2:36 In case you’re wondering about the guy sticking out of the cannon, after the Qing recaptured Nanking (the Taiping’s capital), Hong’s ashes were blasted out of a cannon to deny him a permanent resting place as eternal punishment for his uprising.
It's also important to note there were like six other concurrent revolts going on in the Qing dynasty with the Taiping rebellion being the biggest of all happening during the middle of the 19th century . It's an absolute miracle the Qing dynasty managed to survive past the 19th century.
It wasn't a miracle, like other dynasties with the problem they allowed notables to raise private armies to defend them, won the rebellions, then got eaten alive by the regional warlords they had just legitimized instead.
@@gadaadhoon I think that's part of the reason why the CCP has been so hellbent on homogenizing the population and displacing minorities like Tibetans and Uighurs with Han Chinese.
Chinese politics really is that volatile due to systemic risk-seeking and mob behavior. In Chinese culture, everything is a frantic competition for dominance, even history class.
The Taiping rebellion also happens to be among the top 5 deadliest human conflicts. In case you're wondering about the other 4, 2 of them happen to be the world wars, and the remaining 2 were just 2 other chinese civil wars
Honestly astounding the Qing made it another fifty years after the absolute destruction and exhaustion of putting down the Taiping Rebellion, which was the deadliest war in history until the Second World War.
@@CodyMappingAlso, the Nian rebellion, Panthay rebellion, Dungan revolt and Miao rebellion. How the Qing dynasty survived all of this rebellion is beyond me.
The God-Worshipping Society believed the Manchus to be devils, so whenever they captured cities, as the video mentions, “a lot of murder tended to happen.”
Tapped into a deep vein of xenophobia, as people really hated the Queue hairstyle. That, and China has over 200 different insults for "foreigner" in Mandarin alone.
@@matthewgillies7509 Can you even blame the Han? "Hated the Queue" Yeah that's kinda minimizing it, maybe didn't want their heads get chopped off for not wearing it.
@@billisultan6224Huang Chao was this Chinese guy during the Tang Dynasty who also failed his imperial exams multiple times. He ended up joining the group of rebels springing up across the nation, fought his way up the ranks, and ended up taking the capital (iirc) and even temporarily became the emperor of China. His reign was short-lived however, when the Tang government ultimately defeated Huang Chao and he died in battle. Though his uprising failed, Huang Chao’s rebellion was a devastating blow to the already crippling empire, and ultimately brought along the eventual fall of (arguably) the greatest dynasty of Chinese history.
"A man called Hong Xiuquan wanted to build a new China, which he would do by force." Well he was a named figure in Chinese history, what else are they gonna do?
Not-so-fun fact: During the Tang dynasty, Huang Chao, a guy that also failed the imperial examinations, ended up starting a rebellion in 875 and even became the emperor for sometime. That was the final straw for the Tang, who was barely able to DECISIVELY crush the An Lushan Rebellion and still was struggling to survive with wars, barbarian invasions, famines, corruption, bankrupt ... , resulting in the fall of the Tang in 907
If there wasn't so many people that died cause of the holy bro it would be a funny af story. I mean it still is but like holy shit a lot of people died cause of that dude.
If you think about it, it kinda-sorta makes sense in a Chinese context. If you put a Christian paint job on the whole "Emperor is the Son of Heaven" thing, that's basically what you get
It is probably worth mentioning that because of near constant famines in the nineteenth century, the Qing Dynasty was a revolving door of revolts. So it was probably hard for outsiders to take any one of the revolts more seriously than the others.
Yeah... but poverty and famines do not automatically lead to an insurrection: if the famines around the world really did lead to a rebellion, the history of the world would be nothing more than a succession of rebellions. For this, a 'spark' was needed, which was ignited by Hong Xiuquan.
I still find it astounding that the Taiping Rebellion, which is almost certainly the second deadliest war in human history after WWII, is almost entirely unheard of in the west because it was confined exclusively to China. I know a lot of history, and even I didn't learn about this until a year or two ago.
That's because our textbooks generally have a positive evaluation of Tianping Kingdom Movement, because the Communist Party of China (CPC) thinks that they are part of the proletarian revolution. In this war, most people died not on the battlefield but in slaughter. Both sides massacred those who surrendered. In particular, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom asked people to change their beliefs or they would be killed. In the later period of this war, there was a Muslim rebellion in northwest China, and the population in the northwest decreased by 20 million. The end of this war depends on the local army in Hunan. China's famous figures in modern times all came from this place, including Mao Zedong.
Fun fact: many veterans of these Taiping rebels would eventually live long enough to see the 1911 revolution and many of them have told war stories to these revolutionaries when they were a child.
A number of them fled to Hong Kong too, I saw a grave in Hong Kong cemetery that the tour guide told us is cousin of Hong Xiuquan. Which make sense since the Qing can arrest him in our British colony
@@styrus3164eh, I'd say the highlighting doss the job well. No need to artificially push them to the top just because they donated cash. That could have unexpected repercussions, not to mention it being unfair
I'd see why the UA-cam creator would like that, but donation comments are usually just thanking the UA-cam creator. While that is well deserved, it is boring. I'd like to see more discussion of the video in the top comments.@@styrus3164
I remember somebody from the Alternatehistory forum site about that. It turned into a world were one half is the Workers Republic of Man (Soviet Union on Steroids) and the other half becoming the Kingdom under all Heaven ( theocratic super empire rivalling WW2 era Japan whom they absorbed in the 1950's after a brutal war killing 98% of the population). The remaining powers include the Latin American Technocracy (only continent to be 90% free from any of the two hyperpowers), Free France (in Madagascar), New Zealand, and the rump United States of America (a joint invasion by both the Reds and the Greens on the East and West Coasts of the US respectively happen in the 1960's and was only stopped when the US - which got the A-bomb decades before - did their own scorched earth retreat using nukes to slow down the invasion forces; currently the only nuclear-armed country in that world as the most technologically advanced despite only being composed of the Heartlands section of the continental US and remnants of Canada)...
Let's remember that in the Taiping rebellion died 20-30 million people. That's more than the amount of all the 19th century european conflicts combined, that counts the napoleonic wars, greek independence, 1830 rebellion, 1848 rebellions, crimean war, italian unification wars, german unification wars, franco prussian war and all the minor conflicts, independence's and rebellions. The amount is insane and wouldn't be surpassed by almost a hundred years with WW2 by amount killed considering millitary and civilian casualties.
And this clown will leave out that most of those 20-30 million were from famine , While not counting famine death counts in the Western war examples 😂😂 This is why you dont blindly trust the internet kids
In fairness, Christian missionaries to China used to claim that Jesus was the younger brother of Confucius, so another bro wouldn't have been seen as that odd.
On his way back from failing a civil servant exam (again) he came down with a fever and had been reading a translation of parts of The Bible given to him by a missionary. He dreamt (though he believed it to be real) that he went to Heaven and Jesus explained that they were brothers and that he needed his help to fight an army of demons who had invaded Heaven. They went about defeating the demons, then Jesus told him to fight the demons on Earth as well. What's even stranger is that he was actually able to gather an army and a following and conquered Nanking! In part because The Imperial Government didn't take The Tai Ping as a serious threat at first, so they had early successes which convinced others that he was divine by the time The Qing realised the seriousness of the situation it had snowballed out of control.
My suggestion for a next episode : Why Gabon was refused from staying french despite their will? It's not a well known story, which I believe is therefore even more interesting
@@oqo3310 Yes kinda. But the refusal is also explain with some kind of racism and the will to etablish a new and different preeminence over Africa. Moreover, the offer from Gabon can be linked to the frenchness/frenchophilia of francophone african elite, and the fact that they were largely put in charge by or with the will of Paris itself
Calling them “Christians” is very loose, since their religion was heavily influenced by local faiths and contained some beliefs that would definitely be seen as sacrilegious by most Western Christians
He also had a questionably translated copy of The Bible. In his correspondence with religious leaders in Europe they pointed out errors in his interpretation.
