I. Hong Xiuquan: Background and Life

During the Taiping Rebellion which was fought against the Qing Dynasty, there appeared a failed scholar claiming to be a messiah and the heavenly brother of Jesus Christ. Was he an eccentric madman or a messiah? Messiah or not, Hong would go on to conquer large swathes from the Qing Empire and establish a Heavenly Kingdom where he implemented radical and progressive reforms. Let’s unravel the story of Hong Xiuquan, a self-proclaimed messiah, vouchsafed with divine visions.

Failed Civil Servant

The life of Hong Xiuquan is as interesting as it is enigmatic. Hong was an erudite person and was known to be able to recite the Four Books of Confucianism from memory. He wanted to become a civil servant from an early age and worked hard to achieve his dreams. His life will be crushed when he failed to pass the civil service examination four times; it was then he decided to become a revolutionary. During this time he met a group of foreign Christian missionaries and became interested in Christianity. He rejected Confucianism and began preaching a new religion which was a fusion of Christianity and Chinese folk religions.

Visions and Dreams

Hong claimed to experience divine visions and mystical experiences of a celestial father which he proclaimed to be God the Father. In his divine visions, Hong claimed that he was visited by the Christian God and the figure of Jesus Christ. These mystical experiences, claimed Hong, revealed to him his divine vision which was to eradicate corruption from the land and establish a heavenly kingdom on earth. Eccentric madman or messiah, Hong would go on to fulfill his destiny.

God Worshipers

Soon after proclaiming to have experiences of divine visions, Hong attracted a community of followers, and this group would call themselves the God Worshipers. His followers would embrace his newly found religion, the God Worshiping Society, which was a fusion of Christian doctrine and Chinese folk religions, and they embarked on a journey to spread this creed throughout China. By the end of the 19th Century, the God Worshipers would number as many as 20,000 and they would endeavor to establish the divinely mandated utopian society of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Jesus’ Chinese Brother

The most eccentric of Hong’s claims was that he was the brother of Jesus Christ. He professed to believe in the Christian God and the teachings of Jesus Christ, but he also claimed that Jesus visited him in his visions and entrusted him with the sacred duty of ushering in an age of justice and righteousness. He did not claim to have a divine birth; he did claim, however, that he, along with Jesus, were the divine sons of God. He rejected the Christian ideology of Trinity, claiming that there can be no two Gods, but he believed that Jesus was the son and heir apparent of God. Hong claimed that since he is the heir of Jesus, the onus of establishing a heavenly kingdom fell on his shoulders. Hong’s audacious claim sounds far-fetched and implausible, yet his visions would fuel his messianic zeal and provided the foundations for his revolutionary aspirations, and the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Revolutionary

In 1851, Hong raised a rebel army and attacked the Qing army, kick starting his struggle to implement his vision of a utopian heavenly kingdom. This was the start of what we know today as the Taiping Rebellion. By this time he had amassed a following of 10,000 to 30,000 people and the Qing authorities became alarmed and attacked the base of the sect in Jintian. The Qing army was defeated by the rebels and Hong became a force to be reckoned with. Claiming to be armed with a divine mandate, Hong started his conquests of parts of Qing China and established his capital at Nanjing. During this uprising, which is considered to be one of the deadliest conflicts in history, Hong would emerge as a revolutionary leader and sought to overthrow the Qing Dynasty to establish a Heavenly Kingdom based on his utopian vision.

Heavenly King

After a series of successes and conquests, Hong established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and proclaimed himself the Heavenly King. He set up an absolute monarchy and implemented various social, religious, and political reforms. With an ambitious reform and modernization program he sought to abolish private property, promote gender equality, and eradicate social injustices. He also created an elaborate civil bureaucracy, reformed the calendar, and banned the use of opium. He also introduced reforms aiming for gender equality and made women legally equal to men.

Death

The life of Hong Xiuquan would come to a tragic end during the Siege of Tianjing in 1864. His dream of establishing the Divine Kingdom came to a halting end due to internal strife, external opposition, and the relentless onslaught of the Qing Dynasty. At the end of the conflict between the God Worshiping Society and the Qing forces, he, along with his followers, were besieged in the town of Tianjing. To combat low food supplies, Hong ordered his men to eat herbs and weed. Hong died in June 1864 and his cause of death remains shrouded in mystery. Some believe that he died because of illness caused by eating weed, others claim that he died by suicide by poisoning.

Legacy

Hong’s body was exhumed by the Qing forces a month after his burial. It was then beheaded and cremated and the ashes were blasted out of a canon to ensure that he would not have a permanent resting place. Hong and his Taiping Revolution would serve as an inspiration for the communists of China during the Chinese Civil War. Mao Zedong is said to have admired Hong Xiuquan and his rebellion as a legitimate peasant uprising that preceded his own.