The deadliest civil war ever was fought over one man's claim to be Jesus's brother

Hong Xiuquan, a failed civil-service candidate, declared himself the younger brother of Jesus Christ after a fever dream and built a rebel state that ruled tens of millions of people across southern China. The Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty ran from 1850 to 1864 and killed an estimated 20 to 30 million people, making it the deadliest civil war ever recorded.

— Stephen R. Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War — Alfred A. Knopf, 2012
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