If providing the context helps, I'm organizing a Model UN conference here in Malaysia, and I'm trying to set up a special historical council set during the Taiping Rebellion. The premise is that delegates will be playing characters from the Imperial court, representatives from the provinces of China, as well as foreign dignitaries from Europe and the USA, in an attempt to respond to the threat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The issue is that I'm kind of stuck on good, in-depth sources. Wikipedia's been good so far but I'm not sure where to look for information about how the Qing Imperial government worked at the time, what kind of positions were held in the court, etc.
Apart from that, I need information about the Taiping Army's military, what battles they engaged in, and so on.
Thanks very much, and I'm sorry in advance if this is the wrong sort of question! I'm just not sure who else to ask.
I don't have much expertise on the rebellion or the governing structure, but I do know of one source. The book on the Taiping Rebellion is God's Chinese Son by Jonathan Spence. I haven't read it, but it's highly regarded and I personally know Spence to be very accessible. Books are, of course, not generally free, but it would be worth checking a library. If you read Chinese, you could also look for the translation in that language. I can't remember the title, but it was something generic like 太平天国.