The Taiping Rebellion

How does a private humiliation become a mass movement — and when does religious hope turn into total war?

7 episodes

The Taiping Rebellion

A 19th century imperial examination hall in Guangzhou: thousands of tiny cubicles in endless rows, candidates hunched over papers by candlelight, an oppressive sense of scale and pressure

Portrait-style painting of Hong Xiuquan in his Heavenly King robes: yellow dragon robes, intense dark eyes, surrounded by symbols mixing Chinese imperial iconography with crosses

A dramatic painted scene of Hong's fever dream: a young man lying on a bed surrounded by family, while above him in clouds a bearded old man and a middle-aged man in robes look down — Chinese-Christian visual fusion

The Taiping army on the march along the Yangtze: long-haired soldiers in red turbans (no Manchu queue), banners with Chinese characters, a vast column stretching to the horizon, riverboats accompanying them

Nanjing's massive Ming-era city walls under siege: smoke, scaling ladders, cannon fire, the scale of the fortifications dwarfing the human figures

Interior of the Heavenly King's palace in Nanjing: opulent thrones, yellow silk, calligraphic banners with Taiping scripture, an unsettling mix of imperial Chinese and pseudo-Christian symbols

Episodes

The Man Who Would Be Jesus's Brother

The Heavenly Kingdom Marches North

Paradise Eats Itself

The Scholar Who Saved the Empire

The Foreigners Pick a Side

The Heavenly Capital Falls

The Wound That Never Healed