Lmao as a Christian (Asian but not Chinese) myself I’m honestly bothered ppl keep referring to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as “Christians”, when from my research they weren’t even that Christian by their actions and way of living. I consider them to be much closer to some weird Chinese cult, with some Christian influence and aesthetic. And I may not be part of the Catholic or Orthodox branches, but even those two are far more authentically Christian to me than Hong Xiuquan’s weird cult ever was XD Honestly, it’s like calling Japan or South Korea a Western country, or saying they’re part of the West, to use an analogy.
Couldn't the same be said about adopting the winter solstice as "birthday" of Jesus Christ to christianize Europe and how the orthodox and coptic churches felt about that? In that sense, the taiping christians are just as christian as every single christian of European descent, and there are a lot of those.
I’m always shocked when I remember that 30 million people died in the Taiping Rebellion. But then I realize that that is probably just a normal Tuesday in China.
@@shinsenshogun900 Yeah, and I wouldn't say that only a 'protracted civil war' causes so many deaths in China, it was also much more vulnerable to natural disasters than Europe or the US. In northern China, in 1556, there was an earthquake (more known as Shaanxi Earthquake) in which 830,000 people perished (a lot of people for that century).
Jokes aside. Taiping Rebellion heavily affected China until 1950 and still affected until now. Country lost so many people and broken apart which falls into Warlord era , country remains weak for so long which Japan took opportunity to invaded Manchuria and mainland. People believed their country broken apart because so many western foreign intervention thus why Communist took over the power because it was anti western. Also the way they heavily monitoring religious movement and cult movement, reflection from this era.
I find it amazing that people can accept the fact that most government decisions in the past came down to money but they look at our modern decisions and think it is always more complicated for the current world leaders.
Arguably the largest war caused purely for money in the modern was the iraqi war, iraq wanted to take Kuwait (which was selling oil with the U.S dollar) and sell it's oil by other currencies like the euro which would've been a big money loss for the U.S so the U.S had to make a made up excuse to justify it's invasion. And people believed it.
Also one thing History Matters didn't mention was that Hong Xiquan's 14 year old son, Hong Tianguifu succeeded him upon his death in 1864. While his father didn't suffer the same fate as him as he had already died before the Qing government could punish him. Hong Tianguifu's fate was that he was executed in the same year that his father died by being given with the slow slicing execution method. Really shows how one action of an ancestor can cause further dishonor on the descendants and even retaliation on those descendants judging by what Hong Xiquan did to China during his fourteen year reign of terror on the parts of China he controlled.
It just shows you how sadistic and horrifying powerful people really are inside. It's all a fake until someone actually threatens their power. Then the knives and A-10s and drone murder programs come out and you see who they really are, while they grin because they like killing people.
"The slow slicing execution method." I don't know what that is. I could look it up. But I think the name gives me enough information to know that I really don't want to
Video Ideas: Japan has had an Emperor for around two thousand years, yet for a lot of it, they've been figureheads. How did this happen, and why didn't any of the powerful groups behind the throne simply take the crown for themselves? Collaboration between the USA and USSR during The Space Race (International Geophysical Year, Apollo-Soyuz, Vega [technically not USA], MIR-Shuttle, etc.) Rise and fall of the world's most valuable company ever, the Dutch East India Company. The Washington Naval Treaty (and subsequent London treaties), the participants, and how it effected the world into WW2.
If you think about it, it is pretty impressive someone managed to convince so many people that he was the brother of Jesus, despite living centuries later and lived on other side of Asia!
Most Taiping rebels weren't Christians, nor even Hong's botched version of Christians. Rather, they were Han Chinese peasants who hated the ruling Manchus, and joined the rebellion in hopes of ousting said Manchus.
A question I was asking myself recently was "Why are so many US State Capitals located in rather small cities?" I mean, upon the biggest US Cities there are only two Capitals, Phoenix, AZ and Austin, TX, and the latter is still only the fourth-largest City within the state after Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. For comparison, in Germany (where I live), the 16 state capitals are all either the largest or second-largest city within their respective states.
Most US states were founded during a time of lengthy travel times by horse and buggy, with some larger than the biggest European kingdoms of the time. The state capitals are usually sited so that travel to the capital was roughly equal from the most distant of the communities in each state.
I think that's mainly because the capital of the states were atleast the first major settlement in the state but would be overshadowed by newer cities. Or something like that. The capital city of my state, Michigan, is Lansing but people outside and within the state hardly even realize it exists as the two Michigan cities that do come to mind in people's minds are flint and Detroit, both of which have long history of being the center of automotive industry. Perhaps the answer is just how the industrial revolution impacted the cities perhaps it's something else.
I think the two main reasons are to keep the state capitals centrally located in the state for ease of travel and a desire to avoid having the largest city have an undue influence on state politics. Each state has its own history (I know my home state's capital bounced from city to city for a while after statehood), but those are usually the reason.
Short answer: compromise. As most American states were formed after the major cities and towns already existed, when creating a new territory or state there was a lot of infighting about which place should become the capital. Most times, the location chosen was due to it being the geographic centre of the state (ie: Ohio). Alternatives to existing cities or major civic centres were selected to avoid one city dominating the whole state economically and politically. Such examples can be seen across the USA, in New York, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, California, and many others. Now, there are cases when the larger cities won out, due to either an absence of viable alternatives, or their historical significance. In a few other cases, as you mentioned, the capital is the largest city, and this is usually because the state or territory was organized as settlement was commencing, allowing for people to congregate after the capitals' locations were already determined.
To confirm what everyone else is saying, a lot of it is because the capitals were in a central location. But on top of that, the cities that would become a capital were also in a neutral location too. For example, Sacramento is the capital of California mostly because the city of Sacramento offered its courthouse to the state for use, and although other cities like Vallejo or thought of as being California's capital, I think people accepted the idea that Sacramento was a neutral enough town outside of the major hubs of San Francisco and Los Angeles to serve as a fair third-party to those cities.
Apparently the CCP actually teaches the Taiping Rebellion as a proto-communist uprising against the Qing and thus a good thing in textbooks so they at least have that legacy
I am Brazilian who takes public exams to get a job and I feel his pain. I've also done tests that had more than 100,000 applicants for just over 1000 available vacancies. This year I took a test to be a technician in environmental management and I came in fifteenth place. But they only had three vacancies.
@@hugoleonardoamaral586 Obrigado irmão mas a verdade é que toda prova eu digo a mim mesmo que agora é a minha vez porque eu só quero 1 vaga mas a competição é monstruosa. Essa prova que mencionei que eram 100.000 incritos era para ser policial civil aqui no Pará. Consegui um trabalho é tudo que quero.
I'm Mexican, and I had a similar experience. Here, most public office jobs are given as government patronage. The exams exist to create a sense of meritocracy and to ensure there are at least a few people who know what they are doing. I imagine it was not so different throughout Imperial China.
Another turning point was attack on Shanghai. This battle basically makes the west declare war on Taiping too. Note that Shanghai at that time, was an international city. The policy of foreigners in China at that time was the country of origins has right to protect their people abroad, attack on their citizen was equivalent to declaring war.
It's entirely probable that some of the youngest survivors of the fall of the Taiping government in Nanking in 1864 ended up, 73 years later, meeting their end at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Rape of Nanking. Makes you think a lot about fate and the vagaries of history.
Because they weren't Christian. The Taiping movement was more of a revival of the Emperor worship of ancient China, with minor bits of Christianity and some Manchu genocide thrown in. Even the name of their movement better translates to the "Emperor Worshipping Society." When Christian organizations/Western governments sent representatives to the Taiping, they were disgusted by what they saw and quickly concluded that the Taiping were not Christian at all.
Also they massacred other Christians like the Catholic converts in Nanjing. So the Pope would have been disgusted at a "Christian" rebellion murdering other Christians.
No, "God Worshipping Society" is the correct translation. The term they use is Shangdi, which refers to the highest divine authority in ancient Chinese mythology. The Emperor was never referred to as such. The Emperor would be something like "Huangdi" or "Tianzi." The emperor is the son of heaven, the original title was a portmanteau of the terms "Huang" referring to the 3 Huang who were gods, and "Di," referring to the five Di who were more like folk heroes. That said this is really, really old stuff and I doubt that many people even during Hong Xiuquan's time would've believed in Shangdi as a God.
