It is no secret that the boundary between religion and sect or a cult is sometimes difficult to discern and that time is often the deciding factor in the appropriate categorization of the terms. Christianity was once a tiny sect in ancient Judea, and after a millennium and a bit of a downfall, it became the religion with the largest clientele on the market with imaginary friends. One such cult, founded by three friends in China in 1843, soon exploded (both figuratively and literally) on the scene, turning southern China into ruins as a result of the last dramatic attempt to Christianize the most populous country in the world.
What is particularly spectacular about the sect simply called ``God-loving Society'' and the uprisings that grew into a civil war is the number of victims. There is no precise consensus on this figure, but the literature contains estimates that go as high as 30 million dead, which means that the fourteen-year conflict known as the ``Taiping Rebellion`` was the deadliest in human history to date, surpassed only by World War II to this day. And of course, it remains completely unknown to the general public, at least those inclined to history, the most significant historical event about which no one has ever heard anything. The monotony among the Confucian-minded population was broken by a certain Hong Siu Chuan, a member of the Hakka minority who tried to enter the state administration dominated by Manchu Chinese who were not particularly inclined to share the state's bread outside their ``tribe``. Entry into that world of bureaucrats was conditioned by a series of tests in which candidates had to demonstrate their knowledge. Hong tried four times - and failed four times. Whether it was because of unfulfilled dreams or because of the inflaming madness - Hong began to receive `visions`, he found Jesus and began to think about how to mirror the heavenly order on earth. Several Western Protestant missionaries were more than willing to provide him with appropriate literature, which Hong studied in detail. But Mr. Siu Chuan went a step further - he declared himself the long-lost, immortal brother of Jesus who had finally revealed his hibernated identity!
Naturally, the role of such an entity is mixed - heavenly-earthly, so Hong proclaimed himself the `Heavenly King` and began to work on his theology and ideology. And it was extreme, of course, a mix of proto-communist egalitarianism, gender equality, strict Protestant puritanism, apocalyptic millenarianism, complete demonization of Confucianism and consequently - a fight against the wretched barbaric Qing dynasty that had sat on the Chinese throne for several centuries and which Hong claimed was the result of the mating of some demons...After quite unexpectedly attracting twenty thousand followers throughout South China, Hong proclaimed the coming of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace. The sectarians were clear that the Heavenly Kingdom would soon face Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil. And for that purpose they began to seriously arm themselves and form a well-trained paramilitary force, at least as good as the Green Imperial Army of the Qing dynasty. But with the difference that the state soldiers suffered from a serious lack of fanaticism which was also exported to the ranks of the Heavenly Army.
It is striking that in just a few years until the fateful 1850, the sect recruited tens of thousands of members, but it should be known that that period was not exactly the brightest in the millennium of Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was in a decadent phase whose terminal period was already underway and which would reach its apotheosis in 1911, the heavy defeat in the Opium Wars against Britain, the escalation of the old traditions of drug addiction throughout the empire, the financial crisis, epidemics, floods and famine in many regions - together with the several active uprisings at that moment created something like a perfect storm where only the Hong cultists were missing for the situation to get out of control. And it got out of control in December 1850, when the cultists went on the offensive. On January 1, 1851, the beginning of the end of Evil and the triumph of Good was proclaimed when imperial troops attempted to root out the sectarians by attacking their stronghold in the city of Jintian. The heavy defeat of the empire in a clash with an ordinary sect was a sign of the mobilization of countless members, disappointed with the existing system. The next few months and several clashes with the state authorities, in which the "Celestials" won in all clashes - played a decisive role in stabilizing the sect. In the next few years, it is believed that the fighting forces of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace numbered over a million lost souls.
