Dungan Revolt (1895–1896)

Dungan Revolt
Date	1895–1896
Location	Qinghai, Gansu
Result	Qing victory
Belligerents
Qing Empire, loyalist Khafiya Sufis	Muslim rebels, Yihewani and rebel Khafiya Sufis
Commanders and leaders
Yang Changjun; Dong Fuxiang; Tang Yanhe; Yang Zengxin; Ma Anliang; Ma Guoliang; Ma Fulu; Ma Fuxiang; Ma Haiyan; Wei Guangtao	Ma Yonglin †; Ma Dahan †; Ma Wanfu
Strength
Thousands of Loyalist Muslim Hui troops, loyalist Salar, loyalist Dongxiang, loyalist Bonan, Han Chinese, and Tibetans	Thousands of Rebel Muslim Hui, Dongxiang, Salar, and Baoan troops
Casualties and losses
	All rebels killed except Ma Wanfu

The Dungan Revolt (1895–1896) was a rebellion of various Chinese Muslim ethnic groups in Qinghai and Gansu against the Qing dynasty, that originated because of a violent dispute between two Sufi orders of the same sect. The Wahhabi inspired Yihewani organization then joined in and encouraged the revolt, which was crushed by loyalist Muslims.

Revolt

The Dungan Revolt (1895–1896) broke out in the same place as the Jahriyya revolt of 1781 for the same reasons, sectarian violence between two Naqshbandi Sufi orders.^[5] After rival Sufi Naqshbandi spiritual orders had fought and accused each other of various misdeeds, instead of continuing the violence they decided to use the Qing legal system to solve the dispute. They filed opposing lawsuits through the office of the Xining Prefect and the judge in the case decided not to issue a ruling on which group was superior to the other in matters of all Islamic affairs, and urged them to behave. As a result, both groups resorted to violence. A daotai was sent by the Qing to crush the perpetrators of the violence, which ended in several deaths. This led the involved parties in the dispute to rebel against the Qing.^[6]

In Xunhua, Qinghai, masses of Hui, Dongxiang, Bao'an, and Salars were incited to revolt against the Qing by the Multicoloured Mosque leader Ma Yonglin. Soldiers were ordered to destroy the rebels by Brigadier General Tang Yanhe.^[7] Ma Dahan arranged a deal with the fellow Dongxiang Ma Wanfu when rebelling against the Qing dynasty. In Hezhou, Didao, and Xunhua they directed their adherents to join the rebellion. Tiaoheyan, Sanjiaji, and Guanghe were agreed upon as points in a defensive position and they pledged that they would not capitulate.^[8]

Ma Wanfu's Wahhabi inspired Yihewani sect was considered the "new teaching" sect.^[9] The Yihewani encouraged the rebellion.

Governor General Yang Changjun sent troops to crush the rebellion.^[10]

Dong Fuxiang, the Commander in Chief of Kashgaria (Kashgar), received a telegram ordering that he and General Ma Xinsheng relieve the districts in revolt by conducting forced marches.^[11] His loyalist Chinese Muslim troops led by Muslim officers like Ma Anliang, Ma Guoliang, Ma Fuxiang, and Ma Fulu crushed the revolt, reportedly cutting off the heads and ears of rebels. Dong received the rank of generalissimo.^[12]^[13] Dong Fuxiang's troops from Hezhou were armed with Mausers and Remingtons, which were modern European guns, just brought back from Beijing. Their new weapons severely outclassed the bladed weapons and muzzle loading guns of the Muslim rebels and quashed them in battle.^[14]^[15]

Ma Anliang's Muslim cavalry defeated Muslim rebels at Oxheart Mountain, and relieved the siege of Hezhou on December 4. He led Hui cavalry troops to slaughter rebel Salar Muslim fighters who had agreed to negotiate unarmed at a banquet by telling them "Disown me as a Muslim if I deceive you.", and received the rank of Xinjiang General, and Hezhou Colonel once the revolt was crushed.^[16]^[17] The loyalist Muslim Generals led their troops to initiate massive slaughter of the rebel Muslims. They decapitated the rebels and removed their ears. It was said Muslim blood coloured the red cap of Ma Anliang and Muslim heads were used to construct the offices of Ma Fuxiang and Ma Fulu.^[18]^[19]

In 1895 Ma Anliang lifted the siege of Xining (sining) with four ying (ying is a Chinese unit for battalion).^[20]^[21]

