White Lotus Uprising

White Lotus Uprising (1796-1804) The White Lotus Rebellion (Sichuan-Chu White Lotus Rebellion) was the largest peasant war during the Jiaqing period. It lasted for nine years and affected the five provinces of Sichuan, Chu, Shaanxi, Henan, and Gansu. It was a key turning point in the Qing Dynasty's transition from prosperity to decline. Although it failed in the end, it severely destroyed the foundation of Qing rule. The outbreak of the uprising was not accidental: the population surged in the late Qianlong period, and refugees poured into the Sichuan-Chu-Shaanxi border to reclaim wasteland, highlighting the crisis of survival; official corruption was rampant, and officials imposed excessive taxes; the White Lotus Sect took its doctrines as its spiritual sustenance, organized the refugees based on the concept of mutual assistance, and had strong mobilization power. In 1796, the first shot was fired in the Zhijiang and Yidu uprisings in Hubei. Wang Conger of Xiangyang led his troops to fight in many places, and later joined forces with the Sichuan rebel army. In 1798, Wang Conger jumped off a cliff and died, and the rest of his troops retreated to the mountains and forests. The Qing government used "strengthening the walls and clearing the wilderness" and encircling and suppressing the uprising in 1804. The uprising had a far-reaching impact: To suppress the uprising, the Qing government spent 200 million taels of silver, equivalent to the Qing government's fiscal revenue for five years at the time. The Qing army suffered heavy losses, including more than 20 first- and second-grade senior generals and more than 400 officers below deputy generals. The uprising completely shattered the illusion of "the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong" and plunged the Qing Dynasty into the predicament of weakened military force and exhausted finances, and quickly fell into the abyss of decline. This uprising exposed the corruption and incompetence of the Eight Banners and Green Camp troops, forcing the Qing government to rely more on local regiment training (xiangyong), which objectively paved the way for the subsequent rise of local forces.