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71-671: Hong Xiuquan (1 January 1814 – 1 June 1864), born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun , was a Chinese revolutionary and religious leader who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty . He established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over large portions of southern China, with himself as its " Heavenly King ". Born into a Hakka family in Guangzhou , Hong claimed to have experienced mystical visions after failing

142-467: A " tract ", it was over 500 pages long in nine stand-alone chapters or scrolls ( juan ), which appear to have often been printed in four-volume sets. It largely dwelt on the omnipotence of God the Father , the degrading nature and effects of idolatry and other sins, and the personal choice between salvation and damnation. Its actual text long went unstudied since only four copies are known to have survived

213-420: A cannon to ensure that his remains had no resting place, as an eternal punishment for the uprising. Views and opinions on Hong differ greatly. The Communists under Mao Zedong generally admired Hong and his rebellion as a legitimate peasant uprising that anticipated their own. Sun Yat-sen came from the same area as Hong and was said to have identified with Hong since his childhood days. To honor his legacy,

284-597: A failed attempt by the Taiping rebels to take Shanghai in 1860, Qing government forces, aided by Western officers, slowly gained ground. In the spring of 1864, Tianjing was besieged and dangerously low on food supplies. Hong's solution was to order his subjects to eat manna , which had been translated into Chinese as sweetened dew and a medicinal herb. Hong himself gathered weeds from the grounds of his palace, which he then ate. Hong fell ill in April 1864, possibly due to his ingestion of

355-482: A farmer and elected headman and his mother was surnamed Wang. No less than nine different dates are given for Hong Xiuquan's birth: Jian Youwen established based on documentary evidence that Hong was born on 1 January 1814. This date is accepted by most scholars, including noted Chinese historian Luo Ergang . Some sources claim his family was "well to do". He and his family moved to Guanlubu Village shortly after his birth. Upon marrying his wife Lai Xiying, Hong received

426-564: A general cultural tendency to regard names as significant , the choice of what name to bestow upon one's children was considered very important in traditional China. Yan Zhitui of the Northern Qi dynasty asserted that whereas the purpose of a given name was to distinguish one person from another, a courtesy name should express the bearer's moral integrity. Prior to the twentieth century, sinicized Koreans , Vietnamese , and Japanese were also referred to by their courtesy name. The practice

497-420: A hundred might watch their ceremony. He baptized Hok Chau , who worked at the hospital illustrating Hobson's medical treatises, in 1852; Chau later went on to succeed Liang as minister there. He was unhappy with his son Jinde's government job, which required him to work on Sundays. He also had a daughter ( b . 1829) and a third child, who died in 1832. He died on 12 April 1855. Liang Fa wrote under

568-489: A lay evangelist for the London Missionary Society and in 1827 ordained him as a full minister, the first native Chinese to do so. He preached at hospitals and chapels and, after writing his own tracts, thought to distribute Christian literature to the scholars gathered for the prefectural and provincial imperial exams . He printed 7,000 or 70,000 tracts in a single year and personally distributed them to

639-401: A localized Bible translated into Chinese. Many Western missionaries grew jealous of Hong and his local ministry. These competing missionaries were fond of spreading defamatory rumors such as his "lack of baptism." (Hong and his cousin were in fact both baptized according to the way prescribed in the pamphlet "Good words to admonish the age"). In 1847, Hong began his translation and adaptation of

710-428: A man – as the first character of the disyllabic courtesy name. Thus, for example, Gongsun Qiao 's courtesy name was Zichan ( 子產 ), and Du Fu 's was Zimei ( 子美 ). It was also common to construct a courtesy name by using as the first character one which expresses the bearer's birth order among male siblings in his family. Thus Confucius , whose name was Kong Qiu ( 孔丘 ), was given the courtesy name Zhongni ( 仲尼 ), where

