I GIFT QF HORACE W. CARPENTIER • LIFE OP T A IP I N G-¥ A N G Cfeuf 0f % (Kfeintse |nsurnrii0n. BY J. MILTON MACKIE, AUTHOR or "COSAS DK ESPANA," " LIFK OF SCHAMYL," KTC. .>. ' ■> ' « <» • *' There ia no god bat Qod ; and Tai-ping-wang is the younger brother of Jesus." NEW YORK: DIX, EDWARDS & CO., 321 BROADWAY. 1857. D5 740 rARPENTfcn Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by DIX, EDWARDS Sc CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United State* for the Southern District of New York. ::: V:M•^.:l\ MILLER A HOLMAN, Printers & Stereotypers, N. Y. PREFACE. The facta contained in this volume have been derived principally from the English journals published in China, and the official Peking gazette ; from the communications of missionaries, both Protestant and Roman Catholic ; from the correspondence of Mr. "H. Marshall, Commissioner of the United States to China, pub- lished in Ex. Doc, No. 123 ; from a collection of the proclamations of the insurgents, translated by Mr. W. H. Medhurst, sen. ; and from a pamphlet on the visions of Hung-Siu-tshuen, by Theodore Hambcrg, missionary of the Basle Evangelical Society, to which this work is indebted, also, for translations of several of Tai-ping- wang's poems. f The Roman Catholic authorities on this subject, at least, the re- ligious part of it, are to be accepted with a certain degree of cau- tion, inasmuch as the Nanking insurgents have derived their knowledge of Christianity exclusively from Protestant sources; and the same stipulation most be made respecting the statements iy|86281 VI PREFACE. yof many public journals, both in and out of China, from the fact that the foreign commercial and diplomatic interests, though ostensibly neutral, have a decided bias in favor of the imperial government, and against the party of the reformers, who, besides having caused considerable temporary interruption to trade, threaten to break up, ultimately, the whole system of opium-smuggling. , CONTENTS. PAQB I. Introdaclion 1 II. He is born, and called Fhuh 7 III. Is sent to the school of master Ting-Jin 11 IV. Ooes into white on the death of his mother 15 V. Studies the horn- t>ook of WangPihau ...... 20 VI. Works in the paddy-field, and tends buffaloes .... 24 VII. Takes the name of •' Elegant and Perfect," and goes to a rhetori- cian 28 VIII. Attends the examinations for literary degrees in Canton - • 32 IX. Becomes a schoolmaster, and denies the Dragon of the Eastern Sea 38 VUl CONTENTS. PAGX X. Buys a wife 44 XI. Becomes a Confucian philosopher 52 XII. Consults a fortune-tellor, and meets with the Evangelist, Liang Afah 61 XIII. Falls ill, and is treated by Doctors Ki-hi, Vang-sou, and Tchong- king-ho 66 XIV. Is taken up to heaven in a trance 79 XV. Is delirious, and chases demons through the earth - • - 89 XVI. Reads the tractjs of Liang Afah, and baptizes himself - - - 95 XVII. Makes proselytes, and orders a sword 100 XVill. Goes to the mountains of Kwang si 106 XIX. Writes rchgious essays and poems 114 XX. Visits an American missionary in Canton 122 XXI. Makes another journey to Kwang-si 126 XXII. Establishes a form of worship 130 XXIII. Pestroys the image of Kan-wangye 134 CONTENTS. IX PAOI XXIV. Suffers persocation, and goee home • 138 XXV. Preaches in the fields I44 XXVI. y Qirds on his sword, and returns to Kwang-si • • • • 149 XXVII. Foretells the insurrection I54 XXVIII. Unfolds the standard of revolt 158 XXIX. Is opposed by the generals of Hien fung 162 zxx. Claims to be inspired, and aided by heaven 169 XXXI. The exploits of the viceroy, Siu-Kwong-tsin 176 XXXII. The army and court of the Taiping dynasty • • • • 186 XXXIII. The pretended confessions of Tienteh 192 XXXIV. The descent of the Heavenly Father 198 XXXV. Schemes of the currency doctors 90tf XXXVI. He marches northward 212 XXXVII. Descent of the Yang-tszekiang 220 XXXVIII. Nanking 226 X CONTENTS. PAGE XXXIX. The Porcelain Tower 232 XLI. Expedition against Peking 237 XLI. The deeds of Heangyung and Ke-8hen 243 XLII. •"The Tai-ping theocracy 250 XLIII. ■^^,^0 Insurgent Creed 256 XLIV. v/l'he new CelesUal State 263 XLV. Intercourse with foreign nations ....-.- 268 XLVI. Probable iasue of the insuiTection 274 Appendix 277 "I felicitate myself," says Tien-Ke-shih, " that I was born in China; and constantly think how very different it would have been with me, if bom beyond the seas, in some remote part of the earth, where the people, deprived of the converting maxims of the ancient kings, and ignorant of the domestic relations, are clothed with the leaves of plants, eat wood, dwell in the wilderness, and live in the holes of the earth. Though living in this world, in such a condition, I should not have been different from the beasts of the field. But now, happily, 1 have been bom in the ' cen- tral flowery kingdom.' I have a house to live in ; have food, tea, and elegant furniture; clothing, caps, and infinite blessings. Truly, the highest felicity is mine !" TAI-PING-WANG. INTRODUCTION. During the last half-a-dozen years there has been taking place in China one of the most important re- volutions which has occurred in recent times. In it are involved, to a certain degree, the destinies of about three hundred millions of souls, or one-third of the human family. The oldest form of civilization on the face of the earth, whence came originally the inventions of the mariner's compass, and of gunpow- der, the arts of printing, and of engraving, the manu- facture of silk, paper, and porcelain, is, in its turn, passing through one of those troublous periods of transition which seem to be the method of Divine Providence for improving the condition of man- kind. The causes of this movement are of the gravest 1 XAO- 2 TAI-PING-WANG. character ; for they are to be found in the mutual hatred of the Chinese and Tartar races, in the ineffi- ciency of the government, in the corrupt and oppress- ive practices of the mandarins, and in the contempt entertained by the people for both their rulers and their gods. To this state of popular feeling the late \yar with England has not a little contributed ; for It dcin'OrisjLr§,tQ(J, in the eyes of all intelligent China- cmeijj.the inferiority of their civilization ; while time, jw{tk.its;ex.pei:ici'cp>3 and observations, aided by the circulation of Christian books and the teaching of Christian missionaries, has sufficed to convince many of them, at last, of the folly of their idolatry. Since its establishment, the empire of the "central- flowery land," which appears to us occidentals to stand in such stately repose — a reign of perpetual peace — an example of ever-duriug immobility — has experienced no less than twenty-six changes of dy- nasty ; but these have generally been attended with no great modifications of the system of either govern- ment or religion. Thus, the Manchu-Tartars, who have held the throne of the *' celestials" during the last couple of centuries, made no alterations, on their accession to power, beyond seizing upon all the high offices of state, and compelling the conquered to adopt their style of tunic, open at the side, and their shaven brows and hair braided in a tail. INTRODUCTION. 3 The revolution now in progress, however, contem- plates more radical changes. It is the advent, not so much of a new style of dress, and of wearing the hair, as of new ideas. It is not only a revolution, but a reformation. It has thrown ten thousand idols into the waters of the Yang-tsze-kiang, and pro- claimed the doctrine that God is one. It demands the disuse of that fatal drug which is drying up the energies of the entire nation ; teaches temperance and morality ; and introduces the observ^ance of a Sabbath, and the institution of public worship. The religion of these iconoclasts is, indeed, far from being pure Christianity. But it is a step to- wards it. In fact, during the entire history of the human race, very few nations have, at one single stride, made greater changes in their religious sys- tem than are now being made by the Chinese ; and it cannot be otherwise than that the ideas, however imperfect, of Christianity introduced by the insur- gents, will eventually produce a great and permanent iTect upon the national mind. For it is in the nature of the sacred truths of which the millions of China are now getting sight, though as in a glass darkly, to shine brighter and brighter unto the per- fect day. Their images of idols, thousands upon tdousands, have floated down the Yang-tsze-kiang to the sea ; and no refluent tide will ever bring them 4 TAI-PING-WANG. back to the shrines where is now worshiped the one true God.* It is, indeed, within the reach of Christian hopes, that nations will hereafter be converted from their errors in a day; but, thus far in the history of our religion, such conversions have always left a good deal of work to be done on the morrow. The pro- selytes made by the decrees of Constantine, and the German hordes baptized by order of Charlemagne, were an approximation to the ** perfect man" of the New Testament, probably not many degrees nearer than the God-worshipers of Tai-ping-wang. The inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, though they have been for a long time converted from idolatry, have not even yet been saved from the vices intro- duced, in part, along with Christianity. So that, if the Chinese insurgents still continue that practice of polygamy, which is as old, in all eastern countries, as the days of Abraham ; if they have been prodigal of human life on their march to empire, as have been all the great conquerors in the Orient, not excepting those of times the most recent ; if, while they prac- tice the rite of baptism, they appear to confound it, in a measure, with common ablution, and offer up with their prayers to God sacrifices of tea and rice, * See Note A, Appendix. INTRODUCTION. 5 roasted pigs and oxen ; it should be remembered that in the religious progress of nations, as well as of individuals, we are not at liberty to " despise the day of small things." As for the acts of barbarity laid to the charge of the insurrection — and many of them truly — it will be time enough to throw the first stone at these God-worshipers, on that account, when the atroci- ties of the war between Protestants and Catholics, in the cruel days of Tilly, and the horrors of the Spanish inquisition, in those of the gentle-hearted Isabella, shall have been expunged from the history of Christianity. And if the insurgent chief has come, from having sincerely believed himself '* warned of God in a dream," and instructed by heavenly inti- mations, to make use of the pretense of inspiration for the purpose of controlling and urging on his fa- natical followers in a holy war against the idolaters and their prince, whosoever's memory reaches back as far as the illuminations of the camp of Cromwell, or even the fervors of the conventicles of the modern Quakers, will hesitate long before putting this extra- ordinary prophet-warrior out of the pale of Christian hopes and charity. Tai-ping-wang, it is important to be observed, however, has never had any connection with the rebel bands of whose atrocities at Canton, and 6 TAI-PING^-WANG. Shanghai, so much has recently been said in the public journals. These are either members of the Triad society — a secret organization, established seve- ral years ago with the design of overturning the imperial government — or adventurers associated to- gether for the purpose of taking advantage of the present disturbed state of affairs, to seize upon such towns and cities as might be unable to defend them- selves. Neither have embraced the religious views of the Nanking insurgents, and are, therefore, not acknowledged by the latter as brethren, or even allies. II. HE IS BORN, AND CALLED PHDH. Tai-pino-wang, known in China, previously to the insurrection, under the name of Hung-Siu- tshuen, was born in the year eighteen hundred and thirteen. The place of his birth is a small village in the district of Hwa-hien, and province of Kwang- tung. It is situated in a level, fertile, and very populous rice-growing region, having the White Cloud mountains, near Canton, on its southern horizon, and those of the Nan-ling range on the northern. Here the family of the Hungs has resided for about a century, it being a branch of a numerous clan of this name, now scattered over the north of Kwang-tungi and one or two other provinces ad- joining. From time immemorial, its members have belonged to the class of agriculturists, which, in China, takes rank next after that of the literati. Several of the immediate, as well as of the remote. 8 TAI-PING-WANG. ancestors of Siu-tshuen having been remarkable both for their virtues and their length of days, he may well be said to be of good blood. His father, Hung-Jang, w^ho died since the commencement of the insurrection, was a venerable old man, who, for many years, had been intrusted with the manage- ment of the ancestral estate of the Hung family, and had also held the office of senior of the village, con- ferred upon him by the free suffrages of its inhabij;- ants.* By his first wife, who was of the Choo tribe, Hung-Jang had two daughters and three sons, Siu- tshuen being the youngest. This name of Siu- tshuen, however, is what is called his " literary name," and was selected by himself after arriving at years of understanding. But at his birth hb father called him Phuh. The house in which Phuh first saw the light, stands in one of the back streets of the village. It is of one story, is built partly of wood and partly of mud, and is covered by a roof of tiles. A nar- row door opens from the street into a hall, which has a kitchen and several sleeping apartments on either side, and at the opposite end a family or sit- ting-room. The whole establishment is scarcely * Compare Hamberg's Pamphlet. HE IS BORN, AND CALLED PHUH. 9 more than thirty-five or forty feet in length, by twelve or fifteen in breadth. But here swarmed three generations of the Hungs, besides half-a-dozen idols, a buffalo, one or more pigs, a small stock of fowls, a couple of dogs, and a cat without a tail. The young Phuh, however, was by no means confined to these narrow quarters, but spent the greater portion of his early childhood on the mar- gin of a small pond or mud-hole, situated in front of the village, and fed by a considerable part of its drainage. This ill-scented spot being a play-ground for children, besides a resort for the ducks and geese, the dogs and beggars of the village, Phuh here developed his young muscles in childish sports, and learned such lessons as the rough-and-tumble with both boys and brutes could teach him. When about four years old, he having been acci- dentally pushed into the water beyond his depth, and being drawn out by one of the older lads by the queue, his father, from fear of similar accidents either at the pond or the neighboring canal, tied a hollow gourd behind his back, to prevent his being drown- ed. But when the little fellow made his appearance at the play-ground with an appendage so unusual in his native village, though common enough on the rivers, the boys set up a great shout, and so laughed over poor Phuh that he was fain to run 10 TAI-PING-WANG. for home as fast as his legs could carry him, while the whole posse of brats followed, crying, " Eh ! gourd boy — gourd boy!" As the child came blubbering into the presence of his father, the latter relieved his back of the gourd, but laid on in its stead the bamboo. This was Phuh's first whipping. He never forgot it, and said that it did him good — as was the case, in fact, with a great many similar ones afterwards. But though the rod was not spared, the father early set his heart upon his youngest-born son. The other boys were brought up to till the ground, but this one was destined, almost from the breast, to be a scholar. Having, it would seem, something like a presentiment of the future greatness of this child of his affections, Hung-Jang often said to his wife that the little Phuh would live to make their old age honorable ; and, fondly stroking the little fellow's queue, as he sat upon his knee, made his boast that it was a full inch longer than that of any boy of the same age in the village. III. HE IS SENT TO TEE SCHOOL OP MASTER TING-JIN. When Phuh reached the age of seven, he was sent | 5 to school. Up to that period the only lessons he had received were those of morality and good-behavior, given him by his parents, and more especially his mother, who was a worthy, kindly woman, and possessed of good common sense. Later in life, her son always spoke of her with the most profound respect, and traced back his earliest moral impres- sions to the prayers she taught him to repeat before the little idol in the hall of the house, and to the few simple maxims she made him commit to memory from the writings of Confucius. It was a great day for Phuh, when, having been thoroughly scrubbed, both himself, his breeches, and his tunic, and having had his queue neatly braided down his back by his mother, and tied with a new string, he was presented by his father before the pedagogue of the village, to be enrolled on his list of pupils. A contract was thereupon made between 12 TAI-PING-WANG. the parties, whereby the master of the rod was to give lessons by the year for a compensation consist- ing of two dollars in money, fifty pounds of rice, and of tea, salt, lard, and lamp-oil, each, one catty. He was also to supply the necessary paper, ink, and pencils — Phuh himself furnishing nothing but brains, and they quite empty. When these preliminary formalities had been settled, the son of Hung-Jang was written down a scholar. The teacher, Ting-Jin, by name, was a member of the lowest class of literati, called siu-tsai. Not having succeeded at an earlier period of life in obtain- ing official employment from the government, he had for years followed the profession of a pedagogue, and occupied the school-house situated in front of the village, at a little distance from the pond. He was now getting in years ; his queue was gray, a thing rarely seen in China; and he wore a pair of spectacles about the size of tea-cups, heavily framed with tortoise-shell, and firmly tied by strings behind his cerebellum. He was a kindly man, of unwearied patience, and of clear, though limited ideas. If sufficient time were allowed him, he never failed to teach his pupils much that they never could forget ; for he was as systematic in all things as he was slow. Whenever it was necessary, he did not hesi- tate to enforce the observance of even the minutest » > • J* ' ' ••••- .*.>. HE IS SENT TO THE SCHOOL, ETC. 13 rules of the school by a resort to the bamboo, a large number of which useful reeds, of different sizes, were duly arranged on the wall behind his elevated arm- chair. The very sight of these, as, for the first time, Phuh entered the school-room, made his legs tingle. A bamboo stool was assigned the new-comer, and he was directed to occupy a place at a small table around which several other lads were seated. This continued to be his post for three long years, during which he diligently learned the arts of reading, writing, and ciphering. His first studies were in the sounds of the Chinese characters, which he learned by repeating them in a quick, bold tone, after his master. After a time, he was put to copying these characters; and for this purpose, was supplied with a goose of porcelain, containing water, a cake of ink, a small black stone slab, a hair pencil, and paper made of either cotton, or the pith of the bamboo. By pouring a few drops of water on the slab, and then rubbing the cake in it, he formed his ink, as it was needed, and with his pencil copied the characters from slips placed beneath semi-transparent paper. To learn to write and pronounce the Chinese cor- rectly, requires several years of toil, even for a native ; and not until a good deal of progress has been made by the tyro in these preliminary pro- cesses is he taught the meaning of words. 14 TAI- PING- WANG. When Phuh was not engaged in writing,, he sat swinging himself backwards and forwards, and chanting lists of words with their various intonations. The same was done by the dozen or more pupils of whom the school consisted, so that the room was as noisy as ever was Babel. But Ting-Jin had an ear for every pupil, and great as was the din, he rarely failed of hearing and correcting the slightest inaccuracy of intonation or accent. Month in and month out, Phuh sat chanting on his stool, or copying over and over again the same hieroglyphics, or casting up accounts in his abacus or reckoning-case. Thus, at the end of three years of continual perseverance, he had made considerable progress in learning to read, write, and cipher ; he knew the points of the compass, and the order of the months ; he knew the names of many animals and other natural objects ; he had been well instructed in the moral duties of childhood ; had been thoroughly drilled in the divers forms of obeisance and salutation ; was become an expert in chin-chining the images of the gods, and the tablet of Confucius in the school-room; and though in these three years his back had not escaped the bamboo, he had suffered less from it than the majo- rity of his associates. IV. KB GOES INTO WHITE ON THE DEATH OF HIS MOTHER. About this time, the wife of Hung-Jang dying suddenly, Phuh was removed from school ; the red cord was taken out of his queue; and, instead of his blue cotton tunic, a white one was put on for mourning. Hung-Jang, who had been sincerely attached to his wife, showed his affection for her by scrupu- lously performing all the ceremonies usual after the death of a member of a family, and doing every- thing in his power to secure her happiness in the land of the genii. No sooner had the breath left her body than he closed her eyes, put in her mouth a small piece of silver, and going to the top of the house, made a considerable hole in the roof for her seven senses and three souls to escape through. The red lantern which hung suspended outside the house was exchanged for a white one, and a slip of paper, on which were written the name and age of the deceased, was posted up by the door. _.) 16 TAI-PING-WANG. The corpse having been duly laid out on the hall- floor in the best clothes of the departed, a Buddhist priest was sent for, who, on payment of a few cash^ prayed the one of the three souls, which was believed to be in purgatory, out of that place, and wrote a letter of recommendation which was sent through the fire to the rescued spirit, to enable it to gain admittance into the *' paradise of the west." The fortune-teller of the village, likewise, having been called in, was engaged to look out a propitious spot for the grave. By help of his compasses, and after the careful examination of different kinds of soil, in order to find a sufficiently dry one, this per- sonage selected a burial-place on a barren hill at no great distance from the village. The situation, as he averred, would be highly satisfactory to that one of the souls which was to dwell there, inasmuch as it would have from the eminence a pretty good view of all the water there was in the neighborhood, viz., the canal and the duck-pond.* The priest and the geomancer were satisfied with a few cash; but it cost the large sum of five or six dollars to purchase a coftin. This was of hard wood, nearly four inches in thickness. After the body had been placed in it, and covered with quick-lime, • Compare "Annals for the Propagation of the Faith." vol. xiii., p. 190. HE GOES INTO WHITE, ETC. 17 it was well plastered together and varnished, and was then allowed to remain in the hall three weeks and a day. During this time, the relatives of Hung- Jang frequently came to condole with him, and Phuh was sent around among them to solicit some substantial aid towards defraying the expenses of the funeral. The day of the interment at length arrived, it having been chosen because it was set down in the calendar as a lucky one. At an early hour, the rela- tives of the deceased assembled, by invitation, at the house of Hung- Jang, and all moved in proces- sion to the grave. The fortune-teller went before, and was followed by a band of music, consisting of a player on a bamboo flute and a beater of a gong, who together performed a death-march sufficiently mournful. At intervals, this discordant dirge was aided by the wailing of two or three hired mourners, and by the outcries of the bereaved children, Phuh especially being deeply affected on the occasion, although, up to that time, the delight of seeing himself in a white jacket had apparently gone far towards making up for the loss of his mother. Some person having been sent forward to scatter so-called paper money in the way, in order to satisfy the needs of all evil spirits who might happen to be in the neighborhood, and all hungry ghosts also having 18 TAI-PIx\G-WANQ. been appeased by a feast of meats to which they were summoned by sound of gong, the mourners arrived without hindrance at the place of burial. Thereupon prayers were said ; a few drops of samshu were poured put as a libation ; a volley of fire-crackers was let off; and a large amount of paper was burned for the use of the soul in para- dise. A house, furniture, wearing apparel, a ser- vant, and a good supply of cash, all cut out of paper, were sent through the fire to the other world, together with a writing previously drawn up, and signed in the presence of witnesses, stipulating that the before-mentioned articles of property should, on their arrival in Hades, be duly delivered over to the person whose name was inscribed in the bond. This ceremony over, the mourners returned to the house of Hung-Jang, where a feast was made of the baked meats which had been offered in sacri- fice, and which, by the help of a liberal supply of rice-wine, and samshu, were all readily swallowed, notwithstanding the sacred use which had pre- viously been made of them rendered them as taste- less as the white of an egg. For thirty days after the decease, the family did little else than mourn — Phuh, like the rest of the male members, going about with a neglected queue and unshaven head. It was a great relief to him, HE GOES INTO WHITE, ETC. 19 however, when, at the expiration of that time, he was allowed, in company with his father and brothers, to visit his mother's grave, for the pur- pose of decking it with plants and flowers. With pious hands they planted the wild white rose, which, in its season, would weave about the head of the -conical-shaped mound its garland of purity. Lower down, were set the bulbs of a species of lycoris, which in autumn spreads to the sky a purple to vie with that of the sunset ; while, here and there, were stuck an anemone japonica, that, late in November, when all other flowers are gone, still lingers, and blooms even about the departing footsteps of the year.* • Compare Du Halde's '' China." V. HE STUDIES THE HORN-BOOK OF WANG-PI HAU. After Phuh had mourned six months, and a step-mother had been brought into the house, he returned to school. Ting- Jin, who was much at- tached to his promising pupil, received him kindly, and, kneeling down before the tablet of Confucius, implored upon his young head the blessing of the great philosopher. A stool was then given him at a table near the master, while in his hands was placed the horn-book of Wang-Pihau, containing the Trimetrical classic, the Millenary Classic, the Five Classics, and the Four Books. Though somewhat daunted at the sight of all this ancient and ponderous learning, Phuh set himself to the work of conning it with as much patience as was displayed by the good woman, celebrated in Chinese annals, who, wishing for a needle, under- took to make one by rubbing down a crow-bar. He swung himself to and fro more bravely than before, HE STUDIES THE HORN-BOOK. 21 and chanted his sing-song with 'a loud voice. As from day to day portions of his task were commit- ted to memory, he duly made his bow before his teacher, gave up his book, and turning his back to Ting-Jin, with all his bamboos, repeated like a parrot, the, to him, quite unintelligible wisdom of the ancients. Thus, by diligently beating his brains, aided by an occasional blow across his shoulders from master Ting, he had, at the end of a year, hacked the entire horn-book of Wang- Pihau. Then it was that Ting-Jin first began to instruct his pupil respecting the signification of the words and maxims of which such large supplies had been stored away in his memory. He commenced a course of daily lectures, or comments, which were only less unintelligible to Phuh than the text itself. He explained the doctrines of Confucius by citing those of Mencius, and illustrated whatever might be obscure or important in prose by long recita- tions from the poets. However, mixed up with all his classical quotations, which were generally fetched from as far back as the days of the Chin or the Chau dynasties, and with certain somewhat metaphysical notions on the subject of morals and politics, which had been taught him in his youth and never changed afterwards, there was not a little that a 22 TAI-PIN(J-WANG. lad twelve years of age could perfectly comprehend. Thus, in commenting on the sayings of Chu-Hi or Wan- Wang, Phuh would be lectured on the duty of keeping his clothes clean, and his face washed. An explanation of a maxim of Confucius would not be brought to an end without Phuh's being told several times over to honor his father and mother, his elder brothers, and all men in authority. A quotation from Mencius w^ould not fail of giving occasion for Phuh's being re-indoctrinated in such rules of politeness as to make a low bow when he was spoken to by elderly persons, and to chin-chin the gods, and tablets, with pious gestures. Meanwhile, the persevering son of Hung-Jang still kept on learning to read, write, and reckon in his abacus-case^ as well as to hack the classics. His mind gradually grew, by feeding on the bulky stores of food which were constantly being piled up in it. By the age of fifteen he had committed to memory not only the learned works before-mentioned, but all such portions of Chinese history, and literature, as are commonly taught in the schools. He could write a fair hand, could read with correct tone and accent, and could even construct very tolerable verses. When, therefore, there was nothing more that Ting- Jin could teach his pupil, he sent him HE STUDIES THE HORN-BOOK. 23 home with his benediction on his head, together with a prophecy that he would some day be crowned with the honors of the Han-Lin, or " Forest of Pencils Society." So Phuh left sch9ol. VI. HE WORKS IN THE PADDY-FIELD AND TENDS BUFFALOES. To pass from the school to the paddy-field, was to take a step Dot exactly in the direction of the *' Forest of Pencils Society;" but his father being at that time in straitened circumstances, Phuh was obliged to lend him a hand in farming. Hung-Jang's plantation was a mere patch of ground ; but the soil being a rich loam, and there being no lack of water for irrigation, it yielded two crops of rice a year, besides one of cabbages and other vegetables. He was the owner, likewise, of a small terrace on a hill near by, where he raised a few sweet potatoes, ground-nuts, and water-melons. So that, what with their rice, their cabbages, their potatoes, their nuts and their melons, helped out by an occasional litter of pigs, a brood of ducks or chickens, a dog now and then, and a chance rat, the Hungs managed to live from hand to mouth, and bring the two ends of the year together. HE WORKS IN THE PADDY-FIELD, ETC. 25 Every member of the family — man, woman, and child — took, part in the labors of the field. With scarcely a holiday in all the year, save a few at its commencement, they toiled incessantly from morn till eve. Hung himself held his one-tailed plough, and directed his buffalo with a long bamboo. Both trudged through the field, half-leg deep in mud ; it being necessary, in preparing for the rice-crop» to saturate the soil with water. In harrowing, the buffalo still wallowed through the mire, while Hung rode on the cross-bar ; but in sowing the seed, he was obliged again to wade in up to the calves of his legs. Harvest, in that quick-growing clime, soon following seed-time, there is no intermission of toil. From the paddy-field the laborers go to the terrace, and from the terrace to the paddy-field. The nar- row roadsides are constantly clipped for materials to dress the land with ; the bottoms of canals are scraped for mud ; the smaller children of the family are kept on the watch to save the droppings of ani mals, and, " Lean pensioners upon the traveler's tract, Pick up their nauseous dole.'' From all this disagreeable drudgery, however, Phuh was soon relieved. For, as the season for driving the bullocks and buffaloes of the village to 2 26 TAI-PING-WANG. pasture came round, it fell to his lot to go and tend them. Accordingly, with a gay heart, and a book under his arm, he set off for the hill-country, lying a short day's journey northwards. Some of these hills, being annually burnt over, yield a thin grass very grateful to cattle ; while others, less fertile, are over- run with flower-bearing shrubbery. One, situated directly over against that on which the cattle fed, was completely covered with plantations of the single white camellia, from the seeds of which a pleasant vegetable oil is expressed. This shrub, usually growing to the height of six or eight feet, bears a profusion of blossoms, and makes a hill ap- pear at a distance as though covered with snow. In this instance, the soil being a clear red, the con- trast of colors was very beautiful. A fiivorite position occupied by the young herds- man, was a spot on the hillside, whence he could overlook not only the cattle, but the lower rice- country, and was shaded by a thick clump of the fragrant olive (oUa fro grans). There, beneath the graceful leaves and large clusters of flowers, both white and yellow, he sat chanting the moral lessons of the early philosophers, and the odes of the Chinese masters in poesy. He also began to reflect for him- self upon w^hat he had, during so many years, been HE WORKS IN THE PADDY-FIELD, ETC. 27 committing to memory; and the undigested mass of reading, which had weighed somewhat oppress- ively upon his brain, was now rapidly being con- verted into the chyle of thought. They were the happiest days of his boyhood. Then it was that, taking courage, he finally resolved to attend the next examinations for degrees ; and in his playful moods, as if anticipating the honors of a doctorate in letters, he amused himself with winding about his brows garlands of the sweet-smelling olive branches, regarded in China as emblems of literary merit. These still, thoughtful days, wherein the mind of the young scholar experienced the first burst of imagination and gush of sentiment, were to him as the cool of the evenings to Adam, when he walked with God, or as the nights to Jacob, when he lay dreaming at the foot of the angels' lad- der; and when, at the end of the pasturing season, he returned from the hills, such a change had passed over him that his eyes were full of lustre, and his face shone, not altogether unlike that of Moses when he descended from the sacred mountain of the law. VII. HE TAKES THE NAME OF " ELEGANT AND PERFECT," AND G0E8 TO A RHETORICIAN. The young herdsman now resumed his labors in the field ; but his mind being filled with ambitious hopes of success at the approaching examinations for literary degrees, he disdained to be called any longer by his milk-name, Phuh, and selected that of Siu-tshuen, which signifies Elegant and Perfect. Every moment of leisure was given to his books. Late at night, or long before the break of day, he might be heard chanting, in a low tone, the sacred lessons of the kings. His essays and verses were written over and over again by the feeble light of a less than farthing candle, which was made of the white wax gathered by his own hands from the wax- trees on the hills. Encouraging his perseverance by the example of students who had attained the highest literary honors in spite of their poverty, he kept in mind how Sung-king, to prevent his head "elegant and perfect." 