a "complete refusal" would be bad for Russia's relations with Beijing; on the other hand, as Russian generals in Central Asia felt, seriously helping China against Xinjiang's Muslims would do nothing to improve Russia's problems with its own new Muslim subjects - and in case the rebellion were to succeed and form a permanent Hui stete, having been on the Qing's side would do nothing good for Russia's relations with that new neighbor. The decision was thus made in Saint Petersburg in 1865 to avoid offering any serious help to the Qing, beyond agreeing to train Chinese soldiers in Siberia - should they send any - and to sell some grain to the defenders of Kuldja on credit. The main priority of Russian government was in guarding its border with China and preventing any possibility of the spread of the rebellion into Russia's own ___domain.

Considering that offense is the best defense, Kolpakovsky suggested to his superiors in February 1865 that Russia should go beyond defending its border and move in force into Xinjiang's border area, seizing [[Tacheng|Chuguchak]], [[Kuldja]] and [[Kashgar]] areas and colonizing the area with Russian settlers - all to better protect the [[Romanov Dynasty|Romanovs]]' empire's other domains. The time was not ripe for such an adventure, however: as Foreign Minister [[Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov|Gorchakov]] noted, such a breach of neutrality would be not a good thing if China does recover its rebel provinces, after all.

Meanwhile the Qing forces in the Ili Valley did not fare well. In April 1865, the town of [[Bayandai]] (巴彦岱, located some 10 km northwest of [[Yining]], on the way to Shuiding), fell to the rebels after three months' siege. Its 8,000 [[Manchu]], [[Xibe]], and [[Evenks#Evenks in China|Solon]] defenders were massacred, and two survivors, their ears and noses cut off, sent to Shuidng - Qing's last stronghold in the Valley - to tell the ''jiangjun'' about the fate of Bayndai.

Most of the city of Shuiding fell to the rebels on January 20, 1866. Most of the residents and garrison perished; some 700 rebels died as well. Ming Xu, still holding out in the Shuiding citadel with the remainder of his troops, but having run out of food, sent a delegation to the rebels, bearing a gift of 40 [[sycee]]s of silver<ref>While the weight of a [[sycee]] (元宝, yuánbǎo) varied, Russian merchants trading at the Chinese border posts at the time reported that a sycee would weigh up to 50 [[tael]]s, i.e. some 1875 gram, of silver</ref> and four boxes of [[green tea]], and offering to surrender, provided the rebels guarantee their lives and allow them to keep their allegiance to the Qing government. Twelve Manchu officials with their families left the citadell along with the delegation. The Huis and Uyghurs received the delegation and allowed the refugees from Shuiding to settle in Yining ("the Old Kuldja"). However, the rebels would not accept Ming Xu's condition, and required instead that he surrenders immeidately and recognizes the authority of the rebels. As Ming Xu rejected the rebels' proposal, the rebels proceeded to storm the citadel at once. On March 3, the rebels having broken into the citadel, Ming Xu assembled his family and staff in his mansion, and blew it up, dying under its ruins. This was the end, for the time being, of the Qing rule in the Ili Valley.

===Kashgaria===

In the [[Tarim Basin]] - the mostly-[[Uyghur]] part of [[Xinjiang]] south of [[Tian Shan]], the area then commonly known as [[West Turkestan]] -

the rebellion started in 1863, fairly independently from the Hui uprising in heartland China and northern Xinjiang. It was first led by the ''Khoja'' (member of a [[Kashgar]] ruling clan) [[Buzurg Khan]], son of [[Jehangir Khoja]], who had lead the previous major Kashgar rebellion in the 1820s.

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== The flight of the Dungans to Russian Empire ==

The failure of the uprising led to some immigration of [[Hui people]] into the [[Russian Empire|Imperial Russia]]. According to Rimsky-Korsakoff (1992), three separate groups of the Hui people fled to Russian Empire across the [[Tian Shan]] Mountains during the exceptionally severe winter of 1877/78:

# The first group, of some 1000 people, originally from [[Turfan]] in [[Xinjiang]], led by [[Ma Daren]] (马大人), also known as Ma Da-lao-ye (马大老爷), reached [[Osh]] in southern [[Kyrgyzstan]].

