Prophecy and Rebellion in China

Rising Western influence in China, reversing economic fortunes, and social problems associated with the opium trade all signaled the Qing’s inability to curb foreign influence. Sensing China was due for a change, Hong Xiuquan moved to restore China’s greatness by rejecting the Confucian order in favor of one based on quasi-Christian ideals and Buddhist/Daoist views of egalitarianism and millenarianism.

After failing the Confucian exam, Hong dreamed that God the Father and Jesus Christ commanded him to slay the Qing Manchu "demons" that infested China and restore God’s kingdom on the Earth. Preaching earned Hong a following that attacked icons of Confucianism and condemned Qing rule. Conclusion of the Opium War shifted trading routes further to the north, throwing large numbers of transport workers and other marginalized people out of work. Many joined Hong’s movement and its new social order based on Bible teachings, equality of the sexes, common property, and strict restrictions on "indulgences." Qing efforts to defeat the Taiping only dislodged them, precipitating a bloody trek to Nanjing, where they ruled for ten years before falling to factionalism and combined Qing and Western forces. Although the Taiping Movement did not last, the impulse to form an alternative order did.

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