Tiny Insect

Mark Chapman
  • 5.0 (8)
  • History

A history podcast covering the making of our modern world from 1206-1914. The first season will look at the Taiping Civil War, the largest civil war in history, in which Jesus’ younger brother tries to overthrow the largest empire on earth.

  1. May 3

    Episode 1.24 - Exodxu

    “My hand grasps the killing power in Heaven and earth; To behead the devil ones, spare the just, and ease the people’s sorrow.” – Hong Xiuquan Hong Xiuquan and the leaders of the Taiping must have known there was no going back, even if they wanted to. They had crushed an imperial force at the Battle of Jintian, killing Qing magistrates and officers. Now they prepared to face the consequences. At the beginning of 1851 the Taiping had maybe thirty thousand lightly armed fighters standing against a giant empire, ruled by a dynasty which claimed dominion over more than four hundred million people. But they were running low on food. Hong and the to Taiping commanders knew that Thistle Mountain was not the place to found their Heavenly Kingdom. It was a rural backwater, not the capital of a newly restored Heavenly China. Hong decided it was time to leave Thistle Mountain for good. He told his followers they would be abandoning their homes and likely any hope of returning there soon. They were leaving to find a majestic Earthly Paradise. Anything of value they could not take with them was burned. The exodus had begun. The Taiping would march for close to two years, from exhilarating victory to tragic defeat, through rugged, inhospitable mountains and through some of the richest farmland in the world. Until they arrived at their ultimate destination: the ancient capital of Nanjing.

    31 min

  2. 12/22/2025

    1.23 - The Taiping Heavenly Family

    Painting of a wealthy Qing family. Integrating tens of thousands of new adherents, while planning and launching an insurrection against the Qing, put strain on Taiping society and pushed them to reorganize their society in novel ways. In this episode we’ll look at how the Taiping navigated these challenges in the lead up to their first battles with the Qing government and declaration of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The shape into which Taiping society formed was mediated by their cultural expectations and mores, by what they read in the Bible, and by the idiosyncrasies of Hong Xiuquan himself.

    32 min

  3. 07/20/2025

    Episode 1.22 - Long Live the Heavenly King

    In 1850, Guangxi was wracked by all kinds of social maladies and natural disasters – corrupt officials, disease and epidemics, ethnic conflict, drought, and all kinds of organized and less organized crime. In this tempest the Society of God Worshipers grew stronger than ever and transformed into an insurrectionist, revolutionary movement, The Taiping Tianguo, the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace, with Hong Xiuquan as it’s Heavenly King. In this episode, things finally boil over and the Heavenly Kingdom is finally declared after the God Worshipers & Qing soldiers come to blows.

    25 min

  4. 01/19/2025

    Episode 1.21 - The Emperor Is Dead

    The Xianfeng Emperor, showing off a set of his yellow imperial robes. The Daoguang Emperor died in 1850. He has been the Qing Emperor for the past dozen episodes and his actions (or lack thereof) helped set the stage for the cataclysmic decade that will be the 1850s. But he didn’t live to see it. Instead, the Qing Empire was left to his teenage son. In this episode, we’ll take a look at the state of the Qing Empire and see how global forces combined with poor imperial policies to create the massive financial crisis and economic depression that beset China during the 1840’s.

    21 min

  5. 09/29/2024

    Episode 1.20 - The Voice of God

    God doesn’t speak to just anyone. Communicating with the divine is mediated by clerics, sacred texts, by long and complicated rituals. Many traditions, such as Christianity, put a special emphasis on the written word, recordings of revelations from prophets, aeons, or the divine itself. So what happens when God talks to someone who isn’t “supposed” to hear him? What distinguishes new divine revelation from blasphemy? How can you be sure it’s God speaking and not a devil or demon? Not a charlatan faking a religious experience for their own ends? The emergence of new divine revelation that challenges or reinterprets the existing theology has happened in many traditions. In this episode we’re going to begin the story of how the God Worshipers – and then the Taiping – handled it when God began speaking regularly at Thistle Mountain.

    35 min

  6. 05/25/2024

    Episode 1.19 - Radicalization

    (Painting of the missionary Robert Morrison, who was successful and popular enough to have his portrait painted. The same can not be said for Issachar Roberts). On the surface, Hong Xiuquan’s life in 1845 and 1846 was unremarkable. He was in his early thirties, married with young children. His job as a school teacher had been secured through a mix of qualifications & family connections. And then 1847 happened. By the beginning of 1848 Hong was a wanted man, actively leading a growing & radical religious community and writing about his intentions to assume imperial power over the largest empire on earth. So what the hell happened in 1847? That’s the question this episode attempts to answer.

    37 min

  7. 02/26/2024

    Episode 1.18 - The Taiping Testament

    Taiping church service, around 1860. While Feng Yunshan was building up the God Worshipers in Guangxi Province in 1845 and 1846, Hong Xiuquan living was back in his hometown of Guanlubu, Guangdong province working as a school teacher. He also spent his time elaborating on the nature of God, his relationship to humankind, and how the Chinese people had been deceived by demons and spirits. These writings were later collected into the “Taiping Testament”. In this episode we’re going to explore the Testament and see how it laid the foundation for what will become the Taiping political project, which resulted in a full insurrection against the ruling Qing dynasty a few years later.

    31 min

  8. 12/10/2023

    1.17 - The Society of God Worshipers

    This is a statue of a deity in Fujian province, with offerings placed in front of it. Feng Yunshan preached and spread Shangdi’s good word. For nearly 3 years, he worked tirelessly to grow the movement that worshiped God and recognized Hong Xiuquan as Jesus’ younger brother. In this episode we’re going to learn what worshipping Shangdi meant, how it related to other practices in the area, and see increasingly violent iconoclasm that will help lead to full scale insurrection and the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

    37 min
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About

A history podcast covering the making of our modern world from 1206-1914. The first season will look at the Taiping Civil War, the largest civil war in history, in which Jesus’ younger brother tries to overthrow the largest empire on earth.

Information

  • Creator
    Mark Chapman
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Tiny Insect