29 from nodding over the midnight page, tied it up by the queue to a beam ; how Che-jin pored over his book by the light of a glow-worm, and Sun-kang by that reflected from the snow ; how Chu-mai-chin studied his lessons with back bent down by the fire- wood he peddled around the town ; and how Kiang- han, compelled to labor in the fields, conned the Trimetrical Classic, tied to the iom of his buf- falo. He also copied, in a handsome hand, the most approved rules for study laid down in the books, and hung them around the walls of his chamber. They were such as these : *' The purpose which is supported by a deter- mined resolution must succeed." ** Give up the whole mind to the study in hand." " Every eighteen or twenty days review carefully what you have committed to memory." " As the power of an army consists more in train- ing than in numbers, so does that of the mind de- pend more upon its discipline than its know- ledge." " Do not fear being slow in learning ; only fear standing still." " On the eve of the public examinations avoid reading much, for if not done before, it is then too late." 30 TAI-PING-WANG. " Let the duly prepared select a few choice com- positions, and imbue his mind with the spirit of them ; he will derive strength from this at the time of trial." " Let the scholar reflect if, when locked up in ex- amination hall, with nothing but pencils, ink, and paper, he cannot manage his theme, what his distress will be." Some of the relatives of Siu-tshuen, taking note of his diligence in study, and entertaining high hopes of his literary advancement, now proposed granting him some small pittance, to enable him to take les- sons in composition from a celebrated master in a neighboring town. The plan was successfully car- ried out — some persons contributing clothing, others' provisions, and one a moderate sum of money ; so that, for several months, he enjoyed the benefit of having his essays corrected by a critic much supe- rior to Master Ting. In Chinese literature, style is more regarded than sense, and is formed on models as artificial as they are antique. To be good, it must have a perfect rhythm. Pointed antitheses and terse phrases are the highest beauties. A close following of the ancient classics is most approved ; while any origin- ality in expression, or even thought, is looked upon as in bad taste. "elegant and perfect." 31 It was of great moment, therefore, for the young candidate to have the assistance of an accomplished rhetorician in smoothing his verses, balancing his periods, and filling his commonplace book with a good stock of well-turned phrases. VIII. HE ATTENDS THE EXAMINATIONS FOR LITERARY DEGREES IN CANTON. At the age of sixteen, Siu-tshuen, having his mind sufficiently stored with learning, and his style perfected by much practice in composing both prose and verse, set off on that road which, through a vista of examinations and degrees, was to termi- nate in *'the Forest of Pencils Society." The Chinese literary degrees are four in number. The first of them is called siu-tsai, or " flowering tal- ent ;" the second, ku-jin, or " promoted men ;" the third, tsin-szu, or "entered doctors;" and the fourth, han-lin, or " Forest of Pencils." The applicant who attains to the lowest of these honors, is rewarded by being enrolled among the candidates for employ- ment by the state ; and if successful afterwards in obtaining the others, he is admitted into the impe- rial academy, and is capable of holding the highest offices in the gift of the emperor. The road to offi- HE ATTENDS THE EXAMINATIONS, ETC. 33 cial station is open to all, with the exception of menials, police-agents, and play-actors. All may attend the preliminary examinations, to give proof of their parts ; and it is the theory, at least, of the government, that public honors, trusts, and emolu- ments, are conferred as a reward of well-tested merit. The many are called, but the few are chosen. Before going to Canton and becoming a candidate for the degree of siu-tsai, Siu-tshuen was obliged first to submit to a trial of his qualifications in the chief town of the district in which he resided. Thither, accordingly, he went, his heart beating all the way like gongs. On arriving, he presented himself before the chi- hien, who sat in robes of state in examination hall, assisted by the hioh-ching, or " corrector of learn- ing." At the desk of the clerk Siu-tshuen gave in his name, his father's, his grandfather's, and his great grandfather's, as well as that of his place of residence, and was thereupon allowed to take his position among the crowd of expectants, who sat upon long benches in face of the imposing officials. Never before the judgment-seat of the hdy inquisi- tion did culprits so tremble at sight of thumb- screws, as did these tyros on receiving the themes for their trial essays from the magisterial lips of the ** corrector of learning." From morning to night 34 TAI-PING-WANG. they toiled at their task, straining after ideas in the sweat of their brows, and scratching their queues in frequent perplexity. After the essays had been finished and laid before the board of examiners, only about a dozen out of four or five hundred were accepted as satisfactory ; but among the favored few was that of Siu-tshuen. Accordingly his name was duly posted up on the wall, and he was dubbed by the worshipful " teach- er of commands" with the honors of hien ming^ which signifies " having a name in the village." Thus was the first step successfully taken by the- son of Hung-Jang towards the ** Forest of Pencils Society." Staggering under this load of honors, Siu-tshuen proceeded on his way from the chief town of the district up to the city of the department. Here he was received with still more imposing ceremony, and subjected to a still more rigorous examination. The court of learning was held by the prefect him- self, having on his right hand the chancellor, who had come down from Canton, and on his left, the Kiau-shau, or ** giver of instructions." In the pre- sence of these dignitaries the themes were given out, and the essays written, as before in the district examination. The number of aspirants, however, was considerably less, the ignoble crowd being • • • ' HE ATTENDS THE EXAMINATIONS, ETC. 35 barred out by their previous failure. Flushed with recent triumph, they all entered the lists with good courage, though only few came off victors. Among them again was the Elegant and Perfect. Accord- ingly, his name was once more posted up on the wall ; and he was clothed with the honors of the fu ming, which signifies ** having a name in the department.'' And now came the third great trial, that for the degree of siu-tsai, or bachelor of arts, at the pro- vincial capital of Canton. Should Siu-tshuen suc- ceed in getting this, he might become a mandarin, with a button in his cap, or even a peacock fea- ther ; and, at least, he would be for ever exempted from the disgraceful punishment of the bamboo, ex- cept by order of the chancellor. To Canton, therefore, he went. The great city amazed the mind and distracted the eyes of the vil- lager ; but with the crowd of candidates he found his way to the hall of the examinations. At the appointed time he presented his credentials, and was subjected to the usual preliminary search, the object of which is to prevent any writings from being smuggled into the room in aid of the tyro put upon his trial. His pockets were duly searched for scraps of learning ; his finger-nails were inspected to see if there were nothing written on them from 36 TAI-PING-WANG. Confucius ; his queue was overhauled, lest there should be tied up in it extracts from commonplace or horn-books ; and even his shoes were taken off, to discover whether passages from the trimetrical, or some other classic, might not be secreted under the soles of his feet, like dispatches in the boots of a spy. However, Siu-tshuen's person passed mus- ter, it being, in fact, as free from any marks of learning as a tabula rasa. When the candidates had all been thoroughly searched, the themes were given to them, seated pencil in hand, at long, narrow tables. Not heaven itself could now help them, but only their own wits. As careful a watch was set over them as if they had been in the penitentiary. There was a Cerberus stationed at every door, and a bailiff at every wicket ; so that a " pony" could no more be passed through, than a camel could go through the eye of a needle. Even the windows were pasted across with strips of paper, which served to exclude the air, of which the poor fags, their very pencils wet with perspiration, were in extremest want. The Elegant and Perfect did his best that day, but, alas ! whether from having too few ideas or too many, whether from his style or his handwriting not possessing the requisite finish, or from some other cause impossible to be conjectured, his essay was HE ATTENDS THE EXAMINATIONS, ETC. 37 thrown out. Certainly, it was from no fault of master Ting-Jin, who had done his duty faithfully by his pupil, nor of dame nature, who had equally well done hers, but in all probability from the poor boy not being able to grease the queues of the board of examiners. But the son of Hung-Jang might as soon have attempted to raise heaven and earth as to have raised five or six hundred dollars to purchase the degree of " flowering talent." Therefore, there was nothing left for him but to return, crest-fallen, to his father's house, " having a name in the village," and ** having a name in the department," but none in Canton. IX HE BECOMES SCHOOLMASTER AND DENIES THE DRAGON OP THE EASTERN SEA. Siu-TSHUEN returned home broken in spirits, but not in purpose. He resolved to compete again at the next triennial examination for the degree of bachelor of arts; to rewrite his odes and essays seven times seven, if necessary ; to review all the books he had studied under the bamboo sticks of master Ting-Jin ; to commence a course of reading which should embrace whatever was most celebrated in the Sz'Fu Tsiuen Shu Tsung-muh, or " Catalogue all the books in the four libraries ;" and, though grown slightly dim in the remoter distance, to keep the " Forest of Pencils Society" always before his eyes. His relatives, also, came to the assistance of one whose talents reflected lustre on all his tribe. They determined to make a schoolmaster of him. A suitable room, accordingly, was furnished by one of HE BECOMES SCHOOLMASTER, ETC. 39 them ; books, papers, pencils, ink-stones, black slabs, and porcelain geese, were contributed by others; and a half dozen or more youthful queues were got together, and placed under the pedagogical care of the lately disappointed, but now happy Siu-tshuen. So, in the course of a few weeks after his return from. Canton, he saw himself set in authority on a high stool, having tyros under his eye, and a formid- able set of new reeds hung up within convenient distance overhead. This calling he followed for a number of years,^ sometimes in his native village, and sometimes in others near by ; listening to the same perpetual sing-song ; correcting over again, day by day, the same recurring blunders ; always patient ; always attentive to his duties; and said to have been a strict disciplinarian, and to have wielded a pretty stiff bamboo. The years slipped as pleasantly as silently away, while Siu-tshuen lived upon the an- nual dole of rice, and other small supplies, fur- nished by his pupils, and devoted every moment of leisure sedulously to his studies. Of notable external incidents in his career, during this period, there were none. The days dawned and set, and, in all their course, brought no events to the chamber where, on his magisterial stool, sat Siu- tshuen. But in the secret chamber of his mind, on 40 TAI-PING-WANG. the other hand, much was transpiring which was destined not only to give a tone to his own intel- lectual and moral character, but also to modify the thought and faith of a large portion of the human family. For at this time it was that he first began to entertain doubts respecting the worship of idols, so much practiced by his countrymen. His skepticism is said to have been first awak- ened in this wise : In the year eighteen hundred and thirty-two, there was a great drought in several of the provinces, which gave occasion to both magis- trates and people to go upon their knees before the gods for rain. The Emperor, Tau-kwang, " knock- ing head" before imperial heaven, or Hwang Tien, prayed for rain by public proclamation, promising that if it were in consequence of his own failure well to administer the government, or through the fault of his subordinate ofl&cers, that the earth was so afflicted with thirst, he would, for the future, " apply the plumb-line of rectitude more carefully to his actions ;" and, at the same time declaring that, ** as he was responsible for keeping the world in order, he felt inexpressibly grieved, alarmed, and frightened, at the long withholding of the vapors, and could not possibly be put off any longer." But no rain followed. The prefect of Canton, also, his heart " scorched HE BECOMES SCHOOLMASTER, ETC. 41 with grief," sent out a summons to all "rain- makers," far and near, inviting them to force the Dragon of the Eastern Sea to send showers upon the earth, and promising both money and honorary- tablets to any " priest or such like," who, by any craft or art, would prevail with his snakeship to grant the much-needed relief. Still, it did not rain. Then, the governor of the province, wearied with going, day after day, in his heavy robes of ceremony, under a tropical sun, to the temple, became angry with the rain-god, who, sitting in the cool of his niche in the wall, paid no sort of attention to the supplications offered with so much loss of perspira- tion ; and causing a rope to be put around his worth- less neck, had him dragged out into the heat and dust of the street, and there thoroughly sunned, while his excellency sat cooling himself in the shade. Nevertheless, it did not rain. Meanwhile, the people seconded the efforts of the magistrates. The crowd filled the temples ; fasts were kept ; the southern gates of the cities were shut, to keep out the hot winds and induce moisture ; all prisoners, not in confinement for capital offenses, were let loose, to produce the same result ; and final- ly, when all these methods failed, the impotent authorities were lampooned by the wits ; and the 42 TAl-PIXG-WANG. Buddhist priests, who, bareheaded in the sun, prac- ticed, with wand and cymbal, their incantations for producing showers, were mocked at by the people. But the dragon still sent no rain. Then, suddenly, it flashed across the mind of Siu- tshuen, as he lay one night on his mat, that rain did not come from the dragon at all, but from the clouds. If the dragon had it under his control, why should he not send it in answer to so much praying? On recalling to mind several very severe droughts, followed by famines, which had occurred within his recollection, he asked himself why, if the supplica- tions and offerings made to the idol were of any avail, they had not produced it before the crops had been nearly or quite ruined ? The only way, it oc- curred to him, whereby it could be demonstrated that rain followed prayer to the dragon, as effect its cause, would be by keeping a record of a large num- ber of cases, and showing, from actual observation, that the two events were universally connected to- gether. But so far as his own observation had gone, no such natural order of sequences had been found to exist. Accordingly, before rising from his mat, he came fully to the conclusion that the dragon, and all idols like him, were what, among the occidental nations, is called " humbug ;" and the next day he wrote in his commonplace book an argument to HE BECOMES SCHOOLMASTER, ETC. 43 show that the rain did not come from any dragon or saurian reptile, but out of the Heavens. This, at a later period, was reproduced in his Imperial Decla- ration, wherein it was proved that rain was caused by clouds ; first, from the testimony of the senses ; secondly, on the authority of Mencius ; and thirdly, by the Ode of the Chow dynasty. Thus was the great folly of idolatry made plain to the mind of Siu-tshuen; and when, a fortnight after- wards, on the descent of the long delayed showers, the people assembled in front of the village to show their gratitude to the gods by burning off the tail of a live sow, while the animal was held confined in a basket, he felt indignant enough at the silly and cruel superstition to have kicked every idol there was in the village into the duck-pond.* Only the fear of the people withheld him. • Compare Williams' " Middle Kingdom," vol. ii., p. 241. X. HE BUYS A ^NHFE. "There are three things to be desired in this world," say the Chinese, " male progeny, official employment, and long life." Siu-tshuen having now arrived at an age when he began to comprehend the desirableness of these blessings, went one day to his father, and expressed to him his wish to take a wife. But Ilung-Jang, who had an eye to the expense involved in such a proceeding, would have preferred his deferring this step for another year or more. He, therefore, suggested to his son that he was yet too young to think of taking upon himself the marital responsibilities ; but the latter, though entertaining the most profound respect for his father's opinions, could not be brought to accept this view of the sub- ject. To change the argument, then, Hung-Jang threw out some of those disparaging views of the sex which prevail in China ; and observed to Siu-tshuen that HE BUYS A WIFE. 45 young men at his time of life generally entertained very exaggerated notions of the value of wives ; for it was very little after all that they were capable of doing, or comprehending. But the young Hung, again making a low bow, begged leave respectfully to differ from his father, and, by permission, recited an extract from a distinguished writer, which, as it happened, he had just committed to memory. " Monkeys," says Luchau, " may be taught to play antics ; dogs to tread a mill ; cats to run round a cylinder; and parrots to recite verses. Since, then, it is manifest that some birds and beasts may be taught to understand human affairs, how much more so may young wives, who after all are human beings ?" So Hung-Jang, finding the heart of his son set upon immediately dividing his felicity with another, promised to take the subject into consideration, and speak with his wife about it. The father was, in fact, scarcely less anxious for the son to marry than he himself could be ; he had even betrothed him from infancy to a neighbor's daughter, whose death the year preceding had " spilled the tea ;" and it was only from the narrowness of his means that he had not before provided for this, his favorite son's settle- ment. Siu-tshuen himself, however, had laid by a small sum of money out of his salary as a teacher ; 46 TAI-PING-WANG. and the economical objection being thereby in a measure obviated, it was resolved to make up a match without delay. There was no difficulty in finding a damsel, once the money raised to pay for her. On the recom- mendation of his wife, Hung-Jang made selection of the daughter of a respectable rice-planter who lived in a neighboring village, and whose pecuniary means were about the same as his own. This point having being settled, a mei-jin, or go- between, was called in, who, being a widow some- what advanced in life, knew perfectly well the character and business .of every person in the villages near by, and was reputed to be the most skillful match-maker in the whole district of Hwa- hien. This person was sent by Hung-Jang and his eldest son to the father and elder brother of the young woman, to ask her name and the hour of her birth, in order to cast a horoscope, preparatory to making proposals of marriage. The stars having been found to be favorable to the union, the go-between was further directed to open negotiations for the hand of the young woman, and was authorized to bid as high as twenty dollars for it — the usual price in Ilvva-hien. These terms were accepted without much hag- gling. The assent of the party of the second part HE BUYS A WIFE. 47 was^duly signified in writing, and some small pre- sents were exchanged between the families. Those sent by Hung-Jang consisted of a ham, a small quantity of vermicelli, fruits, and dried melon seeds, the reception of which was honored by a salute of fire-crackers. When the day arrived, which had been fixed upon by the go-between for the performance of the mar- riage ceremony on account of its being a lucky one, the relatives of Hung-Jang assembled at his house before mid-day, and moved thence in procession to the residence of the father of the bride, in order to fetch her to her new home. The musicians in attend- ance were the same blower of the flute and beater of the gong who had led the march to the grave of Hung-Jang's first wife. They now played, how^ ever, a merry quick-step, while the procession was gay with banners, umbrellas, lanterns, and flambeaux. On the arrival of the procession at the residence of the bride, she came forth, enveloped in a broad mantle, and an umbrella hat so large as to rest on her shoulders. A wha-hien, or red sedan-chair, being in attendance, she took her seat in it, and was there- upon carefully locked in by a servant, who was in- structed to deliver the key into the hands of the bridegroom. This is a precaution always taken in 48 TAI-PIXG-WANG. China to prevent any exchange of persons on the way, whereby a gentleman might be defrauded of the lady he had bargained for, and made to espouse another not worth half the money. A small roasted pig having been placed by the roadside to divert the attention of hungry and evil- disposed hobgoblins, the procession passed to and fro in safety. On its return, Siu-tshuen, attired in a new dress of blue cotton, received his bride at the door, and conducted her directly to his chamber. Then, the mantle and umbrella-hat being removed, he for the first time beheld the woman destined to be his wife. Fortunately, her appearance was satisfactory. He first examined her face, and found it not desti- tute of beauty. He then took the measure of her foot, and made it not over five and a quarter inches. The person was suiliciently thin to gratify his taste ; her hair was neatly arranged on the top of her head, with natural flowers in it ; and her tunic and petti- coat were well made of good cloth. In short, she was a bargain ; and he felt no disposition to show her back to her sedan, and send her home, with the loss of the twenty dollars which had been paid for her. This inspection of his prize finished, Siu-tshuen gave way to his female relations, who, on being ad- HE BUYS A WIFE. 49 mitted into the chamber, subjected the new mem- ber of the family to a scrutiny still more rigid. They did not find her at all to their mind. Her nose was too high, her cheek-bones too low, and her eyes not sufficiently oblique; her face was too much rouged, and her eye-brows not made black enough ; her foot would do, but her hair had too many white jasmines in it ; and the hang of her petticoat was certainly not what it should be. In fact, the poor thing was quite pulled to pieces. But having the good sense to receive all this captious criticism with good temper, she afterwards was thought better of ; and the feeling finally prevailed among the company that if the bridegroom was satisfied, they might as well be 80 themselves. The nuptial ceremonies were terminated, not by the benediction of a priest, that not being the cus- tom of the country, but by a great feast, and plenty of tea and whisky. Each guest, on receiving his invitation, had sent in return a sum of money equiva- lent to the cost of the eatables he might be expect- ed to consume on the occasion, being, on an average, about ten cents. Accordingly, a bountiful table was spread with fish, poultry^, vegetables, fruits, and in the midst, the baked pig, brought in from the roadside after it had sufficiently appeased the appe- tite of the demons. 50 TAI-PING-WANG. The supply was not greater than the demand ; for Hung-Jang's house was packed as full of guests as a drum with figs ; and every one of them was dis- posed to get his money's worth. There were, in- deed, no such costly delicacies as birds' nests, sea- slugs, or bear's paws ; as, on the other hand, there were no such vulgar ones as mice, snakes, owls, or small insects. At least, the only exception was a dish of cockroaches, done in castor oil. But besides the eatables, there was a good supply of sam-shu, rice-wine, and tea, of fair quality, though not equal to ." old man's eyebrow." The guests drank the bride's health in cups which, when inverted, left not so much as a bead on the rim, and plied the bridegroom, or *' new man," with liquor pretty hard up aginst the limits of sobriety. So the marriage-day closed with pleasant mirth. The ancestral tablets of the house were duly wor- shiped ; prostrations were gone through with by the young couple before the parents ; and the bride made the usual obeisance to a goose, as an emblem of conjugal fidelity. A ring was presented to her by her female relatives ; while the male gave a lan- tern to her husband. It then remained only that Hung-Jang should set upon his son's head the cap of manhood, and bestow on him an additional name to mark his connection with the family. This was HE BUYS A WIFE. 51 done with the usual formalities ; and he, who had begun life with the monosyllabic appellation of Phuh, was thenceforth to be known as Hung-Kung- Phuh-Siu-tshuen, having as many titles as a pacha has tails. XI. HE BECOMES A CONFTCIAN PHILOSOPHER. A SHORT time after the termination of his honey- moon, Siu-tshuen opened a school in a village about ten miles from home; but his wife remained to assist in the labors of the family. This village is situated on the shore of a small lake, and is called Water- Lily, from the profusion of lotus plants which float on its waters. Through the summer and autumn, the margin is covered with the broad, green leaves, and showy flowers, with tints white, red, and yellow, of this nclumhium speciosum ; while the hills, which rise abruptly from the shore opposite that on which stands the village, are draped with the lilac of the daphne, and the purple of the hiidlca Undleyana : so that, when to this floral display is added the gaudy and odoriferous beauty of the jasmines, the sweet-briers, the azalias, the magnolias, the oranges, and pomegranates, which fill all the roadside hedges, it may be said of Water- HE BECOMES A CONFUCIAN PHILOSOPHER. 53 Lily that it well deserves its place in the " central land of flowers." Indeed, its lake is a picture in miniature of that of Sy-hoo, in the province of Che-keang, so famed in Chinese poetry and fiction, where, within the circum- ference of six miles of shore, the pleasure-barges vie with the lotus-blossoms, both in gaudiness and in numbers ; where the limpid, glassy waters reflect the fair forms of the belles of Suchau, standing as graceful at the prow as the water-lilies on their stems ; and where, through all the genial season of the year, life is a mere chase after pleasure, which is pursued with sails or oars. But the sweetly-scented shores of the lake of Water-Lily allured Siu-tshuen to meditation, not to pleasure. When not on a visit to his family, he might often be seen there, refreshing himself after the labors of the day, and having the air of a person lost in his own thoughts. He reflected much at this period on themes connected with religion and government. Indeed, ever since the time when doubts first sprang up in his mind respecting that article in the popular creed which attributes the power of sending rain to the Dragon of the Eastern Sea, his leisure had been principally occupied with examining the different religious and philosophical systems prevalent among his countrymen. By help 54 TAI-PING-WANG. of that light which lighteth every man that Com- eth into the world, though dimmer even than the tapers of the tallow-tree, he read daily in the obscure pages of natural religion, and endeavored to spell out, as best he could, the hidden wisdom of God. The Chinese are characterized by a remarkable indifference to religious doctrines. The various sects — Buddhists, Rationalists, Mahometans, and Jews — enjoy perfect toleration, only because there is no strong attachment among the people to any one of them. "Sing-song — all the same pigeon," is an adage currently applied to the dif- ferent religious doctrines ; and even the Emperor Tau-kwang once issued a proclamation, reviewing their several pretensions, and declaring them all to be false. Still, the vulgar live under the dominion of super- stitions of one sort or another, and worship a great number of idols, it matters little by what name called. The adoration of the higher divinities, indeed, such as the visible heavens, the earth, the great temple of ancestors, the gods of land and of grain, being performed by the emperor and chief officers of state, as a court ceremony and pageant, the same is prohibited to the common people, under pain of strangulation or banishment. But there is a HE BECOMES A CONFUCIAN PHILOSOPHER. 55 legion of inferior gods and genii left them. These exercise authority over every locality, and super- vision over every event of life ; and, in honor of them, all houses have two altars, one in the hall, and one in a niche in the external wall, where a blind faith daily lights its candles and incense- sticks. The consumption of gilt paper, burned at the shrines, is enormous, and creates an active trade in the article throughout the empire. Sacrifices, likewise, of baked meats, and other kinds of food, are offered to all sorts of hungry demons, sprites, and ghosts. Incantations are commonly practiced ; amu- lets are worn ; lucky and unlucky days are believed in ; and a multitude of ceremonies are attended upon in the temples, where the priests bow their shaven heads to Buddh, and sound their bells and gongs to call the drowsy god's attention. The Buddhist is the most influential of the dif- ferent sects. Its priests absolve from sin for a consideration, and teach their votaries to keep a regular score with heaven. They, likewise, gain influence by inculcating the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments, which is not in- sisted upon by the Confucian literati. Their hell con- sists of eight stories, in which the souls which have been condemned by the ten kings of darkness and judges of the world, are pounded in a mortar, sawn 6b TAI-PING-WANG. asunder, tied to red-hot pillars of brass, have their tongues cut out, and are pitched headlong upon hills of knife-blades. The heaven of the good, on the other hand, is a paradise in the west. " Therein the bodies of the saints, reproduced from the lotus, are pure and fragrant, their countenances fair and well-formed, their hearts full of wisdom, and without vexation. They dress not, and yet are not cold ; they dress, and yet are not made hot. They eat not, and yet are not hungry ; they eat, and yet are not satiated. They are without pain, irritation, and sickness, and they become not old. They behold the lotus- flowers and gum-trees delightfully waving, like the motion of a vast sheet of embroidered silk. On looking upward, they see the firmament full of to-lo flowers, falling in beautiful confusion like rain. The felicity of that kingdom may justly be called superlative, and the age of its inhabitants is without measure. This is the place called the paradise of the west." The other sect, most in favor with the common peo- ple, is that of the Rationalists, founded by Lautsz'. These derive the origin of all things from the logos, or reason, wherein from eternity they lay infolded, as in a germ. They teach that virtue is best pro- moted, not by the overcoming of temptation, but by HE BECOMES A CONFUCIAN PHILOSOPHER. 57 its avoidance ; not by the restraint of passion, but by- its annihilation ; not by an active discharge of the duties of life, but by habits of abstraction from worldly affairs ; in short, to use their own phrase, " by stifling their breath, and eating their spirits." But their hold of the popular mind is gained chiefly by the magic arts, whereby they pretend to hold intercourse with, and exercise a control over, the demons of the invisible world. Formerly, they sought much for the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life, and they still keep up a brisk trade in amulets, go barefooted over ignited charcoal, and produce demoniacal possession, which they call " dancing the god." Born and brought up in the midst of all this idolatry and superstition, Siu-tshuen, on arriving at the age of understanding, found his mind in the pos- session of a host of demons. But he manfully undertook to expel them. The Dragon of the Eastern Sea was successfully wrestled with, and driven out with all his brood. Welcoming the doubts which, from time to time, arose in his mind, as angels of light coming to his rescue, he persevered in battling with the powers of darkness which over- shadowed his reason, until the cloud of them was almost entirely driven out of his mental firmament. The light which then shone in it was not, indeed, 3* 58 TAI-PING-WANG. the sun of Christianity, but the paler orb of natural religion ; or rather, the star of Confucius. For, now, after years of study, he came to com- prehend, and to accept the doctrines of this philo- sopher, and of his disciples. With them, he believed in a trinity of first principles, the Z/, the chih, and the TcL The ki is primary matter, or the substratum of material qualities ; the cJdh is the sensible qualities of matter; and the li is the power of organization. This latter, though inseparable from matter, is immaterial. It is also impersonal. It is universally diffused. A principle of fitness, it acts according to its own predetermined nature, and, without freedom of choice, remunerates both the good and evil in human actions. The three principles exist in combination from eternity, al- thougli, logically considered, the li is antecedent to the others -, and in this organized unity they will exist forever. " Respect the gods, but keep theqi at a distance," said Confucius ; and the foregoing theory realizes the precept. It is the pantheism of the eastern world, which, in western nations, and modern times, has been reproduced more especially by the Ger- mans. It is a doctrine of necessity, older than Spinoza or Heraclitus, and which prevails through- out China, and all the Orient. Still, it is there HE BECOMES A CONFUCIAN PHILOSOPHER. 