781-496: A nearby village to ply the trade. He returned to Gulao in 1810 to mourn his mother's death and then returned to the area around Guangzhou. In 1811 and 1812, Cai Luxing ( 蔡 盧 興 , known at the time as "Tsae Low-heen") was helping Robert Morrison to publish his Chinese translation of the New Testament and in one of those years Liang began to assist in carving the work's printing blocks. An imperial edict of 1812 prohibited

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852-440: A number of reforms designed to make women more socially equal to men. Hong ruled by making frequent proclamations from his Heavenly Palace, demanding strict compliance with various moral and religious rules. Most trade was suppressed, and some communal land ownership was introduced. Polygamy was forbidden and men and women were separated, although Hong and other leaders maintained groups of concubines. Yang Xiuqing , also known as

923-646: A poor family, they made an effort to give him a classical Chinese education at the village school. This consisted of the Four Books , three of the Five Classics , and the Sacred Edict . They were unable to afford his schooling until he was 11; at age 15, he was compelled to seek work as a brush -maker in Guangzhou ( then known as "Canton"). He soon left this to apprentice as a printer , for whom he carved characters onto wooden blocks. After four years, he left to

994-464: A sword and golden seal with which to slay the demons infesting Heaven. Furthermore, he did so with the help of his celestial older-brother and a heavenly army. The father figure later informed Hong that his given name violated taboos and had to be changed, suggesting as one option the "Hong Xiuquan" moniker ultimately adopted by Hong. In later embellishments, Hong would declare that he also saw Confucius being punished by Hong's celestial father for leading

1065-485: A symbolic gesture to purge China of Confucianism, he and the cousin asked for two giant swords, three chi (1 meter (3.3 ft)) long and nine jin (about 4.5 kg), called the "demon-slaying swords" ( 斬妖劍 ), to be forged. Hong began by burning all Confucian and Buddhist statues and books in his house, and began preaching to his community about his visions. Some of his earliest converts were relatives of his who had also failed their examinations and belonged to

1136-697: A village teacher, while continuing to write religious tracts. In 1847, Hong Xiuquan was invited by a member of the Chinese Union to study with the American Southern Baptist missionary Reverend Issachar Jacox Roberts . Hong accepted the invitation and traveled to Guangzhou with his cousin, Hong Rengan. Once there, Hong studied Karl Gützlaff's translations of the Old and New Testaments, converted to Protestantism and requested to be baptized by Roberts. Roberts refused to do so, possibly due to Hong being tricked by

1207-635: A wealthy schoolmate elsewhere for a year of study and became a village schoolteacher upon his return. In 1836, at the age of 22, Hong returned to Guangzhou to retake the imperial examinations. While in Guangzhou, Hong heard Edwin Stevens , a foreign missionary, and his interpreter preaching about Christianity. From them, Hong received a set of pamphlets entitled "Good Words for Exhorting the Age", which were written by Liang Fa , Stevens's assistant, and contained excerpts from

1278-643: Is also known as Liang A-fa , " A-Fa ", "Afa", " Ah Fa " or " Ah-fa " from the Southern Chinese habit of forming affectionate nicknames using the prefix Ā- (now 阿 , formerly 亞 ). Liang Gongfa was apparently his complete name, although it was used less often. It variously appears as "Leang Kung-fa", "Leang Kung-fah", and "Leong Kung Fa". Liang was born in the village of Gulao (then known as "Lohtsun"), Gaoming County , in Sanzhou ("Samchow"), Guangdong , in 1789. Although he came from

1349-413: Is similar or dissimilar to Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi . Scholars that promote the opinion that a strong similarity exists between Li and Hong note that both rallied a large number of people behind a religious or spiritual cause in order to challenge the status quo . Scholars disputing a close relationship note that Li's political intentions are debatable. The following poem, titled Poem on Executing

1420-687: The God Worshipping Society to spread Hong's teachings. By 1850, Hong's sect had over 10,000 followers and increasingly came into conflict with Qing authorities. In January 1851, Hong organized a rebel army and routed the Qing forces at Jintian , marking the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion. He then declared himself the Heavenly King of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace. Taiping rebels captured

