The Research Of The Northern Anhui Province’s Civil Corps In The Xianfeng Reign

China’s Feudal autocratic monarchy system reached its peak in Qing dynasty. One of the distinguishing feature of this system is strong centralization of authority.However,Qing government stepped into a dangerous situation and the system faced a lot of challenges.Central government had to delegate military, economic and political power to local powerful groups to unit them to protect the Authority of the Central Government.During the XianFeng Reign, Taiping Rebellion and Nianjun Uprising broke up. It was very difficult for national army to quell the rebellions because the army had already became rotten and weak. Emperor XianFeng had to rely on civil corps which contributed heavily to the repression of "White Lotus" Rebellion in JiaQingreign.The court hoped to maintain the Grassroots Society’s low level of militarization and limit the development of civil corps.Though it encouraged people to organize civil corps,it didn’t finance them.Besides,the court tried to control civil corps through appointing officials and awarding the leaders of civil corps. Emperor XianFeng ever appoint Chancellery of civil corps massively three times in1853,1856,1860 A.D and the first and second influenced Northern Anhui a lot. Nianjun Uprising broke up in Northern Anhui,the court wanted to eliminate the uprising and prevented Taiping army from moving north with the help of local civil corps.Lvxianji,Zhoutianjve,Yuanjiasan,Shengbao ever organized civil corps in Northern Anhui.However,they didn’t operate it themselves at all because of different reasons.They achieved their goals through using civil corps organized by local gentry. Northern Anhui was not the focus of The taiping heavenly kingdom and Qing government,the main responsibility was to quell NianjunUprising.During this period, Northern Anhui appeared rebel forces such as Miao peilin’s army because of Qing government’s weakening of controlling all over the country and the development of the force of traditional clans.Being suppressed was the destiny of Miao peilin’s civil corps.As rebel forces were suppressed,Qinggovernment wouldn’t allow civil corps controlled by gentry become a new threaten.Besides,civil corps had their own deficits and couldn’t last for a long time.Eventually,the remaining civil corps were turned into national army by government officials such as Zengguofan and Li hongzhang.This article studied the background,process of civil corps’s development and relation with other forces in Northern Anhui.And it focused on the manpower resources and capital of civil corps in Northern Anhui.Besides,it explored two forms of civil corps which were organized by officials and which were organized by the public.It also researched civil corps’sprocess,functions and disadvantages in Northern Anhui because of the unique geographical and social environment.