59 generally held in the sense of Confucius, who also taught that fate is of our own making, and happi- ness the result of our own conduct. *' The very- moment I desire to be virtuous," says this philo- sopher, " the attainment is made." The question of the immortality of the soul has been scarcely entertained by the Confucians. " We know not life," say they; " how, then, can we com- prehend death ?" They object to the Rationalists, or followers of Lautsz*, that their doctrine of a west- ern paradise for souls separated from the body, un- fits men for the business and duties of this life by fixing their thoughts on another. " Better," says Confucius, " is it to concentrate happiness in the pre- sent moment, than to defer it to a futurity we know not of. All conduct has its reward in this world, either in the person of the individual, or in his pos- terity, to the third and fourth generation." As the corner-stone of his system of morals, Con- fucius laid down the doctrine of the golden mean, the tchong yong. All the original propensities of our nature are good, and evil grows only out of their indulgence to excess. The animal passions are to be gratified, but always in subordination to the higher instincts of reason. Perfection of cha- racter results from a fine balance of our natural powers. He who governs himself, is alone capable 60 TAI-PING-WANG. of governing others, and is the equal of heaven. The wise man perfects his own nature ; and he who is truly benevolent, loves first those who are near, and then those who are afar off. As in morals, so in politics, the great Confucian principle is : "Avoid extremes." The state is to be governed by the same rules as the individual. All interests are to be balanced. The good of a part of the nation is bound up in, and is to be kept subordinate to, the good of the whole. The system of the family is the model of that of the state; and, in both, mutual forbearance is to be exercised by all the members, and a perfect subordination maintained of the younger to the elder— of the inferior to the superior. Only in the reverence of parents and of ancestors, is there safety for either men or nations. Such, in few words, are the doctrines of the Con- fucians, who are not so much a religious sect as a political order. They consist mainly of the literati and magistrates of the empire ; have no priests ; and take little part in any kind of public worship, excepting that of ancestors and the sages, and cer- tain religious ceremonies of state. And such were the views of religion and govern- ment which were now gradually displacing in the mind of Siu-tshuen the popular superstitions in which he had been educated. XII. HE CONSULTS A FORTUlfE-TELLEB, AND MEETS WITH THE EVANGELIST, LIANO AFAH. He that seeketh, findeth. So, Siu-tshuen, after several years of diligent searching after God in the writings of the Confucian philosophers, if haply he might find him, was destined at length to receive a portion of his written Word at the hands of a Christian tract-distributor. In the year eigtheen hundred and thirty-three, leaving his school for a time, he went up to Canton to make another effort to diminish the distance which lay between him and the " Forest of Pencils Society." In this he was again unsuccessful ; but in another way he was abundantly rewarded for his good endeavors. Before attending the examination, it happened to him, as he was strolling through the streets, to meet with a fOrtune-teller. Persons of this calling 62 TAI-PING-WANG. abound in all the great thoroughfares of the large towns, and are much patronized by those who are over-anxious to know the future. Siu-tshuen, being then in this state of mind — for he was intensely interested in knowing the issue of this second trial for a degree — could not resist the impulse to take counsel of the soothsayer. Confucius himself had said that the truly sincere are equal to the gods, and foreknow both good and evil. This young dis- ciple, accordingly, who had not yet entirely shaken off the hold of the superstition in which he was born and begotten,. becanie very naturally the dupe of an imagination so strongly excited as to becloud his reason. So he approached the table where, in a high- backed chair, sat the teller of fortunes. Paying the usual fee, he stated his desire to be to know whether he should obtain the degree of ** Flowering talent," and be finally admitted into the illustrious " Forest of Pencils Society." Thereupon the seer, putting on a solemn look, asked him his name. This was written down in full — Hung-Kung-Phuh-Siu-tshuen. Then, taking up a small bundle of bamboo slips, inscribed with certain characters, the fortune-teller made selection of one of them, and proceeded carefully to write the radical and primitive parts of its character upon HE CONSULTS A FORTUNE-TELLER, ETC. 63 the same tablet on which he had before written Siu- tshuen's name. To this analysis of the character was added the hour, day, month, and year ; the five planets ; the different colors ; the human viscera ; and whatever else could well be thought of suffi- ciently foreign to the purpose. The cabalistic catalogue completed, the fortune- teller fell to studying it as intently as ever did sybil jier leaves. At length, at what seemed to Siu- tshuen the end of full quarter of an hour, the worthy man's brows began to lift, and clear up. Light gradually broke in upon his inquiring mind. He saw the future as in a glass; and, assuming the look of a man who had " rapped" up a spirit out of pur- gatory, and had a ghost between his legs under a pine-board table, he eagerly seized his pencil, and wrote the following sentence : — ** You will suc- ceed ; you will be ill ; my respects to your virtuous father." This finished and handed to Siu-tshuen, the for- tune-teller fell at once out of his seventh heaven, counted over again the cash which had been de- posited on his table, and looked around for a new customer with eyes in which shone not the faintest beam of futurity. As for Siu-tshuen, he went on his way lighter in pocket, but lighter still in heart. To the thres- 64 TAI-PING-WANG. hold of the " Forest of Pencils Society'* seemed to him but a step. So elated, in fact, was he, that the next day he returned to satisfy his curiosity with regard to an- other matter. His wife being with child, he wished to know whether she was to bear him a son, or a daughter. But the soothsayer was nowhere to be seen ; and, in his stead. Divine Providence sent a man who proved to Siu-tshuen to be " more than a prophet," and gave him information far more valu- able than that he was seeking for. This was Liang Afah, a native Evangelist, em- ployed by the London Bible Society to distribute religious books among the young men who came up to Canton to attend the examinations, and who was afterwards remembered by Siu-tshuen as a venerable man, *' with large sleeves and a long beard." From his pious hands the young scholar received, without money and without price, a series of tracts on religious subjects, including extracts from the Scrip- tures, entitled Keuen she leang ycfi, or *' Good words for exhorting the age." These he took home with him ; read them ; but, not fully comprehending the new ideas, illustrated as they were by many theological terms and phrases hard to be understood, he laid them up on his shelf. There they remained for about ten years HE CONSULTS A FORTUNE-TELLER, ETC. 65 undisturbed ; but at the end of that time, some of the seeds,^ which had fallen upon a prepared soil, sprang up, and bore fruit for the healing of the nation. ^ XIII. HE FALLS ILL, AND IS TREATED BY DOCTORS KI-HI, VANQ- 80U, AND TCHONG-KING-HO. During the next three years, Siu-tshuen floated quietly down the tide of time, with scarcely wind enough astern to fill his main-sail. He passed his days in his school-room, now reopened in his native village, while his wife spent hers in either domestic labors or field-work. The one conceived, from time to time, a new idea, and the other endeavored to bring forth male oflispring. In not one instance, however, did she succeed — the second birth, like the first, proving to be that of a daughter, and constituting about the only event which, during these years, occurred to mar the felicity of Siu-tshuen. At length, at the end of this period, one of the two occurrences predicted by the Canton for- tune-teller came to pass. Siu-tshuen fell ill. His naturally-strong^onstitution had, for several months preceding, been overtasked — partly by the labors of HE FALLS ILL, ETC. 67 his school, but more by his preparations for another examination for the degree of siu-tsai ; and when he returned again from Canton as unsuccessful as be- fore, he reached his father's house only to faint on its threshold. Borne to his mat, he lay there ex- hausted through the remainder of the day, and at night was seized with a violent fever. Hung-Jang was sore distressed at this invasion of disease, which, since the death of his wife, had not entered the circle of his family ; and the more so, that the victim selected was his favorite son, whose head he fondly hoped one day to see surmounted with the button of a mandarin. He, therefore, sum- moned the members of the family together, and proposed to them to call in a physician. This was agreed to — all cheerfully consenting that the ex- pense should be defrayed from the common funds. J Sortilege being resorted to in order to determine which one of the two principal physicians of the village should be sent for, the lot fell on doctor Ki- ^ hi. This practitioner was to be found at one of the corners of the principal street, beneath a flag flut- tering fromja pole ; while over against him sat his rival, under an awning decked out with streamers ; and both equally intent on offering to the passers- by their respective nostrums. Doctor Ki-hi obeyed the summons, and straight- 68 TAI-PINa-WANG. way made his appearance, with drugs and simples, in the house of Hung-Jang. A consultation was then held between the medical man and the family as to the amount of the former's fees, which, after a good many words on both sides, was finally agreed upon, with the proviso, however, of "no cure no pay." This important preliminary matter having been settled to mutual satisfaction, the doctor pro- ceeded to make a thorough examination of the patient's symptoms. As the diagnosis of the Chinese faculty is made chiefly by feeling the pulse, to the pulse doctor Ki- hi went at once. He felt the pulses in both arms, in each of which there are three, called the inch, the bar, and the cubit. He felt the pulses of the heart and of the liver, in the left arm ; and those of the stomach and of the lungs in the right. But, finally, he hung by the pulse of the heart, in the left wrist. There was found to be the principal irregularity, and the beating was pronounced to be that one of the twenty-four different varieties, which is called cAe, or full. It was a case of fever. The cause of it was either some disagreement of the yang and the jifh the male and female principles in the system, or the presence of peccant humors, or the agency of evil spirits. The patient, accordingly, must drink a kettle of HE PALLS ILL, ETC. 69 simples ; must take his water boiled ; must refrain from eating; and must keep to his mat. If all these directions were followed, the cure would be effected in seven days. Siu-tshuen drank the kettle of simples, as direct- ed, and two days after was much worse, with occa- sional attacks of delirium. The doctor being again called declared blood-letting to be indicated. This he proposed to effect by means of acupuncture, applied to the calves of the patient's legs, in order to check the upward tendency of the blood, and determine it to the nether parts of the system. Accordingly, Siu-tshuen, though getting to be rather unmanageable, was prevailed upon to submit his legs to the operation. He consented so far as to place himself on his hands and knees, in a posture sufficiently favorable ; but the moment he felt the instrument prick his skin, he suddenly reared up with both feet, and hitting the doctor in the abdo- men, sent him heels-over-head through the door into the hall. Thereupon, the operation was deferred until the patient should become more free from delirium. But the next day, instead of being able to carry his purpose into execution, the doctor, on opening the door of Siu-tshuen's chamber, found him standing on his head ! This was alarming. Doctor Ki-hi 70 TAI-PING-WANG. began to have fears not only for his patient, but for himself; for, should the disease suddenly come to a fatal issue, he might be sued for mal-practice, and, by the laws of the land, lose his money, if not his head. But he now resolved to try a master-stroke in the practice of the art, let the consequences be what they might. He was of opinion, judging from the symptoms in the case, that the patient, in standing on his head, had dislocated his brain, and that it was absolutely necessary to set it. He, there- fore, bound his head with a band, drawn tightly by two assistants, who held on to the ends, while he struck a violent blow on the intermediate portion with a bamboo. Strange to say, the operation of jarring the brain had a good effect ; and the doctor, on taking his leave, had the satisfaction of seeing his patient sitting up, and in his right mind.* His satisfaction, however, was short-lived; for, as he entered the house the next day, Siu-tshuen, the moment he heard his step in the hall, came leaping out of his room on all fours, his face red as vermilion, his queue on end, and his mouth froth- ing. Thereupon, the doctor did what he came very near doing the morning before : he took to his heels. • Compare a similar case in Williams' " Middle Kingdom," vol. ii., p. 184. HE FALLS ILL, ETC. 71 Nor did he stop to haul down his flag from the pole, but hastily gathering together his simples and pill- boxes, made the best of his way to a neighboring village, where he lay hid until he was informed of his patient's recovery. It now became necessary to call in the services of doctor Vang-sou, who sat beneath the awning decorated with streamers. Doctor Vang-sou came, as requested ; and, on seeing Siu-tshuen, agreed to cure him in seven days, or forfeit of his fees the moiety. Like doctor Ki-hi, he began with feeling his patient's pulses with very great care and delibera- tion ; but while doing so, he kept up a running conversation with the wife of Hung-Jang respecting the previous course of the disease, so that by the time he had gone the rounds of the pulses, he had put himself in complete possession of the sayings and doings of his predecessor. He was then ready for action. The pulse exhibit- ing the greatest irregularity was declared to be that of the heart ; but it was not che, or full. By no means. It was hong — overflowing; and the true method of cure was not to let blood, which would be like attempting to stop the boiling of a pot by diminishing the liquor instead of reducing the fire. The remedy indicated was an electuary. He, there- 72 TAI-PIN(J-WANG. fore, proceeded to compound an effectual one, con- sisting of about sixty different drugs and simples, with strong proportions of ginseng and rhubarb, and ordered them to be all well fried in fat. Of this the patient was to take a mouthful every thirty minutes. So doctor Vang-sou, after having com- miserated Siu-tshuen on account of the damage done to the calves of his legs, retired, saying that his electuary would produce a certain, speedy, and complete cure — though adding, as is the custom of the Chinese faculty, the saving qualification, **if anything on earth can do it.* Siu-tshuen mended a little, under the influence of the electuary, but, after a day or two, fell off again. The sauce-pan of doctor Vang-sou had no more vir- tue in it than the kettle of doctor Ki-hi. In fact, at the end of his seven days, the former was obliged to acknowledge that his patient was apparently as far from being cured as at the beginning ; and so, saying there was a medicine for disease, but none for fate, he pocketed his half-fee, and gave over poor Siu-tshuen to the gods. Left, now, to nature, and to boiled cold water, the sick man improved rapidly. But before the cure was perfected he met with a relapse, and became worse than ever. He then raved by the hour to- gether, and had frequently to be held down by main HE FALLS ILL, ETC. 73 force. This almost broke the heart of his father, who knew not what to do. To pull the neck of the patient until black and blue, in order to force out the evil spirit within, was the treatment urged by the wife of Hung-Jang ; but Siu-tshuen was even less disposed to submit to this operation than he had been to that of acupuncture. The relatives and neighbors coming in, counseled, some one thing, and some another ; this one recommending bears' paws, and the other, tigers' bones, as remedies ; neighbor so- and-so talking of the cures which had been wrought by the bezoar of cows, and the horns of rhinoceroses ; while certain aged beldams told each other stories about still greater wonders done by the scales of pangolins, and the petrifactions of crabs and ortho- ceras. But little did all this talk of costly and impossible remedies help the sufferer. For days he lay on his mat, apparently nigh unto death ; and but for having Heaven and a good constitution on his side, he would certainly have reached that bourne whither doctor Vang-sou had very deliberately consigned him. At length, however, a bright thought occurred to his wife. She remembered to have several times heard her husband speak of doctor Tchong-king-ho, of Water-Lily, as a friend of his, with whom he was in the habit of disputing respecting the doctrines of 74 TAI-PING-WANG. Confucius and Chu-hd. Now, this doctor Tchong- king-ho had made a reputation and a small fortune by curing a mandarin of distinction, who, in passing through the country, had fallen ill at Water-Lily. If he, therefore, could be induced to pay a visit to his sick friend, all would be well. The proposition was talked over in the family, approved of, and, without loss of time, a sedan-chair was dispatched to Water- Lily for doctor Tchong-king-ho. ^ Doctor Tchong-king-ho came back in the sedan chair. He was a portly, grave man, who entered the house of Hung-Jang with many bows of cere- mony, supporting his steps with a tall bamboo staff, and followed by a servant having a chest of drawers to his back. This piece of furniture was divided into forty small compartments, and contained the doc- tor's medicines. Siu-tshuen seemed to revive the moment it was set down upon the floor. Like his two predecessors, the Water-Lily doctor be- gan with the pulses. They were all found to be more or less irregular, and especially that of the heart. But this was neither che, nor hongy but hoa, slippery, and tsoUf embarrassed, "like a frog entangled in weeds, and unable to get backwards or forwards." Moreover, it was observed that the complexion of the patient and his pulse did not quadrate. This was his worst symptom. HE FALLS ILL, ETC. 75 Finally, after having completed the examination of the pulses and countenance of the patient, doctor Tchong-king-ho folded his hands on his breast, and said, "The disease is a fever. It is caused by a disturbance of the natural equilibrium between the hot and the moist elements in the system. Of the three tsiao, or fire-places, situa- ted, one in the heart, one in the sternum, and one in the navel, the superior one has an excess of fuel in it. This dries up the natural moisture of the body, and so accelerates the blood and animal spirits, which follow in its train, that they make about ninety rounds in twenty-four hours ; whereas, they should make but fifty, as is laid down in the treatise on the pulse, written, under the Tsin dynasty, by Ouang-tchou-hoa. The canal, besides, which con- veys the moisture from the heart to the upper extre- mities, and which is called chau chun yn king, is stopped up. A cure, accordingly, can be accom- plished only by freeing this canal, in the first place, and then letting moisture in upon the superior fire- place. My pills will do the one, and a decoction made from the forty simples will do the other." After having delivered himself of these learned opinions, collected from the forty volumes of the " Golden Mirror of Medical Practice," doctor Tchong-king-ho proceeded gravely to draw out his 76 TAI-PIXG-WAXG. pill-boxes. From one of these he took six small, silver-coated globules, represented by him to be the very blossom and fragrance of the pharmacopoeia, and to have been prepared by a celebrated practi- tioner at Canton, who was patronized by both the prefect and the governor of the province. These were a sovereign remedy in all hot diseases, con- tracted in the hour of Mars, as was the case with that of the patient ; and would infallibly open his canal. Then, by aid of his servant, the doctor opened the forty compartments of his medicine-chest, and took from each a potion of drugs or simples, to form a decoction in accordance with the rules laid down in the irun-tsafif or Herbal of Li-Shichin, of the Ming dynasty. Of the simples which were red in color, he took out a large quantity, as they would go directly to the heart; while those of the other colors would operate on the other viscera. He also gave a preference to those which were bitter and sharp in taste, as they were yifiy female — and, like- wise, produced their effect on the region of the heart. The pith of plants, too, was pronounced better in internal distempers than the bark, which was to be used only in diseases of the skin, as the branches were in those of the limbs ; the leaves which were light in weight had a tendency towards the higher organs of the breast, but the heavier wood sank HE PALLS ILL, ETC. 77 into the kidneys and pit of the stomach ; and, finally, a distinction was made in favor of the upper parts of herbs, which were suited to the upper half of the body, whereas, the roots produced the best effects on the nether extremities. These nice distinctions were pointed out to Hung-Jang and his family, as the different simples were, one by one, taken from the chest of drawers, and deposited in a kettle. These forty simples having been duly com- pounded, and directions given for the administra- tion of the decoction, as well as the pills, doctor Tchong-king-ho's work was done. It remained only to assure Hung-Jang that his son would be well in seven days — to pocket a fee the poor rice-planter could ill afford to pay — and to depart with his cane, his servant, and his chest of drawers. The exit, as well as the entire service, was done in the very best style of the art, and could scarcely have been sur- passed in its decorous gravity by that of doctor Chin-Kwei himself, when he took leave of the patient from whose abdomen he had removed one half its viscera, and who got well, it is recorded in the books, in thirty days afterwards. • Siu-tshuen also got well ; and as his recovery • Compare Du Halde. 78 TAI-PING-WAXG. was subsequent to the taking of the learned doctor Tchong-king-ho's medicines, they were considered as having effected the cure. He continued, indeed, to have violent attacks of delirium during the space of nearly a month after the doctor's visit ; but when they ceased, his health returned very rapidly. XIV. HE IS TAKEN UP TO HEAVEN IN A TRANCE. The- illness of Siu-tshuen was not unto death, but, rather, unto a new and higher life. For, in the course of it, his disordered imagination saw many visions which influenced very beneficially the course of his subsequent career. On awaking from the first of these delirious dreams, wherein he had beheld himself transported into the midst of a very great company of superior beings, he thought he was going to die, and, calling the family around him, said, " My days are num- bered, and I am about to go into the presence of Jen-lo-wang. Alas ! that I have made so poor re- turns to you, my parents, for the numberless bless- ings you have bestowed upon me. Would that I could live to reflect lustre on your name, and render your old age happy. But my days are finished. I die." He then fell asleep ; but awoke feeling better, 80 TAI-PING-WANG. and did not set off for the realms of Jen-lo-wang, the king of Hades, as he had anticipated. From time to time, these dreams returned, at- tended frequently with violent paroxysms of mad- ness, when it was only by main strength that his father and brothers could prevent his doing both himself and others serious injury. He then ima- gined the house filled with demons, or various kinds of animals, such as dragons, and tigers. One day, when laboring more under mental, than phy- sical excitement, he fell into a trance, during which his visions were not only much more connected than usual, but so vivid, that he afterwards dis- tinctly remembered them, and believed them to be realities. This dream opened with the sight of a very large procession approaching him from a distance. It came on with music, and banners flying ; with lanterns, and lighted torches ; with artificial dra- gons, and dire chimeras ; escorted by men-at-arms, and mandarins' horsemen ; and preceded by volleys of fire-crackers. When the procession arrived where Siu-tshuen was, a splendid red and gilt sedan-chair was set down before him, and, on entering it, he was borne away as in triumph. He was then transported into realms of surpass- ing beauty, which were lighted neither by sun nor N HE IS TAKEN UP TO HEAVEN IN A TRANCE. 81 moon, but where the atmosphere itself was lu« minous. The sky was milky blue, with white clouds ; the distant mountains were rose or pur- ple ; the rivers gleamed like molten glass ; the lakes gave back their banks in perfect reflections ; the woodlands were vocal with the songs of in- numerable birds ; and the emerald turf was gorge- ous with flowers, which filled the air with sweet odors. In this paradise the inhabitants were of all ages, but never grew older — time having no further power over them. They lived in perpetual pleasures. Birds' -nest soup and biche-de-mer were on every table; the rice grew spontaneously; the tea was better than " prince's eye-brow ;" the sam-shu was superior to that of Vou-sie and Chao-king ; and the wine equaled that from ** over the ocean." The husbandmen had the pleasant fruits of the land for the mere plucking ; the shepherds on the hillsides did nothing all day long but smoke their pipes ; and the mariners who went out upon the lakes, or the great deep, were wafted, by airs imperceptible to sense, whithersoever they would be. All these immortals were dressed in silks, em- broidered with threads of silver and of gold, and were without queues. At their entertainments, dancing-girls, fairer far than those of Suchau, moved 4» 82 TAI-PING-WANG. in graceful measures to the sounds of flutes and stringed instruments, which, like iEolian lyres, seemed to breathe in the air. The bowers in which these feasts were given, were festooned with natural wreaths of flowers, and draped with climb- ing plants whose tendrils fell from the lofty branches of the trees till they swept the ground. Fountains kept up their play in them without ceasing, and the gentle sound of falling waters everywhere soothed the ear in the intervals when the gayer music of the air floated away, and was lost in the distance. With this life of soft delights, so different from that of a schoolmaster among the mortals, Siu- tshuen was enchanted. But by a change in the scene, he suddenly found himself in the company of an old woman who was enjoying a sorry immortality of mere skin and bones, and who. said to him, "Thou dirty man, why hast thou kept company with those lovers of pleasure, and defiled thyself? I must now wash thee clean." Whereupon she conducted him down to the bank of a golden-sanded river, in the cleansing waters of which she washed and scrubbed him, as if he had been a soiled jacket. When Siu-tshuen came up out of the water, he felt that he was made clean, and seeing on the banks HE IS TAKEN UP TO HEAVEN IN A TRANCE. 83 of the river a magnificent palace, with a tower reaching to the sky, he desired to be conducted to it. The old woman replied that, having been washed, he was worthy of being introduced into the palace, and she would lead him thither. Their way led at first along the river-bank. Be- sides the gilded domes and thousand minarets of the palace he was approaching, Siu-tshuen beheld with admiration the numerous pleasure-boats which were floating idly down the current of the river. The sound of music was heard from many of them ; and the figh in the pellucid waters seemed to be gam- boling to its measures. They also disported in shoals along the shallow margin of the stream, and many of them, leaping out of the water, made the air flash with phosphorescent light, and the brilliant colors of their scales. Under foot, he trod at every step on flowers which, pressed down in the soft turf, immediately sprang up again from his footsteps ; while overhead, a multitude of birds of every hue, and the sweetest notes, warbled their mutual loves ; squirrels, their cheeks full of nuts, chased each other in graceful dallfance from bough to bough; and fantastic apes, hanging by their tails, played games of ball with oranges and cocoa-nuts, like school-boys among the mortals. As Siu-tshuen passed on, a high-thrown arch ad- 84 TAI-PING-WANG. mitted him into the gardens of the palace. These lay on the bank of the river, connected, on one side, by bridges, with a number of floating islands that lay moored in the broad current, and, on the other, with a range of distant heights which fell down in a graceful slope to the water. The paths wound, now, through parks of lofty forest-trees; now, through thickets of aromatic shrubbery ; now, through glades where flocks and herds crept the grass, or lay about in tranquil rumination. Small streams of water, flowing down from the hills, were frequently crossed by bridges which rested on arches. A good many artificial islands and mounds, also, were passed, and much rock-work, with caverns and cascades, but all arranged with such a perfec- tion of art as to rival the handy-work of nature. With these gardens the Fa-tee at Canton, and those of the golden and silver isles, below Nanking, could bear no comparison. As Siu-tshuen drew nearer to the palace, he began to hear a delicate music, as if proceeding from hun- dreds of silver bells. On asking his guide whence the sounds proceeded, he was told to look at the minarets on the roofs of the palace. He did so, and there beheld the bells which, suspended from a great number of points, so high as to be almost in- visible, and agitated, from time to time, by the wings HE IS TAKEN UP TO HEAVEN IN A TRANCE. 86 of zephyrs floating in the air, sent a chime of silvery melodies down out of mid-heaven to undulate and reecho through all the region round. Through rows oT dwarf trees and shrub peonies, purple, lilac, and deep red ; between borders planted with the fingered citron, the fire-colored rose, and jonquils, the bulb set upside down to make the growth fantastic } by the side of pools filled with the different varieties of the lotus-lily, with gold fish playing between their stems; and, amid clusters of blue camellias, yellow azalias, and magnolias red and white, Siu-tshuen wound his way up flight after flight of easy steps until he reached the gates of the celestial palace. Then the old woman handed him t)ver to the ser- vants in waiting, telling them that he had been made clean ; and these, in turn, took him into one of the inner buildings of the palace, where he was to be subjected to the operation of a change of heart. There Siu-tshuen found a large company of vener- able men assembled, including some of the ancient sages, and among them the illustrious surgeon Chin- kwei, who had lived on earth in the Liang dynasty. He had been called in to perform, in the presence of a crowd of worthies, the act of changing the heart of the newly-arrived mortal. Having his instruments duly arranged, he ordered 86 TAI-PING-WANG. the patient to make bare his breast. When this had been done, he removed the heart, and neighboring parts, from Siu-tshuen's body in less time than it had taken him to pull off his jacket. An attendant standing by with a celestial and brilliantly-red heart in his hand, doctor Chin-kwei clapped it into the place of the one which had been extracted, and sewed up the wound so cleverly that when Siu- tshuen put on his clothes again, he could no longer discern the scar. The operation was attended with no pain whatsoever. Siu-tshuen was now allowed to go into the pres- ence of the lord of the palace. A number of the venerable sages, who had been present at the oper- ation of his change of heart, escorted him on his way through the halls and courts of the extensive pile of buildings. Its internal magnificence equaled that of the exterior. Siu-tshuen passed through marble halls beautifully decorated with inlaid stones of great value ; through apartments hung with magnificently-embroidered tapestry ; through others entirely covered with gilding ; and others still, which were stained with the most brilliant colors, and their walls adorned either with paintings, or tablets, ex- horting to virtue. Siu-tshuen was amazed at all this splendor, and came quite confounded into the presence of the HE IS TAKEN UP TO HEAVEN IN A TRANCE. 87 lord of the mansion. Venerable in years, having a long golden beard hanging down his breast, and solemnly robed in black, this personage sat upon an elevated throne, and received the stranger with dignity, but much feeling. He was even affected to tears, and briefly said, "All the human beings in the world are created and sustained by me ; yet, though they eat my food and wear my clothing, not one of them all remembers and venerates me ; they even take of my gifts and pervert them to the worship of demons ; they purposely rebel against me, and arouse my anger. Imitate them not."* When the aged lord of the palace had finished this speech, he gave Siu4shuen a sword, telling him to exterminate the demons with it ; also a seal which should give him power over evil spirits ; and a yellow fruit from the tree of life which was sweet to the taste. Then, exhorting him to take courage for the work it was given him to do, and promising his constant assistance and protection, he dismissed him from his presence. As Siu-tshuen retired from the palace, he exhort- ed all whom he met to venerate "the old man." Some acknowledged that they had neglected him, and others said, " Why should we spend our time in • Compare Rev. I. J. Robert's statement in " Putnam's Monthly," OctoUr, 1&6. 