1491-609: The Malacca mission in April 1815 to assist him with printing his Chinese-language tracts. At his request, he was baptized by Milne at noon on November 3, 1816, so that there would be no shadows present. He adopted the pen name "Student of the Good". Liang returned to China in April 1819 to see his family. Under Morrison's supervision, he prepared 200 copies of a 37-page tract of Miscellaneous Exhortations for his friends and neighbors. The police reacted harshly, arresting him and burning both

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1562-471: The People's Republic of China established a small museum in 1959, the "Hong Xiuquan's Former Residence Memorial Museum" ( 洪秀全故居紀念館 ), in his birthplace, where there is a longan tree planted by him. The museum's plate is written by the famous literary figure Guo Moruo (1892–1978). The residence and Book Chamber Building were renovated in 1961. There has been an active academic debate on the degree to which Hong

1633-575: The Taiping Rebellion . Liang Fa is the pinyin romanization of Liang's usual Chinese name, which his father used. Leung Faat is the Jyutping romanization of the same name in Cantonese , the usual spoken dialect of Guangdong 's natives. His personal name 發 is the common Chinese verb for "to send" but in Chinese grammar can also be understood as its past participle , "[he who is] sent". He

1704-503: The imperial examinations . He came to believe that his celestial father he saw in the visions was God the Father , his celestial elder brother was Jesus Christ , and he had been directed to rid the world of demon worship. He rejected Confucianism and began propagating a fusion of Christianity, Daoism and millenarianism , which Hong presented as a restoration of the ancient Chinese faith in Shangdi . His associate Feng Yunshan then founded

1775-519: The pen name "Student of the Good" or "Retired Student of the Good". He is primarily remembered for his Quànshì Liángyán ( t 《 勸 世 良 言 》 , s 《 劝 世 良 言 》 ) , formerly romanized as K'euen She Lëang Yen and Ch'üan-shih Liang-yen and variously translated as Good Words to Admonish the Age , "Good News to Admonish the Ages", "Good News to Admonish the World", "Good Words to Exhort

1846-441: The "Eastern King", was a fellow Taiping leader who had directed successful military campaigns, and who often claimed to speak with the voice of God. Hong became increasingly suspicious of Yang's ambitions and his network of spies. In 1856, he and others in the Taiping élite had Yang and his family murdered in a purge that subsequently spun out of control, resulting in the further purge of its main perpetrator Wei Changhui. Following

1917-451: The Bible along with homilies and other material prepared by Liang. Supposedly, Hong only briefly looked over these pamphlets and did not pay much attention to them at the time. Unsurprisingly, he again failed the imperial examinations, which had a pass rate of less than one percent. In 1837, Hong attempted and failed the imperial examinations for a third time, leading to a nervous breakdown . He

1988-552: The Bible, what came to be known as "Authorized Taiping Version of the Bible", or " The Taiping Bible ", which he based on Gutzlaff's translation. He presented his followers with the Bible as a vision of the authentic religion that had existed in ancient China before it was wiped out by Confucius and the imperial system. The deity of the Old Testament punished evil nations and rewarded those who followed his commandments, even music, food, and marriage laws. Hong made some minor changes in

2059-499: The Evil and Preserving the Righteous ( 斬邪留正詩 ), written in 1837 by Hong Xiuquan, illustrates his religious thinking and goal that later led to the establishment of the "Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping". Note that in the seventh line, the name of the then yet-to-come kingdom is mentioned. 《斬邪留正詩》 Poem on Executing the Evil and Preserving the Righteous 手握乾坤殺伐權， In my hand I wield

2130-527: The Hakka minority, Feng Yunshan and Hong Rengan . He collaborated with them to destroy holy statues in small villages, to the ire of local citizens and officials. Hong and his converts' acts were considered sacrilegious and they were persecuted by Confucians who forced them to leave their positions as village tutors. In April 1844, Hong, Feng Yunshan, and two other relatives of Hong left Hua county to travel and preach. They first journeyed to Guangzhou and preached in

