1856 in China

Decades:	1830s; 1840s; 1850s; 1860s; 1870s;
See also:	Other events of 1856; History of China • Timeline • Years

Events from the year 1856 in China.

Incumbents

Nian Rebellion
- several Nian bands formed an alliance led by Zhang Lexing, organizing themselves into a loose confederation of five armies^[1]^[2]
Second Opium War begins
- Authorities in Canton order attacks on Thirteen Factories, which are subsequently destroyed in a fire
- Merchant ship Arrow seized by Qing authorities
- Battle of Canton (1856)
- Capture of the French Folly Fort
- Battle of the Bogue (1856)
- November — Battle of the Barrier Forts
Taiping Rebellion
- Battle of Jiangnan (1856), Qing forces twice fail to re-take Nanjing
- Tianjing incident, internal conflict within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
Miao Rebellion (1854–73)
Panthay Rebellion
- a massacre of at least 4,000 Muslims organized by a Qing Manchu official responsible for suppressing the revolt in the provincial capital of Kunming sparked a province-wide multi-ethnic insurgency.^[3]^[4]
Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856) ends

^ Perry, Elizabeth J. (1980). Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845-1945. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
^ Michael Dillon (15 September 2012). China: A Modern History. I.B.Tauris. pp. 85–. ISBN 978-1-78076-381-1.
^ R. Keith Schoppa (2002). Revolution and its past: identities and change in modern Chinese history. Prentice Hall. p. 79. ISBN 0-13-022407-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
^ Fairbank, John King; Twitchett, Denis Crispin, eds. (1980). The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge University Press. p. 213. ISBN 0521220297. Retrieved 24 April 2014.