Sabbath and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

But the question naturally arises: How came they [the Taipings] to adopt the seventh day of the week instead of the first, as their Sabbath, since all their instruction from Christians was by those who taught that the first day is the Sabbath? This was a mystery to all who learned of that fact. But when they took Nan-King [Nanjing], and Europeans had opportunity to visit them, they were told that it was first, because the Bible taught it, and second, because their ancestors observed it as a day of worship. 

Lewis, Abram Herbert, A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday in the Christian Church, Alfred Centre, N. Y.: The American Sabbath Tract Society, 1886, p. 247.