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God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan |  | Author: Jonathan D. Spence
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
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Rating:  25 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 10 x 8.4 x 0.3
ISBN: 0393038440
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.034092
EAN: 9780393038446
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Product Description
A history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in mid-nineteenth-century China profiles a period of extreme violence, during which a massive uprising, led by religious visionary Hong Xiuquan, cost some twenty million lives. National ad/promo. Tour.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
 Narrative history as good as it gets. April 21, 1999
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
God's Chinese Son is a stunning work of historical scholarship -- an equal mixture of solid documentation, cogent argument and imaginative brilliance. Spence takes the historical biography form and uses it not only to illuminate a fascinating life, but also to turn that life into a window on his own rich, layered reconstruction of 19th-century China. Well worth buying, reading and re-reading; a must for the serious student and the casual reader alike.
Fascinating but a bit difficult to read. April 6, 2000
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I found this book to be incredibly interesting--I could hardly put it down. However, it is written entirely in present tense, some sort of post-modern angle, I suppose. Other than that, I would highly recommend it. The Taiping Rebellion is perhaps the most underrated event in human history. This book helps get the story out to a wider readership. The discussion of Hong's religious beliefs, a mixture of Christianity and his own personal odd opinions, is a fascinating study in the origin of a religious sect, making the book well worth the time to read for that part alone.
religious fanaticism in a decaying empire November 4, 2001
simpcity
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
The Taipings are a fascinating study in fanaticism. The idea that one man could override established religion and the Ching Empire is audacious. There seems to be some debate among many of the reviewers of this book over exactly what constitutes Chinese history.
Let's be blunt: how did China get from 1800 to 2000? Where else in the world has this 200-year transition been so complex? Perhaps Professor Spence's work should be compared with the Foreign Languages Press (Peking) booklet "The Taiping Revolution" (1976). The facts are not at variance; the factual account itself may be irrelevant.
Chinese history and culture is older than our own, and it is naive to believe that our difficulty in understanding the convergence of these two worlds can be laid on the facts. Hong Xiuquan's perception of the west might itself justify the book.
Personally, I thought this was a beautifully written book, balancing the historical record with the problems of prose. If the Boxers were Ghost Dancers, attempting to overturn history, then the Taipings were something else; perhaps not revolutionaries, as the Gang of Four would have it, but certainly visionaries struggling to reestablish order between Heaven and earth.
Great On Hong Xiuquan, His Life, Theology, but Not a Story of Battles & The Rebellion January 16, 2009
David M. Dougherty (Arkansas)
This book is about the pivotal event in Chinese History between 200BC and 1920 and laid the groundwork for the two Chinese revolutions of Mao Tse-Tung and Sun Yat-Sen. Hong Xiuquon's version of Christianity was the first major (widespread) introduction of a new religion into China in 2,000 years, and challenged the Manchu Dynasty, a foreign ruling line over China to its very core. The Manchus (or Qing Dynasty) were enfeebled and would only last another 50 years before succumbing to the revolutionary spirit so encouraged by Hong and his followers.
Hong founded a new religion following his visions wherein he ascended to Heaven meeting God and Jesus and was ordered to create the Taiping Heavenly Movement in China and slay the evil demons who ruled China and bring the people onto the path of righteousness. Jesus became his elder brother and guided him often by speaking to him in visions. In effect, Hong became filled with the Holy Spirit and devoted himself to his Heavenly ordained task. The reader will no doubt notice some striking simularities with other religious prophets and leaders since the time of Jesus. At any rate, Hong acquired a copy of the Bible, and began his lifelong work at translating, re-writing and adapting it to Chinese culture.
Much of author Spence's work focuses on the development of Hong's Christian/Taiping theological doctrine through an examination of Hong's extensive writings. Those readers looking for a thrilling account of the Taiping Rebellion and its gaining of control over a large part of China through some 15 years of military campaigning (1849-1866) will be sorely disappointed. The military campaigns are mentioned to support the development of Hong's Heaven on Earth, but a military historian would be better directed to some of the other works listed in Spence's bibliography.
