God's Chinese Son

God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan by Jonathan D Spence, 332 pages

In 1836, a 22-year-old civil servant in southern China had a series of visions.  Only later, after reading a tract written by a Protestant missionary, did young Hong Xiuquan understand the meaning of the visions - that he was the second-born son of God, the younger brother of Jesus, sent to establish the Kingdom of Heaven in 19th century China.  This realization would eventually lead to the deadliest religious war in history, as the forces of the Taiping ("Great Peace") Heavenly Kingdom sought to overthrow the ruling Qing dynasty and purge the land of demons and idolatry.

The book is readable, moving along at a brisk pace except for the sections describing the lives of Europeans in Shanghai, which meander a bit.  Spence pays close attention to the evolution of Taiping teaching, relating interesting details such as Hong's bowdlerization of the Bible and encounters between the Taiping and Western Christians.  The end comes suddenly, but then, it came suddenly for the Taiping, too.