#Jesus'sChineseBrother
We all know about Christianity and of course the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Like all famous families, though, there's always the lesser known one. The "Trey Smith." The "Kevin Jonas." And here, we have the CHINESE SON OF GOD.
Here is a quick overview before all of you get bored and stop reading. Basically, a random Chinese dude named Hong Xiuquan had a series of dreams and visions after failing several civil service entrance exams. He thought it was God (the God in the Bible) who gave him dreams and visions. He believed himself to be the son of God, the younger brother of Jesus Christ, sent to reform China. This ended up in huge rebellion against Qing(China) and killed 20 million people. Here is a picture of him.
(This picture is probably fake. He is way too handsome.)
Now let us look at this story in detail.
Hong Xiuquan was born in 1814, in Guanlubu, Guangdong. He took several civil service exams but failed them. He came back home and complained about being sick. This was when everything started. When Hong Xiuquan went to bed, he started having these visions.
Hong hallucinated a journey to a heavenly land to the east where his father revealed that demons were destroying humankind. Wielding a special sword, Hong, with the help of his brother, fought the demons and the King of Hell. Following the battle, Hong remained in heaven and took a wife, later having a child together. Eventually, Hong returned to Earth, receiving the title "Heavenly King, Lord of the Kingly Way."
(Wow, that is pretty amazing.....dream. No matter how sick I am, I believe I am able to tell the difference between a dream and a vision. But no one cares about that because his story seems cool enough and plus he got a new wife from heaven!)
After Hong Xiuquan woke up, he started telling his family and villagers about his experience and poems he had written in heaven. Villagers thought he had gone insane. Well, duh! Because in other people's perspective Hong was in bed for days, stricken by fever dreams and yelling about demons, claiming to be the Emperor of China, singing, and sometimes leaping out of bed and standing ready for combat. I would probably disown him if he was my son.
Anyway, Hong Xiuquan and his friend Feng Yunshan utilized Hong's ideas to organize a new religious group, the God Worshippers' Society (Bai Shangdi Hui). On January 1, 1851, he proclaimed his new dynasty, the Taiping Tianguo ("Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace"), and assumed the title of Tianwang, or "Heavenly King."
Taiping rebellion attracted many famine-stricken peasants, workers, and miners. Soon they had more than a million angry mobs ready to kick some butt. ヽ༼ ಠ益ಠ ༽ﾉ
And they did! They were able to capture one of the largest cities in China, Nanjing, on March 10, 1853. They renamed the city Tianjing ("Heavenly Capital") on March 10, 1853. However, their expedition to capture Beijing failed. Furthermore, the Taipings became even weaker because there was a snake amongst them. Yang Xiuqing, the Taiping minister of state, felt jealous because Hong Xiuquan was getting all the attention. So he attempted to usurp much of the Tianwang's power.
As a result, Yang and thousands of his followers were slain. Many of Taiping followers began to fear for their lives and abandoned the rebellion.
In 1860 an attempt by the Taipings to regain their strength by taking Shanghai was stopped by the Western-trained "Ever-Victorious Army". I guess angry mobs were just not enough against the guns. They should've have brought some EMUS with them! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
By 1862 Qing had managed to surround Nanjing, and the city fell in July 1864. Hong, refusing all requests to flee the city, had committed suicide in June and hadn't resurrected since. His "older brother" took 3 days but I guess this one wanted to take a few centuries.
These events effectively marked the end of the rebellion, although sporadic Taiping resistance continued in other parts of the country until 1868.
Similar to how Hong Xiuquan failed many civil service exams, I failed my SAT exams. I think I did had some holy dreams too. Guys, what if, maybe...guys maybe I think.... I am KOREAN SON OF GOD!