88 TAI-PING-WANG. worshiping him ? Let us only be merry and drink with our friends." So that even at the very gates of the palace, Siu-tshuen found none whose piety was perfect, not even that of Confucius himself, who had just been reproved from the throne for not having declared the whole truth in his writings. While conversing with this ancient sage, Siu- tshuen was approached by a person of middle age, whom he afterwards called Jesus, his "elder broth- er," and who led him away to the top of the tower belonging to the palace. Thence showing him the earth in the distance, he said, " Behold the people in yonder world ; they are wicked in all the thoughts of their hearts." Thereupon, Siu-tshuen, looking over the face of the earth, saw that it was indeed full of wickedness ; and his eyes not being able to endure the sight of 80 much iniquity, he awoke from his trance. XV. HE IS DELIBIOUS AND CHASES DEMONS THROUGH THE EARTH. When Siu-tshuen awoke from his trance, being fully convinced of the reality of what he had seen in imagination, he arose, tottered into the presence of his father, and, making a low bow, said, ** The venerable old man above has commanded that all men shall turn to me, and all treasures shall flow to me." At these words his father was amazed. He had frequently heard his son talk wildly during his at- tacks of delirium ; but he never before had seen him so calm in his excitement, and so serious in his madness. No reply, however, was attempted by the former to language the purport tff which he did not at all comprehend ; and the latter, com- pletely overcome by the effort he had made, both physical and mental, immediately returned to his mat. But the next day, Siu-tshuen was more furious 90 TAI-PING-WANG. than ever. He leaped about in his narrow room, fighting like a soldier with sword in hand. At the same time he shouted aloud, crying repeatedly, " Tsan jan, tsan jan, tsan ah! tsan ah;^^ that is, "Slay the demons, slay the demons, slay, slay !" He was in imagination pursuing the enemies of " the old man," having in one hand the sword which had been given him, and in the other the seal. "Here is one," he cried out, "and there is one; legions of them cannot stand before me." Every- thing within reach was turned topsy-turvy in pur- suit of the demons. He hunted for them forty times a day under his mat, on his shelves, in the four corners of his chamber. " How could these imps dare oppose me ?" he continued to cry out. " I must slay them ; I must slay them. Many hosts cannot resist me." As in fancy he pressed on in the chase after the fiends, they seemed to undergo various transforma- tions, now flying away as birds, and now leaping like wild beasts. Then, they filled the room in the form of reptiles and creeping things. At one time, he would scatter them like rats and mice ; at another, he would hug them as if they were bears ; or, quietly seating himself, would search for them as for fleas in his blanket. And when these ugly fiends could not be reached with his sword, HE IS DELIRIOUS, ETC. 91 he held up his seal towards them, at sight of which they fled away, and were no more seen. Often, on his incursions into the enemy's country, he was accompanied by his " elder brother," Jesus, whose acquaintance he had made in the trance, and who did him much good service. Like a pair of brothers they roamed to and fro in the earth, and swept their course clean of all under heaven that dared to oppose them. At times, Siu-tshuen, stringing as many demons as he could get on his sword, like snipes on a spit, hurled them by the dozen into the abyss of hell. Then he would laugh aloud, and exclaim, "Aha! they cannot withstand me." The falling imps were caught on the roof of the eight-storied place of tor- ment, which was covered over with spears of great length, and whereon they lay quivering and wrig- gling like flies stuck through by the pin of a school- boy. By thousands upon thousands were the demons hurled upon the sharp-pointed spears, there left to be judged for their deeds done upon earth, and, after sentence, to be distributed among the different apartments, according as they were to be roasted, or otherwise put to torture. Frequently Siu-tshuen stopped to behold the flames as they curled over the chimney-tops of the infernal furnaces, and listening, heard the bones of the demons crackle 92 TAI-PING-WANG. like thorns under a pot, and their hides hiss and sputter like steaks on a gridiron. Thereupon he would rub his hands with glee, and say to himself, " Now will * the old man' be content with me." At other times Siu-tshuen, though equally mad, was more calm. Then he would exhort his brothers and all present to join him in the service of the " venerable old man ;" entreating them with tears, and words of reproof. " You have no hearts," he would say, " to venerate the ' old father,' but are in fellowship with the fiends. Indeed, indeed, you have no hearts, no conscience more." Some person had most of the time to watch at his door, to prevent his running out of the house. He was known through the village as the madman ; but when so called, he laughed aloud, and said, "In- deed, I am not mad." He even declared himself to be the Emperor of China, and was much pleased when he was addressed by this title. In his better moods, he occasionally took his pencil, and wrote verses, some of which bear marks of the '* fine frenzy" of genuine poetry. The following is a specimen : <'My hand now holds, both in heaven and earth, the power to panish and kill ; To slay the depraved, and spare the upright ; to relieve the people's distress. HE IS DELIRIOUS, ETC. SB My eyes survey from the north to the south, beyond the rivers and mountains ; My voice is heard from the east to the west, to the tracts of the sun and the moon. The dragon expands his claws, as if the road in the clouds were too narrow ; And when he aacends, why should he fear the bent of the milky-way ? Then tempest and thunder as music attend, and the foaming waves are excited ; The flying dragon, the yik-king describes, dwells surely in heaven above." Meanwhile, Hung-Jang remained sorely distressed on account of his son's illness. He consulted all the doctors and old wives, far and near, but none of their arts could effectually minister to the disease of either the body, or the mind. At last it occurred to him, that this great calamity might have arisen from the circumstance that the geomancer had selected an unlucky spot for the burial of his wife, or some of his kindred. So he called for the fortune- teller and other magicians, and ordered them to go with their compasses to the burial-ground, and by their arts ascertain if any soul had been uncomfort- ably and improperly buried. They thereupon set oif upon this errand, expecting that it would give them all occupation for a month ; and had not Siu-tshuen suddenly become better, it would have gone hard but what they would have disturbed the resting- place of every ppor soul on the hillside, and 94 TAI-PING-WANG. brought the sleeping bones of the four generations of Hungs above ground. Fortunately Siu-tshuen's recovery prevented this desecration, besides saving the expense of further disinterment-fees. He began to mend from the day when his father found in a crack of the door-post a slip of paper on which was written, in red ink, the following inscription : ** The noble yrinciplcs of the heavenly king, the sove- reign imncc Tsliucny So, at the end of forty days, the son of Tlung-Jang was restored to health of both body and mind ; and there was an end of his visions. XVI. HK BEADS THE TRACTS OF LIANQ AFAH, AMD BAPTIZES HIM- SELF. With his recovery a great change came over Siu- ' tshuen. His physical system gradually received its final development into manhood, his height being increased, his shoulders broadened, his step be- coming more firm, and his presence more imposing. His mind, also, was the subject of a no less marked expansion. A greater liberality characterized his views, as well as more earnestness. He was dis- posed to converse with men more, and to pore over books less. The aged and the virtuous sought his company to listen to the strange narrative of his visions, which he repeated very cheerfully, and to derive instruction from one whose thoughts had the charm of originality, as well as of earnest sincerity. But the frivolous could take no pleasure in his words, and the vicious hid their faces from his re- proofs. J 96 TAI-PING-WANG. He now opened, for the second time, his school in Water-Lily ; where he taught with more success than ever, as well as mixed more in the society of men, both learned and unlearned. - Such were, how- ever, his recollections of" the blossom and fragrance of the pharmacopoeia," which had been administer- ed to him during his illness by doctor Tchong-king- ho, that he avoided intercourse with this learned professor, and never went to renew his disputes with him respecting the doctrines of Confucius, and Chu-h^. One more attempt, and the last, was now made to obtain a degree at Canton. But it was written in the book of the fates that he should never become a siu-tsai, much less, cross the threshold of the "Forest of Pencils Society." He was to have his brow bound with the golden round of empire, and not with the fragrant olive of letters. Conscious, however, of deserving the latter long before he ever dreamed of being rewarded with the former, an N^ unquenchable ambition to become distinguished, which had before contributed towards prostrating his health, now became the breath of his life, and led to such resolves and efforts as were the almost inevitable precursors of success. " Divine Providence," it has been profanely said, " is always on the side of the most cannon." But, HE BAPTIZES HIMSELF. 97 to bring out of the paddy-fields of Hung-Jang a power to shake the empire of the Manchus, who, for two centuries, had ruled the three hundred millions of the Middle Kingdom, was to accomplish its purposes by an instrumentality as feeble as that of the fishermen who subverted the dominion of classic antiquity, and sat down in the seat of the Caesars. And the time had now fully come when this humble instrument was to be brought into action. During ten long years the pious tracts of Liang Afah had lain undisturbed on the shelf of Siu-tshuen ; but the dust was at length to be brushed from their covers, and they were to be a light in his path, to lighten him until he should ascend the steps of a throne, and fulfill the divine purpose of converting millions of men from the error of idolatry. One day, in the year 1843, it happened that a relative of Siu-tshuen, of the Li family, in examin- ing the contents of his book-case, fell upon the Christian tracts, entitled ** Good words for exhorting the age." On inquiring respecting their character, he was told by his kinsman that they were strange books, which he had read years ago, but without deriving from them much information, or instruction. The curiosity of Li, however, being excited, he requested permission to take the books 98 TAI-PING-WANG. home and read them. He was allowed to do so , and after perusal, he returned them, saying that they seemed to him very extraordinary productions, and very different from Chinese writings.* f This induced Siu-tshuen to give the tracts a se- cond perusal. He began reading them attentively ; and, as he read, much which before was unintelligi- ble now revealed its meaning. Suddenly, it occur- red to him, like a light flashing into a dark place, that there was a correspondence between these books and the visions of his illness. The former were a key and explanation of the latter. They mutually confirmed each other. The "venerable old man" whom he had beheld sitting on the throne was God, the heavenly Father, and the man of " middle age," who had instructed and aided him in exterminating the demons, was Jesus, the Saviour of the world. These demons were the idols worshiped by his countrymen ; and the brothers and sisters, whom he had been directed to spare, were the wor- shipers themselves. This confirmation of the reality of his visions filled the heart of Siu-tshuen with joy. His imagi- nation being excited to the highest pitch, he saw • Compare the statement of Rev. I. , J. Roberts, in " Putnam's Monthly." October, 1856. HE BAPTIZES HIMSELF. 99 the idols of the land already cast down from their ~^ shrines, as the demons had been hurled from earth into hell. Straightway, he removed the tablet of Confucius from his school-room, and persuaded his fellow-student, Li, who had caught a portion of his enthusiasm, to throw away his idols. Then, learn- ing from the Christian books the necessity of bap- tism to salvation, they took a bowl, and poured water, each upon his own head, saying, " Purifica- tion from all sin — putting off the old — regenera- tion." This act performed, Siu-tshuen gave vent to his new emotions by the composition of the following lines on repentance : " "VVhen our transgressions high as heaven rise, How well to trust in Jesus' full atonement I We follow not the demons ; we obey The holy precepts — worshiping alone One God, and thus we cultivate our hearts. The heavenly glories open to our view, And every being ought to seek thereafter. I much deplore the miseries of hell. O turn ye to the fruits of true repentance 1 Let not your hearts be led by worldly customs." XVII. HE MAKES PROSELYTES AND 0BDER8 A SWOBD. Siu-TSHUEN now began to speak freely with his friends respecting his new belief, adducing his visions, and the Christian books, as reciprocal evidence of their truth. *' These books," said he, " are certainly sent purposely by heaven to me, to confirm the truth of my former experiences ; if I had received the books without having gone through the sickness, I should not have dared to believe in them, and on my own account to oppose the customs of the whole world ; if I had merely been sick, but not also received the books, I should have had no further evidence as to the truth of my visions, which might also have been considered as mere productions of a diseased imagi- nation." In studying these foreign writings Siu-tshuen be- came most interested in the portions of sacred Scrip- ture which were contained in them, as he found these both easier to be comprehended, and more HE MAKES PROSELYTES, ETC* 4G1 corroborative of his dreams, th£Y> the 'hymilfeS 'a'tfd arguments of Liang Afah. His interpretations of^ the text, however, were made to suit his own views. Whenever the personal pronouns occurred in the sacred pages, he referred them to himself ; and the word tshuen, signifying perfectt wholcy allt was also understood to be his own name. Thus, where it is written, " Their voice is gone out to the whole world," the country of Tshuen was meant ; and the phrase, ** altogether righteous, more to be desired than gold," he read, " Tshuen is righteous, more to be desired than gold." ** Who can understand, so as Tshuen, his errors," was another similar reading. J Supplied with such apparently striking proofs of "? the heavenly origin of his commission to preach against the worship of idols, and in favor of that of the one true God, he declared boldly to his friends, "I have received the immediate commands of God ; ihr will of heaven rests with me. Although there- by I should meet with calamity, difficulties, and suffering, yet, I am resolved to act. By disobeying the heavenly command, I should only rouse the anger of God ; and are not these books the founda- tion of all the true doctrines contained in others?" His first efforts at gaining proselytes were made among his most intimate friends. Being one day on a visit to his father's house, he went to a neighbor- 10:^ TAI-PING-WANG. lug .vjUa^e to talk with one of his associates, who was called P'hang. But this person not only re- mained stubborn in his unbelief of the new doctrine, derived from strange books and visions, but actually thought that Siu-tshuen was going mad again, and directed a trustworthy man to see him safely home. Not at all disheartened, however, by the ill success of his attempt on the unbelief of P'hang, the preach- er set upon his attendant, as they walked together, and plied him with such earnestness of argumenta- tion and sincerity of conviction, that, before reach- ing the end of their way, the latter said, "I believe." This was Siu-tshuen's second convert, Li having been the first. He was named Chun, and was bap- tized in the canal along the pathside by the wash- , ingof his head. f" With his two intimate friends, Fung Jun-san and Hun^-Jin, the success of the new teacher of righte- ousness was greater than it had been with P'hang. They received his words into willing minds, and were baptized in the school-room of the former ; for both were teachers. But afterwards, thinking them not made sufficiently clean, Siu-tshuen took both down to the canal, and had them thoroughly washed and scrubbed, after the fashion of the old woman who had performed the ceremony upon himself in heaven. HE MAKES PROSELYTES, ETC. 108 Thereupon, Siu-tshuen removed the idols and tab- "^ lets from the school-rooms of the two converts, and indited the following quartet : " Besides the God of heaven there is no other God ; Why do the foolish men take falsehood to be truth ? Since their primeval heart is altogether lost, How can they now escape defilement from the dast?" J And to this, Hung-Jin wrote a reply after the Chinese fashion — the lines concluding with the same words — as follows : " The mighty heavenly Father, he is the one true God. Idols are made of wood, or moalded from the clod. We trust that Jesus came to save us who were lost, That we may soon escape defilement from the dust." Hung-Jang, more convinced than ever that his son was as great a favorite with the heavenly powers as with himself, embraced the new doctrine, and was baptized, with all his household. But though this event filled the filial heart of Siu-tshuen with the greatest satisfaction, he found numerous skeptics in the circle of his friends and relatives. Some mock- ed ; among whom was a siu-tsai, by the name of Wun, who, when exhorted to accept the new views, re- plied with such ridicule of them that Siu-tshuen left his house in anger, refusing to partake of the fowl which had been killed for him. -j Hung-Jin, also, was badly beaten by his elder bro- 104 TAI-PING-WANG. ther, and driven out of the house, with rent gar- ments, because he had removed the tablet of Confucius from his school-room, and thereby lost all his pupils. But the maltreated young man meekly replied, *' Am I not a teacher, and Confucius only a dead man ?, Why should I worship him ?" r^ Finally, the elders of the village, wishing to hold a " feast of lanterns," desired Siu-tshuen and Hung- Jin, who enjoyed the reputation of being the most accomplished poets of the day, to write songs for the occasion ; and the converts declining to aid by their pencils in the idolatrous festivity, they were pelted with doggrel by the offended versifiers of the old superstition. Thus arose a brief war of verses, in which the Christian poets seem to have had de- cidedly the best of it, and in the course of which the following reply was composed by Siu-tshuen : " Not because of evil saying, Did we disobey your orders ; We but honor God's commandments — Act according to his precepts. Heaven's and perdition's way Most be rigidly distinguished. We dare not, in thoughtless manner, Hurry through the present life." The first struggles for the faith having been at- tended with a considerable degree of success, though many disbelieved, and others stood in fear of the HE MAKES PROSELYTES, ETC. 105 people, Siu-tshuen was encouraged in interpreting 7 those passages in the Old Testament which speak of God*s chosen race, as meaning the Chinese, and of the promised possession of the heavenly kingdom as referring to the empire to be reserved for himself and his followers. To prepare himself and his friend \ Li, therefore, for playing the parts of a Moses and a Joshua, he ordered two swords to be made of the weight of nine pounds English, each ; three and a half feet in length ; and to be inscribed with charac- ters signifying, ** Demon-Exterminating Sword." ^ Thereupon, rejoicing in the anticipated triumph of their faith, they chanted together the following hymn, written by Siu-tshuen : " With the three ^oot sword ia oar hand, Do we quiet the sea and the land. Surrounded by ocean, all forming one clan, Dwells man in harmonious union. We seize all the demons, and shut them up In the depths of the earth ; We gather the traitorg, and let them fall la the heavenly net. All the four parts of tho world Depend on the sovereign pole. The sun, the moon, and the stars, Join in the chorus of triumph. The tigers roar, the dragon sings ; The world is full of light. When over all great peace prevails, O, what a state of bliss !'' 5* XVIII. HE GOES TO THE MOXTNTAINS OF KWAN0-8I. While the religious enthusiasm of Siu-tshuen mounted so high that, like the Apostle Peter, he demanded a sword, the amount of cash in his pockets was daily running lower and lower. The removal of the tablet of Confucius from the wall of his room had cleared it of pupils, and left his bamboos with- out a single back to be exercised on. " No scholars, no rice," is an adage with Chinese professors ; and Siu-tshuen's present experience did not disprove it. r Finding, then, by the poverty to which he was reduced in the course of a few weeks, that preach- ing in Hwa-hien would not keep him from starva- tion, and reading, at the same time, in the foreign scriptures, that a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house, he con- ceived the design of setting off on a mission to his ^ relatives in the province of Kwang-si. Two mem- bers of the Hung clan, there resident, had come the THE MOUNTAINS OF KWANG-SI. 107 previous year on a visit to Hwa-hien, and had car- ried back the news of the new religion. Siu-tshuen, therefore, resolved to follow in the track of these forerunners. He had never in his life been further from home than Canton, and the journey to the dis- tant mountains of Kwang-si was not without its attractions to the romantic mind of the dweller in the rice-plains. But how to subsist on the way, was the question. This, however, he resolved, by determining that he would trust to Divine Provi- dence, and the trade, which he proposed to take up, of peddling pencils and ink-stones. Accordingly, taking with him Fung Yun-san, and two others, he started, in the second month of the year eighteen hundred and forty-four, for Kwang-si. With a few pencils and ink-stones in their pockets instead of cashy these humble schoolmasters set off on their errand of proselytism, as poor as the inspired fishermen, when commencing the circuit of Galilee ; but, as they took the first step on their way, the re- cording angel of heaven wrote down in the book of life the names of tens and hundreds of thousands who were to be converted from the worship of idols. In a few days the travelers reached a district called Clear-far, where resided a branch of the Li family, and where afterwards Hung-Jin had -great 108 TAI-PING-WANG. success in both teaching and baptizing. They pre- pared the way for his coming ; for they spent nearly a week here, proclaiming the doctrines that men should abstain from idolatry, and worship the one true God, who had sent his Son into the world to save from hell all those who should repent, and be- lieve in his name. Many received their words with faith, and gave them the means of continuing their journey. With cheerful hearts, therefore, they went on their way from Clear-far ; and Siu-tshuen, as he surveyed the beautiful panorama from the high ground on which stood the village where he had been enter- tained, gave vent to his delight by chanting his odes, together with the nineteenth, and thirty-third psalms, which he had committed to memory from the vo- lumes of Liang Afah. * It was in the third month that the pilgrims reached the foot of the mountains of Kwang-si. Hitherto they had advanced on their journey with- out much inconvenience, preaching as they went, and obtaining at least sufficient contributions to supply their daily wants. But as the mountains, inhabited in part by the wild tribes of the Miautsz', now rose in their path, the hearts of the two attend- ants of Siu-tshuen and Yun-san failed them, and they turned back. But it was not. in the nature of THE MOUNTAINS OF KWANG-SI. 109 either of the others to do this. They bravely breasted the mountain-side, and penetrated, though without a guide, into its narrow defiles and valleys. The lively air of the elevated region elated the spirits of Siu-tshuen, reminding him of the golden days of his youth, spent in tending herds in the hill- country. Whenever he sat down to rest, the most pleasing reflections arose in his mind as spontane- ously as grew the orange-colored fi*uit of the kum- quat over his head ; and he recalled to memory the saying of Confucius that, "By studying in the re- tirement of the mountains and water-falls, man re- turns to the primitive goodness of his nature." Having also a keen enjoyment of the beauties of natural scenery, he took great delight, as he climbed the summits, in turning round to survey the land- scape of the plains, lying far lower than any he had before seen. His eye, likewise, was attracted by the noble forest-growth ; and as repeatedly during his journey he had called the attention of Yun-san to the hills completely covered with white camellias, or the yellow azaleas — to the lakes, and canal-sides, gay with lotus flowers — and to ravines where the bam- boo, both black and yellow, shot up nearly fifty feet in the air its clean, straight stem, with graceful top, and branches waving in the wind — so now he spoke often of the beauty of the tall pines and oaks, the 110 T AI-PING-WANG. yews and cypresses, the camphor and the tallow- tree, and also of the fragrant tropical brushwood, including the downy myrtle, with its rose-colored blossoms, the camellia japonicas, of the single red variety, twenty or thirty feet high, and the lovely glycine, climbing to the loftiest tree-tops, and hang- ing its flowering festoons gracefully from branch to branch. Yun-san, on the other hand, reminded his companion that they were in the midst of that region which supplied the best materials for coffins in the country, and quoted the common saying that, ** To render life perfectly happy, it is necessary to be born at Su-chau, in order to be handsome ; to live at Canton, to be luxurious ; and to die in the province of Kwang- si, whose forests yield beautiful wood for coffins." After four days had been spent in wandering about in the mountains, the two friends fell in with a Chinese schoolmaster, by the name of Kiang, who was teaching in one of the villages of the Miautsz'. This pedagogue, glad to meet with persons of his own profession from the lowlands, not only enter- tained them cheerfully, and gave them some supplies and directions for the remainder of their journey, but also allowed himself to be converted to their faith. With renewed strength, then, they resumed their travels ; but they were destined to meet with much fatigue and privation before coming to the end of THE MOUNTAINS OF KWANG-SI. Ill them. There were but few villages on their route ; and the occasional sheds, kept for the accommoda- tion of wayfarers, rarely furnished them with any- thing more than a roof, a cup of tea, and, perhaps, a few sugar-cakes. But Siu-tshuen and his compan- ion bravely followed the direction of the Chinese proverb, which says, " What is lacking in food must be made up in water." Of this there was enough ; for all the valleys were threaded by streams, the passing of which was sometimes no easy matter. The bridges, where there were any, consisted of large stones thrown into the water, or trees felled across from bank to bank, or, in some instances, of iron chains with planks to walk upon. But Siu- tshuen followed the path as it crossed the torrents, climbed the steeps, and wound round the preci- pices, as if it were all a path of faith. The immense and fantastically shaped masses of rock, the deep chasms, the tumbling cascades, the winds sighing in the pines, and the tempest rattling among the crags, all filled his mind with awe, greater even than that he had experienced when walking in his dreams through the gardens and the palace of the Lord of heaven. At length, at the end of nearly three weeks of wandering through the mountains, during which time the two companions sometimes for twenty-four 112 T AI-PING-WANG. hours together partook of no other sustenance than roots and berries, and that kind of food commended in the proverb before mentioned, the travelers arrived at Valley-home, the residence of their rela- tive Wang. It was indeed with joy and thanks to God that they shook off the dust of their long and perilous journey at the hospitable threshold of their kinsman, who in turn manifested scarcely less satis- faction on seeing Siu-tshuen and his friend, respect- ing whom the two clansmen, returned the year be- fore from Hwa-hien, had given him some information. Here the evangelists remained several months, teaching daily the new doctrine to this branch of the tribe of the Hungs. And such was the sin- cerity with which Siu-tshuen narrated the history of his books and visions, and such the eloquence with which he urged the turning away from idols to the w^orship of the one true God, and of Jesus his Son, who had made an atonement for the sins of the world, that not only Wang, but several hundred others, believed the good news of salvation from the pains of hell, and were baptized. Siu-tshuen was looked upon as having come down from heaven to reveal unto them the new doctrine. They believed him to be more than a mortal. And this belief was considerably strengthened by the circumstance that a petition, which he wrote in behalf of a son of THE MOUNTAINS OF KWANG-SI. 113 Wang, who had been unjustly thrown into prison by the local magistrate, had the effect of procuring a release. Only a messenger from heaven, it was thought, could so easily unlock the prison-doors of the petty tyrant of the district ; and the young man himself, by name Wang-ugi, believed in his rescuer as the unbound Peter did in the angel who had de- livered him out the hand of Herod. -^ When at length the tenth month came, Siu-tshu-~^ en directed Yun-san to return to Hwa-hien, pur- posing himself to remain some time longer. Yun- san accordingly departed ; but being well received at a place on the way, called Thistle-mount, he took up his abode there ; and, during several years, continued, not only teaching, but also preaching with 80 great success that large numbers were bap- tized, and a society was established, which became known under the title of ** The Congregation of the Worshipers of God." Soon after, Siu-tshuen himself, having success- fully accomplished the object of his mission, left Valley-home ; and, returning by a shorter route, reached Hwa-hien before the end of the year. This, however, was not a final leave-taking of his friends in Kwang-si ; for it was destined that the insurrec- tion should commence in this province. But the fullness of time had not yet come. XIX. HE WRITES REUaiOUS ESSAYS AND POEMS. When, on the return home of Siu-tshuen, it be- came known that he had accomplished the journey to the distant mountains of Kwang-si, and there preached the new doctrine with great success, his reputation rose higher than it had ever been before through all the villages in his native district. He was regarded both as a far-traveled man, and the founder of a new religious sect. Many, therefore, who would not listen to his words before he had not been further from home than Canton, now gath- ered around the missionary who had told the story of his books and dreams in the mountains of the wild Miautsz'. Some, who had been the loudest mock- ers, gladly submitted their heads to baptism in the canal ; and Siu-tshuen became established as a regu- lar preacher of the foreign righteousness, with a respectable body of followers. He was also suc- cessful in reopening his school, which he continued HE WRITES RELIGIOUS ESSAYS AND POEMS. 115 to teach for the space of two years, the boys soon forgetting the tablet of Confucius, the absence of which at first had raised their queues in terror. During these two years a large number of verses ^ and essays were written by him on the subject of the new religion, the principal of which were afterwards rewritten and published in " The Impe- rial Declaration of Tai-ping-wang," under the titles of, " An Ode on the Origin of Virtue and the Saving of the World," *' An Ode on Correctness, *' An Essay on the Origin of Virtue, for the Awakening of the Age," and, " Further Exhortations on the Origin of Virtue, for the Awakening of the Age."* } In the ode, the poet declares that all men are created with a '* natural conscience" to teach them what is right, and that, from the time of Pwan-koo, the first Chinese man, down to that of the three dynasties, which was about two hundred years be- fore Christ, they obeyed it. and worshiped the one true God — Shang-Teh. He is represented as being the common father of the human family ; and by his decrees, which constitute fate, are all the events of life determined. •* He warms us by his sun, he nourishes us by his rain, He moves the thunder-bolt, he scatters the wind." * Compare Ho. of Reps. Ex. Doc., No. 123,XXXind Congress, Ist Session, pp. 144-155. 116 T AI-PING- WANG. " God should be worshiped," continues the poet, "morning and evening ; but the best service which can be rendered him is that of a virtuous life." Vir- tue is defined, in a Confucian sense, to be correct- ness, or the avoiding of extremes in desire and con- duct ; and the golden rule is adduced as the best practical guide of life. " Do as you would be done by, and you will always do right." " If you do not regard small matters, you will at length spoil great virtues." Among the vices chiefly condemned, is dis- obedience to parents, which is declared to be disobedience to God ; and as " The lamb kneels to reach the teat— the crow retonu the food to its dam, So when men are not equal to brutes, they disgrace their origin." Another vice which is stigmatized, is lewdness ; for, *' Those who debauch others, debauch themselves, and they be- come fiends together." A third wrong specified, is murder, and the in- jury of others. " AH under heaven are our brethren. From of old, those who have saved others, have thereby saved themselves. Happiness is of one's own seeking, and is easily obtained. HE WRITES RELIGIOUS ESSAYS AND POEMS. 117 From of old, those who have iojared others, have injured them- selves. Misery is of one's own choosing, and is with difQculty avoided." Other violations of the divine law enumerated are robbery, theft, gambling, and the excessive use of wine and opium. The prose essays inculcate liberality of sentiment and conduct, not only between man and man, but also between nations. The feuds among clans, and the mutual contempt entertained by different tribes and peoples, proceed from ignorance of each other's character, and from narrow-mindedness. The general principle is laid down that univer- sality is the only test of truth. The opinions of the day, and of the neighborhood, are to be suspected as contracted and false, unless confirmed by the beliefs of men of all ages, and in all parts of the earth. " When the mind is enlarged, happiness is great,'* says the essayist ; " but contracted views are like those of a frog at the bottom of a well." The folly, also, of the superstitious notions of Buddha and Taou are pointed out ; various idola- trous beliefs, which have prevailed at particular times and places, are condemned ; and the good days of Yaou and Shun are praised, when " men, who possessed anything, regarded those who pos- sessed it not ; they aided each other in calamity ; lid TAI-PING-WANG. at night no man closed his doors, and no man picked up that which was dropped on the road ; men and women walked on separate paths ; and, in promot- ing men to office, virtue was chiefly regarded." Several of these doctrines are illustrated by the following ode. " God is originally our universal Father ; Afl the spring to the fountain and the root to the tree, so is he the true origin. Liberal-hearted, he treats one nation like another ; Kindly disposed, he regards the inhabitants of earth and heaven alike. When brutes injure each other, it is still improper ; But when neighbors slay one another, it is far more wicked. Heaven having produced and nourished us all, we should be harmonious ; Let us, then, promote each other's peace, and enjoy tranquillity.-' But while occupied with the composition of these writings, there was a secret thought in the bottom of Siu-tshuen's heart, to which he gave no public utterance. This was intrusted only to the ears of his faithful friend Hung- Jin, then a teacher at Clear-far, where he had succeeded in getting a school, by so far compromising his principles as to allow his pupils to worship Confucius, while he did not do it himself. But, being both intelligent and devoted to Siu-tshuen, he was made a confidant of by the latter, who revealed to him the wish, which had sprung up, and was kept hid in his breast, to HE WHITES RELIGIOUS ESSAYS AND POEMS. 119 deliver his countrymen some day from the bondage of the Manchus. As he reflected how, for two hundred years, these Tartars, though comparatively a handful, had ruled over the native Chinese, still keeping their own race distinct, residing in separate quarters of the cities, and retaining in their hands all the chief offices of the army, and a large proportion of those of the state, his heart burned within him, and he said one day to Jin, ** God has divided the kingdoms of the world, and made the ocean to be a boundary for them, just as a father divides his estates among his sons ; every one of whom ought to reverence the will of his father, and quietly manage his own pro- perty. Why, now, should these Manchus forcibly enter China, and rob their brothers of their estate ?" At a later period, he reverted to the subject in a tone of more confidence, saying, ♦* If God will help me to recover our estate, I ought to teach all nations to hold every one its own possessions, with- out injuring or robbing one another ; we will have intercourse in communicating true principles and wisdom to each other, and receive each other with propriety and politeness ; we will serve to- gether one common heavenly Father, and honor together the doctrines of one common heavenly Brother, the Saviour of the world ; this has been 120 TAI-PING-WANG. the wish of my heart since the time when my soul was taken up to heaven." Not long after, Siu-tshuen had a dream, which made considerable impression on his mind, wherein he saw a globe of fire like the sun, hovering over his head, and which became associated in his thoughts with the famous king whose coming, at the end of five hundred years, was foretold by Men- cius. Believing this personage to be none other than himself, and that he was destined not only to remove the idols out of the land, but also to expel the Manchus, he composed the following lines upon the subject : " Now that five hundred ycara have past, The true sun moves in sight ; And how shall these poor glowworms dare To rival it in light? On its suspense in heaven's arch All vapors disappear ; And as it shines, demons and imps Are hidden out of fear. The North and South, the East and West, To it their homage pay. And hosts of the barbarian tribes Are yielding to its sway. The stars, by its great splendor, in Obscurity are hurled. And solely its pure brilliant rays Illuminate the world." At this time, Siu-tshuen said nothing to any one, HE WRITES RELIGIOUS ESSAYS AND POEMS. 121 excepting his friend, Hung-Jin, respecting his hope of delivering his countrymen from the yoke of the Tartars, but he often pondered over it in his heart. 6 XX. HE VISITS AN AMERICAN MISSIONARY IN CANTON. Meanwhile, the news was brought to Ilwa-hien by one Mou-li-pau, wlio often came and went be- tween this district and the capital of the province, that a foreign missionary was preaching, at Canton, doctrines similar to those promulgated by Siu- tshuen. And some time after, the same person, having given information to this missionary respect- ing the new religious sect in llwa-hien and Kwang- si, brought a letter from the latter's assistant to Siu-tshuen, inviting him to *' come and assist him in preaching." Upon the reception of this invitation, Siu-tshuen, taking with him his friend Hung-Jin, went to Can- ton, and presented himself before the American mis- sionary. Rev. I. J. Roberts. He was then about thirty-four years of age ; was five feet five inches in height ; and in person was muscular, broad-shouldered, and generally well- HE VISITS AN AMERICAN MISSIONARY. 