@@bobjones2959 shangdi is a direct translation to Emperor of the shang dynasty. which is where the term was coiend. "god worshipping society' might be a correct translation for westerners as they dont really see the difference.
@@auraaa_2991Nah it's not. The Shang in the Shang dynasty is pronounced differently, it's 商 with the flat (first) tone. The Shang in Shangdi means "up" or "high," 上, and is pronounced with the descending (fourth) tone. He wasn't the Emperor of the Shang Dynasty - the Shang dynasty had no Emperors, they had kings. The practice of using Emperor as a title originated with the Qin dynasty. Shangdi's role in the Shang dynasty was as the highest God from which the Shang king derived legitimacy, and the one the state would make offerings to for basically everything from policy changes to praying for rain and harvest. Originally the idea was that only the Shang king could communicate with Shangdi cos his ancestors were with him in the afterlife. The concept of the mandate of heaven was created by the Duke of Zhou to justify his clan usurping the Shang clan's royal status. This is how legitimacy came to be untied from clan membership and instead to good governance. In the Zhou Dynasty Shangdi got conflated with heaven, or Tian, and then over time through other dynasties the concept got more and more fuzzy, with later revisions associating him with the Jade Emperor.
2:02 Hong might have been onto something if he hadn’t been a total nutcase. “Women are equals” and “Muslims are our brothers” are not the worst ideas in the world.
I'm reading a ton of comments and no one is bringing up the list at 2:00. Sure saying that Jesus Christ wasn't Divine was blasphemous, and claiming that he was your little brother is silly talk. However, I have a feeling that saying that women are equal, and Muslims are Christian's brothers in faith, were the two steps too far.
I really think you are underselling the "Religious and moral" aspects here. Their founder Hong had baisically no knowledge of Christianity, and only learned what little he did from a local missionary AFTER he became certain he was the literal brother of Jesus during an insane stress induced mental breakdown over failing the Imperial examinations. A local missionary who, mind you, straight up refused to baptise him. At first, Europe was actually really happy over over seeing a "Christian" leader gain ground in China, but were absolutely repugnated when they saw he was really just an insane, genocidal cult leader who thought he was the messiah, and seemed to belive that Jesus and God were really just different names for CHINESE deities he was familiar with. Hong wasn't JUST murderous, whenever he invaded a city he'd kill all the men then force out all the women, then burn them alive. And, even though European ethics were still very.... questionable, at the time, they were still halfway to the kind of ethics we have nowadays, and it was seeing this exact destruction and Genocide that caused the European powers to support the other side in the war
@@WeirdMagnus Indeed, dynasties do eventually fall into decadence leading to civil war, but most of those that unify the country start-off good (for imperial standards) and give prosperity for a century or two. Qing lasted surprisingly long for being Manchurians (Foreign invaders) and having to deal with the period were the West started reaching the far East as the region refused any modernisation.
@@WeirdMagnusTechnically speaking France Britain and Spain/Castile have been around for over a Millenia. A couple centuries isn't that long when put into perspective of the historical timeline.
Why? They believed in the divinity of Christ, that at least some parts of the Bible is the word of God, and traced their theocratic history to the apostles. What makes them different than any other sect of Christianity that took on more local customs? When we’re speaking objectively, historians get to decide what makes a Christian, not believers. They’re way more biased.
@@Fractured_Unity No such thing as a Christian country. Jesus said many are called, but FEW are chosen. Few cannot a nation comprise. Even the Vatican is heretical. Mary idolaters go to hell. "Queen of Heaven" makes her out to be a goddess. No way around it. Gullible billions fall for Satan's false flag operations. Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world. ALL countries are Satan's... for now.
Just listened to History Impossible episode dealing with an American Filibuster (Merc) who fought in the Taiping Rebellion on the side of the Ching Dynasty. Cool to learn more about it.
Thank you for this video. I would be interested in future episodes about the Taiping Rebellion. I know very little about it at present. God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)
Fun Fact: Some estimate that the Taiping Rebellion was the deadliest conflict in Human history with over 70m deaths. However, it is likely to be the second deadliest behind WW2
Your pictures of "Jesus" are weird, depicting him as a hippie and of a wrong race. The Bible forbids depicting, but Catholics don't care what God forbids.
One important thing to remember is that most "religious" wars weren't religious at all, they were about the power of one faction over another. If they used religious justifications, it was almost always propaganda.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Tell that to the French who entered the "wrong" (supposedly Protestant) side of the Thirty Years War... Religion was an excuse, not the reason.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Wow, doubling down on the stupid? Brave. Not smart, but brave! For those who didn't look it up, the French were Catholic and they joined this famous "religious" war on the side against the other Catholics, the "Protestant" side. Why? Because the war was *not* a religious war, it was a war of power, which State got to rule what. But dude above, instead of trying to point out another case of a "religious" war, decided it would be best to insult me and imply I was wrong. (Don't be too harsh on him, I'm assuming he went to government school.)
@@xunqianbaidu6917 The thought that to the Hapsburgs, the family most associated with seizing and keeping power, that any war (that they desperately tried to avoid) was for "religion" is ridiculous on its face! They cared about power, period. Now, let's be clear, to some the war was religious. That's what I'm saying, it was sold as a "religious" war so various factions could convince others to help them gain power. Welcome to war (and politics) 101!
@@xunqianbaidu6917 So, if one person from one family did it for religious reasons, then it's a religious war? Because the vast majority were fighting only for power. Was WWII a religious war?
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Spoiler: State actors lie. Spoiler #2: State actors still lie today! Ask this, do you think those people would have been happy to have their religion "win" if it meant they were thrown out of power? If the answer is "no", then how can you say it's a religious war?
The U.S was also busy in a civil war of there own at the time near the later years of the rebellion so they couldn’t really help if they really supported them. Same with France who was busy trying to take over Mexico at the same time.
@@skiteufr It also followed a doctrine of mainly their own (continental) matters, American Isolationism was the major factor of US foreign policy until at least the Spanish-American war and the annexation of Hawaii.
@johndoe70770 i find it interesting though. Some maps historically agreed. (Xi Jing Pingtler would love that map.. but that is modern geopolitics shading objective history). Late Joseon Dynansty Korea didn't declare itself an Empire until 1897 to try to establish their monarch as an equal to the Chinese and Japanese Emperors ( Russian Tsar too)... when this map was supposed to be dated... the Joseon ruler was considered King... and was technically a nominal vassal to the Qing Emperor in Bejing. Qing got weaker and weaker... lost subsequent wars against all contenders including Japan and Russia, and Joseon tried, too late to pick itself out from under the isolationist wing of their Qing Dynasty protectors. ( i am NOT saying Korea is Chinese... as PRC text books say. Full disclosure.. I have resided in ROK for 14 years, speak proficient Korean, and can categorize maybe a thousand Korean language words into A) Koreanic language family roots and B) the Han Character based roots ( native speakers could categorize at least 10k) . I can only count up to about 20 in the Koreanic numbers( I am lazy... i should be able to count up to an elderly persons age in Koreanic group numbers!)... where I can count up to 100 trillion or so, using Han Character based numbers because of real estate prices!) On the other hand I can say more colors in Koreanic Roots than Han Character roots.
As a Christian, I’ve literally never heard of any remotely respectable denomination claiming the Taiping rebellion as Christian; only adherents of other religions who don’t understand the difference. Not only did Hong claim to be a son of God Himself and mix it with Chinese religion, but he also went on to have a bunch of concubines and stuff like that, unlike Jesus who forbade sexual immorality and lived as a poor carpenter. Also, as I understand it, the mindset of the majority of those who took place in the rebellion was more or less “I have literally no idea what the heck he’s talking about, but he’s a Han and the Qing suck, so let’s do this thing.”
The rebels were (literally) insane. The better question is why the west did not help more the Republic of China in their fight with Communist China. That deserves an episode
My suspicion is the Communist infiltration in FDR 's administration that were holdovers into Truman sabotaged US support for Chiang Kai Shek - as well as the impression that CKS didn't do enough to help the allied effort in WWII
Britain when explaining their aid to the Qing: "Those rebels were heretics, and we want our money. Mostly the money, but the heresy was added incentive."
