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A statue of Hong Xiuquan
A statue of Hong Xiuquan

Hóng Xiùquán (Chinese: 洪秀全; pinyin: Hóng Xiùquán; Wade-Giles: Hung Hsiu-ch'üan; January 1, 1814 – June 1, 1864), born Hong Renkun (洪仁坤), courtesy name Huoxiu (火秀), was a Hakka Chinese who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, establishing the short-lived "Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping" over varying portions of southern China, with himself as the "Heavenly King" and self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Wade-Giles (ˌweɪdˈʤaɪlz) sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system (phonetic notation and Transcription) for the Mandarin New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1814 ( MDCCCXIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 193 - Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is Assassinated 987 - Hugh Capet is elected Year 1864 ( MDCCCLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name ( zì) is a given name to be used later in life The Hakkas ( Hakka language: Hak-kâ; Mandarin Chinese: Kèjiā) are a subgroup of the Han Chinese people who live predominantly China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The Taiping Rebellion or Rebellion of Great Peace was a large-scale Revolt against the authority and forces of the Qing Government in China Not to be confused with Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China Tian Wang (天王 translatable as either "heavenly prince" or "heavenly king" was a Chinese regal title that was most frequently used during the Sixteen Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE)

Contents

Early life and education

Hong Xiuquan
Hong Xiuquan

He was born in Fuyuanshui Village (福源水村), Hua County (traditional Chinese: 花縣; Cantonese Yale: Fa Yuen, now Huadu (花都市)), Guangdong to Hong Jingyang (洪競揚) and Wang-shi (王氏). The Yale romanizations are four systems created during World War II for use by United States military personnel. Huadu District ( Chinese: 花都区 / 花都區 Pinyin: Huādu Qū is a district in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Guangdong ( EFEO: Kouangtong; Pinyin Guǎngdōng; Postal map spelling: Kwangtung) is a province on the His grandfather was Hong Guoyou (洪國游), who was, like his ancestors, a farmer. An ancestor is a Parent or ( recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i A farmer is a person who raises living organisms for food or raw materials He later moved to Guānlùbù Village (官祿㘵村).

Hong started studying at a school called Book Chamber House (書房閣) at age seven. He was able to recite the Four Classics after five or six years. The Four Great Classical Novels, or Four Major Classical Novels ( of Chinese literature, are the four novels commonly counted by scholars to be the greatest and most At around the age of fifteen his parents were no longer able to afford his schooling, so he became a tutor to other children in his village and continued to study privately. He took the local preliminary examinations and came first, so at the age of 22 in 1836, he took the first-degree (秀才) civil service examinations in Guangzhou. The Imperial examinations ( in Imperial China determined who among the population would be permitted to enter the state's Bureaucracy. Guangzhou ( Jyutping: Gwong²zau¹; Yale: Gwóngjàu) is the Capital and a Sub-provincial city Unsurprisingly, he failed, as imperial examinations had a pass rate of 1%. [1] He retook the test four times, but never succeeded.

He later attained the position of instructor (塾師) at Book Chamber Building and several schools in Lianhuatang (蓮花塘) and other villages.

Visions and iconoclasm

On his visit to Guangzhou to take the civil service examinations in 1836, Hong heard a Christian missionary preaching about the religion. While there he received translations and summaries of the Bible written by the Christian missionary Liang Fa. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin Liang Fa (梁發 Pinyin: Liang2 Fa1 (梁發 1789 - 1855 was the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. The following year Hong failed the examinations again and apparently suffered a nervous collapse. During his recovery in 1837 he had a number of mystical visions. One involved an old man who complained to Hong about men worshiping demons rather than him. In a second one he saw Confucius being punished for his faithlessness, after which he repented. Confucius ( lit " Master Kung " September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher In yet another he dreamed angels carried him to heaven where he met a man in a black dragon robe with a long golden beard who gave him a sword and a magic seal, and told him to purify China of the demons. Heaven may refer to the physical heavens the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the Universe beyond Several years later he would interpret this to mean that God the Heavenly Father, whom he identified with Shangdi from the Chinese tradition, and his older brother, Jesus Christ, wanted him to rid the world of demon worship. Shangdi (上帝 Pinyin: Shàngdì, Wade-Giles Shang Ti) is the Supreme God in the original religious system of the Han Chinese Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) [2] His friends and family said that after this episode he became authoritative and solemn.

