The Chinese and Their Rebellions

CHAPTER I

POLITICAL QEOaRAPHY AND ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY.

The present ChiDese Empire is composed of five great divisions, Manchooria, Mongolia, Turkestan or Little Bu-charia, Tibet, and lastly China Proper. It is with the last only, which is occupied by the 360 millions of that peculiar people whom we call Chinese, that we have here almost exclusively to do.

The first-named divisions are of great extent, are thinly inhabited, as compared with China Proper, and are each much less civilized.

Manchooria is the country of the Manchoo Tartars, a half settled, half nomadic race which has attracted attention chiefly because it is that from which sprang the present Imperial dynasty of China.

Mongolia is mainly composed of deserts ; and is altogether occupied by veritable nomads, shepherds living in tents. They are the most believing of Lamaistic Buddhists.

Turkestan is inhabited by a settled Turkish race of Ma-hommedan faitL It contains the two great and famed cities of Cashgar and Yarkand; besides a few smaller, bearing names less familiar to our ears.

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Tibet is likewise inhabited by a settled people. It is the centre and stronghold of Lamaistic Buddhism ; whose chief, the Dalai Lama, the incarnate Buddha, has his seat in its capital, Lassa.

Each of these four great divisions is, then, inhabited hj a distinct people, speaking each its own language, and each marked by peculiar national manners. To the mind of the Chinaman, more, perhaps, than they would be to us, these several territories are uncultivated, wild, "uncomfortable" regions ; to him the languages are jargons and the manners " barbarous." Chinese mandarins (officials), who are (rightly or wrongly) held convicted of administrative faults, are sent by the Emperor to some high or low post in these portions of his dominions as a punishment. If our institutions per-mitted it, and Her Majesty were to send unsuccessful minis-ters to Capeland to " soothe " the Dutch Colonists and " tranquillize " the CafFres, it would form a tolerably close parallel to what occurs frequently in China. So also, if one were put in charge of Ceylon with strict injunctions '* to repair past short-comings by future good services" — the stereo-typed official phrase on such occasions. Still closer parallels are found in Bussia, when the Emperor transfers one of his " mandarins "* from Muscovy to Siberia or Kamskatka.

In spite of this view taken of the " outer " dominions of their Sovereign, the redundancy of the population in China proper itself, together with the enterprising mercantile and colonizing spirit of the Chinese, is the cause that numbers of them are to be found throughout these very territories as settlers or as traders ; by whom, and by the Chinese officials, Chinese ideas, and even Chinese words have been introduced, and have more or less (partially) modified the original man-ners and languages. Tibet and Turkestan have been the least influenced in this way. The latter, the latest of the

* Chin is one of the names of the Chinese mandarins or chinovink, I may add that Enssia appears to me to have borrowed many good administratiye roles from China.

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POLITICAL aEOGRAPHT. 8

'^annexed'' or conquered territories, holds a relation to China very moch like that of Algeria to France. In a last ex-tremity, the Emperor might withdraw his garrisons from both to aid in extinguishing existing rebellions in China, Apart from this possibility, the two former Countries can exercise no influence on the march of events in the latter, and may, therefore, be left out of further consideration in this volume.'!^

Manchooria and Mongolia have been somewhat more in-fluenced by Chinese civilization ; especially the former, whose original Tartar language has been nearly superseded by that of China. The Manchoos may be said to consist of the fiunily and clan or tribe of the present Imperial House. It was their military support which placed it in possession of the Imperial Throne 210 years ago; and upon which it now greatly relies for its maintenance in that possession. Next to his own nation of Manchoo Tartars, the Emperor looks for assistance to the Mongols, which latter, as Tartars, have con-mderable affinity with the former; and whose Princes and Chiefs moreover stand mostly in the relation of consan-guinity to the present dynasty, in consequence of marriages during successive generations with daughters of the Imperial House — marriages ambitious on the one side, politic on the other.

The Chinese, in referring to the above four territories, use in writing and in conversation the aggregate appellative ^'£ow wae. Outside of the gates or passes," because Manchooria

* Since the aboTe was written intelligence has reached us of an inyasion of Thibet by the Nepaolese. The British public and oar Indian goyemment do not appear to be alive to the fact that this is as much an attack on the Emperor of China as an inyasion of Algeria would be an attack on Napoleon III. or an inTaaion of British India an attack on Queen Yictoria. It is reallj yery likely timt the Emperor Heen fung has been prerented by this Nepaulese attack from drawing forces from his Thibetan garrisons to aid him against the rebels in China. The Indian papers appear to be rather congratulating themselves on the faet of a somewhat dangerous neighbour being otherwise occupied than in annoying as. They do not however reflect that his present occupation may have considerable though indirect influence on the future of the Indian opium and cotton trade with China.

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and Mongolia do literally lie on the *' outside" of the gates in the great wall, while Tibet lies beyond the "passes" in the western mountains. A Chinese rebel, if successful, will endeavour to get possession of all ultimately ; because these, and even more of the contiguous regions, have been in the course of history under the sway of the ** black-haired race" of China. But he will consider his work substantially-achieved when the 360 millions of the latter accord him their allegiance, and when he is thus undisputed master of the " Shih pa sang, the Eighteen provinces ;" the term by which China Proper is commonly designated in conversation.

This China Proper being one country, occupied by one race, speaking one language, Europeans are very apt to picture to themselves as about the size of one country in Europe, as for instance France ; only populated throughout with an astounding, — an almost incredible — density, like that of the basin of Paris, or of our manufacturing and shipping district, around Manchester and Liverpool This is a most confusing conception. China is not more densely populated than Eng-land; and contains its 360 millions only because of its enormous territorial extent. If the reader imagine to himself Scotland doubled down upon the north-west of England and upon Wales, and then picture to himself eighteen of such compact Great Britains placed together so as to form one well rounded state, he will attain a more correct notion of the extent and population of China Proper, as composed of its Eighteen provinces. Some of these provinces consist almost entirely of alluvial plains, but the greater number exhibit an alternation of fertile river valleys, covered, like that of the Thames, with large, populous towns ; and of thinly inhabited hilly or mountainous regions, more or less difficult of access.

The two large islands on the coast of China form portions of two of these provinces, Formosa belonging to the province of Fuh-keen, Haenan to that of Kwangtung. The seaboard, and the plains of these islands have long been occupied by Chinese

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settlerSj who have forced the aborigines back into the moun-tain recesses ; but as the doings neither of the Aborigines nor of the colonists, exercise modifying influence on the political state of the mainland, we may dismiss them from consideration here. To some aboriginal tribes on the mainland I must how-ever devote a little space, as it has been erroneously supposed that with them the present religious rebellion originated.

I have compared the Eighteen provinces of China Proper to Eighteen Great Britains. To make the comparison more exact, all Celts (Scottish or Welsh) must be subtracted from fourteen of these Great Britains ; fourteen of the eighteen Chinese provinces being inhabited by the homogeneous Chinese only. In the remaining four, the more rugged pro-vinces in the south west of China, there are to be found among the mountains certain non-Chinese tribes, bearing a relation to the Chinese who have for many hundreds of years occupied the more accessible and largest portions of these four provinces, similar to that which the Celts of the moun-tuns did, about 100 years ago, to the Anglo Saxons in the rest of Great Britain. They wear peculiar dresses and speak peculiar languages, or more probably dialects of one language, which have never been reduced to writing. They have occasionally disturbed the peace of those provinces within which their hills are included by devastating irrup-tions into the level lands occupied by the Chinese. But these irruptions have never assumed a more permanent character than that of passing incursions ; and, when the population of the thirteen or fourteen provinces into which they have never even entered is taken into consideration, the aggregate number of all these highland tribes becomes, com-paratively, a mere drop in the bucket. They are of no political weight ; the utmost that they can do being to furnish a few thousands of fighting men to Armies of Chinese when the latter are disputing the Sovereignty of the Empire among themselves. The province of Kwangse, in which the present religious movement took its rise, contains the most of these

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aboriginal mountaineers ; some of whom certainly joined the rebels5 while some, I believe, assisted the Imperialists. Those who joined the ranks of the rebels were, doubtless, a wel-come addition to their originally small force. But as the rebels, in their march northward, left the vicinity of the mountain homes of these auxiliaries, the latter became daily a more insignificant part of an army that was rapidly in-creasing by large accessions of pure Chinese. I repeat, the mountaineers, even when they act together, — which they rarely or never do — are politically insignificant in China. They could not, and did not, originate or organize the rising which is the chief subject of this volume ; and in which I shall, therefore not again dwell upon them.

The division of China Proper into its eighteen provinces is, be it remembered, merely political or administrative. The people are the same in all ; the differences in manners and dialects being no other in kind, and scarcely greater in degree, than exist with us between the Glasgow factory man and the Somersetshire peasant, or the Northumbrian ''hind*' and the Cornish miner.

In order to understand the executive system by which China Proper is governed, it is specially necessary to keep the eye fixed on the territorial division which is called a district. It is about the size of a county in Great Britain, each of the eighteen provinces containing on an average eighty such.*^ Each of these districts has its capital, its district-city, surrounded by walls, and held (by government-

* Ab we hare two names, county and shire, so the Chinese have three, heen, chow, and ting. For further details on the provincial executire than are furnished in the text see: Desultory Notes on the Chinese, hy the writer. I recommend the reader to forget altogether the designations, " cities of the first, second and third order," brought into use by the old French missionaries. It is a nomenclature not always founded on the respective rank, still less on the official powers and duties of the authorities in these cities. There is a name in Chinese agreeing with the term " city of the second order," but there is no corresponding thing with a separate distinctive existence in reality ; as all cities bearing this name (chow) are, one moiety of them, equivalent to cities of the first order; the other moiety, equivalent to cities of the third order.

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ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINEfiT. 7

regulation) to be capable of standing a siege. In each of these cities is stationed a civil mandarin, who is an all-important official for the Chinese people, and therefore for the Chinese government. He is at once the director of police, the sheriff, the coroner, the receiver of taxes, and, what vreighs more than all, the judge at first instance of all cases civil and criminal that occur within the bounds of his shire or district. He is called hy our translators, the district maffis-irate; but it will be seen from the above, that the word " magistrate *' indicates but very inadequately the extent of his powers and duties. He has always one other civil man-darin under him, and in the same city ; viz., the inspector of police or prison-master ; who is specially responsible to him and to the Imperial Government, for the custody of the prisoners in the district jail.* In more populous districts he is aided by one or two inspectors of police stationed out at towns or large villages of his district; and often by an official, of a little higher rank than the preceding and entitled by foreigners the a^^/anMistrict-magistrate. There are also one or two educational mandarins stationed in every dbtrict city to assist the district magistrate in the primary examination of candidates for the public service ; the super* intendence of which forms another of his multifarious duties. All these subordinates are mandarins, t. e. functionaries de-riving their appointments from the central imperial govern-ment, and fitted by social standing to appear at the table of the magistrate himself. But besides these he has under him a whole host of lower agents : clerks, judicial and fiscal, tax-gatherers, bailiffs, turnkeys and policemen.

* There are two of these officers in Ching too the capital of Sze ohaen, with one of whom M. Hoc was lodged daring his sUy there. He and his companion were in fact " in prison " though not actually lodged in the common jail, and the two rigorous indiriduals whom M. Hue so amusiDgly describes, but whom he calls ** mandarins d'honneur/' were in reality special *' guards" appointed for the better security of prisoners of unusual importance. Hence they stood at the back of M. Hue and his companion, when the latter were being examined by the assembled authorities.

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The next kind of territorial divisions for administrative purposes on which it is necessary to fix the attention are the departments^^ each of which is composed of a group of the districts just described. The departments vary greatly in size, some consisting of only two or three districts, others of as many as twelve or fifteen. The average throughout the Eighteen provinces is six districts to a department. At the head of the affairs of each department stands a civilian, the prefect or departmental judge. To him suitors may appeal from the district courts. His Yamun or official residence is in a subject district city, which then ceases to be called such and is known as the departmental-city. It is the often occurring Foo of the maps of China.

A few departments, on an average, three, are again grouped into circuits at the head of which stands a civilian called, Intendant (Taou tae). To him appeals lie from the depart-mental courts, but he performs in reality very few judicial or fiscal duties ; being rather a superintending administrator of general affairs. He is the lowest civilian that exercises a direct ex-officio authority over the military, an authority which comes into play in the case of local risings against the proceedings of his subordinates. He usually resides in one of the foo or departmental cities ; but when these have been outstripped in wealth and population by one of the district cities of his circuit, he is sometimes stationed in such district city.t

All the above-named officials : district magistrates, prefects and intendants, are distributed throughout the provinces in their respective jurisdictions. We have now to consider those functionaries who are stationed in the Provincial-capital, or chief city of each province; and who manage all the affairs of such province in behalf of the Imperial Central Government at Peking.

ft They have two names in Chinese, Foo and Chih le chow, f The Intendant at the district city of Shanghae is an instance. Amoy, where the Intendant of the Circuit resides, is not eyen a district city.

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The first is an official charged with the general control of all aifiurs. In some provinces he bears the title of Governor, in others that of Governor General,* but his powers and duties are the same in all. He is Commander in chief as well as principal civilian, in the province, and is the only official in it who is empowered to write to the Cabinet Council and to address the Emperor,f with whom he maintains a con-stant correspondence on all affiiirs. This privilege, more than any other, confirms his already ex-officio power over all other mandarins in the province ; any one of whom he can suspend in the first place, and then denounce to the Emperor for degradation or absolute dismissal. We may add that he has the legal power of issuing death-warrants in certain flagrant cases, such as piracy, gang robbery, &c.

Immediately under the Governor stand three officials whose authority extends to all parts of the province ; but only in matters relating to that branch of public business with which each is specially entrusted. These are, the Superintendent of Provincial Finances, the Provincial Criminal Judge, and the Provincial Edticational Examiner.

The first receives the taxes from the district magistrates ;

• In five of the eighteen proTinces there is both a Qovemor and a Governor-general ; the latter of whom exercises an authority over one or two of the adjoining provinoes in addition to that in which he is stationed. But as he is, even in this latter, rather the soperordinated associate than the official chief of the Qovemor, with whom he divides the duties and powers (that of addressing the Emperor included), it is not requisite to the right comprehension of tfie cutministrative system to think of more than one such superior official in each province. Both the Governor and the Governor General (whose title is in Chinese lUeraUy tsnng tuh, general governor) have been called viceroys, a confosing designation for Europeans. For these mandarins are not men of high hereditary rank, noblemen or princes, taken from private life and sent to the provinces to represent the Imperial dignity. They are regular members of the civil service, who took in early life one of the higher degrees at the public examinations, and commenced their official career with one of the subor-dinate posts ; not a few as district magistrates.

f Some of the superior military officers have this right as regards the affiiirs of the army, but they rarely avail themselves of a privilege the exercise of which would draw on them the enmity of the Governor, in whose hands there-fore the advancement to all the better military posts virtually lies.

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and accounts for them, first to the Governor andjthen to the Fiscal Board at Peking.

To the second the district magistrates deliver all criminals sentenced hj them to banishment or death ; he re-examines them and reports their cases, first to the Governor, and then to the Criminal Board at Peking.*

The third, the Educational Examiner, repairs twice in every three years to each departmental city (foo) in the pro-vince, and then, with the aid of the Prefect conducts, in the Examination-hall, the last of the series of primary exami-nationB,f after which a legally fixed number of candidates from each district attain the first or lowest degree (bachelor). As the public examinations form the peculiar feature, and the basis of the Chinese governmental system, I shall have to devote a page or two farther on to their special consideration. In the meantime, I would here awaken the mind of the reader to their vast practical importance by stating that the origi-nator and acknowledged chief of the present formidable revolutionary movement was a candidate who failed, after attending several examinations, to receive this degree from the Educational Examiner of his province. Had he attained it, he would in all probability have become one of the ordi-nary place and promotion seekers in the ofiicial career, instead of bringing about a dynastic crisis.

The Provincial Educational Examiner corresponds with the Bitual and Educational Board in Peking ; but his cor-respondence, as also that of the Superintendent of Finances and Criminal Judge with their respective Boards, is wholly of a routine and formal nature, while they do not communi-cate at all with the Cabinet Council, or with the Emperor.

* The fact of the district magistrate (it would be well to change his title in English to that of district Judge, the sentences of death and banishment which he passes being rarely rescinded) dealing directly with these two authorities, lessens the practical influence of the intermediate officers, the Prefects of de-partment and Intendants of Circuit ; whose posts are therefore sought after chiefly because they are the necessary steps to further advancement.

f I have stated above that the district magistrates! and educational officers of the districts conduct the preliminary examinations of the series.

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The Governor remains essentially tJie link between the central and the provincial administrative systems. Most of the Pro-vincial capitals contain from five to seven hundred thousand inhabitants ; several of them from one to two or even three millions.* The territorial divisions have been so arranged that the Provincial capital is always a Foo or chief city of a department, while the common boundary lines of two (some-times of three) contiguous districts run through it. The district ma^stracies of those districts are then built within its walls, from whence the magistrates govern their districts, lying out on two (or three) sides. Thus the Governor has at hand judicial and administrative officials of every kind above described, besides a number of others, auanliaries of iniermediate rank, whom my space barely permits me to name, — such as fiscal and judicial secretaries, treasurers and prison-masters, attached to the Superintendent of Finances and ProvincialJudge ; sub-prefects and deputy sub-prefects; and the civil and military secretaries, or aide-de-camps of the Governor himself. All these are actual incumbents of office, but in addition to them I must notice, as one of the means of conducting the administration, a great number of expectant mandarins, i.e. mandarins temporarily out of office, and placed by the Imperial Government in the provinces at the disposal of the Governors for the performance of special duties or missions. These unappointed officials are of every rank, from that of expectant Intendant of Circuit to that of expectant inspector of police; and are employed in every description of business from that of examining into the causes of a local insurrection, (in which case the report of the responsible local authority cannot be relied on) to the escort-ing of a prisoner into the contiguous province.

* Woochang, the capital of Hoo pih, contains with Han yang and Han kov (which are onW separated from it by the Yang-tsze, and from each other by a smaller stream) certainly not fewer inhabitants than London and all its suburbs. M. Hoc, the last foreigner who passed through the place, says that these "threo cities which, so to speak, form only one " are held to contain about and millions, and he leaves ns to suppose that he saw no reason to '"fftvipfif ^f nnmber an orer-estimation. ''^

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As there is a civil and an educational establishment for each province, so there is also for each a Chinese army.* The strength of these provincial armies varies, from the smallest of about 8,000 men and officers, in Gan-hwuy — an inland province inhabited exclusively by Chinese, and therefore neither exposed to the depredations of pirates and outer bar-barians nor of savage mountaineers — to the largest, of about 68,000 in Kwang-tung, a province with an extensive sea-coast, as well as mountaineers within its westerly boundary-lines.t Taking all the provinces, the average for each is about 34,500 men and 640 officers from the General to the Ensign, or about one officer to fifty -two men. J I beg the reader to remark the smallhess of this force for a territory as large in extent and population as Great Britain. The Governor of the province is the Commander in chief. He is assisted in most provinces by a General-in-chief, in all by a greater or less number of Lieutenant and Major Generals ; who are distributed throughout the province at stations of presumed strategical importance. The divisions of each of such subordinate general officers, are again subdivided into detachments throughout that portion of the province over which the command of each extends, in such manner, that nearly every district city has in it a garrison, large or small. In fact, of the whole force in the Eighteen provinces of 602,836 privates, 320,927 are called ''garrison infantry," while 194,815 are mobile infantry and 87,094 cavalry. Each Governor, besides commanding in chief the whole force of his province, has, in and around the provincial capital, his

* I shall have to devote a page farther on to the consideration of the Tartar garrisons, which Mr. T. T. Wade fitly characterises (in his yaluablft little work on the Chinese Army, Canton, 1851) as ** the force of the usurping family."

t Of these 68,000 men and officers about one-third in the seaboard provinces are "water soldiers" or marines, forming a naval force something like the Kussian, in so far as they are cantoned on shore. A small fraction of these in Kwang tung being cavalry, those fond of a " Punchy " joke may say that among other strange things, China has " a squadron of horse marines."

X According to the last " Estimates," the proportion in the British army is 1 to 26.

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own special command consisting of a division of two or three thousand strong under his Adjutant ; who is always either a Colonel or Lieutenant Colonel.

In dosing our view of a Chinese province and its executive administrators^ I may request the reader to recall the already oflen employed comparison between such province and a doubled-down Great Britain. Let him picture to himself in the midst of its seventy to ninety shires or districts (and nearly centrally situated so far as means of communication is concerned) a more or less large London, in which resides a Governor, ruling from thence out over the whole, by means of the above described, minutely graduated, and carefully organized services of judicial and fiscal^ of educational, and of military mandarins. This great functionary holds a business levee every morning at sunrise, which is attended daily by most of the incumbents of office at the capital ; by a number of the expectant mandarins to whom some special business has been entrusted ; and by not a few of the officials from the *' outer" departments and districts, who come and go to forward their more important business by personal application to him, as well as to the Superintendent of Finances, and the Criminal Judge. Besides this oral com-munication, there is an enormous correspondence, private and official, carried on by means of the government post esta-blishment; for which there is a separate service in some of the provinces, but which is often attended to by one of the others, generally the military. While each of the eighteen Governors of the provinces is in this incessant communication with his host of subordinates on the one hand, each is, on the other hand, in constant correspondence with the Supreme Government and the Emperor at Peking ; which I shall now proceed to consider.

As in Paris there are a number of Ministhres and Cours^ and as in London there are a number of Secretaries of State and other Offices and of Boards of Commissioners and Courts of Law, charged each with a specific department of

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the executive and judicial government of the French and British empires respectively; so there are in Peking a number of very large Yamun or Public offices y each similarly charged with a specific department in the government of the Chinese Empire. And as we in England have a Privy Council and a Cabinet Council nearer the Sovereign^ and exercising the general control over the above departmental or sectional Offices and Boards ; so there are over the sectional Yamun ^or Public offices at Peking a Nuy ko or Inner Council, and a Keun ke choo, a " place of military movementSy" or Strate' gical Office.

The first mentioned, the Inner Council^ consists of a large (but not unlimited) number of members; is methodically organized ; performs important but somewhat routine func-tions ; has its records ; is the oldest ; is stiU the highest in rank ; and was originally the first in practical power.

The second, the Strategical Office^ notwithstanding its some-what military name, closely parallels our Cabinet, in its composition out of a few of the most influential mandarins in the Capital ; in the comparatively informal nature of its procedure ; and in its virtual exercise of the highest legisla-tive and executive duties, under the immediate eye of the Sovereign power. As, however, all public business is as a general rule more methodically and systematically con-ducted in China than in England, so we find that the Chief Council in the state has a small building in the Palace for its meetings ; has records, and carries on a correspondence by means of confidential clerks. I have just said ^' eye of the sovereign power." I make use of the term sovereign power ^ instead of sovereign in order to preserve the parallelism insti-tuted between the British and Chinese governments; for here we arrive at a point where that parallelism can strictly speaking no longer be maintained. In England the ministers carry on 4he legislation and the administration, directly controlled with respect to the former, unceasingly watched and questioned with respect to the latter, by the houses of

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parliament. Nothing analogous to these exists in China; where the Emperor is the absolute legislator and adminis-trator, as well as in his own person the highest criminal court in the Empire. And I shall presently show that the theory and practice of succession to the throne is such as often to secure a virtual exercise of these functions; an exercise limited only by the mental and physical powers of the man. What the District Magistrate is in the District, and the Governor in the Province, that and more is the/ Emperor in the Empire — more particularly, in so far as he legislates, which they do not

I must, however, mention a public oflSce peculiar to China, which i$ specially charged with one of the functions per-formed by our parliament. This is the Too cha yuen, lite-raUy, Court of general Inspection, but commonly called by foreigners the Censorate. It consists of a large number of members whose duty is to inspect or watch the proceedings of all the other mandarins, provincial and metropolitan ; and to make reports to the Emperor, pointing out their misdeeds and failures and recommending remedies. The check on these officers, who are called '^ the eyes and ears *^ of the Emperor, is curious and efficient. He puts them in the places of the mandarins who have failed, gives them full

powers, and says ; " Now you succeed or .'^ I way

add that this practice not only acts as a check against mali-cious attacks, but, where the censor really understands the business he reports on, leads directly to its efficient trans-action.

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CHAPTER II

THEORY AND PRACTICAL WORKING OP THE NORMAL CHINESE AUTOCRACY.

I HAVE above endeavoured to describe summarily the machinery of government ; I shall now try shortly to show how the several parts come to be where they are, in other words how the authorities, from the Emperor to the police inspector, attain their positions.

The reigning Emperor of China is absolute because he is, in the eyes of his people, the Teen tsze, the Son of Heaven. By this no physical sonship is meant, but simply, that the Emperor is the chosen agent and representative on earth of that supreme ruling power or providence of which the Chinese, from the most ancient times to the present day, have always had a more or less lively conception under the name of Teen, or Heaven.* As such representative of this supreme Heavenly or Divine power, the authority of the actual monarch is, by a logical consequence, unlimited except by divine principles. But the idea of a divine right

* The first Catholic misaioiuiries, in rendering the word Gk>d, availed them-seWeB of the existence of this early belief, by using the word Teen, giving, however, a greater personality to the conception by adding to that word, a second, Ohoo, or Lord, and thus creating the appellative, " Teen Choo, — ^Hea-venly Lord " or " Lord of Heaven." Some Protestant missionaries have thought that Teen alone would be the best rendering. The religious insurgents use as frequently as any other the term " Teen Foo, Heavenly Father; ** and in one of their books recording *< a descent of God into the world," they repre-sent Him as saying, " Teen she wo,— Heaven 'tis I." The object is evidently to say to all Chinese who read the books : — *' The power which you fear as Heaven, that ?ery power am I— the founder and watchful protector of the Tae ping dynasty."

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to tbe Bovereignity by birth has never been known to the national mind. The Chinese have an authentic political history for 4,200 years back — a history never full, but even in the oldest times in a large measure pragmati* cal, or descriptive of the causes which have led to dynastic changes. Now, from the earliest periods of this history, it has been distinctly taught, both by example and by precept, that no man whatever had a hereditary divine right to the throne, not the eldest son, nor even any son, of its last occupant.^ In spite of the power and influence that at his decease is in possession of his family which naturally strives to maintain its position, this principle has always been able to assert for itself more or less of a practical operation. And in modem times it is not positively known, during the reign of any one sovereign, who will be his successor in the exercise of the Divinely delegated power. Both in theory and in practice the primary claim to the successorship is given by the death-bed or the testamentary nomination of the reigning sovereign ; but it is by good government alone that the nominee can fully establish his divine right. When by good government, in accordance with the divine principles, as laid down in the national Sacred works, f he has given (or preserved) to the people, peace and plenty, and, as a consequence, established himself in power by his hold on the national esteem and affection ; then only will they consider him, and (from his similar education) then only will he consider himself, the veritable "Fung teen, the Divinely appointed," the Son of Heaven. Natural affection has almost always led to the nomination of a relative, mostly a son ; but

• Coori fiatteien and Bhort sighted or veak Emperors have, indeed, attempted to change or oTertum this principle, but they have neyer been able to obtain for their views anything but a temporary and very partial current^. There have at all times been found patriotic and self-sacrificing mandarins to oppose a snc-oessfnl resistance by word and deed.

t AboYC all, in that known in Europe as the Historical Classic. Were any occupant of the throne to hold language avowedly contrary to that book, it would be equivalent to declaring himself an usurper ; not the Son of Heaven.

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six out of the seven emperors of the present dynasty* have not been the eldest sons of their fathers ; while the memorable fact is ever present to the national mind, and to the mind of the sovereign as one of the nation^ that the two great historical musters, the revered ancient monarchs, Yaou and Shun^ passed each over his own son^ because accounted unworthy, and nominated a stranger. The principle that no man is by birth entitled to reign over them, is better known to the 360 millions of China^ than it is known to the twenty-seven millions of Great Britain and Ireland that they are entitled to be tried by their peers,

I have said that the successor to the throne is not considered by others or by himself the Divinely appointed,t unless he gives peace and plenty to the empire. So true is this that the disasters of war^ pestilence, and famine— even earthquakes and storms of extraordinary violence, are but ways by which Heaven declares that the occupant of the throne is not its chosen representative, or that he has ceased to be such ; — that it is about to withdraw from him the '^ Teen ming, .the Divine commission." All nature animate or inanimate is based on one principle or law, the " Teen taou, or way of Heaven." So long as the occupant of the throne rules with the rectitude and; goodness which are the chief features of this law, both man and nature gladly submit, and peace and plenty prevail. When he violates this law, the passions of man and the powers of the elements alike break loose. A sincere repentance, and prompt return to con-formity with Heaven's laws — the only true principles of government — may yet still the tumult ; but, with their con-

* The present fjctmily obtained poBsession of the throne in 1644.

f The Chinese expression is similar to oar occidental one of " Sovereign by the ChrcLce of Ood" But vith the Chinese their term has a living meaning which the occidental one has ceased to have— in England at least. A Chinaman will often derive hope in times of adversity and affliction by taming to the beneficent ruling power the **laou teen or old Heaven;" an expression which is then, in his mouth, very like that of " U ban dieu " in the mouth of Vhe common Frenchman under similar trials.

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WORKINa OP THE NORMAL AUTOCRACY. 19

tanned violation, evils and calamities multiply until confusion and discord reign paramount throughout the universe. It is not merely insurrections in the inner country, nor the irrup-ti<Mi8 of ** rebellious'^ barbarians that signify the displeasure of Heaven to the Emperor of China. Neither is that dis-pleasure announced by any enigmatical Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin on the walls of the imperial banqueting-hall. In China the rivers rise from their beds, the ground sullenly refuses its fruits, the plains tremble, the hills reel, and the typhoon rages over seas and coasts, all alike uttering a Numbered, Numbered, Weighed, and Farted, that requires no interpretation, but is read in anxiety by the people, in dismay and terror by the Prince. And he humbles himself before Heaven and his subjects by publishing tl^ose self-accusatory and repentant documents which Europeans peruse with surprise and ridicule, but which are wrung from his pride by his fears, and are earnest, trembling efforts to avert the execution of Divine j ustice.

I distinctly declare to my readers that tbey must remain unable to form a correct estimate — a sound estimate for practical political purposes — of Chinese rebellions, and of the present rebellion more than most others, until they have habituated themselves to regard the above principles, not as the theorizing of a few ingenious Chinese of modern times, or as the lore of historical antiquaries, but as ever-present, practically operative, ideas in the minds of the whole people. Take for instance the last enumerated, and most foreign to our notions. Dearth excepted, which we know may lead to insurrections of starving people, the disorders and convulsions of nature have for us no effect on political affairs; but in China earthquakes, typhoons, even comets and meteoro-logical fires are real precursors and hasteners of dynastic changes, simply because the nation, from the prince to the beggar, believe them to announce such : to the well affected they are a heavy discouragement, to the dissatisfied and the rebel a great incitement and support.

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The pure theory of Buccession is, that the best and wisest man in the Empire should be nominated. This is so far modified in practice that the Emperor selects his ablest son, priority of birth serving neither as qualification nor dis-qualification.* The present family have in two instances been remarkably successful, both as to the mental and the physical qualities of the son nominated. The second Emperor of their line, Kang he, not only reigned, but actually ruled with great vigour and intelligence for sixty-one years. It was he who fairly established the power of his house on a firm basis. The fourth Emperor, Keen lung,f ruled with equal intelligence and great vigour, likewise for sixty-one years ; when he resigned for the very Chinese reason that he wished to avoid surpassing his grandfather. He completed and pro-longed the dominion and power of his family ; whose decay may be said to have commenced under his successor.

The principle that good government consists in getting the services, as officers, of " been nang, the worthy and talented," the " good and able," has also been distinctly taught, and more or less practically enforced from the earliest periods of Chinese history. It was impossible to ascertain people's moral qualities, their sense of justice, their devotion or their honesty by competitive examinations. There could be no degrees accorded — no bachelorships, no doctorates — of virtue. But intellectual qualities could be classed with much approxi-mative accuracy by means of competitive examinations ; and the Chinese had at a very early period of their existence recognised the psychological fact, the law of human nature,

* In affairs of Buccession to landed or territorial property or power the superior and ezclnsire rights of primogeniture are so much a matter of course with us that I must draw the attention of the reader to the fact that, this idea being unknown to the Chinese, the eldest son, never having believed himself to have any right of preference, submits to the' selection of a younger son, as younger sons submit with us. Farther, to dispute the will of a parent is with the Chinese a great crime.

t Kang he was the third of the living sons of his father, selected in prefer-ence to his two seniors. Keen lung was the eldest living son of his father, preferred before two juniors.

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that while there is on the one hand an intimate connection between '' ignorance and vice/' so on the other hand high intellectual^ faculties are, as a general rule, (which the ex-ceptions but prove) associated with moral elevation. Accord-ingly they resolved to sift out the high intellectual powers, as well for their own value as because they furnish the best index to moral superiority at the command of human beings; who are unable to ^' search the heart.'' Hence the establishment about one thousand years ago of a system of examinations, which has been receiving extensions and im-provements in its organization up to the present time. I have spoken above, page 10, of the examinations by which the first or lowest degree (sew tsae), which we may call that of bachelor, is attained. Every three years the bachelors of each province are examined, in the provincial capital, by two examiners who are sent from Peking, assisted by a large staff oflhe o£Bcials on the spot. From five to ten thousand bachelors attend these triennial provincial examinations, though only a very limited number, averaging about seventy for each province, can pass. These have then the degree of Keu jin, or Licentiate. The licentiates from all the provinces are at liberty to attend the triennial metropolitan examinations at Peking ; where some two or three hundred of them attain the d^rec of Tsin sze, or doctor. All these titles may be shortly described as marking degrees of extent and profundity of knowledge in the national philosophy, ethics,* principles of government, history, and statute laws, as well as of powers of composition. Bachelors have no right to expect office, their degree merely marking those who have stood the sifting process of the primary district, and departmental exami-

* The ezamination in knowledge of ethics or the principles of morality is one of the nearest approaches* that can he made to direct examination of the moral qualities. A man low hy nature and a scoundrel in practice may he ahle to hand in very good solutions of purely intellectual, say mathematical , problems ; hut he will hardly, if shut up without books, ho able to prepare dear and still less original essays on moral questions. He then travels blindly in a foreign land.

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nations/ But the degree of licentiate^ when China is socially and politically in a normal state^ entitles the possessors to expect a post, after some years waiting ; while that of doctor ensures him without delay a district magistracy at the least.

From all this my readers will see that there exists an enormous diflPerence between the administrative system of the Chinese and those of certain other oriential nations, Persia and Turkey for instance. Eastern Asia differs as widely from Western Asia, as does this latter from Western Europe. Such a thing is unknown in China as the sudden elevation by the Emperor of grooms or barbers to the high official posts. Hard and successful study only, enables a Chinese to set foot on the lowest step of the official ladder, and a long and unusually successful career is necessary to enable him to reach the higher rounds. The Chinese executive system is at once the most gigantic, and most minutely organized that the World has ever seen. It and its modes of action are carefully defined by regulations emanating from the Emperor, and having, therefore, the same force that any other branch of the law has. All Chinese law is carefully codified and divided into chapters, sections and subsections. Some parts of this law are as old as the Chinese administrative system. One of the oldest, and by the people most venerated, of the codes is that which most nearly concerns themselves; the penal. This, commenced two thousand years ago, has grown with the nation. Kecent reigning families have more or less modified it; but in substance it is national not dynastic ; and, though some of its enactments viewed from the stand point of our Christian civilization are harsh or cruel, it has been said with perfect truth, that the Chinese desire only its enforcement with strict purity and impartiality.* Complete copies are sold so cheaply as to be within easy reach of the humbler tradesmen. This, and all other codes f are frequently

• See Introduction to Staunton's Translation of the Penal Code.

t The only others which directly affect a largo portion of the people are

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being added to or modified in details by Imperial Edicts of a general legiHlative character.*^ Bat in legislating the emperor cannot follow the dictates of his own arbitrary will ; he cannot even follow the dictates of temporary expediency — without palpably weakening his power in consequence of the universal contempt with which he and his proceedings would be regarded. His statute legislation must be faith-fully deduced from general principles well known to the country; and he and his ministers must^ moreover, watch constantly that the existing law is administered with justice and impartiality. These have always been imperative conditions J of the stability and prolonged duration of dynasties in China. ^ Failure, whether wilful or the consequence of a pressure of ^ unavoidable circumstances,' entails inevitably, first contempt and apathy, then positive disaffection, then disorders, riots, '^. I g^^S robberies, insurrections against local authorities, and { ultimately avowed rebellion aiming at a change of dynasty. ^ If this is successful, then that fact is a palpable, and in China ^ unquestioned, proof that the Divine Commission had been withdrawn from the old family; and that the rebellion was not aimply excusable, nor laudable only, but, as an execution of the will of Heaven^ inevitable. The normal Chinese govern-

thoae of a fiacal natare, rcgalating the amount and the mode of levying the FeTenne. Those regulating the public examinations affect students and gra-duates. Those which regulate the appointment and promotion of mandarins affect candidates for office and officials.

* Such edicta afe collected and published quarterly in every proyincial e^^ital ; and at the end of the year the four quarterly numbers are bound toge-ther and sold as one volume. I have now before me twenty such volumes, being those for ISsf to 1850 inclusive. That for 1842 wJben the English war pregged moat heavily on tfie oounirjf is by far the thinnesL I may add here that there are published with the sanction of the Criminal Board, voluminous collections of precedents (cases selected as elucidative of the precise application of particular clauses of the Code) ; — and that there exists a well paid and much xeapected class of men, called sze yay, who devote their lives to forensic studies, and of whom two or three are in the private employ of every mandarin, as his Uffol advisers. One of the most comprehensive miiwtatements in M. Hue's book is that where he asserts that the Chinese have no "science du droit" "juris-pnidence* "jurificonaultes" or ''minist^re des avocata." (Yol. 2. page 802.)

