November - December 2001 The Sabbath Sentinel

How China Almost Became a
Sabbath-keeping Nation! (Part 2)

by Leon J. Lyell

In southern China in the late 1840's, a unique brand of Christianity emerged -- the Taiping Movement. Millions accepted its leadership, but foreign "Christian" missionaries rejected it.

The Taipings revered the Torah and adopted the seventh-day Sabbath! This is the story of one man's search for God. It is the corruption of that search by the counsel of politically motivated associates. It is also the story of an attempt to bring a better life to the people of China and how that quest was thwarted.

There is no doubt that the Taipings sought to create a theocracy. Their constitution insisted on high moral standards, church attendance, and compassion towards the needy. For example, opium smoking, the use of tobacco and wine, prostitution, foot binding, the sale of slaves, gambling and polygamy were all forbidden. Hong tried to model his government on the precepts of the Books of Moses to the extent that he understood these.

But what exactly was Hong's message? Do we have enough evidence to make our own judgement about whether his form of religion was biblical? Where his beliefs differ from ours, how much of that is due to difference of culture and how much is about a substantial difference of understanding of the Word of God?

Remember that in the West we often assume that many customs are biblical when in fact investigation proves this to be false. Remember too that in Hong's village the Bible as a single volume was simply not available. The other problem for Hong was that there were no reliable translations. One thing is certain, Hong did his best the adapt his life to the biblical precepts which he had. Most of his religious concepts came from his own reading of the Bible.

So, how did Hong obtain his beliefs and what exactly were they?

The prime source for Hong was the material he received on his earliest visits to Canton. Equally significant was the Bible translated by Gutzlaff. One observer of the day, Thomas Meadows, remarked that "The Bible is his highest standard" amongst the Taipings. Traditional scholarship in China looked to the "Four books and the Five Classics," and these formed the basis of the civil service exams. Hong did not abandon the best scholarship of the past, but he believed that if these books differed from the Bible in some way it was either because the Chinese classics had been misunderstood or because the classics themselves were wrong.

In Hong's kingdom, the civil service exam was based on the Bible!

In response to the accusation that he was simply following foreign ways, Hong replied that:

"[Those who accuse us of this] do not know that in the ancient world monarchs and subjects alike all worshipped the Great God. As for the great Way or worshipping the Great God, from the very beginning, when the Great god created in six days heaven and earth, mountains and seas, man and things, both China and the barbarian countries of the west have continuously walked in the great Way. China also walked in the great Way, but within the most recent one or two thousand years, China has erroneously followed the devil's path..." [Michael II, p 113 - 114]

Major Beliefs

It must be stated at the outset that as with all religious groups, it would be wrong to paint a picture of static beliefs. Understandings developed and one of the sad matters to contemplate is to consider where the Taiping belief system might have ended up if it been allowed to flourish. The other fact to consider is that once the movement became a political force, it is clear that some Taiping leaders used their religious positions to control the political direction of their followers, many of whom were not interested in becoming "God-worshippers." The directions of Hong's earlier period would seem to be the purer and form the background to Hong's adoption of the seventh-day Sabbath.

God

The Taipings emphasised monotheism. There was only one God and his name was Shangdi, a term going back to the most ancient times in Chinese history. The phrase "Jehovah" seems not to have been used in Taiping literature, however this may be because of a misunderstanding of a phrase Shenyehuohua in a translation of the Bible by Morrison. Hong analysed the name to mean Shenye - "God-Father" and Huohua, which Hong took to be God's given name. Hong objected to the Protestant missionaries' emphasis on God as being formless and emphasised that man was made in God's image.

Much of Taiping teaching about God came from the Pentateuch, which along with the book of Joshua is apparently all that they published of the Old Testament. Their understanding of history from the creation to the giving of the law was therefore excellent as was their acceptance of the lessons from that part of the Bible.

One of Hong's innovations was to see God as a family! Here the strong emphasis on family life in Chinese culture can be seen as influential along with Hong's dislike of the argument of Christian missions that God was not anthropomorphic and the Chinese educated elite that the Great God was a non-personal "ultimate principle."

Hong saw God as the Father, Jesus was the first son, but Hong himself was a younger brother of Jesus. Both Hong as a son of heaven had a wife and this pattern was seen as repeated in heaven where God the Father had a wife also.

Before we condemn this latter notion as absurd, think for a moment about the difficulty on conceptualising the notion of the trinity, which Hong decried as meaningless. Above all Hong searched for a way of understanding God. He insisted that God could be understood and sought to understand Him in simple terms.

Sin

The Ten Commandments were the standard by which the whole community was expected to live. The Taipings quoted from them extensively and wrote commentaries on them which adding references from Chinese proverbs and other writings.

