Historical Figures

Hong Xiuquan

Citation Formats

General Reference

History Atlas. "Hong Xiuquan." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-history.interactiveatlas.org/historical-figures/hong-xiuquan.

APA Style

History Atlas. (n.d.). Hong Xiuquan. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-history.interactiveatlas.org/historical-figures/hong-xiuquan

BibTeX

@misc{historyatlas-hong-xiuquan,
  author = {History Atlas},
  title = {Hong Xiuquan},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-history.interactiveatlas.org/historical-figures/hong-xiuquan},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Hong Xiuquan was a Chinese revolutionary and religious leader who founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. After repeatedly failing the imperial civil service examinations, he experienced a series of visions that he came to interpret, through contact with Christian texts, as revealing him to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ sent to establish a Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace on earth. He founded the God Worshipping Society, which grew into a mass movement, and in January 1851 launched the Taiping Rebellion, capturing Nanjing in 1853 and ruling from there as the self-proclaimed Heavenly King. Internal strife and mounting Qing military pressure gradually weakened his kingdom, and he died in the besieged capital in June 1864, shortly before Qing forces retook the city.

Facts

Birth Date

1814-01-01 1

Death Date

1864-06-01 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Participant In

Taiping Rebellion

Additional Source Wikipedia: Hong XiuquanLead section, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Hong Xiuquan

WikipediaLead section

Quote, Lead section

Hong Xiuquan was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion...He was the self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ, who established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

View the Source

1. Wikipedia: Hong Xiuquan

WikipediaInfobox (birth)

Quote, Infobox (birth)