Ma Wanfu surrendered as the Chinese Muslim loyalist General Ma Anliang and Dong Fuxiang arrived to crush the rebel Muslims, and Ma Dahan was killed while fighting.^[22]

Ma Yonglin (Ma Yung-lin), his son, and over a hundred other Muslim rebel leaders were captured and beheaded by Dong Fuxiang.^[23]

On August 2, 1896, it was reported that the Qing Generals carried out large scale massacres of the rebels, in one area 8,000 were killed and the females sold into slavery.^[24]

Around 400 Muslims in Topa 多巴 did not join the revolt and proclaimed their loyalty to China. An argument between a Han Chinese and his Muslim wife led to these Muslims getting massacred, when she threatened that the Muslims from Topa would attack Tankar and give a signal to their co-religionists to rise up and open the gates by burning the temples atop the hills. The husband reported this to an official and the next day the Muslims were massacred with the exception of a few Muslim girls who were married off to Han Chinese.^[25]^[26]^[27]

Susie Carson Rijnhart recorded that "Among the most interesting of our patients was an old man, Chinese by birth, but possessing the courage and daring of a Tibetan, who had been appointed a leader over fifty of the local troops, and had set out one morning to aid some Chinese in an adjoining village to repulse an attack by rebels. Treacherously one of his men, a carpenter, had stabbed him in the elbow, some said because the former was in the pay of the Mohammedans, who were anxious to be rid of such an able opponent as Cheo Lao-yeh, the old man, was proving himself to be. They remembered his efficient service in the former rebellion, in which, though wounded seven times, he had dealt them many a crushing defeat. The treacherous thrust had made an ugly wound in his arm, but the family being rich, and consequently able to give him every attention, while I spared no pains to aid in his recovery, each day marked improvement. His wife was a Mongol. His only child was an attractive young married woman of twenty wearing the Mongol costume, which was very becoming to her, while her pretty little baby completed the family group and added much gladness to the lonely hours the old man spent on the k'ang. Many were the presents and incalculable kindnesses bestowed upon us by this man, and when later he died while we were away from home, he asked his daughter to give each of us a rosary he had worn, gifts which we prized very much for we knew they were tokens of sincere gratitude and love."^[28]^[29]

Tibetans helped crush the Muslim rebels in 1896 like they did in the 1781 Jahriyya revolt. The Muslims of Táozhōu also fight against the rebels and rebel leader Ma Yonglin's entire family was executed.^[30]^[31]

Generals Dong Fuxiang, Ma Anliang and Ma Haiyan were originally called to Beijing during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, but the Dungan Revolt (1895) broke out and they were subsequently sent to crush the rebels.

Due to the rebellion the western Inner Mongolian Han Chinese Catholic village Xiaoqiaopan had defensive procedures instituted by the Belgian Priests in charge.^[32]

The Han Gelaohui had infiltrated the Qing military in Xinjiang during the revolt and allegedly planned to help the Hui rebels before the Hui rebels were crushed.^[33]

Around 100,000 died in the revolt.^[34]

In 1909 Ma Anliang ordered the arrest and immediate execution by shooting of six leaders of a new Islamic sect after they returned from Mecca, since he was a member of the old sect and wanted to stop another incident of sectarian violence since fighting between different Islamic sects caused the 1895 Muslim rebellion.^[35]^[36]

Regular administrative units started replacing tusi in the late Qing and in 1895 the Muslim rebel leaders Ma Yonglin and Ma Dahan were defeated by pro-government Muslims serving under Ma Anliang and Dong Fuxiang. Muslim leaders like Ma Yuanzhang and Ma Fuxiang also declared allegiance to the Republic of China even after China spiraled into warlordism after 1916.^[37]

References

This article incorporates text from Encyclopædia of religion and ethics, Volume 8, by James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie, Louis Herbert Gray, a publication from 1916, now in the public domain in the United States.
This article incorporates text from The Chinese recorder, Volume 26, a publication from 1895, now in the public domain in the United States.

