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

Jonathan D. Spence (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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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 & Company; 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
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #243,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

Jonathan D. Spence
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The great seal of the Taiping. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
second elder brother, heavenly troops, river bandits, palace women, dragon robe, copper cash, common treasury, true sovereign
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hong Xiuquan, Heavenly Father, Thistle Mountain, Hong Rengan, Hong Kong, Feng Yunshan, Yang Xiuging, North King, Heavenly Brother, Xiao Chaogui, Yan Luo, Young Monarch, God the Father, Yangzi River, Shield King, Shi Dakai, Holy Spirit, Liang Afa, Lord Elgin, United States, Wing King, Great God, Issachar Roberts, Heaven-and-Earth Society, Holy Ghost
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews
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 (6)
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 (5)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Best Taiping history in English is second best available, March 17, 2007
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.







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16 of 17 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
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (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.
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10 of 10 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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars A great unknown story, badly told
The Taiping Rebellion certainly was one of the most cataclysmic events of the pre Mao era in China. Yet few people have ever heard of how a Christian inspired fanatic, who deemed... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Christian Kober

5.0 out of 5 stars Great On Hong Xiuquan, His Life, Theology, but Not a Story of Battles & The Rebellion
This book is about the pivotal event in Chinese History between 200BC and 1920 and laid the groundwork for the two Chinese revolutions of Mao Tse-Tung and Sun Yat-Sen. Read more
Published 20 months ago by David M. Dougherty

2.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating subject. Poor execution.
This book jumps all over the place trying to get inside its subject's head but also trying to present a picture of China in the middle 19th century. It fails at both counts. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Tim Lieder

3.0 out of 5 stars An Odd Little Book
The Taiping Rebellion in China was the bloodiest civil war in world history. At least twenty million people perished in an orgy of slaughter that dwarfed many times over the death... Read more
Published on December 3, 2007 by Child of Herodotus

5.0 out of 5 stars good book with bad title
This is a very good book about an unpleasant page in Chinese history dominated by a religious lunatic. Read more
Published on January 28, 2006 by Andrew C. LING

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting text, but not for those looking for a light read
Spence's accounts of Chinese history have always been among my favorite ever since I first read his "History of Modern China". Read more
Published on December 13, 2004 by Jonathon Lever

2.0 out of 5 stars a slog doesn't begin to describe....
For all of Prof Spence's scholarly research - I got a better understanding of the Taiping from Flashman and the Dragon!
Published on March 14, 2004 by Jeffrey H. R. Hemlin

3.0 out of 5 stars Why wasn't this better?
In Spence's introduction, he states that he was trying to produce a different sort of account of the Taiping Heavenly Rebellion, since it's been written on so extensively... Read more
Published on September 11, 2003 by skytwo

3.0 out of 5 stars unsatisfying, but not a failure
With this book, Jonathan Spence has brought us another accessible look into Chinese history - this time the revolutionary Taiping movement of the mid-1800s, which nearly... Read more
Published on March 11, 2003 by razetheladder

3.0 out of 5 stars Tough slog through some fascinating events
I am not sure what book Spence set out to write here. Was he trying to write a scholarly history of the Taiping rebellion or was he writing a popular one? Read more
Published on November 19, 2001 by A reader in Michigan

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