ABSTRACT
The taiping rebellion, 1850 to 1864, arose as a strange combination of traditional factors that had led to past rebellions with new, totalitarian concepts, derived from a fantastic interpretation of Christian doctrine. The Boxer Rebellion, primitive and futile as it was, may have caused some hesitation on the side of the foreign powers in their plans for Chinese partition. China's resounding defeat led to a general international assumption that the Chinese empire and indeed the state itself were at the point of collapse and that the time had come for all powers to secure their share of the disintegrating country's territory: the period for "the cutting of the melon"—the division of China. The disappointment of the Western-educated students who had held such high expectations for the success of the revolution led them to search for philosophical ideas and political systems that would solve China's problems and that would enable them to play a leading role in a new China.
