God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan [Hardcover]

Jonathan D. Spence (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996

A history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in mid-nineteenth-century China profiles a period of extreme violence, during which a massive uprising, led by religious visionary Hong Xiuquan, cost some twenty million lives. National ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is the strange, compelling tale of the mid-19th century Taiping Rebellion, a political-religious upheaval led by a Chinese visionary who believed himself commissioned by Christ to wage war on the demons of the Manchu dynasty. Hong Xiuquan, a Cantonese schoolteacher driven mad by his failure to pass the civil-service exam, proclaimed himself Heavenly King, formed the God-worshipping Army (comprised of famine-stricken peasants) and in 1853 seized Nanking as his capital. Spence (The Search for Modern China) describes how Hong attempted to turn it into his own New Jerusalem, imposing a harsh legal code based on his tortuous interpretation of the Old and New Testaments. Finally defeated by a Manchu army and a force of volunteers under British Army officer Charles "Chinese" Gordon after 11 years of rebellion, Hong's movement left 20 million dead in its wake. Researched in newly uncovered texts in the British Library, Spence's masterful history shows how widespread unrest stirred by the Taiping Rebellion led to Sun Yat-sen's overthrow of the Manchus in 1911-1912. A first-rate storyteller, he recounts this extraordinary event with verve, offering sharp insights into the political dangers of religious fanaticism. Illustrated. BOMC, History Book Club, QPB and Newbridge Book Club selections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A China specialist who's had two LJ Best Books (The Search for Modern China in 1991 and The Memory Palace of Mateo Ricci in 1984) examines a bloody 19th-century uprising in China whose leader claimed to be the son of God.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393038440
• ISBN-13: 978-0393038446
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Taiping history in English is second best available, March 17, 2007

By 

Firebrand - See all my reviews

This review is from: God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan (Paperback)

Professor Spence has set a high standard with exceptional and appealing English language books on Chinese history, and this volume one of his best. It is a sweeping and detailed history, a truly beautiful, handsome book full of wonderful illustrations and graphics.

But it is not the best book ever written on the Taiping movement. That title belongs to the (unfortunately long out of print) 1973 "Taiping Revolutionary Movement" by Jen Yu-Wen. Profesor Jen spent 50 years investigating the Taiping history, and had a master's command of all of the sources availalble in Chinese and English. Jen's book, which is encyclopedic, but extremely readable, was one of the sources for "God's Chinese Son". Ironically, Spence wrote the foreword for Jen's book.

Spence's perspective and treatment, along with his writing style, is detached, and from a discernible Western bias. This is typical of not only Spence's histories, but those of Fairbank, etc. Jen's book takes one much closer to the on-ground, cultural, psychological and physical realities. Jen's chronicle of the military movements is far more detailed. The general dearth of sources available in English that offer the Chinese view of Chinese history is tragic.

Nevertheless, Spence's is easily the best English language Taiping history in print, and still highly recommended.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Unbelievable Story Told in a Believable Manner, December 27, 2000

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan (Paperback)

This story of the rebel and religious leader, Hong Xiuquan, is a weird and horrifying read. It is almost unbelievable that this one man, after having a dream of ascending to heaven, can have mustered a rebellion against the Manchu Dynasty that was stunning in its success and devasting in its failure as twenty million Chinese lay dead at the end of the almost twenty year rebellion. Jonathan D. Spence, in God's Chinese Son, covers this material with his usual combination of both writing skill and scholary research. The reader may occasionally get bogged down in the fine details, particulary with no knowledge of Chinese history from this period, but this book provides a wonderful ride through an unusual time and place in history.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Narrative history as good as it gets., April 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan (Paperback)

God's Chinese Son is a stunning work of historical scholarship -- an equal mixture of solid documentation, cogent argument and imaginative brilliance. Spence takes the historical biography form and uses it not only to illuminate a fascinating life, but also to turn that life into a window on his own rich, layered reconstruction of 19th-century China. Well worth buying, reading and re-reading; a must for the serious student and the casual reader alike.