Marxism, Religion and the Taiping Revolution
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Roland Boer in
Current site
Google Scholar
This study offers a specific interpretation of the Taiping Revolution in China in the mid-nineteenth century. It was not only the largest revolutionary movement in the world at the time, but also one that was inspired by Christianity. Indeed, it marks the moment when the revolutionary religious tradition arrived in China. My account of the revolution stresses the role of the Bible, its radical reinterpretation by the Taiping revolutionaries, and the role it played in their revolutionary acts and reconstruction of economic and social relations. After providing this account, I raise a number of implications for Marxist approaches to religion. These involve the revolutionary religious tradition, first identified by Engels and established by Karl Kautsky, the question of political ambivalence of a religion like Christianity, and the distinction between ontological and temporal transcendence.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Amin Samir ‘Forerunners of the Contemporary World: The Paris Commune (1871) and the Taiping Revolution (1851–1864)’ International Critical Thought 2013 3 2 159 164
-
An Yu & Bai Shui ‘Shilun taiping tianguo he rujia wenhua de guanxi [On the Relationship between the Taiping Rebels and Confucian Culture]’ Fuyin Baokan Ziliao: Zhongguo Jindai Shi 1991 2 66 170
-
Blanc Louis Plus de Girondins 1851 Paris Charles Joubert
-
Blissett Luther Q 2004 London Arrow
-
Bloch Ernst Plaice Neville , Plaice Stephen & Knight Paul The Principle of Hope 1995 Cambridge, MA The MIT Press three volumes
-
Bloch Ernst Swann J.T. Atheism in Christianity: The Religion of the Exodus and the Kingdom 2009 London Verso
-
Boardman Eugene Powers Christian Influence upon the Ideology of the Taiping Rebellion, 1851–1864 1952 Madison University of Wisconsin Press
-
Boer Roland Rescuing the Bible 2007 Oxford Wiley-Blackwell
-
Boer Roland In the Vale of Tears: On Marxism and Theology, V, Historical Materialism 2014a Leiden Brill Book Series
-
Boer Roland ‘“All Things Are in Common”: Theology and Politics in Luther Blissett’s Q’ International Socialism: A Quarterly Journal of Socialist Theory 2014b 141 139 159
-
Chen Hua ‘Lun hong xiuquan de lishi yishi: jiqi yu zongjiao xinyang ji xianshi kaoliang de guanxi [The Historical Consciousness of Hong Xiuquan: Its Relation to his Religious Belief and Awareness of Reality]’ Tsinghua Journal of Chinese Studies 1996 26 1 71 120
-
Cook Richard R. Cook Richard R. & Pao David W. ‘Overcoming Missions Guilt: Robert Morrison, Liang Fa, and the Opium Wars’ After Imperialism: Christian Identity in China and the Global Evangelical Movement 2012 Cambridge Lutterworth
-
Engels Friedrich ‘Zur Geschichte des Urchristentums’ Marx-Engels-Werke 1972 [1894–5] Volume 22 Berlin Dietz
-
Engels Friedrich ‘Der deutsche Bauernkrieg’ Marx-Engels-Werke 1973 [1850] Volume 7 Berlin Dietz
-
Engels Friedrich ‘The Peasant War in Germany’ Marx and Engels Collected Works 1978 [1850] Volume 10 Moscow Progress Publishers
-
Engels Friedrich ‘On the History of Early Christianity’ Marx and Engels Collected Works 1990 [1894–5] Volume 27 Moscow Progress Publishers
-
Fogleman Aaron Spencer Jesus Is Female: Moravians and Radical Religion in Early America 2008 Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press
-
Foster Lawrence ‘When Do Millennial Religious Movements Become Politically Revolutionary? A Comparative Analysis of the Oneida Community, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Mormons during the Nineteenth Century’ Communal Societies 2011 31 1 1 28
-
Franz-Willing Georg ‘Die Ideologie der Taiping’ Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 1972 24 316 336
-
Gregory J.S. ‘British Missionary Reaction to the Taiping Movement in China’ Journal of Religious History 1963 2 3 204 218
-
Jen Yu-Wen The Taiping Revolutionary Movement 1973 New Haven Yale University Press
-
Kautsky Karl Mulliken J.L. & Mulliken E.G. Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation 1897 London Fisher and Unwin
-
Kautsky Karl Vorläufer des neueren Sozialismus I: Kommunistische Bewegungen im Mittelalter 1976a [1895–7] Berlin Dietz
-
Kautsky Karl Vorläufer des neueren Sozialismus II: Der Kommunismus in der deutschen Reformation 1976b [1895–7] Berlin Dietz
-
Kautsky Karl & Lafargue Paul Vorläufer des neueren Sozialismus III: Die beiden ersten grossen Utopisten 1977 [1922] Stuttgart Dietz
-
