#345 - Taiping 21: Heaven Below

Podcast: The History of China Podcast · Chris Stewart

Opublikowano: 2026-09-04

For a thousand years, Suzhou and Hangzhou stood as synonyms for the next best thing to Heaven itself. Well, that was before 1860. As of now, Hangzhou is a fire-gutted ruin, and Suzhou is next on the target list. But the army that does the most damage… is not the invader. The Taiping arrive to find the dirty work done ahead of them, by the very Qing forces assigned to defend the great southern city, and a vast number of the city having decided to "take matters into their own hands." As such, when a party of missionaries sails upriver from Sh...