Editing Taiping Rebellion (section)

== Background ==
[[File:Hong Xiuquan.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|An alleged{{efn|According to P. Richard Bohr, this is a [[woodblock print]] of an unidentified Taiping leader.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bohr |first=P. Richard |year=2009 |title=Did the Hakka Save China? Ethnicity, Identity, and Minority Status in China's Modern Transformation |url=https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/headwaters/vol26/iss1/3/ |journal=Headwaters |publisher=College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University |volume=26 |page=13}}</ref>}} drawing of [[Hong Xiuquan]], dating from around the early 1850s]]
During the 19th century, the [[Qing dynasty]] experienced [[List of famines in China|a series of famines]], natural disasters, economic problems and defeats at the hands of foreign powers.{{sfnp|Chesneaux|1973|pp=23–24}} Farmers were heavily overtaxed, rents rose dramatically, and peasants started to desert their lands in droves.{{sfnp|Michael|1966|pp=4, 10}} The Qing military had recently suffered a disastrous defeat in the [[First Opium War]], while the Chinese economy was severely impacted by a trade imbalance caused by the large-scale and illicit importation of opium.{{sfnp|Michael|1966|pp=15–16}} Banditry became common, and numerous secret societies and self-defense units formed, all of which led to an increase in small-scale warfare.{{sfnp|Michael|1966|pp=10–12}}

Meanwhile, the [[population of China]] had nearly doubled between 1766 and 1833, while the amount of cultivated land remained the same.{{sfnp|Michael|1966|pp=14–15}} The government, commanded by ethnic [[Manchus]], had become increasingly corrupt, and was weak in southern regions where local clans dominated.<ref>C. A. Curwen, ''Taiping Rebel: The Deposition of Li Hsiu-ch'eng'' (1977) p. 2</ref> [[Anti-Manchu sentiment]] was strongest in southern China among the [[Hakka]] community, a [[Han Chinese]] subgroup. Meanwhile, Christian missionaries were active.<ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Pamela Kyle|author-last1=Crossley|title=The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800|year=2010|page=103}}</ref>

In 1837, [[Hong Xiuquan|Hong Huoxiu]], a Hakka from a poor village in [[Guangdong]], failed the [[imperial examination]] for the third time, frustrating his ambition to become a [[scholar-official]] in the civil service and leading him to a nervous breakdown.{{sfnp|Jian|1973|pp=15–18}}{{sfnp|Jian|1973|pp=15–18}}{{sfnp|Michael|1966|p=23}}{{sfnp|Spence|1996|pp=47–49}} While recovering, Hong dreamed of visiting Heaven, where he discovered that he possessed a celestial family distinct from his earthly family. His heavenly father lamented that men were worshiping demons rather than himself and informed Hong that his given name violated taboos and had to be changed, suggesting "[[Hong Xiuquan]]", the moniker ultimately adopted by Hong.{{sfnp|Spence|1996|pp=47–49}} In later embellishments, Hong declared that he saw [[Confucius]] being punished by his celestial father for leading the people astray.{{sfnp|Michael|Chang|1966|p=28}}

In 1843, Hong failed the imperial examinations for the fourth and final time.{{sfnp|Jian|1973|p=19}} It was only then, prompted by a visit by his cousin, that Hong took time to carefully examine Christian pamphlets he had received from a Protestant Christian missionary several years earlier.{{sfnp|Jian|1973|p=20}}{{sfnp|Spence|1996|p=64}} After reading these pamphlets, Hong came to believe that they had given him the key to interpreting his visions: his celestial father was [[God the Father]] (whom he identified with [[Shangdi]] from Chinese tradition), the elder brother that he had seen was [[Jesus Christ]], and he had been directed to rid the world of demons, including the corrupt Qing government and Confucian teachings.{{sfnp|Spence|1996|p=64}}<ref name="sources">{{Cite book |last1=De Bary |first1=William Theodore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DaarAgAAQBAJ |title=Sources of Chinese Tradition |last2=Lufrano |first2=Richard |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-231-11271-0 |volume=2 |pages=213–215}}</ref>{{sfnp|Jian|1973|p=20}} 

In 1847, Hong went to [[Guangzhou]], where he studied the Bible with [[Issachar Jacox Roberts]], an American Baptist missionary.<ref>Teng, Yuah Chung. "Reverend Issachar Jacox Roberts and the Taiping Rebellion". ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', Vol 23, No. 1 (November 1963), pp. 55–67</ref> Roberts refused to baptize him and later stated that Hong's followers were "bent on making their burlesque religious pretensions serve their political purpose".<ref name="Rhee-Asian-Millenarianism">{{Cite book |last=Rhee |first=Hong Beom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E8IRdcnxg08C |title=Asian Millenarianism: An Interdisciplinary Study of the Taiping and Tonghak Rebellions in a Global Context |publisher=Cambria |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-934-04342-4 |location=Youngstown, NY |pages=163, 172, 186–187, 191}}</ref>

[[File:Qing Empire circa 1820 EN.svg|thumb|upright=1|A map of the [[Qing dynasty]] {{circa|1820}}]]
In 1844, soon after Hong began preaching across Guangxi, his follower [[Feng Yunshan]] founded the [[God Worshipping Society]], a movement which followed Hong's fusion of Christianity, [[Taoism]], [[Confucianism]] and indigenous [[millenarianism]], which Hong presented as a restoration of the ancient Chinese faith in Shangdi.{{sfnp|Spence|1996|pp=78–80}}{{sfnp|Kilcourse|2016|p={{page needed|date=April 2021}}}}{{sfnp|Reilly|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XbrNq1sBVtMC&q=Taiping+Christianity 4]}} The Taiping faith, says one historian, "developed into a dynamic new Chinese religion ... Taiping Christianity".{{sfnp|Reilly|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XbrNq1sBVtMC&q=Taiping+Christianity 4]}}

In the late 1840s, the movement at first grew by suppressing groups of bandits and pirates in southern China. Suppression by Qing authorities led it to evolve into guerrilla warfare and subsequently a widespread civil war. Eventually, two other God Worshipers claimed to possess the ability to speak as members of the "Celestial Family", [[Shangdi|the Father]] in the case of [[Yang Xiuqing]] and Jesus Christ in the case of [[Xiao Chaogui]].{{sfnp|Spence|1996|pp=97–99}}{{sfnp|Michael|1966|p=35}}