China was going through a civil war about the same time America was

[NNN0LHI]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion

Taiping Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty. About 20 million people died, mainly civilians, in one of the deadliest military conflicts in history.

Hong established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with its capital at Nanjing. The Kingdom's army controlled large parts of southern China, at its height containing about 30 million people.[citation needed] The rebels attempted social reforms believing in shared "property in common" and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion with a form of Christianity. The Taiping troops were nicknamed "Longhairs" (simplified Chinese: 长毛; traditional Chinese: 長毛; pinyin: Chángmáo) by the Qing government. The Taiping areas were besieged by Qing forces throughout most of the rebellion. The Qing government crushed the rebellion with the eventual aid of French and British forces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Heavenly_Kingdom

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Chinese: 太平囯,1 pinyin: Tàipíng Tiānguó; Hakka: Thai-phìn Thiên-koet, lit. "Great Peaceful Kingdom of Heaven" or "Heavenly Kingdom&quot was an oppositional state in China from 1851 to 1864, established by Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864). Its capital was at Tianjing (京, Wade-Giles: Tienching, "Heavenly Capital&quot , present-day Nanjing.

A heterodox Christian convert, Hong led an army that controlled much of southern China, with about 30 million people. The rebel Kingdom announced social reforms and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion by a form of Christianity, holding that Hong Xiuquan was the younger brother of Jesus. The Taiping areas were besieged by Qing forces throughout most of the rebellion. The Qing government defeated the rebellion with the eventual aid of French and British forces. The conflict was one of the deadliest wars in history, with about 25 million killed, mainly civilians.

Origins of the Rebellion

In the mid-19th century, China under the Qing Dynasty suffered a series of natural disasters, economic problems, and defeats at the hands of the Western powers, in particular, the humiliating defeat in 1842 by the United Kingdom in the First Opium War. The Qing, ethnically Manchu, were seen by much of the Chinese population, majority Han, as ineffective and corrupt foreign rulers. Anti-Manchu sentiment was strongest in the south among the laboring classes, and it was these disaffected who flocked to join the charismatic visionary Hong Xiuquan.

After Hong failed to pass the examinations that would make him one of the elite, he studied the Bible with the help of a Protestant missionary. One day he claimed to have had a vision to the effect that he was the younger brother of Jesus. After his vision, he felt it was his duty to spread Christianity and overthrow the foreign rule of the Qing. Hong's associate Yang Xiuqing was a former firewood salesman of Guangxi, who claimed to be able to act as a voice of God to direct the people and gain political power.

Hong's religion

According to an assessment in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Hong's Christian ideology was largely concerned with the suppression of vices, as formulated in the Old Testament, and ignored "New Testament ideas of humility and kindness", as well as "the Christian ideas of original sin and redemption."

[The Magistrate]

1. That was One Hell Of An Episode, Sir

If you want to follow it further, allow me to suggest 'God's Chinese Son' by Mr. Jonathan Spence.

From some angles, it was a more lethal passage than even the Second World War, as the carnage matches against a smaller population, both in the world and in China.

Western aid, while a factor, was hardly the principal tool by which the Tai-Ping movement was suppressed. Chinese forces (as opposed to Q'ing Manchu forces), raised by provincial officials, did most of the work. These were the foundation of the 'self-strengthening' movement, and form the true root of what became the Chinese armies in the revolutionary period early in the twentieth century.