There is a saying that I just learned today: “you see things in black and white but you wanna know my favorite thing about life? There’s a whole lot of grey in between” That summarizes a lot
Christianity in China has been something I’ve been quite interested in considering China is one of the countries that’s growing rapidly in Christian conversions and faith. Never knew the full scale of the Taiping Rebellion, but knew many people supported the Chinese Christians, but not the cult that were heretics.
Christianity is NOT growing rapidly in China. The numbers have been stable at around 3-4% for decades. The conversions are usually old people (many of them illiterate rural people) who just swapped one form of superstition for another. Many of them practice "Christianity" alongside whatever they were worshipping previously. Chinese folk religion is polytheistic. It is not difficult for people to just add the Christian God or Jesus to the canon of other deities they were already worshipping. And the thing about old converts is they die without really passing the religion on. China is overwhelmingly secular. Most people don't care about religion(s) and it is always seen as a private thing.
arent you ashamed of spreading so much bullsht lies and propaganda of the criminal CCP? mainland china is communist and christianity as are other religions are illegal and suppresed,commies china is atheist and wants you to worship only communist dogma. If china were free then christians might take over until then we cant say for real how many REAL christians there are.@@pineapplesareyummy6352
Japan maybe but the Taiping “Christians” were very heretical, the papacy sent somebody and he concluded they would have been burnt on stake in the Middle Ages
@@warcriminalgaming2359Good thing the pope doesn’t get to decide who and what’s Christian, historians do! Just like LDS can be considered a branch of Christianity, Taiping could be too.
@@Fractured_UnityA majority of Christians don’t consider Mormons Christians. There are defining marks of a proper branch like adherence to the Nicene Creed and certain ecumenical councils.
2:36 In case you’re wondering about the guy sticking out of the cannon, after the Qing recaptured Nanking (the Taiping’s capital), Hong’s ashes were blasted out of a cannon to deny him a permanent resting place as eternal punishment for his uprising.
The Chinese really don't mess around with their punishments, huh
Cool detail
Akend, don't ya hate it when that happens?
Wow, I gotta give them some credit, that's metal as fuck.
That's what you call going out with a bang
It's also important to note there were like six other concurrent revolts going on in the Qing dynasty with the Taiping rebellion being the biggest of all happening during the middle of the 19th century . It's an absolute miracle the Qing dynasty managed to survive past the 19th century.
It wasn't a miracle, like other dynasties with the problem they allowed notables to raise private armies to defend them, won the rebellions, then got eaten alive by the regional warlords they had just legitimized instead.
Each rebellion made it weaker before its demise
@@gadaadhoon interesting. I've heard the same about Russia as well.
@@gadaadhoon I think that's part of the reason why the CCP has been so hellbent on homogenizing the population and displacing minorities like Tibetans and Uighurs with Han Chinese.
yeah, some Valentinian III energy there
Apparently a lot of Christians were excited about the Taiping, visited Tianjing and realised they were literally insane.
Damn.
@@nvmtt to be fair, the same thing can be said about any of the american religious cults.
@@nvmttFreedom of Religion also covers cults and so a lot of weird shit gets a pass.
they got away with it because they were in america, had they been in the middle east... boy... @@nvmtt
What
It's insane how the Taiping Rebellion happened because a random guy failed an imperial examination and became convinced he was the son of God.
The Holy Bro
Mum said it's my turn to be Jesus's brother
At least he didn't fail art school, that could've been bad
Hmm, it sounds like a similar story of a random austrian painter with a funny mustache who failed to go to art school and start World War 2. 😂
Chinese politics really is that volatile due to systemic risk-seeking and mob behavior. In Chinese culture, everything is a frantic competition for dominance, even history class.
The Taiping rebellion also happens to be among the top 5 deadliest human conflicts. In case you're wondering about the other 4, 2 of them happen to be the world wars, and the remaining 2 were just 2 other chinese civil wars
It was the second deadliest war after WW2 with 20-30 million dead.
Hundreds of thousands dead, tens of thousands of civilians eaten. Decisive Tang victory.
No timurlan ?
@@meneither3834 I don't think there were enough people alive at the time of Tamerlane to make it into the top 5, but he certainly tried
Fun fact: the world wars also included china in both of them.
History Matters doesn't just give you answers. It first gives you a question and then gives you the answer. I love this bundle deal.
But why?
Well, two reasons. First...
@@backwashjoe7864 First, Money
Fun fact, yes.
@@shareemrasyidi9948 and the Second is Religion: Since we love and adire History Matters so much, who would replace him?
Barely anyone knew how to type back then, so a typing rebellion was just not possible.
Terrible. You should feel ashamed.
@@rockybalboa5743 He made me laugh. He should be commended. What have YOU done?
@@rockybalboa5743 Terrible. You should feel ashamed.
Terrible. You should feel ashamed.
@@rockybalboa5743
Terrible. you should feel ashamed.
Honestly astounding the Qing made it another fifty years after the absolute destruction and exhaustion of putting down the Taiping Rebellion, which was the deadliest war in history until the Second World War.
Not only that but there were several concurrent rebellions like the Red Turban Rebellion, not to speak about the Second Opium War
It's an incredible scale of death, not that far off WWII depending on sources either.
@@CodyMappingAlso, the Nian rebellion, Panthay rebellion, Dungan revolt and Miao rebellion. How the Qing dynasty survived all of this rebellion is beyond me.
For all its faults, the Western powers prefer them over what the Taiping rebels are doing. Better the devil they know than the devil they didn't...
Because the west wanted a stable enough china to exploit.
Simple.
The God-Worshipping Society believed the Manchus to be devils, so whenever they captured cities, as the video mentions, “a lot of murder tended to happen.”
I've read that Mandarin is bastardized Manchewed Chinese.
Tapped into a deep vein of xenophobia, as people really hated the Queue hairstyle. That, and China has over 200 different insults for "foreigner" in Mandarin alone.
@@matthewgillies7509 Can you even blame the Han? "Hated the Queue" Yeah that's kinda minimizing it, maybe didn't want their heads get chopped off for not wearing it.
@@matthewgillies7509 Plus the Qing were Manchus, so there was a lot of animosity over being ruled by “foreigners”.
@@ObiJohnKenobi67 yes, I am aware.
Hong Xiuquan: I flunked my entrance exam.
Failed Austrian Art Student: I feel ya, buddy.
唐朝的时候还有一个黄巢，后来还出来了一个毛泽东
@@farmers740 Who's huangchao?
@@billisultan6224Huang Chao was this Chinese guy during the Tang Dynasty who also failed his imperial exams multiple times. He ended up joining the group of rebels springing up across the nation, fought his way up the ranks, and ended up taking the capital (iirc) and even temporarily became the emperor of China. His reign was short-lived however, when the Tang government ultimately defeated Huang Chao and he died in battle. Though his uprising failed, Huang Chao’s rebellion was a devastating blow to the already crippling empire, and ultimately brought along the eventual fall of (arguably) the greatest dynasty of Chinese history.
Also known as the toothbrush mustache having Austrian man.
"A man called Hong Xiuquan wanted to build a new China, which he would do by force."
Well he was a named figure in Chinese history, what else are they gonna do?
you forgot to include an important element in that quote "Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace" which was the punchline of that oxymoron joke.
Kill themselves, like Qu Yuan, or executed under false charge like Yue Fei?
Futurama reference
Taiping(supreme pease) heavenly kindom is the name of the stare they built. The name tells all.
😅
Not-so-fun fact: During the Tang dynasty, Huang Chao, a guy that also failed the imperial examinations, ended up starting a rebellion in 875 and even became the emperor for sometime. That was the final straw for the Tang, who was barely able to DECISIVELY crush the An Lushan Rebellion and still was struggling to survive with wars, barbarian invasions, famines, corruption, bankrupt ... , resulting in the fall of the Tang in 907
Decisive Tang Dynasty Victory.
Only 20 million civilians had to be eaten.
