A group of farmers in Jinju in Gyeongsang province rise up against oppressive provincial officials and wealthy landowners in 1862, half a century after the Korean peasant rebellion led by Hong was put down.

This uprising is directly attributable to the exploitation of destitute farmers by Baek Nak-sin, a newly appointed military commander who has jurisdiction over the western half of Gyeongsang province.

Yi Yun-myeong and Yu Gye-chun organizes the farmers in Jinju to riot against Baek and other corrupt officials and wealthy landlords.

The rebels kill local government functionaries and set fire to government buildings.

The agrarian revolt in Jinju triggers peasant uprisings elsewhere.

In Gyeongsang, ...

...Jeolla and ...

...Chungcheong provinces, ...

...on faraway Jeju Island and ...

...in Hamgyeong and ...

...Pyeongan provinces in the north, groups of farmers rise up, take up arms, and attack government offices in major cities.

Many government officials are executed.

The startled Seoul government hurriedly sends an investigator to the scene.

On the basis of his findings of fraudulent practices by the local officials, the government hastily revises the land, military, and grain lending systems in an effort to eliminate such abuses.

Although it is unrealistic to expect the ruling class in the central government, which is itself deeply involved in such frauds, to make radical changes, at least a superficial attempt at reform is made.

Choe Je-u, as the illegitimate son of a high-caste man and a twice-married woman, had been thus refused access to positions of importance in society.

In 1860, he had had a spiritual revelation in which God spoke to him, telling him that all other religions were wrong and that all humans had God within them.

This meant that all people were equal, including women.

Choe’s vision had soon turned into a new native religion called Donghak or Tonghak (Eastern Learning), popular among the mistreated and underprivileged peasants.

Donghak calls for veneration of god "Haneullim" ("Lord of Heaven"), and holding the belief that man is not created by a supernatural God, but man is instead caused by an innate God.

As Koreans have believed in Haneullim from ancient times, Donghak can be regarded as a truly Korean religion, unlike Buddhism or Christianity.

Outraged at this radical philosophy, the government beheads Choe Je-u and persecutes his followers in an attempt to suppress the movement.

At the same time, persecution of Korean Christians increases.

Another Muslim uprising develops in the Wei Valley in Shensi in 1862.

The general cause of the trouble is the same as in Yunnan, but the Taiping advance to Shensi has stimulated the Muslims into rebellion.

Frederick Townsend Ward organizes a new army in 1862, which uses Chinese troops with Western officers and arms.

The arrogance of Ward's troops arouses tremendous resentment among the regular Chinese forces, but his tactics result in numerous victories, and he is therefore subsidized at great expense by the Ch'ing government.

When Ward is mortally wounded in battle on September 21, 1862, a thirty-year-old British major, Charles George (”Chinese”) Gordon, takes his place as commander of the “Ever Victorious Army.” (Although most modern Western historians believe that this army had no more than marginal effect on suppression of the rebellion, the traditional Western interpretation and the modern Communist interpretation is that these Western troops were crucial in the defeat of the Taipings.)