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ment is essentially based on moral force: it is not a des-potism. A military and police is maintained sufficient to crush merely factious risings, but totally inadequate, both in numbers and in nature, to put down a disgusted and indig-nant people. But though no despotism, this same govern-ment is in form and machinery a pure autocracy. In his district the magistrate is absolute; in his province, the governor; in the empire, the Emperor. The Chinese people have no right of legislation, they have no right of self-taxation, they have not the power of voting out their rulers or of limiting or stopping supplies. They have therefore the right of rebellion. Rebellion is in China the old, often exercised, legitimate, and constitutional means of stopping arbitrary and vicious legislation and administration. To say that an industrious and cultivated people should have no right what-ever, in any way, of checking misgovernment and tyranny which must destroy its cultivation and its industry, and ulti-mately its very existence as a people, is to maintain a pro-position so monstrous that I merely state it. Even where, as in England, there exist the formal means of machinery for constraint of a peaceful as well as constitutional cha-racter, the people has in extreme cases a right to appeal to force.

I may here notice certain conflicting views given of China and its history by different writers, and sometimes by one and the same writer. By some we have enforced on our attention the fondness of the Chinese for the Old, and the unchangeableness of their institutions. Others dilate on the contrary on the constant rise and fall of dynasties, and on the internal conflicts which accompany them, till we are tempted to think the Chinese the most unstable and revolu-tionary people in the world. As frequently happens in such cases of prolonged and apparently interminable assertion of opposing views, the cause of the variance rests in the confusion produced by an undistinguishing use of words. The words are in this case revolution and rebellion^ with their respective

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paronyms. These two classes of words have^ in writings on China been constantly interchanged as synonymous, yet they refer to two essentially different kinds of acts. Revolu-tion is a change of the form of government and of the prin-ciples on which it rests: it does not necessarily imply a change of rulers. Kebellion is a rising against the rulers which, far from necessarily aiming at a change of govern-mental principles and forms, often originates in a desire of preserving them intact. Revolutionary movements are against principles; rebellions against men. The revolu-tionary tendencies of Charles the First made his subjects rebels; and it was only his obstinate and infatuated per-sistance in attempts to change a (then already) limited monarchy into a despotism that forced loyal subjects and true patriots into downright revolution, as well as rebellion. Bearing the above distinction clearly in mind^ great light may be thrown by one sentence over the 4,000 ^^^e^rs of Chinese history : Of all nations that have attaineAs(^ c^ain degree of civilization^ the Chinese are the least revolpiHpni^ and the most rebellious. Speaking generally, there ^"^^b^en but one great political revolution in China, when 1^^ ji^ralized form of government was substituted for tKi^feJidal, about 2,000 years ago.* ^/^ .^

• To goard against misapprehenBion here I most explain that the theory with reference to (he Sovereign has from the ptsi beeii the same. As the " divinely appointed," 'Hhe son of heaven/' he has always had the right (if not the yirtoal power) to exercise antocratic authority ; and the question of feu-dalism or centralization was strictly speaking a question of administration under him. It was a question long debated; and even now advocates of feudalism may be found among Chinese well acquainted with the national history. But a very great authority in China, the statesman and ethicist, Choo he, who was bom a.d. 1130, summed up in favour of centralization; which has been practised without interruption during the 700 years that have since elapsed. By the feudal form of government is here meant sub-division of the empire into states, under rulers who received investiture from the emperor as a matter of course in consequence of their birth, and who GODcentiated in themselves the unchecked management of militaiy, fiscal and judicial affidrs in their respective territories. By the cenbrcdized form is meant the subdiviflion of aU administrators under the emperor, to a certain extent,

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Where I have stated above that successful risings of the Chinese against their rulers were justifiable, I might perhaps with greater propriety have used the word insurrection, in-stead of, rebellion ; to which an offensive sense is attached by the usage of our language. To say the Chinese had ** the right to rebel," was almost a contradiction in terms. But the words " rebels," " rebellious " and " rebellion " have been so freely applied to the present insurgents and their insurrectionary acts, that I could only hope to overthrow the misconception that application causes by a face to face grapple with it. Hence to "rebel" 1 opposed "right." But in truth the word rebel and its paronyms cannot when used of Chinese affairs be taken in their old or strictly English meaning, and the reader, who does not prefer untruth to truth, must carefully abstain from interpreting these terms^ so used, in a necessarily offensive sense. In England, in our limited monarchy, in our on the whole admirably balanced constitution (which secures the people a larger amount of virtual self-government, and in individuals a greater portion of true freedom than any that the world has ever yet seen) the principle that the sovereign can do no wrong, combined

into militaTy, fiscal and judicial services, and in every case their tenure of power during his pleasure only, together with constant accountability to him as to its exercise. This latter form, it is evident, admits more completely of the carrying out of the principle of governing by the most able and talented ; and hence it is that it and the public service examination system have acquired strength and development together. The reader will observe that centralization as here defined is not opposed to local self jarovemment. Our military, fiscal, and even our judicial officers (if convicted of ill conduct) are removable by the Sovereign, yet we exercise much local self government; and there is no small amount of this latter in China. The two things are perfectly compatible, and both are indispensable to a people that wishes to be at once united and free, powerful against foreign foes and untyrannized over by internal rulers. Centralization is ii^jurious when it interferes with local affairs which the central authorities can neither be well acquainted with, nor be much interested in the right conduct of. Self government is injurious when it trenches on imperial matters so far as to produce diversities in the empire not required by any peculiarity in local circumstances. The true problem is to define the limits of both, and then increase tiie efficiency qf each to the very utmost within its own limits.

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with the right of primogenitiire is the very element of stability ; an element which thoughtful patriotic Englishmen have always been slow indeed to touch or tamper with.* In China with its autocratically ruling sovereign and cen-tralized administration (under which the nation has flourished and increased for thousands of years until it has grown to a homogeneous people of 360 industrious and satisfied millions) it is precisely the right to rebel that has been a chief element of a national stability^ unparalleled in the world's history. Rebellion is there but the storm that clears and invigorates a political atmosphere which has become sultry and unwhole-some. We are so accustomed to associate self government with freedom as almost to consider them interchangeable terms, and to regard autocracy and despotism as equally synonymous. Lict the reader note the difference. The Russian autocracy is a despotism, not only because supported by a great physical force, but what is still more terrible, because the whole intellectual power is possessed by the rulers. The Chinese Government is not a despotism maintained by a physical force, but an autocracy existing in virtue of the cheerful acquiescence of the people. The latter actually do share largely in a kind of self government, in consequence of the mandarins being taken impartially from all classes. Further, at the triennial examinations in each province only about TO of the competing bachelors out of some six or eight thousand can become licentiates and mandarins. But among the rejected of these eight thousand, there are probably 700 as able as the selected 70 ; between whom and the latter it was a mere *^ toss up ^\ with the examiners. All these rejected remain members of the non-official com-monality and possess, with hundreds of thousands of can-

* So weU hare the EDglish understood this that they hare only once, in the conne of 800 years, submitted for a time to a serious attempt to oust the family. The Chinaman 'when told of the long duration of our dynasty and at the same time of our freedom from tyranny is as much puzzled as many English may be about the " right to rebel" which I here insist on for China.

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didates who never even attain bachelorships^ as much intel-lectual power for practical purposes as the bulk of the administrators. Many of the more reckless and daring, I may add, perform the functions of prof essional demagogic agitators with us : theji for selfish purposes, bully and check the local authorities. So much as to self government and a check on the governors. As to practical freedom, mark the fol-lowing. The Chinaman can sell and hold landed property with a facility, certainty and security which is absolute per-fection compared with the nature of English dealings of the same kind. He can traverse his country throughout its 2,000 miles of length unquestioned by any official, and in doing so can follow whatever occupation he pleases. In open defiance of an obsolete law, he can quit his country and re-enter it without passport or other hindrance. Lastly, from the paucity of the military and police establishments numbers of large villages (towns we may call some) exist in every district, the inhabitants of which scarcely ever see an official agent except when the tax gatherers apply for the annual land tax.^

In some provinces the people are more prompt than in others to resist every kind of practical tyranny. In all. Chinamen enjoy an amount of freedom in the disposal of their per-sons and property, which other European nations than the Russians may well envy them. I may now quote a passage from Mill's Political Economy, having reference there to the prosperity of the small free states and cities of Europe in the Middle Ages in spite of their frequent intestine struggles, but which is equally applicable to the flourishing state of China and its steady progress, in spite of its devastating, dynastic, civil wars : — " Insecurity paralyzes only when it is

* In certain parts of China these personages are so far from attempting to levy this tax by force that they often get the magistrate to give them a bom-booing and then repair to the villages with a self imposed cangue round their necks, point to these penal instruments and to their blue marked persons, and appeal to the good feeling of the rustics, crying ; '* See what we have to suffer because you delay paying us what we are bound to hand in/'

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such in nature and in degree, that no energy, of which mankind in general are capable, affords any tolerable means of self-protection. And this is a main reason why oppres-sion by the government, whose power is generally irre-sistible by any efforts that can be made by individuals, has so much more baneful an effect on the springs of national prosperity, than almost any degree of lawlessness and turbulence under free institutions. Nations have ac-quired some wealth, and made some progress in improve-ment, in states of social union so imperfect as to border on anarchy ; but no countries in which the people were exposed without limit to arbitrary exactions from the officers of government, ever yet continued to have industry or wealth. A few generations of such a government never fail to extin-guish both. Some of the fairest, and once the most prospe-rous, regions of the earth, have, under the Roman and after-wards under the Turkish dominion, been reduced to a desert, solely by that cause. I say solely, because they would have recovered with the utmost rapidity, as countries always do from the devastations of war, or any other temporary calamities.''^

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CHAPTER III

ACCESSION, ABNORMAL POLICY, AND WEAKNESS OP THE PRESENT MANCHOO DYNASTY.

All that I have said above refers to Chinese institutions in their normal national state, such as thej, for instance, substantially were (with a little difference in names rather than in things) daring a large portion of the dynastic period of the Chinese family which was superseded by the present Manchoo house. This latter, first merely at the head of an obscure Tartar clan, then over a Manchoo Tartar monarchy, though it adapted itself in the main to the institutions it found in China, and was naturally itself conquered by the Confucian civilization, the only one it had. any opportunity of knowing, did nevertheless introduce some essential modi-fications, which it is the more necessary to notice as they were the incipient causes of the trying struggle for existence in which the dynasty is now engaged.

Going back a little, we find that the Mongols, under the immediate descendants of Genghis Khan, conquered China in 1271 and ruled over it till 1368, when after a prolonged struggle between them and Chinese rebels, the latter suc-ceeded in establishing a native dynasty, that of the Mings ; which ruled for 276 years. During the last quarter century of that period its misgovemment had so alienated the affec-tions of the people that it was constantly engaged with insurgents and rebels in the interior ; in addition to its fights with the barbarous tribes in the west and north (Manchoos) which the internal weakness rendered it unable to meet

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^ cfiectuallj. At length, a native rebel, Le tsze ching, who

had, after eight years' fighting, established his power over one third of the country, entered Peking in 1644; when the last Ming Emperor, deserted and unsupported, committed suicide. One of his generals. Woo san kwei, then on the borders keeping off the Manchoos, immediately made peace with the latter and begged their assistance against "the usurper." They readily gave it, were suc-cessful, and then availed themselves of the opening, thus afibrded by a Chinese, and the aid of his army, to establish themselves in Peking, and gradually in the sovereignty of the Empire. This result was not attained, however, until after a seven years' bloody struggle, to which another struggle of like duration, the Prussian seven years' war, was but a trifle; and the result would not have been attained at all but for the disunion among the Chinese together with the great degree in which the Manchoo monarchs adopted, and the vigour with which they enforced, the normal Chinese prin-ciples and practice of government* Still the Manchoos felt that their military power was the original cause of their advent to dominion; and hence they naturally endeavoured to maintain it intact. Besides a very large Tartar garrison, now about 150,000. strong, at Peking, they established smaller garrisons in nine of the provincial capitals and ten other important points in the provinces. These, nineteen in all, are on the average, as enumerated in the Imperial books, each about three thousand strong ; but as they always had with them their wives and families — are in fact military colonies — the natural increase of their numbers in the course of several generations has been such, that they are now supposed to average about seven to eight thousand able-bodied men. The mere sight of these garrisons has been a constant reminder to the Chinese of their being under the dominion of an alien, barbarian race ; and as the latter have always borne themselves with much of the insolence of conquerors, their acts have been a. constant excitement to disaffection.

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These garrisons form one deviation from the fundamental principles of Chinese government, as a partial attempt to substitute a physically supported despotism for a morally supported autocracy.

From the first the Manchoo family associated a number of its compatriots with, or substituted them for, the Chinese officials, in all the higher government posts, whether in the central or the provincial administrations. With the increase of the race in numbers, the necessity of " providing for " its members has been a steadily increasing cause for the extension of this association and substitution. This forms another breach of the Chinese principles of government. These require that the nation should be governed by the most worthy and able. But the Manchoo officials owe their positions to birth. They are in point of moral qualities certainly not superior, and in intellectual acquirements markedly inferior to their Chinese colleagues and subordinates ; while their first appointment, and subsequent more rapid promotion, constantly excludes and disappoints a number of Chinese of ability and of honour* able ambitions. These flagrant breaches of fundamental prin-ciples well-known to the Chinese people induced and justified general laxity. Hence the spread of corruption, which, com-bined with the inefficiency of so large a proportion of the officials in the higher and middle ranks, brought on financial difficulties. Inability to meet these latter in any other way, led to another species of breach of principle. Government posts were sold; and to incompetent Manchoos were added incom-petent Chinese, whose constant and chief aim was to extort from the people the money they had spent in purchasing the power to do so. Hence spread of tyranny, which led at length to risings, which again had to be extinguished by an expenditure, that an increasing amount of inefficiency and corruption in the administration made ever greater and greater. Such was the downward course which continued to become more and more apparent during the reigns of Kea king and his son Taou kwang, up to the English war.

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f

This . latter inflicted a dreadAil blow on the Manclioos ; for their' two provincial garrisons of Cha poo and Chin keang were defeated and almost destroyed^ with an ease that shook their own confidence in the prowess and destiny of their race^ and completely dispelled its prestige of military power in the eyes of the subject Chinese. And then the great costs of the struggle^ of which the twenty-seven millions of dollars pud to the British at its close was but a small moiety, plunged the government into irremediable financial difficulties. The sale of government posts was carried on more extensively, and corruption, tyranny, disafiection, robbery, piracy, local insurrectionary risings, misgovemment in short, and no-government prevailed more than ever up to 1850, when the " Kwangse rebellion " broke out.

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CHAPTER IV

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE, CAUSES OP ITS UNITY AND GENERAL HOMOGENEITY, AND OP CERTAIN PECULIARITIES IN THE SOUTH-EASTERN CHINESE.

In order to understand aright the circumstances under which the politico-religious rebellion has come into existence and the people who originated it, we must devote a little time to a cursory view of the rise and progress of the Chinese nation as a whole ; and then note some diiFerences that, in the midst of the general and wonderM homogeneity, do nevertheless distinguish the South-Eastem Chinese from the rest of the nation.

The original seat of the Chinese people was the northern portion of Chih le, the province in which the present capital Peking happens to be situated.

How the first Chinese, the founders of the nation, came to be in that locality, is one of those questions connected with the origin and spread of the human race generally which can only receive a conjectural solution. All we do or can know positively is that the first portion of authentic Chinese history tells us that the Emperor Yaou, who reigned 4,200 years ago, had his capital at the now district city of Tsin chow, situated about 100 miles only to the south of the present capital Peking. From this most ancient location the people sspread gradually westward and southward, thus steadily in-crfeaaing its territory. The usual course of the process was, first colonization of the newer regions, and displacement from them of whatever aboriginal inhabitants were found ; and

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afterwards political incorporation with the older territory. At times howeyer the process was reversed, and military conquest of the aboriginals preceded their displacement by an mdnstrial occupation of their lands. Lastly I have to draw special attention to one other mode in which the Chinese have effected territorial extension, a mode which exemplifies in a striking manner the peculiarity, and the innate strength of Chinese civilization. The whole nation with its country, has been conquered by some adjacent barbarous people ; has then, under cover of the political union thus effected, penetrated into, and partially colonized the original country of its con-querors ; and ultimately has freed itself by force, and taken political possession of its new colonies after having previously effected a mental subjugation of its conquerors by dint of superior civilization. Something of tiiis kind happened with the Khitan Tartars who had possession of the north of China Proper, after that with the Mongols who had the whole country, and it is well known to be the process in operation for the 200 years last past under the present rulers, Manchoos, whom the Chinese colonists are partially superseding in their own old country, Manchooria.

I have already noticed the distinction between China Proper and the Chinese Empire. Let the reader note now that the territorial distinction marked by these terms has existed in fact irom the earliest periods of Chinese history. China proper means at all periods that portion of the east of the Asiatic con-tinent which has been possessed and permanently occupied by the Chinese peopk. The Chinese Empu-e means at all periods besides China Proper, those large portions of the whole Asiatic continent occupied by Tartar-Nomads, or other non-Chinese peoples, but which have from time to time been under the sway of the Emperor of China, and more or less directiy ruled by Chinese officers and armies. China Proper has at all periods been characterized by Chinese civilization ; that is to say its population generally besides being physically of the same race, has always been governed in its domestic, its social, and (with

d2

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the exception of some very short periods) its political, life by the principles and rules laid down in the Chinese old Sacred Books. The non-Chinese peoples of the Chinese Empire have, on the other hand, at all periods either been destitute of any-thing that could be called civilization, or have been slightly tinged with Chinese civilization, or have been marked by some different civilization ; as for instance, at present, the in-habitants of Turkestan by a Mahommedan civilization, the inhabitants of Tibet by one strictly Budhistic.

The Chinese Empire as thus defined has in the course of ages varied greatly in extent. It has been more than once larger than it is even now. It was so, for example, about 2,000 years ago, under the fifth Emperor of the Han dynasty ; when it embraced the greater portion of inhabited Asia west of the Caspian sea, and inclusive of Siam, Pegu, Camboya and Bengal. In the intervals between these great extensions it has shrimk up to the size of China Proper, and even this latter has been occasionally subdivided for considerable pe-riods under two or more ruling families or dynasties, each acknowledging no superior. But the Chinese people has continued the same, even when under several rulers, and has been steadily increasing its territorial possessions by the processes above described.

Starting, as said, 4,200 years ago from the country north of the Yellow river we find it spreading to, and establishing itself in the country north of the Yang tsze about 1,500 years later, or b.c. 800. In the centuries immediately succeeding this latter period, it appears* to have acquired permanent possession of the whole of the great Yang tsze basin. So far its progress had been comparatively speaking unimpeded by serious geographical obstructions. But the watershed along the southern edge of this Yang tsze basin is a high and rugged mountain chain that long checked its advance. The Chinese Emperor who established himself on the throne, b.c. 221,

* The accounts of that early period of its histoiy are meagre and somewhat conflicting.

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conquered the country to the south and thereby made it a portion of the Chinese Empire. After a temporary inde-pendence it voluntarily subjected itself to the Emperor who b^an to reign B.C. 179; but even then the bulk of the population was foreign or non-Chinese. It would be diflScult to say exactly when it became a portion of China proper, the more so as even now the aboriginal population has not been displaced from certain portions of Kwang se.* We may however regard it as substantially colonized and possessed by the Chinese people under the powerful dynasty of Tang, which began a.d. 618 and ruled for 300 years.t The people in this very portion of China habitually call them-selves Tang jin, men of Tang ;X and it was this Tang dynasty that began that system of public service examinations which has proved so powerful a bond of union. Some system of public instruction — some kind of means of at once inculcating

* See above, page 5.

t This region was oonseqnently settled by the present occnpanta about 1,000 to 1,200 jean ago, a respectable antiquity for us, whose Anglo-Saxon pro-genitors were about the same period coming into existence as a separate race. The following shows what the Chinese mean by old ancestry. A mandarin at Canton, himself a native of Shantung, being unpopular and subjected to what he deemed disrespectful treatment from the people, talked once to me of them in very bitter terms. " They are a rough, coarse set of people ; and they don't know anything about where they come from or who they are.'* Here seeing me stare at him, evidently at a loss how to interpret his words, he added, " These Kwang-tung men don't know who they are ; they have got no fortfathers." I again looked surprised, for besides having in my memory a general notion of their having been in the country for some thousand years, I recollected having seen in the neighbourhood family tablets and graves several centuries old. " Before the times of Han and Tang," he continued, *' this country was quite wild and waste, and these people have sprung from unconnected, unsettled vagabonds that wandered here from the north." This man was bom a short distance from the birth-place of Confucius, and I have no doubt could, by retracing his way in succession through the genealogical registers of the different branches of his family, have produced a correct list of ancestors for 2,300 years. I had a man for some years in my employ who was one of the numerous descendants of the celebrated moral philosopher and statesman, Mencius (Mangtsze) who lived B.a 350. Hy man was in the seventy-fifth generation.

X The people of Central China are apt to call themselves Han jin, men of Han, afler a former great dynasty, which ruled the Empire from b.o. 206 till A.]>. 220.

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the national principles and sifting out the *' worthy and able" for administrative purposes — existed from the earliest period. But it was under the Tang dynasty that the foundations were laid of that particular system, which, developed under succeeding rulers, now exists as a carefully elaborated series of competitive examinations.

In my summary view of China Proper in its present extension I remarked that its division into eighteen pro-vinces was purely political and administrative, the people being ** the same in all, the differences in manners and dialects being no other in kind and scarcely greater in degree than exist with us between the Glasgow factory man and the Somersetshire peasant, or the Northumbrian hind and the Cornish miner." In this I have now nothing to modify: the differences in manners and dialects are no other in kind. That most remarkable political construction of a centralized autocratic government, based for long centuries on public com-petitive examinations, a system unparalleled in the world's history, has produced effects to which we find no parallel in the world's extent. It has induced, not compelled, the Chinese nation to devote itself to the study of the same books, and these, observe well, books directly bearing on domestic and social as well as political life, thus preserving them one nation, preserving them the same in language and social manners, above all the same in their community of fundamental beliefs on man's highest, man's nearest and man's dearest interests. Afler living some twelve years among them, during which I saw, conversed with, and studied men from every province and neariy every class, this fact, grand in its duration and gigantic in its extent, was to the last the cause of a constantly growing admiration. It will be seen that I call China the best misunderstood country in the world. People have talked — somebody talked first and others keep on talking after him — about the Chinese nation being the same because it has been separated from other nations by the barriers of physical geography, by mountains and rivers ;

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while the nations of Europe have been kept different by being separated from each other by similar barriers. Why, China Proper, a Earope in extent, contains in itself rivers to which the Rhine is but a burnie, and has in it and crossing it mountain chains that may vie with the Alps and the Pyrenees in impassability. How is it then that the people in China on opposite banks of these rivers, and on opposite sides of these mountains are the same in language, manners and institutions, and are united under one government, while in Europe the mountains and rivers separate people, in all these very qualities, quite distinct nations ? The Chinese are one in spite of physical barriers^— it is mind, O western mate-rialistic observers 1 which has yonder produced homogeneity by overstepping matter, and not matter which has secured homogeneity by obstructing mind.

The above facts never rose before me more powerfully than they did once during a short stay I made in Egypt on my way home from China. It was when I realized a longing of my youth by seating myself on the summit of the Great Pyramid. I was seized with a kind of reverie, so apt to oome over us when we find ourselves on an high place, mountain or pinnacle; all the kingdoms of the world passed in review before my mind's eye. — I was occasionally bored by the beggings of the Arab guides for backshish. I had also for companion a Maine American. He had been some years in California as a lawyer, from whence he had come straight west to China on his way to Europe. He was travelling all over the world, but was more especially anxious to do Jerusalem, the Holy Places, and Paris. He was an excellent fellow, but a thorough member of that peculiarly American party, the Knowevery things; and as he kept com-municating enlightened and very free ideas to our Arabs he somewhat disturbed the course of my reflections ; though, as an indemnification, the presence of so true a specimen from the young Giant Republic rather heightened the contrasts that occurred to my mind. My meditations, which were

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somewhat as follows, I give, merely praying the reader to pardon the touch of sentiment with which they began :

** Yes I here I am at last ! In my youthful days, when I never hoped to quit the British Isles, two nations had always a great interest for me : the old-young Chinese and the old-dead Egyptians. I have since spent the ten best years of my earthly life with the former, I speak their curious lan-guage, and the other day, at Nanking, it was my fate actually to transact a living part in a paragraph of their national history. I am now on the most famed monument of the old Egyptians.

"The Chinese call their country the 'middle' one; but if there is any country in the * middle ' of the world assuredly it is this. — Out there before me, beyond Cairo, lies all Asia, with its oldest of nations ; right away from behind me, over the ocean, lies America and its young States ; on my left lies Europe with its high civilization ; on my right Africa with all its low barbarisms. And these old stone blocks I am sitting upon, what different peoples they have looked down on in this Nile valley below ! First their old hewers flourished and fell. Then came the Persians. Then the Greeks ruled here and founded Alexandria. After them came the Komans : their traces are visible in old Cairo there. Egyptians, Greeks and Romans have all utterly disappeared from the face of the earth. They have been followed here by the Mahom-medan Arabs, at first enthusiastic fighters for the name of the One True God, now mere backshish hunters from these guides up to their Pashas. They too must vanish ; they are in fact vanishing as a nation before our eyes.

" The Chinese started in the race of national existence with the oldest of the old Egyptians, long before this huge mound of stones was piled up. They outlived these their ancient contemporaries. They outlived the Persians. They outlived the Greeks. They have outlived the Romans ; and they will outlive these Arabs. For they have as much youth and vitality in them as the youngest of young nations, the

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countrymen of my friend here. Their country is now in a state of rebellion. But if fame-hunting, shallow-brained diplomatists do not manage to bring down on them, when at a disadvantage, the forces of the superior physical civilization of the west, if Westerns will only let them alone, they will in time evolve order out of anarchy, and establish a govern-ment as strong as any they have yet been ruled by.

" And they are competing beyond the bounds of their own country with every race on earth. Partly by fightings but more by force of superior moral civilization and industrial energy, they are gradually ousting the savage Malays from the Indian Archipelago. There is one barbarous race which seems to have the capability of continued existence in it, and does not disappear before civilization, the Negro. With that race the Chinese are now competing, in the sugar planta-tions of the West Indies. They are moving in thousands to compete with the Anglo-Saxons of Europe in the gold plains of Australia. And, oddest spectacle of all, the young Anglo-Saxons of America, the most energetic and go-ahead of nations, are actually afraid and jealous of the enterprise and industrial energy of the old, * immovable, effete' Chinese, and have taken to illiberal legislation to keep their thousands out of the gold regions of California I

*' England and France are now going to fight with Russia — in a few days I shall see both French and English Soldiers at Malta. What are they going to fight for? Not to keep off present danger. They are afraid, both of them, of being destroyed by Kussia some 50 or 100 years hence ; and they are going to engage in a serious war expressly to prolong their own duration as nations. Yet here are the Chinese who have prolonged their existence for 4,000 years and nobody asks, how? I believe I am the only man living that has given himself serious trouble to investigate and elucidate the causes.

** What narrow viewed observers in some respects Occi-dentals are I Even Bunsen in his book on Egypt makes some

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slighting remark on the old Chinese, as compared with the old Egyptians. Yet the former had to the latter something of the superiority that mind has to matter. They both of them tried to preserve and perpetuate themselves. The old Egyptians tried to do it by working on dead matter. They mummied their bodies and wasted an enormous amount of labor in piling up these stone mountains, good for no purpose of true civilization ; and Occidentals look back with respect on them for doing it. The old Chinese Yaou, Shun and Kung, at the mere mention of whose names these same Occidentals break out into grins as broad as those of donkeys eating thistles — the old Chinese fixed their eyes on certidn ineradicable principles of man's mind ; and working on these^ have founded and built up a monument, the grandest and most gigantic the world has ever seen, a thoroughly national nation of 360 millions of rational, industrious and energetic people !"

To return to our more immediate discussion : the Chinese in the eighteen provinces are, I repeat, the same, the differences in manners and dialects being no other in kind and scarcely greater in degree than between the North-umbrian hind and the Cornish miner. But though the differences are none other in kind, the word " scarcely " in the above passage has its meaning as to the differences in degree. These are somewhat greater even in mattera chiefly depen-dent on mental training, as language and manners; while in matters dependent on climate and on the physical con-figuration of the various provinces, the differences are yet more marked. The Northumbrian hind is distant from the Cornish miner but three or four hundred miles — while the Chinaman of Chih le or Shan tung is some 1500 to 2000 miles from him of Kwang tung and Kwang se. The south of Kwang tung is literally within the tropics, and the whole province is essentially tropical as to climate and productions. The fruits are oranges, lychees, mangoes and bananas, the grain — the grain, — is rice, the roots are the ground nut, the

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sweet potatoe and the yam. In the coolest season there is neither snow nor ice; and during the hottest of the hot season the English resident is subjected to constant, sensible perspiration, night and day, for about 120 days. On the other hand, in Chihi le and the contiguous northern proyinces, the natural productions are wheat, barley, oats, apples, the hazel nut, and the common potatoe; and in winter the riTcrs are yearly unnavigable from ice a foot thick. This difference of climate has some effect on the habits, and the physical appearance of the Chinaman. The race being the same throughout, we find everywhere the same oblique looking dark eyes, the same black hair, and the same yellow or tawny skin. But this tawny basis of complexion is modified by climate. In the northern half of China we find the children all red-cheeked ; and even the old men are often ruddy faced. In the south, red cheeks are never seen ; and the sallowness of the dark complexioned Italian prevails. But more than the difference of climate produced by difference of latitude, and influencing indeed that climate itself, it is a mountain range that has caused the greatest differences which are to be found among the natives of the various Clunese regions. I speak of the watershed that forms the southern edge of the Yang tsze basin. This is a dpur of the Himalayas, which enters the country in the western province of Yunnan, runs along the north of Kwang se and Kwang tung, then bends northward by the back of Fuh keen, and ultimately crosses the province of Che Keang by the city of Ningpo into the sea. Throughout the whole of its course, this mountain range throws off smaller spurs to the south and east, all jutting into the sea ; in which their extreme peaks form a continuous belt of almost innumerable high, rugged islands, throughout exactly one half of the Chinese sea board, viz. the southern half. The well known Chusan Archipelago is the most northerly portion of this belt of islands. These islands with the promontories facing them on the mainland, form along a coast of 1200 miles in extent

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a remarkably close series of the safest, land locked harbours ; many of which are at once easy of access and large enough to contain the whole British navy. Our colonial settlement of Hong Kong is a member of this belt of islands, and its bay one of the best of these harbours.

Now a coast which has neither harbours nor islands offers neither facilities nor inducements to its inhabitants to venture on the sea ; and they may consequently occupy such a coast for centuries without acquiring the hardy, daring and adven* turous character of fishermen and mariners. This has been, and is still the case with the northern half of the Chinese coast and its population. With the partial exception of the natives of the mountainous Shantung promontory, the in-habitants of that coast are about the tamest of the Chinese. So little are they mariners, that an inland canal — the well known Grand Canal — ^has been constructed, beginning where this very sea coast begins, at the Chusan group, and running parallel to it throughout its extent, as the medium of that traffic, which, with a different people, or a different sea board could have been maritime.

But the South Eastern Chinese, the inhabitants of the mountainous, well harboured and island studded coast land, composed of Kwang tung, Fuh keen and the southern half of Che keang, are of a markedly different character. Those most inland, where the ridges and peaks are highest, partake of that energetic and daring disposition, which the unavoidable struggles with the difficulties and dangers of a rugged region invariably gives its inhabitants. In those nearer the coast, the qualities of the mountaineer and of the mariner are combined. Let me here quote some generaliza-tions of geographical ethnology, which I translate from Hegel's " Pliilosophie der Geschichte."

" The sea gives us the conception of the Undefined, the Unlimited and Infinite; and as man feels himself in the sphere of this Infinite, so does he thereby feel encouraged to step beyond the worid of restrictions. The sea invites man to

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conquest^ to rapine^ but in like manner to profit and acquisi-tion by trade ; the land — the great valleys — attach man to the soil : he is thereby brought into an infinite number of states of dependence, but the sea carries him out of these confined orbits. Those who navigate the sea seek to gain, to acquire ; but their medium is perverted in such manner that they put their property and even their lives in danger of loss. The medium is therefore the opposite of that which is aimed at. It is this precisely which elevates traffic above itself and makes it something brave and noble. Courage must now enter into trade ; bravery at the same time being associated with prudence. For bravery opposed to the sea must at the same time be craft, since it has to deal with the crafty — with the most uncertain and deceitful element. Thb endless plain is absolutely soft, for it resists no pressure not even a breath : it looks infinitely innocent, yielding, kind and caressing. And just this yielding is it, which transforms the sea into the most powerful element To such deceit and force man opposes but a simple piece of wood, relies merely on his courage and presence of mind, and so passes from the Firm to the Unstable, himself taking with him his fabricated ground. The ship, this swan of the sea, which with light and rounded movements traverses the watery plain or circumnavigates in it, is an instrument whose invention does the greatest honor as well to man^s boldness, as to his understanding.

*' This issuing forth into the sea from the restrictions of the land is wanting to the splendid Asiatic state edifices, even when they border on the sea, as for instance, China. For them the sea is but the cessation of the land ; they have no positive relation to it. The activity to which the sea invites is a quite peculiar one; and hence it is that coastlands almost always separate themselves from the inland regions, and that, too, even when connected with the latter by a river. Thus has Holland separated itself from Germany, Portugal from Spain.**

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I have quoted this because it enables me^ in the words of a great philosopher^ to throw light on the origin and nature of a difference in character that exists between the South Eastern Chinese and the rest of their countrymen; also because it is another proof of my statement that the Chinese are the " best misunderstood people of the world." Hegel's generalizatiops are sound ; and his application of them to the States of India and Persia may be strictly correct. But, when he applies them to China he at once errs ; though his generalizations being as such true, they are, when rightly-applied, only substantiated by certain differences of character among the Chinese. The " issuing forth into the sea " is wanting to the Chinese of the northern coastland, as I have just shown ; but it is long since the South Eastern Chinese — the inhabitants of Kwang tung and Fuh keen, commonly known as Canton men and Fukeen men, — have so issued forth. It is they who, after occupying all inhabitable portions of the belt of islands on their coast, colonized Formosa and Haenan ; proceeded then in their junks, which if neither so large nor so graceful as our vessels may at least be called ** ducks of the sea," to Siam, to Manilla, to Borneo, Java, Singapore and the Indian Archipelago generally; where they are, sometimes under the eyes of the Europeans, sometimes in places little visited by us, elbowing out the native Malays by dint of superior industry and energy as well in the arts of peace as in those of war.* They are superseding the aboriginal inhabitants, much as the Anglo-Saxons have super-seded the Bed men of America. These South Eastern Chinese, these Canton men and Fukeen men, are in short the Anglo* Saxons f of Asia, as sailors, as merchants, as colonists and,

* It is Btated that in one of Brooke's expeditions from Sarawak into the interior he was accompanied by a body of Chinese auxiliaries, and that they were ready to go where he and his Englishmen went on occasions where the native auxiliaries, '^fierce savages," refused.

t At page 28, in showing what a laige amount of personal freedom is enjoyed by Chinese, I pointed out, as one of the reasons, the paucity of military and police establishments; which paucity left, in every district.

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indeed, as adventurers generally ; for I may add, they are the Chinese, whose gain-seeking and adventurous spirit is carrying them in thousands to the gold mines of California and Australia, the guano islands of Peru and the sugar plantations of the West Indies.

Hegel, in the passage above quoted, points out how the different character, engendered in the inhabitants of coast-

numbeiB of towns and Tillages uncontrolled by official agents. The natural confiequenoe is a large amount of local self government, to which no one who Tiflits China can shat his eyes, and which is an insoluble problem to those who penUi in seeing in the goyemment, a despotism, and in the people, slaves. This local self government is fiscal, as regards common local objects, and penal as rq^rds minor offences ; such as petty thefts and the less serious assaults. Chinese hamlets, villages, and even country tovms are usually inhabited by people of one common surname and ancestry, forming a tribe or clan — a state of things unknown, I believe, in any other equally civilized country. Herein we find a eonaistent Chinese reason for the non-interference of the imperial officials ; for the authority of a father or grandfather is, by Chinese principles, paramount in his own family. But when, in the course of generations, the family has increased into a clan, we find no one arbitrary "chief" but a communal govern-ment exercised by the more energetic of the respectable members of the eommunity, more especially its " literary gentry," i. e. any literary graduates it may have produced ; for even in local self government tJie institution of China has a marked practical influence. The communal authorities or municipal magis-trates, so constituted, meet for the transaction of business in some public place, —often a temple — ^where all matters of common interest are openly discussed. Such matters of common interest, — the home reader must mark this — are some-times nothing less than inter-communal wars. These are conflicts between adja-cent communities (often about boundary lines) which last for days and weeks. The foreigners have witnessed some of them. After considerable destruction of life and property, they are usually ended by formal treaties of peace; and aU this takes place without the least intervention on the part of the Imperial officials.

