Hong Xiuquan - Visions and Iconoclasm

Visions and Iconoclasm

On his visit to Guangzhou to take the civil service examination in 1836, Hong heard an Evangelical Christian missionary preaching about his religion. While there, Hong received translations and summaries of the Bible written by the Christian missionaries Edwin Stevens and his assistant, Liang Fa. Hong may have briefly looked over these pamphlets, but did not pay much attention to them at the time. Hong failed to pass the examinations in 1836.

In 1837 Hong again attempted to take the imperial examinations, but apparently suffered a nervous collapse when he failed them again. During his recovery in 1837, he had a number of vivid and terrifying dreams, which he interpreted as mystical visions. In his dreams Hong was visited by two figures, an old, paternal figure and an elder brother-figure. In one dream the old man complained to Hong about men worshiping demons rather than him. In a second dream, Hong saw Confucius being punished for his faithlessness, after which he repented. In another dream, Hong dreamt of angels carrying him to heaven, where he met the elder-brother figure wearing in a black dragon robe with a long golden beard who gave him a sword and a magic seal, and told him to purge China of demons. Several years later, he would interpret this to mean that God the Heavenly Father (whom he identified with Shangdi from Chinese tradition) wanted him to rid the world of demon worship. In order to complete his mission of ridding the world of demons, the elder brother-figure changed Hong's name to "Hong Xiuquan". His friends and family said that after this episode he became authoritative, solemn and taller in height. After failing his forth examination in 1837, Hong stopped studying for the imperial examinations and sought work as a teacher. For the next several years Hong taught at several schools around the area of his hometown.

It was not until six years later that Hong took time to carefully examine the Christian tracts he had received. After reading these tracts Hong came to believe that they had given him the key to interpreting his visions: the old man was God, and the elder brother that he had seen was Jesus Christ. This interpretation led him to believe that he was a Chinese son of God, and that he was the younger brother of Jesus. After coming to this conclusion Hong began destroying idols and enthusiastically preaching his interpretation of Christianity.

Hong began by burning all Confucian and Buddhist statues and books in his house, and began to preaching to his community about his visions. His earliest converts were relatives of his who had also failed their examinations and belonged to the Hakka minority, Feng Yunshan and Hong Rengan. He collaborated with them to destroy holy statues in small villages to the ire of local citizens and officials. Hong and his converts' acts were considered sacrilegious and they were persecuted by Confucians who forced them to leave their positions as village tutors. Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan fled the district in 1844, walking some 300 miles to the west to Guangxi, where the large Hakka population was much more willing to receive his teachings. As a symbolic gesture to purge China of Confucianism, he asked for two giant swords, three chi (about 1 metre) long and nine jin (about 5.5 kg), called the "demon-slaying swords" (斬妖劍), to be forged.