^ Baptist missionary magazine. 1871. p. 109. In the Northwest. These I Chinese. It began last May In a 118 quarrel. (Missionaries were not ause this time.) There are two es among these Northwestern Chinese imedans^those who have descended .1) Turks. (2) Persians. The latter are divided Into the old and Salars. These old and new schools over a question of ritual, and then to kill each other. This was at Tao-chau, a city five days* journey west of Sanchau, province of Kansu. The officials Interfered to stop the fighting, but used much cruelty in doing so. This In- fiamed the Mohammedans, who united against the common enemy. A general with five thousand men sent against them was defeated with a loss of half his men. A cavalry general. Ma an liang, at the head of horsemen returning from the Japanese war, met the rebels and drove them back, although he is himself a "Salar." The mufti and other leaders deprecate the rebellion. find ui'ge submission on one linnd. and mercy from Imperialists on the other. Should these counsels prevail the trouble will soon be over. If a war of extermiuation Is wngpd. then all China will be In ft blaze. Nearly nil the principal towns and cities In Kansu are lu the bauds of rebels. The crescent and the dragon are pretty evenly matched throughout the empire. The stories told by eye witnesseB of the slaughter of hiimnu bttlngs ore awral. He many thousands already slain are mostl; killed by spear thrusts. Neither age or stx Is spared. The few missionaries in Iheae , districts are safe. Their hands are full caring for the wounded. Both sides treat them as friends. We used to pray for these poor suffering Chinese.
^ Lipman, Jonathan Neaman (1998). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. University of Washington Press. p. 207. ISBN 0295800550. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^ Ralph L. Powell (8 December 2015). Rise of the Chinese Military Power. Princeton University Press. pp. 83–. ISBN 978-1-4008-7884-0.
^ Jonathan Neaman Lipman; Stevan Harrell (5 April 1990). Violence in China: Essays in Culture and Counterculture. SUNY Press. pp. 76–. ISBN 978-0-7914-0115-6.
^ Lipman, Jonathan N. (1984). "Ethnicity and Politics in Republican China: The Ma Family Warlords of Gansu". Modern China. 10 (3): 285–316. doi:10.1177/009770048401000302. ISSN 0097-7004. JSTOR 189017.
^ Lipman, Jonathan N. (Jul 1984). "Ethnicity and Politics in Republican China: The Ma Family Warlords of Gansu". Modern China. 10 (3). Sage Publications, Inc.: 299. doi:10.1177/009770048401000302. JSTOR 189017. S2CID 143843569.
^ Michael Dillon (1999). China's Muslim Hui community: migration, settlement and sects. Richmond: Curzon Press. p. 136. ISBN 0-7007-1026-4. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ Michael Dillon (16 December 2013). China's Muslim Hui Community: Migration, Settlement and Sects. Routledge. pp. 102–. ISBN 978-1-136-80933-0.
^ Papers from the Conference on Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, Banff, August 20–24, 1987, Volume 3. 1987. p. 29. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ Jonathan Neaman Lipman (2004). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 142. ISBN 0-295-97644-6. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ The Chinese recorder, Volume 26. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press. 1895. p. 452. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ James Hastings; John Alexander Selbie; Louis Herbert Gray (1916). Encyclopædia of religion and ethics, Volume 8. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. p. 893. ISBN 9780567065094. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ M. Th. Houtsma; A. J. Wensinck (1993). E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936. Stanford BRILL. p. 850. ISBN 90-04-09796-1. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ Lipman, Jonathan Neaman (1998). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. University of Washington Press. p. 157. ISBN 0295800550. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^ Lipman, Jonathan Neaman (1980). The border world of Gansu, 1895-1935. Stanford University. p. 81. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^ Michael Dillon (1999). China's Muslim Hui Community: Migration, Settlement and Sects. Psychology Press. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-0-7007-1026-3.
^ Papers from the Conference on Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, Banff, August 20–24, 1987, Volume 3 Papers from the Conference on Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, Banff, August 20–24, 1987, Joint Committee on Chinese Studies (U.S.). Ann Arbor. 1987. p. 29.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Jonathan Neaman Lipman (2004). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 168. ISBN 0-295-97644-6. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ Ma Tong, Zhongguo Yisilan... shilue, p 245
^ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Center for Asian Studies (1979). Chinese Republican studies newsletter, Volumes 5-7. p. 35. Retrieved 2011-06-06.[1]
^ Chinese Republican Studies Newsletter, Volumes 1-7. Contributors University of Connecticut. Dept. of History, Denison University. Dept. of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Center for Asian Studies. Center for Asian Studies, University of Illinois. 1975. p. 171. Retrieved 24 April 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ Michael Dillon (1999). China's Muslim Hui community: migration, settlement and sects. Richmond: Curzon Press. p. 102. ISBN 0-7007-1026-4. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ TRANSLATION OF THE PEKING GAZETTE for 1896 (PDF). Shanghai: REPRINTED FROM THE "NORTH-CHINA HERALD AND SUPREME COURT AND CONSULAR GAZETTE". 1897. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^ "SLAUGHTER OF MOHAMMEDANS.; The Chinese Commander Showing No Mercy to Insurrectionists" (PDF). THE NEW YORK TIMES. 14 August 1896. Retrieved 2010-11-28.
