Tai Ping Army

[Christopher Wong <cwongwh@pacific.net.sg>]

Hi,
I thought Hong Xiuquan is a Cantonese School Master instead
of Hakka.
He proclaim himself of the son of god (instead of brother
of god).

Best regards

Chris Wong




> According to Jonathan Spence's "God's Chinese Son", Hong Xiuquan was a
mad,
> deluded,  "Christian"  Hakka Scholar (failed) who was directly
responsible
> for the death and misery of millions of Hakkas. I am not at all sure he
was
> a "typical" Hakka like you and me. Hong Xiuquan mixed and matched
Christian
> Theology and the prevalent Chinese mediumistic beliefs. He truly believed
> that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. One of his henchman was
> able to be a medium for God, dictating rules and regulations for the
> gullible masses of Hakka. Of course the poor Hakka peasants were driven
by
> the poor socioecomic situation into this fold. At best, he could be only
be
> ifdentified as a Cult leader. Modern day equivalent would be people like
> David Koresh and Jim Jones. Anybody care to defend Hong?

I just like to comment on that.
Most modern-day Christians will agree with the above, that Hong is a
Cult
leader.
However, imagine if Taiping Tianguo has been successful and has existed
till today.
The majority of the Chinese in the world would have been Christians (or
rather, Hong's kind of Christians).
I'm sure that Hong would have been view at very differently.

Also, although many people died during that period. It also brought
about
the modernization of China and many other positive developments. 
And without Hong, there may still be a chance that China is still under
the
Qing Dynasty today.


- Dixie