<Articles>The Eight Banner Garrisons in the Late Qing Dynasty: The Taiping Rebellion and the Hangzhou Garrisons

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  • YE Sheng
    京都大学文学研究科博士課程

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  • <論説>清朝後期の駐防八旗 --太平天国の乱と杭州八旗--
  • 清朝後期の駐防八旗 : 太平天国の乱と杭州八旗
  • シンチョウ コウキ ノ チュウボウハッキ : タイヘイ テンゴク ノ ラン ト クイシュウ ハッキ

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Abstract

The Eight Banner Garrisons system, which formed the basis of the Qing regime’s rule, was important in that it was a manifestation of Qing rule over various regions and that it embodied the characteristics of this rule. This article reconsiders the position of the Eight Banner Garrisons in the late Qing dynasty by using original documents from the Manchu and Chinese archives that describe the strength and fighting performance of the Hangzhou Garrisons during the Taiping Rebellion. Tracing in detail the performance of the Hangzhou Garrisons in the Battle of Hangzhou shows that this professional army with a history of over 200 years still retained considerable fighting capability, although they were far behind the modernized armies of the Western powers of the same period. Moreover, the substantial indigenization of the Eight Banner soldiers strengthened the fighting spirit of the Hangzhou Garrisons as a local army. Ultimately, the Hangzhou Garrisons did suffer heavy defeats in their battles against the Taiping Army. However, it can be seen that the causes of these defeats were mainly due to the overwhelming disadvantage in numbers and the non-cooperation of the various Qing army units. In early Qing times, the Eight Banners conquered the whole country with a small number of troops, but this military success was built on the success of various political measures, and the Eight Banners compensated for their lack of numbers by concentrating their forces. The basic conditions underlying the two cases were too different to produce the same result. The Hangzhou Garrisons performed well in contrast to other units of the Qing regime during the same period, and they did not lose the trust of the supreme ruling class through the end of the Qing dynasty. Although previous studies have concluded on the basis of the defeat in the Taiping Rebellion that the Eight Banners, and especially the Eight Banner Garrisons, were a system that had become corrupt, the fact that the system of guaranteed compensation for the bereaved families of those killed in battle lasted for over 40 years shows that the Eight Banners administration remained stable until the end of the Qing dynasty.

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 105 (3), 415-454, 2022-05-31

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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