I need not point out how much this system of local self government and self protection tends to engender those very qualities of voluntary respect for Tiriual law, and power of combination for common purposes, which distinguish the Anglo-Saxons among Occidental nations. In these qualities all Chinese resemble the Anglo-Saxons, for the system exists in different degrees of inde-pendence of the Imperial authorities all over China. So far as I could see, or leam, it exists nowhere in more independence than in the south-eastern coast-land ; and when the reader in addition to this bears in mind the character of its population as fishermen, mercantile mariners, and as colonists, he will acknowledge the correctness of the name given them of the Anglo-Saxons of Asia. One of the chief differences is that we are past our buccaneering stage now.

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lands by their position and natural occapations^ is such as' produces a tendency to political separation, as in the case of Holland from Germany, Portugal from Spain ; and that, too, in spite of such powerful bonds of connection as the Rhine and the Tagus. That the coastland of south eastern China should have, in times of political commotion, exhibited a similar tendency will not surprise the reader, especially when he is reminded, that far from being connected with the rest of China by any great navigable river, it is naturally separated from the inland country to its north and west by a continuoua watershed which rivals the Pyrenees as a bar to frequent and easy communication ; being traversable for military and com-mercial purposes only by a few steep passes. Of these the Mei kwan (or Mei pass) which penetrates this watershed where the latter bears the appellation of the Mei mountains, is, under the name of the Mei ling pass, best known to us ; having been traversed by both our embassies, and recently by M. Hue. In the quarto account of Macartney's Embassy, the height of the pass^ of course one of the lowest points in the ridge, is reckoned at 8,000 feet above the sea, or twice the height of the top of Ben Lomond. Some of the peaks farther north, in Fuh keen, are known to be 12,000 feet high.

What is it, then, which has been effectual to counteract the separative tendency here where it operates under cir-cumstances so favourably? Simply the public competitive examinations, one of the avowed objects of which is, in addition to that of procuring the best materials for an able executive, to give Chinese, in the remotest comers of the Empire a direct interest in political union. Express regula-tions are consequently made for this latter purpose. For example. — Throughout the Empire, a certain number of licentiates' degrees is allotted to each province, but to each province generally^ there being no sub-allotment to its several departments.* But in the province of Fuh keen,

* I refer the reader here to the remarks on page 21.

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of which the colony of Formosa is one department, a dis-tinction is made in favour of the latter: by law a certain number of the Fuh keen licentiates must come from the department of Formosa. It is worthy of remark that the spirit of emulation in the young colonists usually super-sedes this law; their own ability and acquirements are generally found to place the requisite number in the van of the list of candidates passed at the triennial provincial examination.

Of this south eastern China, that portion formed by Kwang se does not belong to the coastland, but is, on the contrary, an essentially inland region. A glance at the map will show that it is composed of the upper valley of the large river that falls into the sea at Canton and of the valleys of its upper affluents. This river, I should remind the reader in passing, though small when compared in^hina with the *' Great River," or Yang tsze, and tl^^ Yell^tv River, is about the size of the largest in ]5J((Jtrope,'w the Danube. Kwang se was the last portion of ^i^h System China up into which the Chinese people found^l^ipi^ way as colonists; and to this day the high mouatsiiii ravines, all around it, remain in the possession of tKe aboriginal race, the mountain tribes best known as Meaou tsze, and already sufficiently noticed at page 5. But -there appears to have been two immigrations of the Chinese people into Kwang se, or two series of immigrations with an interval of time between them long enough to give rise to a distinction between old or " native " Kwang se people (puntes) and the " strangers," kih keas. Though called '^strangers," these latter have been settled for several generations in the province, and have numerous towns and villages there, though neither so large nor so opulent as those of the " native " Kwang se men. The "strangers'* immigrated originally from the Kwang-tung sea-board, from which they appear to have been constantly deriving accessions up to the outbreak of the

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present rebellions,* From what will appear in the sequel the reader will perceive how entirely these rebellions, that of Kwang se, not less than those which have broken out on the coast-provinces, have proceeded from the energetic and venturous coastlanders of south-eastern China.

Those of these coastlanders who inhabit the southern half of Chekeang differ least in character from the other Chinese ; as might be inferred from their greater proximity to the original seat of the race, and to the great plain of central China. Still Europeans have noticed a difference in energy, l)Oth for peaceful and for warlike avocations^ even between the natives of the Chusan islands and the Ningpo mountains on the one hand, and the population of the alluvial flats about Shanghae on the other ; though the localities are only about 100 miles apart. Of all the coastlanders, those from the tract about Amoy and Namoa have been for years known to us, and much longer to their own countrymen, as the most turbulent, reckless and adventurous of the Chinese.

* It will be seen further on, at page 85, that when Hung sew tseuen went first to Kwang se, he sought out, and lived for some months with " a relative ;" and Mr. Hamberg's book expressly states that the most of the Godworshippera were <'kih keas " or strangers.

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M. Hue's OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 61

CHAPTER V (PART 1 OF 2)

M. HUC'S OPINIONS OP THE CHINESE.

Ireland was once called the best abused country in the world. I deliberately and seriously declare China to be the best misunderstood country in the world. Month after month we continue to have notices, articles and books about itj all furnishing proof of the correctness of this assertion. The last book that has appeared, L'Empire Chinois by M. Hue, seems to me to demand special notice both on account of its comprehensive title and of the name of its author — still more because of its errors.

The work treats of men and things in general in China. But instead of a methodical arrangement in chapters, accord-ing to the subjects, M. Hue gives us a diary of his journey imder escort from the borders of Thibet through the central and southern provinces to Canton ; in which diary he inter-sperses, k propos to anything, many pages of discursive disser-tation on the philosophy, ethics, language, literature, govern-ment &c &C. of the Chinese. On all these subjects M. Hue quotes or reproduces either from the Jesuit missionaries, who resided at the court of Peking about 150 years ago, or from the Parisian sinologues of the last and present genera-tion, Bemusat, Juiien and their scholars. M. Hue boasts much of the superior advantages which his knowledge of the Chinese language, joined to twelve or fourteen years' resi-dence in China, gives him; yet he does little to correct certain pardonable errors into which some of these latter

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gentlemen, none of whom were ever in China, fall, and wherever he ventures to depart from his authorities he is apt to propagate errors himself. As I know that much miscon-ception exists with respect to the opportunities of Catholic missionaries of the present day^ I believe I shall do a public service by a special consideration of the subject.

I could, on the authority of a French missionary who had been very much in the interior of China, state the total num-ber of native Christians at five hundred thousand ; but I will not dispute M. Hue's estimate of eight hundred thousand ; which, as he correctly observes, is a mere nothing in the enor-mous population of the country. There are 85 counties in Great Britain. Take one of average population and divide it into five parts. The population of one of these parts has the same relation to the inhabitants of Great Britain that the highest estimate of Chinese catholics has to the inhabitants of China. These catholic Christians are, however, not col-lected in one place, but live scattered over all China proper, in small communities, called by the French chr^tient^s. There being, as M. Hue states, scarcely any converts made at the present day, it follows that the members of these Christianities are educated and trained as Christians from their infancy ; being either foundlings, or of Christian Chinese parentage. They are Chinese in the outward and more obvious charac-teristics of dress and features, but in other respects are more like Bavarians or Neapolitans than their own countrymen ; from whom they differ in many of those social and domestic customs and in all those mental peculiarities which constitute the special nationality of the Chinaman. Not only is it im-possible to learn among them what the infidel Chinese are, it can hardly be learned from them ; inasmuch as even those of them who have travelled in the provinces are less able to understand it, than the intelligent and well-informed European on the coast; whose habit of considering various nationalities gives him facility in thinking himself into an intellectual, moral and religious life, different from his own. The reader

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can now exactly appreciate the manner of life of the catholic missionarieH as described in M. Hue's own words :

** lis sont proscrits dans toute I'^tendue de Fempire ; ils y entrent en secret^ avec toutes les precautions que pent sug-gerer la prudence, et ils sont forces d'y r^sider en cachette, pour se mettre Sl Tabri de la surveillance et des recherches des magistrats. lis doivent meme ^viter avec soiu de se produire aux yeux des infideles, de peur d'exciter des soup-90ns, de donner T^veil aux autorites et de compromettre leur minist^re, la s^curite des chretieus et I'avenir des missions. On comprend que, avec ces entraves rigoureusement imposees par la prudence, il est impossible au missionnaire d'agir directement sur les populations et de donner un libre essor a

eon zele Aller d'une chretiente k Tautre, instruire et

exhorter les nfophytes, administrer les sacrements, celebrer en secret les f^tes de la sainte Eglise, visiter les ecoles, et encourager le maitre et les Aleves, voild. le cercle ou il est forcer de se renfermer." (T. I. p. 167.)

I know from others, men intimately acquainted with the life of missionaries in the interior, that this is no overcharged description of the restrictions they there labour under. Of himself M. Hue says :

** Au temps oii nous vivions au milieu de nos chretient^s, nous ^tions forces, par notre position, de nous tenir a une distance plus que respectueuse des mandarins et de leur dangereux entourage. Notre s^curite, et celle surtout de nos neophytes, nous en faisait une stricte obligation. Comme les autres missionnaires, nous n'avions gufire de rapport qu'a-Tec les habitans des campagnes et les artisans des villes." (T. L p. 91.)

Again, speaking of China proper:

'' Autrefois, lors de notre premiere entree dans les missions, nous I'avions dejd parcouru dans toute sa longueur, du sud an nord, mais furtivement, en cachette, choisissant parfois les ten^bres et les sentiers detourncs, voyageant enfin un peu it la fa9on des ballots de contrebande.''

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Such, then, were M. Hue's opportunities up to the period when he commenced the two or three months^ ^ journey described in the volumes now under consideration. He however dwells much upon the opportunities this latter afforded him, more especially for being "initiated into the habits of Chinese high society, in the midst of which we (M. Hue and colleague) constantly lived from the frontiers of Thibet to Canton.^' (Preface xxii.)

A special search of the two volumes shows that at Tching tou fou he appeared in court before the Fiscal and Judicial Commissioners, and stood in their presence while being sub-jected to an interrogatory. Thb was one occasion on which he saw "high" society. At the same place he appeared twice before the Governor General (vice-roi). That made three occasions. At Au tchang fou he forced hb way into the presence of the Governor of Hou pe, who accorded him a short and dry interview. That made four occasions — ^and I find no more. All other functionaries whom M. Hue saw were prefects of department, district magistrates (prefets) or men of still less rank. Now these are officers whom the French and British Consuls at Shanghae and Ningpo will not permit to correspond with them as equals; a fact that may be known to M. Hue himself. He states indeed that at Tching tou fou the favorable reception of the viceroy

^^ Nous mit en relation avee les personnages les plus haut places et les plus distingues de la ville, avee les grands fonctionnaires civil et militaire."

If M. Hue, by " mit en relation," means that he received a present of fruit and cakes sent in the name of the '^ grands fonctionnaires," I can understand it ; for it is part of the business of the stewards at the head of their enormous esta-blishments to do these things, with or without special instruc-tions. But I know very well that Chinese functionaries of the rank of the Fiscal and Judicial Commissioners, or even

* There is roeh a paucity of dates in the book that I am unable to ascertain the exact time. With steady trayelUng, two months would suffice.

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those placed much lower in the official scale^ do not inter-change visits with "barbarians," whom they have had led before them as prisoners. Moreover M. Hue is not the writer to withhold from us a special notice, in his own lively style, of any visits of such high personages had they actually taken place.

We see then that M. Hue's direct connection with the " high society '' limits itself to a legal examination, two per-mitted interviews and one intrusion. Nevertheless he, either in his own words or in those of M. Remusat, a Parisian sinolc^ue, ridicules (Preface xvii. — xxi.) the oppor-tunities of the members of the two English embassies ; main-tains that they travelled like prisoners; and states that *' none of them knew the language of the country.^' I am literally at a " loss to conceive " how this latter assertion could be made. With the last embassy (Lord Amherst's) were present Sir G. Staunton, who made the well-known and well-done translation of the Chinese Penal Code ; and Sir John Davis, subsequently author of " the Chinese," and translator of several works, and who was then, as a young man, chosen to accompany the embassy precisely because he did know the language. Lastly the interpreter of the embassy was Dr. Morrison, author of the best Chinese dictionary in existence ; and whose knowledge of the Chinese language, people, and institutions very much exceeded that of M. Bemusat and M. Hue put together. Both embassies spent four months in the interior of China; both were at Peking, and the first resided some time in that city ; both traversed the whole length of the country, through its most important provinces; the members of both, in the course of this traverse, walked about in many of the cities they passed, and visited points that attracted their attention six to ten miles out of their route ; lastly, during the whole of the four months that each spent in China, those members who could speak the language were in daily communication, and had long familiar conversations with functionaries, such

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as M. Hue saw four times and was then obliged to stand before. If any man can lay claim to having seen Chinese " high society '* that man is Sir G. Staunton. During both embassies, he had frequent opportunities of conversing, not only with provincial Governors (vice-roys), but even with the first Cabinet Ministers ; while he is the only living European who has spoken to a Chinese Emperor ; and that Emperor, it so happened, one of the most intelligent and most pro-sperous monarchs the world has ever seen.

So much for the opportunities of the English embassies. But I am enabled to assert confidently that M. Huc*8 contemporaries, the gentlemen who, during the twelve years that have elapsed sino^ the war, have served as official inter-preters* (French or English) at the Five Open Ports have had greater opportunities than M. Hue himself. He does indeed try to "bar" them and others who have resided at these Ports by declaring the latter to be " a moiti^ Europ^ennises." This is however but another of M. Hue's inaccurate allega-tions ; which I should have to expose were it only to prevent readers from forming a most incorrect notion of the ope-ration of the Occidental communities (nearly altogether composed of English and Americans) on the Chinese.

There are in all the Five Ports probably not fifty Chinese who can read and write English. Most of these are lads, scholars of Protestant missionaries ; and, of the whole number, the most advanced find expressions to puzzle them in every page of plain English narrative. Of Chinamen who can speak (I cannot say more or less, but) less or still less of broken English, without being able to read or write a word, there may be about five thousand. These are, without exception, servants of different kinds, to the foreigners, tradesmen who deal with them, and " linguists " who act as interpreters and brokers between them and the large merchants. They are all illiterate as Chinese, while their vocabulary of English words is so extremely limited, that * The writer and his colleagoes.

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M. hug's opinions of the CHINESE. 57

they can barely express themselves about the most concrete matters and the most direct business transactions. Such 13 the extent and nature of the instruments by the incidental acts of which must have been effected atiy Europeanization of the Five Ports ; whose aggregate population is reckoned at two to three millions. The truth is that these, the only instruments, remain themselves as much Chinamen as any of their countrymen in the Eighteen Provinces. Let the reader, if acquainted with retired China merchants, desire them to say whether the body servants who attended them through-out their 10 or 15 years' residence in the country — and whose fathers and grandfathers were probably similar ser-vants,— whether these men had by one hair's breadth de-parted from the manners, customs, and habits of thought of their countrymen generally. The Five Ports have been decidedly less Europcanized than the five British towns of Glasgow, Whitehaven, Liverpool, Pembroke and Bristol have been continentalized by the comparatively far greater proportion of foreign residents. Now will M, Hue maintain that an educated Frenchman, free to reside at any of these British ports and to spend all his time with the natives ; free also to buy any and every English book, and to engage the services of learned Englishmen to aid in their study, would not be able, after years of residence, to acquaint himself with the character and institutions of the British people ? Sup-pose that such Frenchmen were not only perfectly free at these British ports, but while having permanent habitations there could at four of them go away without hindrance into the surrounding country and cities to the distance of 20, 80, and even 60 miles on excursions lasting weeks, would Frenchmen, so situated, be less able to speak about England than other Frenchmen, whose residence of equal duration had been in a great measure spent in traversing the interior of the island like kegs of spirits without permits — "^ la fagon des ballots de contrebande," and associating only with ^'peasants" and <^ artisans," and these mentally different

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from the rest of the natives ; for instance (to parallel the contempt in which Catholic Christians are held in China) with the followers of Johanna Sonthcote ? Such a position as I have desired the reader to suppose that of Frenchmen at four British ports, has been the position of the British and French official interpreters at four of the open ports in China.* The seniors have all had frequent occasion to see officials of equal rank and standing with the highest of those whom M. Hue saw four times ; and they then did not stand to be examined, but sat and talked for hours. With the officials of a lesser rank they have, during 12 years main-tained an intercourse certainly not less familiar than that which M. Hue had with the same class of mandarins during the two or three months of his journey.

If we except the intercourse with the officials, the upper class in China, then the Protestant missionaries at the Five Ports have had all the opportunities of the government inter-preters. I may add that several of the protestant mission-aries have wives who speak Chinese well, a circumstance that gives them unusual facilities for getting an acquaintance with the domestic life of the middle and lower classes of the veritabls, unchristianized or "infidel" Chinese. The celi-bacy of the Catholic missionaries bars them all access to that domestic life, in a country where the different sexes cannot hold free communication, unless connected by close family ties.

I trust I have said enough to dispel the " interior of the country " illusion. Since the British war, the balance of opportunity for learning has been decidedly in favour of those who have resided at the Five Ports. But occidental readers would do well to accept no one as an authority because of his opportunities alone. Each writer should give proof that he has availed himself of them for the acquisition

* At the fifth, Canton, the ill feeling of the people has acted as a restriction 80 far as exeursiona to the eurrounding country is concerned.

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of accarate information. This proof M. Hue fails to give ; as an examination of the present volumes will show.

To commence with the* Map ; to the correctness of which he, announcing himself as a corrector of other travellers' errors, was bound to see. At the mouth of the great river of China we find "Yang tseu kiang ho on FL Bleu." Now kiang means river (or stream as applied to large rivers) ho means river, and Yang tseu is a proper name. " Yang tseu kiang ho " is therefore as ridiculous, and, to the mouth of a Chinaman as impossible, as Der Rheinstrom Fluss would be to that of a German or Thames-river-river to that of an Englishman* As for '^Bleu,^' the name which M. Hue gives the river throughout his book, because as he says (T. I. p. 189) "Europeans so name it," I suspect M. Hue would be greatly puzzled to find among the Europeans who have navigated it, and live<j[ at Shanghae or one of its affluents for the last twelve years, any one person who ever saw or heard it so named. In the last few hundred miles of its course, its waters contain at all seasons so much mud in suspension as to make it a deep yellow. Its common Chinese name is Ta keang or Chang keang, Great or Long River.*

The Map does not contain Hongkong at all, and though it has the names, as Chinese towns, of the Five Ports, it does not in any way indicate their distinctive character as per-manent stations of foreigners. This must be considered as a negative propagation of error in a work entitled "the Chinese Empire ; " Jfor all these places have as residences of foreigners (not been Europeanized certainly, but) been objects of a special and just solicitude on the part of the Imperial government since the War.

In T. I. p. 37, M. Hue speaks of Tching tou fou, capital of "la petite province ** of See tchouen. Sse tchouen is notoriously the largest province in China. It is 60,000 square miles, or two Irelands, larger than the next province

* Great Birer will be the name need in the remainder of this volame.

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Yunan, and it has actually from twice to four times the superficial extent of each of the remaining sixteen provinces.

When M. Hue (p. 53) describes Sse tchouen as " la pro-vince la plus civilisee, peut-Stre, du celeste empire," more than its full significance must be given to the " perhaps/^ Apart from the fact that it contains within its boundaries a great number of barbarous, or even savage, aboriginal tribes, even its Chinese population cannot be said to equal, much less to excel, in mental cultivation and in refinement of manners the inhabitants of the ancient capital, Nanking, of Hang chow and Soo chow, and of the provinces in which these cities lie ; all famed throughout the land for their luxury and their literature.

At T. I. p. 57, M. Hue describes the personal appearance of the Pou tching sse (Superintendent of Provincial Finances) before whom he stood to be examined. Of his dress he says " Son costume ^tait superbe ; sur sa poitrine brillait un large ^cusson, oii etait represents en broderie d'or et d^argent un dragon imperial; un globule en corail rouge, decoration des mandarins de premiere classe, surmontait son bonnet."

Now to this I have to object, in the first place, that the globule of the mandarin hat is not what we understand by a "decoration" but is a part of the regular uniform (like epaulets) ; secondly, that the Pou tching sse does indeed wear a red one, not however the red one of the first class, but of the second, to which by his oflSce he belongs. I pass this, however, as the Pou tching sse M. Hue saw may have had first class rank by brevet. But I cannot get over the "imperial dragon." I admit that he is a most excellent animal with which to astonish an admiring, uninitiated, European audience* But I contracted my brows the moment I found him figuring, in M. Hue's book, in the ecusson on the breast of a Pou tching sse; and must remain incredulous till M. Hue explains how he got there. For I happen to have more than once spent some time with Pou tching sses, both when

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M. hug's opinions of the CHINESE. 61

these latter were in half dress and in full uniform ; and I saw no dragon on their poo fuh or ^cusson. Further, the Pou tching sse is a civilian, and civilians have by regulation each a bird on their ^cusson. The military have quadrupeds ; but on referring to a copy of the Chinese Red Book I find no dragon in any class. As few of my readers may be able to get a sight of this useful little book of reference, and fewer still would be able to read it, I refer them to vol. I. of " the Middle Kingdom," where they will find a description of Chinese uniforms. This work is by Mr. Williams, one of those protestant missionaries whom M. Hue, in more than one place, rather superciliously alludes to as ** protestantes methodistes," and whose knowledge and doings he derides. I recommend him to read carefully what some of them have written on China, before he publishes a third edition of his " Empire Chinois."

Of the nine classes or orders of Chinese officials M. Hue says [T. I. p. 100] correctly, ** Chaque ordre est subdivis6 en deux series:" but immediately adds, what is quite wrong, ** L*une active et officielle, I'autre surnumeraire." He himself rightly describes [p. 54] the two officers Pou ching sse and Ngan cha sse as being in each province the most important under the " vice roi " and as charged with its " administra-tion g^n^rale." Now the one belongs to the second subdi-vision of the second class, the other to the first subdivision of the third class; and the one is at the head of fiscal affiiirs, the other at the head of criminal affiiirs : which then is ** active et officielle," and which merely '* surnumeraire ^' ?

There are other erroneous statements about the official system, as, for instance, where he (T. I. p. 99) states that the titles koung, heou, &c. (corresponding to ** due, marquis, &c.") are not hereditary, not transmissible to descendants. Many of those who bear these titles, have before the latter the prefix " she seih, hereditary " and they are transmitted accordingly. A man who, speaking Chinese, has passed twelve years in China without knowing this must, I am

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compelled to qbj, have had his ejes and ears very much closed.

At T. I. p. 114 M.-Huc says that the officer with whom he was lodged " se nommait Pao Bgan ou Tresor cach^e." — In these two words he violates grammar in a way that I should not pardon in a sinologue of three months' standing. In Chinese the adjective invariably precedes the noun^ and here the two Chinese words, if held to be in grammatical con-nexion at all, must be rendered " precious or valuable secret. ** But I object altogether to M« Hue's translating of this and many other proper names ; which the Chinese regard only as such, Such translating is often very forced; and though it is amusing — very oriental, and ten-thousand-miles-oflFjr I admit — still it is so at the certain cost of propagating misconception, by increasing that grotesque colouring already too much the light in which Occidentals are habituated to see the Chinese, and which, therefore, it is the duty of each successive writer to strive to lessen. A Frenchman would not be considered to have rendered the views of his country-men on "British eccentricity" more truthfiil, who, on re-turning from a visit to England, would say that he had landed at Mare-de-foie, Chasseur de colombe ou Plier-bouche instead of Liverpool, Dover or Plymouth ; and that he had travelled from the latter port to London by way of Bain, Lec-ture et Yirginite, instead of Bath, Reading and Maidenhead.

CHAPTER V (PART 2 OF 2)

At T. I. p. 405 by way of proving the total incorrectness of the prevalent idea that the Chinese people '^ a naturelle-ment de I'antipathie contre les etrang^res, et qu'il s'est tou-jours appliqu^ a les tenir eloign^s de ses frontibres," he states ^' Marco Polo y a 6t6 tr^s bien accueilli k deux epoques dif-ferentes avec son pere et son oncle. Quoique Venitiens ils y ont m^me exerce des fonctions publiques et de la plus haute importance, puisque Marco Polo fut gouvemeur d'une pro-vince Tout prouve done que les Chinois, &c. &c."

Marco Polo himself was only at one " ^poque " in China, and neither he nor his two relatives were ever employed by

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M. Hue's OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 63

Chinese. They were employed by the Mongul Tartars, whom they helped to conquer the Chinese; a circumstance from which we may infer that the latter must have had a special *' antipathic" against these three "Strangers'* at all events.

At T. I. p. 453 M. Hue shows us the deck of a British frigate in action. When, during our war, a Chinese maritime city was to be destroyed, a frigate quietly took up her elation at any distance she pleased, and then "while the officers, seated at table on the poop, manoeuvred at their ease with champagne and madeira, the seamen methodically bombarded the city." It is, we see, not about China alone that M. Hue is informing.

In T. n. p. 135 M. Hue speaks of Eaen lung as the '^denxi^me empereur de la dynastic mantchoue." He was the fourth.

At T. II. p. 385 M. Hue has : " le Tcheou ly, ouvrage attribue aux cel^bre Tcheou kong, qui monta sur la tr6ne en 1122 avant J. C.'^ Tcheou kong is indeed celebrated, — so much so, that I am astonished to find M. Hue ignorant of the fact that he is held never to have " mounted the throne " at all. He was at the utmost regent for his nephew ; but is best known as a muster of devoted and able ministers. M. Hue might as well tell us of the time when ^' Joseph mounted the throne of Egypt,^^ or " Samuel the throne of Israel."

I have noticed the above errors, not because of importance in themselves, but because they unmistakeably indicate no little ignorance on M. Huc*s part, of the institutions and history of the Chinese, as well as much superficiality in his acqmuntance with their language and literature, which, I warn the reader, must prevent his being accepted as an authority in matters of the greatest importance on which he makes sweeping and unqualified assertions. The warning is here the more necessary, as though I may find space to meet some of his erroneous assertions with a contradiction, I can-not enter into any lengthened and complete refutations. M. Hue avers again and again with varied phraseology

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that the Chinese are " destitute of religious feelings and beliefs," *' sceptical and indifferent to everything that con-cerns the moral side of man," " having no energy except for amassing money,'* ** absorbed in material interests,'* "their whole lives but materialism in action," "sunk in temporal interests," "pursuing only wealth and material enjoyments with ardour/^ In these assertions M. Hue is supported by other living writers (English and Americans) who, each pronouncing judgment from a very shallow con-sideration of what has fallen under his own eyes in China, describe the whole nation of Chinese as " short sighted utili-tarians, industrious and gain seeking."

All this is baseless calumny of the higher life of a great portion of the human race. I should therefore in any case have held it a duty to meet it with unequivocal contradiction and strong condemnation. I now feel especially called on to do so ; as it is impossible that the present revolutionary move-ment can be rightly appreciated if a total misconception of the Chinese intellectual and moral nature is allowed to prevail.

In the first place, I would ask my English, American and French readers : What is it that the hundreds of thousands of our respective countrymen who hurry daily through the streets of London, New York and Paris are after? Are they or are they not " pursuing wealth and material enjoy-ments with ardour" — "absorbed in material interests" — " utili-tarians, industrious and gain-seeking?" Why have the English been called " shopkeepers," the Americans " dollar-hunters," and why do these names stick? Why are there eighty thousand women in the streets and public places of London, and why is there an enormous organized prostitution in Paris? Christianity grafted on the old Teutonic respect for woman has led to strict monogamy among us ; and this has prevented the large prevalence of crimes that undoubtedly do exist among the Chinese, as among other polygamic nations. In addition to these, from which, be it observed.

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M. hug's opinions of the CHINESE. 65

the monogamic West is not altogether free, the Chinese have moreoyer many vices and faults ; but these vices and faults are mostly identical in kind with those existing among Occidental nations, and are not more prevalent in degree. And this is my position. I do not simply admit, I assert myself, as the result of a long independent study and close observation^ that the great mass of the Chinese are most certainly '^ sunk in material interests,'' ^^ pursuing with ardour only wealth and material enjoyments ;" just as are the great mass of English, French, and Americans. But as there exists in the extreme West among this very gain-seeking majority, a large amount of generosity, of public spirit, and of ineradicable right feeling, which may be appealed to with perfect confidence whenever a great cause 19 im-perilled; and which then impels them to lavish'' with^^un-sparing self-sacrifice, alike the gains they amas^^nd th^ very lives spent in amassing them; so does thei^e .exisi' in the extreme East among the mass of habitu)^.,g^Y)iseeker8 a similar public spirit, and a like right feeli^^ . And as there does undoubtedly exist among English, BVeiich and Ameri-cans a minority, higher in nature, dotuated by higher motives, aiming at higher aims — a minority ever silently working for good, and from time to time working openly with irresistible power, — so, precisely so, does there exist a similar minority among the Chinese. My quarrel with M. Hue and the other writers is that they either deny the existence of this minority in China altogether, or, what has practically the same effect, leave it, as well as the latent public spirit and fundamental right feeling of the majority, totally out of view in their pictures. In doing so they portray a people that can have no existence, any more than a nation of centaurs. Such a people as they depict would not be human beings, but unhumans. I, on the other hand, m»ntain nothing more extraordinary than that the Chinese are, as a nation, composed of men and women, exhibiting all those varieties of character, both in degree and in quality,

F

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66 TU£ CHINESE AND TUEIB REBELLIONS.

that those other collections of men and women called nations, do exhibit — nothing more and nothing less.

M. Hue asserts that the Chinese are destitute of religious feelings. If by this he means nothing more than that the Chinese show no ready aptitude to embrace his form of Christianity, no alacrity to desert the Confucian tablet or the Buddhist idol for the images of the Saints and the Virgin, I fully and thoroughly agree with him. And if Protestant writers mean, when they " endorse " • such opinions, that the Chinese display little intellectual or moral promptitude to adopt their several creeds, which less enforce the great truths of Christianity, as ^^ peace on earth and good will towards men " than they plant repulsively before the unprepared mind of the heathen the bare results of some centuries of doctrinal disputes, and sectarian bickerings, then, with them likewise I am fully agreed. In that case we are quite at one as to the religiosity of the Chinese. But if by ** want of religious feeling " they mean to assert that the Chinese have no longing for immortality ; no cordial adnura-tion of what is good and great ; no unswerving and unshrink-ing devotion to those who have been good and great; no craving, no yearning of the soul, to reverence something High and Holy, then I differ from them entirely and empha-tically contradict their assertion. The religious feeling, so understood, is as natural to man as hearing and sight ; and I never yet heard of a nation or even a small tribe com-posed wholly of people deaf and blind. M. Hue himself dilates on the circumstance that China is covered with temples and monasteries^ well or richly endowed; and in spite of his after statement that they are the result of an ^^ old habit,'* I certainly adhere to the simple and obvious explanation that they are called into existence by strong religious feeling, however ill directed. I may, indeed, here observe that when M. Hue and the other writers, after a

* Are the people who daily extend the application of this word " absorbed ** or not, in the pursuit of gain 1

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M. Hue's OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 67

positive, sweeping assertion of their psychologically impos-sible propositions, come to deal with the more palpable facts, they unavoidably contradict themselves. They are then found declaring that throughout the long course of Chinese history, good and great men have abounded, and that heroic spirita have ever come forward to fight and die for what they held ta be truth and justice.

There is but little outward resemblance between a Scandi-navian Sea-king and a long nailed, learned Chinese ; and an old graduate of this kind, who came about two years ago direct from Peking to my service had certainly never heard the tale of the rover who suddenly refused baptism because he preferred following his forefathers to hell. Yet in a casual oonversatioui he spoke with some feeling of the statements that certain Chinese Christians had recently made to him about the fate of Confucius, and, by way of fully expressing his own sentiments on the subject, he wound up, his old lip quivering and his eyes glistening as he looked fully at me his interlocutor : ^^ If it is true that so wise and good a man as our Holy Sage has gone to hell, then I want to go to heU too.'*

Within the last two years I had frequent occasion to describe the doctrines and progress of the Nanking insur-gents to Confucianists, and to observe them sink into dejec-tion as they listened. But in more cases than one the hearer would suddenly rouse himself and say in a hopeful confident tone : " They will never get the empire ; they will never get the empire ; seay puh shing ching, falsehood will never over-come truth." Whether their ideas of what *' truth " is were just or not, I ask: Do materialists draw practical consolation from such abstract propositions ?

Believe me, reader, both of these men were sincere ; and there is plenty of such confidence in truth, and devotion to goodness to be found in China.

The following proof of the correctness of my views, will, for the philosophical linguist go far to be decisive. The

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general reader may not be aware of the fact that nations are ever in the act of pronouncing unconsciously^ judgments on themselves, by the changes in the meanings and applications of words which take place in the natural growth of their languages. No judgments are more true; they are very slowly formed ; and, being unconscious, are absolutely impar-tial. * Now the Chinese, like all other civilized peoples, have speculated long and largely on the origin and nature of the inanimate world and of man. Further, for 700 years they have had systematized metaphysics, and lastly, their philosophy, systematized and unsystematized, has penetrated into popular life, and influenced popular language to an extent unequalled perhaps in the mental history of any other people. Like most other peoples who have pushed metaphysical speculation to the extreme limit of human thought,! they have rested on two eternally existing, ulti-mate ihingsy the one a power or cause, the other a some-thing in which that power operates. The first is in some systems regarded as intelligent will, in others as unintelligent law : it is in both cases the ultimate, immaterial element of the universe. The second is the finest or most ethereal thinkable shape of matter; out of which all that we see with our eyes and feel with our hands is made. In some systems it is co-eternal with the first, in others it is created by, or evolved out, of it : in both cases it is the ultimate, material element of the universe. In Chinese the ultimate immaterial element is called le; the ultimate material element ke.

* The applications of words may record historical facts too, more reliably and correctly than the pen of the chronicler. Scott shows this in the opening scene of his lyanhoe where the jester illastrates to the swineherd the relatiye positions of the Normans and Saxons as conquerors and subjects, by showing that so long as animals require care and trouble, they bear Saxon names, as ox, calf, swine ; but that when they become objects of nutrition and enjoyment they have Norman names, as beef, veal, and pork.

f We, it must be borne in mind, do not explain the origin of matter when we refer it to the creative power of God. To account for a thing by referring it to the act of an Incomprehensible Being is but another way of declaring it unaccountable and incomprehensible.

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M. hug's opinions of the CHINESE. 69

Taking the English language in a general way, i. e. keeping aloof from the specialities of the philosophical schools, the ultimate immaterial element is designated by law, mind, spirit, mental, &c. ; the ultimate, material element by matter, material, &c. Hence the Chinese le is equivalent to first cause, law, mind, mental, &c., the ke, to matter, material, &c. The Chinese, like the English words, are not used meta-physically only, but in popular life, and, as I have above intimated, they are largely so used. To sinologues I need not say which of the two words le and ke is most largely so used. To others I have merely to state that le is the word which in our translations is rendered by ''right principles,'' ** reason,'' " reasonable," &c., and then all who have read translations of Chinese books and proclamations may perceive for themselves how completely the idea of the predominance of the mental to the material has penetrated into every comer of Chinese existence. When a Chinaman high or low, and in political or in the most ordinary aifairs, wants to say that an act is just, right, reasonable, a duty, or necessary, he says that it is in accordance with, or required by le, i.e. by the immaterial principle," by mentality, or spirituality. On the other hand, " Twan woo tsze le, — decidedly there is no such immaterial principle" or "mentality" — is the exact Chinese counterpart of our English, ''It is most unjust, unreasonable, false or absui*d.'' Again, the same idealistic feature, the same mindishness, of the lowest Chinese is shown in the universally attested fact of their settling disputes, mentally rather than physically, by arguments rather than by blows.* The word ke is to a certain extent used of man's moral side ; but then generally in a bad sense, being

* Some have thouglit the Chinese ayersion to blows proceeded from cow-ardiee. 3och is not the case. It is the disgrace and scandal of fighting that deters him moi« than physical timidity. The notion of an innate cowardice in the Chinese indiyidoal is another of oar popular fallacies, which a closer expe-rienoe is rapidly dispelling. I have not space to expose the fallacy at length. During the war a handfnl of British troops would disperse the nndisciplined

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applied to his passions rather than to his higher mental qualities.— " Puh yaon sSng ke. Don't bear (or produce) matter" is the common Chinese expression for "Don't get into a passion."

Our English word godly, derived from the name of the Being from whom we hold mind and matter to have pro-ceeded^ does indeed include the idea of what is right and just. It is, however, not a synonym of these two words, and is moreover little applied to the affairs of the world, political or social. But what do we say in English when we want to express that a thing or affair is of serious import, — ^not to be treated lightly — very important? Why, we say that it is very "mattery," that it is "most material." And to such an extent have materialistic tendencies and views become predominant in English life, that very correct writers apply our names of the ultimate material principle, matter and its paronyms, in a most incongruous way in the purely intellectual and moral regions of human being. So foreign to the Chinese is the identity we have admitted between matter and impor-tance, that the attempt to indicate in their language that a thing or affair is " very important" by saying that it is "very ke" would convey to them no idea at all; while to Occidentals acquainted with the Chinese language the com-bination is so ludicrous that I am convinced every sinologue must smile as he reads what I have just said. In China the linguists and servants of the foreign merchants render the le by, reason, or " leeson '^ as they mispronounce it " No got leeson. It is unspiritual, unmental " urge they, when their masters insist on something unjust, harsh or absurd being done. The very likely reply is : " It must be done, it's most material."

