Saturating the Movement: God Gets Power

Abstract

Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan arrived in east-central Guangxi in 1844, and the fortunes of their ideas began to change very rapidly in the new conditions there. Hong wandered back to his home county in 1845; there was nothing yet to hold him in Guangxi. During this period he also spent a brief spell in Canton with the Southern Baptist missionary Issachar Roberts, who refused to baptize him (Hamberg, 1854:32). Feng, however, settled at Thistle Mountain, preaching Hong’s doctrine with remarkable success. When Hong returned to the area in 1847, he must have been astonished to find a large and increasingly bold following of God Worshipers. The numbers of converts grew at an astonishing rate, clearly reaching 2,000 or 3,000 followers in 1848, and perhaps 10,000 by the time of the first armed camp at Jintian in 1850.