The moment
Hong Xiuquan, a failed examination candidate, read a Christian tract and concluded that visions he had seen were of God and Jesus, and that he was Jesus's younger brother sent to rid China of demons. In 1851 his God Worshippers proclaimed the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace; they took Nanjing in 1853 and held it until 1864. The war killed an estimated twenty million people.
People: Hong Xiuquan, Zeng Guofan