In March 1853, the rebels captured the regional center of Nanjing, which they declared their capital. After taking over several other major urban centers, next on Hong's wish list was Beijing, the seat of the Chinese throne. But it seems that the sectarians overestimated their strength and failed in the siege of Beijing. It was then that divisions and factions within the sect itself began for the first time. A turbulent period followed of new conquests, defections from one side to the other and vice versa, flirting with Western missionaries in order to gain international recognition of the new kingdom by its Russian ``brothers'' in the Western world, and the eradication of Confucianism from the occupied territories. Looking into the abyss of their own power, during this time the Qing dynasty and the imperial army decided on a transformation. Foreign advisors and mercenaries were hired, vast quantities of Western infantry weapons and artillery were purchased, and intensive diplomatic activity was carried out to secure Western support. The Western colonial powers, at least officially - decided to support the regime in order to keep China as a whole. No one was willing to cooperate with an extremely fanatical Russian sect headed by a madman. A madman with episodes of genius - but a madman nonetheless.
And then there were the 'gifts' for foreign ambassadors and military attaches, and the Opium trade that brought in huge sums of money for the British. And all vices, including drug addiction, were banned in the new Celestial Kingdom. Fearing a serious decline in their profits, British companies and the government decided to help the Qing dynasty, together with the new republican empire known as the United States and the long-standing French presence in Indochina. After the spectacular victory of the sects at the Battle of Jiangnan in 1860, when the imperial army undertook the largest offensive against the Celestial Kingdom to that time, it seemed that the fate of China was decided in favor of the sect. But what was not so obvious, the great ``intra-sectarian'' divisions, epidemics and the melting of the funds needed to wage war - influenced the sects to throw everything at the card of conquering Shanghai, the main commercial center of China. By conquering Shanghai - the Western powers would be faced with a fait accompli and the empire would lose its main port and source of income.
The attack on Shanghai in August 1860 was the beginning of the end of the sect. Once again, the rebels proved powerless to break a huge fortified city with a siege. The Chinese army, together with foreign mercenaries led by the American Frederick Ward (who would not live to see the end of the war) and the legendary British adventurer General Charles Gordon (known as Gordon of Khartoum, the city where he would later end up with his head impaled on a Mahdi spear) - managed to repel the invaders.
After this turn of events, the initiative gradually shifted to the government forces and over time - after numerous battles and operations - the sect was trapped in its capital, Nanjing and its surroundings. A siege began in June 1864, during which the sect leader Hong died - probably by taking his own life, tormented by severe pain as a result of poisoning with spoiled food. Exhausted and running out of ammunition - thousands of sectarians fought fanatically to the death, to the last bullet and to the last blow with a saber. Few surrendered and the battles for every street and every house can be considered the forerunners of modern battles, Liege, Sevastopol, Berlin or Grozny where well-barricaded defenders fought to the death with the aggressors in a new type of conflict, completely urban and completely total. The government paid for the defeat of the sect with at least 120,000 victims in the last battle alone, and how many suffered on the side of the rebels - is unknown. If we take into account the reprisals that followed, the figure could rise to half a million dead, wounded and missing, which means that the siege of Nanjing was the most difficult battle in the history of mankind up to that time.
A few days after the death of the leader, Nanjing also fell and that was the end of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace. The imperial authorities, worried about a possible new gathering of sectarians - decided to cremate Hong Siu Chuan and put the ashes in a cannonball and shoot Hong's remains in an unknown direction. I do not believe that there has ever been a more original funeral ceremony, which nevertheless fulfilled its preventive task in a world dominated by superstition, religious madness, Opium and Cholera. Although the Kingdom of Heaven itself collapsed, the surviving hundreds of thousands of sectarians turned to guerrilla warfare that lasted at least until 1871, when the last major paramilitary Taiping army was defeated. In certain regions, the sectarians continued to operate until the end of the nineteenth century...
The Taiping Rebellion was the beginning of the end of three thousand years of Chinese monarchy, an event that had disproportionate consequences for both Asian and global history. And its traces can still be seen today, for example when a person buys a new Tablet or mobile phone for ridiculous money, as a result of a chain of events that began quite inconspicuously, with a madman who suffered from `visions` and who, together with a few friends, founded his own cult.
(Roger Mortis, 110)
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