I, Hong Xiuquan, do set down this account so that all generations may know of the visions granted to me by our Heavenly Father. It began when I fell into a fever that lasted forty days — or rather, it was not a fever, but a transportation of my spirit.

I was carried into Heaven itself. There I beheld a venerable man seated upon a golden throne, his beard flowing like a river of light. Beside him stood an elder brother. They spoke to me.

'The world is corrupted by demons,' the Heavenly Father said. 'My son has already been to the mortal realm — they called him Jesus. Now I send you, my second son, to complete the work. Slay the demons. Establish the Heavenly Kingdom.'

When I awoke from my vision, I understood my mission. The Manchu Qing dynasty, the Confucian temples, the Buddhist idols — these were the demons. And I would bring them down.

Thus began the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the bloodiest civil war in human history. But that is a story for another chapter.