Jonathan D. Spence. God's
Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1996.
In this book, Jonathan Spence
attempts to reexamine the uprisings of China's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a
millenarian religious movement inspired by Christianity, and the intellectual
development of its leader, Hong Xiuquan. As with many of his other books, the
author entertains his readers with lovely details and dramatic narrative.
However, despite the inclusion of newly discovered texts from the British
Library in his analysis, for those who are already quite familiar with the
history of the Taiping rebellion, this book falls short of providing
breakthrough research. As the author happily admits, many of the arguments are
built on other scholars' work concerning almost every major aspect of the
movement. For this reason, even the new texts, though useful, might not be
expected to give a fresh look at the Taiping movement.
Yet, for curious readers, the
author might have offered at least some explanation about the new materials beyond
that offered in the "Foreword." What kind of new documents have been
found? What are their contents? How do they differ from the already known ones?
And with respect to the author's central concerns, what can they reveal about
Hong's religious thought? In sum, an evaluation of the new texts would be very
helpful in understanding their relevance to Hong's mind and the Taiping
rebellion.
In this book, the author
focuses on the intellectual development of Hong Xiuquan, and seeks to
understand "how it could be that this particular man had such an
astounding impact on his country for so many years." Hong Xiuquan loomed
large among the Taiping rebels. There is no doubt that Hong was one of the most
important leaders of the Taiping movement, and his strange dreams and
interpretations of Christianity fascinate many scholars. Yet, the relationship
between the mind of Hong Xiuquan and the movement he inspired is quite
complicated. To answer the author's question, one has to first assume that
Hong, in many important matters, really played a central role and that it is
possible to distinguish Hong's ideas from those of other Taiping leaders.
Secondly, one has to assume that it was mainly Hong's ideas that inspired other
people. However, during the first period of the movement before the outbreak of
internecine struggle, Hong did not usually involve himself in
"practical" matters. Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui often spoke for
Hong, and presumably imposed their own ideas upon the Taiping movement.
Various other social elements
were attached to the Taiping movement, but they were not necessarily attracted
by Hong's religious tenets. The gap between the sermonizer and the audience is
another problem. How did the followers understand Hong's religious messages?
What variations existed among the interpretations? What should we make of the
important fact that when Hong resumed everyday power and tried to unify the
competing meanings within his Christian teachings after 1958, he began to
alienate many of his followers?
To understand Hong's mind and
its relation to the Taiping movement, then, one also needs to understand Hong's
social and economic ideals, the counter-ideals proposed by his opponents, and
their influence upon changes in Hong's thought and action. Yet the author,
while paying great attention to Hong's religious concerns, actually provides
little understanding of them.
Zhou Guanghui
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