The Failed Teacher Who Built a Holy Army and Killed 20 Million People

Añadido: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]Did you know a failed school teacher once convinced millions of people he was the son of a god and nearly destroyed the most powerful dynasty in Chinese history? His name was Hong Xiuquan. In 1837, after failing his imperial exams for the third time, he collapsed into a fever and had visions. He believed God had appeared to him. He believed Jesus was his older brother and he believed he had been chosen to purge China of evil and build a heavenly kingdom on Earth.

[00:00:23]Most people would have kept that to themselves. Hong Xiuquan built an army.

[00:00:27]By the 1850s, his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom controlled stretch of southern China. Millions followed him. Nanjing became his holy capital. His followers banned opium, gambling, and foot binding. They rewrote society from the ground up. But the movement turned inward. Paranoia spread. Purges tore the leadership apart. By 1864, the Qing crushed what remained. More than 20 million people had died. One man's fever dream had shaken an empire to its foundation.