Hong Xiuquan

Born into a Hakka family in Guangzhou, Hong claimed to have experienced mystical visions after failing the imperial examinations.

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.

In January 1851, Hong organized a rebel army and routed the Qing forces at Jintian, marking the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion.

Taiping rebels captured 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.

[1] 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.

[21] 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.

Some of his earliest converts were relatives of his who had also failed their examinations and belonged to the Hakka minority, Feng Yunshan and Hong Rengan.

Hong and his converts' acts were considered sacrilegious and they were persecuted by Confucians who forced them to leave their positions as village tutors.

[33] In November 1844, after having preached in Guangxi for five months, Hong returned home without Feng and resumed his previous job as a village teacher, while continuing to write religious tracts.

[34] 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.

[40] In Feng and Hong's absence, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui jointly emerged to lead the "God Worshipers" themselves.

[42] Hong ministered to the faithful in outdoor meetings strongly resembling the Baptist tent revivals he had witnessed with Issachar Roberts.

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.

[45] Hong made some minor changes in the text, such as correcting misprints and improving the prose style, but adapted the meaning elsewhere to fit his own theology and moral teachings.

While proclaiming sexual equality, the sect segregated men from women and encouraged all its followers to pay their assets into a communal treasury.

However, 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 local Green Standard Army outnumbered them ten to one, and had recruited 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.

However, the fortifications of Guilin proved too strong, and Hong and his followers eventually gave up and set out northwards, towards Hunan.

Yang Xiuqing, also known as 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.

[49][50] Following a failed attempt by the Taiping rebels to take Shanghai in 1860, Qing government forces, aided by Western officers, slowly gained ground.

[51] Hong's solution was to order his subjects to eat manna, which had been translated into Chinese as sweetened dew and a medicinal herb.

There has been an active academic debate on the degree to which Hong 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.