^ Rijnhart, M.D. (1868-1908), Susie Carson (1901). "CHAPTER VIII OUR REMOVAL TO TANKAR". With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple (Third ed.). Chicago, New York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. Retrieved 24 April 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Susie Carson Rijnhart (1999). With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple: Narrative of Four Years' Residence on the Tibetan Borders and of a Journey Into the Far Interior. Asian Educational Services. p. 135. ISBN 978-81-206-1302-7.
^ Mrs. Susie Carson Rijnhart (1901). With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple: Narrative of Four Years' Residence on the Tibetan Border, and of a Journey Into the Far Interior. Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier. pp. 135. During the recent rebellion, as already stated, a large proportion of the Mohammedan population left their homes and joined the rebel forces, while th.
^ Susie Carson Rijnhart (1999). With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple: Narrative of Four Years' Residence on the Tibetan Borders and of a Journey Into the Far Interior. Asian Educational Services. p. 71. ISBN 978-81-206-1302-7.
^ Mrs. Susie Carson Rijnhart (1901). With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple: Narrative of Four Years' Residence on the Tibetan Border, and of a Journey Into the Far Interior. Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier. pp. 72. His only child was an attractive young married woman of twenty wearing the Mongol costume, which was very becoming to her, while her pretty little baby.
^ LIPMAN, JONATHAN N. (1997). "4 / Strategies of Resistance Integration by Violence". Familiar Strangers : A History of Muslims in Northwest China. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97644-6.
^ Oidtmann, Max (2005). "History, Hides, and the Environment of a Town on the Gansu Frontier": 1–32. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ Bickers, Robert A.; Tiedemann, R. G., eds. (2007). The Boxers, China, and the World (illustrated ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 30. ISBN 978-0742553958. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ Nightingale, Pamela; Skrine, C.P. (2013). Macartney at Kashgar: New Light on British, Chinese and Russian Activities in Sinkiang, 1890-1918. Vol. 27 of China, History, Philosophy, Economics (reprint ed.). Routledge. p. 87. ISBN 978-1136576096.
^ "Biography – CARSON, SUSANNA – Volume XIII (1901-1910) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca.
^ The crescent in north-west China ... By G. Findlay Andrew. 1921. pp. 50, 51, 52, 53, 54. It is very difficult to get at the real root of these sectarian divisions. One suggestion is that before the coming of the Salars there was but one sect among the Hwei-hwei, but that this sect had become corrupt through the constant intercourse with the Chinese. The Salars on their arrival noticed the general state of apathy into which their co-religion- ists had lapsed and determined upon a revival. With this end in view they formed themselves into the Hsin Chiao (New Sect), the other Hwei-hwei becoming known as the Lao Chiao (Old Sect). These two remain the principal sects to the present day. The New Sect, however, incorporates many other minor sects and subdivisions. The intro- duction of some new line of spiritual teaching or religious practice, by some ardent pilgrim returned from Mecca, will almost invariably lead to another division. Visiting Moslems from the West usually prefer to associate with the Hsin Chiao, as do also those mullahs who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. They are more fanatical than the Lao Chiao, with whom they are frequently having severe quarrels ending, as often as not, in dangerous fights. So insignificant have been the causes leading to the formation of these minor sects that they are now lost in obscurity, and only the sect remains to bear witness to the folly of its founder. The two great Hwei-hwei movements of 1862 and 1895 have been written down in history as the Mohammedan re- bellions. The first had its origin in Chinese inter- ference in a Hwei-hwei quarrel, and the. second in interference in a dispute between the Old and New Sects. It is quite within the bounds of probability that when the third rebellion breaks out it will be from a similar cause. During the year 1909 there was an effort made to create yet another sect which was to be a distinct improvement upon the Hsin Chiao. Two ahongs, freshly returned from Mecca, in all the fervour of religious zeal, were the originators. Their proposed principles and practices never got widely known, but the wearing of the beard after a new fashion was one of the distinguishing features of the new teach- ing. They managed to get quite a following and embarked upon an energetic and aggressive cam- paign. So much bitterness was aroused both with the New^ as well as the Old Sect that the Viceroy of Kansu had to interfere in the interests of the common people, and put out a proclamation in the name of the Chinese Government forbidding the propagation of this new teaching. The Modern Sect had, however, gained