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The Panthay Rebellion (known in Chinese as the Du Wenxiu Qiyi 杜文秀起义, 1856 - 1873) was a separatist movement of the Hui people and Chinese Muslims, against the imperial Qing Dynasty in southwestern Yunnan Province, China, as part of a wave of Hui-led multi-ethnic unrest.

[edit] History

The leader of the rebellion was Du Wenxiu (杜文秀; pinyin: Dù Wénxiù) (1823 - 1872), an ethnic Hui born in Yongcheng. He became the Sultan of Dali. He was beheaded by Qing troops after his death. His body is entombed in Xiadui.

The rebellion successfully captured the city of Dali, which became the base for the rebels' operations, and declared themselves a separate political entity from China. The rebels identified their nation as Pingnan Guo (平南国 The Pacified Southern Nation); their leader Sulayman ibn `Abd ar-Rahman, known as Du Wenxiu [originally Yang Xiu]) (d. 1873) was styled Qa´id Jami al-Muslimin ('Leader of the Community of Muslims'), but is usually referred to in foreign sources as Sultan) and ruled 1856 - 26 December 1872.

The rebellion sieged the city of Kunming multiple times (in 1857, 1861, 1863 and 1868). Ma Rulong, a Hui rebel leader from southern Yunnan, sieged the city in 1862 but through the offers of a military post joined forces with the imperial officials. His decision was not fully accepted by his followers who took the opportunity of his absence to kill the Governor-General (Pan Duo) wrest control of the city from the Qing in 1863, and intended to hand the city over to Du Wenxiu, but before Du's forces could arrive, Ma Rulong with the assistance of a rising Qing military officier, Cen Yuying, raced back to Kunming and regained control of the provincial capital.

Later, as imperial troops began to gain the upperhand versus the rebellion, the rebellion sent a letter to Queen Victoria, asking the British Empire for formal recognition and for military assistance; the fledgling state was turned down by the British. The rebellion was eventually suppressed when Qing troops killed and decapitated the 'sultan'.

In the brutal suppression over 80,000 Chinese Muslims were killed; many surviving Huis escaped over the border to neighboring countries, Burma, Thailand and Laos, forming the basis of a minority Chinese Hui population in those nations.

The rebellion had a significant negative impact on the Burmese Konbaung Dynasty. After losing lower Burma to the British, Burma lost access to vast tracts of rice-growing land. Not wishing to upset China, the Burmese kingdom agreed to refuse trade with the Panthay rebels in accordance with China's demands. Without the ability to import rice from China, Burma was forced to import rice from the British. In addition, the Burmese economy had relied heavily on cotton exports to China, and suddenly lost access to the vast Chinese market.

[edit] Sources and references

• Atwill, David G., The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China, 1856-1873, ISBN 0-8047-5159-5
• Fitzgerald, C.P., The Southern Expansion of the Chinese People, ISBN 974-8495-81-7
• Thant Myint-U, The Making of Modern Burma, ISBN 0-521-79914-7
• WorldStatesmen - China
• "Religious toleration in China" Contemporary Review v. 86 (July 1904)