2201-586: The Inspection of the Worldly Customs (《察世俗每月統記傳》 Cha Shisu Meiyue Tongji Zhuan), one of the first Chinese magazines . Liang was an important participant in the establishment of Protestantism in China , but is most remembered for the influence of his tracts on Hong Xiuquan and his Taiping rebels , for whom Good Words to Admonish the Age became a sacred text. Liang's grave was found to be on land purchased for

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2272-716: The Universe and the power to attack and kill, 斬邪留正解民懸。 I slay the evil, preserve the righteous, and relieve the people's suffering. 眼通西北江山外， My eyes see through beyond the west, the north, the rivers, and the mountains, 聲振東南日月邊。 My voice shakes the east, the south, the Sun, and the Moon. 璽劍光榮存帝賜， The glorious sword of authority was given by the Lord, 詩章憑據誦爺前， Poems and books are evidences that praise Yahweh in front of Him. 太平一統光世界， Taiping [Perfect Peace] unifies

2343-468: The World of Light, 威風快樂萬千年。 The domineering air will be joyous for myriads of millennia. Courtesy name Unlike art names , which are more akin to pseudonyms or pen names , courtesy names served a formal and respectful purpose. In traditional Chinese society, using someone’s given name in adulthood was considered disrespectful among peers, making courtesy names essential for formal communication and writing. Courtesy names often reflect

2414-543: The World", "Good Words Exhorting the Age", "Good Words Exhorting Mankind", &c. Revised by Morrison, it was printed in Guangzhou in early 1832 and in Malacca later that year. It comprised a form of the New Testament in vernacular Chinese based upon Morrison's classical Chinese translation, along with ten homilies, some of Liang's tracts, an attack on Chinese religions , and his conversion story. Although often called

2485-446: The age of 20 sui , marking their coming of age . It was sometimes given to women, usually upon marriage. The practice is no longer common in modern Chinese society. According to the Book of Rites , after a man reached adulthood, it was disrespectful for others of the same generation to address him by his given name . Thus, the given name was reserved for oneself and one's elders, whereas

2556-432: The age of five. He was able to recite the Four Books after five or six years. He then took the local entry-level civil service examinations and placed first. A few years later, he traveled to the provincial capital of Guangzhou to take the provincial examinations. He was unsuccessful and, his parents being unable to afford to continue his education, he was forced to return to agricultural work. The next year, he accompanied

2627-571: The city of Nanjing in March 1853 and declared it the Heavenly Capital of the kingdom, after which Hong withdrew to his new palace and began ruling through proclamations. He became increasingly suspicious of Yang Xiuqing , his fellow Taiping leader, and engineered Yang's murder in a 1856 purge that spiraled into the further purge of more Taiping leaders. The kingdom gradually lost ground and in June 1864, in

2698-533: The copies and the printing blocks used to publish them. Morrison got him released two days later, but he had already been beaten thirty times with a bamboo cane and compelled to pay $ 70. He remained forty days with his family and then returned to Malacca. He returned again in 1820, successfully converting and baptizing his wife before returning to Malacca the next year. Following Milne's death, he came home in 1823. On November 20, he had Morrison baptize his son Jinde ("Tsin-tih"). A month later, Morrison appointed him as

2769-412: The courtesy name "Renkun." His sister, Hong Xuanjiao , became the commander of the female battalion during the Taiping Rebellion . Hong showed an interest in scholarship at an early age, so his family made financial sacrifices to provide a formal education for him, in the hope that he could one day complete all of the civil service examinations . Hong began studying at a primary school in his village at

2840-595: The courtesy name would be used by adults of the same generation to refer to one another on formal occasions or in writing. Another translation of zi is "style name", but this translation has been criticised as misleading, because it could imply an official or legal title. Generally speaking, courtesy names before the Qin dynasty were one syllable, and from the Qin to the 20th century they were mostly disyllabic , consisting of two Chinese characters . Courtesy names were often relative to

