To Know the Enemy: The Zei qing huizuan, Military Intelligence, and the Taiping Civil War

Abstract

This article highlights the strategies and institutions that were mobilized in order to collect information during the Taiping Civil War (1851-1864). Through a close reading of the Zei qing huizuan 賊情彙纂 (Compendium of Rebel Intelligence), the article reveals that the Qing and its allies understood the Taiping as a political entity constituted on a familiar (dynastic) model and also in ethnographic terms (linguistic, sartorial, religious, regional). The article also demonstrates how individuals made use of their access to information to obtain patronage and employment within the pro-Qing camp. Finally, by spotlighting the political and moral language used by the authors of the Zei qing huizuan, the article makes obvious the deep relationship between intelligence and ideology.