What if the Taiping Rebellion was successful?

Christian is.... Well, imagine Mormonism. Now imagine what people THOUGHT about Mormonism a century ago. Now consider that to be true, then have that group not actually have any Bibles. Best hope is that the morals of Christianity get through and that after the initial splintering a council is set up to look over various versions of the Bible (I imagine they might try putting emphasis on the Nestorian Steles and try finding copies of their writings, though all the Bibles in Europe at this point would be fairly similar) and make some choices about interpretation while a quasi-republic gets set up. It really depends on how the leadership acts and if they discredit themselves or the belief, and whether missionaries are able to get into China and prostelize, allowing different denominations and interpretations to take root. I expect portions of the country won't fall to the Taiping, though. Going to be a lot of Buddhist areas, Muslims (though they never went out of their way to really try going indepent to my knowledge, Confucian philosphies, and such perhaps in the north. Depends how this new "Heavenly Kingdom" tries to interact with the rest of the world. I remember a fun timeline on here before about it suceed ending partially. They had Peter Rabbit and the Apostles due to a mistranslation in a few villages. And some sages based upon rappers. And the Yellow Hat Kingdom... Yes, I think we should have a Boomerang sort of thing on here. A pilgrimage or grand tour, where people can look at old and sometimes uncompleted works.
 
Numerous peasant rebellions pop-up soon after for reasons mentioned above that may or may not even be bloodier than the Taiping Rebellion itself depending on the insanity of the Heavenly Kingdom which will greatly weaken China in the short run, probably gonna get the European and Japan involved once the quagmire is over resulting in an earlier Warlord Era.
 
I imagine it would turn into warlordism with the Taiping as the strongest faction rather than an overall Taiping conquest of the entirety of China. Makes European interaction with this new Chinese State interesting.
 

In many ways, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the bastard child of North Korea, early Mormonism, and ISIS. Not only did you have an aggressive cult of personality that worshipped Hong Xiuquan as the literal younger brother of Jesus, but also massive large-scale land reappropriation, "reeducation/religious conversion camps", mass killings of villages that rejected Hong Xiuquan's divinity and/or Christianity, the destruction of centuries old landmarks, and the burning of any "non-Christian" literature, which in the context of 19th century China, was more or less everything the revolutionaries could get their hands on. The list goes on and on.

Then you have the weird heterodox teachings of Taiping Christianity, the polygamy of Hong Xiuquan and his inner circle, the massive paranoia, and the unrestrained religious fanaticism and devotion to the "King of Heaven" that would make even the Imperial Japanese cringe.

Had the Taiping been successful even in Southeast China, expect the Cultural Revolution to come very early, with a large chunk of pre-Taiping literature and culture destroyed in it's entirety. Unfortunately for the Taiping, their rampant anti-intellectualism (which also manifested itself in the similar Boxer Rebellion several decades later) meant that any modernization program would be strangled in the crib. Doubly so thanks to European revulsion at Taiping theology, which they saw as blasphemy in the extreme, so expect little European support outside of fringe movements. If the Europeans do come, it will be with the intent to occupy, stabilize, and colonize Southeast China, as a successful Taiping Kingdom will cripple trade in East Asia, forcing the British to act (they backed the Qing for a reason - they were sane and still willing to trade).

Don't get me wrong, the Taiping introduced many policies that were decades ahead of their time, such as equality of the sexes (in theory) and proto-communism, but these policies would inevitability be upended by the Taiping state's desire to maintain power by any means necessary. Add in a pervasive cult of personality, genocidal religious fanaticism (death to the Manchu heathens!), and heterodox economic system, and you have a regime that will turn very ugly sooner or later.
 
I couldnt disagree more with some of the comments here. China will develop leaps and bounds ahead of its OTL situation and might be a great power in the early 20th century. Particularly if Hong Rengan's vision comes to fruition. The Taiping state as it existed was a sort of communistic peasant dictatorship, but in upending Chinese society there was high potential for capitalism to take root like it wouldn't in OTL until well into the 20th century.
 
In many ways, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the bastard child of North Korea, early Mormonism, and ISIS. Not only did you have an aggressive cult of personality that worshipped Hong Xiuquan as the literal younger brother of Jesus, but also massive large-scale land reappropriation, "reeducation/religious conversion camps", mass killings of villages that rejected Hong Xiuquan's divinity and/or Christianity, the destruction of centuries old landmarks, and the burning of any "non-Christian" literature, which in the context of 19th century China, was more or less everything the revolutionaries could get their hands on. The list goes on and on.

Then you have the weird heterodox teachings of Taiping Christianity, the polygamy of Hong Xiuquan and his inner circle, the massive paranoia, and the unrestrained religious fanaticism and devotion to the "King of Heaven" that would make even the Imperial Japanese cringe.

