God Worshipping Society
God Worshipping Society | |
---|---|
拜上帝會 | |
Scripture | Bible |
Region | China |
Language | Chinese |
Founder | Hong Xiuquan |
Origin | 1843 Guangdong, Qing dynasty |
Defunct | 1864 |
Bai Shangdi Hui | |
---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | Bài Shàngdì Huì |
Bopomofo | ㄅㄞˋ ㄕㄤˋ ㄉㄧˋ ㄏㄨㄟˋ |
Wade–Giles | Pai4 Shang4-ti4 Hui4 |
Tongyong Pinyin | Bài Shàng-dì Huèi |
IPA | [pâɪ ʂâŋ.tî xwêɪ] |
The God Worshipping Society (
Beliefs
The God Worshipping Society believed in Divine filiation,[9][10] the scriptural concept that all Christian believers become sons and daughters of God when redeemed by Christ.[11] Hong did not claim to have a supernatural birth;[12] Hong Xiuquan was merely regarded as the second eldest son of Shangdi after Jesus Christ, with Feng Yunshan as third eldest son, and Yang Xiuqing the fourth eldest.[13] Wei Changhui was recognized as fifth brother of Jesus, Xiao Chaogui as their sixth brother, Shi Dakai as their seventh brother, and Hong's son was called the nephew of Jesus.[14][15] Hong Xiuquan's writings expressed rejection of the divinity of Jesus,[16] for example, denying that Jesus performed miracle healing on his own, but rather that it was God who performed them; also commenting on Romans 9, Hong wrote that "Christ is God's Heir Apparent... [but] is not God" and regarding Mark 12, he wrote that Christ could not be God because "there would be two Gods."[17] He did however believe that Jesus was an actual son of God, not a mere human messenger. Hong depicted God like traditional Chinese folk deities as an old man with golden beard, wearing a black dragon robe, and having a wife, known as the Heavenly Mother. He claimed that God's children included Jesus, himself and a host of little sisters in heaven, and that Jesus, Yang Xiuqing, and himself were born from God before heaven and earth existed. Hong's depiction of God and his intimate heavenly family is likely to have been based on his interpretation of how "Shangdi created humankind in his image".[18] Hong also insisted that only God and Jesus could be described as sheng (holy), warning his followers not to use this term for himself; he also insisted that his own title had to be written in an inferior position to Jesus the "Crown Prince" "Heavenly Elder Brother" (太子天兄), which was in turn to be written beneath "God the Heavenly Father and Great Shangdi" (天父皇上帝)[18]
Formation
Beginning with
Feng Yunshan formed the God Worshipping Society in Guangxi after a missionary journey there in 1844 to spread Hong's ideas.[19] In 1847, Hong became the leader of the secret society.[20] The Taiping faith, inspired by missionary Christianity, says one historian, "developed into a dynamic new Chinese religion... Taiping Christianity". Hong presented this religion as a revival and a restoration of the ancient classical faith in Shangdi, a faith that had been displaced by Confucianism (its corrupted version, used by the Qing to submit the Han) and dynastic imperial regimes.[21][22] The next year, Hong and Feng Yunshan, Hong's distant cousin[23] and one of the earliest converts to Hong's faith,[24] traveled to Sigu, Guiping county, Guangxi to preach their version of Christianity.[25] In November 1844, Hong returned home without Feng, who remained in the area and continued to preach.[26] After Hong's departure, Feng traveled deeper and deeper into the heart of the Thistle Mountain region, preaching and baptizing new converts.[27] Feng christened this group of believers the "God Worshipping Society".[28] Hakkas from this area, generally poor and beset by both bandits and local Chinese families angry at the presence of the Hakka in their ancestral lands, found refuge in the group with its promise of solidarity.[29]
While the God Worshipping Society shared some similar characteristics with traditional Chinese secret societies, it differed in that the participants adopted a new religious faith that firmly rejected Chinese tradition as for the one established by the Manchu regime, since they believed that they were following the Chinese tradition, but the original, the Han tradition.