I give another proof drawn from language. The Chinese equivalent to our words affair, occupation, business is sze,

and companttiyely unarmed crovfcU of men called Chinese Boldien. So also a sergeant's party will in our streets disperse a crowd of comparatively unarmed rioters. Does this latter fact prove that the common Englishman is a coward 1

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which is also used as a verb in the sense to do^ to be busy about anything. This word is compounded of the old pic-torial character for the human hand^ and the word ^^ she historian/' «. e. etymologically rendered it signifies : things which the hand of the historian might record, things worthy of record^ recordable things. To this word sze another is frequently added in conversation, ^Using the passions'' or, in a good sense, '' the common feelings of human beings." As forming a compound with sze in the signification of affair or business, this word isinff resembles our word '^ concern," that which affects or concerns man's feelings. Now when a CSiinaman sees a number of people running to one point or looking toward one spot ; or sees a man start suddenly or get angry; or marks an unusually dejected or a happy expression in the faces of his acquaintance, he asks : ^^ Shin ma szCf What's the thing worthy of record" or ** Shin ma sze iring. What is the recordable thing and concern of the feelings." The Englishman under the like circumstances invariably asks: ^' What^s the matter?" To his mind it has become natural to assume that curiosity, fright, anger, grief, and pleasure must be all caused by matter, the ultimate material principle.

In addition to the above proofs from that picture of national mind, national language, I could, did time and space permit, prove from their ethics that the Chinese are thorough idealists as compared with the English and French.

As above stated, M. Hue does not stand alone in his mis* appreciation of the Chinese character in this respect. One of our ofllicial sinologues Mr. T. F. Wade published in 1850 a pamphlet entitled ''The Chinese Empire in 1849." This is a carefully prepared and informing notice of the palpable occurrences of the period which it deals with. But it is utterly misleading where it generalizes on the then political state of the country, and on the character of the people. It intimated, I may observe, that there was no "ground for apprehending that revolution was on foot within the Flowery

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Land ;" yet, in the province adjoining that in which those words were being written, that insurrectionary movement had been initiated, which speedily assumed dynastic impor-tance, and which has ever since engaged the whole military energies of/ the Imperial government. It is however the judgments of the pamphlet on the national character that I feel called on here to notice and oppose. It describes the Chinese as nothing but ^^short-sighted utilitarians, industrious and gain seeking,^' and declares that the ^^ national mind" has " become infinitely vicious^^ ; a condemnation of a whole people rather too strong to obtain credence when once atten-tion has been directed to its sweeping and exaggerated nature. As M. Hue speaking of the recorded teachings of Confucius tells us that they contain " un grand nombre de banaliiSs sur la morale"; so Mr. Wade teUs us that the Chinese philosophy is ^^ puerile and unattractive when not tamely moral." Is it then wrong to be moral ? Must we say of the Chinese, when they conduct themselves properly in the relations between man and man, that they are addicted to morality?

As both M. Hue and Mr. Wade are acquainted with the Chinese language, and as each of them has passed about the same time in China that I have, it will be satisfactory to the reader to have the recorded testimony of another living sinologue, who has, I believe, lived longer in the country than any of us. Speaking of Chinese training. Sir John Davis says— and many passages of similar purport may be found in his writings — : " The most commendable feature of their system is the general diffusion of elementary moral

education among the lower orders It is in the

preference of moral to physical instruction that even we might perhaps wisely take a leaf out of the Chinese book and do something to reform this most mechanical age of ours."

In fact the chief reason why the Chinese have made so little progress in the physical sciences is not a mental

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M. Hue's OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 73

"incapacity," or "tenuity of intellect," of which Mr. Wade aocofles them, but a disregard or eyen contempt for things material as opposed to things intellectual or moral. In war, which is more especially a fight of physicak or material forces, they paid the just penalty of this undc^ contempt when they became involved in a contest withj the possessors of the highest material civilization the world has yet seen: the British people.

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CHAPTER VI

HUNG SEW TSEUEN, THE ORIGINATOR OP THE REBELLION, HIS EARLY BIOGRAPHY AND HIS ADOPTION OF CHRIS-TIANITY.

Having, as I hope, in the preceding pages thoroughly cleared the ground, and provided against many misconcep-tions, which I know to be standing, I trust to be able to convey, in a comparatively small space, a clear idea of the nature and progress of recent insurrectionary movements in China. I do not, however, believe that the occidental reader will be benefited by any painful enumeration of dates and multifold narrating of isolated occurrences. Such chronicling is not efiective political knowledge, but merely the prepara-tion of matter from which such knowledge may be gene-ralised and elicited. This preparatory operation I have laboriously performed for myself on all the data at command ; but I shall in the following pages present the reader with conclusions rather than the materials for original investiga-tion, and speak authoritatively rather than argumentatively. I must however give the warning that those who have "skipped" the preceding will not understand what follows, though they may fancy they do so.

Hung sew tseuen, the originator and acknowledged chief of the present religious-political insurrection in China, is the third and youngest son of a poor peasant proprietor. He was born in 1813 in a small village of the Hwa district, about thirty miles north-east of Canton ; where his father's few fields were situated. Having early exhibited a marked

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capacity for study^ he was not only sent to school at the age of seven, bat his relatives, as often happens in China when any one member of a poor fiunily displays unusual aptitude for learning, so exerted themselves as to keep him there, notwithstanding their poverty, until his sixteenth yean He had then to assist for some months in the labours of the farm, more especially by leading his father's cattle to graze on the hills ; which are generally commons. From this work, however, his relatives and friends contrived to relieve him by establishing him as a schoolmaster in the village ; in which capacity he found time to pursue his literary studies, and also to attend the public examinations. Kwang chow foo, or Canton as foreigners call it, the chief city of the province, being at the same time the chief city of that department to which the Hwa district belongs, the higher of the examina-tions for the degree of bachelor were conducted there ; and hence it was several times visited by Hung sew tseuen, after he had passed the lower examination at the district city with much credit. He was, however, never successful at the decisive examination, conducted by the provincial examiner.* On the occasion of one of his visits to Canton, probably in 1833,f when he was 20 years of age, he appears to have

* This circumstance mnst not be taken as necessarily indicative of inferiority to thoee who did obtain the degree of bachelor. The examinations are com-petitire; and the nombor of candidates, being ovt c^ all proportion to the limited namber of bachelorships, it happens that very many are rqjeoted, in every respect equal to those selected. Where the examiners can see no real difference, they are necessarily guided by fancy or chance ; and thus it is that eveiy candidate is enabled to say, as the unsuccessful often do in after life, that they had " bad luck" or " ill fate"— "puh haou ming."

t This date is fixed by the records of the Protestant missionaries whoso convert, Leang a fafa, is the only man that could have been met in the manner described. The date Hung jin gave to Mr. Hamberg was 1836 ; but he was narrating in 1852 an occurrence that, by his own account, took place about 16 years before; and was moreover, not an incident in his own life, but in that of a relative whom he had then not seen for three years. A discrepancy as to dates was, under such circumstances, to be expected. The books did not attract the notice of Hung sew tseuen till 1843, when he himself might easily ful to recollect during which of his visits, some six or eight years before, he had received them or saw the strangely dressed man who could not speak Chinese.

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seen a foreign Protestant missionary addressing the Chinese in the streets, aided hj a native as interpreter. In every case he received, either then or on the following day, from Leang a fah, a well known Protestant convert and preacher (who did in that year distribute a great number of books) a collection of tracts, entitled ^'Keuen she leang yen. Good words for exhorting the age." These consisted of essays and sermons by Leang a fah himself, interspersed with Chapters from the Old and New Testaments, taken from Dr. Morrison's translation. Hung sew tseuen took the books home with him, and after a superficial glance at their contents placed them in his book-case. In 1837 after another, and again unsuccessful, competition at Canton, he was seized with ill-ness and was carried home in a sedan, deeply disappointed and not less sick in mind than in body. He thought he was going to die;* and was in fact very unwell for some forty days. In this period he had a succession of vivid dreams, and in particular a "vision" during what appears to have been a trance rather than a sleep :

'^ He saw a dragon, a tiger, and a cock entering his room ; and soon after he observed a great number of men, playing on musical instruments, approaching with a beautiful sedan chair, in which, having invited him to be seated, they carried him away . • . • They soon arrived at a beautiful and luminous place, where on both sides were assembled a multitude of fine men and women, who saluted him with expressions of great joy. As he left the sedan, an old woman took him down to a river and said, — * Thou dirty man, why hast thou kept com-pany with yonder people and defiled thyself? I must now wash thee clean.* After the washing was performed, Hung sew tseuen, in company with a great number of aged, virtuous and venerable men, among whom he remarked many of the ancient sages, entered a large building where they opened his body with a knife, took out his heart and other parts,

* Some candidates die fh)m mental and physical ezhaoation and over-anziety at eyery triennial examination, when shut up in the Examination Hall.

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putting in their places others, new and of a red colour. When this was done the wound instantly closed, and he could see no trace of the incision which had been made .... After-wards they entered another large hall, the beauty and splen-dour of which were beyond description. A man, venerable from hid years, with golden beard, and dressed in a black robe was sitting in an imposing attitude in the highest place. As soon as he observed Hung sew tseuen, he began to shed tears, and said — ' All human beings in the world are pro-duced and sustained by me ; they eat my food and wear my clothing, but not a single one among them has a heart to remember and venerate me; what is however still worse, they take my gifts, and therewith worship demons; they rebel against me, and arouse my anger. Do thou not imitate them.' Thereupon he gave Hung sew tseuen a sword, com-manding him to exterminate the demons, but to spare hia brothers and sisters ; a seal by which he would overcome the evil spirits ; and a yellow fruit, which Hung sew tseuen found sweet to the taste. When he had received the ensigns of royalty from the hands of the old man, he instantly began to exhort those collected in the hall to return to their duties toward the venerable old man on the high seat. Some re-plied to his exhortations, saying, * We have indeed forgotten our duties toward the venerable.' Others said, — *Why should we venerate him ? Let us only be merry, and drink together with our friends.' Hung sew tseuen then, because of the hardness of their hearts, continued his admonitions with tears. The old man said to him, ^ Take courage, and do the work, I will assist thee in every difficulty.' Shortly after this he turned to the assemblage of the old and vir-i tuous saying, * Hung sew tseuen is competent to this charge ;' and thereupon he led Hung sew tseuen out, told him to look down from above and said, ^Behold the people upon this earth! a hundredfold is the perverseness of their hearts.' Hung sew tseuen looked and saw such a degree of depravity and vice, that his eyes could not endure the sight nor his

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mouth express their deeds The sickness and

visions of Hung sew tseuen continued about forty days, and in these visions he often saw a man of middle age^ whom he called his elder brother, who instructed him how to act, accompanied him in his wanderings to the uttennost regions in search of evil spirits, and assisted him in slaying and exterminating them."

His conduct and language was such during this sickness that he was held to be mad by his friends and acquaintances ; and there can be little doubt that he had occasional delirious fits, if he was not, during the whole period, constantly under the influence of cerebral over-excitement. In the dreams and visions themselves there is nothing to surprise us. They are fully accounted for by the generally prevalent Buddhistic-Confucian notions and superstitions modified by some recol-lection of the xxi. chapter of Kevelation; which is one of those contained in Leang a fah*s books, and which we may therefore assume him to have cursorily perused. As to the statement of the narrative, that " He often said he was duly appointed Emperor of China and was highly gratified when any one called him by that name," — ^I may observe that, like most of those young Chinese who are well read in the history of their country, he may have indulged in specula-tions as to the expulsion of the Manchoos, and, in his day-dreams, imagined himself a prime agent In the patriotic work. Add to this, that Hung sew tseuen had just failed in attaining that degree, through which alone his obviously aspiring mind could hope for gratification under the existing order of things. It is stated, that after his recovery " he became gradually changed in both character and appearance. He was careful in his conduct, friendly and open in his demeanour; he increased in height and bulk, his pace became firm and imposing, his views enlarged and liberal." All this, if literally true, may be accounted for by the physical change frequently observed in young men after severe sickness ; and still more by the chastening and purifying effect, on the mind

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and heart, of mental diflappointment and bodily affliction. But after recovery he qaietly returned to his former employment, and I cannot believe that the deportment of a poor young village Bchoolmaster attracted particular attention; while the fact of his again attending the public examinations shows that his '^ visions " were, at this time, as lightly re-garded by himself as by the acquaintances to whom he, on being questioned, related them ; and who thought them curious indeed, but of no importance.

So matters continued till 1843. No attention was, during this period of six years paid to Leang a fah's books. Tho author, a sincere convert and a self-sacrificing preacher, was at first a workman in a missionary printing house, who, having had little previous education, formed his style in a great measure on the unidiomatic biblical translations and theological tracts of his foreign employers. His writings are consequently repulsive, as well as somewhat unclear, as to manner; while the subject matter, Christianity, had only been heard of by Hung sew tseuen, then still a constant student and teacher of the Chinese Sacred Books, as one of the '^depraved'' or ^' false" superstitions in vogue among western barbarians.*

These latter had been known to him previous to 1840 as expert handicraftsmen, who had a reaUy curious knack of making fine cotton and woollen cloths, watches and clocks, and of constructing very large ships. From his visits to Canton, he knew, too, that a few of them were allowed to live, part of the year, as traders in some warehouses fitted up for them in the *^ Black wall" of that city; but always under the restrictions necessary for people to whom all (Confucian) cultivation, and therefore all principles of self

* Let the English Protestant reflect on the Book of the Mormonp, and on Iformonism, as it is spreading in some places in Great Britain, and he will ohtain a by no means exaggerated notion of the contemptible light in which our (badly translated) Scriptures, and Christianity in China, are regarded by the .«JihOTX>iigh Confucian; viz., as a tissue of absurdities and impious [heaTcn-opposing] pretensions, which it would be lost time to examine.

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restraint were unknown. He may even have found time to walk all the waj down to that quarter,* and watch them for a while, as dressed like respectable Chinese in clothes of a grave mourning color (white) but ridiculously tight, and with absurdly shaped black cylinders for a head cover-ing, they obeyed the dictates of their restless natures by an objectless walking back and forward in an open space before their dwellings.f

But after 1840 they began to attract some attention in the vicinity of Canton, by a turbulent opposition to the anti-opium measures of the imperial government; and in 1841, and the beginning of 1842, they acquired a totally new character, as a people possessing not only wonderful fire-ships and other irresistible engines of war, but, if no other description of settled government, at least a regular military organization, which had enabled them to inflict signal de-feats on the hitherto invincible Manchoos, and to dictate to the Imperial Government an ignominious peace. This be-came manifest throughout the native department of Hung sew tseuen in the summer of 1843 ; when Ke ying, a prince of the Imperial house was seen to pay friendly visits to the foreign leaders; when the trade was resumed at Canton free from former restrictions ; and when the publication of the Treaty showed that four other great marts had been thrown open in the northern provinces. It is not, there-fore, surprising, that precisely at this time, Le, a friend of Hung sew tseuen, should have been induced to study the Christian publications he found in Hung's book case ; nor that the latter should afterwards read them ^^ closely and. carefully."

''He was greatly astonished to find in these books the key to his own visions, which he had had during his sickness,

* Ab a poor Bindent of the London Uniyenity may have been able to spare time to wfdk down to Blackwall to bare a look at the Chinese junk.

f Our taking exercise, which even now attracts gazers from the inner districts.

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six years before ; he found their contents to correspond in a remarkable manner with what he had seen and heard at that time. He now understood the venerable old man who sat upon the highest place, and whom all men ought to worship, to be God, the heavenly Father; and the man of middle age, who had instructed him, and assisted him in exterminating the demons, to be Jesus, the Saviour of the world. The demons were the idols, his brothers and sisters were the people in the world. Hung sew tseuen felt as if awaking from a long dream. He rejoiced to have found in reality a way to heaven, and sure hope of everlasting life and happiness." He and his friend Le were converted; administered baptism to themselves, as they understood the rite from the books ; and then immediately commenced preaching to others, in imitation of Leang a fah ; an account of whose conversion and labours they found in the books.

But Hung sew tseuen at once took a much higher stand. He found the contents of the books ** to correspond, in a striking manner with his former visions ; and this remark-able coincidence convinced him fully of their truth, and of his being appointed by God to restore the world, that is, China, to the worship of the true God.'* " These books," said he, *' are certainly sent purposely by heaven to me to confirm the truth of my former experiences.'' And ** under this conviction he, when preaching the new doctrine to others, made use of his own visions and the books as reciprocally evidencing the truth of each other."

I need scarcely observe that when Hung said " sent from heaven," it did not enter into his imagination to ignore the fact that they were transmitted to him through human agency. But he had, in the lapse of years, totally forgotten his first cursory glance at the books; and there is something so flattering to human feelings in the idea of being selected by Heaven as its special instrument, that his mind w^ould in-stinctively shrink from reviving recollections that tended to dispel an illusion so grateful. The Books showed him that

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82 THE CUINE8E AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

the foreignere {he ceased to call them barbarians) whose power in war had just humbled the sovereign of China, were steadfast worshippers of the God of its antiquity, Shang te; whom the first monarch of the glorious old Chow dynasty had solemnly, and thankfully, adored on attaining possession of the throne. He read that this, the only True God, whom the Chinese had long neglected for false gods, had after '* creating the first man and woman in his own image '' more than once talked to them ; had ** walked in the garden in the cool of the day ; " that he had ^* made them coats of skins and clothed them ; '* and that he had expelled them from the garden lest they should eat of a certain fruit ''and live for ever/' as they had already eaten of one kind of fruit and thus become able ** to know good and evil.'' The awful conviction now fell on his mind, that his spirit had been summoned into the presence of this very God^ had from Him in person received a fruit to eat, together with a seal and a sword with which to exterminate demons in the spiritual world ; and had been, at the same time, charged with the special mission of reforming the depraved worshippers of these demons '' among the peoples of this earth."

This conviction of a divine mission, at once readily accepted by one of his aspiring character then suffering from disap-pointed hopes in a different career, was not likely to be weakened by further study of the books. In estimating the relative amounts of disinterested, sober reasoning, and of tacit self deceit that were engaged in leading him to look on his Tisions as scenes of real, though spiritual, occurrences, we must particularly bear in mind that he read in the books, St. Paul's account of the incidents, in Acts xxii., attendant on his conversion, when about noon '' a great light shone about" him, and he '* fell to the ground, and heard a voice ** the voice of "the Lord" who addressed him, and to whom he replied, while *^ those that were with " him, " saw the light indeed," but " heard not the voice of him that spake." Further^ an enthusiast for what was good, he found in the

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Sermon from the Mount the strictest morality and highest goodness that had ever been inculcated hj Confucius ; im-pressionable for what was greats he found, in the chapters taken from the Psalmists and Prophets, descriptions of the grandeur and might of a One True God, the sublimity of which could not be altogether destroyed even by very imper-fect translation ; and of which nothing whatever is found in the writings of Confucius or his followers. Lastly, as a Chinese, with that mental tendency towards ultimate unity, which is a marked characteristic of the nati(m, his intellectual nature found satisfaction in the absolute unity of the Hebrew Jehovah, ** the Lord besides whom there is no God," ^' the Holy One/' the « Mighty One/'

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CHAPTER VII

HUNG SEW TSEUEN'S ESTABLISHMENT OP A NEW SECTT OP CHRISTIANS IN KWANGSE, AND CAUSES OF HIS SUCCESS.

Hung sew tseuen's first converts were men who like himself acted as village schoolmasters. The most important of these for future events was Fung yun san. His next converts were his own parents and brothers and their wives, all of whom, with their children, received baptism. "Of his other relatives several sincerely believed, others were convinced of the truth, but feared the mockery of the people. Some said ' Such mad and foolish things ought not to be believed ; ' others had to suffer rebuke from their own parents because of their faith.**

The chief mark of true conversion was the renunciation of idolatry generally, and the withholding of the distinctive honours paid to the tablet of Confucius. Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san having removed this tablet from their schoolrooms, found themselves in a few months deserted by their pupils ; and, being very poor, resolved to travel to another province as preachers, trusting to support themselves on their journeyings by selling ink and writing brushes. In this they were iDfluenced by the words " A prophet is not without honor save in his own country and his own house;" and by the notices of St. Paul's travels contained in the xix. chapter of the Acts, given in Leang a fah's books. Accord-ingly in t]ie beginning of 1844 they left for Kwang se, and, after making a few converts at various places on the way, entered about May the territory of the aboriginal moun-

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HUNG SEW TSEUEN's NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 85"

taineen; among whom they had, at starting, proposed to propagate the new faith. But knowing nothing of their language (the Gaelic of China) they wandered helplessly among the hills for four days till they fell in with a Chinese named Keang settled there as a teacher of his own language. He entertained them hospitably and professed belief in their doctrines. Finding it impossible to act directly on the moimtaineers. Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san left a few tracts with Keang for distribution to such as had learned the Chinese language and then set out in search of Wang^ a relative of the former, whose house they reached about the month of June, at " Valley Home" in the Kwei district, in the south of the Kwang se province. They remained here for five months, during which they made upwards of a hundred converts. Fearing to become burthensome on Hung sew tseuen's relative, Fung yun san left with the intention of returning home ; but meeting, before he had proceeded two or three days on his journey, with some workmen he knew, his desire to propagate his new faith induced him to accompany them to " Thistle mount " in the Kwei ping dis-trict (department of Tsin chow) where he assisted them in their occupation of carrying earth. Ten of them soon be-came his converts ; and having introduced him to the notice of their employer, the latter engaged him as a teacher, and was shortly after himself baptized. Fung jun san was thus enabled to remun several years in the neighbourhood, preach-ing with great zeal and such success that whole families of Tarious surnames and clans were baptized, formed congre-gations among themselves and became extensively known under the name of the " Society of God- worshippers." It was this society which subsequently formed the strength of the religious political rebellion that now shakes the Imperial Throne; though in its founder, the earth carrier, Fung yun san, I believe we have at once the most zealous and most disinterested preacher of the new faith in its soberest form.

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A month after the departure of Fung yun Ban, Hung sew tseuen also left for his native district in Kwang tung, on reaching which he was surprised to find the former had not returned. Mr. Hamberg's book says that Hung sew tseuen was called to account by the mother and wife of the friend he had taken "on so perilous a journey," they being "highly displeased at his return without him and without any know* ledge of his present circumstances." This is one of the many incidental proofs of the truthfulness of Mr. Hamberg's informant. The distance from the home of Fung yun san, in the Hwa district, to the scene of his labours, in the Kwei ping district, is but 200 miles in a straight line, and probably not over 300 by road. But to a poor traveller the distance in time is fully 20 days ; while the remoteness, as to means of communication by writing, is something of which the English reader can form to himself no conception, even by going back to the days of our first horse posts. In China the government posts carry ofi&cial despatches only. Private posts (resembling our country parcel carriers) do exist, but only along great highways or between very large dties. As for letters from one out of the way village in an out of the way district, to a similar locality 300 miles off, they can only be sent when some inhabitant of the one place happens to go to the other. Accordingly we find that Fung yun san's family do not appear to have heard of him again till he himself returned in 1848, after some four and a half years' absence*

In the mean time Hung sew tseuen remiuned in Kwang tung, preaching and writing essays, discourses and odes on religious subjects. During 1845 and 1846 his native district was the scene of his labours. About the end of 1846 he learned from a person connected with the establishment of Mr. Roberts, an American missionary at Canton, that the latter was preaching there. That foreign missionaries were . preaching in Canton must however have been known to him before* It is a fact of considerable significance, that he had

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HUNG SEW TBEUEN's NEW SECT OP CHRISTIANS. 87

not previouftly, nor did still now, attempt to put himself into communication with them. In April 1847, however^ an event took place that drew the attention of the whole depart-ment and even the whole province on foreigners. The British Plenipotentiary Sir John Davis, suddenly left Hong Kong with a small naval and military force, entered the river, took all the forts which guard it, and, after spiking 827 pieces of artillery, established himself in military occu-pation of the foreign settlement at the provincial capital. One of his objects was to insist on the immediate possession of land as a site for warehouses to which we were entitled by treaty, but which we had never received. An erroneous notion of the nature of this demand getting abroad, the rural population not only in the immediate neighbourhood of Canton, but up to the borders of Hung sew tseuen's district, formed themselves into bands of volunteers to resist what they held to be a step in the prosecution of a design to seize their country. This drew general attention as well to the plans of foreigners, as to the apparent inability of the Mandioo Government to resist people entertaining such plans. Within a month or six weeks afterwards we find Hung sew tseuen studying the foreign Scriptures at Mr. Roberts's esta-blishment; and it would appear that from this period the idea occasionally crossed his mind in a vague way that the patriotic day dreams of his youth might possibly have a chance of reali-zation. But he must have been silly to a degree altogether disproved by his subsequent proceedings and career, had he then allowed himself to indulge in a distinct intention of trying to overturn the existing government. So far from this being the case, we find that he, after a two months' study with Mr. Boberts, appears to have inclined to the belief that it was as a preacher under the direction of foreigners that he was to prosecute his ^' mission** of religious reformer. He applied for baptism, and prompted by the insidious advice of a coun-tryman on the establishment who feared him as a rival, also for a monthly support. The latter request naturally drew a

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refusal of the former from Mr. Roberts ; who had observed nothing in the applicant to distinguish him from other men of the class. Hung sew tseuen then lefl for Kwang se, and it is worthy of note, as exemplifying the manner in which circumstances aiFecting individuals may influence religious institutions, that in the religious publications of the rebels obtained from them at Nanking six y6ars after this, new con-verts are taught how to baptize themselves.*

On reaching the house of his relative Wang, in the Kwei district. Hung sew tseuen learned of the society of God-worshippers established in the Kwei ping district by Fung ynn san, whom he immediately joined at that place. The congregation soon amounted to upwards of two thousand in the Kwei ping district ; from whence the new faith rapidly spread in the neighbouring districts of Ping nan. Woo seuen, Seang, Kwei, Poh pih, &c., and in the adjoining department of Woo chow. Graduates of the first and second degree (bachelors and licentiates) as well as men of influence, either from their wealth, or their position as acknowledged heads of families, were among the number of converts.f Though Fung yun san was the founder of the society of God-worshippers, Hung sew tseuen 's superiority was acknow-ledged by all. The belief in his divine mission, now con-firmed to himself by prospects of success, naturally caused him to assume a tone of authority which was supported by his greater knowledge of the Scriptures, acquired at Canton;

* It is at the same time a proof of the superioritj of Hung sev tsenen's nature, that he seems to have fully recognised the reaaonahlenessy on Mr. Roberts' part, of the really unfounded suspicions with which his pecuniary demand had been regarded ; and retained in his mind only a grateful sense of the treatment and instruction received. For at Nanking the most actiye of the more military leaders, the northern Prince, who had nerer seen any foreigner till I found him there, spoke to me about Mr. Boberts with much interest and respect merely in consequence of the account which had been given of him by the then " Heavenly Prince," Hung sew tseuen.

t At this period we find already the names of Tang sew tsing, Seaou chaou hwuy, Wei ching, and Shih ta kae the men who are now with Hung sew tseuen and Fang yun san the leaders of the insurgents under the title of " Princes."

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HUNG SEW TSEUEN^S NEW SECT OP CHRISTIANS. 89

and bj the fact that he was the original converter of Fung yun san himself. Hence he was better able to introduce a rigid discipline among the variety of people who joined the congregations. Let us now endeavour to arrive at some idea of the causes which led to the rapid rise and increase of these. That religious movements are indebted for their ultimate success mainly to the mental perception and appreciation, on the part of conformers, of better beliefs and stricter practice, need not be insisted on. This is the case whether we speak of the acceptance of new doctrines — of conversion proper — or of the substitution of a living, spiritual acceptance and practice, for a merely intellectual submission or formal obser-vance ; which is called " a revival " when we speak of com-munities, and *-* getting religious ^^ when an individual is the subject alluded to. But I think it not uninstructive to bear in mind here that the origination, if not ultimate triumph of religious movements, whether conversions or revivals, rests largely on the merely sympathetic aflfections. A cheerfully disposed man steps suddenly into the company of people all for the moment either sad or grave. They say not a word to him of the cause ; they do not even tell him that they are sad or grave, and the only indication he has of their mental state is the very imperfect one afforded by the expression of their faces and their attitudes, by the purely physical positions of their features and limbs. Nevertheless the spirit of sad-ness or of gravity communicates itself to him, and he too becomes sad or grave. So also when the indication of the mental state of others, is conveyed by the ear alone ; as when a person hears one or two others in an adjoining room laugh heartily. He immediately joins without having the least notion of the original cause of the laughter. Nay more, the sympa-thetic faculty is brought into operation without any objective reality as a cause. Let the reader imagine himself in the position just described, and he will be seized with the spirit of merriment. Human beings are, in short, prone to be aiFected by any emotion which they think they perceive in

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others, which they really do perceive in others, or which they merely picture to their minds as existing in imaginary per-sons. This holds, of course, not less of the religious feelings or afiections than of others ; which accounts for the temporary success of even those religious movements that are, both intellectually and morally, decidedly of a retrograde or down-ward character, as compared with the state of the general society in which they appear. It is thus that the existence of Johanm^Southcotians and Mormons, and of sects still more intellectually absurd and more morally vicious, be-come at all explicable to the wondering beholder. It only requires that a man, sufficiently '^ half-cracked, " and grossly enough the victim of immoral self-delusion, to preach absurd and vicious doctrines with the full force of strong, unhesi-tating conviction, should so preach ; and you immediately have a sect, whose principles and practice are more or less revolting to the then and there commonly held idea of what is true and good. In the course of my official life I have been con-strained, and in private life have been induced to consider, one or two rather striking and well developed cases of this kind; and the effect of this personal observation on the know* ledge derived from reading has led to the conclusion that the number of deliberate impostors — of self-confessed impostors — is far rarer than we might at first sight be inclined to suppose. We cannot rightly understand past history, or present occur-rences in the world, unless we assume as a fundamental prin-ciple that all those who have exercised a marked influence on their fellow creatures, or done great things in the world, have fully believed themselves to be midnly, if not altogether, in the right. The same holds of those who, possessing the power, have used it to effect certain ends at the cost of an enormous amount of misery to humanity.

Now if earnest preaching, founded on strong conviction, acts so powerfully as to propagate systems partially irrational and immoral, what must be its effect when it inculcates great truths and strict moral purity, and when man's religious

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aspirations are satbfied and his reason and moral sense powerfully appealed to as well as liis sympathetic faculty acted on ? All this was the case in the preaching of Fung yun san and Hung sew tseuen. Certain living and still working writers having described the Chinese as altogether bad — as " infinitely vicious," I have had to dwell with con-siderable emphasis on the fact that no small amount of the higher and better qualities are manifested among that people. I have indeed deemed it necessary to oppose the erroneous descriptions of others with so much emphasis that I almost fear, I may have conveyed to the reader, who has not been particularly attentive to my words, the impression that the state of society in China is morally higher than that of England. I must therefore repeat what I have said above that ^* I assert myself as the result of a long independent study and close observation that the great mass of the Chinese are most certainly 'sunk in material interests,' ' pursuing with ardour only wealth and material enjoyments.' " Were I suddenly compelled to trust, where there was no check, to the courage, honesty, and purity of fifty people, taken at random from any nation, I certainly would select Chinese in preference to some Occidental nations I could name. But I would not hesitate for a moment about pre-ferring Englishmen to Chinese. The difference is undoubt-edly not so great as certain unqualified assertions make it ; and cannot indeed be called great at all. Still the Chinese are I hold morally lower than ourselves ; and the people of Kwang se would appear to have been considered more vicious than those of other Chinese provinces. A stupid idolatry prevailed, and this degeneration of the intellectual faculty, this irrationality was accompamed by that ^^vice" which appears to be ever inseparable from ignorance.

There were some important circumstances connected with the preaching of the new faith in Kwang se which might not be perceived by the mere English reader. These readers will however when told, at once perceive that the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the New Testament, as a

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record of the What was preached, and the how that What was preached among the idol worshipping subjects of the centrally ruled Boman empire, must have among the idol worshipping and centrally ruled subjects of the Chinese Emperor a prac-tical applicability, a freshness, and a living force of which Englishmen can form no conception who never saw idols worshipped in their lives, much less have themselves reve-renced them ; who live under institutions that have a much less resemblance to those of Imperial Rome ; and who have, besides, in their childhood, over and over and over again read the Testament, and heard it read, before their intellect or historical knowledge enabled them to understand it, until large portions have no more living meaning for them than the beating of a drum or the tolling of a bell. To illustrate this latter position, I beg the reader to take from the Creed the expression "the communion of saints." How many of the hundreds of thousands who have repeated, every Sunday from youth up, that " they believe " in this have anything but a very vague notion of what a ^' saint " is ? And how many have a shadow of a notion what the "communion" of these " saints " may be ? Occidental missionaries in China are naturally apt to fall, in their preaching, into the mechanical use of this dead phraseology, to which they have from earliest youth been accustomed. Not so Milne's and Mor-rison's convert, the Chinese Leang a fah— still less Hung sew tseuen, who preached for years before having any com-munication with foreigners. If we examine Leang a fah's collection of pamphlets, we find he deals only with subjects of the highest interest, and above all of living interest to him-self and compatriots ; the creation of the universe, the great moral rules of the Sermon on the Mount, and the missionary proceedings and writings of St. Paul. Take, for instance, the xix. chapter of Acts.* Where St. Paul, wandered about preaching .in Asia Minor and in Greece he found a pan-

* " And it came to pass, that while ApoUos was at Corinth, Paal having: passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed 9 And they Baid unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy

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theistic learned classj together with idol worshipping lower classes given to gross superstitions and immoralities. Now this is verbally true of what Leang a fah and Hung sew taeuen found in Kwaug tung and Kwang se. Again as

UbosL And he said unto them. Unto what then were ye baptized 1 And they nid. Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him whieh should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hia hands upon them, the Holy Qhost came on them ; and they spake with tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve. And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multi-tude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years ; so that all they whieh dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul : so that from hia body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

" Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are yel And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men : and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

*' After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Bome. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus ; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. And the same time there arose no small stir about that way. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen ; whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover ye see and hear, that not only at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands : so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple of Uie great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. And when they heard

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Ephesus had its Diana,* so has every Chinese city and locality its more highly esteemed and more powerful idol. There too are to be found exorcists, diviners, and books on cu-rious arts, all more or less believed in by the multitude, who in like manner believe also in the "possession" by "evil spirits" of people actually known to them. For us these words ^'ex-

thefle BayingB, they were fall of wratb^ and cried oat, saying, Qreat is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confosion ; and haring eaoghi Galas and Aristarchos, men of Macedonia, PauFs companions in trayel, they roshed with one accord into the theatre. And when Paal would have entered in nnto the people, the disciples suffered him noL And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adrentare himself into the theatre. Some therefore cried one thing, and some another : for the assembly was confused ; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the id, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when th^ kl^S^iat he was a Jew, all with one roice about the space of two hours cried out, GrS!!^ Diana of the Ephesians. And when the town-cleik had appeased the people, he said. Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter 1 Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing ivahly. For ye haye brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of ohurches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craflsmeii which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies : let them implead one another. But if ye enquire any thin^: concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawjful assembly. For we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no caase whereby we may give an account of this concourse. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly."

* In Mr. Gutzlaff*B translation of the Kew Testament, that used by Mr. Roberts when Hung sew tseuen studied with him, for the name Diana is sub-stituted the title of a Chinese goddess " Teen-how, the Queen of HeaTen," whom the reader will find described in chapter xiiL of Dayis* Chinese. She was bom in the province of Fuh keen, and was deified in the thirteenth oentuiy under the Sung dynasty. Being considered the Goddess of the Sea, she is the chief object of yeneration of the coastlanders of south-eastern China. Kow nearly all Chinese know, from widely promulgated mandarin proclamations against Christianity, that Christ was bom in the time of the Han dynasty about 1200 years before the Sung dynasty. How then could Christ's contem-poraries worship in the West the Goddess of the Sea a thousand years or so before she was bom ? There are other grave objections to the rendering; and it forms an instance of those defects in foreign biblical titnslations whieh should in every case make Christians of the orthodox West exercise much charity in Judging of the preachings and doctrines of Hung tew tseuen and hib followers.

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OTcist,'* "diviner," "evil spirit," and even the words "temple '* and " idol " have little force or weight, because applied to things which have for centuries ceased to be seen or believed in. But in the Chinese translation of this chapter the Chinese words are necessarily those actually in use of things that every Chinese has had under his eyes and believed in from his youth up. So also with respect to the "craftsmen." China has in all towns its "hongs" or organized societies (guilds) of tradesmen and artificers, any of whom might get up an assemblage and disturbance when their interests were threatened. This they would moreover very likely do in the Ching hwang meaou or city temple which exists in every city ; and at one end of the large open court of which you always find the " theatre^' or stage where public per-formances are given in honor of the gods at the cost of the " guilds " or of the oflScials, or of rich private individuals. And such a disturbance would very likely be ended by the district magistrate coming in his sedan, placing himself in some commanding position and holding precisely such a speech as the "town clerk" of Ephesus held; in particular by warning his hearers of the " danger of being called in question for the uproar " by the Governor General of the province or even by the Imperial Government if blood should be shed.

