Hong Xiuquan
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Hong Xiuquan (January 1st, 1814 - June 1st, 1864) was a Chinese revolutionary and self-proclaimed younger brother of Jesus Christ who established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Early life edit
Hong Xiuquan was born in Hua County, Guangzhou. He showed promise in being a scholar, so his family soon sent him to take the civil service exam, which he failed. Since his family could not afford having him do it again, he returned to work as a schoolteacher and a farmer.
Later life edit
Hong did more training and in 1836 returned to take the exam. On the way he heard a Christian preacher giving a sermon. He approached the preacher, who gave him detailed Jesus pamphlets. He then went on to take the exam, and failed again. The following year, after failing it a third time, he suffered a nervous breakdown. He dreamed that God came to him and told him he was his Heavenly Father, and Jesus was his Heavenly Brother. He also gave Hong a sword and told him to 'slay the demons infesting Heaven'.
In 1843, when Hong failed the exam for the fourth time, his cousin visited him and prompted him to look over the Jesus pamphlets he had received. He then came to the conclusion that the Heavenly Father was the God from his dream, and that his Heavenly Brother must be Jesus. He also thought he was told to 'rid the world of demon worship'.
Hong immediately began to destroy anything Buddhist or Confucian in his house while preaching of his vision to his local village. He made several converts, who proceeded to destroy Buddha and Confucius statues. This enraged other villagers, who saw their acts as sacrilegious, and Hong and his followers decided to flee. Hong and his cousin Feng Yunshan decided to travel and preach his interpretation of Christianity, before parting ways. Hong went back to being a teacher, writing about his religious experience.
Hong then invited to study with an American Southern Baptist missionary, Reverend Isaachar Jacox Roberts. Hong accepted and converted to Protestantism. He then requested to be baptized, which Roberts refused. He then met with Feng on Mount Thistle, where he discovered the 'God Worshiping Society' that Feng had founded.
Taiping Rebellion edit
By 1851, Hong's group of followers reached between 10,000 and 30,000. Local authorities ordered them to disperse, which they refused. The Qing Dynasty then sent a full-scale army to remove them. Hong's followers emerged victorious, beheading the Manchu commander in the process. Hong then declared the birth of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and himself as its Heavenly King. He then started the Taiping Rebellion, the second-bloodiest war in history (Only behind World War II) where approximately 20-30 million people died.
By 1864, the Qing Dynasty, with the help of Western Powers such as Britain and France, had turned the tide in their favor, and the Qing had sieged Tianjing (The Heavenly Kingdom's capital, now Nanjing) . Hong said that God will provide manna for every man, woman, and child in Tianjing and they will withstand the siege. However, manna got mistranslated as some kind of herb, so Hong Xiuquan ate weeds and soon died of food poisoning.