The God Worshippers Society
The Taiping Rebellion began as a radical Christian movement that quickly grew strong enough to challenge local Qing authority and eventually capture Nanjing which would become their capital. But how did Christianity explode in rural China? How did the movement get entire villages to convert en masse?
In the 1830's and 40's, a young peasant in rural southern China named Hong Xiuquan attempted the brutally difficult civil service exams to enter the Qing state bureaucracy. Entrance into this state structure was one of very few avenues of social and economic advancement available to poorer and lower class Chinese men. As a result of millions attempting these tests every year, the pass rate was incredibly low and advancement was near impossible. From the age of six, Hong devoted his life to Confucianism to prepare himself for these tests. After failing out in his 20's, Hong succumbed to a days long nervous breakdown in which he claimed the Christian God came to him and told him Hong was his second son and that he must vanquish the Manchu "demons," expel Confucianism from China, and liberate the peasants and grant them the land they worked.
The existing Chinese government was fully incapable of addressing any problems faced by the rural peasantry. Banditry was endemic and there was no authority to prevent abuses from feudal landowners. These conditions created a population open to change, and Hong's anti-Confucian and anti-feudal message was incredibly attractive. The God Worshippers Society, as Hong's cult called themselves, were quickly able to organize resistance to banditry, overthrow local Qing authority, and within only a few years, begin conquering entire cities and provinces.
Suggested reading
Here are some books and articles about the formation of the Taiping and the course of the war:
Kuhn, P. A. (1977). Origins of the Taiping vision: Cross-cultural dimensions of a Chinese rebellion. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 19(3), 350–366. http://www.jstor.org/stable/177996
Li, J. (1998). Geopolitical dynamics of state change: A comparative analysis of the U.S. civil war and the Chinese Taiping rebellion. Michigan Sociological Review, 12, 24–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40969021
Taiping Christianity
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this war is the theology and ideology of the movement. Prior to his own conversion, Hong Xiuquan had only encountered one Christian text which at the time, he largely dismissed. But after his conversion, Christianity was central to the rebellion. Western observers were initially fascinated that this revolutionary was Christian, but were later put off by some of the quirks of his interpretation of Christianity such as polygamy, strict gender segregation, and Hong's revelations.
Also central to the religion was a sort of rudimentary "socialism." When the Taiping would conquer a new town, village, or city, they would immediately set about redistributing the land to the peasants that worked it. The Taiping equated the Qing rule with feudal depravities and set about destroying both. Shields (2015) notes the interesting parallels between Hong's Taiping movement and Joseph Smith's Mormon movement in America which was happening at roughly the same time. In both cases, the religion was clearly influenced by the respective prophet's class background.
Further readings
Shields, S. L. (2015). Hong Xiuquan and Joseph Smith Jr.: Prophets, kings, and land reformers. The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, 35(1), 149–162. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26317096
Weller, R. P. (1987). Historians and consciousness: The modern politics of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Social Research, 54(4), 731–755. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40970481
Hong Rengan and the west
As the war progressed, it became clear to elements on both sides of the war that western help could be massively beneficial. The leader on the Taiping side insistent on this was Hong Rengan, Hong Qiuquan's cousin crowned the Shield King. Hong Rengan spent a lot of time in port cities that revolved around trade with the west and encountered many western missionaries and tradesmen. These encounters made him the only person in the Taiping government to recognize the west's potential help, but unfortunately no one listened to him and he failed to recruit western help. Much of Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom revolves around these attempts.
Further readings
Teng, Y. C. (1968). The failure of Hung Jen-k’an’s foreign policy. The Journal of Asian Studies, 28(1), 125–138. https://doi.org/10.2307/2942843
Zeng Guofan and the Xiang Army
The former Qing army, known as the Green Standard Army, crumbled versus the rising Taiping. The army was rife with corruption and desertion. Officers skimmed funds and soldiers were unmotivated, under-payed, and ill-equipped. In the mid 1850's, an unassuming Qing official with no military experience named Zeng Guofan was tapped to create a new army. Initially reluctant to this task, Zeng set about creating a new army with a novel organizational structure that assured loyalty up and down the chain of command. Initially unsuccessful versus the Taiping, the Xiang army learned on the fly and eventually defeated the Taiping in 1864 with western help.
Further readings
Meyer-Fong, T. (2018). To know the enemy: The Zei Qing Huizuan, military Intelligence, and the Taiping Civil War. T’oung Pao, 104(3–4), 384–423.
Yangwen, Z. (2008). Hunan: Laboratory of reform and land of revolution: Hunanese in the making of modern China. Modern Asian Studies, 42(6), 1113–1136. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20488058