NIEN REBELLION

(c. 185268), major revolt in the North China provinces of Shantung, Honan, Kiangsu, and Anhwei; it occurred when the Ch'ing dynasty was preoccupied with the great Taiping Rebellion (185064) in South and central China. An offshoot of the Buddhist-inspired White Lotus secret societies, the Nien were motley bands of peasants, army deserters, and salt smugglers who had fomented sporadic outbreaks since the first decade of the 19th century. Oppressed by famine resulting from flooding during the 1850s and stimulated by government preoccupation with the Taiping, several Nien bands formed a coalition under the leadership of Chang Lo-hsing in 185253 and began to expand rapidly. Numbering from 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers and organized into five armies, they began to conduct raids into adjacent regions. In 1863 they received a setback when their citadel, Chih-ho, was captured and Chang Lo-hsing was killed. But they soon reorganized, and in 1864 they were joined by those Taiping soldiers not defeated in the fall of the Taiping capital at Nanking that same year. They began to adopt guerrilla hit-and-run tactics, using mobile mounted units to strike at the weak points of the Ch'ing armies and then retreating into strategic hamlets. But, with the government free from problems with the Taiping, it began to concentrate on the Nien and adopted a strategy of blockade. The rebels were gradually trapped and defeated.