The Taiping Rebellion

1850–1864 CE — East Asia, Qing China

Today: Southern China (capital at Nanjing)

Hong Xiuquan failed the imperial examination four times. After the last failure he had a breakdown, and later read a Christian tract that convinced him the visions he had experienced meant he was Jesus Christ's younger brother, sent to destroy the demons — by which he meant the Qing dynasty. He raised an army of the poor, the displaced, and other failed candidates, took a third of China, held Nanjing for eleven years, and abolished private property, foot-binding, and opium. The war to suppress him killed somewhere between twenty and thirty million people, more than the First World War, and left the Qing hollow.

Worth knowing: The deadliest civil war in human history began with a provincial exam. Hong sat it four times, failed four times, and the collapse that followed his last attempt convinced him he was the son of God — an examination system's rejection letter, cashed out as twenty million dead.

Pattern: Elite overproduction — More aspirants to elite positions are produced than there are seats; surplus elites turn to factional conflict.

Entry 191 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.