Wallpapers Wednesday : The Warlords & God’s Chinese Son
Just remembered this recent Chinese movie The Warlords while re-reading a book about the incredibly violent and destructive Taiping uprising in China from 1845 to 1865. I think it’s probably the first movie ever produced that featured the Taiping too 
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Above are some of the wallpapers depicting the main characters from this movie who attempted to better their own lives as well as those of their followers during this turbulent period of Chinese history by joining the Qing forces attempting to put down the Taiping insurrections (albeit for differing ideological and personal reasons).
Can’t say how historically accurate the Taiping and Qing troops were represented in the movie though since the only illustrations of the Taiping I’ve seen come from Osprey’s Men-At-Arms 275 which offers an excellent if limited pictorial reference to the Taiping and their Qing (and later European) adversaries.
Most pictures of Qing military officers tend to depict men with brightly-coloured armour rather than the dour black armour worn by the leading men (Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) in the movie.
The book that reminded me of The Warlords is God’s Chinese Son : The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan by Yale University professor Jonathan D. Spence which thankfully reads nothing like a typical bone-dry history book. Accounts of the organization and tactics of the Taiping armies, the internal politics and infighting amongst the Taiping Kings and of foreign mercenaries fighting for the Taiping (pages 237 to 241) make for some really interesting reading.
Chronicling the rise and fall of the enigmatic Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from Hong Xiuquan’s purported visions of God to the formation of the Taiping Heavenly Kindgom partially inspired by Christian values and the eventual defeat and execution of the remaining generals and Fu Tianhui heir to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom by the Qing, this excellent book is a valuable addition to anyone interested in this strange period of history, more so when there are very few English books about the subject.
Download the wallpapers for The Warlords.
MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Illustration of Qing Troops from Age of Empires 3 : The Asian Dynasties
Romance of the Three Kingdoms E-Book
I couldn’t agree with you more about Spence’s book(s). He really has a talent for making history come alive.
For another interesting and highly readable book of history, given Return to Middle Kingdom
a try. Tuan-tsung Chen has penned a remarkable account of the birth of modern China, including an insider’s account of the Cultural Revolution that unravels the perplexities (and complexities) of modern Chinese history for the reader.
Hi Lizzie, I’ll see if I can find a copy at the local library.
Just completed a Project Gutenberg e-book The Fight for the Republic in China written in 1917 about the 1911 revolution and the rise and fall of Yuan Shih-Kai. There’s a lot of political stuff mixed with the history portions so you might need to search around to find the parts you’re intrerested in.
I found it quite a relevation since my old school texts only skimmed the surface of this interesting period of Chinese history by simply stating some facts of the 1911 revolution and the anarchy and warlordism that soon followed.