The Mandate of Heaven actually makes a lot of sense.
And the rise of not one, not two, not three, but five dynasties!
And ten southern kingdoms
I always thought the Tang dynasty had the best powdered orange juice.
Maybe make the exams less stressful...
"In the name of The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit..."
*"AND THE BRO!"*
I literally spit my coffee out at that 🤣🤣
New profets following: Jesus' neighbour, Jesus' accountant, Jesus' food-delivery guy...
And the emperor (if they would have won 😂)
@@dr.nosborn6330Taiping rebellion meets Warhammer 40,000 🤔
The Bro is also the son tho.
It's always fun to see somebody's reaction when you tell them the leader of a rebellion in China claimed to be the literal younger brother of Jesus 😂
the holy bro
If there wasn't so many people that died cause of the holy bro it would be a funny af story. I mean it still is but like holy shit a lot of people died cause of that dude.
If you think about it, it kinda-sorta makes sense in a Chinese context. If you put a Christian paint job on the whole "Emperor is the Son of Heaven" thing, that's basically what you get
@@nvmttwe pray to the holy bro
Literal bruh moment
It is probably worth mentioning that because of near constant famines in the nineteenth century, the Qing Dynasty was a revolving door of revolts. So it was probably hard for outsiders to take any one of the revolts more seriously than the others.
Yeah... but poverty and famines do not automatically lead to an insurrection: if the famines around the world really did lead to a rebellion, the history of the world would be nothing more than a succession of rebellions. For this, a 'spark' was needed, which was ignited by Hong Xiuquan.
Especially one led by a "Christian" more heretical than any of the many heretics the west had fought for centuries.
I still find it astounding that the Taiping Rebellion, which is almost certainly the second deadliest war in human history after WWII, is almost entirely unheard of in the west because it was confined exclusively to China. I know a lot of history, and even I didn't learn about this until a year or two ago.
That's because our textbooks generally have a positive evaluation of Tianping Kingdom Movement, because the Communist Party of China (CPC) thinks that they are part of the proletarian revolution. In this war, most people died not on the battlefield but in slaughter. Both sides massacred those who surrendered. In particular, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom asked people to change their beliefs or they would be killed. In the later period of this war, there was a Muslim rebellion in northwest China, and the population in the northwest decreased by 20 million. The end of this war depends on the local army in Hunan. China's famous figures in modern times all came from this place, including Mao Zedong.
Fun fact: many veterans of these Taiping rebels would eventually live long enough to see the 1911 revolution and many of them have told war stories to these revolutionaries when they were a child.
A number of them fled to Hong Kong too, I saw a grave in Hong Kong cemetery that the tour guide told us is cousin of Hong Xiuquan. Which make sense since the Qing can arrest him in our British colony
Sun Yat Sen saw the Taipings as a sort of predecessor movement to his to reform China. Doesn't help that he was a Christian as well.
Yes, for example, Dr. Sun yet sun
这中间有几万人去了南美洲。
Always loved the videos. Keep up the good work!
youtube should really put these kinds of comments at the top
@@styrus3164eh, I'd say the highlighting doss the job well. No need to artificially push them to the top just because they donated cash. That could have unexpected repercussions, not to mention it being unfair
I'd see why the UA-cam creator would like that, but donation comments are usually just thanking the UA-cam creator. While that is well deserved, it is boring. I'd like to see more discussion of the video in the top comments.@@styrus3164
I did enjoy this episode. Thank you to the artist and his patrons!
You mean James Bizonet, right?
*Taiping Rebel:* "Peace via murder!"
"So you actually mean 'War?'"
*Taiping Rebel:* "Well no, but also yes."
"If you want peace, prepare for war"
They will learn of our peaceful ways by force.
As they say in Oceania: War is Peace
Crusader 😂
Now THAT’S an Alternate History scenario you wanna see Harry Turtledove go absolutely apeshit with.
Harry don't have far to go! 😛
I remember somebody from the Alternatehistory forum site about that. It turned into a world were one half is the Workers Republic of Man (Soviet Union on Steroids) and the other half becoming the Kingdom under all Heaven ( theocratic super empire rivalling WW2 era Japan whom they absorbed in the 1950's after a brutal war killing 98% of the population). The remaining powers include the Latin American Technocracy (only continent to be 90% free from any of the two hyperpowers), Free France (in Madagascar), New Zealand, and the rump United States of America (a joint invasion by both the Reds and the Greens on the East and West Coasts of the US respectively happen in the 1960's and was only stopped when the US - which got the A-bomb decades before - did their own scorched earth retreat using nukes to slow down the invasion forces; currently the only nuclear-armed country in that world as the most technologically advanced despite only being composed of the Heartlands section of the continental US and remnants of Canada)...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 what was it called?
Let's remember that in the Taiping rebellion died 20-30 million people. That's more than the amount of all the 19th century european conflicts combined, that counts the napoleonic wars, greek independence, 1830 rebellion, 1848 rebellions, crimean war, italian unification wars, german unification wars, franco prussian war and all the minor conflicts, independence's and rebellions. The amount is insane and wouldn't be surpassed by almost a hundred years with WW2 by amount killed considering millitary and civilian casualties.
And more than the US civil war.
And this clown will leave out that most of those 20-30 million were from famine ,
While not counting famine death counts in the Western war examples
😂😂
This is why you dont blindly trust the internet kids
One estimate puts it as high as 70 million, possibly.
I was not expecting him to claim he was Jesus’s brother
"Holy Bro" lol
The guy was the ultimate human meme. Read about the shit he got up to, you will laugh your head off.
In fairness, Christian missionaries to China used to claim that Jesus was the younger brother of Confucius, so another bro wouldn't have been seen as that odd.
Theres only jesus bro and his name is james bisonette
On his way back from failing a civil servant exam (again) he came down with a fever and had been reading a translation of parts of The Bible given to him by a missionary. He dreamt (though he believed it to be real) that he went to Heaven and Jesus explained that they were brothers and that he needed his help to fight an army of demons who had invaded Heaven. They went about defeating the demons, then Jesus told him to fight the demons on Earth as well. What's even stranger is that he was actually able to gather an army and a following and conquered Nanking! In part because The Imperial Government didn't take The Tai Ping as a serious threat at first, so they had early successes which convinced others that he was divine by the time The Qing realised the seriousness of the situation it had snowballed out of control.
Great video as usual🎉
My suggestion for a next episode : Why Gabon was refused from staying french despite their will?
It's not a well known story, which I believe is therefore even more interesting
I guess it has something to do with being just too costly for what it's worth
@@oqo3310 Yes kinda. But the refusal is also explain with some kind of racism and the will to etablish a new and different preeminence over Africa. Moreover, the offer from Gabon can be linked to the frenchness/frenchophilia of francophone african elite, and the fact that they were largely put in charge by or with the will of Paris itself
Calling them “Christians” is very loose, since their religion was heavily influenced by local faiths and contained some beliefs that would definitely be seen as sacrilegious by most Western Christians
He also had a questionably translated copy of The Bible. In his correspondence with religious leaders in Europe they pointed out errors in his interpretation.
@@WaterShowsProdit wasnt a translation of a Bible, he just got a leaflet with some Christian teachings on it.
Lmao as a Christian (Asian but not Chinese) myself I’m honestly bothered ppl keep referring to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as “Christians”, when from my research they weren’t even that Christian by their actions and way of living. I consider them to be much closer to some weird Chinese cult, with some Christian influence and aesthetic.
And I may not be part of the Catholic or Orthodox branches, but even those two are far more authentically Christian to me than Hong Xiuquan’s weird cult ever was XD
Honestly, it’s like calling Japan or South Korea a Western country, or saying they’re part of the West, to use an analogy.
Couldn't the same be said about adopting the winter solstice as "birthday" of Jesus Christ to christianize Europe and how the orthodox and coptic churches felt about that?
In that sense, the taiping christians are just as christian as every single christian of European descent, and there are a lot of those.
@@boaoftheboaians
Virgins don't give birth. Mary fornicated
2:10 "The holy bro". I burst out laughing in the middle of the night while everyone's asleep, lmfaooo!!!
