God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan

Jonathan Spence remarks in his foreword that much has been written about the 1850 Taiping rebellion in the west, and even more in the east. Despite the rebels dubious theological foundation, China's communists canonized them as an early socialist movement. The Taiping have remained a topic of interest, with many books recently written. Spence synthesizes Chinese and English research, and also considers two newly discovered texts by the mid-century master of mayhem, Hong Xiuquan.The story begins with British missionaries in China. Disseminating Christianity was second only in importance to importing opium, and war helped secure both. Hong receives a bastardized Bible translation that resembles Buddhist and Confucian tracts in its Commandments and depictions of Hell. Having failed his civil service exams, Hong has visions he is the son of God and brother of Jesus. The Heavenly Father calls him to fight the demonic works of Confucian sacrifice and Taoist idolatry.Hong travels the countryside to convert and baptize, and networks amongst his ethnic group fellows. Pirates, flushed out by the British occupation of Hong Kong, triad gangsters and highway bandits soon join forces. Early victories and Qing failures cement his hold on almost half the empire. At its greatest extent the would be dynasty reached the Yangtze river, and left thirty million dead in its wake. It nearly repealed the Manchu mandate, and foreshadowed their overthrow by a half century.At the most basic level, Hong conflates Confucian family values with Christian doctrine. Where the New Testament allows God to have a son, Hong adds an extended family. God gains a wife, several other sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, as dynastic circumstance demands. The unruly clan includes mad uncles who channel the voices of Jesus and God himself, until family feuds and civil war doom everyone to a well deserved communal bloodbath.It is difficult to tell if Hong's beliefs were intentional fraud, self delusion or a mixture of both. The Heavenly Kingdom had equal elements of religious cult and revolutionary army. Couched in millenarian mumbo jumbo, it's easy to dismiss the entire project as a lunatic fringe group, if not for the megalomaniac scale it attained. It is understandable how Mao, born shortly later, would have seen this as a period for study. The book situates events clearly within their context.At times this book may reflect a historical bias towards British gunboat diplomacy and missionary zeal. Opium Wars were waged to 'end the restrictive system and open ports...establish churches and spread the word of God'. In regards to Chinese sovereignty a critique seems missing, although Spence notes the destabilizing effects of foreign pressure on the Qing empire. Western interventions seem rational and judicious, in contrast to Chinese intransigence and superstition.The strength of the work is in its study of the religious mindset of the time. It shows the social and cultural setting that gave rise to a 19th century apocalyptic political movement. Although it isn't a general history, it does trace the major events along a narrative timeline. Spence tells the tale in the present tense, which adds a sense of immediacy to the proceedings. This is not a dry scholarly undertaking, nor is it pop history fluff. I would consider reading it before a simple military account.

This book is the best documented history of the Taiping rebellion that I have read. Most of what is out there is propaganda of the missionary societies. England and the USA used opium and missionaries to correct the balance of trade problem with China. China was the world supplier of tea and porcelain. She had no interest or need for the manufactured goods of England, or the raw materials of America. She demanded silver in payment for those things.England tried to address the problem with a tea tax, and lost control of her colony, America. The English then conquered India and set up tea plantations there to provide alternate supplies. Porcelain factories were set up in Germany (Dresden) and England (Wedgewood) to supply fine china. The English also started cultivating opium in India and running it into China for big profits.The English were the world's first drug cartel. When the Chinese objected, the English forced open the opium trade doors in the two Opium Wars. As part of the treaties forced onto the chinese, China was forced to allow missionaries into their country.The USA benefitted from this "gunboat diplomacy" more than England. The fortunes of the Forbes, Russell, Delano, and Lowell families of New England were founded on the smuggling of opium into China. America also developed a "lunatic fringe" religeous revival. Issichar Roberts was typical of these bible thumpers. They were self ordained zealots, who were out to "save the world" at any cost.These New Englanders were responsible for many of the ills of the world. They sold slaves to the South, then preached abolition. They caused the US civil war.The missionaries went into China preaching relligeon, revolution, and free trade (for opium). Roberts was a fifth column agitator against the Chinese Empire. He and his ilk applauded the Taiping "Kingdom of god". He even served as foreign minister for the Taipings.The Taiping rebellion is one of the strongest arguments for banning of foreign missionaries. Although the book does not say this, it provides enough facts to support that such a bann.The book is one of the few that provides a look at the Chinese side of history.We still think of the "starving Chinese", when we live in a world with 90% of the goods we buy coming from China. This is even true in grocery stores. Most of the apple juice is made from concentrate from China. The frozen Tilapia and Swai fish in Walmart comes from China. We are in the position of England in the 18th century. We buy from the Chinese, but have nothing to sell them in return. Unfortunately opium smuggling and religeous fifth columns have gone out of style.This is a "must read" for anyone concerned with China, international politics, international finance, and the dangers of theocracy.