2911-612: The diplomatic crisis occasioned by the increase in opium smuggling and Lord Napier 's resort to force to assert his right to act as the British consul in Guangzhou , the Emperor personally expressed disbelief that westerners were responsible for the Chinese-language magazines and broadsides being distributed by the English. Qing subjects were forbidden to teach to the language, and a crackdown

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2982-492: The elder brother that he had seen was Jesus Christ , and he had been directed to rid the world of demon worship. This interpretation led him to conclude that he was the literal son of God and younger brother to Jesus. In contrast to some of the later leaders of his movement, Hong appears to have genuinely believed in his ascent to Heaven and divine mission. After coming to this conclusion Hong began destroying idols and enthusiastically preaching his interpretation of Christianity. As

3053-400: The face of Qing advance, Hong died following a period of illness and was succeeded by his son, Hong Tianguifu . Nanjing fell a month later. Hong Xiuquan, born "Hong Huoxiu", was the third and youngest son of a Hakka family living in the village of Fuyuan Springs (also referred to as Fuyuanshui village), Hua county (now part of Huadu District ) in Guangzhou . His father was Hong Jingyang,

3124-472: The first character zhong indicates that he was the second son born into his family. The characters commonly used are bo ( 伯 ) for the first, zhong ( 仲 ) for the second, shu ( 叔 ) for the third, and ji ( 季 ) typically for the youngest, if the family consists of more than three sons. General Sun Jian 's four sons, for instance, were Sun Ce ( 伯符 , Bófú), Sun Quan ( 仲謀 , Zhòngmóu), Sun Yi ( 叔弼 , Shūbì) and Sun Kuang ( 季佐 , Jìzuǒ). Reflecting

3195-582: The help of the river pirates to keep the rebellion contained to Jintian. After a month of preparation the rebels managed to break through the blockade and fight their way to the town of Yongan (distinct from places named Yong'an ), which fell to them on 25 September 1851. Hong and his troops remained in Yongan for three months, sustained by local landowners who were hostile to the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty. The imperial army regrouped and launched another attack on

3266-506: The hospital's chaplain, leading regular services and visiting patients. Parker noted him often sharing his conversion story and scriptural passages. Liang helped Robert Morrison's son-in-law Benjamin Hobson locate a residence and establish his clinic in Guangzhou's western suburbs in 1848. Liang then moved his work there, since it began to treat more than two hundred patients daily. Four men and six women joined him for services, but more than

3337-458: The imperial examinations for the fourth and final time. It was only then, prompted by a visit by his cousin, that Hong took time to carefully examine the Christian pamphlets he had received. 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),

3408-448: The instability of the region meant that Hong's followers were inevitably drawn into conflict with other groups, not least because of their predominantly Hakka ethnicity. There are records of numerous incidents when local villages and clans, as well as groups of pirates and bandits, came into conflict with the authorities, and responded by fleeing to join Hong's movement. The rising tension between

3479-441: The meaning of the given name or use homophonic characters, and were typically disyllabic after the Qin dynasty . The practice also extended to other East Asian cultures, and was sometimes adopted by Mongols and Manchus during the Qing dynasty . The choice of a courtesy name was significant, intended to express moral integrity and respect within the cultural context. A courtesy name is a name traditionally given to Chinese men at

3550-419: The meaning of the person's given name, the relationship could be synonyms, relative affairs, or rarely but sometimes antonym. For example, Chiang Kai-shek 's given name ( 中正 , romanized as Chung-cheng) and courtesy name ( 介石 , romanized as Kai-shek) are both from the yù (豫) hexagram 16 of I Ching . Another way to form a courtesy name is to use the homophonic character zi ( 子 ) – a respectful title for

3621-433: The other converts into requesting monetary aid from Roberts. Hong left Guangzhou on 12 July 1847 to search for Feng Yunshan. Although robbed of all of his possessions, including his demon-slaying sword, by bandits in the town of Meizixun , he eventually reached Thistle Mountain on 27 August 1847. There, he reunited with Feng and discovered the "Society of God-Worshippers" that Feng had founded. In January 1848, Feng Yunshan