123 proportioned. His hands and feet were small. His head was oval, with regular and decidedly hand- some features ; a complexion of the color of an oak- leaf faded ; dark, hair, though inclining to brown in the beard; small ears; nose higher than usual in his countrymen ; and eyes black, large, and pene- trating the beholder. He had also been endowed by nature with a voice for oratory and command — it being clear, sonorous, and musical in its intona- tions. His manners were marked by the polite affability so characteristic of the inhabitants of the "central flowery kmgdom ;" though a certain air of self-respect, together with a dash of grave earnest- ness, did not invite undue familiarity, but rather served to throw about his otherwise attractive pres- ence a circle of deference and ceremony. Presenting, on his introduction to Mr. Roberts, a detailed account, in writing, of his life and visions, he was received into good fellowship, and intro- duced to a number of persons more or less connect- ed with the mission. The native assistants were directed to explain to him the Word of God more thoroughly; and, at the end of a month, two of them went with him on an excursion to Hwa-hien, where they spent a few days in preaching the Gos- pel to his friends and followers. After his return to Canton, he remained still an- 124 TAI-PIXG-WAXG. other month sitting at the feet of his instructors in Christianity, and making rapid progress in master- ing the ideas of a new and higher civilization. But, being now as poor in this world's goods as he was richly endowed with intellect and imagina- tion, he was desirous of being permanently engaged at the mission as an assistant, and thereby securing the means of support, while he continued to prose- cute the study of Christianity. But this coming to the knowledge of the other native assistants, they plotted together to do Siu-tshuen an injury in the estimation of their employer, for fear lest his supe- rior talent might prove the cause of their being supplanted. They, accordingly, instigated the new disciple to make such an application for support as could not consistently be granted. Indeed, his wish to receive baptism being coupled with a prop- osition to fill the situation of assistant, seems to have awakened some distrust of his integrity in the mind of the missionary, who, not fully appreciating the high qualities of the new convert, and having no presentiment of the great part he was about to play in his country's affairs, deferred the period of his being received into the communion of the church until after he should have served out a longer proba- tion. But this putting of him off did not suit either Siu-tshuen's sense of self-respect, or the reduced HE VISITS AN AMERICAN MISSIONARY. 125 state of his finances ; so that he had no choice left but to take his leave of a mission, which could neither appreciate nor employ him.* Though utterly destitute of the means of travel- ^ ing, this circumstance did not prevent his resolving to make another visit to his converts in Kwang-si. He had not succeeded in gaining admission to the Christian church any more than he had into " The Forest of Pencils Society;*' but a strong confidence in his destiny prevented his spirits from being cast down, or the energy of his purpose from being abated. • Note B, Appendix. XXI. HE MAKES ANOTHER JOXJRNEY TO KWANG-SI. On his second tour to Kwang-si, Siu-tshuen set off alone. For Hung-Jin had previously returned to Hwa-hien, _ where, the death of doctor Ki-hi occurring at the time, he at once exchanged his bamboo for the pole and flag of the departed Hip- pocrates, and, by help of a few odd volumes of the " Golden Mirror of Medical Practice," very soon came to discourse even more learnedly upon acu- puncture and decoctions than ever had done his predecessor. The equipment of Siu-tshuen for a journey of more than two hundred miles, consisted of a string of one hundred cash, given him for his services by the chief assistant of the missionary, and of an extra jacket. With this, and faith in heaven, he went boldly forth. Being too poor, however, to pay for a passage by boat, he was obliged to rely on his legs for conveyance ; and, before going far, he fell ANOTHER JOURNEY TO KWANG-SI. 127 among robbers, who stripped him of all superfluous clothing, and relieved his pockets of what small weight of copper cash there was in them. Siu- tshuen then found himself in a very sorry plight for continuing his journey, much more for driving out of the land either idols, or Manchus. Still he had one jacket left, and, knowing that there would be at least plenty of water for food as well as for drink all the way to the mountains, he kept on. One day, in his extremity, he bethought himself of the prefect of the district of Shau-king, through which he was passing, and resolved to write a peti- tion for assistance, with a statement of who he was, and where he was going. This brought a reply, in which the official took refuge in the technicality that Moi-tszu-siu, the place where Siu-tshuen had dated his petition, was not in his jurisdiction, but within that of the prefect of the adjoining district of Tek-king. But after an interview with the traveler, he was induced so far to modify his re- fusal as to advance the small sum of four hundred cash. A few days afterwards, when Siu-tshuen was sit- ting, well nigh disheartened, on the bank of the Pearl river, a man passed by who said to him : " A broken chord is mended with a line ; and when the boat comes there is a way opened.*' This remark 128 TAI-PIN(J-WANG. of the stranger, struck his mind forcibly as an inti- mation from heaven that he should go forward ; and he resolved, accordingly, to take passage on board the small craft for carrying passengers, then coming in sight. Siu-tshuen remained squat on the forward deck of this vessel for a couple of days, eating only one meal of rice in twenty-four hours, but reflecting much on the work to be done by him in Kwang-si. At length, some of the passengers, noticing his ab- stemious habits, and struck by his prepossessing appearance, entered into conversation wnth him. In reply to their questions, he made known his religious views and experiences, and, there being one or two of the class of the literati on board, he was enabled to gain a favorable hearing for the new doctrines. In proof of it, a small contribution was raised in aid of the prophet in distress, who thus found himself in funds both for defraying the ex- pense of his passage, and for proceeding still further on his travels. The seven days' voyage on the river left but a small portion of the way to be passed over on foot. Accordingly, Siu-tshuen soon reached Valley- home, but learning there that his friend, Yun-san, was then successfully preaching in Thistle-mount, he immediately went thither to see him. The meet- ANOTHER JOURNEY TO KWANG-SI. 129 ing between the two friends was a happy one ; and Siu-tshuen was delighted to find a congregation of God-worshipers, already numbering upwards of one thousand souls. XXII. HE ESTABLISHES A FORM OF WORSHIP. Siu-TSHUEX now made Thistle-mount his head- quarters ; and under his earnest preaching the num- ber of the worshipers of God was soon more than doubled. The new doctrine, also, spread to the neighboring departments, more especially those of Liang-chau, Tsin-chau, Yuh-kwei, and Poh-peh, where many learned men and heads of clans were added to the different congregations. Both the strong-minded and the weak-minded were affected by the prevailing enthusiasm ; and mention is made of one good woman, by the name of Yang-yun-kiau, who stated that in the year ting- yew, or eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, her soul, during a severe fit of sickness, ascended to heaven, when she heard an " old man" say to her, ** After ten years a man will come from the east, and teach the worship of God ; obey him willingly." This aged sister was esteemed such an eminent saint and helper HE ESTABLISHES A FORM OF WORSHIP. 131 of the good work, that, before the arrival of Siu- tshuen, the proverb had got currency at Thistle- mount that, " All men should study to be like Fung- yun-san, and all women like Yang-yun-kiau." The mode of worship established at Thistle-mount borrowed most of its forms from Christianity, but still retained some of the practices of the old idolatry. The males and females of the congregation were seated apart from each other. In prayer, all knelt down facing the side of the house whence came the light, and remained, with closed eyes, while some one recited a petition in the name of the whole as- sembly. God was praised by the singing of a hymn, in which, however, there was but little melody be- yond that in the heart. This was followed by an address exhorting to refrain from idolatry ; to repent of sins ; to believe in Jesus, the Saviour of the world ; to escape from the pains of hell, and secure the everlasting joys of heaveo. When converts were to be admitted into the con- gregation, the following were the usual ceremonies : Two burning lamps and three cups of tea were placed upon a table ; when a written confession of sins, together with the names of the neophytes, were read aloud, and this afterwards offered to God by being burned in the flame of the lamps. The ques- tion was then asked of the applicants for admission -J 7 132 TAI-PING-WANG. into the congregation, if they promised, "Not to worship evil spirits, not to practice evil things, but to keep the heavenly commandments?" This an- swered in the affirmative, they knelt down, and the person officiating poured a cup of water over each one's head, saying, •* Purification from all former sins, putting off the old, and regeneration." On rising from their knees, they refreshed themselves with a cup of tea from the table, and generally finished the rite of baptism by some further washing of their hands, faces, and breasts — though many were not satisfied short of a thorough cleansing of the person in a canal or river. Different forms of prayer to be used morning and evening, and at meals, were distributed among the newly-admitted to the congregation ; and, with the exception of the offering up to God of baked meats and other articles of food, at the principal festivals, there were left in the public worship few traces of the former superstitions. Even Siu-tshuen, himself, had come only gradually to the total disuse of the religious forms and cere- monies in which he had been educated. At first, he had placed the name of God on the wall instead of that of Confucius, and had continued, for a time, the use of burnt paper and incense-sticks ; and when, afterwards, he removed the tablet, as too much sa- HE ESTABLISHES A FORM OF WORSHIP. 133 voring of idolatry, his mother-in-law remarked that it was a pity to do so, because, since the name of God had been set up, they had had good luck, and had added another field to their plantation. He was, therefore, tolerant of those comparatively harm- less customs of idolatry, which were, for a time, kept up by the weak in faith ; and contented him- self with bringing his followers, as he had been brought himself, gradually to comprehend the more spiritual nature of the new religion. XXIII. HE DESTROYS THE IMAGE OF KAX-WAXO-YE. As the members of the sect went on constantly increasing, its leader at length felt strong enough to make an attack on some of the principal idols of the temples in the vicinity of Thistle-mount. About that time, it was reported to him that, in the department of Siang-chau, there was a very famous idol, by the name of Kan-wang-ye. During his life, this Kan had been an inhabitant of the de- partment, and had been extremely addicted to the arts of geomancy. When, then, it w^as told him one day by a magician, that a " bloody burial" would be followed by great prosperity in his family, he imme- diately went home, and killing his own mother, caused her to be buried in the spot marked out by the compasses. The promised prosperity actually followed ; and, after a life spent in dissipation, the profligate was worshiped as a demon. Great was the dread which fell upon all the HE DESTROYS THE IMAGE OF KAN-WANG-YE. 135 people before the image of this Kan-wang-ye ; so that when once a young lad, possessed by its spirit, stopped the sedan-chair of a district magistrate, and demanded, in the name of the idol, a " dragon robe," the mandarin dared not refuse it. The wardens were even afraid to sleep in the temple ; and when- ever they entered it to light the lamps and burn incense, they beat the gong to prevent Kan-wang- ye from appearing to them. Whoever said a word against him was sure to be instantaneously seized with bowel-complaint, the course of which could be stayed only by acknowledging the power of his god- ship— at least, such was the popular belief. But when Siu-tshuen heard of this delusion, his anger was aroused, and he said, *' This is the kind of demons I used to exterminate when my soul was wandering in heaven." Then, taking with him Yun-san, Wang-ngi, and a few others, he set off for the temple of Kan-wang-ye. At the end of the second day they reached it. On approaching the place, they beheld a number of small temples, scattered over a hillside, with one principal building near the summit. Up to this wound an avenue shaded by pines, and so arranged as to cross, several times, by ornamental bridges, a small stream, which went singing along its way down from the upper springs. The lotus-lily reposed on 136 TAI-PING-WANG. a number of artificial pools, on either side ; various plants were trained along the paths in such profu- sion, that one almost walked on flowers ; and clus- ters of tropical brushwood, set about in the distance, breathed a soft, aromatic breath over the whole region. \ As the smaller temples were inhabited, each, by one or two priests, these were sitting in the cool of the day under their fig-trees, with none to molest or make afraid, unless it were Kan-wang-ye himself. Indeed, this^cM^ nitiday being a kind of banyan, fur- nishes, with its dark green leaves and wide-spreading branches, a shade grateful to anchorites, and gave to the temples of this hillside quite as much the look of bowers of pleasure as of retreats of meditation. Similar, too, was the effect of the chime of delicate bells of metal, which, suspended from all the project- ing points of the buildings, sent a chorus of pleasing melodies off to the opposite hills, on the wings of every zephyr that chanced to float through the sacred precincts. Siu-tshuen stopped a moment to contemplate the beauty of the scene ; then, silently praying to God, advanced into the terrible presence of Kan-wang-ye. This was found to be a huge wooden deformity, about ten or twelve feet high, with gilded head and feet. But not fearing his gilt godship, and having HE DESTROYS THE IMAGE OF KAN-WANG-YE. 137 bound, hand and foot, the few priests in attendance, Siu-tshuen took a stick, and smote him in the face ; at the same time charging him with the commission of the ten sins following : *♦ First sin, to kill his mother ; second, to despise God ; third, to frighten the hearts of the sons and daughters of God ; fourth, to covet the food of the children of God ; fifth, to force his sister to make the acquaintance of a profli- gate ; sixth, to disseminate obscene songs between males and females ; seventh, arrogantly to exalt him- self; eighth, to extort money from the people ; ninth, to demand a dragon-robe from the mandarin ; tenth, to continue his mischief as a demon." Thereupon, Siu-tshuen and his friends threw down the image, broke it in pieces, rent its robes, and de- stroyed the sacrificial vessels of the temple. This task of holy indignation successfully accomplished, the party withdrew ; and, escaping pursuit, arrived safely at Thistle-mount. XXIV. HE SUFFERS PERSECUTION AND GOES HOME. This daring feat was immediately noised abroad through the district, and a large reward was offered for the apprehension of its perpetrators, but it was afterwards withdrawn, when the demon, speaking by the mouth of a small boy, of whom he had taken possession, said : " The destroyers of idols are sincere men ; you are not able to hurt them ; be content with repairing ray image." The reputation of Siu-tshuen was greatly in- creased by this act ; and all men stood in awe of him. To commemorate it, he published the follow- ing address to the idol : " I rebuke tbe demon Kan-wang by my pencil's quick decree, He deserves annihilation, and must no more spar'd be. Mother-slayer, law-transgressor, wilt thou also God deceive ? As thou didst with many people, make them in thy power believe, Curs'd to hell and struck by lightning, burn and vanish into smoke. With thy horrid wooden body, dost thou want a dragon cloak?" HE SUFFERS PERSECUTION AND GOES HOME. 139 Nor was his fame scarcely less augmented by a prophecy, published at that time, respecting another celebrated shrine, called, " The temple of the six caverns." This sacred establishment consisted of several small, but beautiful stalactite caves in the mountains, the entrances to which were ornamented with great care by means of various hanging plants, and festoons of flowers, as well as by the usual trees, gardens, and buildings. But as its groves and caverns had been prostituted to forbidden plea- sures, Siu-tshuen wrote a satire upon it, wherein he reproved the loose morals of the people, and declared that the time would speedily arrive, when the images of the temple of the six caverns would be destroyed, as had been that of Kan-wang-ye. And lo ! in a few weeks after, an army of white ants, so destructive in that country, invading the temple of the six caverns, devoured its entire wood- work, and ate up all the idols. But the brethren of the congregation, being em- boldened to proceed to great lengths in the demoli- tion of images, the wrath of the idolaters was vio- lently aroused against them. One Wang, a wealthy man of letters, lodged a complaint in the office of the magistrate of Phing-nan, charging that, under pretext of worshiping God, the followers of Siu- tshuen were desecrating temples, and destroying 140 TAI-PING-WANG. images. Yun-san, and his assistant Lu-liuh, having committed some overt acts in the district, were spe- cially proceeded against ; and, as the magistrate was well plied with bribes by Wang, they were committed to prison. This occurrence filled the heart of Siu-tshuen with grief ; and he asked, " AVhat can be the design of God in making us to suffer persecution ?" He did not know that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church. But after much sorrowful consider- ation of the matter, he determined to apply for relief directly to the governor of the two Kwang provinces, Kiying, who had obtained permission from the emperor for natives, as well as foreigners, to profess Christianity; and, for this purpose, he set off for Canton. Before going, however, he gave expression to his mingled feelings of hope and sad- ness in the following ode : " When shall I meet again with faithful brethren, And preach the word along the ocean's etrand ? When find again true sympathy aud virtue, And joyful tones mingle without restraint ? Alas ! for noble courage and for honest hearts, With whom I would restore to peace the universe. Alas ! from all the quarters of the earth What men shall stand by me ? The dragon clouds and tiger winds assemble ; When shall the hour of congregation come ? The heavenly law is not to blame. HE SUFFERS PERSECUTION AND GOES HOME. 141 Has God no more compassion ? Oh, for one mind from first to last ! What day shall we triumphantly ascend V Meanwhile, the two breakers of images lay in prison. It was in vain that the brethren collected several hundred strings of cash for their liberation ; for Wang had a still longer purse than they. It was to still less purpose that they laid before the man- darin a defense of their doctrines, together with a copy of the ten commandments derived from the Old Testament ; for his worship was perfectly indif- ferent to all matters pertaining to the gods ; and believing the different religious sects to be substan- tially the same, he constantly repeated the current saying of, *' Sing-song, all the same pigeon." But, at length, when Yun-san had opened upon him a battery of rhymes, showing in a succession of petitions, nicely worded and measured, first, the malignancy of his accuser, second, his own inno- cence, third, the plain duty of all men to worship God, the judge began to think he had better get rid of the prisoner as soon as possible ; and, the indignation of Wang and his purse being both alike exhausted, an order was issued for the release of the God-worshipers. '"^ Poor Lu-liuh had been already relieved of his '^ chains by death ; but Yun-san was set at liberty, 142 TAI-PING-WANO. with the charge, that he should forthwith return to the place of his birth. This he was to do under the escort of two policemen ; but no sooner were they on the road, than he made a set-to upon his attend- ants with Christian arguments ; converted them ; and bore them off as trophies to Thistle-mount. Thereupon, he publicly returned thanks to God ; and his followers, after having offered up a sacrifice of horses and oxen, made a great feast on them. Siu-tshuen, therefore, might well have spared himself the pains of going to Canton, to see the governor ; and the more so, as, on arriving there, he found that his Excellency had just left for Peking. But he had the opportunity of visiting his family in Hwa-hien, where he soon learned the news of the release of Yun-san, and where, after a time, he was made happy by meeting with him. But though he recovered his friend, Siu-tshuen had experienced the loss of his father. This venerable man had died in his son's absence at the age of sev- enty-three. He had not lived to see his little Phuh reach the steps of the imperial throne, but he had beheld him grown up to be a schoolmaster, and, at length, the founder of a new religion. ' The old man, therefore, closed his eyes in peace, having had a glimpse of his favorite son's greatness, as Moses, dy- ing, beheld the promised land from afar. He also HE SUFFERS PERSECUTION AND GOES HOME. 143 departed firm in the new faith, though it had been learned in his old age ; and, calling his children and his grandchildren around his bed, said : " I am now ascending to heaven ; after my decease you must not call any Buddhist priest, nor perform any heathen ceremonies, but merely worship God, and pray to him." Siu-tshuen mourned sincerely for his father ; and when his friends, pointing to his hair and beard, which had been allowed for some time to grow long, said he must have foreseen the death which had called him to mourning, he did not undeceive them. But the fact was that he had secretly resolved no longer to shave his head, as for the space of two hundred years his countrymen had been compelled to do. in token of submission to their conquerors, the Tartars* XXV. HE PREACHES IN THE FIELDS. Siu-TSHUEN remained at home nearly a year, mourning for his father, and teaching the Christian doctrines, as he had opportunity. Earlier in life, his conversation had been much admired by his as- sociates for the liveliness of its wit; now, it be- came remarked for the earnestness with which it exhorted to virtue, and the severity with which it reproved vice. He spent much time in going from house to house, to talk with his friends on the sub- ject of religion, always walking with measured, de- corous pace, and always sitting, it was observed, very erect in his chair, never leaning on one side, or backwards, his feet never crossed, and his hands resting on his knees. In this posture he would remain without change or fatigue, by the hour together. Many listeners, meanwhile, would gather around, and hang on his words ; for he spake like a man inspired of God, and having authority. HE PREACHES IN THE FIELDS. 145 The profligate, therefore, fled from his presence ; and some dared not even remain in the same village with him. One Mou, who had been appointed in- spector of grounds by the different villages, but who was notorious for his oppression of the poor, was actually deposed by him. For, accusations having been brought against this man of gross misconduct, and these having been confirmed by uniform testi- mony, Siu-tshuen did not hesitate to sound the gong for calling the heads of families together, and then summon Mou to give an account of himself in their presence. This the guilty inspector did, making humble confession, and asking forgiveness. Where- upon, the villagers, moved to pity, would have continued him in office, but Siu-tshuen replied, "Yesterday I yielded to the wishes of men; but to-day, I follow the rule of Heaven." Accord- ingly, the evil-doer was deposed, and one Kiang-a-si was appointed in his stead. And so great was the moral ascendancy of this self-constituted judge of wrong-doing, that Mou was obliged to submit to his sentence, and send the usual presents of honor to the man by whom he had been ignominiously driven from office. J Siu-tshuen even went further in his assumption "^ of authority for the suppression of vice ; and caused to be distributed among the heads of families in his 146 TAI-PING-WANa. clan five wooden rods for the chastisement of wick- edness, each one having inscribed on it the particular crime it was to be used for punishing. The inscrip- tions were these : " 1. Beat the adulterers. 2. Beat the female seducers. 3. Beat the disobedient to parents. 4. Beat thieves, robbers, and gamblers. 5. Beat all vagabonds plotting evil.-' Such proceedings as these plainly show that Siu- tshuen was beginning gradually to carry out into acts the conviction, that he had been commissioned by God to destroy the power of wickedness and idolatry in the world, and was fast preparing him- self to take the lead not only of a militant sect, but of an armed insurrection. He felt strong in the goodness of his cause, and more and more confident of the support of Heaven. Indeed, his whole soul was now absorbed in the propagation of the new faith, so that he could no longer submit to the petty care and drudgery of school-keeping. The friends of the cause of God were his friends, and none others. They who wor- shiped idols were pronounced as senseless as the idols themselves, and were included in the party of the demons whom he had been authorized to exterminate. He earnestly called upon them to re- HE PREACHES IN THE FIELDS. 147 pent of their sins, and flee from the wrath to come ; while the believers in God and in Jesus were en- couraged not only to expect happiness in this world, but also to look forward to a paradise of delights beyond the grave. Sometimes these vievw were urged with great gentleness and affection ; and, at others, with vehement indignation of wrong, and shame at the degradation of the people. The fol- lowing were among his favorite sayings : " Brethren, be of good cheer, God has the rule of all ; With faithfal hearts, and deeds in proof, you rise to heaven's hall." " Those who live in God, are the sons and daughters of God ; Whencesoever they come, they come from heaven ; Wheresoever they go, they go to heaven." " Those who worship demons are the slaves of demons : At their birth, by the devil led astray; At their death, by him carried away." « Too much patience and humility do not suit our present times ; Therewith it would be impossible to manage this perverted genera- tion." Excursions to the neighboring villages were now frequently made by Siu-tshuen ; and also to the hill-country, where, when a young man, he had spent many days of profitable meditation. Now, he took delight in calling together the young lads who followed their herds and flocks in these pastures, and telling them of the true God, and of his Son, 148 TAI -PING- WANG. who had laid down his life for their salvation. Many of his friends and followers, also, came out to the hills to take counsel together, and listen to the field sermons of their prophet. Greatly cheered ia heart by these meetings, Siu-tshuen then composed the following ode : "Heavenly Father, high aod supreme, the God of all nationa, Who sudtains the whole bumaa race with iDflnite bounty ; In six days thou createdst the world with mountains and waters ; Spcndest thy gifts upon men to enjoy in brotherly union. Father, thou art near related to us ; thou cxpellest the demons ; Gavest thy holy commands to instruct an ignorant people. After thou Jesus hadst sent to give his life as a ransom. Thou didst command Siu-tshuen to proclaim the truth of this doctrine." XXVI. HE GIRDS ON ^S SWORD, AND RETURNS TO KWANG-SI. The fullness of times was now come; and contribu- tions of money having been sent in by his friends in Clear-fur, Siu-tshuen girded on the ** demon-exter- minating sword" beneath his tunic, and set off on his last journey to the province of Kwang-si. It was high time for the master to arrive ; for the house of the God-worshipers was beginning to be rent by dissensions, and dishonored by excesses. Indeed, Siu-tshuen, on his arrival, found that more than one of the five wooden rods recently in- troduced in Hwa-hien, might, with propriety, be brought into play on the backs of some of the faith- ful. In place of the former odors of incense-sticks, the air of Thistle-mount was now scented with the fumes of samshu, tobacco, and opium. Siu- tshuen, therefore, began at once with fulminating his decrees against the abuse of these very danger- 150 TAI-5ING-WANe indulgent towards them, and instruct them. You are also to be gentle towards them, lest they should get frightened. For instance, when a ditch or canal has to be dug, you must not make the females work as if they were build- ing a city or a camp ; and if the weather should be unfavorable, with rain or snow falling, they should be allowed to rest for awhile, and not made to dig during the continuance of frost and snow. If you comfort them in this way, they will be contented and happy, and, feeling grateful for your kindness, they will exert themselves in serving you. so that you will get all your work completed. •' The old saying has it, ' The prince should employ his subjects according to propriety, and their subjects will serve their prince according to fidelity.' You, my second elder brother, have ascended up to the high heavens, and, therefore, you ought certainly to be thoroughly acquainted with all matters of a celestial nature. But these female officers are originally women, with a very circumscribed amount of information. How should they be perfectly familiar with celestial principles? On common occasions, when they see you, my second elder brother, in front of the palace, the female officers, get- ting a glance of your royal visage, can hardly avoid making mis- takes in what they do, so as to excite your just displeasure ; on which account they are always in a state of alarm. Even male officers, when they come to do anything in front of the hall, are by no means at their ease. For instance, our younger brother, Wei- ching, when he was once in front of your palace, managing some • Tai-ping-wanif's mn, and the lioir apparent. THE TAl-PIXG THEOCRACY. 253 affair, felt a certain degree of alarm, and did not dare to speak too much : how much more these female officers, when they come into your presence ?" The eastern prince also addressed the sovereign, saying, " When the officers, whether male or female, commit any crime that is worthy of death, it rests with you, my second elder brother, in obedience to the celestial law, to put them to death, in order to sus- tain the majesty of the Divine law, and to deter future offenders. But, in my humble opinion, supposing the offenders to have committed something worthy of death, there may be still some circumstances in the case not very clear ; and if you hastily put them to death, you may someiimes do wrong. Let me presume, therefore, to offer & suggestion, which is : that whenever among the officers, male or female, any persons commit a capital crime, I should earnestly entreat you, my second elder brother, of your superabundant favor, to hand over the case to mo, your unworthy younger brother, for careful examination as to the circumstances which led to the com- misiiion of the crime ; and if I meet with any extenuating considera ttons, I will supplicate you, in your gracious compansion, to pass over the offense. But if it should appear that the parties have really committed a grievous offense, that cannot be forgiven, I will report to you. my second elder brother, that you may determine the case. In this way there will probably be no cases of unredressed grievances; and the justice and benevolence of you, my second elder brother, will be equally displayed, while both rewards and punish- ments will be properly administered. I do not know whether this suggestion will meet your views, but I beseech you of your clemency to inform me." The celestial king then said: "That which you, my younger brother, have said, is very right, and is truly in accordance with the benevolent feeling displayed by our Heavenly Father, who loves what is good and hates what is evil, while he carefully discrimi- nates between the one and the other. The disposition displayed I»y me, your elder brother, is impetuous; and if you, my youn;?er bro- ther, had not made this suggestion, it is to be feared that I should have wrongfully put some persons to death ; now, in consequence of your advice, not only shall I be prevented from wrongfully m- flicting condign punishment, but future generations, observing this*, 254 TAI-PIXG-WANG. our example, will not dare to do anything rashly. From hence- forth, therefore, I. your elder brother, will, in every case, consult with you, my younger brother, before I proceed to act. It will have the effect, also, of inducing future princes to imitate their prede- cessors, and consult with virtuous ministers before they decide on action, by which means they may possibly prevent mistakes." The celestial king further s;iid : "When I formerly ascended up to the height of heaven, I found that the disposition of our celestial Papa was rather impetuous, although his liberality was as deep as the boundleas ocean. And to-day our Heavenly Father has given himself the trouble to come down into our world, and ordered that I, your second elder brother, should be beaten, on account of the extreme nnrrown'^ss of my mind.'' Thereupon the eastern prince said, ''The disposition which you, my second elder brother, possess, is just that which our Heavenly Father has caused you to be born with ; and when a son imitates bis father's disposition, it can scarcely be considered an instance of nar- rowness of mind. Do you just set your mind at ea-se, and sit down in the enjoyment of the heavenly kingdom, which it is to be hoped will be of a perpetual duration.'' Having finished these observations, the eastern and northern princes, together with all the officers, knelt down,- and then exclaim- ed : " May the king live forever !" after which the court broke up, and they all retired from the palace gate. The northern prince and the various officers then escorted the eastern prince to his palace ; arrived at which place, the eastern prince ascended his hall of audience, while all the officers knelt down, exclaiming, " May the prince enjoy abundant longevity!'' The eastern prince then addressed them, saying, "I, the general, having this day announced the sacred will of our Heavenly Father to our lord and master, the second elder Brother, I should like to know whether or not I was correct in so doing ?"' The northern prince and all the officers replied, "You, the eastern prince, merely announced the sacred will of our Heavenly Father, every sentence of which was in accordance with the mind of hea- ven ; how could it be otherwise than right?"' The eastern prince then said. " Mind, then, all you officers, when- ever a superior is in the wrong, yon that are inferior should straight- THE TAI-PING THEOCRACY. 265 way inform him of it, without hesitation. Should I, for instance, fall into an error, you should immediately represent it to me.' ' The oflBcers all said, " We will do as you say." The northern prince and all the officers then knelt down, crying out, " May your highness enjoy considerable longevity ! we pray you to retire into your inner palace and enjoy repose." Having said which, all the officers left the eastern palace and retired to their respective places of abode.* • Note J, Appendix, XLIII. THE INSIKGENT CREED. There is no god but God ; and Tai-ping-wang is the younger brother of Jesus — such, in brief, is the creed of the insurgents. They liave renounced tlie worship of idols, and of their ancestral manes, and they adore, instead, Tien- fu, the Heavenly Father of Christianity. "Thou shalt honor and worship the great God," is their rendering of the first conimanduient. And in their comment on it, they say, " Tiie great God is the universal Father of all men in ever}' nation under heaven. Every man is produced and nourished by Him ; every man is also protected by Him ; every man ought, therefore, morning and evening, to worship him with acknowledgments of His good- ness." Jesus is worshiped by them as their celestial elder brother, the first-born of the Father ; but is regarded as inferior to Him in dignity, inasmuch as THE INSURGENT CREED. 