God’s Chinese Son

God’s Chinese Son traces the rise of Hong Xiuquan from an unsuccessful examination candidate to the prophetic ruler of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. His visions, Christian language and programme of moral and social transformation attracted a movement that captured Nanjing and challenged the Qing state across much of southern and central China.

Spence follows the rebellion through theology, court politics, military expansion and internal fracture. The book shows how Hong’s private revelations became the organising claims of a rival regime, while factional violence, Qing resistance and prolonged warfare turned the Taiping cause into one of the nineteenth century’s most destructive conflicts.