2:12 “Holy Bro”- that phrase, plus the usual deadpan delivery, absolutely killed me, Jesus Christ 🤣
Yea actually made me laugh out loud with the pop sound effect on the trinity symbol 😂😂
I’m always shocked when I remember that 30 million people died in the Taiping Rebellion.
But then I realize that that is probably just a normal Tuesday in China.
a normal fourteen years in a destabilized China
@@shinsenshogun900 Yeah, and I wouldn't say that only a 'protracted civil war' causes so many deaths in China, it was also much more vulnerable to natural disasters than Europe or the US. In northern China, in 1556, there was an earthquake (more known as Shaanxi Earthquake) in which 830,000 people perished (a lot of people for that century).
Jokes aside. Taiping Rebellion heavily affected China until 1950 and still affected until now. Country lost so many people and broken apart which falls into Warlord era , country remains weak for so long which Japan took opportunity to invaded Manchuria and mainland. People believed their country broken apart because so many western foreign intervention thus why Communist took over the power because it was anti western. Also the way they heavily monitoring religious movement and cult movement, reflection from this era.
I find it amazing that people can accept the fact that most government decisions in the past came down to money but they look at our modern decisions and think it is always more complicated for the current world leaders.
Arguably the largest war caused purely for money in the modern was the iraqi war, iraq wanted to take Kuwait (which was selling oil with the U.S dollar) and sell it's oil by other currencies like the euro which would've been a big money loss for the U.S so the U.S had to make a made up excuse to justify it's invasion.
And people believed it.
Muh democracy
No you’re just afraid of the rise of the rest
It can be hard for some people to believe, but yes, people act for others reasons.
@@robertortiz-wilson1588
The reason it can be hard to believe is because most past and present day decisions come down to money. That is a fact.
Sounds a bit marxist to me
West: Do you want Christianity?
Hong: We have Christianity at home.
Christianity at home:
0:37 "This soon led to violence", the gentle poke a spear made me laugh more than I'd like to admit
Also one thing History Matters didn't mention was that Hong Xiquan's 14 year old son, Hong Tianguifu succeeded him upon his death in 1864. While his father didn't suffer the same fate as him as he had already died before the Qing government could punish him. Hong Tianguifu's fate was that he was executed in the same year that his father died by being given with the slow slicing execution method. Really shows how one action of an ancestor can cause further dishonor on the descendants and even retaliation on those descendants judging by what Hong Xiquan did to China during his fourteen year reign of terror on the parts of China he controlled.
I mean, you're executing the Holy Grandson, you better do it well!
Poor boy
I feel really sorry for Hong Tianguifu
It just shows you how sadistic and horrifying powerful people really are inside. It's all a fake until someone actually threatens their power. Then the knives and A-10s and drone murder programs come out and you see who they really are, while they grin because they like killing people.
"The slow slicing execution method."
I don't know what that is. I could look it up. But I think the name gives me enough information to know that I really don't want to
Good to see you're still making videos!
Video Ideas:
Japan has had an Emperor for around two thousand years, yet for a lot of it, they've been figureheads. How did this happen, and why didn't any of the powerful groups behind the throne simply take the crown for themselves?
Collaboration between the USA and USSR during The Space Race (International Geophysical Year, Apollo-Soyuz, Vega [technically not USA], MIR-Shuttle, etc.)
Rise and fall of the world's most valuable company ever, the Dutch East India Company.
The Washington Naval Treaty (and subsequent London treaties), the participants, and how it effected the world into WW2.
"The Holy Bro" 😅 Love your very entertaining videos!
If you think about it, it is pretty impressive someone managed to convince so many people that he was the brother of Jesus, despite living centuries later and lived on other side of Asia!
It helps when you're surrounded by people who know nothing about Christianity
@@chaosXP3RTAnd also happens to hate the ruling Manchu minority...
Religion can be malleable like that.
Most Taiping rebels weren't Christians, nor even Hong's botched version of Christians. Rather, they were Han Chinese peasants who hated the ruling Manchus, and joined the rebellion in hopes of ousting said Manchus.
Younger brother as in another son of God, not a son of Mary.
While it's pretty wack I don't know why the geography would be a problem.
“They must learn of our peaceful ways, by force.”
- Bender
-Islam, today.
The eternal question is what would have happened if James Bisonette had supported Taiping Rebelion on patreon
after years of waiting there has finally been a video on the traiping rebellion. i feel blessed.
A question I was asking myself recently was "Why are so many US State Capitals located in rather small cities?" I mean, upon the biggest US Cities there are only two Capitals, Phoenix, AZ and Austin, TX, and the latter is still only the fourth-largest City within the state after Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. For comparison, in Germany (where I live), the 16 state capitals are all either the largest or second-largest city within their respective states.
Most US states were founded during a time of lengthy travel times by horse and buggy, with some larger than the biggest European kingdoms of the time.
The state capitals are usually sited so that travel to the capital was roughly equal from the most distant of the communities in each state.
I think that's mainly because the capital of the states were atleast the first major settlement in the state but would be overshadowed by newer cities. Or something like that. The capital city of my state, Michigan, is Lansing but people outside and within the state hardly even realize it exists as the two Michigan cities that do come to mind in people's minds are flint and Detroit, both of which have long history of being the center of automotive industry. Perhaps the answer is just how the industrial revolution impacted the cities perhaps it's something else.
I think the two main reasons are to keep the state capitals centrally located in the state for ease of travel and a desire to avoid having the largest city have an undue influence on state politics.
Each state has its own history (I know my home state's capital bounced from city to city for a while after statehood), but those are usually the reason.
Short answer: compromise. As most American states were formed after the major cities and towns already existed, when creating a new territory or state there was a lot of infighting about which place should become the capital. Most times, the location chosen was due to it being the geographic centre of the state (ie: Ohio). Alternatives to existing cities or major civic centres were selected to avoid one city dominating the whole state economically and politically. Such examples can be seen across the USA, in New York, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, California, and many others. Now, there are cases when the larger cities won out, due to either an absence of viable alternatives, or their historical significance. In a few other cases, as you mentioned, the capital is the largest city, and this is usually because the state or territory was organized as settlement was commencing, allowing for people to congregate after the capitals' locations were already determined.
To confirm what everyone else is saying, a lot of it is because the capitals were in a central location. But on top of that, the cities that would become a capital were also in a neutral location too.
For example, Sacramento is the capital of California mostly because the city of Sacramento offered its courthouse to the state for use, and although other cities like Vallejo or thought of as being California's capital, I think people accepted the idea that Sacramento was a neutral enough town outside of the major hubs of San Francisco and Los Angeles to serve as a fair third-party to those cities.
It's kinda crazy how the Taiping was just thoroughly wiped out, there's no vestiges of it at all today
Apparently the CCP actually teaches the Taiping Rebellion as a proto-communist uprising against the Qing and thus a good thing in textbooks so they at least have that legacy
China is big on erasing things they don't like. Just look at the cultural revolution of the 60s.
Welcome to the real world, ideas only live as long as the people who carry them, book burnings and massacres are really successful in killing ideas.
I am Brazilian who takes public exams to get a job and I feel his pain. I've also done tests that had more than 100,000 applicants for just over 1000 available vacancies.
This year I took a test to be a technician in environmental management and I came in fifteenth place. But they only had three vacancies.
continue tentando. sua hora vai chegar.
Tenho certeza que vão chamar mais que apenas 3 pessoas!
@@hugoleonardoamaral586 Obrigado irmão mas a verdade é que toda prova eu digo a mim mesmo que agora é a minha vez porque eu só quero 1 vaga mas a competição é monstruosa. Essa prova que mencionei que eram 100.000 incritos era para ser policial civil aqui no Pará. Consegui um trabalho é tudo que quero.
Ukraine is racist and gay. May Russia win.
With hatred, a Spaniard who hates modern, libtarded Spain.
I'm Mexican, and I had a similar experience. Here, most public office jobs are given as government patronage. The exams exist to create a sense of meritocracy and to ensure there are at least a few people who know what they are doing. I imagine it was not so different throughout Imperial China.
