White Lotus Rebellion The White Lotus Society was one of several secret societies that emerged from time to time during the history of imperial China They required members, mostly from lower social classes, to adhere to rituals associated with Buddhism and Daoism (Taoism), food taboos, and penance Such groups attracted the attention of the government, which often took steps to suppress them The White Lotus Society had roots in the Song (Sung) dynasty and survived the Song government’s efforts to suppress it It emerged as one of the rebel movements during the late Mongol Yuan dynasty and helped to topple it The Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty was ruled by a frontier people, the Manchu, a fact that upset many of the majority Han Chinese Because early Manchu rulers had been successful and China had been prosperous through the second half of the 18th century, potential opponents of the dynasty had lain low and not been able to garner significant support Like its predecessors, the Qing government was ambivalent toward popular religious organizations such as the White Lotus, condemning religious festivals and rituals as wasteful, disruptive, and potentially harmful to morality The White Lotus Rebellion (1796–1804) began in the southeastern border area of Sichuan (Szechuan) Province in 1796 Sichuan had undergone dramatic population growth during the 18th century, due to large-scale immigration from neighboring provinces, to about 20 million by 1800; government efforts to slow the pace of immigration into Sichuan had been ineffective The large influx of people strained government resources and caused tension between the immigrants and the existing local population In 1781 the government arrested a White Lotus leader named Liu Song (Liu Sung) and banished him to the frontier His harassed followers then revolted and the unrest spread quickly from Sichuan to neighboring provinces in central and northern China This rebellion indicated the turning point of Qing dynastic fortunes; the army sent to suppress it proved too rotten to perform its task The rebels were able to garner popular support due in part to their millenarian religious appeal and also to their racial-nationalistic stand against Manchu rule Finally, local gentry and officials in the affected regions organized militias to undertake the task of putting down the rebellion, which cost the government 100 million silver taels Although put down in 1804, the White Lotus Rebellion was the forerunner of more dev- women’s suffrage, rights, and roles 447 astating revolts of the 19th century that contributed to the downfall of the dynasty Further reading: Feuerwerker, Albert Rebellion in Nineteenth Century China Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1975; Kuln, Philip A Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China: Militarization and Social Structure, 1796–1864 Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970 Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur women’s suffrage, rights, and roles Against the background of the Enlightenment and American, French, and Industrial Revolutions, Western women’s lives changed dramatically, although not until the 20th century would most gain the right to vote By 1900 Western societies had become accustomed to women’s participation in public affairs, even if governments, and many individual men and women, still questioned its appropriateness The profound changes reshaping European and North American women’s lives were not examples of unfettered progress toward equality but, rather, a series of challenges to, and compromises with, ancient traditions of female inferiority and dependency Although there had long been women of distinction and even importance—queens, priestesses, scholars, and saints—the first influential proponent for all women was Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft A former governess who supported the French Revolution and collaborated with Thomas Paine, she published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 Women, said Wollstonecraft, were equal to men in their ability to reason Therefore, women must be treated as reasonable and equal members of the human race FEMALE EDUCATION At a time when the “female” brain was perceived as feebler and less focused, Wollstonecraft proposed free public school systems to equally educate boys and girls together in intellectual, physical, and vocational pursuits The reality of the times was otherwise In the 18th century and later, many women educated themselves by sneaking books from male family members or secretly listening in on brothers’ lessons Some were lucky to be encouraged by fathers or brothers, or had access to rigorous schools led by female teachers, like Emma Willard of New York, who had themselves achieved a decent education Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller of Massachusetts was