In the zxii. chapter of Acts St. Paul describes the vision to which he looked back as the origin of his con* version; and there can be no doubt that, in natural and perfectly honest imitation, Hung sew tseuen looked back to the vision he had had in 1837. Hence he preached, as a Divine Commissioner, with authority; while his natural dis-position caused him to preach with stem vehemence and imperiousness. If friends would not believe he renounced their friendship. " If my own parents, my wife and children do not believe, I cannot feel united with them, how much leas with other friends." According as people believed or not, he preached great happiness or terrible punishments in a future state. Ho got angry if he was obstinately argued

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with, reviling and heaping denunciations on his opposers. It is clear that from the first he did not practise the quaker doctrines of peace at every cost and of patient endurance of all attacks. He violently destroyed a generally revered idol in Kwang se, the Kan wang yay, and he distinctly declared : '* Too much patience and humility do not suit our present times, for therewith it would be impossible to manage this perverted generation." Here again, to prevent a too hasty and unqualified condemnation and an undervaluing of Hung sew tseuen's character, I must remind the reader that in studying the Scriptures at Mr. Roberts' establishment he found recorded in all the four Gospels the forcible expulsion from the temple of those that '^ bought and sold," whose tables were ** overturned," and who were driven out with a "scourge of small cords." Preachers in Christian Europe naturally dwell most on those acts of their Great Pattern which best exemplify his main character of a mild and patient sufferer ; but an earnest Chinese enquirer, reading for his own in-struction, would neglect nothing; and a man of impatient disposition would not overlook that particular act, four times recorded, which seemed to justify a resort to practical violence in a good cause.

The demolition of a number of idols by the God-worship-pers, after the example given by Hung sew tseuen, incensed the general population against them, and led to their first collision with the authorities. A rich graduate named Wang lodged an accusation against them for these acts at the office of the district magistrate of Ping nan. He endeavoured to strengthen his charge, as a Chinese under such circumstances was almost certain to do, by declaring the association to be in reality rebellious. But there appears to be no reason to believe it to have been such at that time* Fung yun san and another member of the body having been imprisoned, Hung sew tseuen " remembered that the Governor-General of Kwang tung and Kwang se, Ke ying, had gained per-mission from the Emperor for Chinese as well as foreigners to profess Christianity ; and, after further consultation with

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the brethren at Thistle mount, he took his departure for Kwang tung intending to present a petition to the governor general on behalf of his friends, who suffered imprisonment because of their religious persuasion/' This intention of appealing to a high Manchoo official goes rather to prove that Hung sew tseuen's practical object was still confined to religious prosely tism ; though, in the course of the long discussions that took place on the subject, he may have said things that sounded like a presentiment of his after rise against the government, when recalled to mind subsequent to that event, such as : "If we, because of the true doctrine, suffer such persecution, wl^t may be the design of God in this.'' He left Kwang se about the beginning of March, 1848, but on reaching Canton about the 20th of thaJ^^Hjonth learned from Mr. Roberts' man, that Ke ying had. l^eft for Peking some ten days before. He therefore set.But'^^ain for Kwang se. In the mean time the result of the \ofecial investigations there was, that Fung yun saQ^ afte< his com-panion had " died from the effects of co^pem^i; in gaol," was put in charge of two policemen toHbe conveyed to his native district — a common legal proceeding in China. But *' during the journey Fung yun san, in Ks usual manner, spoke with great eloquence and in persuasive language, about the true doctrine; and they had not walked many miles before the two policemen were won as converts. They not only agreed to set him at liberty instantly, but declared themselves willing to abandon their own station and follow Fung to the congregation at Thistle-mount where he soon after introduced them as candidates for baptism.'^

Hearing Hung sew tseuen had gone to Kwang tung on his behalf, Fung yun san followed him. They crossed each other on the way ; but eventually met again in their native district, to which Hung sew tseuen returned in November, 1848. They remained at their home till July, 1849, when they left it for Kwang se, and have not since seen it.

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CHAPTER VIII

ORIGIN OP THE GR0J8SER FANATICISMS OP THE NEW SECT OP CHRISTUNS.

It is not without special cause that I have detailed these journeyings to and from Kwang se, and have given all the dates mentioned in Mr. Bamberg's book or which I have been enabled otherwise to get at. We learn thereby the important fact that it was during the temporary absences of Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san, that the religious move-ment first began to assume its extremest fanatical phase; and that those alleged descents of God and Christ into the world and their direct addresses to the God-worshippers began to take place, which sound so blasphemously to our ears, as narrated^ without explanation, in the insurgents' publications. These addresses are given in one of the pamphlets obtained when the Hermes visited Nanking. I quote its commence* ment from Dr. Medhurst's translation ; merely premising that while that gentleman has translated the word teen sometimes by " celestial," at other times by " heavenly," I should trans-late it either by "heavenly " or by ** divine " as more accu-rately expressing to the English mind the elevated ideas attached by the insurgents to the original.

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THE BOOK OF CELESTIAL DECREES AND DECLA-RATIONS OF THE IMPERIAL WILL,

FMisked in the Second Year of the T Hoe ping Dynasty, denominated Jin tsze, or 1852.

The proclamation of the celestial king is to the following effect : —

'* In the third month (April) of the Mow-shin year (1848) our heavenly Father the great God and supreme Lord came down into the world and displayed innumerable miracles and powers^ accompanied by evident proofs^ which are contained in the Book of Proclamations. In the ninth month (October) of the same year, our celestial elder Brother, the Saviour Jesus came down into the world, and also displayed innamerable miracles and powers, accompanied by evident proofs, which are contained in the Book of Proclamations. Now lest any individual of our whole host, whether great or small, male or female, soldier or officer, should not have a perfect knowledge of the holy will and commands of our heavenly Father, and a perfect knowledge of the holy will and commands of our celestial elder Brother, and thus un-wittingly offend against the celestial commands and decrees, therefore we have espedally examined the various proclama-tions contiuning the most important of the sacred decrees and commands of our heavenly Father, and celestial elder Brother, and having classified them we have published them in the form of a book, in order that our whole host may diligently read and remember them and thus avoid offending against the celestial decrees, and do that which is pleasing to our heavenly Father and celestial elder Brother. There are annexed to the same some of our royal proclamations with the view of making you acquainted with the laws, and causing you to live in dread of them. Respect this.

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" On the 16th day of the 3d moon (2l8t of April), of the Ke-yew year (1849) in the district city of Kwei (in Ewang se), our heavenly Father, the great God and supreme Lord, said ' On the summit of Kaou laou hill^ exactly in the form of a cross, there is a pencil; pray, (and you will get a response).' *

"On the 14th day of the 3d moon (19th April), of the Sin-k'hae year (1851) in the village of Tung heang (in the district of Woo seuen), the heavenly Father addressed the multitude saying, Oh my children! do you know your heavenly Father and your celestial elder Brother? To which they all replied. We know our heavenly Father and celestial elder Brother. The heavenly Father then said, Do you know your lord and truly ?f To which they all replied, We know our Lord right weU. Tlie heavenly Father said, I have sent your Lord down into the world to become the celestial king : every word he utters is a celestial command ; you must be obedient ; you must truly assist your lord, and regard your king; you must not dare to act disorderly, nor to be disrespectful. If you do not regard your Lord and King every one of you will be involved in difficulty.

*' On the 18th day of the 3d moon (April 23d), of the Sin-k'hae year (1851) in the village of Tung-heang, (in the district of Woo-seuen), the celestial elder Brother the Saviour Jesus addressed the multitude, saying, Oh my younger brethren I you must keep the celestial commands, and obey the orders that are given you, and be at peace among yourselves: if a superior is in the wrong, and an inferior 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 expression, record the matter in a book, and contract feuds and

* This passage is yery difficult of comprehension; it probably refers to a suspended pencil, balanced by a cross-bar, which agitated by the wind, described certain characters by means of which the insurrectionists were accustomed to divine. — See Morrison's Dictionary, Part I. yoI. I. p. 40. (Dr. Medhurst.)

t The " lord** here refers to the chief of the insurrection. (Dr. Medhurst)

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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 retreat. When you have money, you must make it public and not consider it as belonging to one or another. You must with united heart and strength together conquer the liills and rivers. You 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 ofiices. If after 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."

From the narrative I have given above it will be seen that in April, 1848, Hung sew tseuen was probably in Kwang tung, Fung yun san in prison ; and that in October, 1848, Fung yun san was probably in Kwang tung. Hung sew tseuen, on the way thither. On the 21st of April, 1849, the date of the first recorded communication, both of them were certainly absent in Kwang tung. Now this is the only cabalistic address partaking, as an unintelligible jargon, in so far of the nature of the heathen Chinese systems of divination. The second and third of the addresses, as well as all others in the book, the whole of which were delivered after an interval of two years, when Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san had not only rejoined their proselytes, but had for some months headed them in an openly avowed contest against the Manchoo dynasty, are all couched in intelligible and simple Chinese, however inappropriate they may be, as proceeding from the Christian God.

When Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san returned to Kwangse in the autumn of 1849, ^' they learned that during their absence in Kwang tung, some very remarkable occur-

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rencee bad taken place in the congregation of the God-worshippers, which had brought disorder and dissension among the brethren. It sometimes happened that while they were kneeling down, engaged in prayer, one or other of those present was seized by a sudden fit, so that he fell down to the ground, and his whole body was covered with perspi-ration. In such a state of ecetacy, moved by the spirit, he uttered words of exhortation, reproof, prophecy, &c. Often the words were unintelligible and they were generally delivered in rhythm. The brethren had noted down in a book the more remarkable of these sayings, and presented them for inspection to Hung sew tseuen. The latter now judged the spirits according to the truth of the doctrine, and declared that the words of those moved were partly true or partly false. Thus confirming the already expressed opinion of Yang sew tsing that they were * partly from Grod and partly from the devil/

'^ The most remarkable of the sayings which Hung sew tseuen acknowledged as true were those of Yang sew tsing and Seaou chaou hwuy. Yang was originally a very poor man, but he joined the congregation with much earnestness and sincerity. Whilst there he suddenly lost his power of speech, and was dumb for a period of two months, to the astonishment of the brethren, who considered this to be an evil omen : but afterwards he recovered the use of his tongue, and, more frequently than any other, was subject to fits of ecstacy in which he spoke in the name of God the Father and in a solemn and awe-inspiring manner reproved others' sins, often pointing out individuals, and exposing their evil actions. He also exhorted to virtue and foretold future events, or commanded what they ought to do. His words generally made a deep impression upon the assembly. Seaou chaou hwuy spoke in the name of Jesus, and his words were milder than those of Yang. One of the Wang clan had spoken against the doctrine of Jesus, and led many astray, but he was excluded from the congregation, and his

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words declared false, being spoken under the influence of a corrupt spirit.

" It appears, also, that many sick persons had been cured in a wonderful manner by prayer to God, and Yang was said to possess the gift of curing sicknesses by intercession for the sick. From the description it would almost seem as if Yang had willingly submitted and prayed to have the sick* ness of the patient transferred to himself, and that be for a short while had borne his sufferings whereby he redeemed the disease of the patient, and was afterwards himself released from the consequences of his own intercession.^'

This passage, I may remark in passing, is one of the strongest proofs of the truthfulness and general accuracy of the narratiye in Mr. Hamberg*s book. The parts therein assigned to Yang sew tsing and Seaou chaou hwuy, the first as the medium of communication, the spokesman, of " God the Father,'' the second as the spokesman *'of Jesus," are precisely those which the latest authentic communication from the Nanking insurgents to foreigners gives to both. In a letter from Yang sew tsing himself as Eastern Prince to the Commander of H. M.'s war steamer Rattler it is dis-tinctly stated that " when the Heavenly Father comes down into the world to instruct the people, his Sacred Will is delivered by the mouth of the Eastern Prince ; " and that *' when the Heavenly Brother Jesus comes down into the world to instruct the people, his Sacred Will is delivered by the mouth of the Western Princes ; " who is Seaou chaou hwuy.

The fact of Hung sew tseuen's acknowledging these two men as communicators of the will of God and of Jesus is also a strong proof of his own perfect sincerity. Had he been merely a crafty, deliberate impostor, he would, as a, necessary consequence, have held Yang sew tsing and Seaou chaou hwuy to-be equally impostors; and would, sooner than any other, have perceived that this assumed capacity of communicators of the Highest Will virtually gave

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them the supreme direction In the aflfairs of the Godworahip-pers — the power to command himself as well as every other member of the community. As a sincere believer, on the other hand, of the reality of his own mission and of the doctrines and faith he preached, there were many reasons for his being led to acknowledge and submit to their pretensions. As St. Paul had been converted by a vision, so he looked back to a vision as the origin of his conversion. And as St. Paul had travelled with one or two companions from Pales-tine to Greece and Asia Minor, and there founded societies of converts, so had he, accompanied by Fung yun san, travelled from Kwang tung to Kwang se — to poor men like them a journey of three weeks or a month — and in like manner founded societies of converts. But the very book which was the authority for his mission and his teachings stated that the converts of St. Paul " spoke with tongues and prophesied.'' It also said that God wrought special miracles " by the hand of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them.'' The same book, far from declaring that the spirit will cease to speak through man, gives, in the words of Paul to one of the societies he had established, the express command, ** Quench not the spirit, despise not prophesyings, prove all things, hold fast that which is good." It enjoins further not to believe "every" spirit, and teaches how to distinguish " the false prophets " from " the spirits that are of God." The test is : " Every spirit is of God that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." All this Is in the New Testament, and precisely in those chapters quoted in fuU in Leang a fah's book. When, therefore. Hung sew tseuen on returning to Kwang se after a yearns absence, found that it had " sometimes happened that while the brethren were kneeling in prayer one or other was seized by a fit " and In that " state of ecstacy moved by the spirit uttered words of exhortation, reproof and prophecy," how could he venture

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in his own mind summarilj to condemn all this as '^ not of God?" I repeat, as a designer, and practical establisher of a system to serve only his own ambition, he must have seen in it nothing but the attempts of other impostors to over-reach him. As a sincere believer, he conscientiously applied the test, as comprehended by him, '^ judged the spirits," acknowledged Yang sew tsing as the utterer of the words of God ; and thus opened a door to all that is objected to, by Occidental Christians generally, in the doctrines and practice of this new sect of Oriental Christians.

Hung sew tseuen rejoined the Godworshippers about August, 1849. For another year the society retained its exclusively religious nature ; but in the autumn of 1850 it was brought into collision with the local authorities, when the movement almost immediately assumed a political cha* racter of the highest aims.

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CHAPTER IX

RETROSPECTIVE ACCOUNT OP THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANCHOO POWER IN CHINA.

In order to understand the origin and progress of the all-important modification mentioned at the close of the last chapter^ we must go back a little in time and also devote some space to the consideration of a very different descrip-tion of Chinese associations. Their object has been to expel the present dynasty ; and I have, indeed reached a point where I think it will be a help to the reader if I lay before him some more of the circumstances that attended the esta-blishment of the Manchoo power over China Proper. When I say reader, I mean him who is inspired with a serious desire to acquaint himself with the actual position of things in China, with a view to a better valuation of the probabilities either of the expulsion of the Manchoos, or of their complete re-establishment in power after purifying hardships and a bracing struggle.

On pages 30, 31, which I may beg such a reader not to be too indolent to re-peruse, I have shown that it was a Chinese rebel, Le tsze ching, not the Manchoo Tartars, who overthrew, after an eight years' fight, the last native dynasty, the Mings. In spite of years of internal troubles the latter had then still on the borders a general, Woo san kwei, at the head of an army efiScient enough to keep off the Man-choos. At crises of this kind the question which every Chinese has to decide for himself is : Has the Divine Com-mission been withdrawn from the present house ? and if so.

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to nvhom of the various aspirants for the sovereignty has it been given?* Had Woo san kwei and his army recog-nised Le tsze ching as the new Divinely Appointed, it is highly probable that a new native dynasty would have been firmly established; and that, instead of the Manchoos con-quering China, the Chinese would have annexed Manchooria.

But Woo san kwei held it his duty to support the Ming family ; or at least decided that Le tsze ching was not the new recipient of *^ the Teen ming, the Divine Commission/' but a rebellious usurper. He could not however hope at once to fight him and also to defend the boundaries against the Manchoos, In his dilemma, he resorted to the plan of making peace with the latter, and inviting their co-operation, in the hope that when he had crushed the native usurper he should find means of expelling, or bribing out the foreign barbarians.

This is a fully authenticated instance of that wretched impolicy which consists in hastily violating well established general principles, for the sake of an apparent, or even a real, but temporary expediency. It forms a flagrant and very in-structive instance, not only to the Chinese who suffered by it, but also to the Manchoos who profited by it, of the conse-quence of inviting external interference in internal afiairs. And I direct particular attention to the fact because it has influenced, and will lai^ely influence the conduct of the his-torically well informed Chinese, as well as of their scholars in civilization, the Manchoos, with reference to the interven-tion of us foreigners in the present struggle. It has made them, and will make them adopt a tone of what we call igno-rant, arrogant obstinacy, but which they consider wise and politic consistency.

It had long been an established principle that the true

policy towards all non-Chinese peoples or '^ barbarians " was

• I had once oecuion to obseire a Cbinese official of high rank tnming this question orer in his own mind, when talking with me about the Tae pings at Nanking, to the neighbourhood of which place he bad jnst received orders to proceed.

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to keep them off. A temporary pressure of circumstflnces induced Woo san kwei to violate this rule^ and the conse-quence was the subjection of his country to barbarians and ultimately the extermination, by them, of his own family. He is consequently looked on historically as a well meaning but most inconsiderate and unwise statesman. He was however undoubtedly an able general. With a numerically much in-ferior force, consisting of his own army and his Manchoo auxiliaries, he defeated Le tsze ching in several pit<5hed bat-tles, compelling him to evacuate Peking, and retire to the south-western provinces.

The stories which the Chinese still tell of the acts of individual Manchoos, in these and succeeding years, show that the great body, not only of the common men but of those of higher station, were little better than what we should call savages. But a certain portion had, in the struggle of their nation towards increased dominion during the two previous generations, added to their original hardy and active habits of an unsettled race, something of the Chinese mental cultivation. In addition to this they had with them, years before Woo san kwei made his offer, a large body of tried Chinese adherents, composed either of such adventurers as I have shown * to have in all times overflowed the bounds of China Proper or of natives who had joined them during previous temporary inroads into that territory.f These original Chinese adherents were a great accession to the physical strength, and a still more important accession to the mental power of the Manchoos. Several of them were Generals, when the latter, as auxiliaries of Woo san kwei, entered Peking. This occurred in 1644 ; when they almost immediately declared their young king, Emperor. Woo san

• See page 84.

f These Chinese adherents were embodied into what is called the Ham kenn, Chinese force, subject to the same rales and discipline as the Manchoos Proper. The descendants of these people, whom we call naturalized Manchoos, still form a considerable portion of the garrisons of Bannermen in Peking and the provinces.

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kwei had been previously induced to leave for the west in pursuit of the usurper Le tsze ching. After the death of this latter rival, the Manchoos had recourse to the old feudal system of government; and, by creating Woo san kwei a vassal prince of one or two of the western provinces, ob-tained from him and the Chinese peoples allotted to his rule a sullen acquiescence in the domination of a Manchoo suzerain at Peking. It was only by the same expedient that, at the end of seven years of bloody fighting with chequered and doubtful success, that part of the country to which I have directed particular attention, as South Eastern China, was reduced to a state of semi-subjugation. Three of the most powerful of the old Chinese adherents above alluded to were severally constituted vassal princes of Kwang se, Kwang tung and Fuh keen ; positions which they or their respective children maintained for some thirty years. Throughout the same period, the Chinese colonies on the west coast of Formosa were altogether independent of the Manchoos, being under the sovereignty of a Fuh keen family which, far from acknowledging even a nominal subjection to the Manchoos, maintained an unceasing war with them by means of a hereditary naval superiority. They were the descendants of a buccaneering merchant adventurer, who traded and pirated on the coast of China, amongst the Philippines, and in the Indian Archipelago ; and who elevated himself into political importance towards the close of the Ming dynasty. It was his son, known to Europeans as Coxinga, who expelled the Dutch from Formosa and established his family in power on that island.

About 1673 Kang he, the second Emperor of the Manchoo dynasty, attained his twentieth year. He was physically and mentally a very superior man. While retaining the hardy and active, hunting and military habits of his progenitors, he had had the advantage of a careful Chinese education from bis earliest youth. And he was not only intimately ac-quainted with Chinese philosophy, history, and institutions.

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but Toluntarilj acquired, through the Jesuits missionaries, a solid knowledge of mathematics, and of general European science in its then state, to an extent curiously great in an Asiatic potentate. Possibly this young and talented ruler felt that he possessed the abilities, the resources, and the instruments necessary to bring back all China within the centralized form of government; and, to that end, began proceedings against the southern vassals which drove them into rebellion. Or it may have been that these latter thought themselves sufficiently established to assert complete inde-pendence. Certain it is, however, that Woo san kwei who was still living, and the loved feudal ruler of the present province of Yunan, formally threw off his allegiance and marched (1673-1674) a large army northwards against his suzerain. The three vassal princes of South Eastern China followed his example, and were joined in the moyement by the independent naval Prince of the Formosan Colonies. But though acting simultaneously, they did not act together; some of them even fought with each other; and in the course of a ten years' war, the young Emperor Kang-he overcame them all. Kwang tung and Fuh keen were in about three years completely conquered, and formally incorporated into the centralized system. It took about five or six years to reduce Kwang se, which lay nearest to the territory of Woo san kwei. This old ex-Ming general * maintained his military reputation to the last He carried on the war, beyond the bounds of his own principality rather than within it, for five years. He then (1678) died; when with an army in Hoonan. In the course of the three years following his demise, the armies of the Manchoo Emperor penetrated into his state, reduced it to complete subjection, and put

* He was a contemporaiy of CromweU. Like CromveU he exerdaed a deciaiye influence on the foiionea of hia conntiy ; and though he felt oon* strained to acquiesce in the domination of his self imposed auxiliaries^ yet whenever he did fight^ either against or with them, he was like Cromwell suc-cessful as a warrior. Though almost unheard of in Europe, he was one of the most remarkable men that the seTenteenth century saw in the ** worid.**

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ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANCHOO FOWEB. Ill

every member of his family to death. These contests finished, the Emperor concentrated his efforts on Formosa, and soon compelled its prince to give in his submission. He was removed to Peking, where he thenceforth resided as a pensioned titulary ; and the Formosan colonies were brought under the centralized administration as a department of the Fuh keen province.

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CHAPTER X

FORMATION OP CHINESE POLITICAL SOCIETIES AGAINST THB MANCHOO DOMINATION, AND ORIGIN OP CHINESE INSURREC^ TI0N8 AND REBELLIONS GENERALLY.

The final subjugation^ jusfc narrated, of all South Eastern China to the Manchoo dynasty did not take place till 1678-9, that of Formosa not till 1683^ up to which latter period the sea-board population had always a place of refuge in that independent, though small, Chinese State. For about 40 years, therefore, after the advent of the Manchoo dynasty was proclaimed at Peking, the mountaineers and coast-landers of South Eastern China never felt themselves com-pletely and hopelessly under its sway ; and from that date to the present day — during a period of 170 years — ^this very portion of China has been the great seat of a formidable political society, best known as the San ho hwuy, the Triad Society, the express object of which has been the expulsion of the barbarian conquerors of their country.

Few of the details of its internal organization are known with certainty. Like the members of many other societies^ the first Christians for instance^ who have had a common object so great that in presence of it all were equal, the Triads call each other ** brethren,'^ and the chiefs are, irre-spective of actual age, the senior brethren.

During the remaining 40 years' rule of the vigorous, talented, and learned Emperor Kaiig he; during the 13 years* reign of his son; and during the 60 years' reign of his grandson, his rival in Chinese political learning and

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administrative ability, these political societies were only able to exist by the observance of the strictest secrecy, and the adoption of peculiar rules of embodiment and mutual support, which tend to separation of the members from social and family ties. Under the debasing influence of this secrecy and this separation^ to which they were compelled during the most brilliant century of the Manchoo domination, the mem-bers lai^ely degenerated into mere gang-robbers and pirates. Nevertheless, they have from first to last not ceased to cherish their original principles and objects, summed up in their well known pithy manifesto: ''Fan tsing fuh ming. Overthrow the Manchoos, re-establish the Mings." And whenever the opportunity has offered, the seemingly mere bandits and buccaneers have evinced a capability to aspire after, and to assume a character and functions essentially political. .^ ^

This is a kind of change which is not puzzling only tp the^ British public at home. Many English, French and Ame<-* ricans, long residents in China, have shewn a noteworthy lack of power to comprehend aright, even when it has taken |>uice under their eyes, a transformation so alien to all their pre-vious conceptions and historical recollection^ Tbi&^lack of power, or mental incapacity to master a novel situation (as we may call it in modem diplomatic kngudgls), cannot, I regret to say, be regarded at this time simply as a note-worthy fact for the philosophical historian : it is too likely to prove a lamentable fact in a practical sense at the present crisis in China, by leading to a radically unsound and wrong-headed interference, or a confused and vacillating inter-meddling with Chinese political movements. The follow-ing remarks wiU, I trust, set the matter in its true light.

I have already shewn above (page 24) that there does not exist, in the strictly autocratic organization which the Chinese government system constitutes, any authorized peaceable means by which the people can check tyranny on the part of the Emperor himself, or tyrannical proceedings

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114 -THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Banctioned by him« When a district^ a departmental, or even a provincial authority makes tyrannical demands on those under him, the Chinese can and do^ often^ oppose a peaceable opposition in this way : they refuse to yield and suffer quietly all the oppressions brought to bear on them to extort compliance. The tyrannical mandarin either shrinks from carrying his oppressions beyond a certain degree and extent, or these oppressions themselves ultimately defeat the object they were intended to effect. This species of purely-passive opposition is often accompanied by one of an active but still peaceable and quite negative character : the tradesmen will close their shops, workmen will cease labouring, and passage boats stop running, i. e. there is a general Btnke of the productive and distributive classes. The result is in both cases the same, the tyrannical mandarin fails in attaining his aims, and finds himself an object of general abhorrence. But the people bring about this result only by a fearful amount of loss and suffering in property and person ; and though the Chinese do possess to a degree in which they are equalled only by the Anglo Saxon race what may be teimed the communal spirit (that is, the faculty of combining for com-mon purposes, and of making the cause of individuals the cause of the community because representing a principle), nevertheless tyrannical proceedings may be carried to a most deplorable extent before the people generally of any locality can resolve to engage in a struggle in which, even if successful, they unavoidably suffer so much. The right of appeal to a higher authority exists in the above cases, and is invariably exercised in conjunction with the passive resistance offered. But the unfortunate necessity in which pure auto-cracy is placed of regarding all opposition in the first instance as factious, and of enforcing obedience as the general rule, rarely to be departed from, — this necessity renders these appeals for a long time ineffective ; while the individuals who make them in the name of the community seldom escape special victimization. Still it is by persistance in these appeals, sup-

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ported by strikes which interfere with the means of living and the material prosperity of the people, that the tyrannical mandarin is checked, and indeed often ruined for life, though only at the cost of ruin to a certain number of others. I may remark in passing, that we are here considering in local politics the operation of a general principle of Chinese sociology, domestic and social, not less than political. A member of a family or of a society will commit suicide in order thereby to involve in ruin some other member of the fai^ily or society as a punishment for injuries not otherwise to /be punished. I have not space or time to show why the iopuries are, in the cases referred to, not otherwise to be dressed, nor how the suicide operates as a punishment.*

r

In Hue's Empire Chinois, Tome II. chap. 7, page SIC the "how" in the

tpae of two members of a tociety, is sufficiently explained. In the case of two

aembers of a family (by far the most frequent description of these suicides I

elieve) the "how'* is somewhat similar. In both cases the Imperial law, sup-

orted by public opinion, acts to punish.

The following perfectly authentic tale which was related to me by a Catholic Chinese illustrates the text by showing how, not suicide by an individual but a heavy sacrifice on the part of a family, can check tyranny in a society. It is [ at the same time instructive in other points.

It occurred in a locality where Christianity had existed among a portion of

jthe inhabitants for several generations, and where, consequently, among the

^embers of the Christian community were to be found, as in Roman Catholic

t countries in the west, some who, as the Chinese catholics say, " jmh show hwei

m heu — neglected the ordinances," that is to say men who, Christians by birth, and

■ openly declaring themselves to be Christians, were not pious or indeed at all

I disposed to render obedience to the priest. One of them was a man — ^we will

F call him Chang— noted for his turbulent disposition and for having a large

family of able bodied sons trained in their father's turbulent habits. Now it

BO happened that the Te paou or constable and informing officer of that par-

9 ticular locality took it into his head to avail himself of the amenability of the

} Christians as such, to the penal code, in order to extort money from them ;

I taking care, however, not to interfere with Chang or his sons. This proceeding

became at length so vexatious, that at the end of a consultation in the Chapel

t the Priest (a western foreigner) was reluctantly compelled to agree to an appli-

• cation being made to the turbulent Chang, from whom, as a non-observer of

} ordinances he had hitherto kept duly aloof. Chang, though he thought religion

a bother, fired up when he heard that the Christians, he being one, were selected

as victims by the Te paou, and was besides not displeased to make himself

valued by Ids oo-religionists and the priests who had hitherto regarded him

with little esteem. He directed his sons to seize the Te paou on the first con-

i2

{

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The fact is so certain that the threat of suicide backed by an evident intention on the part of the threatener to carry it out if unheeded, often checks domestic and social tyrannies. There is a kind of parallel in the duel over a handkerchief which a man little acquainted with pistols might, in the days of duelling, offer the dead shot and habitual bully.

The above described is the only peaceable means open to the Chinese people of checking oppressions of the mandarins. The reader will perceive that their ultimate efficiency depends on the existence of an authority superior to the oppressors, not less than to the oppressed, the Emperor ; whose punish-ments are eventually brought down on all parties. But wh^n the Emperor himself commits tyrannies, or his chosen adviseirs and agents, in his name, and with his unreserved support, thea nothing remains but a resort to force. Even these appeal) to force are, however, at first not rebellious movements, but merely local insurrections, having for their ultimate objec^ the death of certain tyrannical mandarins. Some few men literally sacrifice their lives — I beg the reader to note this well — for the good of the community. They head a rising against the oppressors, continue to oppose whatever force i» moved against them until it is settled by negotiation that nd attempt shall be made to prolong the oppressions, and then,^ instead of flying, they in their quality of ringleaders delibe- •.

renient opportimitj, and bring him to their hoase. As soon as this was. done, i Chang had the doors closed, and after exposing to him the causes of his seizure ordered his sons to kill him. The Te paou understanding at once the position of affurs, — seeing that he had carried his annoyances so far that a sacri-fice would be made to put him out of the way and that he really was going to be killed— threw himself in terror before Chang, performed the ko tow, and making abject submission, protested no Christian should in future be annoyed if he was only spared. Chang according to my informant addressed him much as follows ; " Well, you shall be let off this time, you're had a good firight ; and you know too there was good cause for frights You will remember when you think again of oppressing the Christians that I, Chang, am also a teen choo kiau ti. I don't care about your promises. You will not oppress them any more, that / know ; for if I hear of your beginning again, I will order one of my boys there to seek you out and kill you at once. He will have to die for it, of course, but I hare plenty of sons, and you shall be put an end to." From that day forth the To paou nerer in any way molested a Christian.

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lately surrender, and heroically yield up their lives as that expiation on which autocracy must insist before it dares to give up the struggle. There is neither hope nor thought of OY^tuming the dynasty in these risings ; one of which took place under the eyes of foreigners at Ningpo within the last few years. They are in the best of times not unfrequent in China. But when the necessity for them becomes yery frequent, the people are naturally led to think of resistance by force unaccompanied by the self-sacrifice of nobler minded individuals. In that case these same men — the very people who are most likely to be the first in incurring oppression by being most prompt to refuse compliance with tyrannical demands — ^instead of organizing and heading some such local insorrection as has just been described, take vengeance as far as they can with their own hands and then become outlaws — bandits or pirates — ^having more or less of the sympathy of the public, upon tofiom they from the first levy black mail rather than plunder of all their property, as mere robbers would. This is one way in which prolonged resistance to the general government takes place, resistance unaccompanied by any intention of an eventual self-sacrifice, that would indeed in this case serve no purpose. Another way is as follows. A man, originally a mere thief, burglar or highwayman, whose sole object was the indiscriminate plunder of aU who were unable to guard against him, finds it possible, in the state of general apathy to public order produced by continued oppression, to connect himself with a few fellow thieves, &c^ and at their head to evade all efforts of the local authorities to put him down. As his band increases, he openly defies these authorities, pillages the local custom houses and trea-suries, levies a tax on passing merchandize and a black mail from the wealthier residents, but refrains from plundering any one outright, and while, by exempting the great bulk of the population from all exactions, he prevents the rise of a general ill feeling towards him, he as the scourge of the oppressors gains the latent or conscious sympathy of all classes. Now, these captains of bandits, whatever their origin, do not, it is

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true, while their followers amount merely to a few hundreds, choose to make themselves ridiculous or to rouse the general government to more serious efforts against them, bj issuing dynastic manifestoes or assuming the state of royalty. But when they begin to count their followers by thousands, form-ing a regularly governed force they declare openly against the hitherto reigning sovereign, whom they denounce as a usurper. And from the very first, when merely at the head of a small band, no Chinese, acquainted with the history of his country, can refuse to see in such a man a possible, if not probable, founder of a dynasty. More than one Chinese dynasty has been founded by men like this ; the Ming dynasty which preceded the present was so founded; and — what is really very important as an historical example — the greatest of all native Chinese dynasties, that of Han, was so founded. If the reader will refer to Du Halde he will find the founder of the Han dynasty described as a ** private soldier" who became a "freebooter" and "captain of a troop of vagabonds."

The misconception that exists among foreigners in China on this subject, and the consequent differences of opinion manifested by Hong Kong journals and their correspondents, ns to whether the various bodies now in arms against the government are rebels, or mere robbers and pirates, forms another example of the thraldom in which language holds us; and of the confusion and mischief that may arise from mis-taking the meaning of a single word. The word in this case is isihy that applied by the Chinese to the bodies of men just alluded to. Now in the least imperfect of Chinese dic-tionaries, that of Morrison, this word is explained to mean, robber or bandit These English words are, however, but a portion of the meaning of the Chinese one ; which is very comprehensive, signifying all persons who set the atUhorities at defiance by acquisitive acts of violence. And, as the object which it is sought to acquire may be a bag of money or may be the empire ; it follows that this one word, tsih, is in fact equivalent to the three words, robber, bandit a-nd rebel

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As it can, like all other Chinese words, be used in every part of speech, it also means to rob, robbery, &c. to rebel, rebellion, &c.

Morrison expressly warns those who use his dictionary that it has many shortcomings. Nevertheless translators keep on rendering tnk by robber or bandit only ; though it leads them into the glaring absurdity of employing these terms of men who have assumed the state of sovereigns and have fought pitched battles at the head of armies that would be considered large in Europe. About one seventh of the whole Penal Code of China is occupied by one section treating of attempts to take possession of the property of others, from the theft of a small sum of money up to the attempt to seize the Empire by a person who *' assumes a dynastic designation, enrols troops, and perhaps styles himself a sove-reign prince.'* This whole section is entitled Teih taou. Now taou is the real Chinese term for robbery and theft;* while tsih refers to the larger class of crimes, the different d^rees of rebellion, treated of in the section. Tsih means therefore to rebel, rebel and rebellion. Its mistranslation into "robbers," '* bandits," has been, and is likely to be the cause of a mistaken and most mischievous interference in Chinese internal politics.

From the above the reader will be able to see how it is that most foreigners in China have fallen into the error of ridiculing the Chinese authorities for inducing large bodies of men to lay down their arms by bestowing on the leaders and older adherents, military and naval commissions, and by dis-missing the rest with a little money. So long as the tsih are but leaders of small robber-bands or private captains of isolated rovers, the Chinese government, like Christian governments of the Occident, endeavour to put them down by force. But when these same tsih have become heads of

* The definite and distinctiye technical forensic term for robbeiy is heang taou, fordbU taou; that for theft tsee taoa, secret taon. I must again remind the T^er that the Chinese Penal Code now in force is strictly national, not dynastic ; being the latest development of a written statute legislation that has been growing for more than 2000 years.

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armies and fleetB, able to keep the field and the eeas year after year against the government forces^ that very palpable and substantial fact joined to all they are told by their own history and by their codified legislation of 2000 years' stand-ing makes it impossible for the Chinese authorities to see in the tsih anything but what they really are, political opponents. And the ignorant ridicule of occidental foreigners would^ even if it reached theur ears, have small efiect in preventing them from treating with these political opponents in the manner dictated at once by expedience and by the principles of their national civilization.

The reader will perceive from my definition of civilization that the Chinese civilization has from the earliest ages been the highest in kind, whatever it may have been in degree^ or in the extent to which it has been practically attained. It is mental more than material. It has always taught distinctly in words and in books that man should struggle with man by moral and intellectual agencies rather than by physical — should gain him^ by subduing his heart and his head rather than his body. Hence the frequent and liberal use on the part of all authorities^ from the Emperor to the lowest mandarin of moral and argumentative proclamations; another of the peculiar features of Chinese political life ridiculed by occidental ignorance. Even those mandarins who are least disposed by their individual natures to persuasive and peace-ful measures are compelled by national opinion to issue proclamations the text of which is the stereotyped formula : " Puh jin puh keaou urh choo — ^I cannot bear to withhold instruction and yet to destroy!" or "Destruction without instruction is insufferable 1" In this feature of their mental civilization the Chinese are practically more Christian than the Christians of the west.

Chinese history shows us one other kind of forcible change of dynasty : the prsstorian, or such as have been sud-denly effected by the army, whether for the gratification of its own wishes, or to check tyrannies against the country generally. These have, however, not been frequent, and

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ORiaiN OF BEBELLI0N8. 121

cannot operate to effect the expulsion of the Manchoo family, whose pnetorian gaard and the germ of whose army consists of its own countrymen settled in China.