Kilcourse Carl S. ‘Son of God, Brother of Jesus: Interpreting the Theological Claims of the Chinese Revolutionary Hong Xiuquan’ Studies in World Christianity 2014 20 2 124 144
-
Kilcourse Carl S. Taiping Theology: The Localization of Christianity in China, 1843–64 2016 Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan
-
Kim Sukjoo Liang Fa’s Quanshi liangyan and Its Impact on the Taiping Movement 2011 Waco Baylor University PhD Thesis
-
Le Blanc Paul Marx, Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience: Studies of Communism and Radicalism in the Age of Globalization 2006 London Routledge
-
Liang Fa Quanshi liangyan [Good Words to Admonish the Age] 1965 Taipei Taiwan xuesheng shuju
-
Liao Sheng ‘Minzhong xinli xuqiu yu taiping tianguo de xingwang [The Relation between People’s Psychological Motivation and the Rise and Fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom]’ Shixue Yuekan [Journal of Historical Science] 2005 10 108 117
-
Liao Sheng & Wang Xiaonan ‘Taiping tianguo guafu zai jia wenti bianxi: Jian lun guafu zai jia bu neng zuo wei taiping tianguo jiefang funü zhi lunju [Widows’ Remarriage in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: The Policy is not Evidence that the Kingdom Contributed to Women’s Liberation]’ Shixue Yuekan [Journal of Historical Science] 2004 7 93 99
-
Lunacharsky Anatoly Religiia i sotsializm [Religion and Socialism] 1908–11 Moscow Shipovnik two volumes
-
Luo Ergang Taiping tianguo shigao 1951 Beijing Kaiming Shuju
-
Luo Ergang ‘Taiping tianguo de bingfa [Military Strategies of the Taipings]’ Fuyin Baokan Ziliao: Zhongguo Jindai Shi 1991 4 30 41
-
Luxemburg Rosa Waters Mary-Alice ‘Socialism and the Churches’ Rosa Luxemburg Speaks 1970 [1905] New York Pathfinder
-
Meyer-Fong Tobie What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in Nineteenth-Century China 2013 Stanford Stanford University Press
-
Michael Franz & Chung-li Chang The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Volume 1, History 1966–71a Seattle University of Washington Press
-
Michael Franz & Chung-li Chang The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Volume 2, Documents and Comments 1966–71b Seattle University of Washington Press
-
Michael Franz & Chung-li Chang The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Volume 3, Documents and Comments 1966–71c Seattle University of Washington Press
-
Moffett Samuel Hugh A History of Christianity in Asia. Volume II, 1500–1900 2005 Maryknoll Orbis
-
Müntzer Thomas Matheson Peter The Collected Works of Thomas Müntzer 1988 Edinburgh T. & T. Clark
-
Pannenberg Wolfhart Bromiley Geoffrey William Systematic Theology 1991–3 Grand Rapids Eerdmans three volumes
-
Petterson Christina The Missionary, the Catechist and the Hunter: Foucault, Protestantism and Colonialism 2014 Leiden Brill
-
Platt Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West and the Taiping Civil War 2012 New York Alfred A. Knopf
-
Qin Baoqi ‘Taiping tianguo de “xiao tiantang”, “renjian tiantang” zongjiao lixiang de zhongguo shijian [The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s Religious Concepts of “Little Paradise” and “Heaven on Earth” in China]’ Qing History Journal 2010 80 4 70 77
-
Rapp John A. ‘Clashing Dilemmas: Hong Rengan, Issachar Roberts, and a Taiping “Murder” Mystery’ Journal of Historical Biography 2008 4 27 58
-
Reilly Thomas H. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire 2004 Seattle University of Washington Press
-
Russell Peter ‘Christian Millenarianism and the Early Taiping Movement: Reopening a Debate’ Social History / Histoire Sociale 1977 9 114 33
-
Shih Vincent Yu-Chung The Taiping Ideology: Its Sources, Interpretations, and Influences 1967 Seattle University of Washington Press
-
Spence Jonathan God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan 1996 Hammersmith HarperCollins
-
Teng Yuan Chung ‘Reverend Issachar Jacox Roberts and the Taiping Rebellion’ Journal of Asian Studies 1963 23 1 55 67
-
Wagner Rudolf G. Reenacting the Heavenly Vision: The Role of Religion in the Taiping Rebellion 1982 Berkeley University of California, Institute of East Asian Studies
-
Wang Shaomin & Xiao Daming ‘Cong “Tianfu tianxiong shengzhi” kan taiping tianguo funu de shiji diwei [The Actual Status of Women of the Taiping Rebellion Based on a Study of “The Imperial Edicts of the Heavenly Father and the Heavenly Brother”]’ Fuyin Baokan Ziliao: Zhongguo Jindai Shi 1989 10 53 54
-
Wei Wanlei ‘Taiping tianguo baiwang de jiti xinli fenxi [A Collective Psychological Analysis of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s Defeat]’ Shiexue Yuekan [Journal of Historical Science] 1987 10 30 36
-
