ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996                 TAG: 9603150105
SECTION: BOOKS                    PAGE: F-4  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY CHIP BARNETT 

CHINESE TAIPING REBELLION HAD BIZARRE BACKGROUND

GOD'S CHINESE SON: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. By Jonathan D. Spence. Norton. $27.50.

One hundred and thirty-five years ago, the United States had begun its Civil War. Across the Pacific Ocean, China was in the midst of its own conflict, a rebellion against the Manchu rulers that lasted from 1850 through 1864 and saw 20 million people die.

Spence focuses not on the military aspect of the Taiping Rebellion or even its effects on the suffering peasantry but rather on the bizarre form of Christianity that spawned it.

Hong Xiuquan was a failed Confucian scholar who at the age of 23 experienced feverish dreams of himself doing heavenly battle with demons. Seven years later, he connected his visions with Christianity and concluded that he was in fact the hitherto unknown younger son of God and the brother of Jesus, all three of them having heavenly wives and children.

God told him that the Manchu demons must be driven from China, so Hong preached and won converts with amazing speed, finally marching hundreds of miles over several years to conquer Nanjing as his Heavenly Capitol and hold it for over ten years.

Hong conquered much of central China, imposing divinely inspired social changes. One such change was that men and women, even spouses, must live separately and chastely. And he declared that no one would go hungry because food and other necessities were distributed centrally.

Spence writes for the general reader ignorant of Chinese history, filling in just enough background for context before describing the progression of Taiping life in understated and fascinating detail. He treats all of this objectively, just the right approach to a story that speaks for itself. "God's Chinese Son" is a wild, worthwhile - and true - ride.

Readers might also want to try a fictional account of the same subject, "Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom," a juvenile novel by Katherine Paterson who has lived in both China and Virginia.

Chip Barnett is a Rockbridge County librarian.

LENGTH: Short :   46 lines