Yang Xiuqing
The garden that surrounds the museum was once "Enthusiasm Garden" or "Zhan Garden" of the first ruler of the Ming Dynasty, Hongwu (1328-1398). In 1853, it became the residence of Yang Xiuqing, a military leader in the Taiping Rebellion. During the rebellion, Nanjing was captured by the rebels and used as its headquarters. They acquired large portions of land throughout China. At Beijing, the Qing Dynasty narrowly defeated the rebels in 1864, but it ended the war.