It was not until 7 years later that Hong took the time to carefully examine the religious tracts he had received. In his house Hong burned all Confucian and Buddhist statues and books, and began to preach to his community about his visions. Confucianism ( is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the fifth century B Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices A statue is a Sculpture in the round representing a person or persons an animal or an event normally full-length as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size His earliest converts were relatives of his who had also failed their examinations and belonged to the Hakka minority, Feng Yunshan and Hong Rengan. Feng Yunshan (馮雲山 was an important leader during the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing government 1850&ndash1864 Hong Rengan ( 1822– November 23, 1864) was an important leader of the Taiping Rebellion. He joined with them to destroy idols in small villages to the ire of local citizens and officials. Hong and his converts' acts were not surprisingly considered sacrilegious and they were persecuted by Confucians who forced them to leave their positions as village tutors. Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan fled the district in 1844, walking some 300 miles to the west to Guangxi, where the large Hakka population was much more willing to receive his teachings. Guangxi (or Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region;) is a Zhuang autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. [2] As a symbolic gesture to purge China of Confucianism, he asked for two giant swords, three-chi (about 1 metre) long and nine-jin (about 5. Chinese units of measurement ( are the customary and traditional units of measure used in the People's Republic of China. Chinese units of measurement ( are the customary and traditional units of measure used in the People's Republic of China. 5 kg), called the "demon-slaying swords" (斬妖劍), to be forged. [3]

The God worshippers

Hong then preached to a large number of charcoal-burners on Zijin Mountain (紫金山) in Guiping District (桂平縣), who mostly belonged to the Hakka minority like Hong himself, and readily joined him. Charcoal' is the blackish residue consisting of impure Carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from Animal and Vegetation Purple Mountain or Zijin Mountain ( also known as Bell Mountain ( is located on the eastern side of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, N32 5 E118 48 447 The Hakkas ( Hakka language: Hak-kâ; Mandarin Chinese: Kèjiā) are a subgroup of the Han Chinese people who live predominantly He preached a mix of communal utopianism, evangelism and his idiosyncratic quasi-Christianity. Evangelism is the Christian practice of proselytisation. The intention of most evangelism is to effect Eternal salvation to those who do not follow the Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings While proclaiming sexual equality, the sect segregated men from women and encouraged all its followers to pay their assets into a communal treasury. By the end of the 1840s, Hong had a sizeable following which he called the God Worshippers (拜上帝會), but local officials were still attempting to suppress his religious movement after his move to Guangxi. [2]

In 1847 Hong studied with the American Southern Baptist missionary Reverend Issachar Jacox Roberts for two months in Guangzhou, during which time he gained most of his knowledge of Christianity. The Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC) is a United States -based mostly conservative Christian denomination Issachar Jacox Roberts (1802 &ndash 1871 was an American Baptist missionary in 19th century China. [2] He formally studied the Old Testament. In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. After Hong asked Roberts for aid in maintaining his sect, Roberts (wary of people converting to Christianity for economic aid) refused to baptise him. In Christianity, baptism ( Greek, "immersing" "performing Ablutions " is the ritual act with the use of water by which one is admitted [4]

When Hong returned to Guangxi, he found that Feng had accumulated a following of around 2,000 converts. Guangxi was a dangerous area at this time with many bandit groups based in the mountains and pirates on the rivers. This is about the television program Bandit as a general term refers to Outlaw. Piracy is Robbery committed at sea or sometimes on shore without a commission from a sovereign Nation (as distinct from Privateering Perhaps due to these more pressing concerns, the authorities were largely tolerant of Hong and his followers. However, the instability of the region meant that Hong's followers were inevitably drawn into conflict with other groups, not least because of their predominately Hakka ethnicity. There are records of numerous incidents when local villages and clans, as well as groups of pirates and bandits, came into conflict with the authorities, and responded by fleeing to join Hong's movement. The rising tension between the sect and the authorities was probably the most important factor in Hong's eventual decision to rebel.