Weller Robert P. ‘Historians and Consciousness: The Modern Politics of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’ Social Research 1987 54 4 731 755
-
Xia Chuntao ‘Taiping tianguo dui “sheng jing” taidu de yanbian [The Evolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s Attitude to the Bible]’ Lishi Yanjiu [Historical Research] 1992 1 139 154
-
Xia Chuntao ‘Taiping jun zhong de hunyin zhuangkuang yu liang xing guanxi tanxi [An Inquiry into and Analysis of Marriage and Sexual Relations in the Taiping Army]’ Jindaishi Yanjiu [Modern Chinese History Studies] 2003 1 5 37
-
Xia Chuntao ‘Taiping tianguo funü diwei jianti zai yanjiu [A Re-examination of the Status of Women in the Taiping State]’ Qing History Journal 2004 2 98 108
-
Xie Qizhang ‘Lun hong xiuquan zongjiao zhengzhi sixiang de xingcheng [On the Formation of Hong Xiuquan’s Religious Political Thought]’ Fuyin Baokan Ziliao: Zhongguo Jindai Shi 1989 8 45 48
-
Yin Changfu ‘Nongmin geming zhanzheng yu “xiliya shi kuangxiang” – taiping tianguo yundong yu deguo nongmin zhanzheng de bijiao yanjiu [Peasant Revolutionary War and the “Fantasy of Millennium”: A Comparative Study of the Taiping Rebellion and the German Peasants’ War]’ Fuyin Baokan Ziliao: Zhongguo Jindai Shi 1989 7 34 40
-
Zhao Xiaoyang ‘Taiping tianguo kan yin shengjing diben yuanliu kaoxi [A Study of the Origins of the Taiping Bible]’ Qing History Journal 2010 79 3 75 82
-
Zheng Jianshun ‘Guanyu taiping tianguo shi yanjiu de jige wenti [Several Research Problems Pertaining to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom]’ Shixue Yuekan [Journal of Historical Science] 2000 6 61 67
-
Zhu Congbing ‘Taiping tianguo zhaoshuya kaobian [Investigating the Bureau of Royal Edicts of the Taiping Kingdom]’ Lishi Yanjiu [Historical Research] 1989 5 90 103
-
Zhu Dong’an ‘Taiping tianguo “tuixing shenquan zhengzhi” shuo zhi yi [Questioning the Theory that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Practised Theocracy]’ Lishi Yanjiu [Historical Research] 1990 5 3 11
-
2
Spence 1996, pp. 23–65.
-
3
Liang 1965.
-
4
See the detailed study by Kim 2011, although he overplays the role of the tracts in Taiping thought and practice.
-
7
See further Rapp 2008; Teng 1963.
-
8
Reilly 2004, pp. 104–15; Kilcourse 2014, p. 131.
-
9
See further Zhao 2010.
-
10
Reilly 2004, pp. 19–53, 78–100.
-
12
Michael and Chang 1966–71b, p. 41. See also the detailed discussion of the strongly monotheistic nature of Taiping theology in Kilcourse 2014, pp. 129–33.
-
14
See further Luo 1991.
-
15
See especially Platt 2012.
-
16
Michael and Chang 1966–71b, p. 314.
-
18
See further, Zhu 1989.
-
27
Engels 1973, 1978. See futher Weller 1987, pp. 740–5. He points out that the ‘outer garment’ theory was particularly strong during the Cultural Revolution.
-
29
Qin 2010; Xie 1989; Chen 1996.
-
31
Amin 2013, p. 159.
-
32
Engels 1973, 1978. This flawed study was developed into much better arguments by Karl Kautsky and Ernst Bloch, and resonating in our own day with the novel Q (Bloch 2009; Blissett 2004; Boer 2014b).
-
33
Engels 1972, 1990.
-
34
Kautsky 1897, 1976a, 1976b; Kautsky and Lafargue 1977.
-
38
See further Boer 2007, pp. 105–50.
-
40
Bloch 1995, 2009.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2301 | 320 | 30 |
| Full Text Views | 810 | 42 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 750 | 97 | 7 |
Marxism, Religion and the Taiping Revolution
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Roland Boer in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This study offers a specific interpretation of the Taiping Revolution in China in the mid-nineteenth century. It was not only the largest revolutionary movement in the world at the time, but also one that was inspired by Christianity. Indeed, it marks the moment when the revolutionary religious tradition arrived in China. My account of the revolution stresses the role of the Bible, its radical reinterpretation by the Taiping revolutionaries, and the role it played in their revolutionary acts and reconstruction of economic and social relations. After providing this account, I raise a number of implications for Marxist approaches to religion. These involve the revolutionary religious tradition, first identified by Engels and established by Karl Kautsky, the question of political ambivalence of a religion like Christianity, and the distinction between ontological and temporal transcendence.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2301 | 320 | 30 |
| Full Text Views | 810 | 42 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 750 | 97 | 7 |
