If I were to tell you that a man's repeated failure at passing national examinations led to him getting a nervous breakdown -putting him on a daze for days- and then coming out of this experience having seeing God, knowing himself Jesus Christ's brother and starting the bloodiest civil war in History (matching the fatalities of the entire World War I scenario, around 20 million), were you to believe me, dear reader? Yet this is the unlikely story behind Hong Xiuquan [洪秀全] (1814-1864) and the fourteen years Taiping Rebellion which shaked China to its very core, following and announcing other many conflicts the late Qing Dynasty had to seek its way through in order to retain its Empire. This conflict, despite its historical proximity (the times of Darwin, Marx or the American Civil War) has completely passed by most people's heads outside China, if not for scarce specialized historians. It hasn't been as discussed as the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) of years later, which earned some publicity given its anti-western and anti-colonial roots, and its attacks on both christian Chinese and western diplomats in the legations of Beijing. On the other hand, the Chinese as a people haven't forgot that time during which a Christian Theocracy of exotic origins conquered half of China, establishing the Old Testament's laws in all its occupied territory, and enthoning Hong as head of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom [太平天囯].
In fact, quite some years have been necessary for this book, solidly founded on the original Taiping writings, to come out, explaining in detail the most intriguing aspects of the Taipings and their religious/cosmic worldview. Up to this point, most of the academic material on the issue was conducted either from a purely logistic view (historical and militar analysis on the chain of events) or from the perspective of religious apologetics, trying to explain how Hong's worldview was a no no from the point of view of Christianity as a whole (something this detailed thesis completely disproves, citing Hong's influences from biblical sources such as Exodus and also the Chinese Christian manuscripts written by missionaries). The original materials and their translations are incredibly valuable, since they had to be collected by modern scholars from their dispersion around China, considering that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's destruction led the Qing authorities to annihilate as much as possible every possible remain of the popular movement, in fear its flame could catch up again eventually among the peasants.
At the time of Hong's birth he was no Christian, and in fact Christians in China were a blatant minority, remains of the openness China had offered to foreign influence some time ago. Some of these conversion efforts had been targeting the Hakka (an ethnic minority) to whom he belonged, given their humble status in the Qing social structure. Their resentment towards the nobility, of Manchu origins (north invaders from northern China) prompted them to band around their village heads in frequent conflicts on issues of land and bread. Hong would become such a leader when he became sick due to his repeated failings at taking the legendary Chinese Imperial Examinations (an almost religious custom from old, which came to be appropiated by our modern countries via french Enlightenment authors such as Voltaire), at the time with almost impossible passing rates. Hong was justifiably stressed out by these failings to a point detrimental to his physical health, and during his convalescence he did read some phamplets and a Bible translation some acquaintance had given away to him. Combined with a couple reunions he had with western pastors at the time of travelling to Guangzhou, his interest turned to commitment following his ''ascension to heavens'' during his lowest moments, in this period of sickness. As mentioned, chinese Christians were a minority at the time, and the missionaries' desperate attempts to make their faith appealing to the Chinese involved a tweaking of the language, identifying the Christian God with the religious figure of Shangdi [上帝] at least in name only. Shangdi is an ancient Chinese deity, perhaps spanning back to the second millenium B.C, his name inscribed in oracular bones. As identified with the heavens and the totality of the universe by extension, his omnipresence and unity was one of the few possible bridges of contact between both worldviews, that of the protestant missionaries and that of the traditional chinese religion (and its incredibly complex folk varieties and roots).
The following years, Hong managed to exhert considerable influence among the Hekka villagers in Southern China, first establishing a ''local cult'' including his family and some other worshippers from neighbouring villages. Their fighting agains Manchu officials and customs escalated soon, and a coordinated assault against weapon reservoirs gave them access to both swords and firearms. Wearing turbans and golden robes, the fierce peasants soon outskilled the Qing army, pushing them north in almost suicidal attack patterns. In Taiping territory, the men abandoned the officially enforced Manchu custom of shaving the head and leaving the queue, leaving their hair as long as possible, in itself an offense punishable by death. And, more surprisingly, women not only were relieved of foot-binding but also were part of the Taiping army, some of them reaching the rank of commanders (such as Hong's sister, Hong Xuanjiao [洪宣娇]). Despite its brutality on the battlefield, and the puritanical rules established on their territory (against cohabitation of men and women), the Taiping army also reached a high level of organization and religious zeal: as an example, rape or looting was forbidden.
