Thoughts on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Hong Xiquan?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Xiuquan
>Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全), born "Hong Huoxiu", was the third and youngest son of a poor[how?] Hakka family.[2][3] Some sources claim his family was "well to do".[4] He was born in Fuyuan Springs, Hua county (now part of Huadu District, Guangzhou), Guangdong to Hong Jingyang, a farmer and elected headman, and Madam Wang.[5][6][7] He and his family moved to Guanlubu Village shortly after his birth.[8] Upon marrying his wife Lai Xiying, Hong received the courtesy name "Renkun."[9]
>Hong showed an interest in scholarship at an early age, so his family made financial sacrifices to provide a formal education for him, in the hope that he could one day complete all of the civil service examinations.[2] Hong began studying at a primary school in his village at the age of five.[10] He was able to recite the Four Books after five or six years. He then took the local xiucai preliminary civil service examinations and placed first.[11] A few years later, he traveled to the nearby city of Guangzhou to take the imperial examinations.[12] He was unsuccessful and, his parents being unable to afford to continue his education, he was forced to return to agricultural work.[13] The next year, he accompanied a wealthy schoolmate elsewhere for a year of study and became a village schoolteacher upon his return.[14]
>In 1836, at the age of 22, Hong returned to Guangzhou to retake the imperial examinations.[15] While in Guangzhou, Hong heard Edwin Stevens, a foreign missionary, and his interpreter preaching about Christianity.[16] From them, Hong received a set of pamphlets entitled "Good Words for Exhorting the Age", which were written by Liang Fa, Stevens's assistant, and contained excerpts from the Bible along with homilies and other material prepared by Liang.[17] Supposedly, Hong only briefly looked over these pamphlets and did not pay much attention to them at the time.[2] Unsurprisingly, he again failed the imperial examinations, which had a pass rate of less than one percent.[18]
>In 1837, Hong attempted and failed the imperial examinations for a third time, leadinPost too long. Click here to view the full text.