THE REBEL EMPEROR (352 pp.)Flavia AndersonDoubledoy ($4.95).
Hung Hsiu-ch'uan was a kind of Chinese John Brown, a religious zealot who saw his rebellion succeedfor a time. A poor provincial schoolteacher, he rose to lead the Taiping Rebellion, which ravaged China between 1851 and 1864, and cost the lives of an estimated 20 million people. Since Hung was a professing if distinctly unorthodox Christian, who ruled some 30 million subjects at the peak of his power, he has left behind him one of the most tantalizing ifs in history: If he had toppled the Manchu...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