Of course, the idea of an early Christian version of ISIS occupying a country and utterly destroying its centuries-old religious patrimony (along with unrepenting infidels and any Manchu at all) has received little attention compared with its mirroring XX century version during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976); yet, the lack of modern technology did not persuade the Taiping in their destruction of any and all religious image divorced from Hong's perception of Shangdi: ''Religious (and especially Buddhist) idols were, in other words, key instruments or manifestations of the corrupting evil force that had sough to tempt humankind away from the Heavenly Father since the creation of the world''. Hong was, in other words, convinced that China's once pristine relationship with Shangdi/The God of the Old Testament had been polluted by the Daoists and Buddhist, and the foreign preachers were trying to help the Chinese return to their own roots. This of course pleased said misionaries:
Issachar Roberts' early reports praised the Taipings for ''really upsetting idolatry'' and thereby ''opening the way for the universal spread of the gospel among them''. Roberts also described Hong as an individual who ''presents the true God for their adoration, and casts down idols with a mighty hand''. According to Roberts that uncomprimising attack on idolatry proved that Hong's rebellion was ''going on under the wisdom and the guidance of the deep counsels of Almighty God and was designed by Him to bring about His own purposes and glory in the renovation and salvation of this numerous people'' (...) Thus, Protestant missionaries may have contributed both directly (as instructors) and indirectly (as translators of Old Testament books) to the Taipings' belief that idols and false gods were the cause of China's great spiritual decline
While Robert's testimony reflects much of the Christian early opinions on the Taipings, descriptions from other sources cast a quite darker shadow on the nature of this holy crusade:
Every thing belonging to Buddha and Dao, were indiscriminately destroyed: the temples and images were mashed all to pieces. It is common to see the nose, chin, and hands cut off. The floors of these buildings are bestrewn with relics of helpless gods, Buddhist and Taoist, male and female. Some are cast into the canals, and are found floating down the stream mingled with the débris of rifled houses and the remains of the dead
The religious texts of the Taipings confirm that this was an extension of the biblical worldview in which God entered history as both punisher and protector (just as the Great Flood renewed mankind). The Exodus, the most frequently cited Old Testament story in the texts of the Taipings, offered an archetypal model of God's entering the world to liberate his chosen people and punish their oppressors. Yet Hong's theology also inadvertedly retained much of Chinese traditional beliefs, much of it heretical to traditional Christianity. Not only did his god had a bodily appearance but also a wife and companion, with whom he engendered not only Jesus and Hong (who also had female companions in the Heavenly Realms) but also a sacred ''host of little sisters'' in Heaven. Also, and despite his condemnation of Confucius, his ideas about universal Harmony and the political structure of the Kingdom's socioeconomic order were heavily borrowed from Confucianism. For indeed not everything about the Taiping Rebellion was in itself evil; its swaying among the people can't be explained if understood as a merely contrarian and fundamentalist movement: it also gave people something to fight for and not just against.
The Taiping rebels were not the first Chinese movement appealing to previous, semi-legendary periods to be restored, an era of uprightness and fair distribution of resources. Its main proposals, based on the model of the Zhou Dynasty, were that land should be distributed equally among the people (according to the number of individuals in a household) and that the surplus grain and cash of every householf should be stored in public granaries and treasuries. Those public grain stocks would relieve deficiencies in Taiping-controlled areas and provide nourishment for the most vulnerable members of society. The system would thus ensure that each individual had an opportunity to own land and sufficient food, clothing and money to meet theur needs. This was supported by the Taiping declaration ''Under Heaven all are brothers. The souls of all come alike from Heaven''. Kilcourse quotes:
As the Land System of the Heavenly Dynasty explains: there being fields, let all cultivate them. There being food, let all eat it. There being clothing, let all wear it. There being money, let all use it, so that nowhere will inequality exist, and every person will be well fed and warm
This has been looked upon from XX century optics, as a proto-communist cause from the peasantry (and in fact, thats the CCP's position concerning this period of Chinese History), but such vision is limited and insufficient, if not outright wrong. Since the Taiping vision was that of a religious Utopia, a practising global community of commited believers, their abolishing private property is way more linked to the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament (who also held relevance in the Taiping scheme, as Hong's older brother). It also mirrors the Buddhist and Daoist millenial revolts of China itself, such as the White Lotus Society [白蓮敎]. While of course the Taipings despised Buddhists, they also shared the aspiration of creating a shanga [संघ] or religious community in which the material was not definitory, or valued above the human and the divine. The Taipings were also concerned with social maladies particular of China; as an example they adopted the many millions of orphaned or sold-out children, many of them girls: ''We must treat parentless boys and girls and persons of advanced age with more care, bathing them and washing and changing their clothes. Thus, we will not lose the idea of sharing joys and sorrows, as well as mutual concern over pain and illness''. They also managed to entirely ban opium consumption on their territory, an illness fostered by foreign interests in China.
The Taipings eventually failed, the suffering inflicted on the Chinese during this conflict amounting to nought. What it could have become the Taiping Revolution lost all fuel with Hong's death by consumption of venomous weeds (due to a famine brought by the prolonged conflicted), at a tumultous time during which internal conflict between he and his generals (named as the Kings of the North, East, West and South) led to progressive debilitation of the religious zeal. In need of a successor for the Heavenly Throne (which you can see in the first picture of this entry), one of his sons was picked up. As if to add infamy to the joke the Taiping Rebellion would make of any Philosophy of History trying to add meaning to random events, the second and last king of the Heavenly Kingdom was a fourteen year old boy, Hong Tianguifu [洪天貴福] (1849-1864), who did not even want to reign. Unlike his father, we have a photograph of him; for he was captured by the Qing loyalists (the ones with money and western technology at the time) once the Taiping army disbanded. Sad as it is, the cruel punishment for rebelling fell on the kid: he was tortured to death by dismembering, a standard in the Chinese Empire penal code. This historical perspective also contextualizes the Taipings on their social universe, where death and starvation were prevalent. While not excusing their ways, this nevertheless helps us understand the roots of their discontent, and explains their revolting against an Empire nevertheless destined to fall.
An engaging and illuminating reading, Taiping Theology is sure to become an essential study on these momentous events in China's recent History. Kilcourse's academic and clean approach is highly educative not only about the inner universe of those millions persuaded by Hong's unlikely crusade (which fostered China's present untrust of religion more than any other event) but also on the general topic of localization, that is, the regional adaptations and assimilations of beliefs procedent of other cultures. He masterfully conveys the importance of language in shaping belief and assertions, and how it frees itself at any moment to allow more exotic, unexpected results to arise. Some of them make History.
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