The Taiping Rebellion was the first, and most dangerous of a spate of insurrections against the ailing government of China in the mid 19th century. The Taiping movement began as the Pai Shang-ti Hui (the Society of God-Worshippers), founded in Kwangsi province in 1846 by Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. A sickly individual of questionable sanity. Hung had become subject to visions which, having read a small amount of Christian literature, he chose to interpret as demonstrating that he was Jesus Christ's 'Divine Younger Brother', with God's mandate to govern China. Hostilities between the God-Worshippers and local militia units broke out in October 1850, when the former took sides with the relatively newly-arrived Hakka people of Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces (Hung was himself a Hakka) in a land-war with the Pen-ti population. Early successes in this local war, combined with an unsuccessful Imperialist attempt to destroy the God-Worshippers' camp at Chin-t'ien as a centre of local banditry, led to Hung's proclamation in January 1851 of his T'ai-p'ing T'ien-Kuo or Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, with himself as T'ien Wang (Heavenly King), plunging China into a civil war. This fascinating work by Ian Heath examines the organisation, dress and weapons of forces on both sides of the Taiping Rebellion - a conflict which saw the involvement of around 10 million troops during 15 years of conflict; as many as 600 cities change hands time and time again; and 20-30 million deaths.

• The Taiping rebellion 1851-1866
• Military organisation
• The imperialists
• Dress and weapons
• Artillery
• Flags
• The ever-victorious army
• Other disciplined chinese units
• Anglo-french involvement
• Chinese tactics
• The plates

Auteur
Ian Heath is a highly respected author, and has written a number of Osprey titles, including MAA 89 Byzantine Armies 886-1118, MAA 287 Byzantine Armies 1118-1461 and MAA 275 The Taiping Rebellion 1851-66. He is also currently working on a five-volume project covering the armies of 19th-century Asia. Ian lives and works in Cambridgeshire, UK.
Illustrateur
Michael Perry started producing miniature figures for the wargames industry in the late 1970s while still at school, and for many years he has worked for both Games Workshop and Wargames Foundry. He has a highly distinctive and realistic style, and has illustrated a number of Osprey publications including MAA 275 The Taiping Rebellion and Campaign 54 Shiloh 1862. His work will also be familiar to readers of many popular Wargame magazines including Military Modelling.