Southern China. Taiping Rebellion. This is a Chinese Christian sect. Led by a charismatic mystic who proclaimed himself to be the brother of Jesus, and a fellow monk said to possess telepathic powers. They sought to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and succeeded in taking control of Nanjing and much of Central and Southern China. It was one of the bloodiest conflicts in Chinese history, with tens of millions of lives lost. During the Taiping and Nian Rebellion, China’s population dropped from 410 million in 1850 to 350 million in 1873. The leader of the revolt was Hong Xiuquan, of the Hakka ethnic group. He had repeatedly attempted to enter the mandarin bureaucracy but was never accepted. His guardians were Protestant missionaries from England and America. In the 20th century, Mao claimed some continuity with the Taiping. Italian, French, and English mercenaries appeared alongside the Taiping. It took 14 years to quell the revolt which caused tens of millions of deaths (between twenty and sixty million), making it one of the bloodiest conflicts in history.