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3692-681: The outlying areas before heading northwest to White Tiger Village. There, Hong and Feng Yunshan parted ways before traveling some 400 kilometers (250 mi) to the southwest to the village of Sigu, Guiping county , Guangxi , where distant relatives of Hong's resided, including two early converts who had returned home. It is in or near Sigu that Hong begins to draft "Exhortations to Worship the One True God", his first substantial work. In November 1844, after having preached in Guangxi for five months, Hong returned home without Feng and resumed his previous job as

3763-408: The people astray. His acquaintances would later claim that after awakening from his dreams Hong became more careful, friendly, and open, while his pace became imposing and firm and his height and size increased. Hong stopped studying for the imperial examinations and sought work as a teacher. For the next several years Hong taught at several schools around the area of his hometown. In 1843, Hong failed

3834-513: The practice for three or four more years. There are unclear references to some long-standing dispute between Wat and Liang that was eventually resolved; they worked together in Malacca and again to continue the mission with another native worker after Morrison's death. The 1833 Government of India Act ended the East India Company 's legal monopoly on Britain's share of the Canton trade . Amid

3905-579: The publication of Christian texts in Chinese; it declared that Christianity was a menace to Chinese culture as it "neither holds spirits in veneration nor ancestors in reverence ". Nonetheless, Cai's younger brother—probably named Gao —became the Protestants' first Chinese convert, baptized at a secluded seaside spring on July 16, 1814, and Liang became their second. The missionary William Milne employed Liang as his Chinese teacher and Liang went with him to

3976-482: The rebels in Yongan. Having run out of gunpowder, Hong's followers fought their way out by sword, and made for the city of Guilin , to which they laid siege . However, the fortifications of Guilin proved too strong, and Hong and his followers eventually gave up and set out northwards, towards Hunan . Here, they encountered an elite militia created by a local member of the gentry specifically to put down peasant rebellions. The two forces fought at Soyi Ford on 10 June 1852;

4047-417: The rebels were forced into retreat, and 20% of their troops were killed. However, in March 1853, Hong's forces managed to take Nanjing and turned it into the capital of their movement. After establishing his capital at Nanjing, Hong implemented an ambitious reform and modernization program. He created an elaborate civil bureaucracy, reformed the calendar used in his kingdom, outlawed opium use, and introduced

4118-399: The sect and the authorities was probably the most important factor in Hong's eventual decision to rebel. By 1850, Hong had between 10,000 and 30,000 followers. The authorities were alarmed at the growing size of the sect, and ordered them to disperse. A local force was sent to attack them when they refused, but the imperial troops were routed and a deputy magistrate killed. A full-scale attack

4189-464: The sect segregated men from women and encouraged all its followers to pay their assets into a communal treasury. When Hong returned to Guangxi, he found that Feng Yunshan had accumulated a following of around 2,000 converts. Guangxi was a dangerous area at this time with many bandit groups based in the mountains and pirates on the rivers. Perhaps due to these more pressing concerns, the authorities were largely tolerant of Hong and his followers. However,

4260-498: The streets and villages and tell them the folly of worshipping idols they laugh at me. Their hearts are very hard. But when men are sick and are healed their hearts are very soft". For similar reasons, he opposed Britain 's persecution of the First Opium War , saying its support of opium smugglers and assaults on China would turn its people against Christianity in general and British missionaries in particular. In 1845, Liang became

4331-451: The summer of 1849, they investigated Yang and Xiao's claims and declared them to be genuine. Hong ministered to the faithful in outdoor meetings strongly resembling the Baptist tent revivals he had witnessed with Issachar Roberts. Most of Hong Xiuquan's knowledge of the scriptures came from the books known as "Good Words to Admonish the Age" written by the Chinese preacher Liang Fa , as well as

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4402-617: The suppression of the Taipings: one copy of the Malacca edition is held by the New York Public Library , one copy of the Guangzhou edition is held by Harvard University , and two more were held by the London Missionary Society. A third and fourth edition, both abridged, were also printed at Singapore . He also published: Liang also assisted Milne's Monthly Chinese Magazine and created The Monthly Total Record of

