Jonathan D. Spence. God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. New York, NY: W.W Norton & Company, Inc., December 17th 1996. 432 pp.
5 out of 5
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Many people in the West (United States and Europe) are probably not aware of the Taiping Rebellion which would be up there among one of history’s most terrible events. It took the lives of twenty to thirty million people and when one compare that to World War One which took seventeen million lives you get the magnitude of this horrific fourteen year war in China that center around a man name Hong Xiuquan who claim to be the “younger brother of Jesus.” If you are interested in the history of Christianity, history of China, history of East meets West or military history or all the above this book is definitely for you. In fact I believe the maxim “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is relevant here. In order for us in the West to understand certain aspects of the current relationship of the West with China and also why the Chinese government has concern for Christianity one can learn a lot from the Taiping Rebellion.
The Domain for Truth 