Belief — The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle All 1 →

S Shangdi, the Heavenly Father. Addressed by the ancient Chinese name, never depicted, and held to be the sole god. The move was philological as much as theological: Hong claimed he was not importing a foreign god but restoring the one the classics already named. Domain Everything — the Taiping argued that Shangdi of the ancient Chinese classics and the God of the Bible are the same being, and that China had simply forgottenStanding Sole God; the deities of the temples were reclassified as demons and their images broken Meet them — context →

Core Tenets

2 — a sample of the center, never the sum All 2 →

The shared center — held across the tradition

Shangdi is the one God, and the idols are demons. Hong argued that the high God of the ancient Chinese classics and the God of the Bible are the same being, and that China had known him before the temples filled with anything else. Converts proved the point with hammers: smashing images was the entry rite. Go deeper — context & 1 source →

Hong Xiuquan is the second son of God. Not Jesus and not a prophet — a younger brother, with a family relationship and a commission. Missionaries who reached Nanjing found a church that printed the Bible, kept the Sabbath and refused idols, and also held this, and they could not agree among themselves what to call it. Go deeper — context →

Cosmos & Afterlife

how reality is built, and what follows death

The nature of reality

Created and governed by one God, with the present order under demonic occupation and due to be cleared.

After death

Heaven and hell, plainly stated. The faithful ascend to the Heavenly Father; demon-worshippers do not.