257 he is his son. ** Even the Saviour Jesus, the first- born son of God," it is said in one of their books, "is only called our Lord. In heaven above and earth beneath, as well as among men, none can be considered greater than Jesus ; and yet Jesus was not called Te.*' This is a title which, from the earliest times, has been applied to the emperor, as the highest of potentates ; but the insurgents make use of it only when speaking of the Heavenly Vather. The Christian doctrine of human depravity lies at the foundation of the religious belief of the insur- gents. They acknowledge that they have sinned against the great God, and they hope to be forgiven on repenting of their misdeeds, and obeying the or- ders of the Tai-ping-wang dynasty. Those who fall in battle are promised, by the chiefs, a direct trans- lation into a heaven of ever-during felicity ; while those who fly from the enemy, or transgress the commands of their superiors, will be doomed to the pains of an eternal hell. The idea of an atonement made for the sins of the world by Jesus, the celestial elder brother, appears in many of the writings of the insurgents ; but it is not probable that they have any very clear under- standing of this doctrine. When they speak of Jesus, as the Saviour of mankind, it is not in the 25S TAI-PING-WANG. sense generally attached to these words by Chris- tians ; Tai-ping-wang, though his younger brother, being regarded as scarcely less a deliverer. Their views of practical religion are summed up, in one of their books, in this wise : "Who has ever lived in the world without offending against the commands of heaven ? But until this time no one has known how to obtain deliverance from sin. Now, however, the great God has made a gracious communication to man, and from henceforth who- ever repents of his sins in the presence of the great God, and avoids worshiping false gods, practicing perverse things, or transgressing the divine com- mands, may ascend to heaven, and enjoy happiness for thousands and myriads of years, in pleasure and delight, with dignity and honor, world without end. But, whoever does not repent of his sins in the pre- sence of the great God, but continues to worship false gods, practicing perverse things as before, and going on to transgress the divine commands, will most certainly be punished by being sent down into hell, and suffering misery for thousands and myriads of years, in sorrow and pain, with trouble and anguish, world without end. Which of these is the best, and which is the worst, we leave it to you to judge." In the brotherhood of the God-worshipers there THE INSURGENT CREED. 269 are no prophets or priests, save Tai-ping-wang and his ministers, the five kings. There is no church separate from the state. Those who join the insur- gents go through a certain form of baptism ; but there is no other sacrament known among them. Of baptism, the notion entertained is, that it is a means of removing the guilt and stain of sin ; so that the more thoroughly the act is performed, the more effectual is it. " When the prayer is over," 8ay8 their ritual, "let the person to be received into the brotherhood take a basin of water, andfwash him- self clean ; or, if he perform his ablutions in a river, it will be still better." The Christian Bible has been put into the hands of the insurgents ; and portions of it have been re- published.* But the moral and religious writings of the insurgent chiefs, both in prose and verse, are also received as inspired scriptures, and ^re more generally, circulated among them. They possess, however, several forms of prayer and doxologies, de- rived from Protestant missionaries, which are in common use ; and every person is taught the Ten Commandments given by God to the ancient He- brews. Of these their interpretation is extremely rigid. They say, for example, *' The casting of ♦ The first twenty-eight chapters of the Book of Genesis. See HooBe of Reps. Doc., No. 123, p. 147. 260 ' TAI-PING-WANQ. amorous glances, the harboring of lustful imagina- tions, the smoking of opium, and the singing of libidinous songs must all be considered as vjolations of the seventh commandment." For adultery and opium-smoking the penalty is death ; and. strings of heads, seen hanging at the corners of the streets in Nanking by foreign visitors, testify to the strictness with which the law is executed. Gambling, also, and even the common use of wine and tobacco, are prohibited. The insurgents observe one day in seven as a Sabbath ; but, by an astronomical error, this falls on Saturday. On this day homilies are delivered to the people by the chiefs, or others thereto appointed ; hymns are sung; prayers are read; and sacrifices are offered of animal food, wine, tea, and rice. During the chanting of the hymns, the worshipers sit; and they kneel during prayers. There is also public religious service twice every day, besides the offer- ing of short petitions at meals. The forms of prayer for these occasions, as well as for many extraordi- nary ones, as at funerals, on birth-days, and in time of sickness, were derived from the Protestant mis- sionaries ; and are, in several instances, addressed to the Trinity. It is not to be supposed, however, that they have any true comprehension of this Christian mystery ; inasmuch as the title of Holy THE INSURGENT CREED. 261 Ghost has been — ignorantly, it is to be presumed, not blasphemously — conferred on Yang, the prime* minister. Astrology, necromancy, witchcraft, and the art of divination — all in such vogue with the Chinese, both learned and unlearned — are entirely discarded by the God-worshipers. Instead of the old impe- rial almanac, which noted the character of every day in the year, as lucky or unlucky, and, therefore, suitable or unsuitable for the performance of such common acts of life as marriage, burial, laying the foundations of a building, or setting out on a jour- ney, they have adopted a new calendar, from which all this nonsense of superstition is excluded. In the preface to this new almanac, the five kings, in mak- ing report of their work to Tai-ping-wang, say, "All the corrupt doctrines and perverted views of preceding almanacs are the result of the devil's cun- ning devices, to deceive and delude mankind. We, your majesty's subjects, have, therefore, set them aside. For the years, months, days, and hours are all determined by our Heavenly Father. Thus, every year is lucky and favorable, every month is lucky and favorable, and every day as well as every hour is lucky and favorable. How can they be clas- sified as good and bad, and what can be the use of selecting one period above another ? Whoever truly 262 TAI-PING-WANG. venerates our Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord, and the great God, is under the protection of Hea- ven, and can engage in his duties whenever he thinks proper. Every season, therefore, may be considered as prosperous and favorable."* * Notes K and L, Appendix. XLIV. THE NEW CELESTIAL STATE. The new celestial state, established at Nanking by Tai-ping-wang, is similar in its organization to that of his army. Every phalanx has attached to it a large number of officials; for example, two dividers of land, two dispensers of the laws, superintendents of money and grain, two accountants for weights, and two for disbursements. There are also officers spe- cially appointed to register the births and deaths, as, also, others to make note of the cases of promotion and degradation among officials. Over every five persons is placed a cinquevir, whose duty it is, alike, to lead them against the enemy whenever they are engaged in military service, and, in time of peace, to overlook them in the practice of husbandry and the trades. These, and all other subordinate officers, report their doings to their superiors next in grade, who, in turn, do the same to others placed over them, until, finally, all transactions are brought to 264 TAI-PING-WANG. the knowledge of the chief ministers of state. The land, which is considered as belonging to the celes- tial king, is divided into portions called mows, being about the sixth of an acre, and which are distributed into nine classes, according to their productiveness. Each family has a certain extent of ground assigned it for cultivation, the size of which depends on the number and age of the merabersi ** Having fields," say the celestial regulations, '• let them cultivate them together ; and, when they get any rice, let them eat it together ; so, also, with regard to clothes and money, let them use them in common, so that every one may share and share alike, and every one be equally well fed and clothed." It is ordered that, throughout the empire, the mul- berry-tree be planted close to every wall, so that the women may have silk for making garments. Every family is required to keep as many as five hens and two sows ; and care must be taken that they do not " miss their proper season for procreation." At the time of harvest it is the duty of an officer, called a vexillary, to see that the five and twenty families under his charge have a sufficient supply of food ; and any superfluity of " wheat, pulse, hemp, flax, I cloth, silk, fowls, dogs, and money" must be brought to the public store-house. "For," say the regulations, " the whole empire is the universal THE NEW CELESTIAL STATE. 265 family of our Heavenly Father, the great God, and supreme Lord ; and when all the people in the em- pire avoid selfishness, and consecrate everything to / the supreme Lord, then the sovereign will havei suflScient to use, and all the families of the empire, in every place, will be equally provided for, while every individual will be well fed and clothed. This is what our Heavenly Father, the great God, and/ supreme Lord, has especially commanded the truel sovereign of the Tai-ping dynasty, with the view of saving the whole world." » la every circle of twenty-five families there must be a public granary and a church ; and on the occur- rence of a marriage or birth, the vexillary allots to the family in which these events take place one thousand cash and one hundred pounds of grain, and also offers, in the place of the former supersti- tious ceremonies, an eucharistical sacrifice to the Heavenly Father, the great God, and supreme Lord. It is also the duty of the vexillary to see that the children go daily to church for the purpose of being taught by him to read the Sacred Scriptures, together with the imperial proclamations ; and, on Sunday, each cinquevir is required to conduct the men and women under his charge to the place of public wor- ship. There, sitting males and females in separate 12 266 TAI-PIXG-WANG. rows, they are to attend upon the services of preach- ing, praying, and giving thanks to God. The vexillary, moreover, is to see that all diligent I husbandmen are rewarded, and the idle punished; and, in cases of strife, provision is made that the subject of dispute may be carried by appeal from the decision of the vexillary up to that of the higher officers of state, even to the celestial king himself. All persons, both those in office and those out, are to be kept under close supervision by whoever stands next above them in authority, reports of the good or bad conduct of each person being sent up from time to time to the chiefs of the state. Those who behave themselves well, whatever their sphere of life, are to be rewarded with honors and offices, descending in most instances to their posterity; while the idle and the lawless are to be punished with degradation, and even with death. Special seasons in each year are designated for the purpose of filling all vacancies in office ; when the various reports of conduct, before mentioned, are made, and when the candidates are subjected to a series of examinations by those in authority, with the view of testing their worthiness and capability. And once in three years, similar examinations are to be held for degrading from, and promoting in, office, at which time, the subordinates are allowed to de- THE NEW CELESTIAL STATE. 267 nounce all acts of wrong-doing on the part of their superiors. Such are the main features of this system of despotic centralization, raised on the basis of com- munism. Like the old imperial organization, it is one of complete governmental surveillance and in- terference, utterly inconsistent with individual lib- erty, but one also in which the numerous offices of state are, in theory at least, given only to the meri- torious, and those whose talent has passed the ordeal of a succession of examinations. It is a plan to make all men virtuous, but to do it by compul- jBion ; to supply all with the necessaries of life, though without permitting them the possession of anything besides ; and to secure the benefits of indus- try, good order, and general comfort, at the expense of all high culture and genial enjoyment of life.* * Compare " The Land Regulations and Political Economy of the Celestial Dynasty," published in the Kwei-haou, or third year of the celestial dynasty of Tai-ping (1853). XLV. INTERCOURSE WITH FOREIGN NATIONS. Attempts have been made within the last two or three years, by commissioners of the English, French, and American governments, to place them- selves in direct communication with the insurgent authorities in Nanking. But although they suc- ceeded in passing up the Yang-tsze-kiang in steam- vessels of war to the " Celestial Capital," and in holding intercourse with the subordinate officials, they all failed of obtaining audience of the new em- peror. Besides the fact that their visits to Nanking are looked upon with some degree of suspicion, from their known sympathy for the imperialists, Tai-ping-wang has adopted the policy of having nothing to do at present with foreigners, as he will not with the society of the Triads, who for a time held possession of Amo)^ and Shang-hai, or with* the confederated bands who have overrun the country around Canton. He is disposed to deal only with INTERCOURSE WITH FOREIGN NATIONS. 269 Hien-fung, and to keep all other parties out of the field, if possible, until the great question of suprema- cy between himself and his rival shall have been settled. Then it will be time enough to consider what shall be the relations of the regenerate empire with the nations "outside the wall." The determined war of extermination hitherto waged by the God- worshiping dynasty against that drug, the importation of which into the empire is enriching some of the commercial classes of the West to the utter ruin of the Chinese race, bodies and souls, would seem to betoken the existence of no disposition at Nanking favorable to intercourse with foreign na- tions.* But, on the other hand, the religious, not to say Christian, character of the new regime, together with the doctrine promulgated by it of an universal brotherhood among men, may be relied upon with some degree of confidence, as indicative of the near approach of the reign of more just and liberal senti- ments on the subject of foreign trade and intercourse. Certain it is that the Europeans and Americans, who have recently ascended the Yang-tsze-kiang, were unusually well received by both the people and tlie subordinate magistrates. When it was known that their religious books corresponded with those of • Compare Ho. of Reps. Doc, No. 123, pp. 177, 311. 270 TAI-PING-WANG. the God- worshipers, they were saluted as " foreign brethren." In some instances aged and respectable men fell down upon their knees in the streets before them, to do them reverence ; their ships were thronged by multitudes, whose politeness was equal- ed only by their good-humor ; and they noticed an entire absence of those abusive and obscene forms of speech which so constantly foul the mouths of the rabble of Canton. Still, it is understood that the communications addressed to the foreign commissioners, who went up to Nanking, were all of that arrogant and super- cilious stamp, of old characteristic of the Chinese court in its intercourse with the representatives of the occidental governments. They set up the pre- tension that the ** celestial king" is the lord of the whole world, and require all nations and tribes of men to lay their tribute of homage at his feet. Such, at least, are the high notions set forth in a mandate sent to Captain Buchanan, of the United States steam-frigate Susquehanna; which vessel, having on board Mr. Commissioner McLane, as- cended the river to Nanking, and sixty or seventy miles above, in the month of May, 1853. This docu- ment came, indeed, from officers of subordinate rank, and may possibly not express the views of so intelligent a personage as the " celestial king," him- INTERCOURSE WITH FOREIGN NATIONS. 271 self. In both style and sentiment, it is thoroughly Chinese, and is as follows : "a MAXDXTORT dispatch to BUCHANAN, OP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. " Sin and Loo, honored with the meritorious rank of earthly magis- tracy, holding the oflBce of first and second ministers of state, of the second class, promoted two degrees, send this mandatory dispatch to Buchanan, of the United States of America, for his full informa- tion. " Whereas the Heavenly Father, and the Heavenly Elder Brother, have greatly displayed their favor, and personally commanded our sovereign, the Celestial King, to come down, and be the peaceful and tnie sovereign of the world, and have also put the (five) kings to be assistants in the court, and strong supports in the establish- ment of a flourishing government : *' Now, therefore, when this city, the Celestial capital, has been es- tablished and built up by the sovereign authority of the Heavenly Father, and the Heavenly Elder Brother, it is the very time that all nations should come, and pay courtly honors, and all the four seas advance to receive instruction. " From you, Buchanan, there has been received a public document, \ in which a desire is expressed to come and see the eastern king's , golden face ; but we, the ministers of state, on reading what is con- 1 taincd therein, find that you have presumed to employ terms, etc., , used in correspondence with equals. *' This is not at all in conformity with what is right. Because oar ' eastern king (may he live nine thousand years) has respectfully re- ceived the Celestial commands to come into the world, and to be the assistant of the Celestial court in drawing together the living souls of all nations, you, who reside on the ocean's borders, and are alike imbued with favors, ought to come kneeling, and make memorials, thus conforming to the principles of true submission, so as to show your sincerity in coming to pay court. " But we, the ministers of state, having examined this communica- tion, have not submitted it to the golden glance of the eastern 272 TAI-PING-WANG. king, lest we should excite the anger of the golden glance, and draw on ourselves no light criminality. '• Kindly keeping in mind, however, that you are residents on the ocean's borders, and have not known the rights and ceremonies of the Celestial court, indulgence [for the past] may be granted ; but henceforth, as is right, you mist conform to the established rules, and make respectful memorial. " With regard to the favor of the Heavenly Father, and the Hea- venly Elder Brother, displayed in opening and awakening your minds so as to induce you to come to the true sovereign, and to be near to the Celestial capital, all this you have obtained as a mani- festation of the grace of the Heavenly Father, and Heavenly Elder Brother, and it is also your happiness. " The truly submissive, however, most assuredly will prepare rare, excellent, and precious things, and come and offer them in honor of the king, in this manner showing that you understand the mind of, heaven. " Now, because the Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord, the August High Ruler, is the only one true God, the Father of the souls of all nations under heaven, and Jesus, the Saviour of the world, the Celestial Elder Brother, is the Supreme elder brother of all men of all nations under heaven, and our sovereign, the Celestial King, ia the peaceful and true sovereign of all nations under heaven, there- fore, all nations under heaven ought to reverence heaven, and to obey the sovereign, knowing on whom it is they depend. We are, indeed, much afraid that you do not yet fully understand the things of heaven, imagining that there are distinctions, as of this nation and of that nation, not knowing the oneness of the true sovereign. " Therefore, we end this especial mandatory dispatch. " If you do, indeed, respect heaven, and recognize the sovereign, then our Celestial court, viewing all under heaven as one family, and uniting all nations as one body, will most assuredly regard your faithful purpose, and permit you, year by year, to bring tri- bute, and annually come to pay court, so that you may become the ministers of people of the Celestial kingdom, for ever bathing your- selves in the gracious streams of the Celestial dynasty, peacefully residing in your own lands, and, living quietly, enjoy great glory. " This is the sincere desire of us, the great ministers. INTERCOURSE WITH FOREIGN NATIONS. 273 " Quickly ought you to conformto, and not oppose, this mandatory! dispatch. I " Twenty-fourth day of the fourth month, of the fourth year of the great Peaceful Celestial Dynasty (May 30th, 1854)." 12* XLVI. PROBABLE ISSUE OF TOE INSURRECTION. The result of this contest for empire between Tai-ping-wang and Hien-fung, cannot, at present, be foreseen. Still, considering, on the one hand, the succession of disgraces and disasters which have befallen the imperial arms since the commencement of the insurrection, it would seem to be improbable that the Tartar should ever recover possession of the southern capital of his empire ; and, on the other, the career of the God-worshiper has been through- out marked with such superior sagacity, and at- tended with such uninterrupted good fortune, as naturally encourages the belief that he will succeed in gradually diminishing the resources, and finally subverting the dominion of his rival. The struggle may, indeed, be continued for a con- siderable number of years to come; the Chinese civil wars having generally been of long duration. But should the great towns on the coast be captured. PROBABLE ISSUE OF THE INSURRECTIOX. 275 either by the God-worshipers, the Triads, or the banditti, the imperial supplies being then cut off by the coast, as they are already by the grand canal, the northern portion of the empire could scarcely fail of becoming disaffected, and Peking of being, in a measure, impoverished. That the insurgents may become divided among themselves is, of course, possible. But their una- nimity hitherto is no sign of future discord. On the contrary, they seem to be a perfectly compact body, animated with but one spirit, and controlled by one will. They are, also, led on by a mind the most gifted, perhaps, which has illustrated the annals of China since the days'of Confucius ; a mind of strong convictions, steady purposes, and of indomitable energy; a mind which has inspired the hordes of the insurrection with its own heroism, has kept them in perfect subjection, and has led them from Kwang-si to Nanking in an uninterrupted march of triumph, to be paralleled only by the conquests of the great- est captains of the East. As long as the originator of the movement lives, his followers can hardly be expected to become disunited ; though, in case of an early decease, the succession of his son, Yow-chu- wan-soy, the heir-apparent, and so-called " third elder brother," might well be doubted. What is to be regarded as most probable, per- 276 TAI-PING-WAXG. haps, is, that the nations of the West will finally interfere in this war of the two dynasties, and throw the weight of their swords into one scale or the other. The time for breaking down the great wall of partition, which has so long excluded from the Chinese millions the civilization of the West, can- not be far off; for the commercial nations of Europe and America are getting tired of waiting, like beg- gars, at the gates of this haughty Asiatic, who sets himself in opposition to the common law of the world, and the will of Providence. Already Russia has moved down from the north on the river Amour, taking possession of a vast territory ; and the strife for dominion, which was so lately raging in East- ern Europe, may, sooner than is generally antici- pated, be revived, and extended to the "central flowery plains," where alone it can find its ultimate solution. A.PFENDIX NOTE A. ExTBACT of a letter of Mgr. Bizzolati, Apostolical Vicar of Hou- Kwang ; Janoary 28th, 1853 ; published in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith ; No. 149, p. 287. (Translated from the French.) ** The rebels of China have nothing in common with the idolatry which eictends throughout the empire and the adjacent king- doms. Wherever they arrive, they overthrow and destroy, to their very foundations, the temples of the idols. They mutilate, tread under foot, and crush to powder the gods so much venerated by the people. Nor are the monasteries of the bonzes and bonzesses spared. After having sacked and demolished their convents, the insurgenU promenade their divinities in masquerade, and make a complete carnival of their idols and other objects of superstition." 278 TAI-PING-WANG. NOTE B. Several yeafs later, when Sia-tfihaen had set ap his throne in the ancient capital of the empire, he addressed a letter to Mr. Roberts, offering to return at Nanking the favors he had formerly received at Canton. This communication, though from political considerations, as is believed, it has never been made public, is referred to in the following letter from Mr. Roberts to Mr. Com- missioner Marshall, propounding certain questions, which were afterwards answered by the Commissioner in the negative : « Canton, May 30, 1853. " Dear Sir : — The other day Dr. Happer saw a letter in the hands of natives, addressed to my place, and said to be from Nanking. Since that I have received a letter — though not thought to be the same — purporting to be from Hung- Sue- Tstten, the chief Tai-ping-wan, or prince of peace. I showed this letter to Dr. Parker, who is acquainted with official sealed documents, and he thinks it genuine. Hung-Sue-Tsuen's name is plain, and signed in full at the close, and stamped with a seal having on its face six ancient characters, which, plainly written in modern and translated, amount to * Tienteh (Tai-ping-wan's device), the prince of peace's seal.' /" This letter refers to our former acquaintanceship, and the deep impressions remaining on his mind from the instructions received ; APPENDIX. 279 states that he has frequently written to me, but knows not whether his letters have been received. It states that several pro- vinces have come under his control ; that myriads of men assemble morning and evening for worship, who observe the ten heavenly commandments, but few of them are versed in Gospel doctrines. The letter invites me * to come and assist, that the Gospel may be made plain, baptism (immersion) may be received, and the truth published.' " Now, having maturely considered this matter, and believing, from what I know of the case, that it would be difiBcult to occupy a more important or useful station, I feel inclined to go to him at the earliest practicable moment ; therefore, I beg leave to propose the following inquiries to you in your official capacity : " 1. Would it be against the law of nations, or would I subject myself to the censure of our own laws, to go to him immediately, in the capacity of a minister of the Gospel, merely to preach to him and his followers the unsearchable riches of Christ ? " 2. If so, at what state of his progress would it bo allowable ? " 3. Should the insurgents take the city of Canton, and send for me to go into the city and preach to them, would I not be allowed to go? " I hope you will favor me with replies to these official inquiries at your earliest convenience, and much oblige " Yours, truly, "J.J.ROBERTS. " Hon. B. Marshall, "United States Commissioner." 280 TAI-PING-WANG. NOTE C. Extract of a letter from Mgr. Bizzolati, Vicar-apostolic of Hou-Kwang, to the members of the Central Councils of Lyons and Paris ; dated Hong-Kong, August 4th, 1853. (Translated from the Italian, and published in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, vol. xv.) " They (the insurgent kings) have placed all the resources in a common treasury, and reorganized society on a new plan, that is, in groups of twenty-five persons. Each family, thus constituted, is formed of a certain number of persons of both sexes, who are prohibited from cohabiting together, under the most severe penalties. This rule is to be observed until the whole of China shall have been conquered. All honorary titles are abolished, except those of officers in the army. The men are to adopt the appellation of brothers, and the women that of sisters. Each family has two chiefs; a man for the government of the male members, and a woman for the females ; and over all these individual dignitaries a hierarchy is established, comprising general presidents of both sexes. All these confraternities live in common, at the expense of the public treasury ; and all of them are bound to perform military service, the men under the com- mand of a male leader, and the women under that of a female ; for there arc captains of both sexes. After the conquest of the empire, the families, whose military services may no longer be APPENDIX. 281 deemed necessary, are to return to their cities, where there is to be no distinction of rich and poor, but perfect equality. However, according to the laws of their communism, the king, the princes, and generals are to have the exclusive right of possession and acquisition, and the subalterns are to remain in the service of their chiefs, and to receive, in reward for these services, such food and clothing as the generosity of their masters may induce them to bestow.*' TAI-PING-WANG. NOTE D. " United States Consulate, Shanghai, "/anuary 28, 1853.- " Sib : — I have the honor to address you with such information as I can obtain regarding the internal troubles of this country, pre- suming that it is my duty to report upon any matters which may afifect the relations existing between it and the United States, or the interests of American citizens. " No intelligence can be obtained from the Chinese oflBcers with whom I come in contact, which can be relied upon ; and I take my information from private letters received by Chinese merchants from their correspondents in the disturbed provinces. " Letters from Hankhow, a town of great trade on the Yang-tsze- kiang, about 300 miles to the westward of Nanking, state that the rebels have gained much ground, and that their chance is good for ultimately obtaining Nanking, where they would crown an emperor of Chinese race. " The government troops are few and badly conunanded, and only succeed in making a stand in the strongest of the walled towns. The treasuries of the various provinces are said to be completely bankrupt, and the government in straits for money for the ordinary purposes of state. This, perhaps, has given rise to rumors, at pre- sent prevailing, that some of the highest officers of the emjieror have memorialized him on the expediency of legalizing the opium trade. " On th€ other hand, the rebels, though in moderate force, are suffir APPENDIX. 288 cientlywell organized to march from one important place to another ^ capturing them when not strongly garrisoned, and everywhere moving with impunity through the open country. Tlie presence of men of capacity and education among them is attested by the order maintained, and by wdl^written politic proclamations disseminated through the country. Their soldiers observe the rights of others, and | pillage and rapine of all kinds are so effectually restrained, that the peasantry take sides with them, and the country through which they move is not disturbed. " It is supposed that, if they capture Nanking, they will take pos- session of the cities to the eastward, including Shanghai, all places of large trade, and which would afford much revenue, and that they would not interfere with trade, either foreign or native " I have stated the course of things in general terms, without spe- cifying cities taken, or strength of forces, etc., etc., as the accounts are too contradictory to be quoted, only agreeing in one report, that they progress, and that their object is Nanking. " Allow me to present my congratulations upon your safe arrival in China ; and I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, "GEO. CUNNINGHAM:, " Vice-consul of U. S. America. " Hon. H. Mabshall, " Commissioner of the United States of America to China, etc., etc., etc." 284 TAI-PINQ-WANG. NOTE E. Extract of a letter of Mgr. Delaplace, Apostolical Vicar of Kiang- si, November 6tb, 1852 ; published in the Annals of the Propa> gation of the Faith, No. 149, p. 283. " The pretended defenders of the country are scarcely better than so many brigands, who pillage the honest citizen, even in his own house. Accordingly, only raise the cry in a market-place that the troops are about to pass, and, in an instant, you will see no more shops open. To bring the disaffection to a climax, it is said that the mandarins are about to lay on an extraordinary tax ; surely, at a time well chosen, especially as there is a drought I Hence, seditious murmurs begin already to be heard ; the people do not conceal their desire for the advent of the insurgents ; and there is not a village but what would gladly come under their government. It is said, even, that the native mandarins are no less impatient to shake off the Tartar yoke ; and that if, in these crit- ical times, they add to the popular vexation, and increase the pub- lic burdens, it is for the purpose of insuring and hastening the triumph of the rebels, the number of whose friends they increase in increasing the number of the complainers and the disaffected. " The rebels, on the contrary, pursue a course of conduct truly wise. They abstain from pillage, and make no trouble. From the beginning their proclamations have declared, * We have no quarrel except with the Tartars ; we destroy only the Tartars ;' and they have kept their word. On capturing a town, they give no quarter APPENDIX. 286 to the Tartar soldiers ; they put to death the Manchu mandarins without mercy ; and they also massacre the Chinese mandarins, if they have not previously sent in their submission. But they re- spect the mass of the people ; the iperchant is left undisturbed in his affairs ; and the traveler is permitted to continue his route in peace. In the journey I have just made from Ho-nau to Kiang-si, "whether in passing along the western parts of Ngan-hoey, or in traversing Hou-pe from north to south, the sum and substance of what I heard was this, * Would that the rebels of the south might come here, too I' " TAI-PING-WANG. NOTE F. Extract of a letter of M. Paul Perny, Apostolical Missionary of Kouci-Tcheou ; May 10th, 1852. Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. No. 149, p. 299. " A Chinese army is, of all things in the world, the most cu- rious. Twice have I had an opportunity of seeing one ; and never in my life have I so much regretted not to understand the art of painting, as on those occasions. The most faithful description in words can give no idea of such soldiers. The year of my arrival in China, the Moslems of Yun-Nan, a restless and numerous tribe, had arisen en masse agaiust the authority of the mandarins ; and, to reduce them to subjection, the governor-general hastened to call to his aid the militia of our province, which was also under his jurisdiction. I met the principal corps of these auxiliaries, with their general-in-chief. He was seated in a very elegant sedan, borne by eight men. His troops marched in the greatest disorder, like a band of brigands ; and were armed with lances and wretched matchlocks. Each soldier, besides, carried his umbrella and his lantern ; thereby, giving to the whole affair an expression indescriba- ble, and, to the last degree, grotesque. That army, without disci- pline or experience, would be destroyed by a single one of your battalions, and that without suffering so much as a scratch. An European soldier could fire, at least, twenty cartridges before a Chinese would be able to get his gun off once. Nor is this all. APPENDIX. 