a Moslem stronghold some twelve miles from the city of Siningfu, and caused so much disturbance there that a body of cavalry had to be sent. They were successful in apprehending the leaders of the movement, who were straightway imprisoned. This caused the wildest rumours to circulate throughout the district. The Hwei-hwei were about to rebel and actual dates were fixed for the rising. These persistent rumours threw the Hwei-hwei into as great a state of panic as the Chinese. First hundreds, then thousands, of the latter people moved into the city of Siningfu. All dwellings were filled to their utmost capacity, and grain and fuel reached famine prices. Just about this time Ma An-liang, the ruler of the Hwei-hwei, and a supporter of the Old Sect, sent his soldiers to surround a certain house in the city of Hochow, where they arrested six leaders of the Modern Sect. These six were immediately despatched to Paradise by means of the bullet, and it is reported that the two founders of the sect were among them. The Modern Sect thereupon collapsed and has not since been revived as a sect, though some of its followers still remain quite active. Thus serious trouble between the Chinese and Hwei-hwei, arising as in former years through internal dissension among the latter, was narrowly averted. The above short sketch of the rise and fall of the Modern Sect is a fair sample of the history of many other little sects which have waxed great until their activities have arrested the attention of the Old Sect, before whose dominating force they have eventually collapsed. The Old Sect has invariably gained the upper hand and holds to-day the civil power, though religious fervour and zeal remain with the New Sect. Well do the Lao Chiao know how to effectively wield the power they hold. So fierce and bitter have been the sectarian strifes, and so deep the hatred born of them, that it is a question whether the members of the Old and New Sects are not, in some instances, as heartily hated each by the other as the " unbeliever " is by both. Many and many of the members of the New Sects have been driven into exile by the bitter per- secution they have had to endure at the hands of their co-religionists of another sect. Numbers have barely escaped with their lives. In the far west of the province, occupying a territory which lies both north and south of the Yellow River stretching from the Tibetan border to a point almost due north of the city of Hochow, are scattered five clans of people of the same race as the Mongol Hwei-hwei. Their physical features are identical and they speak the same Mongolian dialect. They have adopted the dress, manners, and customs of the Tibetans. They have, moreover, embraced the religion of the Tibetans, and some have gone so far as to take up the old Bonze religion, becoming fire and demon worshippers. Though scattered among Tibetan tribes they are found in their separate villages. These five clans are stated to have been originally one with the Mongol Hwei-hwei, but on account of some sectarian quarrel they went over in a body to the Tibetans, forsaking the religion of their fathers and adopting Buddhism. The bitterness of these quarrels, sometimes re- sulting from the most insignificant causes, is well- nigh indescribable. A follower of the Old Sect, resident in a Hwei-hwei community in the south of the province, a man of considerable wealth and influence, was most outspoken in his denunciation of the teachings and practices of a new sect then making considerable progress in that district. One day he was visited in his home by some members of the reviled sect, who proceeded to vent their wrath upon him. After wrecking his home, smashing all the furniture, they administered such a thrashing to his person that he was left for dead. The Christian missionary resident in that district was invited to attend him, and on arrival he found his patient suffering from several broken ribs and other fractures. His life hung for some time in the balance, but eventually careful nursing with good medical attention brought him through. Upon his recovery he was compelled to leave that neighbourhood, eventually finding his way to the capital of the province where he obtained an appointment as teacher of Tibetan in one of the Government schools. The eare and attention of his missionary-nurse are not forgotten, and though still opposed to the Gospel he shows himself friendly to the missionaries who reside in that eity.
^ The China mission year book. 1910. p. 153. They are to be found in large numbers in the Siningfu, Hochow, Taochow, Tsinchow, Kingyangfu, and Ningsiafu districts. In placps they form the greater part of the population. In some there are no hinese among them, the mosque being found in every village, while again in other parts Mohammedans are very few. There are many Mohammedan officials, chiefly mili- tary, headed by the famous Ma An-liang, who lives at Hochow, which may be called the Mecca of Kansu Moham- medans. Here is the training school for priests. Here may be heard the call of the watchman on the tower of the mosque, summoning the faithful to prayer. There are three sects, the old, the new, and the newest. The last was nearly brought to its end three years ago, its leaders being executed by order of Ma An-liang, who judged them to be guilty of plotting rebellion.
^ Lipman, Jonathan N. (2011). Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China. Studies on Ethnic Groups in China. University of Washington Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0295800554.

Revolt

References

See also