Rating: 
Summary: Brigham Young's Chinese Brother?
Review: A young school teacher in a small Chinese town fails an exam, has a breakdown, reads a Christian tract, tries to conquer China under the impression that he is God's second son (after Jesus), and almost overthrows the Qing Dynasty. If you ever doubted that "fact is stranger than fiction," read this story. God's Chinese Son is one of several histories of the Taiping Rebellion I read in grad school. My personal favorite was Vincent Shih's The Taiping Ideology (which related TP thought to Confucianism, the ancient worship of Heaven, and prior ideological revolutions. Shih was also the only "major" historian who didn't clumsily mistake TP for a "form of Christianity," for which I was grateful.) But probably Spence gave the best overall introduction to the movement. I found this book fairly lively, and was fascinated by his description of popular religion in Southern China. (Which may seem familiar in Taiwan or Fujian to this day.) Spence makes a perfunctory attempt to justify his cheeky title by linking Hong to Jesus in the introduction. This attempt falls flat, in my opinion: Spence doesn't appear to know much about NT Christianity. A better comparison, I think, would be to Mormonism. I found eighteen similarities between the two movements, and my professor, a Qing historian, told me that in his classes on Qing history, Mormon students often noticed some of these things as well. I would also argue that the TP movement had more in common with Islam and Marxism than with NT Christianity. One benefit of learning about the Tai Ping Rebellion (and other such movements in China) is that it helps one understand the modern Chinese reaction to Fa Lun Gong. Actually, there are quite a few sects in modern China that show revolutionary potential, that the government has tried to suppress -- a traditional function of government in China. Ironically, of course, the Marxist government itself came to power in a similar way, and with similar goals, as the TP. So this is a good book to begin understanding a neglected, but very influential, element of Chinese history and culture. The TP story also provides an interesting parallel to the modern spread of Christianity in China. ("Western religion" does better in China when it's not being preached by Westerners.) Finally, God's Chinese Son is a remarkable though tragic story in and of itself, and as one reviewer said, it ought to be better known. author, Jesus and the Religions of Man / d.marshall@sun.ac.jp
Rating: 
Summary: a slog doesn't begin to describe....
Review: For all of Prof Spence's scholarly research - I got a better understanding of the Taiping from Flashman and the Dragon!
Rating: 
Summary: Tough slog through some fascinating events
Review: I am not sure what book Spence set out to write here. Was he trying to write a scholarly history of the Taiping rebellion or was he writing a popular one? The level of detail in much of the book suggests the former -- using long quotes and a passion for detail that often renders the text dense and unwieldy, Spence manages to make much of this story impregnable. This would be fitting, and all too common, for an academic history, but clearly this is not his intent. Leaving out such things as the ultimate influence of the Taiping rebellion on Chinese life or the Qing perspective on the rebellion makes the story rather less than complete. But if this is a popular history, then why the long interludes about the exact details of Western missionary movements around Southwest China prior to Hong Xiuquan's conversion? I found this segment excruciating and entirely unnecessary. Perhaps there is more justification for his extended discussion of Taiping theology, but these seem unduly detailed for a popular history. The saving grace in all this is the story. The events of the Taiping rebellion are so unlikely and remarkable that even with these textual issues, the book is difficult to put down. The fantastic, anomolous story of Hong's revolution is nail-biting stuff and certain worth trudging through the muddy prose through which it is conveyed. I am not sure I would pick up another book by Jonathan Spence, but I am glad I made it through this one.
Rating:
Summary: Tough slog through some fascinating events
Review: I am not sure what book Spence set out to write here. Was he trying to write a scholarly history of the Taiping rebellion or was he writing a popular one? The level of detail in much of the book suggests the former -- using long quotes and a passion for detail that often renders the text dense and unwieldy, Spence manages to make much of this story impregnable. This would be fitting, and all too common, for an academic history, but clearly this is not his intent. Leaving out such things as the ultimate influence of the Taiping rebellion on Chinese life or the Qing perspective on the rebellion makes the story rather less than complete. But if this is a popular history, then why the long interludes about the exact details of Western missionary movements around Southwest China prior to Hong Xiuquan's conversion? I found this segment excruciating and entirely unnecessary. Perhaps there is more justification for his extended discussion of Taiping theology, but these seem unduly detailed for a popular history. The saving grace in all this is the story. The events of the Taiping rebellion are so unlikely and remarkable that even with these textual issues, the book is difficult to put down. The fantastic, anomolous story of Hong's revolution is nail-biting stuff and certain worth trudging through the muddy prose through which it is conveyed. I am not sure I would pick up another book by Jonathan Spence, but I am glad I made it through this one.
Rating:
Summary: Why wasn't this better?