For example a commentary on the Ten Commandments has these comments:

"The Ten Heavenly Commandments were established by the Great God.

"The First heavenly Commandment: Thou shall honour and worship the Great God.

"The great God is the Universal Father of all nations of the world. All men are given birth and nourished by him, all men are protected by him and all men ought, therefore to worship him respectfully morning and evening, and to acknowledge his grace. There is a common saying, "Produced by Heaven, nourished by Heaven, and Protected by Heaven...'"[Michael II, 119-120]

The seventh Commandment was expanded to; "Thou shall not commit adultery or be licentious." The Commentary makes it clear that the commandment includes "the casting of amorous glances...," which is consistent with the commentary of Christ himself on the subject.

Sin was thus breaking of the Law of Heaven, but while the Chinese classics often spoke of "Heaven" as an impersonal principle, the Taipings recognised that Heaven was worthy of worship. From the beginning God had sought to rescue humanity from its sin. God sent Israel the Ten Commandments and when mankind later "fell into misery," Heaven sent:

"[The] first born son, the Heavenly elder brother, Jesus down into the world to save mankind and to suffer extreme misery and grief in order to redeem mankind's sins... If men did but know the basis of their redemption, consisting in the sacrifice of his life for the salvation of the world, they would be able to estimate how worthy of all honour our Heavenly Elder Brother is; still more would they feel that our Heavenly Father ought constantly to be regarded with pious reverence." [Michael II, 239-240]

Not only had God commissioned ancient Israel and His Son, in these latter times he had commissioned Hong:

"From whose coming the true doctrine began to be clearly manifest.

"Wisdom and intelligence endowed by Heaven far exceeded the common order;

"His disposition is benevolent and preserving the correct. He upholds Heaven's command;

"With rewards and punishments clearly distinguished, Heaven's law is manifest." [Michael II, p 243]

Heaven's law was concretely manifest in the initial Taiping conquests in establishing the "heavenly capital" in Nanjing.

Dealing with sin involved a strong measure of putting out sin and replacing sin with obedience to the Law. In promoting good character, Hong promoted rectitude and morality, which had been emphasised in the Chinese classics. The "God-worshippers" had to practice righteousness.

Because of this emphasis some had discounted the Taiping movement as non-Christian because they believed in "original goodness" instead of the traditional view of "original sin." To some extent this is a false argument as it represents a difference of emphasis.

Religious Observances

There is much that we do not know about the Taiping Movement and a number of contradictions in what we do "know." In a large movement involving millions of people, which came into being and rose to prominence in a short period of time, this should not be a surprise.

Baptism was probably the most important ceremony, and was used to picture freedom from sin. Candidates came to a table on which were placed two lamps and three cups of tea. A previously written confession of sins was burned. Candidates then had to agree orally not to worship demons or commit acts of evil. They pledged to follow the Laws of Heaven. Then water was poured over their head and they said, "My sin is washed away. I have put aside the old man and am now made new." They then rose and went to the river where they were immersed, calling on God to forgive them.

Taipings Observe the Seventh-day Sabbath

The seventh-day Sabbath was carefully observed. On Fridays a large flag was displayed, signalling the approach of the Sabbath. Its observance began at sunset on Friday. The service was one of worship, celebrated in traditional Chinese mode with cakes and fruit, and exposition of the Bible, and was held at midnight.

Sacrifices of animals, delicacies, tea and rice were offered in a tradition somewhat reminiscent of the Old Testament. These were not intended to "gain merit" as was often the case in Chinese religious practice, as it was followed by a phrase acknowledging that it was through the "merits of our Saviour and Heavenly Elder brother Jesus, who redeemed us from sin." From this it seems clear that the Taiping sought to become perfect, there was no sense of earning salvation.

The Taiping Ceremonial Regulations required the following:

"Within [the court] and without, all the various officials and people must go every Sabbath to hear the expounding of the Holy Bible, reverently and offer their sacrifices and worship and praise the Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord and Great God. On every seventh seven, the forty-ninth day, the Sabbath, the colonel, captains and lieutenants shall go in turn to the churches in which reside the sergeants under their commend and expound the Holy books, instruct the people, examine whether they obey the commandments..." [Michael II, p 320]

The custom of a special Sabbath every seven Sabbaths is an interesting one. Could this idea be derived in some way from a poor translation of Leviticus 23:15-16? Further research could uncover the answer. The King James translation of these verses read;

"And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days..."