Had the Taiping been successful even in Southeast China, expect the Cultural Revolution to come very early, with a large chunk of pre-Taiping literature and culture destroyed in it's entirety. Unfortunately for the Taiping, their rampant anti-intellectualism (which also manifested itself in the similar Boxer Rebellion several decades later) meant that any modernization program would be strangled in the crib. Doubly so thanks to European revulsion at Taiping theology, which they saw as blasphemy in the extreme, so expect little European support outside of fringe movements. If the Europeans do come, it will be with the intent to occupy, stabilize, and colonize Southeast China, as a successful Taiping Kingdom will cripple trade in East Asia, forcing the British to act (they backed the Qing for a reason - they were sane and still willing to trade).

Don't get me wrong, the Taiping introduced many policies that were decades ahead of their time, such as equality of the sexes (in theory) and proto-communism, but these policies would inevitability be upended by the Taiping state's desire to maintain power by any means necessary. Add in a pervasive cult of personality, genocidal religious fanaticism (death to the Manchu heathens!), and heterodox economic system, and you have a regime that will turn very ugly sooner or later.
uh...uh.... I....
Dear god, and people think the Qing were bad.........
Ya know what? Next time somebody starts bitching about 'The Qing destroyed China!' (Which I am willing to admit, they did cause the mass instability of the next 5 decades) I'll show this to them and see what they think.
 
I'm going to post a detailed response to this, probably this weekend, but suffice to say I think the Taiping get a very bad rap.
 
We've had a few good TLs on this topic... one if I recall went quite close to the modern age... something like "My brothers... something".

But, I think as crazy as the Taiping regime was that it wouldn't neccesarily remain as crazy. If anything, the diplomatic pressures of the era would certainly have forced some changes.
 
People are getting way sensationalist over this. Sure, by our standards, the Taiping were weird, but not really moreso than past Chinese millenarian movements, like the White Lotus/Red Turbans; however crazy and bloody the origins of the Ming, their dynasty turned out alright for a while. People are also overstating how much Chinese culture they'd destroy; even setting aside the general syncretism involved in the Taiping project, Hong Rengan joins up at Tianjing and reintroduces Confucius onto the Taiping examinations anyway. Plus, Hong Rengan was a great advocate of modernization and normalized relations with the Western Powers; his vision of China's future had banks, steamships, factories, insurance companies, and railroads at its heart, and there were Europeans who understood the dynastic cycle the Chinese had imposed on their history, and observed that in Taiping domains that were not the seat of war, the ground was in fact well cultivated.
 
I'm going to post a detailed response to this, probably this weekend, but suffice to say I think the Taiping get a very bad rap.

Having read "God's Chinese Son", I have to say, I agree with the posters saying that the Taiping were deeply dysfunctional.

Or to put it more precisely, Hong Xiquan was dysfunctional. I could see the Taiping doing much better if Hong Xiquan is martyred at the right point.

People are getting way sensationalist over this. Sure, by our standards, the Taiping were weird, but not really moreso than past Chinese millenarian movements, like the White Lotus/Red Turbans; however crazy and bloody the origins of the Ming, their dynasty turned out alright for a while. People are also overstating how much Chinese culture they'd destroy; even setting aside the general syncretism involved in the Taiping project, Hong Rengan joins up at Tianjing and reintroduces Confucius onto the Taiping examinations anyway. Plus, Hong Rengan was a great advocate of modernization and normalized relations with the Western Powers; his vision of China's future had banks, steamships, factories, insurance companies, and railroads at its heart, and there were Europeans who understood the dynastic cycle the Chinese had imposed on their history, and observed that in Taiping domains that were not the seat of war, the ground was in fact well cultivated.

I think people are reacting against the pro-Taiping bias that used to abound on alt-history forums and newsgroups in times past.

Hong Rengan might have put the Taiping on a more productive track, but I seriously question how able he'd be to do so while Hong Xiquan was alive.

fasquardon
 
I think people are reacting against the pro-Taiping bias that used to abound on alt-history forums and newsgroups in times past.

Hong Rengan might have put the Taiping on a more productive track, but I seriously question how able he'd be to do so while Hong Xiquan was alive.

fasquardon
Taiping as sectarian crazy people seems to be the default view, though, ever since the 1860s.

Hong Xiuquan was pretty inactive towards the end of the war, mostly having visions and writing poetry in the palace; he wouldn't necessarily be an immovable obstacle. The main problem for Hong Rengan may be less that Hong Xiuquan is blocking him, and more that Hong Rengan can't get the other princes to do what he says without Hong Xiuquan.
 
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