China, the land of contrasts, the little-known yet fascinating Middle Kingdom, has undergone transformations in all areas of life. A revolution that stirred the hundreds of millions of inhabitants of this vast state to the core and deeply unsettled the entire social fabric will be described below. It has been just fifty years since the Taiping Revolution, that national Chinese uprising aimed at overthrowing the decaying Manchu regime and reforming China religiously, politically, socially, and economically. Historian Christian Spielmann explains in this volume the background and course of the Taiping Rebellion, which is considered one of the bloodiest civil wars in human history. Spielmann discusses the conflict between the Chinese Empire under the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping.