The Taiping Vision of a Christian China

Encapsulating the themes of his 1996 book, God's Chinese Son, Jonathan Spence, in this Edmondson Historical Lecture, interprets the social and political milieu of mid-nineteenth-century China that gave rise to the apocalyptic Taiping Rebellion. Here, Spence traces the events surrounding the life of Hong Xiuquan, the self-styled heavenly king who had learned through his encounter with Christian religious texts that he was not only a religious leader, but also "the younger brother of Jes…