White lotus / red turban rebellion
- The White Lotus originated as a hybrid movement of Buddhism and Manichaeism that emphasised strict vegetarianism and permitted men and women to interact freely, which was socially shocking. Like other secret societies, they covered up their unusual or illicit activities as “incense-burning ceremonies”.
- Successfully overthrew the yuan, abandoning heterodox roots in the end.
Taiping civil war.
- “a curious Chinese civil war, which took place in 1850-1860s, whose geopolitical significance is often lost. Hong Xiuquan a failed Han Chinese civil service aspirant heard the sermons of the American protestant preacher Edwin Stevens and studied his pamphlets on Christianity. Inspired by these and the frustrations of his repeated academic failures he started imagining himself as the Chinese brother of Jesus Christ. Further, inspired in his visions by the teachings of another American Southern Baptist missionary he worked to create his own version of the Christian bible – the Taiping bible. Imbibing various Abrahamistic traits he founded his own iconoclastic cult that started destroying images of the bauddha-s and cīna deities. Notably, his flavor of Chinese Abrahamism had the same traits of iconoclasm, communism, sexual equality and utopianism, which independently arose in other secularized Abrahamistic movements within the Christian world itself (This illustrates that Abrahamism has a powerful potential to channelize such delusions. It is also notable how Hong’s fervor later inspired the Han nationalist Sun Yat-sen ). By 1851 CE Hong had organized a large army, which now seeking to establish the utopian “Heavenly Kingdom” initiated a civil war against the Ching dynasty. Hong’s forces killed the Manchu commander sent against the them and he established himself with Nanjing as his capital. Before its end the Taiping civil war had left 30 million dead or more – a true outbreak of an Abrahamistic disease.” [MT17]
- Remnants merged with the Nian, which was originally inspired by the White Lotus movement. “The British, Americans and French realized that if the Chinese Abrahamism triumphed over the Ching then the center of gravity of Abrahamism might shift from their world to Asia. They perceived this as a disaster as it would gnaw into the very scaffold of their identity and sense of self-worth, namely Abrahamism; hence, they decided to tacitly back the Ching government rather than the rebels.” [MT17]
Boxer reaction
The Boxer Rebellion, Boxer Uprising or Yihetuan Movement, was a violent anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising that took place in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty. Chinese officialdom was split between those supporting the Boxers and those favoring conciliation. The Eight-Nation Alliance, after being initially turned back, brought 20,000 armed troops to China, defeated the Imperial Army, and arrived at Peking on August 14, relieving the siege of the Legations.
Other Christans
- Sun Yat Sen
Impact of cultural revolution
Cultural revolution and communist rule destroyed native Chinese traditions and rituals. So, the vaccum was more easily filled by Christians. Christians find it much easier to fool PRC chinese, Singapore chinese, but not Taiwanese or Chinese in Malaysia.
Taiwanese case
See separate page.