God's Chinese Son

God's Chinese Son came highly recommended to me, and I can't quite decide if it truly measures up to those praises. On the one hand, going into this, I knew almost nothing about the Taiping Rebellion, or Hong Xiuquan, the man who led it. From that perspective, this is a success, in that I'm conversant in what happened. But I don't feel that Spence did a great job placing the rebellion in context, or revealing its scope, or the long-lasting effects; it almost feels like my copy has lacunae of several chapters. I will praise Spence strongly for his placement of one chapter, though -- just as I was wondering "what do the Westerners in China, especially the missionaries and representatives of foreign governments, think of Hong Xiuquan's pecular brand of Christianity?" Immediately after thinking this, I turned the page to a chapter devoted to answering that question.

Not that this was an easy job for Spence; the tenth chapter, "Earth War" begins as follows:

There is no precise moment at which we can say the Taiping move from tension with the Qing state to open confrontation, but clearly in 1850 their provocations mount steadily until war becomes inevitable.

This is then followed by a litany of potential military moves: Hong Xiuquan wearing imperial yellow, instructions from Jesus to fight, the assembling and arming of troops, the posting of sentries, the lighting of signal fires, et cetera, before initial armed conflict begins, and Hong Xiuquan proclaims the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The chapters that follow trace out the rebellion (some historians prefer to use "civil war") more or less chronologically, with the occasional stopping/retracing of steps to more fully flesh out another figure (such as the "East King", Yang Xiuqing, who was alleged to speak with the voice of God). Notes are extensive, although more often than not, they just point to a source and do not elaborate on the point. Mildly unfortunate.

While I feel that this is occasionally missing something (not context, but maybe a bigger picture), this is something I would strongly recommend.