# The second group, of 1130 people, originally from Didaozhou (狄道州) in Gansu, led by ''[[ahong]]'' A Yelaoren (阿爷老人), were settled in the spring of 1878 in the village of Yardyk some 15 km from [[Karakol]] in Eastern Kyrgyzstan. They numbered 1130 on arrival.

# The third group, originally from [[Shaanxi]], led by [[Bai Yanhu]] (白彦虎; also spelt Bo Yanhu; 1829(?)-1882), one of the leaders of the rebellion, were settled in the village of [[Karakunuz]] (now Masanchi), is modern [[Zhambyl Province]] of Kazkhstan. Masanchi is located on the northern ([[Kazakhstan|Kazakh]]) side of the [[Chu River]], 8 km north from the city [[Tokmak]] in north-western Kyrgyzstan. This group numbered 3314 on arrival.

Another wave of immigration followed in the early 1880s.

In accordance with the terms of the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)|Treaty of Saint Petersburg]] signed in February 1881, which required the

withdrawal of the Russian troops from the Upper [[Ili River|Ili]] Basin (the [[Kulja]] area), the Hui and [[Taranchi]] (Uighur) people of the region were allowed to opt for moving to the Russian side of the border. Most choose that option; according to the Russian statistics, 4,682 Hui moved to Russian Empire under the treaty. They migrated in many small groups between 1881-83, settling in the village of [[Sokuluk]] some 30 km west of [[Bishkek]], as well as in a number of points between the Chinese border and Sokuluk, in south-eastern [[Kazakhstan]] and northern [[Kyrgyzstan]].

The descendants of these rebels and refugees still live in [[Kyrgyzstan]] and neighboring parts of [[Kazakhstan]] and [[Uzbekistan]]. The still call themselves the [[Hui]] people (''Huizu''), but to the outsiders they are known under the Turkic name of the Hui, [[Dungan people|Dungan]].

==Footnotes==

<references/>

==References==

General

*Kim Hodong, "Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877". Stanford University Press (March 2004). ISBN 0804748845. (Searchable text available on Amazon.com)

*Bruce Elleman, "Modern Chinese Warfare (Warfare and History)". 2001, ISBN 0415214742. (p. 65-, the section on "The Tungan Rebellion, 1862-73").

Background, and the war in Shaanxi-Gansu

*Jonathan N. Lipman, "Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China (Studies on Ethnic Groups in China)", University of Washington Press (February 1998), ISBN 0295976446. (Searchable text available on Amazon.com)

The war in Xinjiang, and the Russian involvement

* [http://new.hist.asu.ru/biblio/ruskit/03.html V.A. Moiseev, "Muslim Rebellion in Xinjiang and Russia's policy (1864-1871)"], in "Россия и Китай в Центральной Азии (вторая половина XIX в. - 1917 гг.)" (Russia and China in Central Asia (second half of the 19 c. thru 1917). [[Barnaul]], Azbuka Publishers, 2003. ISBN 5-93957-025-9{{ru icon}}

* "Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier", by Sarah C. M. Paine (1996) ISBN 1563247232

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* "The Ili Crisis: A Study of Sino-Russian Diplomacy, 1871-1881", by Immanuel Chung-yueh Hsü (1966)

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The Dungan emigration

* Svetlana Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer. [http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/afs/pdf/a916.pdf Karakunuz: An Early Settlement of the Chinese Muslims in Russia], with an English translation of V.Tsibuzgin and A.Shmakov's work. "Asian Folklore Studies", Vol. 51 (1992), pp. 243-279.

*[http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/1857/2004-7-9/[e-mail] The "Shaanxi Village" in Kazakhstan] (Chinabroadcast.cn)

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[[Category:Rebellions in China]]

[[Category:Qing Dynasty]]

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