- Pronouns
- he/him
We can say that without being accused of religious bigotry because the Taiping are no longer around. Had they won we would nod sagely and hold our tongue when we hear that Hong Xiuquan did, indeed, receive a divine revelation.The entire Taiping Rebellion was built on a delusion he had experienced in the midst of a nervous breakdown.
A cynic might wonder how different that China would be from the OTL one.This is unfortunate, because a puritanical 20th Century theocratic China ruled by God’s alleged great-great-great-grandson would be an excellent hook for a story.
This is an amazing mess and I certainly can't dispute: "a puritanical 20th Century theocratic China ruled by God’s alleged great-great-great-grandson would be an excellent hook for a story. "
We can say that without being accused of religious bigotry because the Taiping are no longer around. Had they won we would nod sagely and hold our tongue when we hear that Hong Xiuquan did, indeed, receive a divine revelation.
Yeah, I had that example in mind as I wrote that.Eh people are generally dismissive enough of folks such as Joseph Smith that I think you'd at most see it moderated to 'a divine revelation he claimed he'd received during a mental breakdown' which is essentially a polite way of saying 'yeah like that actually happened.'
We can say that without being accused of religious bigotry because the Taiping are no longer around. Had they won we would nod sagely and hold our tongue when we hear that Hong Xiuquan did, indeed, receive a divine revelation.
Ultimately, I personally don't regard the Taiping as very promising TL fodder--as the article concludes, butterflying them away altogether and having a more classic rebel movement harness the popular discontent simmering in mid-19th century China would probably have more potential. Another variant, which @Japhy has explored, is having Zeng Guofan himself turn on the Qing.
That is, indeed, very much an open question. One paradox of the late Qing is that, contrary to Japan, attempts at modernization were bottom-up rather than top-down, which means that they tended to weaken the central government from within at a time when it was also being battered from without by foreign encroachment. A "classic" uprising led by the aforementioned Zeng Guofan or another such figure (Zuo Zongtang also comes to mind) may have given the system enough of a shake-up that the modernizers would have been able to take charge from the center, but not enough to send it entirely crashing down. Or, of course, it might have played out like the Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire and hastened the collapse of the imperial order.Even a classical rebel movement that seizes power and establishes a new dynasty would still have China's many entrenched and systematic issues to deal with, though- so there'd be a question as to just how much better they can make things.
My impression from the article is that the best way to get the Taiping Rebellion to succeed is to separate church and state as early as possible. Which is to say, have Hong Xiuquan take up a purely spiritual role and appoint someone more pragmatic and political to handle worldly affairs as whatever would be Taiping-speak for prime minister. I don't know if there's anyone who would be convenient for that role though.