The reader^ who has mastered the above, necessarily tedi-ous, exposition, will I hope now be able to understand the nature of Chinese rebellions, whether originated directly by the Triad Society, by robber bands, or by a religious community.

I have indicated above (pp. 32, 33) the downward course of the Manchoo dynasty before and after the British war. This downward course had become so apparent to me within four years afler that contest, that in a work I then (June, 1846) wrote, I did not hesitate to point to the circum* stance in the following terms : —

^* The very unfair proportion of Manchoos employed by the present dynasty in government posts is a deviation from the fundamental principle of Chinese polity ; and, as might be expected, it constantly nourishes a feeling of dissatisfaction among the Chinese, which, though they are obliged to be at some pains to conceal it, occasionally escapes them. The selling of government posts, which has recently been carried to a great extent, is another deviation from it, dangerous in the highest degree for the present rulers. Hitherto the dread of the more warlike Manchoos joined to the partial operation allowed to this principle has been sufficient to repress or pre-vent the general rising of a quiet loving people ; but if the practice of selling offices be continued, in the extent to which it is at present carried, nothing is more likely, now that the prestige of Manchoo power in war has received a severe shock in the late encounters with the English, than that a Chinese Belisarius will arise and extirpate or drive into Tartary the Manchoo garrisons or bannermen, who, during a residence in China, twice as long as that of the Vandals in Africa, have greatly deteriorated in the military virtues; while they still retain enough of the insolence of conquerors, to gain themselves the hatred of the Chinese.''

In less than three years after that, I had marked enough to

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convince me that some such event was actually approaching ; for in a letter of the 25th January, 1849^ addressed to a gentleman who had occupied an eminent position in China, after telling him of the (then) recent promotion to still higher office of the well known mandarin Ke ying»* I observed that ^* there was indeed great need of able men at the head of affairs/' adding, that though we had rather scanty data at command, yet, "judging from what we do know positively, we are entering on a period of insuri^ction and anarchy that will end sooner or later in the downfall of the Manchoo dynasty." I then showed that "for the last five years robberies by bands of men often numbering hundreds had become gradually more common, while the sale not of titles merely, but of offices, together with the financial difficulties, had been steadily increasing," and concluded, "Everything in short seems hastening to a worse state, and I look in vain for any active principle of conservation, for anything to stop the downward career."

This was, observe, written fully eighteen months before the outbreak of the re%tOM«-political rising, the " Kwang se rebellion" proper; and nearly a year before the bandit rebels in Kwang se assumed a distinctly political character ; and commenced that open contest with the existing government, which was the immediate cause of the far more dangerous religious political outbreak.

* Reality is said to beat fiction, and the mention of this mandarin reminds me of the " Syrian Prince " whom Mr. Titmarsh encountered in his joamey from Oomhill to Cairo aa a vendor of pocket-handkerchiefs. The mandarin Ee ying is a Prince of the Imperial family, the coasin I 1)elieye of the last Emperor. He held more than one of those very important posts of Goremor Qeneral which I hare described in foregoing pages, and was afterwards one of the two chief ministers; a man uniting in his own person in China the birth, rank and official power of the late Duke of Cambridge and Lord Aberdeen in Eng-land. Judge therefore of oar disgust and our astonishment at the ignorance and gullibility of John Bull when we learned that an illiterate Chinese of low station, who could not sit in ihe presence of English gentlemen in China, had been accompanying ladies of some standing in their Park drives and eventually figured at the opening of the first Crystal palace as the "celebrated mandarin Keying,** on which occasion he walked in the procession between the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the ** Duke '* ! !

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CHAPTER XI

C0NVEB8ATI0NS OF THE OLD EMPEROR TAOU KWANO WITH A HIGH MANDARIN RESPECTING BRITISH PROJECTS AND THE STATE OP SOUTHERN CHINA.

About the time that the transformation of the bandit rebels into distinctly political rebels took place, viz. — ^in the last months of 1849^ some conversations took place between the old Emperor Taou kwang and one of his high officials, which the reader will^ I believe^ not blame me for inserting here.

I did not get the manuscript record of these conversations till two years later^ in March 1851, when I handed a trans-lation of them to my then official superior Dr. (now Sir John) Bowring, who transmitted them to the Foreign Minister Xiord Palmerston. I appended to my official translation a note in which I examined the probabilities of the authen-ticity of the conversations. The substance of that note I here reproduce with some additions deemed necessary for the information of the home reader ; but which were not requisite for Dr. Bowring, with whom I was in personal communication and to whom I was therefore able to give verbally such further information and explanations as his unacquaintance with the language and the peculiar insti-tutions of the Chinese rendered necessary.

There are two official rules in the Chinese administrative system of special importance, one that no officer shall remain in one and the same post longer than three years, the other that on each promotion he shall travel to Peking and appear at a levee; which latter — the Emperor being the chief admi-

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nistrator — ^is in China necessarily something more than a court ceremony. The Chinese government has the practical wisdom not to be the slave of mere routine ; and hence it interrupts the operation of these rules whenever exceptional circum-stances demand it. They are however enforced to an extent that, viewing the long journeys many of the provincial man-darins are thereby compelled to perform, seems to occidental ignorance extremely absurd, comically Chinese. But the fact is both of these rules are, like most Chinese adminis-trative forms, based on a profound knowledge of human nature, and on a long experience of their fitness to the national government system. They are the means by which autocratic centralization guards against local tendencies to feudalism. The frequent changes of posts usually cause changes of locality; and prevent such intimate personal regard between the people and the better mandarins, as would give the latter the power of great vassals ; while the frequent visits of these same mandarins to the court keep directly alive a feeling of dependence on the autocrat. It is the rule that the Emperor shall avail himself for administra-tive purposes of these appearances of his mandarins before him, by questioning them as to the state of affairs in the country they have held oflSce in, &c. This rule, it will be observed, gives him a constant means of exercising a surveil-lance over the proceedings of the Governors of his eighteen provinces, the only officials with whom, as stated at page 9, the system permits him to communicate on paper. Again, it is evident that precisely on this account the Governors of the provinces must be anxious to know what passes on such occasions between their sovereign and their subordinates — especially those of the latter who are nearest in rank to themselves — and it is further evident that the promoted subordinate, must, on his return to his new post, be prepared with a narrative to give the Governor and any other pro-vincial superordinates, or expect to draw on himself their jealousy and enmity. To falsify anything that passed

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between himself and the Great Buler, the Son of Heaven^ would be an unpardonable offence ; and as it is one that would be liable to detection in the course of subsequent Imperial audiences of other mandarins, it is extremely unlikely to be committed. On the other hand, the reflection that he will have to give a true narrative of what passes to those precisely whose character and official conduct are usually discussed^ must make the person who has the audience exercise much care in all he says of them. One of the proofs of the genuineness and authenticity of the following record is the fact, that it gives marked evidence of this very care. To officials of lesser rank than himself, the mandarin is of course not constrained to give any account of his audiences ; but they, and the political portion of the public generally, must for obvious reasons be desirous of learning what passed. When a record has been kept, money is given for copies, which the body servants of the mandarin must, in the first instance, take by stealth with the fear on them of being caught in the act. These body servants are mostly illiterate men ; and here we have another proof of the authenticity of the following record. Where the JBmperor in his conversation, endeavours to illustrate his views by reference to the ancient national histories, the hurried unlearned transcriber is unable to take down his original text correctly; he does not comprehend what is before him, copies mechanically and imperfectly characters unfamiliar to him, omits others, and thus produces an im-perfect version, which even a learned Chinese is unable to reconstruct in completeness ; the less so as the ancient annals all are in that very tersest of the then still comparatively undeveloped Chinese language, in which every character is absolutely indispensable to the comprehension of the context As to the probability of such a conversation being imagined, and a record of it fabricated in order to get money from me, I may first state that it was brought to me by a man who had been eight years in my private employ, and than whom none knew better that I habitually treated all offers

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to furnish fiir money copies of papers not at command of the public generally, as barefaced attempts at imposition ; and that I invariably met such offers, never with anger, but with what I have found to frighten the Chinese rather more, a jocular contempt and quizzing ridicule. Having acci-dentally mentioned it to me after it had been some time in his possession, he brought it at my request and was some-what surprised when I, having made official use of it, thought right to give him a dollar or two as a reward.

When a mandarin has an audience like that detailed here he presents what is called a leuh le, L 6., a short official auto-biography. Now the Emperor on this occasion asks several questions which the autobiography in his hand rendered unnecessary ; which we can nevertheless readily conceive a weak-sighted septuagenarian to put, but which a fabricator of an imaginary conversation would hardly have thought of inditing. As little would such a fabricator have thought of inventing the imperfections in the copy, as well as some dis-crepancies as to the dates here given, with those given in the Canton reprint of the Peking Gazettes.

I was personally acquainted with Pih kwei, having accom-panied him from Canton to Hong Kong and back when he went there on official business with Sir John Davis. On this, and other occasions, I had long conversations with him, and can perfectly understand his, with his state of know-ledge or rather ignorance of foreigners, giving such answers to the Emperor as are here put in his mouth.*

Lastly, there was no political purpose to serve in playing a record into my hands, about eighteen months after it had

* He is one real member of what M. Hue calls the *' high society * of China with whom I have had an acquaintance. I knew him just before he was made Criminal Judge ; at the time I made the following translation he had risen to the Superintendency of Finances; and he is now Govemor of the prorince of Kwang tung. I may add that in his case, as in the case of still higher mandarins whom I hare talked with for hours, I was not a prisoner, or in any way anxious about myself, but in every case the cool observer of men, occupied at the time with afEhiTB on which their future career very much depended.

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taken place, of a conversation then of no significance^ and -valuable only as an illustration of manners and character.

From the above I hope that the reader, besides getting some information on certain interesting rules and customs of the Chinese, will have concluded : That some conversations must have been held; that a record of the conversations would be kept; and that the following is, in exact colloquial style, a record of the conversations that was kept, imperfect indeed, but quite genuine and authentic as far as it goes.

With the knowledge of still more arguments in its favour than I have been able to give above, I venture to put the following in print as the record of some conversations about the English that took place in Peking on the 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th days of October, 1849, between the late Chinese Emperor Taou kwang and his mandarin Pih kwei» the then Criminal Judge of the province of Kwang tung.

[translation.]

(Colloquial) Record of the Discourse addressed hy His Imperial Majesty to His Excellency t Pih hcei, the present Superintendent of Finances,

29th Year of Taou kwang. ^^ Audience of the 9th day.

Emperor. Where did I place you as Criminal Judge?

Answer. In Kwang tung.

Emperor. Ah, in Kwang tung.

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. From what station had you been promoted up to that post ?

Answer. From that of district magistrate in Kwang tung.

Emperor. You are a licentiate, or a doctor, are you not?

Answer. I am a licentiate and was promoted to a district magistracy for my services on a committee (in the capital).

Emperor. How many places have you held office in ?

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Answer. In the Lung mun, Tsin ming and Tung kwan districts, from which latter I was promoted on the recom-mendation of the high provincial officers to the prefecture of the Nan heung department.

Emperor. Did you never leave the province?

An8wer. In the 26th year (1846) I had the honour to be appcHnted by your Majesty's divine favour, prefect of the Sew chow department in Sze chuen.

Emperor. How many years were you in Sze chuen ?

Answer. Your slave was 10 months in Sze chuen, when by Your Majesty's divine favour I was appointed Grain Collector of Kwang tung.

Emperor. Ah I I sent you back again. So, with the exception of ten months, you have during upwards of ten years, been the whole time in Kwang tung.

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. Seu kwang tsin^ recommended you for em-ployment in barbarian afiairs : did Ke yingf ever employ you in that way ?

Answer. Never, Sire.

Emperor. Then Seu kwang tsin has never employed any of the persons employed by Ke ying ? These few years past the barbarian affairs have almost frightened Ke ying to death. The people who have assisted him in their transac-tion have done nothing but overrate the importance of these matters, so that Ke ying, constantly getting frightened, and listening to all their talk, extended the great fame of the barbarians. He always said that Hwang an tung % was good at business. This he has not only stated in writing, but even this year, at an audience said that the barbarian affiurs could only be managed by Hwang an tung. He also said that the disposition of the people was bad. Now how well

• The then Qoyemor Qenenl of Kwangiimg and Kwangse.

t The previouB Goremor GeneraL

} Hwang an tung was a Shantung Chinese, who held a high peat at Nanking when the Treaty was conclnded. He was Ke ying's right hand man, and the real negotiator of the Treaty.

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Seu kwang tain and his assistantB have managed I Without striking a single blow thej^ in one month, got on foot an oiganized body of upwards of 100,000 men, and got to-gether some hundred thousands of taels for the expenses. It is plain, since the people behave so well, there can be no wonder that these fellows, Hwang an tung and Chaou chang ling,* were openly and specially declared by them to be great Chinese traitors. Besides, at that time native bandits were also disturbing the country. I forget in what place?

Answer. In Tsing yuen and Ying tih.

Emperor. Quite right. You [Seu and his party] settled all these affiiirs. It appears to me that the barbarians depend entirely on Kwang tung for gaining their livelihood.

Answer. The people of Kwang tung thoroughly see that the barbarians cannot do without that province.

Emperor. Exactly so. What others are employed in the transaction of barbarian affairs ?

Answer. The expectant intendants ; Heu tseang kwang and Woo tsung yaou [Howqua].

Emperor. Are you a Manchoo or Mongolian bannerman ? What banner do you belong to ?

Answer. The Mongolian yellow banner.

Emperor. Who was it that recommended you for promo-tion in the service ?

Answer. The former Governor General, Ke Kung, [who retired from office in March 1844]

Emperor. Have the English barbarians of late been reduced in power or not ?

Answer. They appear to be somewhat reduced.

Emperor. Do the soldiers at Hong Kong amount to three or four thousand ?

Answer. Not more than two or three thousand, the greater half of whom are really but nominal. The greater half of the green clothed soldiers [Ceylon Rifles?] have dispersed

* Another Ckinue mandarin and able assistant of Ke ying. K

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on account of the insufficiency of the funds for the troops. Trade does not flourish at Ningpo, and those ports.

Emperor. I have heard that it is not good at Ningpo and Amoj^ and at Shanghae too. From this we see that pro-sperity is always followed by decay.

Answer. The English barbarians were in a bad state last year in their own country, where they were visited by an epidemic; and in Hong Kong last year upwards of a thousand people died from the hot exhalations.

Emperor. In all afiairs prosperity is followed by decay ! What avails the power of man !

Answer. Your Majesty's divine fortune is the cause [of the decay of the English power].

Emperor. You are a bannerman, one born and brought up in the capital, and must know the common saying of the old women : A thousand schemes, ten thousand schemes [of man] are not worth one scheme of Old Heaven [du bon dieu].

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. To-morrow present your name for an audience.

Audience of the \Qih day.

Emperor. It is hard to get good people. You, as Criminal Judge, have not yet entered on the duties of your post.* I, of my own accord, appoint you Superintendent of Finances. It was my wish to employ you ; and so I had you called in, that I might judge of you. On seeing you yesterday I con-sidered you a very proper man; and, finding from your official autobiography that you are not at all young, I thought you ought at once to be employed without reference to your seniority. You must be consistent in your conduct, and not show yourself forgetful of my kindness.

Answer. I shall most certainly never dare to be for-getful of Your Majesty's divine favour.

• There is a discrepancy. He had preyioosly been two months in Cant<m as Criminal Judge. (This and the following notes were appended to the official translation )

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Emperor, It constantly happens that those who have behaved well in the first part of their career behave ill in the last; that those who are not haughty of themselves become haughty ; those who are not extravagant, of them-selves become extravagant. The historical classic says: In good government permanency is esteemed. You must know this. You have been most intimately connected with the Governor General and the Governor, and it is impossible that you should be inefficient in the transaction of business. Now in all business the superiors must not seek merely to gain the approbation of their subordinates. If they get all their subordinates to praise them, they will certainly have left themselves without the power of rousing the latter to exertions. I am not wishing you to treat them harshly. The annals of Tse^ say of Tse chan, ''Who will kill him ; who is there to take his place.'* [Here follows a passage forming apparently some twelve or thirteen sen-tences, but containing in the copy furnished me so many false characters and evident omissions that educated and well read Chinese cannot see their way with sufficient clearness as to be able confidently to correct the one and supply the other. It can, however, be made out that the Emperor was inculcating the advantage of being severe, though not harsh, in the discharge of official duties, and that he had illustrated his subject by reference to several historical personages as the Tse chan above named ; Kwan chung a minister of the Tse earldom in the seventh century before Christ; Ling seang joo, an officer of the Chaou princi-pality, who, about 280 b.c., undertook a dangerous mission to the sovereign of Tsin, &c.] • • • . Besides, as the

* One of the Five Clanicfl. Tsze chan was a minister of the principality called Chin (the present proyince of Honan) who was seyeie, but atrictly juat in hia measures. .The first year of his administration the people cried, " Who wiU kill Tsze chan, we will join them/' in the third year his measures had borne such good fruits that they said,—" If Tsze chan dies who is there to take his place." To Tsie chan is attributed the rise of the Chin principality to its most flourishing state.

K 2

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expenses of the Goyernment necessitate the opening of a path [for those who wish to rise by purchase] it is more difficult than ever to make a distinction between the wise and the stupid. However, as the Han lin collie itself cannot be quite free from low minded people, so among officials bj purchase there cannot but be some of high character. Only there is one thing I have to remark — ^you are not an officer by purchase, otherwise I should not say it — among great, rich merchants are some enormously stupid, ignorant of all kinds of business, who have not even acted as assistant magistrates; who as the proverb says ''Know only a saucer full of characters though they may be as big as lychees,'' and who should on no account pass. Your place, as provincial superintendent of finances,* is a permanent one, and you must be sure not to pass over their short-coming, as may have been done hitherto by others. To-morrow present your name again for an audience.

Attdience on the Wth day.

Emperor. Do you think from the appearance of things in Kwang tung that the English barbarians or any other people will cause trouble again ?

Answer. No. England itself has got nothing, and when the English barbarians rebelled in 1841 they depended entirely on the power of the other nations who, with a view to open trade, supported them with fiinds. In the present year the [Here follow two words which do not make sense with the context, " teen te," literally, **laws and territory;" probably ** subject territories " were the words used] of England yield her no willing obedience.

Emperor. It is plain from this that these barbarians always look on trade as their chief occupation; and are wanting in any high purpose of striving for territorial acquisitions.

* This oflBcer has considerable influence on the career of the civilians in his prorinoe.

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Answer*. At bottom they belong to the class of brutes ; (dogs and horses;) it is impossible they should have any high purpose.

Emperor, Hence in their country they have now a woman^ now a man as their prince (wang). It is plain they are not worth attending to. Have they got like us any fixed time of service for their soldier's head^ Bonham ?

Answer. Some are- changed once in two years, some once in three years. Although it is the prince of these barbarians who sends them^ they are, in reality, recommended by the body of their merchants.

Emperor. What goods do the French trade in?

Answer. The wares of the barbarians are only camlets, woollen cloth, clocks, watches, cottons and the like. All the countries have got them, good or bad.

Emperor. What country's goods are dearest ?

Answer. They have all got both dear and cheap. There is no great difference in their prices [of similar articles] ; only, with respect to the camlets, the French are said to be the best.

Emperor. China has no want of silk fabrics and cottons, what necessity is there for using foreign cottons in parti-cular? For instance, wrappers* can be made of yellow, or pale yellow [for the palace], and people outside could use Nankin clotli coloured, or blue ones. This would look simple and unaffected; but lately foreign flowered cottons have come into use which look very odd. Others use foreign cottons for shirts. Now observe me — the highest of men — my shirts and inner garments are all made of Corean cottons. I have never used foreign cottons. ^

Answer. Foreign cotton cloth has no substance [literally bone], it is not good for clothing.

Emperor. And it does not wash well.

• The handkercfaieis imported into China are not used for the nose, bat to vrmp np articles which are too balky to be carried in the sleeye and which an Englishman would pat in his coat pocket.

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Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. I suppose opium is bought and sold quite openly in Kwang tung.

Answer. I should not dare to deceive Your Majesty — people do not dare to buy and sell it openly, but there is no small quantity bought and sold secretly.

Emperor. It appears to me that in this matter too, there must be a flourishing period, and a period of decay. Even if I were to inflict severe punishments ; I might punish to day, and punish again to-morrow, and all without benefit. If we wait for two or three years — for five or six years^ it will of course fall into disuse of itself.

Answer. Certainly, Sire.

Emperor. How is it with the levying and payment of the taxes in Kwang tung ? How do matters stand as to defi-ciencies in the district treasuries?

Answer. In Kwang tung the fixed regular land tax is paid up annually ; as to the miscellaneous taxes, — I do not dare to deceive Your Majesty, — ^there must have been some appropriated for public purposes.*

Emperor. Can these appropriations not be avoided then ? You will do very well for a superintendent of finances. To-morrow present your name for an audience.

Audience on the \2th day.

Emperor. In your opinion is opium dearer or cheaper now than in former years ? (Smiling.) You don't smoke it — I fear you cannot tell.

Answer. The local gentry and literati of whom I have inquired, state that opium is very cheap at present.

Emperor. Indeed. Why is it cheap ?

Answer. Because its quality is not equal to what it' was formerly.

Emperor. This, now, is an example of prosperity and

* That U to Bay for local purposes ; and not placed to the credit of the Im* perial Treasury.

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decay I How could Heaven and Earth long endure an article 80 destructive to human life. So, in the consumption of tobacco the Kwang tung leaf being strong tasted, the Sing tsze weak, those who have accustomed themselves to the strong do not of course like the weak. Do you think that in future the English barbarians in Hong Kong will go on quietly or not?

Answer. The English barbarians have gone to great ex-penses in building houses with the view of permanently residing there, and living in quiet. Besides the people of Hong Kong and its neighbourhood^ took at an early period an aversion to these barbarians ; and local bandits have long been waiting, their mouths watering for the place. The bar-barians are therefore constantly in dread, fearing they may lose it.

Emperor. So they have added to their troubles by ^ving themselves another internal care. However, notwithstanding this, they have always got their own country for a haunt [literally nest and den, expressions frequently applied to the capitals of foreign sovereigns].

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. Have the Governor General and the Governor any difference of opinion or not?

Answer. Your slave intreats Your Majesty to set Your Sacred mind at rest — the Governor General and the Governor not only transact their business in strict good faith, but in all cases without disagreement.

Emperor. That is welL What is wanted is agreement; irequently the Governor General and the Governor in the some province are at variance.

Answer. Your slave, during the many years he has been in Kwang tung, has never witnessed so much concord between the Governor General and the Governor.

Emperor. They are both in their best years, just the time for exertion ; they ought to do their utmost physically and mentally. It is right too that you and the criminal judge,

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their immediate subordinates; when you leom anything of which you fear they may not be thoroughly informed, should tell them all you know. Are you acquainted with the newly appointed judge Ke shuh tsaou ?

Answer. No, Sire.

Emperor. He is a very honesty sincere, and unaffected mauj as you will know after you have passed half a year in the same place with him. You can make ready for your departure. How long will you be on the journey ?

Answer. Upwards of two months.

Emperor. I reckon that you will arrive about the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th month. Or allowing a few days more you will reach Canton about the middle of the 12th month.

True translation.

(Signed) Thos. Taylor Meadows,

22nd March, 1851. Interpreter.

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CHAPTER XII

MEASURES OF THE IMPERIAL AUTHORITIES AGAINST THE KWANGSE CHRISTIANS; AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THESE INTO RELIGIOUS POLITICAL REBELS.

The old Emperor whose honest wish to govern well, I — let me state in passing — never heard the Chinese question, had not simply the fortunes of the English on his mind when he twice emphatically employed the stereotyped phrase of Chinese history, " Shing, tsih peik yew shwae — Prosperity is necessarily followed by decay." The fate of his own house occupied his thoughts. But it was a true instinct that led him to make repeated and anxious inquiries as to the position of the English and the likelihood of their " giving trouble " again. We have indeed been the fated instruments of ruin to the Manchoo family. Even our attempts to help it have proved baneful. On the very day before the above conversa-tions commenced in Peking, a British squadron at the other extremity of the Empire had finally driven some two thousand pirates, a body of the most hardy and daring coastlanders of South Eastern China, from their predatory life on the sea to a similar life on shore; where they, combined with the bandits already in existence, at once formed a force strong enough to keep the field as rebels avowedly aiming at dynastic changes. On the 23rd October, 1849, fifty-eight vessels of a pirate fleet were destroyed in a bay on the confines of China and Cochin China by a British naval force. But the crews escaped mostly on shore, carrying their arms with them, though the vessels were destroyed, and a few of

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the junks even got off. That men accustomed to the life they had hitherto led would take to any regular civil occupa-tion was in the last degree improbable ; and accordingly we find from the Peking Gazette that a formidable body of rebels was waging open war with the forces of the local government in the southern borders of Kwang se, about a few days' march from the spot where the pirate fleet was destroyed, and in less than a month after that event. From that time to the present — a period now of five years — avowed rebellion has continued and spread in China.

Piracy is both a sign and a cause of weakness in the Chinese Government. But it is not a cause of primary im-portance ; for it is on the mainland of China only that rebel-lions leading to dynastic changes can be organized. But what piracy was not, and could of itself hardly have become, an immediate cause of the outbreak of a dangerous rebellion, that it became when the British interfered with it ; a circum-stance peculiarly instructive as to our ability to perceive the consequences of taking a side in the disputes of the Chinese among themselves. It is somewhat consolatory to think that in our interference with the rovers on the Chinese coasts, we were less moved by a spirit of busy body inter-meddling, than by legitimate anxieties for the safety of our merchant vessels, whose valuable cargoes offered tempting prizes.

The bandit rebels with whom the ex-pirates associated themselves were nearly all kih keas, " strangers," or members of the secondary immigrations of the Chinese people into Kwang se noticed at page 49. Now it was among these same kih keas that Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san had made the most of their converts; a fact sufliciently accounted for by the circumstance of similarity of dialect, the kih kea immigration into Kwang se having proceeded from Kwang tung. It will be remembered that when Hung sew tseuen first went to Kwang se, he sought out '^ a rela-tive " there, probably some descendant of a member of the

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Hung family that had emigrated to Kwang se in a former generation. Apart from the fact that the robber bands throughout the province were composed mainly of kih keas^ a feeling of enmity has always existed between the kih keas generally and the Puntes or old Kwang se Chinese. A dispute about the possession t)f a girl in marriage led to a species of civil war between these two parties in the very district^ that of Kwei, in which the society of the Godwor-shippers had originated.

*^ At that time a very rich kih kea had taken as his concu-* bine a girl who had been promised in marriage to a Punte man; and having agreed to settle the matter with her parents by paying a large sum of money, he peremptorily refused to give her up to the Punte claimant. At the office of the district magistrate numerous petitions and accusations were daily lodged against the kih kea population so that the mandarins were unable to settle all their disputes. It seems even probable that the mandarins wished to escape the trouble ; and if the report be true, they advised the Punte population themselves to enforce their rights against the kih keas. The result was, that soon after, between the Puntes and kih keas of the Kwei district, a civil war commenced, in which a number of villages gradually became involved. The fighting began on the 28th of the eighth month (3rd October, 1850), and during the first few days the kih keas had the advantage, no doubt because they were more accustomed to warfares, and probably counted robbers by profession among their number. Gradually, however, the Puntes grew bolder and more experienced, and as their number was con-siderably larger than that of their opponents, they defeated the kih keas, and burnt their houses, so that the latter had no resting place to which they could resort. In their distress they sought refuge among the worshippers of God, who at that time lived dispersed in several districts, in congrega* tions counting from 100 to 300 individuals. They willingly submitted to any form of worship in order to escape from

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their enemies and receive the necessary supplies of which they were now destitute.

" Up to this period, the worshippers of God had not stood in any connexion whatever with the robbers or outlaws of the province. The mandarin soldiers, during their excursions in search of the robbers, never interfered with the members of the congregations, or suspected the brethren of having any other but religious motives for assembling together. But now, when not only from the distressed villages, but also from the bands of robbers dispersed by the mandarin soldiers, large flocks of people, old and young, men and women with their children, and their property, joined the congregations, matters could no longer go on as before. A rupture and collision with the mandarins became inevitable."

On the 25th of the February preceding these occurrences the old Emperor Taou kwang had died, and was succeeded by his fourth son, Hecn fung, a youth under twenty. la June or July preceding the same occurrences, very soon after the news of the Emperor's death — which was kept secret for some time — could have reached him, Hung sew tseuen sent three of the brethren with letters, and summoned his family and nearer relatives generally to join him ; which they all did.

Without attaching too much importance to the literal account given in Mr. Hamberg's book of Hung sew tseuen*s utterances at this period, which could only reach Mr. Ham-berg's informant at second or third hand ; — and without feeling bound to give implicit credence to the statement that Hung sew tseuen*s " discerning eye had foreseen all " these events favouring rebellion, that " his prediction was now fulfilled '' and that '^he hod formed his plans," it is certain that all the circumstances combined lead to the conclusion that he must have now begun seriously to revolve in his mind the possibility of effecting a political, as well as religious change, and the advisability of taking to arms to effect it.

As an educated and patriotic Chinese he could, I must

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repeat, have no doubt whatever of his right to expel the Manchoos hj force of arms, the more especially as their weakness and misrule had subjected the country around him to robbery and anarchy. On the question: Ought I, or ought I not, he would waste no time. He would simply ask himself: Can I, or can I not ? Now, it appears that already ** the worshippers of God had felt the necessity of uniting to-gether for common defence against their enemies ; they had began to convert their property of fields and houses into money, and to deliver the proceeds thereof into the general treasury from which all shared alike, every one receiving his food and clothing from this fund." Hung sew tseuen saw himself, therefore, at the head of several thousands of people, moat intimately bound together by community of religious beliefs and worldly interests. He saw all round him bodies of bandit-rebels who, though having no such bonds of inti« mate union among themselves, and therefore being liable to be destroyed in detail by the forces of the existing govern-ment, would, nevertheless, when grouped around the moral and intellectual nucleus formed by him and his co-religionists, form a great source of physical strength.

Notwithstanding all this, the fact remains, and it was a fact better appreciable by Hung sew tseuen then, than by us now, that he could only rely on the assistance of some 10 or 15 thousand men at most, wherewith to commence, in a remote comer of the vast Chinese Empire, the overthrow of a family which had ruled over it for 200 years ; which had in the course of that period crushed several formidable attempts to oust it; and which always had for its support some hundreds of thousands of bom and trained soldiers of its own race. These general considerations joined to certain circumstances mentioned in Mr. Hamberg's work, and to the statements of one of the Imperialist leaders whom I met at Nanking, have led me to the confident conclusion that it was by dire necessity alone that Hung sew tseuen was imme-diately constrained to add the character and fimctions of

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patriotic insurgent to those of religious reformer. The question was : Have I anj choice ? Must I not?

He perceived in fact about this time that he and his co-religionists would certainly fall victims to the natural suspi-cions, and the consequent persecutions of the authorities, unless they took to arms in self-defence. The first of his converts in Kwang se, the son of his relative with whom he had lodged on arriving there, an ardent youth and a some-what rash aud imperious destroyer of idols, was thrown into the district prison and killed there by neglect and ill treat-ment caused by the influence of the graduate Wang, the old enemy of the Godworshippers. Subsequently the authorities made a direct attempt to seize Hung sew tseuen himself and Fung yun san, as the originators of a society now ^^not only accused of interfering with the religious worship of others, and destroying the idols, but also of favouring the outlaws and secretly fostering rebellious designs against the govern-ment." Aware of the danger impending over them, they had led the chief seat of the society at Thistle-mount and retired, with a few followers, to concealment in the house of a friend situated in a mountain recess from which there was only one narrow path to the open country. The mandarins having got information of their retreat stationed soldiers to watch the pass ; and Hung sew tseuen and his followers would in all probability have been starved into surrender here, or killed in an attempt to escape, had not Yang sew tsing, the present " Eastern Prince," got some notice of their critical position. This man, whom we have seen above assuming the character of communicator of the will of God the Father, aud whom all our subsequent dealings with, and information obtained from, the rebels at Nanking show to have been throughout what he now undoubtedly is, the chief leader of the movement in its political, its military, and its fanatical phases, came forward now precisely in that quality. He fell into one of his " states of ecstasy, revealed to the brethren of Thistle-mount the impending danger of their beloved chiefs, and exhorted them

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to hasten to their rescue. A coDsiderable body of men belonging to the congregations now drew together, and marched against the soldiers who watched the pass. The soldiers were easily beaten, and Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san carried in triumph from their place of seclusion.*' The Godworshippers might have, on former occasions, fought as kih keas with the Puntes in the course of the feuds between these two parties of '^ new " and ^' old " Kwangse men ; and they may even in that way have incidentally been at times in collision with the government troops. But this was the first occasion in which the Godworshippers, as such, attacked the Imperial forces as their own special enemies; and on that first occasion Yang sew tsing characteristically appears as inspired seer and successful military leader.

Hung sew tseuen was then however virtually what he still is nominally ; the supreme authority and chief. In this character " he now sent messages to all the congregations in the different districts to assemble in one place. The cir-cumstance that they shared all in common greatly added to their numbers, and made them ready to abandon their homes at a moment's warning. That moment had now arrived. Anicious about their own safety and that of their families they flocked to the banner of Hung sew tseuen, whom they believed appointed by heaven to be their chief. Old and young, rich and poor, men of influence and education, gradu-ates of the first and second degrees, with their families and adherents, all gathered around the chiefs. Wei ching alone brought with him about 1000 individuals of his clan." *

The exact date of the occurrences and proceedings just narrated, I cannot discover, either from the rebel publica-tions, Mr. Hamberg's book, or the Peking Gazettes; but

* The word " Clan " mnst be taken in the Bense explained in the footnote, page 47. Wei Ching is the " Korihem Prince " with whom I had a long converBation at Nanking two and a half years after the events mentioned in the text. He was then the second chief man in real influence among the rebels, being one of the most active military leaders, and the right hand man of the Eastern Prince in the political and fanatical moves of the latter.

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a comparison of the data in all three shews that they took place about the beginning of October, 1850. With October, 1850^ commenced, therefore, the religious-political rebellion which has been struggling for the five years that have since passed to expel the Manchoo, and establish the new and natiye dynj^ of Tae ping, or Universal Peace. For dis-tinction BsSi& I shall henceforth speak of the Tae ping rebellion or insurrection and of Tae ping adherents, soldiers, officers, armies, &c. Their opponents, consisting of all those Chinese who have hitherto supported the existing Manchoo dynasty, and of all Manchoos without exception, I shall call Imperialists.

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CHAPTER XIII (PART 1 OF 3)

MILITARY AND POLITICAL PROCEEDINGS OP THE TAE PING REBEI^ FROM THEIR FIRST RISING TILL AFTJSI^^EIR OCCUPATION OP NANKING* ^^ \ *^ \ »^>..

Previous to the rising of the GodworsUippers .a^TTae pings, that is to say, so long as the r^els ^n K!wang se and Kwang tung were of bandit or 'Triad 'Society origination, the Imperial Government does not appear to have viewed the state of affairs there with much apprehension. The Governor General of the two provinces was indeed ordered from his usual station in Canton to the scene of the rebel-lious movements ; and two experienced generals, the after-wards famed Heang yung and another, accompanied by troops, were also ordered there from adjoining provinces; but the chief control was still left to the provincial autho-rities.

So soon, however, as the news reached Peking of a new and larger body of rebels having banded themselves together, we mark signs of anxiety on the part of the Imperial Govern-ment. Lin tsih sen, the functionary known to Occidentals as the anti-opium Commissioner, Lin, who was then living in retirement at his native city Foochow, received orders to proceed to Kwang se with supreme powers as Imperial Com-missioner. He received his seal of office on the 1st November, 1850, started on the 5th of that month, but died on the way on the 21st. On the intelligence reaching Peking, Le sing yuen, an ex-Governor General was appointed Imperial Com^

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missioner in his room ; and Chow teen keo, an official who had also been Governor General, was appointed Governor of Kwang se in the place of the then Governor, who was degraded for inefficiency. These appointments were made in December, 1850. Chow teen keo had long been known among Roman Catholics for having put a foreign missionary to death, after having had him beaten about the face till his dress was covered with blood.

The above were the only Imperialist Commanders whom the Tae pings had opposed to them during the first six months of their military career. But during these same months they had established in substance that political and military orga-nization which was subsequently found among them at Nan-king. Hung sew tseuen was already the " Heavenly Prince,** the other leaders were subordinate '^Princes" assisting him in his divine mission *^ to exterminate the idolatrous and usurping Manchoos ;" and Tae ping edicts and other publications, show-ing all this, had been forwarded to Peking. These published aims, and the manner in which they had been supported, at length effectually aroused the Imperial Government. For the first time since disturbances had commenced in Kwang se, a high Manchoo, Woo Ian tae. Lieutenant General of the Manchoo Banner garrison at Canton, was ordered direct to the scene ; and at the same time the Prime Minister of the Empire, Sae shang ah, also a Manchoo, was ordered ofip from Peking as Chief Imperial Commissioner (Le sing yuen had died,) and Generalissimo, accompanied by a large staff of Manchoo and Mongol officers of lesser, but still high rank, and a guard of 200 Manchoo soldiers. These appointments were made in the end of April, but it was not till the month of July that Sae shang ah entered Kwang se.