@@vladimirmarquez2123 It's the same here.
Another turning point was attack on Shanghai. This battle basically makes the west declare war on Taiping too.
Note that Shanghai at that time, was an international city. The policy of foreigners in China at that time was the country of origins has right to protect their people abroad, attack on their citizen was equivalent to declaring war.
A casus belli involving a killed french priest led to the storming of the Summer Palace
It's entirely probable that some of the youngest survivors of the fall of the Taiping government in Nanking in 1864 ended up, 73 years later, meeting their end at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Rape of Nanking. Makes you think a lot about fate and the vagaries of history.
Thank you for posting
Because they weren't Christian. The Taiping movement was more of a revival of the Emperor worship of ancient China, with minor bits of Christianity and some Manchu genocide thrown in. Even the name of their movement better translates to the "Emperor Worshipping Society." When Christian organizations/Western governments sent representatives to the Taiping, they were disgusted by what they saw and quickly concluded that the Taiping were not Christian at all.
Also they massacred other Christians like the Catholic converts in Nanjing. So the Pope would have been disgusted at a "Christian" rebellion murdering other Christians.
^^ only in name, and barely at that
No, "God Worshipping Society" is the correct translation. The term they use is Shangdi, which refers to the highest divine authority in ancient Chinese mythology. The Emperor was never referred to as such. The Emperor would be something like "Huangdi" or "Tianzi." The emperor is the son of heaven, the original title was a portmanteau of the terms "Huang" referring to the 3 Huang who were gods, and "Di," referring to the five Di who were more like folk heroes. That said this is really, really old stuff and I doubt that many people even during Hong Xiuquan's time would've believed in Shangdi as a God.
@@bobjones2959 shangdi is a direct translation to Emperor of the shang dynasty. which is where the term was coiend. "god worshipping society' might be a correct translation for westerners as they dont really see the difference.
@@auraaa_2991Nah it's not. The Shang in the Shang dynasty is pronounced differently, it's 商 with the flat (first) tone. The Shang in Shangdi means "up" or "high," 上, and is pronounced with the descending (fourth) tone. He wasn't the Emperor of the Shang Dynasty - the Shang dynasty had no Emperors, they had kings. The practice of using Emperor as a title originated with the Qin dynasty.
Shangdi's role in the Shang dynasty was as the highest God from which the Shang king derived legitimacy, and the one the state would make offerings to for basically everything from policy changes to praying for rain and harvest. Originally the idea was that only the Shang king could communicate with Shangdi cos his ancestors were with him in the afterlife. The concept of the mandate of heaven was created by the Duke of Zhou to justify his clan usurping the Shang clan's royal status. This is how legitimacy came to be untied from clan membership and instead to good governance.
In the Zhou Dynasty Shangdi got conflated with heaven, or Tian, and then over time through other dynasties the concept got more and more fuzzy, with later revisions associating him with the Jade Emperor.
Thank you for saying 'which raises the question why'
Also I loved the ending line, so dry yet funny
'the holy bro'
I DIED laughing 😂😂😂
I highly recommend the Lions Led by Donkey's podcast series on the Taiping Rebellion. This section of Chinese history is unbelievable.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is the most underrated historical event of all time.
“The Holy Bro” is my new favourite thing from this channel.
2:02 Hong might have been onto something if he hadn’t been a total nutcase. “Women are equals” and “Muslims are our brothers” are not the worst ideas in the world.
That why they hate him
19th century Christian world gasped 😲
I love seeing your videos! Keep it up
"Oh cool, Christian rebellion in China!"
"I am Christ's younger brother."
"..."
Bender said it best "I say the whole world must learn of our peaceful ways... By force!"
Christians seeing taiping christians was probably like a hindu meeting some "spiritual" hippie guy.
Another amazing video
Basically, most Western Christians did not see them as true Christians because their beliefs were too different
Well, once you've disowned the Mormons, these guys seem to have no chance.
"They share most of our beliefs, yes. But what about the few points they got wrong? Worst people ever!"
Ah, religion...
Not believing Christs divinity and uhh EATING people are not exactly Christian values
I'm reading a ton of comments and no one is bringing up the list at 2:00.
Sure saying that Jesus Christ wasn't Divine was blasphemous, and claiming that he was your little brother is silly talk. However, I have a feeling that saying that women are equal, and Muslims are Christian's brothers in faith, were the two steps too far.
@@john2g1 You are entitled to feel however you want, however I disagree about insinuating that "women are equal" was too far.
I really think you are underselling the "Religious and moral" aspects here. Their founder Hong had baisically no knowledge of Christianity, and only learned what little he did from a local missionary AFTER he became certain he was the literal brother of Jesus during an insane stress induced mental breakdown over failing the Imperial examinations. A local missionary who, mind you, straight up refused to baptise him. At first, Europe was actually really happy over over seeing a "Christian" leader gain ground in China, but were absolutely repugnated when they saw he was really just an insane, genocidal cult leader who thought he was the messiah, and seemed to belive that Jesus and God were really just different names for CHINESE deities he was familiar with. Hong wasn't JUST murderous, whenever he invaded a city he'd kill all the men then force out all the women, then burn them alive. And, even though European ethics were still very.... questionable, at the time, they were still halfway to the kind of ethics we have nowadays, and it was seeing this exact destruction and Genocide that caused the European powers to support the other side in the war
How things changed...
19th Century: US waiting to see what UK does
20th + 21st Century: UK waiting to see what US does
Can you please do a Peak Ireland mug? Guaranteed bestseller🙂
Chinese dynasties trying not to shatter like vases challenge (IMPOSSIBLE 99% fail):
Didn’t most of Chinese dynasties last for hundreds of years?
@@WeirdMagnus Indeed, dynasties do eventually fall into decadence leading to civil war, but most of those that unify the country start-off good (for imperial standards) and give prosperity for a century or two.
Qing lasted surprisingly long for being Manchurians (Foreign invaders) and having to deal with the period were the West started reaching the far East as the region refused any modernisation.
@@WeirdMagnusTechnically speaking France Britain and Spain/Castile have been around for over a Millenia. A couple centuries isn't that long when put into perspective of the historical timeline.
@@ChaffyExpert Technically speaking China has been around for thousands of years.
@@ChaffyExpert you realise the british and french and spanish were swapping dynasties like clothes right?
'What if the Taiping Rebellion Succeeded?' sounds like one of the more interesting alternate history scenarios.
A more religiously convoluted Opium War sequel in the makings
@@shinsenshogun900 Combined with a Pol Pot-like genocide of Manchus.
I bet china would just go back to being ape shit after the supposed brother of Jesus died
Calling the Taipangs "Christians" is a stretch
Why? They believed in the divinity of Christ, that at least some parts of the Bible is the word of God, and traced their theocratic history to the apostles. What makes them different than any other sect of Christianity that took on more local customs? When we’re speaking objectively, historians get to decide what makes a Christian, not believers. They’re way more biased.
Also, the most important aspect of religion when classifying it, is what those in the religion believe themselves to be.
@@Fractured_Unity No such thing as a Christian country. Jesus said many are called, but FEW are chosen. Few cannot a nation comprise. Even the Vatican is heretical. Mary idolaters go to hell. "Queen of Heaven" makes her out to be a goddess. No way around it. Gullible billions fall for Satan's false flag operations. Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world. ALL countries are Satan's... for now.
@@Fractured_Unitythey were more like a cult though
@@Fractured_Unity I'm fairly certain Jesus not being divine being one of their beliefs is literally mentioned in the video.
Just listened to History Impossible episode dealing with an American Filibuster (Merc) who fought in the Taiping Rebellion on the side of the Ching Dynasty. Cool to learn more about it.
Why does every conflict that manage to kill and suffer millions, begin with somebody who failed at test to enter some institutions?
Thank you for this video. I would be interested in future episodes about the Taiping Rebellion. I know very little about it at present.
God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)
Fun Fact: Some estimate that the Taiping Rebellion was the deadliest conflict in Human history with over 70m deaths. However, it is likely to be the second deadliest behind WW2
2:11 - I love the Holy Bro diagram.