287 When the musket is aimed, the person who holds it, turns away his head, while another applies the match. You can imagine what would be the correctness of the aim, and the celerity of the ma- nceuvre, especially in time of rain." 288 TAI-PING-WANG. NOTE G. Extract of a letter of Mgr. Delaplace, Apostolical Vicar of Kiang- 81, November 6th, 1852. Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. No. 149, p. 282. " It most be confessed that the emperor, Hien-fang, and his ministers, appear to be really smitten with vertigo. At the very moment when everything depends upon strengthening the popular attachment to the throne, they seem to have undertaken the task of destroying it. The nation is crushed with imposts, and ex- hausted by military services. It is almost incredible, the annoyance given to families, for the sake of sending oflf a few soldiers. For, it is not to be supposed that the Chinese soldier marches on his own legs ; not at all ; he must have a cart The trooper, also, would be too much fatigued, if he were compelled to ride his horse ; he, likewise, must have a cart. In fact, the war-horse himself can- not carry his saddle ; to transport his trappings, he must have a cart, too. So that, last week, at the town of Choui-Tcheou-Fou, two leagues from here, in order to set in motion a force of 300 men, there were necessary no less than a thousand carriers of burdens." APPENDIX. 289 NOTE H. Extract of a letter of Mgr. Rizzolati, Apostolical Vicar of Hou- Kwang, January 28th, 1853. Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. No. 149, p. 287. " The revolutionary troops appear to be under good discipline, and very much superior to the imperial army in point of soldier- ship. They, everywhere, announce their intention of delivering the country from the yoke of the Tartars, whose vices and tyranny furnish the theme of their proclamations ; and the people, desirous of having a Chinese dynasty, receive this denunciation of the foreigners with applause. Hence, the rebels receive, from all sides, voluntary subsidies, enormous in amount, and enabling them to add constantly to their army. But the imperial troops, on the contrary, degenerate more and more ; and being alarmed at the su- perior numbers and bravery of the rebels, they study to avoid en- counters with them, and, rather than do so, are content to retire, and give up to the enemy their cities. In fact, they give battle only in cases when it is inevitable, or where victory is absolutely certain ; but that is very rarely. Hence, it happens that the sol- diers of the emperor desert by troops, and that the officers invent thousands of excuses for quitting the service ; as do, also, the civil mandarins." 13 290 TAI-PIXG-WANG. NOTE I. The style of holding cabinet-cooncUs under the Tai-ping-wang dynasty is remarkably characteristic of Chinese manners, and may be further illustrated by a brief account of a cabinet-council, held two days after the " descent of the Heavenly Father," described in the thirty-fourth chapter. " On the twenty-seventh day of December, Yang, the eastern prince sent a chamberlain to request the northern prince, and the Marquis Ting-t'hien, to accompany him to court, that they might, together, pay their compliments to his majesty, and exhort him to ' set his mind at case, and enjoy himself.' " So, when the female attendants, having gone up into the belfry, and beaten the gong throe times, had assembled the chamberlains, and all the officers on duty, in the eastern palace, the party proceed- ed to attend the court of the celestial king. " Their arrival duly announced, his majesty ascended his throne in the hall of audience, and the drum was sounded for the palace- gate to be opened. " Thereupon, the eastern and northern princes, with the marquis Ting-t'hien, ascended the hall, twice exclaiming, ' May the king live forever !' " The celestial king then said, ' Brother Tsing, on account of what afifair of state are you come to court, to-day ?' The eastern prince replied, ' I, your younger brother, have come to pay you my APPENDIX. 291 complimeots.' To which the celestial king said, * I hope that you, yourself, are in health.' He then directed the eastern prince to be seated. The latter, on taking his seat, said, ' I, your younger brother, seeing that the Heavenly Father took the trouble, yester- day, to come down into the world, have considered that, although the instructions given by him were primarily intended for you, my second elder brother, they were also designed for the benefit of our brethren and sisters throughout all the world. It is because we, your younger brethren and subjects, have committed faults, that our Heavenly Father has admonished you, our elder brother, there- by making you an example to the whole empire.' "The celestial king replied, 'I, your second elder brother, have, indeed, been in fault, so as to induce our Heavenly Fa- ther to take the trouble to come down into the world to admonish me.' '* The northern king said, * You, our second elder brother, are not in fault; it is only that we, your younger brethren, are in fault.' " The eastern prince then addressed the celestial king, saying, * The adage says : " A prince should treat his subjects with respect, and then the subjects will serve their prince with fidelity." All the subjects of this realm, depending for their subsistence on the bounties of the state, are in duty bound to servo their prince with fidelity ; when subjects also distinguish themselves in a meritorious manner, the prince should bestow upon them all proper considera- tion and reward ; he should kindly sympathize with his inferiors, and bestow favors upon them, in order to encourage them in good conduct. Now, among the female officers of the celestial court, and in the palace belonging to me, your younger brother, those who attend to the business of the state are very much harassed. Some of these are the wives and others the mothers of meritorious and faithful officers, some have young children to attend to, and 292 TAI-PING-WANG. others old relatives to look after ; some of them also have meritori- ous husbands, who have given up their households out of r^ard to their country. Now, when females have surrendered their domestic ties with a view to the service of the state, and abandoned their private interests in order to promote the public weal, the prince ought to take into consideration their futhful devotion, and al- low them, every six weeks, to go and look at their relatives, or every month or three weeks to go and inspect their boasebolds, or, it may be, every week or fortnight to take turns to visit their domestic hearth, whether to fondle their children, or manifest respect to their aged relatives, or to serve their husbands ; in this way they will be enabled to carry out the duty of 6rst regarding the interests of their country, and after that attending to the wel- fare of their family. Now, also, there are many ladies whose rank is honorable, and whose duties arc important ; we do not say that the female officers placed under these would purposely neglect their duties, but it may be that some of them have displeased their mis- tresses, who may have scolded them a little too severely ; now, if you do not allow these female officers to state their grievances, they will never get redress ; the females employed, therefore, should be i>ermitted to complain, when you, our second elder brother, would be able to make up your mind on the case, and decide be- tween the right and the wrong. This is one way in which princes may employ their subjects according to propriety. Moreover, in the royal city, there are the various operations of erecting palaces, digging moats, throwing up banks, and sweeping the imperial gar^ dens, which must all be attended to by these female officers ; but you should issue your orders how these things are to be done, it is not at all necessary that you should personally inspect these operations. For the celestial majesty extends to every spot, and wherever the imperial cavalcade comes, people are 611ed with dread and alarm ; it is better, therefore, to allow these officials to work APPENDIX. 293 on without intemiption, in which case they will be able to com- plete their undertaking ; but if you go personally to inspect what they Me about, they will not be able to bring anything to perfec- tion. This is another way in which princes may employ their sub- jects according to propriety. When a prince thus manifests a de- gree of gracious consideration in his conduct towards his subjects, then his subjects will be more especially affected with gratitude in order faithfully to serve their prince. If you carry out this method of treatment, from the female oflBcers to the male persons employed, then those who are engaged in any military expedition will expose themselves to distresses abroad, such as sleeping on their arms, and fighting amidst frost and snow. When the prince thus cherishes a kind consideration for his subjects, his subjects will exert them- selves to serve him faithfully, in order to repay the benevolence of the prince. This shows how, when the prince employs his sub- jects according to propriety, subjects will serve their prince with fidelity. With respect to the female apartments, royal reforma- tion must begin there ; the palace is the fountain from which all government springs ; hence, he who wishes to illustrate intelligent virtue throughout the empire, will first regulate his country, and he who wishes to have his country well regulated, will first put his family in order. At present, through the favor of our Heavenly Father, the number of ladies at court is very great, the daughters of the princes are also numerous ; it will not, therefore, be right to listen only to the statements of the elder ladies, and not give heed to the complaints of the younger ones ; still less would it be right to mind the prattle of the younger branches of the royal family to tiie exclusion of the remonstrances of the elder ones. In every case, you should allow both parties to make their statements clearly, and then you may decide between them, as to which party is in the right and which in the wrong, without showing any par- tiality to either. When the ladies wait upon you, my elder broth- 294 TAI-PING-WANG. er, it is, of course, their duty ; but sometimes they may be apt to excite your righteous displeasure ; in which case, you must treat them gently, and not kick them with your boot on, for, if you kick them with your boot on, it may be that some of the ladies arc in such a state as to call for the congratulations of their friends, and then you will interfere with the kind intentions of our Heavenly Father, who loves to foster human life. Further, when any of the ladies are in the state above alluded to, it would be as well to mani- fest a little gracious consideration, and allow them to rest from their labors, while you s<;lect some separate establishment for their residence and repose. You may still require them, morning and evening, to pay their resi>ects. Such a method of treatment would be proper ; and if still any of the ladies should commit any trifling fault, so as to give offense to my lord, it would be as well to excuse them from being beaten with the bamboo ; you may, however, scold them severely, and tell them not to offend any more. Should any of them commit any grievous crime, you should wait until after their confinement, when you can inflict punishment.' "The celestial king then praised his adviser, saying, 'Your ob- servations, brother Tsing, are all-important, and may be considered the specifics for managing families, governing countries, and ruling the whole empire.' " The celestial king again issued his commands, saying, ' On a for- mer day, you, my brethren, prepared a document, which you sent up, announcing that, of late, our Heavenly Father has not bestowed upon us very many silks and satins. Now, I should like to know whether you, my brethren, have clothes enough to wear ; for, if you have not, your second elder brother's palace is well supplied with apparel, and I will order some to be given out for your use.' '• The eastern prince said, * We, your younger brethren, through the favor of heaven and the great goodness displayed by you, our APPENDIX. 295 second elder brother, have still got enough, and there is no occa- sion to give out more.' " The celestial king further said, ' Since, then, the apparel pos- sessed by me, your second elder brother, is abundant, you have no occasion to make up more garments.' " To which the northern prince replied, ' You, our second elder brother, are the true sovereign of all nations under heaven : you are rich in the possession of all within the four seas ; but, although the garments be abundant, it will still be necessary to be constantly making up more.' "The eastern prince said, *I beseech you, our second elder brother, to excuse the freedom which I, your younger brother, am about to take. If the apparel were insufiBcient, it would be neces- sary to make up more ; but if it be accounted sufficient, it will bo better to delay the making up of more, in order to carry out the virtue of economy and regard for others displayed by you, our sec- ond elder brother. What necessity was there for our brother Ching (the northern prince) to say that we ought constantly to be making up more V •* The celestial king said, ' All that which you, my brother Tsing, have stated, may be considered as important specifics and precious remediest every word of which is consistent with the highest reason, and fit to be preserved as a rule for successive generations. When our celestial elder brother, Jesus, in obedience to the commands of our Heavenly Father, came down into the world, in the country of Judea, he addressed his disciples, saying, "At some future day the Comforter will come into the world ;" now I, your second elder brother, considering what you, brother Tsing, have reported to me, and observing what you have done, must consider that the Com- forter, and the Holy Ghost, spoken of by our celestial elder brother, is none other than yourself.' "When he had finished speaking, the northern prince, with 296 TAI-PING-WANG. the Marquis Ting-t'heen, thrice exclaimed, 'May the king live forever ! we beseech your celestial majesty to make yourself easy and enjoy happiness.' Having said which, they returned thanks for the feast bestowed upon them, and retired from the court'* APPENDIX. 297 NOTE J. PROCLAMATIONS OP THB TAI-PINO DYNASTY. A still more complete nnderstanding of the pretended heavenly agencies by which the insurrection was narsed and brought to maturity, as well as of its spirit and aims, may be gathered from the following proclamations, extracted from " The Book of Celestial Decrees and Declarations of the Imperial Will," published in the second year of the Tai-ping dynasty, denominated Jin-tsze (1852) : " On the 18th day of the 3rd moon, of the Sin-k'hao year, (April 23d, 1851), in the village ofTung-heang (in the district of Woo-seucn), the Celestial Elder Brother, Jesus, addressed the multi- tude, saying, * Oh, my younger brethren 1 you must keep the celes- tial commands, and obey the orders that are given you, and be at peace among yourselves ; if a superior be in the wrong, and an in- ferior somewhat in the right, or if an inferior is in the wrong, and a superior somewhat in the right, do not, on account of a single ex- pression, record the matter in a book, and contract feuds and enmities. You ought to cultivate what is good, and purify your conduct; you should not go into the villages, to seize people's goods. When you go into the ranks to fight, you must not re- treat. When you have money, you must make it public, and not consider it as belonging to one and another. You must, with united heart and strength, together conquer the hills and rivers. You 13» 298 TAI-PING-WANG. should find out the way to heaven, and walk in it ; although, at present, the work be toilsome and distressing, yet, by-and-by. you will be promoted to high offices. If, having been instructed, any of you should still break heaven's commands, and slight the orders given you, or disobey your officers, or retreat when you are led into battle, do not be surprised if I, your exalted elder brother, issue orders to have you put to death.' " " On the 13th day of the 7th month of the Sin-k'hae year (Au- gust 18th, 1851), at Red Thorn Hill, in the tea district, our Heav- enly Father, the Great God, and Supreme Lord, said : * I, your Iloavenly Father, for several years past, have come down amon^ you. Your Celestial Elder Brother has come down to protect yoa, and zealous- ly (fODc out before you. JcsuB, your Saviour, contiuucs to exert himself in leading you on, just a« before. I, your Heavenly Father, will be your Lord all your lives long. Why do you not, then, be faithful, and why neglect to improve your- selves ? Many of you have grievously disobeyed orders, And because I have not pointed you out, your boldness has rison up to heaven. When you try to deceive heaven, do not think that heaven does not know it. The indulgence of heaven is vast as the sen, and yet not slow ^to punish). I perceive that there is among you a slight want of courage. How long will you refuse to act as faithful servants ? You intended in the dead of the night to follow the dark road. And, ere moming dawned, you had to complain of being caught by the devil's delusions. Now then, all of you follow the right way in defense of your king, And truly believe your Heavenly Father, without harboring saspicions.' " The Great God also said : * Now, I, your Heavenly Father, have personally come down into the world, to lead on you, my little ones ; but I see that some of APPENDIX. 299 yoaare disobedient to the heavenly commands, and every time you engage in any aflRiir, you do not act in unison. Think, now, whose rice you are eating, and in what work you are engaged. When you are sent to kill the imps (enemies), why are you not more united, why do you not exert your strength, and press forward together in battle? I, your Heavenly Father, tell you plainly, from this time forth, that, in killing the imps, if any one of you in the least d^ec refuses to go forth, or venture into battle, you may be sure that heaven knows it ; for you, yourselves, know all about it. Consider well, that I, your Heavenly Father, am mighty, and require all you, little ones, to obey orders ; if you again disobey, do not be sur- prised (if I punish you). Every one of you must be true-hearted and courageous, in doing the work of heaven.' " "The next day (August 1 9th), early in the morning, the great God said : * From of old, life and death havo been decreed by heaven ; How can one succeed in anything by depending on himself 7 The soul is originally bestowed on you by your Heavenly Father ; Now, if you do not arouse, what sort of people can you account your- selves ? ' " " On the twenty-sixth day of the seventh moon, of the Sin-k'hae year (August 31, 1851), at night, in the village of Muh, the Heav- enly Father, the great God, and Supreme Lord, put to death Hwang-e-chin, and said : * Hwang-e-chin has twice disobeyed commands ; From the cloudy heavens to the snowy earth his fault cannot be excused. Ho boldly attempted to deceive heaven, and had no faith ; In the time of battle, he twice caused our heroes to retire. The true spirit (God) created the land and the sea ; If you do not believe in your ghostly Father, what merit have you 1 Oh, all ye little ones, obey heaven's commands ; If yon disobey, like E-chin, your crimes will never be forgiven.' " 300 TAI-PING-WANG. " On the twentieth day of the tenth month, of the Sin-kliae year (December 26th, 1851), at the city of Yung-gnan, Jesus, the Ce- lestial Elder Brother, said : * If a man wishes to become a hero, he must not be at his case ; he that is at his case cannot be a hero ; the more you endure suf- ferings, the greater will be your dignity. But you need not be alarmed ; for if those impish fiends (the enemy) were able of a sudden to fly, or to change their form, they never could escape the hand of my Heavenly Father, or the hand of me, your Celestial Elder Brother.' " " In the early part of the twelfth month, in the Kang-suh year (January, 1851), at a place called Kin-t'hien, the celestial king commanded, saying : * The first requisite is, to obey the commandments ; the second, to divide the ranks of the males from the females ; the third, to avoid encroachment in the slightest decree ; the fourth, to mani- fest a public spirit, and a harmonious feeling, each one following the orders of his superiors ; the fifth, to combine every efibrt, and every energy, and, when engaging in batUe, never to retreat* " " On tire nineteenth day of the seventh month, of the Sin-k'hae year (24th August, 1851), at the tea district, the celestial king issued a proclamation, commanding every officer and soldier throughout all the regiments and battalions, with courage and joy, exultingly to obey the requisitions of our Heavenly Father and Celestial Eld- er Brother, without being agitated by fear ; for all things are determined by our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother ; every trouble is intended by our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother, as the trial of our minds ; therefore, let every one be true, and firm, and patient, so that ho may answer it to onr Heavenly Father and our Celestial Elder Brother. APPENDIX. 301 " The Heavenly Father formerly issued his commands, saying, ' Let every one be firm and patient, and he will not know any dif- ference (between cold and heat), so that the colder it is, the more he may throw off his clothes.' " Remembering this, let all the officers and soldiers awake from their lethargy. According to the statement now handed in, there seems to be no salt ; let the camp, therefore, be removed. Ac- cording to the same statement, it also appears there are many sick and wounded ; let the greater care, therefore, be taken to preserve the feeble. Should you fail to preserve one among our brethren and sisters, you will disgrace our Heavenly Father, and Celestial Elder Brother. Now, when the camp seta forward, let all the le- gions and cohorts be strict and exact in keeping the ranks, and in combining every effort and every energy. Let me earnestly en- treat you reverently to obey the celestial commands, and do not any more oflfond. The general in command of the advanced guard, our sister's husband, Seaou-Chaou-kwei, and the general in command of the left wing, our brother, Shih-tah-k'hae, should, to- gether take, the superintendence of the chief inspector's depart- ment. The first and second brigadiers of the advanced guard, the first and second brigadiers of the left wing, must lead the van. Let the general in command of the centre of the army, our broth- er, Yang-fiiu-tsing, take the superintendence of the chief direct- or's department ; the first and second brigadiers of the central division, together with twenty of the select body-guard, are to guard the centre. The general in command of the right-wing, our brother, Wei-ching, and the general in command of the rear-guard, our brother, Fung-yung-san, should together lead on the first and second brigadiers of the right wing, and the first and second bri- gadiers of the army of reserve to guard the rear. AVhenever the camps advance, or pitch their tents, let every legion and cohort be regularly joined, so as to be able to come to each other's assist- 302 TAI-PI\G-WANO. ance. You must, every one of you, exert your energies in sus- taining and protecting the old and young, both male and female, together with the sick and wounded, bo as to preserve them from every harm. At the same time, let every one look to the orJers that issue from our little heaven ; and all, both officers and sol- diers, be obedient. " Respect this." " On the third day of the eighth month, of the Sin-k'hae year (8th September, 1851), at the village of Muh, the celestial king commaudeil all the officers and soldiers, throughout the various camps and legions, to rouse their courage, and cxultingly rejoice, also with united efforts and energies to march forward, because in everything our Heavenly Father takes the superintendence, and our Celestial Elder Brother sustains us ; therefore, let me earnest- ly entreat you not to be agitated by fear : ' The true spirit (God) can create the hills and sooa ; Let the fiendish imps come on at once ; Let nets be spread in heaven and earth, surrounding us with double folds. Do you, soldiers and officers, expand your minds with courage ; Let the wntch go their rounds by day and by night, and strictly guard ; Let plans be laid, and silence reign throughout the camp. Formerly, Yo-fei, with five hundred men, defeated a hundred thousand ; Ilowmuch more, then, shall we be able to exterminate tliese impish fiends.' " Respect this." " On the nineteenth day of the eighth month, of the Sin-k'hae year (September 24th, 1851), when on board a boat, the celestial king issued a proclamation, saying : ' AVe earnestly beseech you, soldiers and officers, to obey the commands of heaven, and do not any more offend. We, on this occasion, most sincerely impress upon you this assurance, that those who. at the present time, do APPENDIX. 303 not covet life or fear death, will afterwards ascend to heaven, where they will enjoy eternal life ; but those of you who covet life, will not get life, and those of you who dread death, will meet with death. Moreover, those who, at the present hour, do not covet ease, or fear misery, shall afterwards ascend to heaven, where they shall enjoy the eternal tranquillity, and freedom from every woe ; but those of you who covet ease, will not get ease, and those who fear misery will experience misery. After all, obey heaven's com- mands, and you will enjoy celestial bliss ; disobey, and you will go to hell ; we earnestly beseech you, therefore, both officers and soldiers, to wake from your lethargy. If you offend any more, do not be surprised (if I punish you).' " Respect this." " On the seventh day of the eighth month, in the Sin-k'hae year (13th September, 1851), while at the city of Yung-gnan, the celestial king issued a proclamation, urging every officer and sol- dier, throughout each legion and each camp, to display a public spirit, and not on any account to manifest selfishness, but to be single-minded ; so as to be able to answer it to our Heavenly Father, our Celestial Elder Brother, and to ourselves. From henceforth it is commanded, to all you, soldiers and officers, that whenever you kill the imps, and take their cities, all the gold and silver, silks and satins, with precious things, which are obtained, must not be secreted for private use, but be altogether brought into the holy treasury of our celestial court. Those, who oflend against this, will be condemned. " Respect this." •' On the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, of the Sin-k'hae year (30th October, 1851), whilst -at the city of Yung-gnan, the celestial king issued a proclamation to all the officers and sol- 304 TAI-PING-WANG. dicrs throughout the host, both great and small, earnestly be- seeching them to obey the commands of heaven ; with joy and exultation, with courage and ardor, with united effort and energy, to press forward in the contest, reverently obeying the injunctions given us by our Ileavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother. It is now commanded to all the legions that, after every battle against the imps, every sergeant shall stand and record the names of the privates under his command. Those, who have been most distinguished for obeying orders, and marching forward, are to be marked with a circle, to indicate their merit ; those, who have been most distinguished for disobeying orders, and running away, are to be marked with a cross, to designate their crime. Those, who have been distinguished neither one way nor the other, are to be left without any mark. When the record is complete, the ser- geant is to take the book, and hand it up to the centurion ; the centurion is to give it to the leader of the cohort ; and the leader of the cohort is to pass it over to the commander of the legion, who is, in turn, to present it to the general, and the general to the inspector-general, who shall further send it to the director- general, and the director-general shall lay it before the minister of state ; the minister of state shall further communicate it to the generalissimo, who shall report it to our little heaven, in order to settle the degree of rank to which each one shall be elevated or degraded. Small merits shall be requited with small rewards, and great merits shall be distinguished by conspicuous promotions Let every one, therefore, put forth his utmost energies, and dis- play self-respect. " Respect this." " On the 12th day of the 10th month of the Sin-k'hae year (17th Nov., 1851), whilst at the city of Yung-gnan, the celestial king issued a proclamation, v-arnestly beseeching all the officers and sol- APPENDIX. 305 diers, throughout the host, both great and small, to obey heaven's commands, with joy and exultation, with patience and endurance, with courage and ardor, with united strength and vigor, to press forward in the contest, reverently obeying the laws and institutions of our Heavenly Father, and Celestial Elder Brother. Formerly we issued a command, saying, ' It is not an easy matter to go to heaven ; the most important thing, however, is determination and patience ; having these, you will certainly succeed. Therefore, be resolute, and carefully avoid falling into error, when but half-way there ; for the devil's paths are devious and deflected.' According to present appearances, all of you, soldiers and people, must know that the impious fiends have various ways of deceiving people, and that the devil's ways are devious and deflected ; further, you must know that our former declaration to you was correct. Now, we issue this special proclamation to you, soldiers and people, great and small, earnestly beseeching you to be patient and firm, not moved by delusive solicitations, but really determined implicitly to obey heaven, and faithfully to serve your country, even to the end. Your Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother have their eyes fixed upon you, and we have also got our eyes fixed upon you. We further command that those meritorious ministers, who have from first to last died in battle and ascended to heaven, be pro- moted to rank equal to that of director-general, with honors descend- ing to their posterity ; those meritorious officers, also, who have borne our standards in the fight, and arc now gone to heaven, shall be promoted to rank equal to that of gcneral-in-chief, or imperial body-guard. Those, who have been already promoted, have their caps and coata according to the official form ; those, who have not been promoted, have caps like the sergeants. Those, who have been promoted in one body, and those who have not been promoted in an- other class, may all come up into our little heaven ; while all those meritorious officers, who, together with us, engage in attacking the 306 TAI-PING-WANG. -» hills and rivers (of China), shall, if greatly successful, be promoted to be ministers of state, inspectors-general, directors-general, generals- in-chief, and imperial body-guards ; the very smallest of them shall be commanders of legions, with honors conferred on their posterity, wearing dragon-adorned robes, and gem-bespangled girdles, standing in our celestial court. We sincerely announce to you that, since we have all had the happiness to become sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, and brothers and sisters of our Celestial Elder Brother, we shall enjoy incomparable dignity in this present world, and interminable felicity in the next We ask you, now, whether of all honors there be any dignity to be compared to this ? Further- more, wc earnestly beseech all soldiers and officers, of every legion, exultingly and unitedly to obey the commands and requisitions of our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother. The fiendish imps are full of artful designs ; therefore, we earnestly entreat all of you, both soldiers and officers, to be on your guard, and do not vainly lament, when the morning dawns, that you have fallen into the devil's wiles. " Respect this." " On the 25th day of the 10th month, of the Sin-kliae year (30th Nov., 1851), while at Yung-gnan, the celestial king issued a pro- clamation, enjoining all the officers and soldiers throughout the host, both great and small, to know well the true doctrine, and follow it ; namely, this : our Heavenly Father, the Great God, and Supreme Lord, is one true spirit (God) ; besides our Heavenly Father, the Great Sod, and Supreme Lord, there is no spirit (God). The Great God, our Heavenly Father, and Supreme Lord, is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, the Supreme over all. There is not an individual who is not produced and nourished by him. He is Shang, Supreme. He is the Te, Ruler. Besides the great God, our Heavenly Father, and Su- APPENDIX. 307 preme Tx)rd, there is no one who can be called Shang, and no one who can be called Te. Therefore, from henceforth, all you, soldiers and officers, may desijBruate us as your lord, and that is all. You must not call us supreme, lest you should encroach upon the designation of our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father is our Holy Father, and our Celestial Elder Brother is our Holy Lord, the Saviour of the world. Hence, our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother alone are holy ; and from henceforth, all you, soldiers and officers, may designate us as your lord, and that is all ; but you must not call us holy, lest you encroach upon the designation of our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother. The Great God, our Heavenly Father, and Supreme Lord, is our Spiritual Father, our Ghostly Father. Formerly we had ordered you to designate the first and second ministers of state, together with the generab-in-chief of the van and rear of the army, royal fathers, which was a temporary indulgence, in conformity with the corrupt customs of the present world ; but, according to the true doctrine, this was a slight encroachment on the prerogative of our Heavenly Father ; for our Heavenly Father is alone entitled to the designation of Father. We have now appointed the chief minister of state and general-in-chief to be designated the eastern king, having charge of all the states in the eastern region. "We have also appointed the second minister of state and assistant general-in-chief to be designated the western king, having charge of all the states in the western region. We have further appointed the general of the advanced guard to be designated the southern king, having charge of all the states in the southern region ; and we have, likewise, appointed the general of the rear-guard to be designated the northern king, having charge of all the states in the northern region. We liave, furthermore, appointed our brother Shih-tah-k'hae to be assistant king, to aid in sustaining our celes- tial court. All the kings, above referred to, are to be under the 308 TAI-PING-WANG. superintendence of the eastern king. We have, also, issued a pro- clamation designating our queen as the lady of all ladies (empress), and our concubines as royal ladies. " Respect this.'* " On the 27th day of the Ist month, of the Jin-tsze year (2d March, 1852), at the city of Yung-gnan, the celestial king issued a pro- clamation, earnestly beseeching all the oDSccrs and soldiers, through- out the hosts, great and smxdl, male and female, to obey the com- mands of heaven. "We now especially direct our brother, Yang-Siu- tsing, our sister's husband, Seaou-Chaou-kwei, our brother, Fung- Yun-san, our brother, Wei-ching, and our brother, Shih-tah-k'hae, together with all the commanders of legions, most strictly and fre- quently to inspect the soldiers of the army, whether or not they offend against the seventh command ; for if they do, as soon as it is discovered, they shall be immediately taken up and beheaded, as a warning to all. There shall assuredly be no forgiveness ; and we expressly enjoin upon the soldiers and oCSccrs not to show the least leniency, or screen the offenders, lest we bring down upon ourselves the indignation of the Great God, our Heavenly Father. Let every one be on his guard. " Respect this." " On the 30th day of the 2d month, of the Jin-tsze year (5th April, 1852), at Yung-gnan, the celestial king issued a proclamation, ex- pressly enjoining on all the male officers and female officers, through- out the host, to obey the commands of heaven, with joy and exult- ation, firmness and patience, courage and ardor, valiantly to fight against the imps (enemies), for — * Ix)t tho impish fiends amount to thousands and myriads, Thoy will hardly escape the hand of our Heavenly Father. If ho could make the land and the sea in six days. APPENDIX. 