In the mean time the Tae ping army was maintaining itself at various positions successively occupied in the Kwei ping, Woo seuen and Seang districts. A district is, the reader will remember, about the size of a county. After assembling his co-religionists as already stated, " Hung sew

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tseuen took possession of the opulent market town^ where resided the above-mentioned graduate (the enemy of the Godworshippers) Wang, whose rich store of provisions and pawnshops * filled with clothes quite suited the wants of the distressed kih keas. This town was surrounded by a broad river protecting it from sudden attacks. Here Hung sew tseuen encamped, fortifying the place, and before the man-darin soldiers had arrived his position was already too strong for them to disturb. The Imperial soldiers pitched their camp at a respectful distance from the market town, and both parties carried on hostilities by firing at each other over the river, which however no one ventured to cross. From this place Hung sew tseuen again sent to call the remaining relatives of his own clan and that of Fung yun san to join him in Kwang se ; but before they could reach the spot he found it necessary, from want of provisions, to remove his camp to another place. This he did secretly, having crossed the river and retired in good order, without the knowledge of the Imperialists, who still supposed him to be in the town. As soon as they discovered his movements, the Imperialists sent light troops in his pursuit; but they venturing too near the rear of Hung sew tseuen's army, were in their turn pursued by his men, and a great number of them slaughtered. The Imperialists now commenced venting their rage on the deserted market-town, burnt between one and two thousand shops, and plundered wherever they could obtain booty."

I beg the reader's special attention to the various cir-cumstances of the preceding extract from Mr. Hamberg's book ; for these first movements of the Tae ping and the Imperialist armies are typical of the military proceedings and strategy of the whole subsequent war. The Tae pings take up a position and display a great deal of industrial

* Pftwnbroken in CUna hold a much higher station than in England. In the smaUer conntry towns they are usually the bankers ; and the chief partners are often landed proprietors, who have taken a public service degree, men such as this Wang appears to have been.

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energy in fortifying it, and no little amount of constructive ingenuity in availing themselves of the natural facilities, the materials at hand fee, towards effecting that object. Aa they succeed in effecting it, the Imperial forces begin to approach. At first these latter station themselves in en-trenched camps of observation, at such distances as render their presence no very serious inconvenience to the Tae pings. As their numbers increase with the concentration of troops from various quarters, they gradually hem in the Tae pings, with more or less of resistance on the part of the latter, until an effectual blockade is established. Assaults and storms on the part of the Imperialists are occasionally attempted, but always fdil ; and are productive of so much loss that they give up the idea of conquering in that way, and confine their efforts to cutting off all channels of supply. In this they are eventually successful ; and the Tae pings^ straitened by want of provisions, are compelled to break out. They cut their way through their enemies, inflicting far greater damage on the latter than they themselves incur, and move to another position* Such of the Imperialists as dog them too closely on the way meet with some severe check from the Tae pings ; but the great body of the Imperialists usually spend some time in plundering the original inha-bitants of the place of everything the Tae pings did not take with them, and in slaughtering these unfortunate neutrals as ^^ rebels." In the reports of the Imperialist leaders to the Emperor, as published in the Peking Gazettes, the break-ing out of the Tae pings is called an '^ escape ; " and the move to another position a " flight." But every one of these ** escapes '' has been from a position of lesser importance to one of greater ; and every one of these " flights " has been from a spot more remote from the Imperial Capital, Peking, to a spot less remote from it; as the reader will perceive from the sketch and route which accompanies this volume. The first fortified positions of the Tae pings were villages or country towns; afterwards they were district cities; then

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PBOCEEDINGS OP THE TAE PING EEBELS. l49

departmental cities; the provincial capital of Hoonan was next occupied by them for a month; and^ at lengthy they took np, and have ever since, held the most important military position in the Empire : its former capital Nanking, and the " King kow " the port of the capital, the city of Chin keang, which commands at once the Great River and the Grand Canal. There the military tactics of the Tae pings assumed a second phase. The first phase of their military career — ^what we may call the concentrated and locomotive phase, inasmuch as during it their whole force formed but one army, and kept moving from place to place — this first phase occupied two years and a half; from October 1850 till March 1853.

In the first months of this period the Tae pings, as we learn from Mr. Hambei^'s book (corroborated by facts in my offidal contemporaneous reports made at Canton) took up positions in inimical villages and towns where they felt justified in despoiling the inhabitants, or the more wealthy of them, as their enemies. But soon, when continued success had strengthened the conviction on their minds of the reality of the Divine Mission of the Heavenly Prince, Hung sew tseuen, they took up that attitude towards the Chinese people, as well as the Manchoos, which they have invariably and consistently maintained since we met them at Nanking, and often in defiance and contempt of the dictates of imme-diate expediency : " Our Heavenly Prince has received the Divine Commission to exterminate the Manchoos — to exter-minate them utterly, men, women and children — to exter-minate all idolaters generally, and to possess the Empire as its True Sovereign. It and everything in it is his, its moun-tains and rivers, its broad lands and public treasuries ; you, and all that you have, your family, males and females from yourself to your youngest child, and your property from your patrimonial estates to the bracelet on your infantas arm. We command the services of all, and we take every-thing. All who resist us are rebels and idolatrous demons, and we kill them without sparing ; but whoever acknowledges

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our Heavenly Prince and exerts himself in onr service shall have full reward — due honour and station in the armies and Court of the Heavenly Dynasty."

These general views, just given, of the military proceed-ings and political principles and attitude of the Tae ping?, will, with the route on the accompanying chart, enable the reader to attain a more clear and correct knowledge of the progress of the Chinese Insurrection, than any attempt to furnish a minute detail of battles, sieges, marches and names of generals and numbers of troops taken from the Peking Gazette and contemporaneous reports. I must however subjoin a few extracts from Mr. Hamberg's book, illustrative of Hung sew tseuen's dealings with the bandit and Triad rebels who kept the field in Kwang se for some months before and after the rising of the Godworshippers as Tae pings ; and I must also endeavour to give some true glimpses of the state of the Imperial Armies.

After leaving his first position ^^ he took possession of a large village called Tae tsun where he pitched his camp, finding abundant provisions for his numerous followers. The reason why Hung sew tseuen took this large village was as follows : A rebel chief named Chin a kwei who for a long time previously had disturbed the country, finally expressed himself willing to unite his forces with those of Hung sew tseuen. However before this juncture was effected, during the time the latter had possession of the market town men-tioned above, the former made an excursion to the west, when he was taken captive by the people of Tae tsun and delivered to the mandarins who rewarded the deed with a gilt button. Hung sew tseuen took the village to avenge the death of Chin a kwei."

A Peking Gazette of the 28th November, 1860, informs us that this rebel chief, Chin a kwei, had been defeated with the loss of " upwards of 1,000 in slain and of 400 prisoners" in the east of Kwang se ; and by a later Gazette that he had fled from thence with the remnant of his men to his

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PBOCE£DINGS OF THE TAB PING EEBELS. 151

native district, Kwei ping (the original seat of the society of God worshippers) where he was seized in a mountain ravine in the spring of 1851.

'^ Daring the time that Hung sew tseuen was encamped at the above village two female rebel chiefs, of great valour, named Kew urh and Sze san, each one bringing about 2,000 followers, joined the army of the Godworshippers, and were received on submitting to the authority of Hung and the rules of the congregation. He placed these two female chiefs with their followers at a distance from the main body of his army, making them serve as outposts, one on each side. About the same period^ eight rebel chiefs belonging to the Triad Society, intimated to Hung sew tseuen their wish to join his army with their respective bands. Hung 8ew tseuen granted their request, but under condition that they would conform to the worship of the true God. The eight chiefs declared themselves willing to do so, and sent their tribute of oxen, pigs, rice, &c. Hung sew tseuen now despatched sixteen of the brethren belonging to the congre-gation^ two to each chief, in order to impart to them and their followers some knowledge of the true religion before they had taken the definitive step of joining him. When preparatory instruction had been received, the chiefs dis-missed their tutors with a liberal sum of money, as a reward for their trouble, and soon after, they, with all their followers, joined the army of Hung sew tseuen. Fifteen of the teachers who had been sent out to the chiefs, now in accordance with the laws of the congregation gave the money which they had received into the common treasury ; but one of them kept the money for himself, without saying a word. This same individual had several times before, by his misconducf, made himself amenable to punishment, and had been spared only in consideration of his eloquence in preaching. He had, in the first instance, not fully abstained from the use of opium, but to procure the drug had sold some rattan-bucklers belonging to the army; another time being excited with

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wine> he had iDJured some of the brethren. As soon as his concealment of the money was proved^ Hung sew tseuen and the man*s own relatives, who were present in the arm y^ desired to have him punished according to the full rigour of the law, and ordered him to be decapitated as a warning to all. When the chiefs of the Triad Society saw that one of those who had just before been despatched as a teacher to them^ was now killed for a comparatively small offence, they felt very uncomfortable, and said,—

" ^ Your laws seem to be rather too strict; we shall perhaps find it difficult to keep them, and upon any small transgres-sion you would perhaps kill us also.'

'* Thereupon ^ seven chiefs " with their men, departed and afterwards surrendered to the Imperialists, turning their arms against the insurgents. Lo ta kang* alone remained with Hung sew tseuen, because he liked the discipline of his army, and the doctrine which they had adopted as a rule of their conduct. It is said that six of the above chiefs of the Triad Society ultimately fell into the hands of the insurgents while fighting against them, and were killed. Hung sew tseuen had formerly expressed his opinion of the Triad Society in about the following language : —

" * Though I never entered the Triad Society I have often heard it said that their object is to subvert the Tsing and restore the Ming dynasty. Such an expression was very proper in the time of Ejing he when this Society was at first formed, but now, after the lapse of two hundred years, we may still speak of subverting the Tsing, but we cannot properly speak of restoring the Ming. At all events when our native mountains and rivers are recovered a new dynasty must be established. How could we at present arouse the energies of men by speaking of restoring the Ming dynasty ?

* I had converBations with this man on two separate occasions when he was, as the Tae ping Commandant of Chin keang, holding that city with a garrison of only two or three thousand men against an Imperialist besieging foroe of ten to fifteen thousand.

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PBOCEEDINaS OF THE TAE PIKG REBELS. 153

There are seyeral evU practices connected with the Triad Society, which I detest. If any new member enter the Society, he must worship the devil and utter 36 oaths; a sword is placed upon his necki and he is forced to contribute money for the use of the Society. Their real object has now become yery mean and unworthy. If we preach the true doctrine, and rely upon the powerful help of God, a few of us will equal a multitude of others. I do not even think that Sun pin. Woo ke, Kung-ming and others famous in history for their military skill and tactics, are deserving much estimation — how much less these bands of the Triad Society?'

** Hang sew tseuen afterwards ordered his followers not to receive among their number any Triad men but such as were willing to abandon their former practices and to receive instruction in the true doctrine.^'

At page 146 I have stated that Chow teen tseo was ap-pointed Governor of Kwang se at the time that Le sing yuen was Imperial Commissioner, and Heang yUng a General there. The subjoined is a translation of a private letter written, in the latter half of April, 1851, by Chow teen tseo to the Governor of the province of Hoo pih, evidently to move the latter to expedite the despatch of the Hoo pih troops which this letter says had been officially applied for. The letter treats of the most important subjects, but is written in a hur-ried and somewhat disjointed way, just as one might expect a Commander to write^ under the circumstances described.

* A copy W18 obtained by a Chineae, whom I had sent from Canton to Peking, on hia way north through Woo chang the capital of Hoh pih ; and enclosed to me with a private letter dated at that city the 26th June, 1851.

In the abaence in China of *' own eorrespondenta " and the newspapers in which their letters could be published, copies of letters of this kind, t.e. from men whose position enables them to take a general survey of things, are passed from hand to hand by the Chinese. What I have said above about the record of Pih kwei's audiences with the Emperor Taou kwang will enable the reader to understand how such letters come into circulation, why the copies are often imperfect, Ac jfcc My messenger, a northern Chinese, when at Woo chang accidentally met with another »man fh>m the same province as himself. In such

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I have Btriven to give the hasty and disjointed style of the original ; and hence, if the translation runs awkwardly^ the reader must not attribute that altogether to the difficulty of rendering the Chinese idiomatically :

" I have respectfully* to inform you that after receiving my seal of office, I started on the 3rd Marchf (1851) and repaired to Lew chow where I had an interview with the Imperial Commissioner (Le sing yuen) and then proceeded from Lew chow to Tsin chow, where I learnt that the Tsze king mountain was destitute of troops. The Commander of the Forces (Le sing yuen) did not think the place worth at-tending to. I was most anxious to enlist irregulars and per-sonally hold that post ; for it is the place where Wang yang ming X established his great camp. It is inconceivable how

cases an acqaaintance la soon atrack up. The stranger had great skill in the nse of the spear, and had been brought down to Woo chang to instmct the military in that art, who were going to Ewang se. The connection of this instructor with the military officers enabled him to get, and to communicate to my messenger, a copy of the letter. " Are you going to Ewang se, yourself V asked my man in the course of their conversations. " They want me,** answered the spear-instructor — " but I won't go for any money. They say, you see, some of these Ewang se rebels are barbarians, and I fought once with the red-brisUed barbarians (the English) at Chin hae. We went against them in great spirits and thought that they never would be able to stand our spears. But when the big guns from the steamers began to fire and the red soldieis came towards us, shooting us with their muskets, it was terrible. I only saved my life by throwing myself down, pulling two bodies over me, and shamming dead for a day and a night As I lay there I said, 'If I get safe through this, I'll never fight again.' " Such was about what my messenger narrated to me when questioning him as to the way in which he got the letter.

* This word is merely a form. The writer was as high in station as the person he wrote to.

t " The first of the second month." I substitute the corresponding English date at once, to render the translation less strange in sound.

X Wang yang ming was a great philosophical writer and militaiy commander of the Ming dynasty. He defeated the aboriginal mountaineers in that quarter of Ewang se in A.n. 1529, ie. about three centuries before the above letter was written. He is, I believe, one of the three or four hundred worthies whose names have a place in the Confucian temple ; and in every case he has the honour of a section in the standard work entitled "Deeds and Speeches of Celebrated Officers," where his fighting in Ewang se is mentioned. One of the members of Lord Amherst's embassy, speaking of Nanking, says that places

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people could, that notwithstanding, give it no attention I Bnt I had not got a day's journey on my road toward Woo aeuen, when the rebels at Kin teen bnmt their lair, fled out, and escaped by this very place, through the Ta tang gorge to Tung heang (Eastern village) in the Woo seuen district.*

CHAPTER XIII (PART 2 OF 3)

I fell back to the market-town San le, about seven miles from the district city. From this place the road is open to Seang chow and Lew chow ; so that it forms a pass leading to the provincial capital. Had it been taken, the general affiiirs of the whole province would have been totally ruined. It was analogous to the Tang pass held by Ko shoo han.f It is one of the most important of important places. By dint of great efforts I withstood them here, alone, with my single corps for three days. Had I arrived later by one or two days— once Woo seuen lost, and Seang chow being abso-lutely without a single soldier — they could have passed on through it !

** On the 19th of March and on the 6th April, two battles were fought, but on both occasions the rebels experienced no great loss, owing to the cowardice of our troops. On the

II ih April, the rebels attempted to seize the Ferry at Kew

in China are nninteresting because liaving no historical associationB. 8o are Oreeee and JRomefor those xgnorarU of European Ancient History, Nanking has not only assodations, but great aBsoeiations of many centuries. Some were even in my mind as I rode through its streets to meet the rebel leaden; and for a well read Chinese there is scarcely a district in the Empire without its associations. We see here Chow teen tseo draw on military history for his prac-tical guidance ; as a general who found himself opposed to an enemy in the neighbourhood of Dunbar might draw on the history of Cromwell for his practical assistance.

* From this letter and a memorial in the Peking (Gazette it appears that the Tae pings left their camp at Kin teen on the 4th March, 1851.

f Eo shoo han was an Imperial General under the Tang dynasty, who in a.d. 727 was in the field against the rebel, Gan luh shan. His tactics were to hold the passes and remain on the defensive, on the ground that it was for the interest of the rebels, who had marched from a distance, to engage in a pitched battle at once. He was howeyer compelled by orden to leave his position, and attack the rebels. He was defeated ; was taken prisoner at the Tung pass which he then attempted to defend ; the rebel, Qan luh shan, advanced on the capital; and the Bmperor was forced to fly»

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Keen heu (the old district city market town) with the inten-* tion of proceeding northward with their combined force. Fortunately the chief commanders of the irregulars, recently sent hither, fought vigorously. I did not move up one single man; and the Kwei chow troops looked on from the top of the mountains, while the whole valley was: filled with the rebels I However the rebels nevertheless sustained a great defeat, and fled leaving the ground thickly strewed with the dead and wounded. There were some of them, too, shattered to pieces* from the fighting — across the river-being so very close.

'^ Tae ping and Nan ning (two departments in the south west of Kwang se) have just sent in word that they are hard pressed ; Yu lin and Po pih (districts in the south) are just about to fall ; and at Ping lo and Ho (districts in the west) the Major General has been defeated ; and it is not known what is become of him. In other quarters, the whole country swarms with them (the rebels). Our funds are nearly at an end, and our troops few; our officers disiagree, and the power is not concentrated. The Commander of the Forces wants to extinguish a burning waggon load of faggots with a cup iuU of water. Further, he keeps up an endless moving and despatching of the troops, who are wearied with marching along the roads. Hoo yuen ke, the prefect whom the Governor General denounced, he (Le sing yuen) exerts him-self to protect, and glosses over all matters that have to be examined into. He can think of screening Chin tsoo shin,t but does not think of the injuries inflicted on the state.

'' General Heang yung, though he has abilities, is of an unjust and narrow mind. He keeps other people's good ser-vices out of sight, and publishes his own merits. All the forces from Kwei chow and Yunnan detest him. I fear we

* The Chinese hare a peculiar horror of diBmemberment ; whence hanging is not so disgraceful a legal punishment as decapitation.

t Chow teen keo's (the letter writer's) predecessor as Gfoyemor of Kwang se, whose conduct was being investigated.

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shall hereafter have some serious affair — that the great bodj will rise against us, and our own people leave us.

*' The chief commander of the Irregulars * is good at fight-ing on the water (rivers) and exerted himself very much in protecting the ferries at the five places Kew tseen, Lih ma kwo, Shih tsuy change Show chow mei, and Ping chung. But Heang yung is jealous of him; and having got a Yang laou^f yet gives ear to secret tales against him. I am now doing all I can to encourage the chief commander and the nine (lesser) commanders of the Irregulars, and they maintain their posts a hundred times better than the ofiicers and soldiers of the regular army. This is the state of affairs with us.

** As to these rebels they have five great leaders. Hung tseuen is the first, Fung yun san is the next, Yang sew tsing is the next, and Hoo yih seen and Tsang san sew are the next.

*' Hung tseuen is not a man of the surname of Hung — he is a barbarian of some sort4 Fung yun san is a graduate of the first degree (bachelor). Both are skilled in the use of troops. Hung tseuen § is a barbarian, who practises the ancient military arts. At first he conceaU his strength, then

* A great portion of these were from the Eaat of Evang timg,~that portion of the coast land which I hare stated to produce the most turbulent and daring of the Chinese. We used to see them, in large numbers, as they passed Canton on their way np to Kwang se.

f Yang laon was a military man who fought first against the Sungs, but was afterwards induced to join them, and was much trusted by Tae tsung of that dynasty, who reigned from a.i>. 976 tiU a.d. 998. HaTing distinguished himself greatly in the border wars, the higher officers, out of envy, sent in secret denunciations against him ; but the Emperor merely forwarded them under coyer to Tang laou himself; i. e. did not listen to them. The Chief Commander of the Irregulars is here likened to Tang laou, and Heang yung to the Emperor; only Heang yung to his discredit fails in the parallel.

t From this we must infer that Hung sew tseuen's origin was unknown to the best informed Imperialists in April, 1851. His Christianity, and the fact of his haying resided some time with Mr. Boberts, probably gaye rise to this belief eonoeming him. The reader will see farther on that people in the rebel army held him to be a "barbarian."

§ That is to say he is a man of dangerous character, combining the fierceness of the barbarian, with a knowledge of the best military tactics.

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he puts it forth a little, then in a greater degree, and lastly comes on in great force. He constantly has two victories for one defeat ; for he practises the tactics of Sun pin. * The other day I obtained a rebel book describing the organiza-tion of one army. It is the Sze ma system of the Chow dynasty**)- A division has its general of division, a regiment has its colonel (literally a sze has its sze shwae, a leu has its leu shwae). An army consists of 13,270 men, being the strength of an ancient army with the addition of upwards of a hundred men.:t

*^ Their forces are divided into nine armies in accordance with the system of nine degrees in the ^ Tribute ' of Yu.§ In this book is specifically described the first army, that of the Grand Generaltssimo Hung, and it states at the end, that all the other nine armies are to be arranged and organized in like manner. This book has been sent to the Cabinet CounciL The rebels increase more and more ; our troops the more they fight the more they fear. The rebels generally are powerful and fierce; and they cannot by any means be likened to a disorderly crowd (literally a flock of crows) ; their regu-lations and laws being rigorous and dear. Our troops have not a tincture of discipline; retreating is easy to them, advancing difficult ; and, though again and again exhorted, they always remain as weak and as timorous as before. When personally in command at the above battles, I found that the troops — and they were from several different quarters

• A famous ancient general, whose greatest campaign took place b. a 841.

t A great dynasty that ended B.a 266.

X The copy which Chow teen keo had when he wrote must either have heen a partially erroneous manuscript one ; or we must regard this as a proof that there were some slight differences between the then construction of the Tae ping armies and that which we found existing at Nanking two yean later, when the number of men in an army was exactly that of ancient Itimes, yiz. 19,125 misa and officers.

f This is the name of a section or chapter in the ancient book, the Bhoo king or Historical Canon. The " nine degrees " haye some analogy with oar naval nonaiy gradation of main, yice and rear squadrons of the red, white and blue flags.

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(of the country) — were all alike useless. At present there is no other plan than to bring in levies of good troops from Kwang tung, as well as 20^000 regulars and irregulars from Hoo pihy skilled in the use of the larger description of arms ; and then, with the combined strength of the two provinces, first to reduce Kwang se to quiet, afterwards Kwang tung. I and my two associates (Le sing yuen and Heang yung) have sent in a memorial to the Emperor to this effect. We have yet to see whether it will be attended to or not. To think on putting an end to these criminals, is the only pleasant occupation my mind has. For the rest I cannot exhaust the subject in writing. All proceeds from the mistakes of the Imperial Commissioner, who like Lan teen keen employs himself on nothing but talking."

From the above and an Imperial Edict it appears that the Tae pings left their first great position at Kin teen in the Kwei ping district, and moved to Tung heang in the Woo seueu district on the 4th March, 1851. Their next move of importance, viz. from Tung heang into the Seang district, must have been effected about the 10th of May, according to the dates given in one of my (contemporaneous) official reports, that written at Canton on the 11th July; from which I here extract :

** Three Imperial Edicts have been published here, the first two dating as issued at Peking on the 1st June. In these the commanding officers in Kwang se are severely censured for having allowed a large party of the rebels, previously re-ported as surrounded in the Woo seuen district, to " escape" into the adjoining Seang district. The Emperor comments angrily on the fact of their memorial to him saying nothing of their present plans, but merely requesting the punishment of themselves and their subordinates. He declines complying with their request, so far as the latter are concerned, on the ground that the lower officers have been condemned to in-action by the want of union among their superiors ; and he calls for detailed information as to the projects of the rebels

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160 THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBELLION&

at the Seang district, on the posslbilitj of enclosing them there, and on the measures taken for preventing their ad-vance on Kwei lin, the capital of the province."

The following extract from my Canton report of the 2l8t August, 1851, furnishes the fullest and most authoritative corroboration of what is said in Chow teen keo's letter on the state of the Imperial army ; and of what I have before said of the effect of the British war:

*^ Duritig the past month the Peking Grazettes have con-tinued to give memorials of the high officers in Kwang se, with the Emperor's replies on the affairs of that province. One of the former, by the Lieutenant-general of the Canton Bannermen Woo Ian tae (who went there from Canton about April) has considerable interest from its giving to the public, for the first time, the opinions of a Manchoo on the insurrection.

** He states that the army has never recovered from the dis-organization caused by the want of success in the * barbarian affairs/ (the British war) so that the troops do not attend to orders; regard retreat on the eve of a battle as 'old custom ;' and the abandonment of places they should hold as an 'ordinary affair/ He had heard of this state of things without daring to give it full credence ; now, how-ever, having joined the forces in the field, he has personally witnessed it, and sees therein cause for deep anxiety. Of all those faults which an army in the field should dread, he finds many existing, so much so, that the troops even act without orders from their superiors. Thus, when General Heang yung, Lieutenant-general Tae ting san and himself stopped at New Ian tang to make a reconnaissance and ex-amine the position of the rebels, they had halted but a short time when a large portion of the troops proceeded on to Seang chow, into which city all the Irregulars also hurried ; so that they (the generals) could not form the encampment they projected at the spot. General Heang yung on this occasion declared that 'if the troops disregarded orders in

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this way it would be the death of him.' * Though greatly excited, he had however no means of remedying the matter, and was subsequently obliged to form his camp at Shih mo. These circumstances he (Woo Ian tae) personally witnessed, and has moreover heard, that in the battles formerly fought the ranks of ihe regulars and irregulars were in a most dis-orderly state ; no common attention was paid to the word of command ; at the first sound of the enemy's guns the troops were seized with fear; and if one or two happened to get wounded, the whole body thought of retreat. On the other hand the number of robbers and criminal associations in Kwang tung and Kwang se is very great, and they assemble without the least hesitation to ' create disturbances,' all which arises from that class having ^seen through the cir-cumstances of the army' (i.e. detected its impotence) ^ at the time barbarian affairs were being transacted,' (the British War). 'Formerly they feared the troops as tigers; of late they look on them as sheep.' Further, of the several tens of thousands of armed irregulars who were disbanded at the settlement of the * barbarian business,' very few returned to their original occupations : most became robbers.

*' These are the causes of the existence of numerous ban-ditti in Kwang tung and Kwang se ; in which he (Woo Ian tae) fears order and tranquillity will never be established if the state of the army is not improved. He has heard that the * outer barbarians ' constantly declare that ^ China is amply furnished with literary instruction but its military arrangements are insufficient.'

" One thousand Kwei chow troops having been placed under his special command, he proposes remaining for 20 days simply on the defensive, in order that he may infuse into them some idea of discipline and instruct them in the use of the arms he brought from Canton, viz., 100 wall pieces, 200 muskets, and a number of spears, rockets &c. He closes by praying His Majesty to give him definite powers * The originAl expression is colloquial. M

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over tbe forces generally, that he may be the better able to effect the objects for which he has beea sent to Kwang se. An edict confers the required powers on him, subject how-ever to the superior authority of the Commander in Chief Sae shang ah, when the latter reaches the scene of opera-tions.

*^ In another memorial, Woo Ian tae reports what he saw of the operations consequent on the move made by the rebels from the Woo seuen district into the Seang district, (about the 10th May). It appears from what he says that the rebels broke through the most strongly guarded of the posts by which they were surrounded; and, proceeding to the Seang district, stormed and kept possession of an important position near its chief city.

''A subsequent edict comments on a * great victory' guned by Woo Ian tae and the others in which * several thousands ' of the rebels are said to have been killed, the battle lasting eight hours. Other victories, and degradations of officers for reporting false victories, as also for drawing public money to pay non-existent irregulars are noticed in others of the docu-ments.

*^ Chow teen tseo, in a memorial, advises the punishment of certain officers for allowing a Kwang tung man [Fung yunsan?] to get off some years back, whom one of the literati [the graduate Wang ?] had accused of disseminating Christian doctrines/'

The following is from my report of the 25th Sept. 1851. The Edicts mentioned must have been issued in Peking about three weeks before that date, and referred to reports from Kwang se of the middle of August.

'^ In another Edict, just arrived, the Emperor states that he has received memorials, from whom is not mentioned, to the effect that the disturbances in Kwang tung and Kwang se are in a great degree owing to the spread of strange doc-trines ; for which reason he now gives orders that all the proper officers take steps for diffusing the knowledge of the

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national ethics among the people. No mention is made of the Christian religion, but it is evidently included in the term, strange doctrines. I may add here that a third edict degrades Seu ke yu, lately Governor of Fuh keen, and known to foreigners as the author of a very creditable General Geography, from his previous rank of the second class to a post of the fifth class in one of the boards at Peking. The reason given is only that he, during a long period of service as Governor, 'did not seriously exert himself in the good management of the proper affairs of the locality/ The pas-sage reads as if he had busied himself with afiairs not pro--perly his; and there can be little doubt that the Geography has, as was anticipated, caused his degradation/' *

On the 27th August, the Tae pings, having lefl the Seang district, moved into that of Yung gan, in the chief city of which they established themselves. If the reader will refer to my description of the public officials and the Yamuns or Offices at a district city, he will imderstand that this was a step of some political importance ; and the following extract from my official report of the 27th November, 1851, shows that it was so regarded by well-informed Chinese at the time:

'' During the past month we have continued to be almost without reliable details as to the proceedings in Kwang se, but enough has transpired to leave no doubt as to the general fact that the efforts of the Imperialists, to put down the

insurrection, are still unattended with success

The latest accounts state the rebels to be still in occupation of the Yung gan district city, the capture of which, and death of its magistrate, was mentioned in my report of the 25th ultimo. They are said to have raised and strengthened its walls . . • • Perhaps one of the best confirmations

* Since we hare learnt of the threatened Christian reyolntion, at that time in progrett and which originated in foreign teachings, there can be no doubt whateyer, that the Goyemor was degraded for publishing a book that showed foreigners in a much more fayourable light, than they had eyer before been known to the great body of the Chinese people.

m2

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of the little success of the Imperialists lies in the tone of a large Chinese merchant^ closely connected with, and favour-able to the Govemment, and whose means of information are very good. In the spring of this year, he declared everything to be settled in Kwang tung, and said that everything would be settled in Kwang se within two or three months. In fact he then spoke rather slightingly of the rebellion : he is now very serious on the subject, and says ' he does not know how long it will be before it is put down.'

" The number of the largest party of the rebels he states at 6000, many of whom are however boys and women. All the smaller parties together, he does not estimate at more than 10,000, making a total of about 16,000 people openly in arms against the Government. The latter has, he says, about 30,000 men in the field."

My informant, in the above case, was the son and repre-sentative in business of the former great tea merchant, whose business name of How qua is not unknown in England. I had had sufficient acquaintance with the ordinary demeanour and tone of his son and successor, a man of education as well as intelligence, to be struck with the air of grave concern and truthfulness, with which he communicated the above infor-mation ; which was fully confirmed two years later by the statements of the more sincerely religious of the Tae ping leaders at Nanking, as to their numbers at the time referred to. The "band of 6,000 including women and children" were evidently the original Godworshippers, who have always formed the nucleus and real strength of the Tae ping forces.

As we have seen from Chow teen keo's letter that the organization of these forces was the same before their occu-pation of Yung gan which we found at Nanking, I give now a summary description of it, as it then appeared to me.*

" A keun or army is composed of 13,135 men and officers, under the immediate command of a keun ahwae or General,

* Extracted from an article I contribnted in May, 1853, to the Shangbae Joamal, "The North China Herald."

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PB0CEEDING8 OF THE TAB PING BEBELS. 165

and divided into five ying or divisions, the fronts rear, left, right and centre.

CHAPTER XIII (PART 3 OF 3)

'' A ying or division is composed of 2,625 men and officers commanded by a Sze shwae or General of Division, and is divided into five ^ or regiments^ the front, rear, left, right and centre.

*' A fetf or regiment is composed of 525 men and officers commanded by a Leu ahwae or Colonel, and is divided into five tmh or companies, the first, second, third, fourth and fifth.

*' A tstih or company is composed of 104 men and officers, coDomanded by a Tsuh chang or Captain. He has under him four Leang sze ma or Lieutenants, distinguished as the East, South, West and North, each in command of four Woo chang or Sergeants and 20 Woo tsuh or privates.

" The relative standing of the Sergeants and privates is not marked by such terms as first, second &c. front, rear &c. or east, south &c. ; but the Sergeants, by characters signifying Powerful, Daring, Martial, &c. and the privates by characters signifying Vanguard-repelling, Enemy-breaking &c. These words, as well as the section, company, regiment and divi-sion, are all marked on a square cloth on the breast, larger for the sergeants than for the privates. The Leang sze ma or Lieutenants, and all above, have no such cloths ; but each has a banner with his designation inscribed on it, and the size of which increases with the rank of the officer. On these banners are also inscribed the names of places, chiefly of departments and districts in Kwang tung and Kwang se, which seem to be used analogously to the names of places attached to some of our regiments."

About the time the preceding organization was adopted. Hung sew tseuen had assumed the title of Heavenly or Divine Prince ; and on the 30th November, 1851, definitively as-signed to five of the chief leaders, subordinate princely titles, viz. to Yang sew tsing, that of Eastern Prince ; to Seaou chaou hwuy that of Western Prince ; to Fung yun san, that

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of Southern Prince ; to Wei ching, that of Northern Prince ; and to Shih ta kae, that of Assistant Prince.

^* Between the Generals of Keun or Armies and the Princes, are nine descriptions of officers distinguished bj different titles ; who are equivalent to our Ministers, Com-manders in chief and other high officers in charge of the civil, judicial, and military departments of state. The above military organization, and all the titles, are those used in olden times in China.

" The Princes wear yellow hoods, shaped like the Chinese helmet, yellow jackets and long yellow gowns. The officers next in rank, red hoods with a broad yellow border, yellow jackets and long red gowns. The third in rank have only the hood and jacket, and those lower still only the jacket.

" There was little uniformity of dress among the privates, even in the cloth round the head; and there was nothing equivalent to our systematic forming, wheeling and march-ing in regular bodies; but the strictest discipline is main-tained in so far as prompt obedience to orders and signalis is concerned. Of guns (cannon) there was abundance, of matchlocks and muskets but few, the arms being chiefly spears, halberds and swords. A few bows were noticed."

The Tae ping publications, especially that entitled " Tae ping Army Organization,^^ showed that at the time of the taking of Nanking there existed at least five such armies of 13,135 men each ; and from what I saw and heard there of their numbers, I was led to conclude, that they invested that city with some 60 to 80 thousand men. This was the result of accessions of strength to their original 10 or 15 thousand, received in the course of their twelve months' pro-gress from Yung gan in Kwang se northward to Nanking.

After they had occupied Yung gan for some seven months they left it on the 7th April, 1852, and marched to Kwei lin the capital of the province, which they besieged without success for about a month.

On the 19th May they raised the siege of Kwei lin.

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PBOCEEDINaS OF THE TA£ PING HEBEIiU 167

crossed the great southern watershed into the province of Hoonan^ aod took the Taou district city on the 12th June. A month later^ about the 12th and Ifith of August, thej took the district city of Kea ho, the departmental city of Kwei yang aud the district city of Chi a. In this position they remained some three weeks, when they left and marched straight on Chang sha, the capital of the province of Hoonan; before which they appeared on or before the 11th September. They besieged it for 80 days, during which they stormed several times without success, but with great loss to the Imperialist garrison and to the Imperialist armies of observa-tion in the vicinity. One of the contemporary Peking Gazettes gave a nominal return of 44 Imperialist officers, from ensigns upwards, inclusive of a major and a lieutenant-general, all killed in one action.

On the 30th November the Tae ping forces raised the siege of Chang sha and moved northward. But Chang sha being situated on the Seang, a large navigable feeder of the Tung ting Lake, they here began that progress in river craft which offered specially great advantages to an army, some of whose best leaders and troops had been sea rovers ; and which formed one of the chief features of their further advance. On the 13th December they had crossed the Tung ting Lake and entered the main stream of the Great River at Yo chang; which city was evacuated by the Imperialists on their approach.

They advanced on, and took the departmental city of Han yang, and occupied the contiguous great commercial town of Han kow on the 23rd December. They then immediately crossed the river and invested Woo change the capital of Hoo pih; which they took by storm on the 12th January. At these three cities, which, at a low estimate must have contained a population of three to four millions, the Tae pings remained exactly one month, during which they were occupied in transferring provisions and treasure to their vessels ; of which latter they had by this time seized a

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sufficient number to transport their now large armj with al 1 its stores.

Their progress from thence to Nanking — a distance, mea-sured by the sinuosities of the river, of some four to five hun-dred miles — was leisurely and almost uninterrupted. On the 18th February they took Kew keang, an important dty, situated near the point where the Great River touches the Po yang lake, and on the 24th Gan king, the capital of the province of Gan hwuy. From these cities, and many other places to the distance of one or two days' journey from the Great River on both sides, they collected money and provisions, either directly taken, or paid as ransom.

