Taiping Rebellion Poem: Kill the Vicious and Keep the Righteous Poem

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .
手握乾坤殺伐權,
斬邪留正解民懸。
眼通西北江山外,
聲振東南日月邊。
璽劍光榮存帝賜,
詩章憑據誦爺前,
太平一統光世界,
威風快樂萬千年。
universe in my hand, kill off those in power
chop off the evil, save the good and people's law
my eyes see beyond the mountains and rivers
my voice shocks the sun and moon
The glorious sword of authority was given me by Lord,
Poems and scriptures are evidences that praise Yahweh in front of Him.
Taiping unifies and brightens the world
the heroism and joy be for a million years
(translation by Xah Lee)

The following is a alternative translation from Wikipedia.

Holding the Universe in the hand,
I slay the attacking powers.
Eyes can see through beyond the west, the north, the rivers, and the mountains,
Sounds can shake the east, the south, the Sun, and the Moon.
The glorious sword of authority was given by Lord,
Poems and books are evidences that praise Yahweh in front of Him.
Taiping [perfect Peace] unifies the World of Light,
The domineering air will be joyous for myriads of thousand years.

Note, the 爺 in the poem is short for 爺火華, which is the old translation of Jehovah. (Jehovah is God's name, יְהוָֹה) Today, Jehovah in Chinese is transliterated as 耶和華 (Ye1-he2-hua2). Note that in modern bibles, the name of God have been done away with, and God is simply referred to as God (神) or Lord (主).

This pome is The Poem on Executing the Vicious and Preserving the Righteous (斬邪留正詩), written in 1837 by Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全), who claimed to be the brother of Jesus and established the cult Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping (太平天國). This cult caused 20 million deaths. For context, WWII killed 55 million, and the Annihilation of American Indian is about 20 million. (all estimates are low estimates.)