Taiping Tianguo guy had same name as Jesus?

[82riceballs]

According to my history teacher, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion had the same name as Jesus in Chinese. Is this true?

I was pretty skeptical, so I looked him up on Wikipedia and found out that his name is "Hong Xiuquan," whereas Jesus is referred to as "Yesu Jidu" in Mandarin--they sound nothing alike!

In fact, I read that he believed he was the brother of Jesus, not that he had the same name as Jesus. Did he speak a different Chinese dialect where his and Jesus' names sounded alike? or is my history teacher wrong?

[Long Zhiren]

Hong Qiuquan believed he was the Son of God.

That would be an identical title, but not necessarily an identical name.

[82riceballs]

Thanks!

I know that he considered himself the Son of God, but was it because his Chinese name sounded like the Chinese word for Jesus as my teacher claims?

[Long Zhiren]

Jesus had lots of names like Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, Prince of Peace, Immanuel, Lord, Savior, and Son of God.

The last one would be an identical equivalent.

We'd have to hear what exactly the teacher was talking about.

Jesus Christ (or Yesu Jidu) is a transliteration from Y'shua ha Mashiyach (Y'shua is the Messiah), which also sounds nothing like "Jesus Christ" but is the same name. Y'shua means "YHWH rescues." "YHWH" is considered unspeakable. Some would say "Adonai rescues."

Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全 means something very different.

[82riceballs]

So I'm guessing none of the ways to say "Jesus" in Chinese sound like Hong Xiuquan, right?

(My teacher doesn't speak Chinese, so often gets things like Huang He and Zheng He confused ...so I'm pretty sure this is another thing he got wrong)

[Lu]

I'm guessing none of the ways to say "Jesus" in Chinese sound like Hong Xiuquan, right?

No. Not that I ever heard of. Read the Spence book on Hong Xiuquan and his Taiping and don't recall this ever being mentioned. Looks like your teacher mixed things up.

[lightyears]

he just want a name to call the people follow him,something like "in the name of god,push forward"

actually he was going to create a new religion,indeed it's related to Jesus (in Chinese called Shangdi--means a prime govener in the heaven),his religion's name is "bow before the god"

[whitekblackq]

Looks like you really want to show up your history teacher! I wouldn't be too harsh on him/her...he doesn't speak the Chinese language and it doesn't sound like he/her is that good or very culturally sensitive. But that does not mean that you can't be!!

[82riceballs]

OK, thanks for everything, guys!

[thrashaolin]

He thought to be jesus' brother because in one of his visions jesus called him "brother". but he didn't know who was him(jesus),he discovered who he really was after reading a book about christianism where the iconography of christ coincided with the man of the vision.

(i hope you understand my tarzanian englishXD)

[Magnus1977]

I've been to Nanjing where the Hong Xiuquan guy was enthroned as the emporer or whatever he was. The heavenly kingdom. Kind of Crazy. at the palace you can see an actual bible that he had but according to my wife he added a bunch of stuff. Crazy.

[trien27]

The word Christ is from Greek, not Hebrew.

Excerpt from Wikipedia on Hong Xiuquan.

On his visit to Guangzhou to take the civil service examinations in 1836, Hong heard a Christian missionary preaching about the religion. While there he received translations and summaries of the Bible written by the Christian missionary Liang Fa. The following year Hong failed the examinations again and apparently suffered a nervous collapse. During his recovery in 1837 he had a number of mystical visions. One involved an old man who complained to Hong about men worshiping demons rather than him. In a second one he saw Confucius being punished for his faithlessness, after which he repented. In yet another he dreamed angels carried him to heaven where he met a man in a black dragon robe with a long golden beard who gave him a sword and a magic seal, and told him to purify China of the demons. Several years later he would interpret this to mean that God the Heavenly Father, whom he identified with Shangdi from the Chinese tradition, and his older brother, Jesus Christ, wanted him to rid the world of demon worship.[2] His friends and family said that after this episode he became authoritative and solemn.