While The Events Which Have Been Set Forth Were Happening In The Heart Of
China, Other Misfortunes Had Befallen The Executive In The More Remote
Quarters Of The Realm, But Resulting None The Less In The Loss And Ruin Of
Provinces, And In The Subversion Of The Emperor's Authority.
Two great
uprisings of the people occurred in opposite directions, both commencing
while the Taeping Rebellion was in full force, and continuing to disturb
the country for many years after its suppression.
The one had for its
scene the great southwestern province of Yunnan; the other the two
provinces of the northwest, Shensi and Kansuh, and extending thence
westward to the Pamir. They resembled each other in one point, and that
was that they were instigated and sustained by the Mohammedan population
alone. The Panthays and the Tungani were either indigenous tribes or
foreign immigrants who had adopted or imported the tenets of Islam. Their
sympathies with the Pekin government were probably never very great, but
they were impelled in both cases to revolt more by local tyranny than by
any distinct desire to cast off the authority of the Chinese; but, of
course, the obvious embarrassment of the central executive encouraged by
simplifying the task of rebellion. The Panthay rising calls for
description in the first place, because it began at an earlier period than
the other, and also because the details have been preserved with greater
fidelity. Mohammedanism is believed to have been introduced into Yunnan in
or about the year 1275, and it made most progress among the so-called
aboriginal tribes, the Lolos and the Mantzu.
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