Rebellion and the Heavenly Kingdom

Main article: Taiping Rebellion
Members of the Taiping army meeting Hong Xiuquan, their king
Members of the Taiping army meeting Hong Xiuquan, their king

By 1850 Hong had between 10,000 and 30,000 followers. The Taiping Rebellion or Rebellion of Great Peace was a large-scale Revolt against the authority and forces of the Qing Government in China The authorities were alarmed at the growing size of the sect and ordered them to disperse. A local force was sent to attack them when they refused, but imperial troops were routed and a deputy magistrate killed. A full-scale attack was launched by the government forces in the first month of 1851. In what came to be known as the Jintian Uprising, after the town of Jintian (now Guiping) where the sect was based. The Jintian Uprising (金田起義 was formally declared by Hong Xiuquan, leader of the disastrous Taiping Rebellion on January 11, 1851, during Hong's followers emerged victorious and beheaded the Manchu commander of the government troops. Decapitation (from Latin, caput, capitis, meaning head or beheading, is the cutting off of the head of a person or animal The Manchu people ( Manchu: Manju;, Mongolian: Манж Russian: Маньчжуры are a Tungusic people who originated in

Hong declared the foundation of the "Heavenly Kingdom of Transcendent Peace" on January 11, 1851. Events 1055 - Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire. 1851 ( MDCCCLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year

Despite this evidence of forward planning, Hong and his followers faced immediate challenges. The local Green Standard Army outnumbered them ten to one, and had recruited the help of the river pirates to keep the rebellion contained to Jintian. Green Standard Army (Lüying 綠營 is the name of a category of military units under the control of the Qing Dynasty in China After a month of preparation the Taipings managed to break through the blockade and fight their way to the town of Yongan (not to be confused with Yong'an), which fell to them on September 25, 1851. Yong'an (永安 Pinyin: Yǒng'ān Wade-Giles Yung-an is a County-level city in China 's Fujian province on the Sha River Events 303 - On a voyage preaching the Gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France

Hong and his troops remained in Yongan for three months, sustained by local landowners who were hostile to the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The imperial army regrouped and launched another attack on the Taipings in Yongan. Having run out of gunpowder, Hong's followers fought their way out by sword, and made for the city of Guilin, which they laid siege. Guilin ( Pinyin: Guìlín) is a city in China, situated in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on the west bank of the However, the fortifications of Guilin proved too secure, and Hong and his followers eventually gave up and set out northwards, towards Hunan. ( is a province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting (hence the name Hunan, meaning Here, they encountered an elite militia created by a local member of the gentry specifically to put down peasant rebellions. The two forces fought at Soyi Ford on June 10, 1852 where the Taipings were forced into retreat, and 20% of their troops were killed. Events 1190 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem Year 1852 ( MDCCCLII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year But in March 1853 Taiping forces managed to take Nanjing and turned it into the capital of their movement. ( Chinese: 南京 Romanizations Nánjīng ( Pinyin) Nan-ching ( Wade-Giles

Hong Xiuquan ruled by making frequent proclamations from his Heavenly Palace, demanding strict compliance with various moral and religious rules. Most trade was suppressed and property socialized. Polygamy was forbidden and men and women were separated, although Hong and other leaders maintained groups of concubines.

Yang Xiuqing was a fellow Taiping leader (the "East King") who had directed successful military campaigns and who often claimed to speak with the voice of God. Yang Xiuqing ( Chinese 楊秀清 Wade-Giles Yang Hsiu-Ch'ing (died September 2/3 1856 organizer and Commander-in-chief of the Taiping Rebellion Hong became increasingly suspicious of Yang's ambitions and his network of spies; in 1856 he had Yang and his family murdered.

Following a failed attempt by the Taiping to take Shanghai in 1860, the Qing forces, aided by Western officers, slowly gained ground. Shanghai ( 上[[wikt 海|海]] is the largest city in China in terms of population and one of the largest urban areas in the world with over 20 million

Death

Some sources say Hong committed suicide by taking poison on June 1, 1864 at the age of 52 after Qing authorities finally gained a decisive military advantage and all hope of maintaining his kingdom was lost. Events 193 - Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is Assassinated 987 - Hugh Capet is elected However, in other sources, he was said to have died of illness. Illness (sometimes referred to as ill-health or ail) can be defined as a state of poor Health. Hong Rengan, Hong's cousin said his illness was caused by "eating manna"--a command taken from the Bible that Hong had given to his people as they starved. Hong Rengan ( 1822– November 23, 1864) was an important leader of the Taiping Rebellion. Manna (sometimes or archaically spelt mana) ( Hebrew: מָ‏ן) is the name of a Food which according to the Bible, was eaten by

He was succeeded by his teenage son, Hong Tianguifu. Hong Tianguifu (洪天貴福 in Pinyin: Hóng Tiānguìfú ( 1848 - November 18, 1864) also called Hong Tiangui and in Qing The Taiping Rebellion was put down by Qing forces later in 1864.