That actually makes sense. I’m a Catholic and I feel that Taiping rebels were truly weird and unpredictable
Same.
Same
Same
Your pictures of "Jesus" are weird, depicting him as a hippie and of a wrong race. The Bible forbids depicting, but Catholics don't care what God forbids.
Your weird and predictable.
Could guess “money” as the main reason without knowing anything else. It’s practically the answer to every question you can ask.
One important thing to remember is that most "religious" wars weren't religious at all, they were about the power of one faction over another. If they used religious justifications, it was almost always propaganda.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Tell that to the French who entered the "wrong" (supposedly Protestant) side of the Thirty Years War...
Religion was an excuse, not the reason.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Wow, doubling down on the stupid? Brave. Not smart, but brave!
For those who didn't look it up, the French were Catholic and they joined this famous "religious" war on the side against the other Catholics, the "Protestant" side.
Why? Because the war was *not* a religious war, it was a war of power, which State got to rule what.
But dude above, instead of trying to point out another case of a "religious" war, decided it would be best to insult me and imply I was wrong. (Don't be too harsh on him, I'm assuming he went to government school.)
@@xunqianbaidu6917 The thought that to the Hapsburgs, the family most associated with seizing and keeping power, that any war (that they desperately tried to avoid) was for "religion" is ridiculous on its face! They cared about power, period.
Now, let's be clear, to some the war was religious. That's what I'm saying, it was sold as a "religious" war so various factions could convince others to help them gain power.
Welcome to war (and politics) 101!
@@xunqianbaidu6917 So, if one person from one family did it for religious reasons, then it's a religious war?
Because the vast majority were fighting only for power.
Was WWII a religious war?
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Spoiler: State actors lie.
Spoiler #2: State actors still lie today!
Ask this, do you think those people would have been happy to have their religion "win" if it meant they were thrown out of power?
If the answer is "no", then how can you say it's a religious war?
nice video
The U.S was also busy in a civil war of there own at the time near the later years of the rebellion so they couldn’t really help if they really supported them.
Same with France who was busy trying to take over Mexico at the same time.
The US wasn't really a world power at the time in the sense it was little involved in matters out of its immediate area
@@skiteufr It also followed a doctrine of mainly their own (continental) matters, American Isolationism was the major factor of US foreign policy until at least the Spanish-American war and the annexation of Hawaii.
@@Mimi.1001 True it was a big reason Europe didn't view the US so favourably
I love your recreation of La Tache Noire.
Spoiler alert: it’s because they had James Bisonette on their side.
Doubt it
🥱
@@jamesbissonette8002Greetings
@@jamesbissonette8002oh my god it’s the real james bisonette
@@jamesbissonette8002Damn this man's based levels are off the charts
Your Taiping Holy Trinity (quad-rinity?) was hilarious.
Finally, a question which I actually had that was answered.
Man I love this channel
Could you do a video on why you inckude Choseon ( korea) on your map of the Chinese Empire. Vassal status.. probably.
@johndoe70770 i find it interesting though. Some maps historically agreed. (Xi Jing Pingtler would love that map.. but that is modern geopolitics shading objective history). Late Joseon Dynansty Korea didn't declare itself an Empire until 1897 to try to establish their monarch as an equal to the Chinese and Japanese Emperors ( Russian Tsar too)... when this map was supposed to be dated... the Joseon ruler was considered King... and was technically a nominal vassal to the Qing Emperor in Bejing. Qing got weaker and weaker... lost subsequent wars against all contenders including Japan and Russia, and Joseon tried, too late to pick itself out from under the isolationist wing of their Qing Dynasty protectors.
( i am NOT saying Korea is Chinese... as PRC text books say. Full disclosure.. I have resided in ROK for 14 years, speak proficient Korean, and can categorize maybe a thousand Korean language words into A) Koreanic language family roots and B) the Han Character based roots ( native speakers could categorize at least 10k) . I can only count up to about 20 in the Koreanic numbers( I am lazy... i should be able to count up to an elderly persons age in Koreanic group numbers!)... where I can count up to 100 trillion or so, using Han Character based numbers because of real estate prices!) On the other hand I can say more colors in Koreanic Roots than Han Character roots.
I love the painting at the end, I believe its called the geography lesson
Your videos are amazing! They have taught me so much. Thank you!
Thank you for video sir
As a Christian, I’ve literally never heard of any remotely respectable denomination claiming the Taiping rebellion as Christian; only adherents of other religions who don’t understand the difference. Not only did Hong claim to be a son of God Himself and mix it with Chinese religion, but he also went on to have a bunch of concubines and stuff like that, unlike Jesus who forbade sexual immorality and lived as a poor carpenter. Also, as I understand it, the mindset of the majority of those who took place in the rebellion was more or less “I have literally no idea what the heck he’s talking about, but he’s a Han and the Qing suck, so let’s do this thing.”
The joke about the holy bro get me everytime
Taiping rebels: Murdered a lot of people.
The British: Nah, fam, that's our job. We don't approve.
Thanks for this. I’d never heard of it before.
The rebels were (literally) insane. The better question is why the west did not help more the Republic of China in their fight with Communist China. That deserves an episode
My suspicion is the Communist infiltration in FDR 's administration that were holdovers into Truman sabotaged US support for Chiang Kai Shek - as well as the impression that CKS didn't do enough to help the allied effort in WWII
因为中华民国是如此腐败，以至于美国总统大骂他们是强盗和土匪。
Well a small conflict call ww2 happened
2:01 I love how Queen Victoria is angrily looking at the table saying "Women are equal"
0:45 we should teach them our pacific ways, by force! 🤣🤣🤣
"the holy bro" is my new favorite idea now
Britain when explaining their aid to the Qing: "Those rebels were heretics, and we want our money. Mostly the money, but the heresy was added incentive."
One crazy thing about the rebellion, I've read it was one of the bloodiest wars in human history. It's like 2nd or 3rd on the list of most war deaths.
Ah yes the two great reasons for how contries act, money and the wrong flavor of Christianity
There is a saying that I just learned today: “you see things in black and white but you wanna know my favorite thing about life? There’s a whole lot of grey in between”
That summarizes a lot
Christianity in China has been something I’ve been quite interested in considering China is one of the countries that’s growing rapidly in Christian conversions and faith. Never knew the full scale of the Taiping Rebellion, but knew many people supported the Chinese Christians, but not the cult that were heretics.
The cancer keeps spreading, I see.
Christianity is NOT growing rapidly in China. The numbers have been stable at around 3-4% for decades. The conversions are usually old people (many of them illiterate rural people) who just swapped one form of superstition for another. Many of them practice "Christianity" alongside whatever they were worshipping previously. Chinese folk religion is polytheistic. It is not difficult for people to just add the Christian God or Jesus to the canon of other deities they were already worshipping. And the thing about old converts is they die without really passing the religion on. China is overwhelmingly secular. Most people don't care about religion(s) and it is always seen as a private thing.
arent you ashamed of spreading so much bullsht lies and propaganda of the criminal CCP? mainland china is communist and christianity as are other religions are illegal and suppresed,commies china is atheist and wants you to worship only communist dogma. If china were free then christians might take over until then we cant say for real how many REAL christians there are.@@pineapplesareyummy6352
Stop lying and check the statistics. Christianity in China today has more or less stabilized. No large growths at all.
I died at "Hong being the Holy bro"
In a different timeline, China and Japan would be Christian nations or at least would have large and significant minorities and cultural influence.
A timeline where China becomes Protestant and Japan becomes Catholic means they could have their own 30 years war
Ha, the Christian base in South Korea is notoriously homophobic.
Japan maybe but the Taiping “Christians” were very heretical, the papacy sent somebody and he concluded they would have been burnt on stake in the Middle Ages
@@warcriminalgaming2359Good thing the pope doesn’t get to decide who and what’s Christian, historians do! Just like LDS can be considered a branch of Christianity, Taiping could be too.
@@Fractured_UnityA majority of Christians don’t consider Mormons Christians. There are defining marks of a proper branch like adherence to the Nicene Creed and certain ecumenical councils.
Hong Xiuquan: “I have failed my entrance exam, 30 million must perish”