Your history lesson for today

[Randy W]

from the Shanghaiist - on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/shanghaiist/photos/a.10150265973296030/10158082605716030/?type=3&theater

 

Shanghaiist

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155 years ago today, on June 1, 1864, Hong Xiuquan, a failed scholar who rebelled against the Qing dynasty and established the short-lived Taiping Heavenly Kingdom which gained control over significant portions of Southern China, died at the age of 50.

Hong was born to a Hakka family in Guangdong province. His family invested much in his education, however, he would go on to fail China’s civil service examinations over and over. In 1836, he met Edwin Stevens, an American missionary who was preaching Christianity in Guangzhou, and received a set of religious pamphlets from him.

After failing the exam for a third time, Hong suffered a serious mental breakdown. His fourth failure, in 1843, caused him to finally look at the pamphlets. He came to believe that he was the literal son of God and younger brother of Jesus Christ who had been tasked with a divine mission of ridding China of demon worship, or, as he saw it, Confucianism. Hong established the “God Worshippers Society,” a movement that would lead to the Taiping Rebellion against the Dragon Throne, one of deadliest military conflicts in world history in which at least 20 million people died.

 

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/shanghaiist/photos/a.10150265973296030/10158082605716030/?type=3&theater

 

 

A lengthy article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hong-Xiuquan

 

or check Google if you want to read more

 

Hong Xiuquan

CHINESE PROPHET AND REBEL

 

 

Hong Xiuquan, Wade-Giles romanization Hung Hsiu-ch’üan, original name Hong Renkun, literary name (hao) Xiuquan, (born Jan. 1, 1814, Huaxian [now Huadu], Guangdong province, China—died June 1, 1864, Nanjing), Chinese religious prophet and leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), during which he declared his own new dynasty, which centred on the captured (1853) city of Nanjing. This great upheaval, in which more than 20,000,000 people are said to have been killed, drastically altered the course of modern Chinese history.