Growth
With Hong's return, the God Worshipping Society took on a more rebellious character.[33] Hong began to describe himself as a king and explicitly identified the ruling Manchus and their supporters as demons which must be destroyed.[34] The God Worshippers treated their entire community as a family, leading to establishment of a common treasury and a requirement of chastity.[35]
In January 1848, Feng Yunshan was arrested and banished to Guangdong.[36] Hong Xiuquan left for Guangdong shortly thereafter to reunite with Feng.[37] In the absence of both Feng and Hong, two new leaders emerged to fill the void: Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui.[38] Both claimed to enter trances which allowed them to speak as a member of the Trinity: God the Father (Shangdi) in the case of Yang and Jesus Christ in the case of Xiao.[38] While speaking as Jesus or Shangdi, Xiao and Yang would necessarily have more authority than even Hong Xiuquan.[39] Upon their return in the summer of 1849, Hong and Feng investigated Yang and Xiao's claims and declared them to be genuine.[40]
Jintian Uprising
In February 1850, local corps passed through a number of God Worshipping villages and threatened to kill the converts.[40] In response, Feng Yunshan began to call for open revolt by the God Worshippers.[40] In July 1850, the God Worshipper's leaders directed their followers to converge in Jintian and quickly amassed a force of 10,000–30,000 people.[41] While the majority of the group were Hakka, some followers were Punti, Miao, or members of other local tribal groups.[42] Membership in the God Worshippers was eclectic; they counted businessmen, refugees, farmers, mercenaries, and members of secret societies and mutual-protection alliances among their ranks.[43] The Emperor Worshippers were also joined by a number of bandit groups, including several thousand pirates led by Luo Dagang.[44]
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
On the 11th day of the first lunar month of 1851, which was also Hong Xiuquan's birthday, the God Worshipping Society proclaimed the Jintian Uprising against the ruling Qing dynasty, and declared the formation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, thus beginning the Taiping Rebellion, which has been described as the "most gigantic man-made disaster" of the nineteenth century.[45] The God Worshippers trained to fight were considered Protestant revolutionaries.[46]
See also
- Millennarianism in colonial societies
Footnotes
- emperors of China first employed by Qin Shi Huang, and is usually translated as "emperor".
- ^ The imperial examinations had a pass rate of less than one per cent.[4]
Notes
- ISBN 9780585122007.
- ISBN 9780733634048.
- ISBN 978-0810863088.
- ^ Gray (1990), p. 55
- ^ Jen Yu-wen, The Taiping Revolutionary Movement pp. 15–19 (1973)
- ^ Jen Yu-wen, The Taiping Revolutionary Movement 20 (1973)
- ISBN 978-0-231-11271-0.
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son 64-65 (1996)
- ^ Westminster Confession, http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/index.html?body=/documents/wcf_with_proofs/ch_XII.html
- ^ Book of Concord, http://bookofconcord.org/sd-righteousness.php paragraphs 4, 9, 10, and 25
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son Chapter 9 (1996)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son Chapter 19 (1996)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son Chapter 15 (1996)
- ^ Yu-wen Chien (1970). The Taiping Revolutionary Movement, Volume 1. the University of Michigan. p. 20.
- ^ T'ien Hsia Monthly, Volume 1. Sun Yat-Sen institute for the advancement of culture and education. 1935. p. 368.
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son Chapter 20 (1996)
- ISBN 9781351545648.
- ^ ISBN 9781137537287.
- ^ "Feng Yunshan (Chinese rebel leader)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
- ^ "Taiping Rebellion (Chinese history)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
- ^ Reilly (2004), p. 4.
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, pp. 25, 64–65, 67 (1996)
- ^ Jen Yu-wen, The Taiping Revolutionary Movement, pp. 22–23 (1973)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, pp. 67, 69, 80 (1996)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, p. 71 (1996)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, pp. 78–79 (1996)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, pp. 79–80 (1996)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, p. 80 (1996)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, pp. 81, 88 (1996)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History p. 29 (1966)
- ^ a b Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History p. 30 (1966)
- ^ Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, p. 95 (1996)
- ^ a b c Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History, p. 31 (1966)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History, pp. 31–32 (1966)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History'", p. 33 (1966)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History, p. 34–35 (1966)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History 35–37 (1966)
- ^ a b Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History p. 35 (1966)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History, p. 36 (1966)
- ^ a b c Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History, p. 37 (1966)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History, p. 39 (1966)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History, p. 40–41 (1966)
- ^ Pamela Kyle Crossley, The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800, p. 104 (2010)
- ^ Franz H. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History, p. 40 (1966)
- ^ Kuhn (1977).
- ISBN 9781743822043.
Sources
- Works cited
- Reilly, Thomas H. (2004). The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295984309.
- ISBN 0-393-03844-0
- ——— (1990), The Search for Modern China, New York: Norton
- Kuhn, Philip A. (July 1977), "Origins of the Taiping Vision: Cross-Cultural Dimensions of a Chinese Rebellion", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 19 (3): 350–366, S2CID 144407449