ABSTRACT
From the perspective of the Qing court, the Taipings were a band of rebels who, because they cut their queues and grew their hair, had earned the name, "long-haired bandits." Also, because of their place of origin, they were known as the "Ao bandits." At the time that Zeng Guofan set out with the Hunan Army, the armed corps of volunteers he had organized, he issued an official proclamation concerning "Conquest of the Ao Bandits." "Ao" was a term denoting the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.
