Motley bands of peasants, army deserters, and…

Motley bands of peasants, army deserters, and salt smugglers have fomented sporadic outbreaks in China since the first decade of the nineteenth century.

These plundering gangs, called Nien, an offshoot of the Buddhist-inspired White Lotus secret societies, have ravaged northern Anhwei, southern Shantung, and southern Honan.

Oppressed by famine resulting from flooding during the 1850s and stimulated by government preoccupation with the Taiping, several Nien bands, having formed a coalition under the leadership of guerilla leader Zhang Lexing in 1852-53, begin to expand rapidly.