captivating tale at the intersection of civilizations. made me want to read more about China

Looking good

I was enthused when I started reading this book, but the grammar is horrible (mostly the author's tendency to use present tense to move the narrative along and long quotes of primary (but translated) source material that would be better paraphrased. I am now searching for a better book on this part of history.

Spence's exhaustively researched story is clearly one of the best books of Chinese history written in the last 20 years. It is not just a book that will help you become more familiar with Chinese history but will help you gain an insight into the cultural and historical psyche of the Chinese people. As someone who has lived and worked in China for over four years it has become clear to me how important Chinese history is to the fabric of the society, language, and culture. Therefore, this book is relevant for anyone interested in China both from a historical, cultural, or even business perspective. One of the most fascinating themes of the work is the effect and influences of westerners on 19th century China. In one poignant section Spence describes the suffering the Chinese peasants who continuously found themselves caught between the fighting armies of the Heavenly Kingdom, Qing dynasty, westerners, and various other marauding parties and groups. These few pages are just one example of how Spence uses his exceptional narrative ability to convey his points in a lively and crisp fashion. While reading you will feel an emotionally powerful story rather than laboring over a dry history manuscript. The heavenly kingdom is an exceptional piece of history and a must read for anyone seeking to understand modern China.

Very few people in the West know anything at all about the Taiping Rebellion which roughly coincided with the American Civil War of the early 1860s. An estimated 20 million+ people died as a result of a misunderstanding about Christianity... Those of us who are interested in it usually approach the Rebellion through reading about mercenaries like Ward and Gordon defending Shanghai and the foreign settlements. This book puts the Taipings into their proper Chinese context and shows that foreign interventions were extremely periferal to the enormous conflict which stretched over 2000 miles from Canton almost to the Imperial capital Peking. Ward, Gordon and their 'Ever Victorious Army' are barely more than a footnote to the real fighting in which many Chinese on both sides showed enormous bravery and tenacity in fighting for their beliefs, however strange.There can be no doubt but that Jonathan Spence is the greatest living Western scholar of Chinese history and this is an important book. It is a shame that the publishers have saved themselves a lot of trouble by not using any Chinese characters in the print, not even in the bibliography (I'm no expert, but it would have been useful, particularly with so 'literary' a movement as the Taipings). The illustrations are also rather disappointing, a nice selection but badly reproduced. Prof Spence's writing style can also jar, especially his use of the present tense to describe things that happened in the, er, past - which does have a useful tense of its own. Despite those reservations, fairly readable, and you ask yourself: When exactly does a humble persecuted minority turn into a raging, almost unstoppable torrent of angry humanity?

This is a book full of detail, sometimes overwhelming detail. It tells the story of the rebellion from the side of the rebels drawing on Chinese and western sources. The story moves quickly but the constant use of the present tense in the narrative can become irritating. Some attempt is made to set the events in their social, religious and historical context but one would have appreciated a little more analysis and evaluation and more about the government against which they were rebelling. The emperor is a distant figure barely visible in the narrative. For those unfamiliar with these bizarre events this is a good introduction.

An excellent read about an overlooked topic - one that cost 20-30 million lives. In a wonderful manner, Spence proceeds to describe the path of the man who would view himself as Jesus' younger brother and the reformer necessary for China. Part syncretic religion, part political rebellion this ended up as possibly one of the most devastating civil wars ever known.

Couldn't get on with history written in the present tense. Maybe it's just me....

The best account you will read of the strangest episode in China's long history.