309 You may easily boliove that our Ghostly Father is a hero. High heaven has commissioned you to kill tho impish fiends ; Our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother havo their eyes on you. Let the male and female officers all grasp the sword ; As for your apparel, one change will be sufficient ; Unitedly rouse your courage, and slay the fiends ; Let gold and silver, with bag and baggage, bo disregarded ; Divest yourselves of worldly motives, and look to heaven. Where there ore golden tiles and houses, all glorious to behold ; In heaven above, you may enjoy happiness, and dignity, in the extreme j The very meanest and smallest will be clothed in silks and satins ; The males will be adorned with dragon-embroidered robes, and tho fe- males with flowers ; Let each one, therefore, bo faithful, and exert his utmost energies.' " Respect this." The celestial king appends the following proclamation : * We hereby command you, ministers and people, to make a dis- tinction between males and females ; men are to manage outside afiairs, and not to listen to what goes on within ; women are to manage domestic concerns, and not to trouble themselves about external matters. We, therefore, especially command that, from henceforth, outside affairs are not to be reported inside, and inter- nal affairs are not to be reported outside. As to the inmates of the harem, they are generally to be termed ladies, and ministers must he especially careful not to speak of the names and surnames, rank and station, of the inmates of the harem ; these must, on no account, be talked about or discussed ; should any offend in this particular, they shall be beheaded without mercy. No subject is ever to look upon the face of the inmates of the harem ; but every one hang down his head, and cast down his eyes, not daring to lift them up from the ground ; for whosoever glances at the faces of the inmates of the harem shall be beheaded without mercy. What is said in the harem must never be reported outside. Should any 310 TAI-PING-WANG. subjects or female officers dare to report outside what is said in the harem, they shall be beheaded without mercy. "WTiat is said by any subject must not be reported inside ; if the speech of any sub- ject is reported inside, then the person reporting it shall be be- headed without mercy, and the subject who uttered the speech shall also be beheaded without mercy. We sincerely announce this to you. To keep the harem distinct, is the foundation of good government and honest morals. It is not that we are desirous of making severe restrictions ; but we wish to carry out the holy witt of our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother, in beheading the lewd, and sparing the correct. Should there be the least de- parture from this rule, it would not do at all. Now that we have issued this decree, not only must our subjects, in the present day, obey, but throughout our celestial dynasty and celestial empire, for myriads and myriads of years, generation after generation, whoever becomes a subject of this state must comply with this rule. These are our words.' " Respect this." APPENDIX. 311 NOTE K. A recent number of ihe^**Friend to China," in noticing a late manifesto of the insurgents, says : " At one blow Tai-ping-wang abolish(» the idolatrous and other superstitious rites observed at births and marriages ; directs young people to attend daily services at church ; commands the Sabbath to be kept, requiring the at- tendance at public worship alike of young and old on that holy day ; orders an officer to conduct the religious service, and preach a £Crmon ; and authoritatively appoints, as by imperial command, that the Word of God, the ' holy books of the Old and New Testa- ments' (the identical Protestant version of the .Bible, commonly known and styled, * GutzlafTs Version,' and towards printing which, in former times, the British and Foreign Bible Society contributed pecuniary aid) be made the text-book for instructing the Chinese youth in the whole empire." 312 TAI-PING-WANG. NOTE L. TAI-PING LITERATURE. FORMS OP PRAYER. The form to he observed in seeking the forgiveness of sins : Ixjt the suppliant kneel down in the sight of heaven, and pray to the great God to forgive his sins. Ho may either employ such words as occur, or he may use a written form ; when the prayer is over, let him take a basin of water and wash himself clean, or if he perform his ablutions in the river, it will be still better. AMien he has obtaine'ic- torious, Because the latter, by correctness, overcame the incorrect. Kfich and Chow severally lost the empire, Because, in the marriage relation, they acted incorrectly. Chwang and Ling were killed by Tsuy and Ilea, Because they acted incorrectly towards their ministers. Scang, the duke of Tsc, was slain in the midst of his days, Because he acted incorrectly in dishonoring his sister. Ping, the king of Tsoo, was flogged after his death, IJecause he acted incorrectly in marrying his daughter-in-law. The house of Yang held the Suy dynasty for a short time only, Because, in the filial relation, they acted incorrectly. The house of Ixi, of the Tang dynasty, met with many misfortunes, Because they acted incorrectly in the intercourse of the sexes. Heen-tsung, of the Tang dynasty, threw the empire into confusion. Because he acted incorrectly in listening to his wife. Teih-jin-kech was looked up to by every one. Because he acted correctly in resisting female influence. Woo-san-sze was put to death by common consent. Because he acted incorrectly in lusting after women. Oh, the hundred fnstanccs of correct conduct ! Let us sing of the hundred correct things. APPENDIX. 3o3 Correctness is that which distinguishes men from brutes, Correctness is tlie quality most admired in all ages, Correctness is the quality most honored in heaven's nobility, Correctness is the original nature conferred upon mankind. Be correct, and you may enjoy the happiness of heaven, Be incorrect, and you will fall into the region of hell ; Be correct, and you may stnnd erect between heaven and earth ; Be correct, and you may silence scoundrels ; Be correct, and you may control flatterers ; Be correct, and you may pass through barbarous regions ; Be correct, and you may root out the violent and stubborn ; When the prince is incorrect, the people follow their own inclina- tions; "When the prince is correct, the people comply with his commands ; When the prince is incorrect, his relations will rebel against him ; When the prince is correct, the whole empire will believe in him ; When he is incorrect, calamities multiply through his vices ; When he is correct, blessings are the result of his virtues ; When the nobles are incorrect, they will at length be overthrown ; When the rich are incorrect, their riches will soon be scattered ; When men are incorrect, then they will not be esteemed as men ; When women are incorrect, they will be looked upon as monsters ; When a family is incorrect, there will be abundance of diso- bedience ; When a kingdom is incorrect, there will be much contention ; In all time, the correct have been able to manage the corrupt ; From of old, the corrupt have found it difficult to conquer the correct ; From one correct act, happiness and emolument will daily increase ; From one correct act, misery and calamity will daily diminish.* • It will bo perceived that tho wholo of the above ode is a play upon the wotd " correct," which, in its positive or negative form, occurs suty times. 354 TAI-PING-WANG. AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN OF VIRTDE, FOR THE AWAKENING OP THE AGE. From of old it is seen that when a man's happiness is great, he possesses an enlarged mind ; and a man of an enlarged mind may be considered a great man : so, also, when a man's happiness is small, he possesses a narrow mind, and a man of a narrow mind may bo considered a little man. Thus we see that great mountains do not despise the little clods, by means of which they become high ; and large rivers do not overlook the small rills, by means of which they become deep ; so also a monarch does not disregard the com* mon people by means of whom he completes his royal estate. All this comes from the possession of an enlarged mind. In the pres- ent day, however, it is far different, and also hard to be accounted for. The maxims of the world are perverse and wicked, while the minds of men are destitute of feeling : their likes and dislikes are all dictated by selfish considerations ; hence this nation dislikes that nation, and that nation dislikes this nation : even with respect to persons dwelling in the same country, the inhabitants of one pro- vince, prefecture, or district, dislike the inhabitants of another pro- vince, prefecture, or district : while the inhabitants of that province, prefecture, or district, dislike the inhabitants of this province, pre- fecture, or district : moreover, with respect to persons dwelling in the same province, prefecture, or district, people belonging to one village, hamlet, or clan, dislike those belonging to another village, hamlet, or clan ; and those belonging to another village, hamlet, or clan, dislike the people belonging to this village, hamlet, or clan. The maxims of the world and human feelings having been brought to this pass, how can they do otherwise than insult, encroach upon, fight and kill each other, and thus bring one another to ruin ? This arises from no other cause than the possession of contracted views and a contracted mind. When men of one nation dislike the people of another nation, and when men of that nation- dislike APPENDIX. 356 the men of this nation, it is because their views are confined to one individual nation, and they are ignorant of everything beyond their own country ; therefore they love those of tlieir own nation, and dislike those of another nation. So also, when men of one province, prefecture, or district, dislike the inhabitants of another province, prefecture, or district, and when the inhabitants of that province, prefecture, or district, dislike the inhabitants of this province, pre- fecture, or district, it is because their views are confined to one particular province, prefecture, or district, and they are ignorant of everything beyond that province, prefecture, or district; hence it is that they love those of the same province, prefecture, or dis- trict with themselves, and dislike those of every other province, prefecture, or district Further, when the people of one village, hamlet, or clan, dislike the people of another village, hamlet, or clan, and when the people of that village, hamlet, or clan, dislike the people of this village, hamlet, or clan, it is because their views are confined to one particular village, hamlet, or clan, and they are ignorant of everything beyond their own village, hamlet, or clan, therefore, they love those of their own village, hamlet, or clan, and dislike those of every other village, hamlet, or clan. The likes and dislikes of the men of the world being of this character, how is it that their views are not enlarged, and their minds so con- tracted ? If we carry our thoughts back to distant ages, to the times of Yaou and Shun, with those of the three dynasties, we shall find that, in those days, men who possessed anything regarded those who possessed it not ; that they aided each other in calamity ; that at night no man closed his doors, and no man picked up that which was dropped on the road ; that men and women walked on different paths ; and that in promoting men to office virtue was chiefly re- garded. Yaou and Shun regretted that they could not sufficiently supply the wants of men ; what diffijrencc did they make between this land and that land ? Yu and Tseih were anxious lest the country 356 TAI-PING-WANG. ehoald be involved in famine ; what difference did they make between this people and that people ? T'hang and Woo attacked the violent, and banished the oppressor ; what difference did they make be- tween one kingdom and another kingdom ? Confucius and Men- cius wore out their carriages and horses (in going about to teach people) ; what difference did they make between one state and an- other state ? It was because all those worthies looked upon the inhabitants of the whole earth, when spoken of separately, as com- prising a variety of kingdoms, but, when spoken, of collectively as constituting but one family. The great God is the universal Father of all men throughout the world. China, which is near to us, is governed and regulated by the great God ; foreign nations, which are far away, are under the same rule. Again, foreign nations, though far removed, are protected and cared for by the great God ; and China, which is so near, is under the same grar cious care. There are many men in the world, but they are all our brethren; there are many women in the world, but they are all our sisters ; why, then, should we retain the selfish feeling of re- garding one border and another boundary ? And why should we cherish the idea of my swallowing up you, and you overwhelming me. Confucius said, " In carrying out great principles, let the empire be considered as public property ; let virtuous and capable men be selected for public offices ; let truth be the subject of discourse, and harmony the object of study ; and then men will not only regard their parents and love their children, but will induce others to do the same — causing elderly people to fulfill their days with delight, and middle-aged persons to be of some use in the world, while the young grow up to a vigorous manhood ; let the widows and desti- tute, orphans and solitary, together with the sick and disabled, all have some means of support ; let males have their various employments, and females each a quiet home. Take care that pro- perty be not wasted on the ground, still less that it be stored up APPENDIX. 357 for private use ; take care also that men's energies fail not to be drawn forth, at the same time let them not all be expended on a man's self. When pablic morals are thus pure, villainies will be shut out and have no room for their display, neither will robberies and rebellions have any scope for development. In such cir- cumstances you may leave your outer doors open. This is what may be called a public-spirited age." But now how can such a state of society be looked for? Nevertheless, when disorder comes to the worst, order is sometimes elicited ; when the darkness is ex- trt inc, li;,'ht is found to spring up — this is the usual course of Pro- vidence. Now " the night is far spent, the day is at hand." We only wish that all our brethren and sisters throughout the world would rush out of the devil's false gate, and travel along God's true road, constantly cherishing a dread of heaven's majesty, and earnestly complying with the Divine commands ; that they would mutually study to improve themselves and the world around them ; that they would severally aim at correcting themselves and then their neighbors ; that they would together present themselves as a rock in the middle of the stream, and strive to stem the boister- ous waves as they are rolling along, and then we shall soon see the world united as one family, and enjoying universal tranquillity. How can it be that this perverse and unfeeling world cannot, in a day, be transformed into an honest and upright world ? How can it be that this insulting and encroaching, fighting and killing age can- not, in one morning, be changed, so that the strong no more oppress the weak, nor the many overwhelm the few, nor the cunning de- lude the simple, nor the bold annoy the fearful ? In the Book of Diagrams, it is said, that when our fellow-men are abroad with us in the wide world, liberality is engendered, which may be consid- ered an enlargement of mind ; and when our fellow-men are confined with us in a narrow circle, niggardliness is the result, which may be denominated a contracted mind. Now, when the mind is en- 368 TAI-PING-WANG. larged, happiness is great ; and other men's minds become enlarged likewise ; so, when the mind is contracted, happiness is diminished, and the minds of others become contracted likewise. Oh, all of you, who have blood and breath, how can you think of interfering with the harmony of heaven and earth, and, cherishing views like those of a frog at the bottom of a well, expose yourselves to the just ridi- cule of mankind ? The hymn says — God is originally our universal Father ; As the spring to the fountain and the root to the tree, so is he the true origin. Liberal hearted, he treats one nation like another ; Kindly disposed, he regards the inhabitants of earth and heaven alike. "When brutes injure each other, it is still improper, But when neighbors slay one another, it is far more wicked ; Heaven having produced and nourished us all, we should be har- monious ; Let us, then, promote each other's peace, and enjoy tranquillity. FURTHER EXHORTATIONS OS THE ORIGIN OF VIRTUE, FOR THE AWAKENING OF THE AGE. All under heaven belong to one family, and all the people in the world are brethren. How does this appear ? First, with regard to their bodies : every man has his parents and his ancestry : al- though their abodes are distinguished by various boundaries, yet all the families come from one family, and that one family comes from one ancestor ; their first origin is, therefore, the same. Secondly, as it regards their souls : whence do all these souls come from, and whence do they all originate ? They are all derived from the one original breath of the great God ; thus one root spreads out into a myriad branches, and the myriad branches are all referable to one root. K'hung-keih said, " That which Heaven's decree confer- APPENDIX. 369 red upon man may be termed our conmion nature." The Book of Odes says, " Heaven produced all classes of people.'* The Historic- al Classic says, " Heaven sent down the inhabitants of this lower world." The truth so luminously expressed in these documents is far from incorrect In this way the sages considered all under heaven as one family, and constantly cherished the feeling that all people are our brethren, while they did not, for one moment, overlook the interests of the whole world. In latter days, however, we have heard the incorrect statement, that the king of Hades determines the period of life and death. But this king of Hades is none other than the old serpent the devil, who transforms himself in a variety of ways, to deceive and entrap the souls of men. This is he whom all our brethren and sisters, throughout the world, should exert themselves to oppose as vigorously as possible ; but, instead of so acting, the men of this world perversely stretch forth their necks towards him : how dreadfully do they by this means forfeit the joys of heaven, and covet the miseries of hell ! Now, there is a correct method of judging regarding principles. Generally speaking, those which prevail in modern times, and were unknown to all antiquity, as well as those which obtain in our immediate neighborhood, and are known nowhere else, are to be suspected as false doctrines and contracted views. According to the lying statements of these deceivers, the king of Hades determines the period of life and death : but we beg leave to ask, do any of the classics of China contain such a statement ? Certainly not. Do any of the sacred books of foreigners contain such a declaration ? By no means. If not, whence, then, did it originate ? It comes from self delusions of the perverse disciples of Buddha and Taou, who, coveting wealth and greedy of gain, delude people in matters of which they are necessarily ignorant, in order to profit by the deception ; and in- duce people to adopt religious ceremonies and processions, in order that they may fatten on the money paid for them. Moreover, the 360 TAI-PING-WANG. devil having entered into people's minds, they invent innumerable tales and lying fabrications to deceive and destroy their fellow-men. Thus, in the time of the Tsin dynasty, some deceivers falsely asserts ed that, in the eastern ocean, there were three fairy hills, when the emperor sent some people into the sea to search for them : from this sprang all those inventions regarding fairies and genii, so rife in after-ages, into the origin of which, if we do but inquire, we shall find that they all came from these inventions of the Tsin dynasty : verifying the saying, that if you err at first but a hair's breadth, successive generations, by repeatedly adopting and adding to the error, and obstinately clinging to it, without relaxing their grasp, will make the discrepancy to amount to a thousand miles in width. Thus, also, in the time of Kwang-woo, of the Han dynasty, some deceivers pretended that if men would but sacrifice to the- kitchen, they could burn red cinnabar into yellow gold : Kwan- woo believed them, and sacrificed accordingly : in consequence of which, from the states of Yen and Tse, a parcel of flying vaga- bonds came along, and told a number of stories about genii and hobgoblins. Moreover, in latter ages, we have had unprincipled men falsely declaring, that the Dragon of the Eastern Sea can pro- duce rain : whereas this Dragon of the Eastern Sea is nothing more than a transformation of the king of Hades : while rain comes down from heaven, as everybody can see. Mencius said, " Heaven abun- dantly collects the clouds, and causes the rain to descend in tor- rents ; when the young rice-plants suddenly shoot up." The ode of the Chow dynasty says, " High heaven is all overspread with clouds, when it sends down snow in abundance, followed by driz- zling rain, which, plentifully irrigating our fields, and moistening them sufficiently, causes the various kinds of grain to be produced for our use." On referring to the Old Testament, brought fi-om abroad, we find that, in the days of Noah, the mighty God sent down a great rain for forty days and forty nights, on account of the APPENDIX. 361 iniquities and rebellions of mortals, which rain produced a univer- sal deluge, and drowned the men of the world. Every one of these statements is established by the clearest proofs, which are open to the inspection of every observer, showing that rain really does come down from heaven : and yet, men of this world will believe lying fables and unfounded stories. Now, if, with respect to this simple matter of rain, people will allow their natural perceptions to be obliterated to such a degree as to disregard heaven's abundant favors, how much more with regard to other things ? As in the pres- ent day, the unprincipled priests of Buddha not only falsely pro- pagate stories respecting this king of Hades, but publish a number of lying fables in a work called the Pearly Record, which they palm upon the world ; and men, who read without thinking, are fre- quently deceived by their statements, not considering that the deter- mining of the period of life and death is no trifling matter : if this be no trifling matter, it would surely have been referred to in the books prepared by the various wise men of both Chinese and for- eign countries, and, having been recorded in their publications, would have been handed down to subsequent generations. But now, after examining the books, which wise men, both in China and foreign lands, have penned and handed down, we only read that heaven produced and heaven sent down the people of this lower world, also, that the great God protects and preserves mankind, but we read nothing about the king of Hades ; we only read that life and death are determined by fate, which fate is nothing more than the decree of the great God. with not a syllable about the king of Hades: we merely read that the great God will judge all men, and secretly protects them, while he presides over all in his majesty, but not one word about this same king of Hades. Those, however, who read without reflection, and do not believe in the ac- knowledged classics and sacred books prepared both by ancients and modems, or brought from far and near, but believe in the unfound- 16 362 TAI-PING-WANG cd assertions of unpriociplcd men, and in the strange statements that ever and anon get up amongst us, how grossly are they de- ceived ? This arises from no other cause than their following out the common feelings of aspiring after longevity, and seeking to avoid death ; also from their panting after good fortune, and dreading ill- luck. The deceivers, availing themselves of this common feeling in order to influence the minds of the generality, make them an easy prey to their wiles. Thus erroneous doctrines once introduced, the people of the world greedily believe and follow them : having believed and followed them long, their perceptions get warped ; and when their perceptions are warped, their adherence becomes strong ; and when their adherence is strong, they are slow to detect any flaw in the system ; and, being slow to detect any flaw in their 8}*stem, they find the utmost difficulty in escaping the snare. And although the great Go J has from age to age caused wise and intel- ligent men to appear among them, yet there are none that can avoid being carried away with the current. This is the reason why the people of the present day are so bewildered and ignorant of the great God, also, so stout-hearted and unaffected by the fear of the great God, that they have fallen into the snare of the devilish ser- pent, the king of Hades, and involved themselves in hellish ruin, without being aware of it. What is more to be lamented is, that, should any of their posterity wish to get some knowledge of the truth regarding heaven, earth, and man, it does not appear from what source they are to obtain it. When men become fond of de- lusions, they do not trace things to their first principles, nor follow them out to their real results, but listen to error and nothing else. Taking a general view of the men of this present world, I consider that though they amount to ffreat multitudes, they are all created and produced by the great God ; having been produced by God, they are also supported by God : for every article of food and clothing they must depend upon the great Grod, who is the univer- APPENDIX. 363 sal Father of all mankind. Life and death, happiness and misery, are all determined by him ; whatever men eat or wear is produced by him. When I look up to heaven, I perceive that the sun and moon, the stars and planets, the thunder and rain, the wind and clouds, are all the wondrous eiTccts of his mighty power : when I survey the earth, I perceive that the hills and fountains, the rivers and lakes, with the birds and beasts, plants and fishes, are all the marvelous productions of his mighty energies : all plainly exposed to view, all easy of discernment : for this he may be considered the true Spirit ; for this every man throughout the world ought every morning to worship, and every evening to adore, him. Some who obstinately retain their errors say, it is true that the great God onght to be worshiped ; but there must be some who aid the great God in protecting mankind, just as a sovereign, who, though he rules the country gen(;rally, yet has a number of officers to aid him in the government. Such people, however, do not con- sider, that the ministers of such a sovereign are all appointed by him to the offices they severally fill, when they are permitted to aid the monarch in regulating the affairs of state. But with re- spect to the wooden, stone, clay, and paper images, which the men of this world set up, we b^ to inquire, whether the great God ever declared his will to have these set up ? Certainly not. ITiese all belong to the class of monstrosities which men, whose minds have been deluded by the devil, have according to their own stupid views manufactured by their own hands. Moreover, when the great God, at the beginning, made heaven and earth, land and sea, men and things, in six days, he appointed thousands and myriads of angels, in heaven above, to be sent and employed by him : what need is there that he should obtain the aid of these monstrosities, invented by mortals, in utter defiance of his high authority ? By referring to the Old Testament we learn that, in early ages, the great God descended on Mount Sinai, where he wrote the Ten 364 TAI-PIXG-WANG. Comraandmentd with his own hand, on tables of stone, and gave them to Moses. At that time God commanded Moses, saying, I am the great God, the supreme God ; you men of the world must on no account set up images, resembling anything in heaven above or in earth beneath, to bow down and worship them. Now, you people of the world set up images of all sorts, and bow down to worship them, in absolute defiance of God's express command ; and yet you say these various images are to assist the great God in pro- tecting mankind ; how grossly must your minds have been deceived and deluded by the devil, so as to fall into such an error as this ? Can you not think for a moment that, if the great God at the begin- ning could in six da^-s create heaven and earth, land and sea, men and things, without the aid of any one, he does not now need any assistance in protecting mankind ? VTc would also ask you, if the great (Jod, at the beginning, had only created heaven, and not earth, what place would you have hatl to stand on, and what fields would you have had to cultivate ? Certainly none whatever. We would further ask you, when you had been made the recipients of God's favor, in making the heavens and the earth for you, if he had not likewise made the ground to yield the mulberry, the hemp, the rice, the wheat, the millet, and the pulse, together with plants and trees, fire and water, gold and iron ; or if he had not made the water to produce fishes and prawns, the air to contain the flying fowl, and the hills the roaming beast, together with domestic animals and such like, what would your bodies have had to wear, or your mouths to eat ; what materials would you have had "where- with to provide your breakfast and supper, and what implements would you have had for your daily use ? None whatever. Again we ask, though the great God has in his goodness provided these various things in rich abundance, yet suppose he should withhold the sun from you, and not let it shine upon you for a year's time ; or. if he should withhold the rain, and not let it moisten vou for a APPENDIX. 365 year's time ; or, not cause it to thunder for a whole year, to drive away evil influences from you, or, not cause the wind to blow for the same period, and scatter the noxious vapors around you — could you men of the world get in your crops and enjoy tranquillity ? Most assuredly not. Again we would ask you, though God of his goodness were to grant you fruitful seasons and tranquil times, yet if he were of a sudden to let his wrath arise, and stop your breath, or take away your life, could you then speak with your mouth, or see with your eyes, or hear with your ears, or handle with your hands, or walk with your feet, or plan with your mind ? Nothing of all these could you do. Finally we would ask, whether all the inhabitants of the world could, for one hour, or one minute, exist without the favor of the great God ? Certainly they could not exist. Seeing, then, that the inhabitants of the world could not exist for one hour or one moment without the favor of the great God, it appears clear, beyond all contradiction, that the great God protects and preserves all men. And if it be so clear that the great God pro- tects all men, why do you, forsaking him, set up your idols, and go and pray to them for protection, for food, and for clothing ? But some of you say. Oh my idol is efficacious. Now it is very clear that all your blessings come from the grace and favor of the great God, while you erroneously suppose that they come from the favor of some corrupt devil. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that when such corrupt devils dare to claim for themselves the merit due to heaven's favor, they ought to be eradicated and ex- terminated; but when you men thus deaden your natural con- science, outrage heaven's exalted goodness, and, associating with corrupt devils, involve yourselves in the guilt of rebelling against the Most High, how stupidly do you behave ! How pitiable is your case ! It is very evident that there exists a true Spirit who is most honorable and exalted, the universal Father of all men throughout the world, who ought to be worshiped and served 366 TAI-PING-WAXG. every morning and evening ; him you do not worship, but, on the contrary, worship the foul fiend who deceives and entangles the souls of men ! How stupid is this ! It is very evident that there exists a true Spirit who is most efficacious and clearly manifested, the universal Father of all men throughout the world, who says, " ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened to you ;" he it is whom you ought, morning and evening, to worship and adore ; him, however, you do not worship, but, on the contrary, worship a variety of wooden, stone, clay, and paper images, which know not, nor understand, a parcel of stupid, objects, " which have mouths but speak not, noses but smell not, ears but hear not, hands but handle not, and feet but walk not." How still more stupid is this ! However, when the streams arc impure, the cause is to be traced to the impurity of the fountain ; the errors of subsequent ages are to be ascribed to the carelessness of those who have gone before. Throughout the whole world, there is not an individual who, for a single moment, is not the recipient of God's grace and favor ; how is it, then, that, in the present day, there are so few who know and acknowledge the Divine goodness — whence does this evil originate ? On examining the histoiy of China, we find that from the time of Pwan-koo, down to the three dynasties, both princes and peo- ple together honored and worshiped the great God. Some innovation on this practice, however, occurred in the time of Shaou-haou, when Kew-le first believed in corrupt devils, and extended the mischief to the three classes of Meaouites who followed his bad example. In the time of the three dynasties, likewise, there was occasionally some attention paid to corrupt spirits, and the error was fallen into, of employing men to repre- sent the ghosts of the departed, when funeral rites were performed; still, during all that time, both princes and people honored and worshiped the great God, as from the first. When the Tsin APPENDIX. 367 dynasty arose, a dangerous step was taken, in the superstitious regard paid to genii and hobgoblins ; while the people sacrificed to Shun and Yu ; and, in the extremity of their mad perverse- ness, sent men to the sea to look for the genii. The great God is only one, and, besides him, there is none other ; "Wan, of the Han dynasty, however, thought that there were five, and erred most ^n^gioosly. When Woo, of the Han dynasty, was old, he expressed his r^ret, saying : " Formerly, 1 thought that there were such things as genii, now I know that they do not exist ;" but his former practices of sacrificing to the kitchen, worshiping one of the immortals called T'hae-yih, and sending conjurers into the sea to look for the genii, were retained as a remnant of the corruptions that prevailed under the Tsin dynasty. Besides these, Seaen, of the Han dynasty, sacrificed to Empress lilarth, and sent men to seek for the golden horse and jasper fowl. Ming, of- the same dynasty, honored the priests of Buddha, and sent men into India, to procure the classics of that religion. Hwan, of the same dynasty, sacrificed to I^aou-tan. Woo, of the Lcang dynasty, thrice dedicated himself to Buddha ; and Heen, of the Tang dynasty, went out once to meet one of Buddha's bones, until Hwuy, of the Sung dynasty, appeared, who changed the appellation of the great God (Shang-te), and designated him Yuh-hwang-shang-te, the Pearly Emperor God, dwelling in the golden palace of the luminous heavens. Now, to say that be dwelt in the golden palace of the luminous heavens, was not so much amiss ; but to call him the Pearly Emperor God, displayed in truth a considerable want of reverence towards him. For the great God being the universal Father of all creatures under heaven, no one can be permitted to change his venerable name ! When the emperor Hwuy was afterwards taken by the Tartars, and, together with his son K'hin, died in the northern desert, was it not what might have been expected? Viewing the matter 568 TAI-PIXG-WAXG. from beginning to end, it appears that Kew-le and the emperor of the Tsin dynasty were the primo off'nders at the first ; while Waji and Woo, Seuen, Ming, and Ilwan, of the Ilan dynasty, with II