In 1847, Hong Ren’gan was in Canton to meet missionary Issachar Roberts, together with Hong Xiuquan. Hong Ren‘gan was one of the Taiping leaders, but in 1851 his operations in Guangxi and Guizhou faced attacks of government troops. He was captured, escaped, and in April 1852, he fled to Hong Kong, where he met Theodore Hamberg. He was baptized in September 1853 by Hamberg, Thereafter, he preached, ministered, and baptized in Hong Kong’s clinics and prisons under the supervision of James Legge 理 after Hamberg’s death in 1854.
In 1858, Hong Ren’gan left Hong Kong and reached Nanjing (the “Heavenly Capital”) in April 1859, whereupon Hong Xiuquan made him Taiping generalissimo and prime minister. Hong Ren’gan hoped to substitute the violent spirituality of his cousin with Christ’s “merciful forgiveness.”
He advocated the Taiping’s economic development, rule of law, a British-style post office, cooperation with the Western nations in trade, technology, and industry, as expressed in his Zizheng Xinpian (资政新篇). However, the “Heavenly King” (Hong Xiuquan) rejected these reform proposals in the early 1860s.
As the Western powers more and more supplied the Manchu government with mercenaries and weapons, Nanjing fell (1864), and Hong Ren’gan fled. He was captured and executed on 23 November 1864. Lit.: Teng Ssu-yu, “Hung Jen-kan, Prime Minister of the Taiping Kingdom and His Modernization Plans”, United College Journal (Hong Kong), (1970-1971), pp. 87-95.
脚注
See also: Hong Xiuquan
资料来源
Taken with permission from:
Leopold Leeb, "Christians Born Before 1830: Pioneers and Partners of Foreign Missionaries in the Coastal Areas, Courageous Witnesses in the Hinterland," in Dictionary of the History of Christianity in China, ed. Wojciech Rybka, Piotr Adamek, and Sonja Meiting Huang (Fu Jen University Press: Taipei, Taiwan, 2024), 57.
