In his BBC series, The Story of China, Michael Wood discusses China's history from the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) all the way until the modern day. In episode 6/6 The Age of Revolution, Wood picks up from the previous episode in the 1830's around the time of the First Opium War.
Wood talks about a "chance meeting" between an American christian missionary, Reverend Edwin Stevens & Hong Xiuquan a student at the time. Wood then discusses the words that essentially radicalises Hong:
Follow the Christian God & you will reach the highest glory.
Wood then goes on to say that Stevens gives Hong one of his pamphlets which discusses Christianity. Within the pamphlet, is the story of Noah's ark. Wood states that the chinese word "hong" means "the flood". Wood then states that Hong goes on to believe he is "God's Chinese son". It's this encounter Wood implies his the reasoning behind Hong's Taiping Rebellion (1850 - 1864).
Wood talks about how the British defeated the Chinese in the First Opium War (1839 - 1842) which in the Treaty of Nanking gave the British control over Hong Kong as well as how after defeat, the Qing government gave way to British influence. Wood talks about how Hong Xiuquan became obsessed with the bible especially the teachings of Prophet Isaiah:
"Your country is desolate, strangers are devouring your land before your eyes. Why be downtrodden anymore? Rise up and Revolt" ~ Book of Isaiah 1:7
Wood then talks about how Hong persuaded people that the Qing rulers were oppressive & revolution was the only option. Wood states that Hong wanted to create a "heaven on earth" by overthrowing the Qing, where society lived in harmony, where justice was for the poor too.
The way in which Wood talks about Hong's motives for rebellion makes it sound as if Hong was an early adopter of communist thought in China. This is backed up the fact that Marx & Engels Communist Manifesto was written in 1848, two years before Hong's rebellion (as well as the fact that another similar chinese revolution occurred in 1899, the Boxer Rebellion & revolutionaries like Qiu Jin were spreading their beliefs) reassuring me that labelling Hong's thought process "communist" is acceptable. So really my question is this, keeping everything mentioned above in mind, Could we say that the Communist movement in China started with Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Rebellion in 1850 with communist thought being consolidated 49 years later with the Boxer Rebellion, instead of the traditional view of the movement starting with the Chinese Civil War (1927-1936, 1946-1950) and consolidation of communist thought occurring in 1949.
Is my thought process completely crazy? Or do some historians share my thought process?
Completely crazy. Marxism was pretty alien to China until after the Russian Revolution. The CCP wasn't even founded until 1921.
The rebellions and revolutions you mentioned have their own, Chinese historical context which can be traced back to at least the 18th century White Lotus Rebellions at the end of the Qianlong reign. That is, needless to say, well before Marx.
If you want to understand Chinese 19th century rebellions the place to start is Philip Kuhn's (sadly just died) Rebellion and its Enemies. You can also read Jonathan Spence's The Kingdom of Heavenly Peace.