The Taiping Rebellion is was a Mass Movements that took place in mid-XIX Century China. This was a “radical political and religious upheaval that was probably the most important event in China in the 19th century. It ravaged 17 provinces, took an estimated 20,000,000 lives, and irrevocably altered the Qing dynasty”. The Qing Dynasty is also known as the Manchu dynasty. In Eric Hoffers book The True Believer he mentions that Mass Movements are powerful because they are full of fervor and if a Political movement is to be successful they must always have religious fervor to them. The Taiping Rebellion absolutely had religious fervor, it was the underline tone and what propelled Hong Xiuquan to start his rebellion. In order to understand the Taiping Rebellion you first have to understand Xiuquan. He was born 1 January 1814 in Huaxian China, he was the youngest son and had three siblings. His family was very poor but they were proud, they were a Hakka family. Hakkas migrated into South China from the north several centuries earlier, they were industrious people. Xiuquan showed signs of great intelligence at an early age, this led his entire village to sponsor him in his studies. His village hoped Xiuquan would pass the Confucian civil service examination, if he had then Xiuquan would have greatly improved the living condition in his village through public works projects and other means. “Hong took the government examination for the first time in 1827 and failed to obtain even the lowest official degree, an outcome not surprising in view of the great number of candidates competing.” This test was very difficult took days to complete, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to fail the test on their first attempt. Xiuquan would take the test several more times without success. Each time he took the test he would have to travel to the provincial capital in Guangzhou, this was also the location for trade with West. In 1837 Xiuquan failed the Confucian civil service examination for the third time. The stress and strain was more than he could handle, Xiuquan suffered an emotional collapse. He felt as though he let not only his family but his whole village down, they were all very poor but rallied behind Xiuquan and gave what they could so he could get an education. Xiuquan fell into a delirious state that lasted several days. He claims he was in the presence of an old man with a golden beard. This old man criticized the world and said it was infested with evil demons. Xiuquan believed the old man wanted him to eradicate the bad spirits. He recovered several days later and returned to his village, where he returned to his profession as a school teacher in his village. In 1843 Xiuquan would once again take and fail the Confucian civil service examination, this was his fourth and attempt. During his travels to Guangzhou Xiuquan picked up a book titled Good Words for Exhorting the Age, written by a Chinese missionary. This was a book on Christianity which Xiuquan felt explained what he saw during his delirious state, the old man was God and Xiuquan was the second son of God sent to save China. This would lead eventually lead Xiuquan down a path to attempt to save the Chinese people from the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty was the last of the imperial dynasties of China, it lasted from 1644 to 1912. In 1644 the capital of Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng, the desperate Ming officials requested the assistance of the Manchus. The Manchus took advantage of this opportunity and seized the capital for themselves. This would be the beginning of the Qing dynasty during this period the population of China would grow from an estimated 150 million to 450 million. The native Han Chines resented the Qing dynasty for the way they ruled China and how they appropriated power. This resentment aided Xiuquan in his crusade to over through Qing dynasty and the start of the Taiping Rebellion. Xiuquan began spreading the word of Christianity to his friends and relatives. His propagandizing spread through his village as most villagers in China were illiterate and felt oppressed. Xiuquan and his rebels would travel to towns and villages spreading there word. Many of the villagers and people from the towns would join Xiuquan crusade as they were tired of their living conditions. The majority of Xiuquan followers were the poorest in China, most of them were also illiterate. The rebellious numbers would swell to more than a million. There were a lot of destitute Chinese that were tired of not having a chance at a better way of life. This was the backbone of this mass movement, when people are unhappy with their lives and feel as though they have no way to improve their lives they will seek out those that will offer positive change for them. This is not only true during this period but has been repeated time and time again through history. Xiuquan was so committed to Christianity and his cause he destroyed the Confucius tablets in the village school where he was teaching, this caused him to lose his job. One of Xiuquan most important converts was his schoolmate Feng Yunshan. After Xiuquan lost his job Yunshan accompanied him on preaching trips to nearby villages. ” Hong returned from Guangxi after a few months, but Feng remained, establishing the Baishangdi Hui (“God Worshippers’ Society”), a religious group devoted to Hong’s new doctrines”. Xiuquan would go to Guangzhou to study Christianity further with Rev I.J. Roberts who was an American missionary. After his studies he would join Yunshan and the God Worshippers. Xiuquan was accepted as the new leader of the group. Another one of Xuiquan’s pivotal followers was Yang Xiuqing, he joined the rebellion and quickly rose to a high position under Xuiquan. He would rise to the position of commander in chief of the rebellion armed forces with the title of Dongwang which means Eastern King. He was awarded this position even though he had no military knowledge or experience. Before Xiuquing joined the rebellion he sold firewood and charcoal. Xiuquan gave himself the title of the Heavenly King, after all he believed he was the younger brother to Jesus. One of the most important things Xiuqing did for Xuiquan was to make a massive spy system in order to spy on the Taiping followers. This was done to root out conspiracies of loyalist, Xuiquan wanted his followers to be absolutely loyal to him. Xuiqing also brought many new converts to the rebellion, he had over 20,000 followers himself not including the other followers he added to Xuiquan’s militia. As time went on Xiuqing and Xuiquan would not see eye to eye on several matters such as rebellion’s policies and views towards Confucianism. ” Gradually, Yang also usurped Hong’s prerogatives as Heavenly King, and the resentful Hong ordered Yang’s execution. Not only was Yang put to death, but his entire family and thousands of his adherents were killed”. This would end up hurting the rebellion causing the other Taiping leaders to grow suspicious of one another. On March 10, 1853 Xuiquan and his million plus rebellion followers captured the city of Nanjing, Xuiquan kept his troops there and made the city his permanent capital. During the sacking of Nanjing the rebels easily defeated the Qing dynasty’s guards as they were there to show the Qing’s had a far reach but not to truly defend the city. Xuiquan followers brutally murdered the Manchu officials and their families when they took over the city of Nanjing, even though they had already surrendered. Word of what occurred would spread to the Qing government but not before the Taiping rebels would attempt to take the city of Shanghai. They would be defeated by “the Western-trained “Ever-Victorious Army” commanded by the American adventurer Frederick Townsend Ward and later by the British officer Charles George (“Chinese”) Gordon”. A Chinese official by the name of Zeng Guofan led and army and managed to surround Nanjing. Xuiquan and his rebels were surrounded and bad shape from attempting to sack the city of Shanghai. Seeing no way out do to the vicious way the rebels took the city of Nanjing and murdered so many Xuiquan would commit suicide, but before he did he installed his 15 year old son as the new leader of the Taiping Rebellion. His son was ill equipped to lead an army into battle. He was powerless against Guofan’s forces, but even with that being said the members of the rebellion would not give up easily as they knew their lives would not be spared for the atrocities they committed against the Manchu officials and their families. They fought from house to house it was a brutal battle, eventually Guofan forces prevailed. There had been no other event that devastated China as much as the Taiping Rebellion in the 19th century. It started with a man that had visions that he was the son of god, he gain favor with the poorest of the Chinese and promise them a better way of life. There hatred and displeasure mint with the Qing government would fuel there passion for the leadership of Xuiquan. He would lead them to their eventual death but not before forcing the Qing government millions of dollars and it taking them fifteen years to defeat the rebels