Review: In Spence's introduction, he states that he was trying to produce a different sort of account of the Taiping Heavenly Rebellion, since it's been written on so extensively (ostensibly in China or Western academic journals). The final product is an account of what might well be the most cataclysmic world event that you've never heard of. In the American Civil War, there were one million casualties. But just a few years earlier, China's Qing dynasty had managed to quell a rebellion led by a failed scholar who thought himself to be Jesus' younger brother. Some thirty MILLION people died during the uprising, and both the British and the Americans were involved in the conflict. It sounds like a can't-miss proposition for an absorbing read, and Spence's work starts out well enough as an accessible popular history, although it is shot through with extended passages that detail only semi-pertinent facts, such as the layout of the foregin quarter in Canton. Things deteriorate from there. While the events themselves are engrossing, Spence can't seem to decide (as other reviewers have mentioned) between popular and scholarly history. Scholars will likely be frustrated by Spence's occasionally chatty tone, while newcomers will be put off by his lack of analysis when it comes to matters like Hong Xiuquan's bizarre hybrid of Christian and Confucian morality-- even though the interplay between the two ideologies often resulted in decisions that shifted the course of the rebellion and meant life or death for key participants. The Taiping Heavenly Rebellion was an astonishing historical event, and one of the most costly wars ever. Considering how few people in the West know that it even took place, it certainly merits an in-depth historical account. Sadly, Spence's treatment falls flat, and often fails to convey the historical significance of the events in all of their horror and folly.
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Summary: The entire book is written in present tense
Review: Man, you just feel Spence's pompousness throughout the entire book. The tone gives the whole book a kind of high school sophomore writing class feel, which is too bad, given the natural interest the topic should inspire. If you can get past that, there's some interesting stuff in here.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting text, but not for those looking for a light read
Review: Spence's accounts of Chinese history have always been among my favorite ever since I first read his "History of Modern China". The level of detail and the connections that he makes in his writing are usually incredible and to a large degree, God's Chinese Son is no exception to this pattern. Spence provides a very detailed account of the Taiping Rebellion, stretching from the origins of the leadership to the end result for the Heavenly Kingdom.
The level of detail that Spence provides in laying out what happened as well as why it happened is amazing. However, in some respects it's this level of detail that was also a drawback at various points too. Spence provides an excellent account of the story, but at many points I found myself losing the forest for the trees. Despite this, his thesis is well supported and overall the story is well told.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: The first book by Jonathan Spence I have managed to finish--he is an author I come across constantly, but I have not until now really enjoyed him--God's Chinese Son is admittedly not splendidly written. The narrative seems distorted and "out of focus" at points, depending on Spence's personal interest in textual evidence. But the Taiping Rebellion is such a bizarre and engrossing episode in world history that it deserves to be read, even if there are better academic studies of it out there. I must recommend it to anyone intrigued by religion and messianic movements, and one does learn a lot about the impact of Western technology and economic power on 19th century China in general. From a purely military standpoint, the strategy and wonderfully fluctuating political dynamics behind the rebellion are also worth looking at--an interesting coincidence that the American Civil War was going on at the same time. I cannot say this book reveals anything profound about contemporary China, but it is a good old epic story with eccentric personalities everywhere.
Rating: 
Summary: religious fanatacism in a decaying empire
Review: The Taipings are a fascinating study in fanatacism. The idea that one man could override established religion and the Ching Empire is audacious. There seems to be some debate among many of the reviewers of this book over exactly what constitutes Chinese history.
Let's be blunt: how did China get from 1800 to 2000? Where else in the world has this 200-year transition been so complex? Perhaps Professor Spence's work should be compared with the Foreign Languages Press (Peking) booklet "The Taiping Revolution" (1976). The facts are not at variance; the factual account itself may be irrelevant.
Chinese history and culture is older than our own, and it is naive to believe that our difficulty in understanding the convergence of these two worlds can be laid on the facts. Hong Xiuquan's perception of the west might itself justify the book.
Personally, I thought this was a beautifully written book, balancing the historical record with the problems of prose. If the Boxers were Ghost Dancers, attempting to overturn history, then the Taipings were something else; perhaps not revolutionaries, as the Gang of Four would have it, but certainly visionaries struggling to reestablish order between Heaven and earth.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but far from comprehensive
Review: This story of the rebel and religious leader, Hong Xiuquan, is a weird and horrifying read. It is almost unbelievable that this one man, after having a dream of ascending to heaven, can have mustered a rebellion against the Manchu Dynasty that was stunning in its success and devasting in its failure as twenty million Chinese lay dead at the end of the almost twenty year rebellion. Jonathan D. Spence, in God's Chinese Son, covers this material with his usual combination of both writing skill and scholary research. The reader may occasionally get bogged down in the fine details, particulary with no knowledge of Chinese history from this period, but this book provides a wonderful ride through an unusual time and place in history.
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