4473-534: The text, such as correcting misprints and improving the prose style, but adapted the meaning elsewhere to fit his own theology and moral teachings. For instance, in Genesis 27:25 the Israelites did not drink wine, and in Genesis 38:16–26 he omitted the sexual relations between the father and his son's widow. Hong preached a mixture of communal utopianism, evangelism and oriental syncretism. While proclaiming sexual equality,

4544-484: The thousands who came for the tests in Guangzhou and in the prefectural seats of Guangdong. It was at one such session that Hong Xiuquan first encountered Liang's work Good Words to Admonish the Age . He converted a printer named Lin ("Lam"); Li San, who became his assistant; and others. Liang accompanied Wat Ngong , another Chinese Christian printer, on his 250-mile (402 km) trek in 1830, distributing their Christian tracts across southwest Guangdong. He continued

4615-479: The weeds, and died on 1 June 1864. Although Hong likely died of his illness, suicide by poison has also been suggested. He was buried in a yellow-silk shroud without a coffin according to Taiping custom, near the former Ming Imperial Palace . He was succeeded by his teenage son, Hong Tianguifu . On 30 July 1864, Qing forces exhumed, beheaded, and cremated Hong Xiuquan's body. Zeng Guofan had ordered this done to verify Hong Xiuquan's death. The ashes were blasted out of

4686-505: Was also adopted by some Mongols and Manchus after the Qing conquest of China. Liang Fa Liang Fa (1789–1855), also known by other names , was the second Chinese Protestant convert and the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. He was ordained by Robert Morrison , the first Protestant missionary in the Qing Empire . His tract Good Words to Admonish the Age was influential on Hong Xiuquan , who went on to lead

4757-490: Was arrested and banished to Guangdong , and Hong Xiuquan left for Guangdong shortly thereafter to once again reunite with Feng. In Feng and Hong's absence, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui jointly emerged to lead the "God Worshipers" themselves. Both claimed to enter trances which allowed them to speak as a member of the Trinity ; God the Father in the case of Yang and Jesus Christ in the case of Xiao. When Hong and Feng returned in

4828-492: Was delirious for days to the point that his family feared for his life. While convalescing , Hong dreamed of visiting Heaven, where he discovered that he possessed a celestial family distinct from his earthly family, which included a heavenly father, mother, elder brother, sister-in-law, wife, and son. His heavenly father, wearing a black dragon robe and high-brimmed hat with a long golden beard, lamented that men were worshiping demons rather than he himself, and presented Hong with

4899-847: Was formally attached to the London mission there in 1837 and, while working there with Wat Ngong , caused a "spike" in conversions, netting more than thirty converts in a span of months. When many of these new converts later abandoned the faith, it prompted disputes within the LMS about the meaning and requirements for baptism. Liang moved to the mission at Singapore the next year. He finally returned to China in July 1839. He then joined Peter Parker 's missionary hospital on Hog Lane in Guangzhou's Thirteen Factories trading ghetto. At an 1841 congressional hearing in Washington , Parker quoted Liang as saying "When I meet men in

4970-669: Was launched by government forces in the first month of 1851, in what came to be known as the Jintian Uprising , named after the town of Jintian (which became Guiping , Guangxi ) where the sect was based. Hong's followers emerged victorious and beheaded the Manchu commander of the government army. Hong declared the founding of the "Heavenly Kingdom of Transcendent Peace" on 11 January 1851. Despite this evidence of planning, Hong and his followers faced immediate challenges. The local Green Standard Army outnumbered them ten to one, and had recruited

5041-551: Was ordered. Morrison died in August 1834 and, several days into Liang's distribution of tracts at Guangzhou's provincial exams a few weeks later, the city's police came for him and his companions. Liang escaped to Macao , but an assistant in Guangzhou and several family members in Sanzhou were seized. Unlike his father, John Morrison helped Liang by paying the $ 800 for the ten captives himself. He again left for Malacca with his son Lou. He

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