And just in case there was any doubt about when the seventh-day Sabbath was observed, in response to a question on this, the Hong Renkan's response was:

"The Sabbath is observed by assembling at midnight for prayer and praise. When peace is restored, the Sabbath is to be strictly observed. It is kept on Saturday." [Clarke and Gregory p 242]

As far as can be ascertained, while the traditional round of annual ceremonies of the Chinese calendar were not observed, there is no evidence that they observed any annual "Christian" celebrations such as Christmas or Easter. Although they had a vigorous knowledge of the first five books at this stage I have found no clear evidence that they considered the place of the annual holy days of Leviticus 23.

Weaknesses of Taiping Christianity

There were, of course, a number of "weaknesses" with Taiping Christianity, and it is incorrect to claim that Taiping Christianity was simply a Chinese variant of the Church of God, which was flourishing in America. Their Bible was incomplete and the enthusiastic adoption of a political role allowed Hong's egotism to blur his original spiritual purity.

For example, while Hong was clearly convinced that God was one, he regarded Christ as a step below, in a sense, as a created being. Hong himself was simply a younger brother of Jesus - a younger son of God. In time, however, this understanding was translated by political advisors into a belief in Hong's divinity, eventually claiming that he was none other than Melchizedek. Such divine ancestry was clearly designed more to fortify his position of influence as a political force in China. It is not surprising that rival "kings" within the Taiping movement also began to claim special revelations from God. And again, the context of these claims is that literally tens of millions of people in China were looking to Hong to reform the nation. Many believed that the dynasties would change and wanted to be sure they were well secured within the new government.

Hong himself was not a good administrator and towards his latter years was given some support from within by Hong Rengan, who appears to have been more widely read in Christian literature and wished to introduce other useful Western ideas such as trains, clocks, steamships, and the like. But his intervention was too late to save the movement.

Many of the weaknesses of Taiping Christianity were the result of the poor influence of the Western missionaries. Basic terms were not explained and there was almost no understanding of the background from which Chinese audience would receive such concepts. Experienced teachers and a mature understanding of the scriptures were lacking.

Some missionaries were convinced that the movement was in effect preparing the Chinese soil for a widespread turning to the real gospel. In this context some missionaries did attempt to influence Hong. But again many of these efforts were hampered by personality differences; cultural misunderstanding and the fact that most missionaries first wanted to "correct" some notions. Many of the supposed errors of the Taipings were concepts that are difficult to support biblically. For example, the trinity doctrine and in particular the personality of the Holy Spirit were not accepted by the Taiping and for that reason it was often the first subject raised by Western missionaries. In many ways had there been appropriately trained representatives of those from the Sabbatarian traditions, there may have been a better chance that Taiping Christianity would have developed. Instead, distrust and misunderstanding lead to a breakdown in real communicaion.

What Might Have Happened?

This is an intriguing question. If we think of the progress which the Taipings made in their understanding of the God of the Bible and His ways in a short space of time, with an incomplete and poorly translated Bible, we can only wonder. The religious core of the early movement was, it seems, searching for the God who is ever willing to reveal himself those who diligently seek Him [Hebrews 11:6]. Who are we to judge whether they served the true God, who truly knows his own? For all of us our knowledge is partial - incomplete - the important thing is to follow up on what we know.

There are two sad lessons, of course, in the story. The first is that having set out with such vigour to draw near to God and to improve the lot of their country, the Taiping leadership appears to have been caught up in the politics of the world, which for some then became an end in itself. The potential for power may have meant that the quest for truth came second. The other sad lesson is that those "Christian" nations and their religious establishments in objecting to Taiping Christianity cut off all help to a movement which if successful would have seen an entirely new form of Christianity. Had it been permitted to follow the patterns of the past with regard to the changing of dynasties, China would today be a Sabbath-keeping nation. And after one hundred years of Sabbath-keeping, where might that nation be today in its knowledge the Great God?

References and Reading

Clarke, P & Gregory, J Western Reports of the Taiping (Australian National University Press, 1982)

Lindley, A F, Ti Ping Tien-Kwoh (London 1866, New York 1970)

Michael, F The Taiping Rebellion in Historical Documents University of Washington Press, 1960), Volumes I, II, III.

Of interest is Hoeh, H L "The Dramatic Story of Chinese Sabbath Keepers" The Good News December 1955, pp 5-7.

A great young people's story on the Taiping movement is Rebels Of The Heavenly Kingdom by renowned children's author Katherine Paterson.

Further Research

Many further lines of further investigation are obvious. I should be grateful if any readers could help with any of the following:

Did any of the "God-Worshippers" survive in China after the Manchu victory?
What of the history of Sabbath-keepers in China at earlier periods?
What is the story of Sabbath-keepers in China today?

Leon J Lyell - PO Box 206, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia -- e-mail: l.lyell@latrobe.edu.au

TSS