Publications

Quotes

The following poem, called "The Poem on Executing the Vicious and Preserving the Righteous" (斬邪留正詩), written in 1837 by Hong, illustrates his religious thinking and goal that later lead to the establishment of the "Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping". Year 1837 ( MDCCCXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Note that in the second last line, the name of the then yet-to-come kingdom is mentioned. This, and other poems of his, are considered by some scholars to be of low quality, because the lack of use of classical phrases.

Holding the Universe in the hand,
I slay the evil, spare the righteous, and relieve the suffering of the people.
My eyes see through beyond the west, the north, the rivers, and the mountains,
My sounds shake the east, the south, the Sun, and the Moon.
The glorious sword of authority was given by Lord,
Poems and books are evidences that praise Yahweh in front of Him. For information about Yahweh see God in Abrahamic religions, which provides useful links
Taiping [perfect Peace] unifies the World of Light,
The domineering air will be joyous for myriads of thousand years.

手握乾坤殺伐權，斬邪留正解民懸。眼通西北江山外，聲振東南日月邊。璽劍光榮存帝賜，詩章憑據誦爺前，太平一統光世界，威風快樂萬千年

Legacy

Views and opinions on Hong differ greatly.

The Chinese communists under Mao Zedong generally admired Hong and his movement as a legitimate peasant uprising that anticipated their own. Mao Zedong ( 26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Military and political leader who led [5] Sun Yat-sen came from the same area as Hong Xiuquan and is said to have identified with Hong since his childhood days. Sun Yat-sen ( November 12, 1866 &ndash March 12, 1925) was a Chinese Revolutionary and political leader often [5]

In 1959 the PRC established a small museum, Hong Xiuquan's Former Residence Memorial Museum (洪秀全故居紀念館), in his birthplace where there is a longan tree planted by him. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The longan ( Cantonese long-ngan; literally " dragon eye" Thai ลำไย is a tropical Tree native to southern The museum's plate is written by the famous literary figure, Guo Moruo (郭沫若) (1892–1978). Guo Moruo ( Courtesy name Dǐng Táng 鼎堂 ( November 16, 1892 - June 12, 1978) was a Chinese author Poet The residence and Book Chamber Building were renovated in 1961.

Hong Xiuquan has been compared to Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi in that he rallies a large number of people behind a religious or spiritual cause to challenge the status quo, although Li's political intentions have been of intense debate. Falun Gong ( or Falun Dafa is a spiritual practice founded in China by Li Hongzhi （李洪志） in 1992 Li Hongzhi ( (born in Gongzhuling city Jilin, China) is the founder of Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa a system of " Mind-body cultivation"

References

  1. ^ Gray (1990), p. 55
  2. ^ a b c d De Bary, Wm. Theodore; Lufrano, Richard (2000), Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 2, Columbia University Press, pp. 213-215, ISBN 978 0 231 11271 0 
  3. ^ Spence (1996), p. 67. "The two men discuss Hong's dream, and feel that some of it, at least, can be understood literally. So together they order a local craftsman to forge two double-edged swords--each sword nine pounds in weight, and three feet in length--with three characters carved upon each blade, 'Sword for exterminating demons'. "}}
  4. ^ Spence (1996)
  5. ^ a b Cohen, Paul A. (2003). China Unbound: Evolving Perspectives on the Chinese Past, p. 212.

References

External links

Preceded by
none		 Heavenly King of Taiping
1851-1864		 Succeeded by
Hong Tianguifu
Hong Tianguifu (洪天貴福 in Pinyin: Hóng Tiānguìfú ( 1848 - November 18, 1864) also called Hong Tiangui and in Qing
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