The period of the Taiping Rebellion was also the same period as the American Civil War, but American casualties in the war were miniscule by comparison. The Taiping Rebellion caused more deaths in a single country than any other war in history. Estimated deaths range from a low of twenty million to a high of sixty million when deaths from all causes are included. In second place comes the casualties in the Soviet Union through World War II, yet the Taiping Rebellion is almost unknown in the West.
Although the author does not dwell on the role of the British and French excessively in his work, their impact was probably decisive in bringing about the defeat and extirpation of the Taipings. After forcing the Manchu Emperor to accede to British demands through "gunboat diplomacy", the British and French supported the Qings in their campaigns against the Taiping and effectively blockaded the Taipings from receiving outside help. They also held Hong's version of Christianity in contempt -- the British out of sheer arrogance and the Catholic French because it was a heresy. And, of course, both possessed a financial stake in defeating the Taipings due to their opium trade with the Qings that the Taipings held as one of the evils to be eliminated. In effect, Britian and France went to war to protect their opium trade against those who sought to eliminate it. How different history would have been had the British and French not acted out of the folly of short-sighted financial self-interest -- particularly in a interest every bit as odious as slavery.
I found the Taiping leader Hong Rengan's depictions of other people amusing. The British were intelligent but proud by nature, the Germans primitive but devout and conscientious, Scandinavians serene, France too steeped in mystical religion to be truly praised, and the Americans righteous and powerful, and very surprisingly, when gold or silver are discovered in America, they allow foreigners to come and dig for it. It seems like this may contain some lessons for us today.
The Taipings conquered much of central China and took possession of Nanking for their Heavenly Capital in March, 1853. They would hold the city until July, 1864, shortly after the death of Hong Xiuquan in June, 1864.
Although the author curiously cannot bring himself to wishing the Taipings had defeated the Manchus (perhaps appalled by the enormous casualties and suffering caused by the unsuccessful revolution), it must be emphasized that the Taiping movement was a groundswell rebellion formed initially by the hill people of China, the Hakka, including peasants, lower-ranking merchants and skilled and semi-skilled workers. As such, it was a true people's movement and has received much attention by the Chinese Communists. In fact, Hong's march to the North to escape Qing encirclement roughly parallels Mao's Long March and certainly provides an historical precedence for some of Mao's strategies.
Nonetheless, the emphasis of the book is on Hong and his religion so that Westeners can have a fighting chance at grasping what the Taiping Rebellion was all about. Some earlier reviewers have criticized the author for not explaining how Hong came to his version of Christianity and not explaining the source of the strength and fanaticism of the Taiping troops. I believe they missed what the author said -- Hong's visions made him a true believer, perhaps much in the same way as Mohammad or Joseph Smith. His followers saw what they perceived as miracles and when coupled with the ethical and righteous nature of Hong's teachings, they were converted with all the intensity of those who suddenly see the light. This is not something an author can easily explain in simple terms. So why were the disciples of Jesus "filled with the Holy Spirit" and able to create the beginnings of Christianity against all odds after the death of their leader? Hong and his followers experienced a similar epiphany and were empowered as a result. Why is that so difficult to understand? No religion has an exclusive on devoutness.
This is an important work and fully recommended. For those who want military campaigns and battles, they must look elsewhere. The majority of this work concerns the development of the religion of the Taipings, much like the Gospels and the books of Acts. As such, it fills a gap in the literature and deserves to be read to fill an enormous hole in Western knowledge. One should not easily dismiss Hong as a heretic or deceiver -- rather he was a visionary attempting to bring the Heavenly Kingdom to China. He deserves to be better remembered in history.
Highly recommended November 26, 1998
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was captivated by this book. It taught me much about an area of history I knew little about and I'm looking forward to reading more of Jonathan Spence's work.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
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