" On the 8th March they appeared before Nanking,* and, on the 19 th of that month, sprung a mine under the wall near the northern angle, which effected a breach of about 20 or 30 yards in extent. They immediately stormed by this, meeting with only a slight resistance from some Shan tung and Kwei chow (Chinese) troops who attempted to defend it, and proceeding to the southern quarter, entered the inner city there situated ; which in the time of the Mings was, and now is again, called the Imperial city, but which under the Manchoo dynasty has been occupied by the here-ditary garrison of Tartar Bannermen and their families. The following was the strength of this force as given in the Imperial Army Regulations : —

Vanguard Hi

Horse (archers) 1,969

Horse (musqueteers) 750

Cannoneers 61

Footmen 572

Artificers 120

El^ves (or paid expectants of one of the above

higher grades) 1,500

Total 5^06

• I here again quote from one of five successive contributions by myself to the "North China Herald," written in May, 1858, immediately after my return from Nanking in H.M. war steamer Hermes,

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBEI^. 169

** Thi8 was the paid force, but owing to the gradual increase of the families originally settled there, it is well known that the number of able-bodied men could not have been less than seven or eight thousand, and the total number of all ages and both sexes from twenty to thirty thousand. Twenty thousand was the number given by most of the in-surgents; but it is thought to be a rather low estimate. These Manchoos had to fight for all that is dear to man, for the Imperial family which had always treated them well, for the honor of their nation, for their own lives and for the lives of their wives and children. This they well knew, the Heavenly Prince having openly declared the first duty of his mission to be their extermination. It might have been expected therefore that they would have made a despe];ate light in self-defence. Yet they did not strike a blow, ^t would seem as if the irresistible progress and jxiVeteratid enmity of the insurgents had bereft them of ^U'sexid^ ^flind^' strength, and of all manhood ; for they merely thre^^^necH-selves on the ground before the Leaders ^ aijd: piteolisly implored for mercy with cries of * Spare my fife, Prince ! — Spare my life. Prince 1 ' They may 4iave h^en paralysed by the thought that their impending fate wail-, the Tetribution of Heaven for the indiscriminate slaughter of whole populations by their ancestors when they conquered the country ; as at Canton, for instance, where the Chinese still speak revenge-fully of the extermination of the inhabitants on the forces of the present dynasty taking that city. Some such explanation the Insurgents gave when it was represented * to many, who

* It was myself who represented this to them. At the yery time that Nan-king was taken, my enquiries zi Shanghae had convinced me that the Manchoo garrison had become most unwarlike ; and that they would not prevent that city from falling into the hands of the advancing rebels. Accordingly in an official report, afterwards printed with Parliamentary Papers, I felt justi-fied in stating : " All accounts describe the Manchoo bannermen as being, though very numerous, thoroughly unwarlike, and quite unable to resist the first general storm of the Insurgents." Nevertheless, I could not readily credit such irrationally abject conduct as that ascribed to them by the Insurgents, and hence subjected some of these latter to a good deal of croes

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170 THE CHINESE AND THEIB fiEB£LUON&

were questioned on this very point, how absurd it was to maintain that a laige body of full grown men with arms in their hands had submitted to be slain like so many bleating sheep. The reply was always : ' They knew heaven was going to punish them.' Only about a hundred escaped out of a population of more than twenty thousand ; the rest, men women and children were all put to the sword. * We kilkd them all/ said the Insurgents with emphasis, — the recollection bringing back into their faces the dark shade of unsparing sternness they must have borne when the appalling execution was going on — ^ We killed them all to the infant in arms: we left not a root to sprout from. The bodies were thrown into the Yang tsze.'

'^ On the Ist April early in the morning, the Insuis^ent fleet of river craft sent down from Nanking approached Chin keang. Only the Macao Lorchas,^ despatched up the river by the Shanghae Intendant, attempted resistance, the rest of the Imperial fleet flying in dismay at the sight of the enormous number of vessels moving against them. The Lorchas were also soon forced to retreat, and were pursued as far as the Silver Island. From this the Insurgents returned to Chin Keang, which they occupied unresisted; the garrison, among them 400 northern Mancboos, having fled without firing a shot. The families of the resident Tartars, warned by the fate of their compatriots at Nanking t all evacuated the place, to the number of 20,000 : only a few hundreds were caught and slain in the surrounding villages. On the following day, the 2nd April, the Insurgents occupied

quesiioning on the subject. I was however compelled to come to the eonda-fllons givea in the text It is another well authenticated example of the carious effects, which the belief in an inevitable destiny,— an irresistible teen ming — may have on the actions of human beings in certain circumstances.

* These are semi-Chinese semi-European vessels, the property of Hacao Portuguese, and chiefly manned by them.

t I was told that the English War served as a precedent for the inhabitants of the two places. We stormed Chin keang, hence its inhabitants now left it Nanking we menaced, but did not take, and hence both Manchoos and Chinese fiiaoled themselves safe there from the Tae pings.

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Kwa chow and the large city of Yang chow on the northern bank of the Yang tsze ; in like manner without resistance. A long battery of three miles of guns, that lined the river ' bank^ fell into their hands. Not one had been discharged against them."

The Hermes was eight days within the Tae ping lines, during which period their forces were busily engaged, strengthening themselves in their positions at the above named four cities.

'^ The distance from the nearest gate of Chin keang to the Ghreat Siver is about three quarters of a mile ; and in order to maintain an open communication with the latter, the Insurgents have erected a number of stockades and batteries. Kwa chow, a walled city on the northern bank, somewhat further up than Chin keang, is much nearer to the Great River, but here also several stockaded batteries have been constructed. So long as the Insurgents hold these two places they have complete command of the great channel of com-munication between the north and south of China by way of the Grand Canal, called by the Chinese the Transport-Grain-Canal, from its chief use Yang chow lies

on the Grand Canal about six or eight miles inland north of Kwa chow

^' The distance from Chin keang to Nanking by the Great River is 47 British statute miles, a portion of the river which was wholly in the power of the Insurgents, numbers of whose vessels were always on the way between the two cities. The distance from the most northerly angle of the walls of Nanking to the bank of the Great River is about half a mile, the free communication being protected as at Chin keang by ditches and stockaded batteries ; at a new one of which the Insurgents were working like ants when the Hermes weighed to leave. The distance from the most northerly angle of the Nanking walls southward to that portion of the enclosed area occupied by the present city is not less than four miles, the intervening space consisting of

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fields and gardens together with a few uncnltivated faUls,

the outer bases of which are skirted by the walls

The Insurgents had been able to build up with stone the breach by which they themselves entered ; to give the walls throughout, and particularly the parapets, a thorough repair; and to convey large quantities of rice and other proTisions from their vessels into the city. . . . • Chinese who had fled from Nanking, and who by no means sympathised with them, spoke of four, six and eight years' provisions ; and ridi-culed the idea of their ever being starved out. Guns had been planted at distances of 50 to 100 yards throughout all that portion of the wall (some ten miles) seen by the partj of our countrymen which rode into the city; and others were being carried up to the hills, mentioned above as situated within the circuit of the walls, and there planted with considerable military skill in the most commanding positions. Every day in short saw the place rendered still less assailable by an Imperialist besieging army. In the meantime General Heang yung had established his forces on the New tow Hill opposite the southern front of the city (where the Porcelain Tower stands), while his flotilla was at anchor fully ten miles above it.

^* It is difficult to make an estimate of the numbers of the Insurgents having the authority of even approximation, some accounts being manifestly exaggerations, others as cer-tainly under-statements. It is however thought that, at tho four cities in their possession there must be from 30 to 40 thousand of devoted adherents to the cause, determined to stand or fall with it. These are chiefly Kwang tung, Kwang se and Hoo nan men, all having long hair,"*^ and several of those from the latter province being officers in

* The present dynasty, on its advent, compelled all Chinese to adopt the Tartar fashion of shaving the most of the head and wearing a tail. The Tae pings have reverted to the native fashion again ; and hence are called hy the Imperialists, " Chang fa tsih, long haired rebels." Among the latter, the common men, who of course attached much weight to externals, were qaite pleased to see that we foraigners had the hair growing all over our heads.

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PROCEEDINaS OP THE TAE PING REBELS. 173

command of one or two thoosand men, (the higher leaders seemed to be all from Kwang tung and Kwang se.) Of voluntary and trusty adherents, who joined them in Hoo nan and Hoo pih, it is supposed there may be about 30 or 40 thousand more, making their total strength when they invested Nanking from 60 to 80 thousand. Besides these, there must be taken into account at least 100,000 men, perhaps double that number, of Nanking, Yang chow, and Chin keang people, who had not left these cities when they were occupied, and who are now doing duty as workmen ; as porters, trench-diggers and artificers."

When the Tae pings occupied the above four cities — two of which, Chin keang and Kwa chow, constitute together one of the most commanding military positions in the Empire — they acted emphatically and remorselessly on the high pretensions and claims of the Heavenly Prince to the persons and property of all Chinese. They seized every man, woman and child and every thing of the slightest value, and placed and stored all — human beings and things — at Nanking, their great strong-hold; which was now called the Heavenly Capital, as the residence of the Heavenly Prince and his Court. Only small garrisons of the older, and trustworthy adherents of the cause were left in the other three cities. The able-bodied males of all four cities were soon after despatched in various directions, under Tae ping generals and officers, as Tae ping armies. Their aged parents, their wives, sisters, and children, were all detained at Nanking ; employed there, in so far as they could be useful ; well fed and clothed out of the abundant common stores ; but kept strictly prisoners within the works of the city, as hostages for the fidelity of their male relatives in the field. This is the Tae ping method of pressing, or conscription,^

* This is the place to mention a circnmstanoe which strikingly proyes what I hare thought it necessary to dwell on, in order to prevent the Chinese from being still more misunderstood than they already are, viz. : that the gentlemen, who in these days devote themselves with great self-sacrifice to the propagation of CathoUdam in China, are much less able than might be mppoaed to under-

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174 THf: CHINESE AND THEIB BEBELLIONS.

We have now reached a point in the history of the Tae pings, where they ceased to move from place to place in one united body. Henceforth while occupying permanently an important position, extending over 50 miles of a large river in the heart of the country, they sent out from that position separate armies in different directions. It is the point where the Tae ping movement, in its military aspect, changed from what I have called the locomotive and concen-tratedy to what may, by way of contrast, be characterized as the stationary and distributed phase.

stand rightly social phenomena among the Chinese. In December^ 1853, eight months after oar British yislt in the Hermes, the French Minister and diplomatic saite accompanied by his official interpreter, a Macao Portognese^ and two French gentlemen, Catholie priests, went to Nanking in a war steamer chiefly, if not altogether for the purpose of collecting information. The vessel lay a .week at anchor before Nanking, and one of the mission-aries passed two nights in that city. Yet when the whole party had re-turned to Shanghae, I found that they were quite unable to account for the ascertained fact that the rebels had an enormous number of females shut up in Nanking. It was not till my explanation, giyen in the text^ was com-manicated to them that they learnt^ it was the Tae ping method of enforcing conscription. Some Protestants may be inclined to assume that the priests did know the reason, but withheld their knowledge from their lay countrymen. Were that the case it would equally proTe that the Catholic accounts of China are not to be relied on. But I do not see that it Ib at all necessary to assume anything so injurious to the character of the two gentlemen. We haye M. Hue's own authority for the fact that the missionaries in the interior are com-pelled to live too closely concealed among their co-religionists to learn anything of heathen i, e. of really Chinese life ; and then every man of experience must admit that a cloiste^educated celibataiy cannot be expected rightly to compre-hend much of what he does see in the great world. Even I, however, who had long known that the opportunities and powers of observation of the Catholic missionaries qf the present day were greatly over-rated, was surprised at their having been unable to account, when on the spot, for a striking and important fiwjt, perfectly understood by me, months before they went to Nanking.

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CHAPTER XIV

MIUTAST HISTORY OP THE TAE PINGS, APTER THE OCCUPATION OF NANKING, UP TO THE PRESENT TIME.

On or about the 12th May, 1853, an armj of Tae pings,

detached from Nanking, effected a landing on the northern

bank of the Great Siver, where they defeated, and captured

the baggage of a body of Tartars, who had been brought

down from Northern Manchooria, and on whom the Emperor

had placed great reliance. On the 16th May, they defeated

another body of Tartars at Lew ho. On the evening of the

28th May, they took the departmental city, Fung yang, from

whence they advanced by way of Po chow and Kwei tih to

Kae fungy the capital of Honan ; where they appeared on the

19th June. On the 22nd they made an unsuccessful attempt

to take Kae fung by storm. They then crossed the Yellow

River and marched to the departmental city of Hwae king,

about 100 miles to the west of Kae fung. They spent about

two months in an unsuccessful siege of Hwae king, they

themselves being, duriug the second month, subjected to the

attacks of the Imperial forces in the field, which had as-

sembled to prevent their further advance. The Tae ping

camps commanded the Tan river which, flowing eastward,

becomes further on the Wei, under which name it joins the

Grand Canal at Lin tsing, on the northern side of the highest

level of the Canal waters. It constitutes^ therefore, the head

of a continuous water communication doum'-stream to Teen

tsin, the port of Peking. This water communication is not

to be compared, in point of magnitude, with that formed by

the Seang and the Great Biver, by which the rebels had

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descended about a year before from Kwang se to Nanking ; but it is sufficiently large for the transport of the munitions of war in the smaller river craft of China ; and there can be little doubt that the prolonged efforts of the Tae pings to take Hwae king, in itself but a second-rate city, proceeded from a desire to establish there a basis of operations, and to facilitate an advance from thence, by the easy route of the Wei river and the Grand Canal, on Peking. There are two other circumstances which make Hwae king an important strategical point: the Sin river, which flows by it in the south, is an affluent of the Yellow River and opens a com-munication with the East; and it lies on the great roate which goes west through the province of Shan se to Peking. But this latter route is entirely a land road and crosses a mountain ridge.

The fact, therefore, that the Tae pings, when they raised the siege of Hwae king on the Ist September marched west-wards by it into Shan se, shows that the Imperial forces were strong enough to prevent their descent by the Wei river. The westward movement was, however, so little guarded against by the Imperialists that the Tae pings took the district city of Yuen keuh on the 4th September, and on the 12th September the departmental city of Pingyang; after taking the district cities of Fung and Keuh wuh on the way. From thence they proceeded, first in an easterly, then in a north-easterly direction by way of the district cities of Hung tung, Tun lew, Lo ching, Le ching, She been, and Woo gan — all of which they entered^to the Lin ming pass, in the ridge between the provinces of Ho nan and Chih le. They then defeated a Manchoo force, and debouched into Chih le on the 29th September. On the 30th September they entered the district city of Sha ho ; on the 1st of October, that of Jin been ; and on the 2nd those of Lung ping and Pih heang. On the 4th October they took the departmental city of Chaou chow; and on the 6 th the district city of Lwan ching. On the same day they

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took the district dtj of Kaou ching^ situated on the Bouthem bank of the Hoo to. On the 8th they left that city, crossed the Hoo to by a floating bridge, which they themselyes con-structed, and took the district city of Tsin chow. On the 9th October they took the departmental city of Shin chow, where they remained for fourteen days, till the 22nd9 when they proceeded to the district cities of Heen and Keaou ho, entering the latter on the 25th of October. From thence they proceeded by the Grand Canal to the district city of Tsing hae and to Tub lew, an unwalled town of some little com-mercial importance a few miles to the north of it. Both of these places, which they occupied about the 28th October, are situated on the Grand Canal about twenty miles to the south of Teen tsin and about one hundred miles from Peking. One of their advanced parties appeared before Teen tsin on the 30th October, but was repulsed with some loss ; and the whole army was immediately afterwards, i.e. in the first days of November, 1853, blockaded in its position at Tsing hae and Tuh lew, by the forces that had been following it from Hwae king, as well as by those detached from Peking. These latter were composed chiefly of a portion of the Manchoo garrison of that city, aided by 4,500 Mongols, veritable nomads, who had been brought in from beyond the Ghreat Wall. The want of cavalry, to cope with these bom horsemen, was doubtless one of the causes why the Tae pings were unable to approach nearer to Peking. The Imperial Guzettes and a letter despatched to me from Peking at that period showed that the Court and Capital were greatly alarmed; but the danger was averted, and they have not since been so seriously menaced.

The march of this Tae ping army from Nanking to Tsing hae is one of the most remarkable of which hbtory gives record. The whole of the above particulars are, I must observe, taken from the ** Peking Gazette,'' the Imperialist organ ; the statements in which must be interpreted as we, if without our own accounts, would interpret those about the

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178 THE CHIKESE AND THEIB BEBELU0N8.

Allies in the Buasian journals published for the Bnssian people. Now the distance which the anny marched ia its advance from Nanking to Tsing hae is not less than thirteen to fourteen hundred miles^ and the very day that it left the northern bank of the Great Biver opposite Nanking, all communication with its friends at the latter place was cut off; with the exception of such correspondence as could be maintained by disguised messengers. It was immediately followed by a force of the Imperialists^ detached from their armies of obserration near Nanking and Chin keang; apart from which the local troops always closed in its rear as it advanced. The spectacle of this army^ so isolated, making its way perseyeringly northwards, in spite of constantly accumulating difficulties in the shape of inclement weather and more numerous as well as more efficient foes, swerving first to the west then to the east, but never turning south-ward during a period of six months, — ^this spectacle speaks powerfully for the strength of the Tae ping organization. It is pretty well established that none of the five subordinate Tae ping Princes, still less the ^^ Heavenly Prince " himself accompanied it ; for the Imperialist accounts of battles fought on the route, while they make frequent mention of ''fidse Ministers," " false Army Superintendents ^ and " false Gene-rals," as they term the Tae ping ofiicers bearing such titles^ never speak of any ** false Prince " being with them. On the other hand, when the Tae ping army was engaged in its two months' siege of Hwae king, and was in its turn there attacked by Imperialist armies in the field, the fact of the '^fidse Minister, Lin fung tseang " having '< himself" headed 5,000 men in order to stimulate them in an attack, is mentioned by the Ghizette in such manner as leads to the inference that this man was the known Commander-in-chief. It was, there-fore, some of their third and fourth rate men whom the Tae ping leaders could entrust with the execution of this bold and perilous attempt on the very stronghold of the Manchoo power. How faithfully the commanders strove to carry out

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their instractions^ the reader will have perceived from the above narrative. The Gazettes gave details of a defeat — pictured as almost ruinous — inflicted on the Tae pings as ihey were approaching Eaou ching on the 6th October. That some severe losses were really sustained by them about that time, is rendered probable by the circumstance of their aide march to Shin chow, and their stay in that place of fourteen days' duration. When they eventually stopped at Tsing hae and Tub lew, it could only have been from inabi-lity to force their way further; for these places do not con-Btitute a station of strategical importance, while Teen tsin, only twenty miles farther on, lies in a commanding situation and is a very large and populous city.

No indication is given in the Gazettes of the numbers of the Tae pings at the time of their occupation of Tsing hae ; except that ''seven or eight thousand '^ are spoken of as having made a sally from it on the Ist November. Whatever their strength, they resolved to maintain themselves there, while awaiting relief from their friends at Nanking.

On receipt of the intelligence of the stoppage of their army at Tsing hae, the Tae ping leaders did immediately make preparations for despatching a second army to its aid. About the same time that the first army started for the North, another was despatched up the Great River to the Fo yang lake. This left a force in occupation of Gan king, the pro-Tindal capital of Gan hwuy; which subsequently became a basis for operations, directed northward against the central portion of that province. The district city of Tung ching was first taken, then on the 29th November, 1853, that of Shoo ching, and on the 14th January, 1864, the departmental city of Loo chow ; where the Governor of the province had stationed himself, and was then slain. Previous to this, the Tae pings had (on the 26th December) withdrawn their garrison from the large city of Yang chow, situated on the Grand CSanal a little to the north of Kwa chow. The Imperialist Commanders told me at the time that this had doubtless

n2

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180 THE CHINESE AND THEIR SEBELLIOK8.

been done in order to have more men ayailable for the field. Eighteen days later, Loo chow was, as we have seen, taken, aod on the 17 th February the district dty of Lnh gan. From their position at these two places the Auxiliary Army of the Tae pings appears to have marched for the north. The Peking Gazettes did not furnish us with the means of tracing its route so accurately as that of the first Northern Army ; but it certiunly passed by way of the Yin shang and Mung ching district cities to the Yellow River opposite the Fung district city. It crossed the river, entered the Fung district city on the 17th March, and moved straight on the important de-partmental city of Lin tsing, taking as the Emperor ex-pressed it, in censuring his officers, *' city after city " on its way. Marching at the rate of about fifteen miles a day, from Fung to Lin tsing, it appeared before the latter city on the 1st April ; and the 4th was attacked there by some of the Imperialist Generals, that had been fighting throughout the winter with the first Northern Army.

This latter evacuated Tsing hae and Tub lew, on the 5th February, 1854, just three months after it occupied that po-sition, and commenced, about nine months aft;er starting from Nanking, its retrograde lAarch. In the first instance these Tae pings proceeded only a few days' march to the south and then occupied a position, including several villages, a little to the north of the Heen district city, till the 7th March ; when they again broke up and marched into the last-named place. From thence they proceeded to the Fow ching district city, which they occupied on the 10th March. Here they are shown us, fighting with the Imperialists, in the month of June following, after which the Gazettes make no more mention of thorn. But there is much reason for believing that they effected a junction about that time with the Auxiliary Army at Lin tsing, from which Fow ching is only 100 miles distant.

The Auxiliary Army must have appeared before Lin tsing in great strength, for they took that city by storm on the

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12th April in the face of the Imperialist forces in the field ; whose Manchoo and Mongol cavaliy had been constantly attacking them from the 4th.

On the 3d May a portion of the Tae ping Northern armies agun occupied the Fung district city on the Yellow Eiver, which that portion then recrossed in its way southward; but a large portion must have remained^ for we find them taking the district city of Kaou tang — situated about forty miles to the east of Lin tsing— on the 28th May ; and it was not until the ten months later^ viz. in March, 1855, that they finally evacuated that part of the country, and made their way to the south again. With what degree of success they efifected this, the Gazettes have not furnished us with any means of judging. But the Imperialist authorities at Shanghae maintaiu, and their assertions appear to be in this instance reliable, that there are now no rebels in the country north of the YeDow River.

From what the Tae ping Commandant of Chin keang told me personally, in July, 1853, 1 infer that the Princes at Nan-king, when they despatched the first army to the north, really did hope that it might be successful in reaching and taking Peking, and that they might thus aehieve the conquest of the Empire by a bold military cowp^ In all such hopes they have been disappointed. If they, however, merely intended that their Northern Army should engage the chief attention, and all the best forces of the Imperialists beyond the Yellow River, while they were extending and consolidating their power in the valley of the Great River ; then their tactics were attended with great success. For at the very time when I had the conversation with the Commandant of Chin keang just alluded to, I saw a corps of the Imperialists, which had till then been assisting in the siege of that city, hurried away from before it — though untaken — in order to pursue the Northern Tae ping army; intelligence of whose advance to the Yellow River had just arrived. From that time up to the most recent dates, the Imperialist Provincial Authorities,

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182 THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBELLI0N8.

in the middle and south of China, have been abandoned to their own resources : no aid, whether in men or money, has been furnished by the Supreme Government. The conse-quence has been that the Tae pings have had for some two years an almost complete command of the Great Biyer firom Chin keang on the east to Yo chow on the west, together with the country on each bank, extending from 50 to 100 miles inland, and further inclusive of the two large lakes, Tung ting and Po yang, with their shores and navigable feeders. The colouring on the Map of China Proper will give the reader a tolerably accurate idea of the extent of country they have commanded. I say ^commanded,*' for though they appear to have taken every city within the terri-tory indicated that they tried to take — the important cities of Nan chang, Chang sha, and King chow excepted — ^many of the lesser district cities were scarcely worthy of a visit under present circumstances ; while only the more important places could be permanently occupied. The following dates and details close my narrative of the military proceedings of the Tae pings.

As already stated, a Tae ping army was despatched soon after the occupation of Nanking up the course of the Great River and into the Po yang lake, on the southern shore of which is situated Nan chang, the capital of Keang se. This the Tae pings began to besiege about the end of June, 1853, but^ being unsuccessful in their first attacks and the Impe-rialists having collected a force {a portion of which was drawn from their army lying in the vicinity of Nanking) which in its turn assailed them, they raised the siege on the 24th Sep-tember. But while there, they detached forces westward to the departmental city of Suy chow and southward to the district city of Fung ching ; both of which they took in the beginning of August. They soon evacuated these cities, but only, as the Gazettes admitted, after their object of collecting provisions had been attained. The Imperialist authorities in Shanghae told me at the time, that it was plain from the pro-

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LATEST MILITARY HI8T0ET OP THE TAB PINGS, 183

ceedings of this particular Tae ping force^ that the main pur-pose of its irruptiiMx into Keang Be was the collection of rice and of whatever money or other things of value it could cap-ture ; and that it had no intenticm of holding the places it en-tered. All cities near the shores of the Po yang Lake, or on the rivers that fall into it, would seem to have been visited in this manner. Thus about the 16th September the departmental city of Jaou chow and the district city of Lo ping, both situ-ated on the east of the Lake, were taken by a squadron, but evacuated almost immediately. The whole of the north of Keang se is meontioned as being commanded by the " rebels *' in March, 1854, and so it appears to have remained ever since. Nan chang, the provincial capital, has however not been taken by the Tae pings.

Li the spring of 1854 we find the Tae pings had taken Yo chow and appeared in force on the Tung ting Lake. They had penetrated a considerable distance up the Seang, where they re-entered the district city of Seang yin, one of the places occupied by them on their way down from Kwang se about a year before. They even extended their operations beyond the provincial capital, Chang sha; having taken the district cities of Seang tan and Le ling, both lying southwards from that place. On the 1 1 th June they took the departmental city of Chang tih, and on the 18th the district city of Taou yuen, both situated on the Yuen, an important south-westerly feeder of the Tung ting Lake. On the Ta keang, the Great Biver itself, they attempted the depart-mental city of King chow, which is of importance as being situated at a point on the stream which commands access by it to the west of China Proper. It is therefore held by a Manchoo garrison. They did not take this city, but they passed it and took the departmental city of E chang situated about 100 miles further up the river. This was the extreme western point to which their operations extended.

Their main force in that quarter laid siege to Woo chang, the capital of Hoo pih, in the end of April, and, after a siege of eighty days, took it on the 26th June. This provincial

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184 THE CHINESE AND THEIB fiEBELLIONS.

capital^ with the two cities of Han yang and Han kow lying opposite it on the Great Biver (and which were also taken) constitutes the most important internal mart in China. In a note at page 11, it has been shown that the population of the three places cannot be taken at less than three to four millions. The Emperor ordered the immediate decapitation of the Oovemor of the Province, who had escaped to Chang sha, where he was accordingly seized and beheaded. There had been many Imperial condemnations to death before, but since the outbreak of the rebellion this was the first occasion of an officer, so high in rank^ actually suffering capital punishment on account of failure — a circumstance which proves the great value set on the places lost.

On the 13th and 14th of October the Tae pings withdrew, after a three months' occupation, from these cities of Han yang, Han kow and Woo chang ; and about the same period from a number of the surrounding district cities that had been in their possession, and retired down the Grreat River again, in the direction of Nanking. As nearly all the cities visited by them on the occasion of this move into Hoo pih and Hoonan are situated on various affluents of the Great Siver, it is probable that their purpose was here also, as in Keang se, to collect supplies ; which could then be conveyed with much facility down-stream to Nanking. The Im-perialist Commanders who dogged them out of the province reported, as is usual with them under such circumstances, victory after victory, on re-occupying the evacuated cities ; and about the end of 1854 they were enabled to announce the clearance of the two provinces. But at the very time that this satisfactory intelligence reached the Emperor, the Tae pings again moved into Hoo pih in great force ; occupied Han kow on the 20th February, 1855, and about a month later took Woo chang for the third time. The Imperial Governor General fell when the city was stormed. This is our latest authentic intelligence of the doings of the Tae pings in the West of China.

With respect to the centre of their position, thev still

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LATEST MIUTABT HI8T0BY OF THE TAE PINGS. 185

faold^ on the northern front, Loo chow ; while on the eonth they command the Po yang Lake. On the east they have attempted no advance since April, 1853, contenting them-selves with simply holding the very important military position of Chin keang and Kwa chow, situated on the Great River where it intersects the Grand Canal. But the mails which left China in September last have brought a report of considerable interest, viz.: that the Tae ping Eastern Prince at the head of an army of 60,000 men was advancing on the departmental city of Hwuy chow, situated on the Sin gan, an affluent of the Tseen tang, at the mouth of which lies the famous and important city of Hang chow, the provincial capital of Che keang. If the report respecting this march on the part of the Eastern Prince be correct, the most obvious inference is that the Tae pings intend to attempt a descent on Hang chow, for the purpose of open-ing a communication with the sea without necessarily coming into collision with Occidental nations. For, as the reader will see from the ensuing chapters, while the international representatives of Occidental states have paid a few visits of enquiry to Nanking, and there announced a strict neutrality as to the contending parties in China, a number of the pri-vate ships and subjects of these States were from the first engaged in obstructing the advance of the Tae pings east-ward by the Great River, and have since been lending material assistance to the Imperialist besieging and block-ading forces at Chin keang and Kwa chow.

In the articles on the Tae pings and their then probable future which I contributed to the *^ North China Herald " in May, 1853, after our return from our visit of enquiry in the Hermes f I was obliged to devote a portion of my space to the refutation of the erroneous notions which were being propa-gated by some of our party, who, forming their judgments of the rebels mainly from the irregular dresses worn by the mass of these campaigners, and their somewhat wild looking long hair, pronounced the whole body to be ** low blackguards,*'

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''a set of damned ruffians/' &c. &c. Among other things they maintained that as the Tae pings were, wh^ti we left them, being gradually invested at Nanking and Chin keang by the gathering forces of the Imperialists, so they would certainly be there finally shut up and exterminated. After a short notice of their rise and extraordinary progress, I took occa-sion to oppose that opinion as follows :

'^ Is it in accordance with experience or common sense to assume that men of courage and noble ambition, such as they have proved themselves to be, will, after the wondrous success that has attended their efforts, now fold their hands and submit to be extinguished — snuffed out as it were — ^in the commanding military position their swords have won them ? We have agsun left ourselves no space to ^ve such few details as the Hermes could learn of their numbers, present position, &c. Suffice it to say that when she left they were diligently employed in strengthening the defences of the cities they hold. That work finished, they are not likely to sit down idle."

At the very time when these words were being written and published at Shanghae, a large Tae ping naval force had started for the West to collect supplies; while their Northaii Army was marching from Nanking on its bold and perse-vering attempt to force its way to the stronghold of its adversaries.

When describing, in the articles mentioned, the then Tae ping position at Nanking, Chin keang, Kwachow, and Yang chow, I stated :

" Yang chow lies on the Grand Canal about six or eight miles inland north of Kwa chow. As one of the richest cities in central China and lying at so short a distance from Ewa chow, it was of importance to the Insurgents to expel the Imperialists and possess themselves of it ; but the strength of their position in a simply military point of view would not seem to be increased by continuing to hold it, since it is necessary to detach a considerable force for that purpose,

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while the communication by the Canal would be equaUy as much in their power were they to confine themselves to the occupation of Kwa chow alone."

Seven months after that passage was written, the Tae pings (m December, 1853) did execute the very strategical operation therein indicated as expedient : they withdrew their garrison from Yang chow» and have since held Kwa chow only on that side of the river.

While estimating the power of the Manchoo dynasty to withstand the Tae pings, I wrote :

" As to Tartar Chieftains moving down with their people at their own cost, as we have seen it somewhere stated certain of them had offered to do, we can perfectly comprehend why the Emperor had, as was also stated, declined the offer. It could only have emanated from some of the hereditary Mongol Princes of whom no one knows better than the Manchoo Court that they have never forgotten their descent from Genghis Khan and his associates, the former rulers, not of China merely, but of all Asia and the east of Europe. They have always been objects of apprehension and jealousy to the reigning dynasty. It is by no means improbable that they and their followers, bred in the saddle and accustomed to the hardy life of nomadic herdsmen in sterile regions, would, if BOW brought in, be able to hold all that portion of China, north of the Yellow Biver, for years against a dynasty esta-blished in the south : but it is equally probable that they would hold it for themselves, not for the Manchoo Sovereign. As to the low, canal-intersected coimtry, south of the Yellow River, these horsemen, to whom a boat must be somewhat of a curiosity, would there have small chance of coping with the Kwang tung leaders and their army, men familiar with in-ternal navigation from childhood and now inured to the hardships and dangers of war."

Subsequent events have proved that in the above sentences, I very correctly appreciated the difficulties the Tae pings had to encounter. The jealousy of the Emperor did make

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him guard so carefuUj against the danger I have indicated, that^ even when the Tae ping Northern Army was making most alarming progress, he refrained from bringing within the Great Wall more than two Mongol princes, with 4^500 fol-lowers. But these, with the still wild Tartars of his own race, whom the Emperor brought down from old Manchooria, and from the Amour Valley, were sufficient to contend suc-cessfully with the Tae pings on the " north of the Yellow Biver.** They have^ as the narrative has just shown us, expelled the remnants of two Tae ping armies from '' that portion of China,'' after an obstinate struggle of two years' duration.

The valley of the Great Biver has now again become the exclusive scene of the war ; and on a much more extensive scale than when the Tae pings first fought their way through it to Nanking. The Tartar horsemen will assuredly do as little there as I, in 1850, anticipated; but the Imperialist Chinese mandarins, especially those who are natives of the South Eastern Coastland, have been straining every nerve to bring up semi-piratical bodies of their seafaring com-patriots against the Tae pings. At the end of a five years' ceaseless fight, these have still before them the same life and death struggle. Eighteen hundred and fifty-six will be a memorable historical year. For in the Far East and in the Near East it will see hundreds of thousands of men engaged in deadly strife for the highest earthly prizes.

I must now crave the indulgence of the reader while I make, for his sake as well as my own, an explanation of a somewhat personal nature.

I have in the last three pages and in several other parts of this volume taken pains to show that I had foreseen and distinctly foretold grave coming events ; or that I had been the first to recommend measures subsequently recognised as important and much wanted. Thus I have shown in Chapter III. of the Essay on Civilization that, nine years

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LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 18^

ago, when I wrote my work " Desultory Notes on China,'* one of its main objects was to insist on the advisability of establishing in the British Empire a system of Competitive Examinations for the Public Service, in order to enable it to withstand coming aggressions of Russia and America. The war with Russia, the frequently inimical attitude of America, and public service competitive examinations, are now the three subjects of deepest interest to England.

Again, I have shown at pages 121, 122, by an extract from the same book, and by another from a private letter, that I foresaw the advent of rebellions and dynastic civil wars in China long before they actually broke out. I did not write in one part of the book in such style as might seem to intimate that rebellion was approaching ; and in another part rather to the effect that the existing dynasty was after all strong and that serious rebellion could not well ensue ; in order that I might subsequently endeavour to prove myself a prophet by pointing to that set of oracular speculations which fitted the event. I announced rebellion only ; in the book — ^written four years before the event — I stated causes, and said '^ nothing was more likely " to ensue ; in the letter — written a year before the event — I stated that we were then actually "entering on" the first phase.

I have no intention of attempting to conceal the fact that it affords me considerable gratification to be able to establish these and other instances of political foresight by documentary evidence. I have, as an international agent by profession for some twelve years, devoted my attention to Chinese and Anglo-Chinese practical politics and to the correspond-ing theoretical studies ; and it is naturaUy very gratifying to me to find that that special application of my powers, for so long a period, has not been fruitless. But I should be alto-gether inexcusable if I had no other object than self-gratu-lation and glorification in occupying the time of the reader. The following is my justification for so doing. The erroneous conclusions arrived at by intellects of the first order has

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proved to me, that the public in the West has not jet the data necessary to the formation of independent judgments on Chinese and (therefore) Anglo-Chinese affiurs. And many men of practical sagacity at home must, I think, have felt the necessity of being guided here» more than in most cases, by the weight of authority rather than by the force of detailed arguments, the value of which they have not the means of estimating. Now the man who distinctly foretells what things taill be, gives the best evidence that he knows what things are; in other words : Prescience is the strongest proof of true Science. The reader can now perceive my object. As an international agent by profession, I cannot help taking that interest in my business, which is a charac-teristic of professional men generally. I am influenced by a strong desire to prevent our following an unsound inter-national policy in China, and to forward our national inte-rests by preserving right relations between the British and Chinese peoples. And hence in pointing in this volume to instances of political foresight, I am but the political meteor-ologist who, when anxious to gsia attention to his opinions on the present state of the political atmosphere and the measures which it demands, points to the fistct, that he has in former cases succeeded in foretelling coming convulsions of the political elements.

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CHAPTER XV (PART 1 OF 2)

STATE OP THE SEA-BOARD POPULATIONS AT THE MOUTH OF THE GREAT RIVER, ON THE APPROACH OP THE TAE PINGS,

I HAVE, in tLe last chapter, shown that I had perceived the approach of djnastic civil war in China, four years before it broke out ; and that about a year before it did actually break out as such, I had marked the positive precursory movements in the provinces to the south of the often-named great watershed. Neither I, however, nor any other foreigner — ^missionaries as little as laymen — could have anticipated, or did anticipate, that it would be a body of Chinese Christians who would first raise the standard of a dangerous rebellion, and fight as well for the propagation of their faith as for the expulsion of the Manchoos. But what none could have inferred, one missionary learnt from direct positive intelli-gence. In April, 1852, Hung jin, a relative of Hung sew tseuen, fled from the search of the mandarins to our British colony of Hong Kong; was there introduced to Mr. Hamberg; and gave him some papers respecting Hung sew tseuen, and the origin of the rebellion in Kwang se, which two years later formed the basis of Mr. Hamberg's little book. These papers Mr. Hamberg showed in October, 1852, to Mr. Boberts, who sent a sunmiary of their contents to a London periodical, " The Chinese and General Missionary Gleaner," which published it in February, 1853. It was with Mr. Boberts that Hung sew tseuen himself had studied for two months in the summer of 1847, as stated at page 87 ; and

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192 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELU0N8.

Mr. Roberts in his summarj gave by way of corroboration what he remembered of that circamstanoe : —

" Some time in IMS, or the year following, two Chinese gentlemen came to my house in Canton professing a desire to be taught the Christian religion. One of them soon returned home, but the other continued with us two months or more, during which time he studied the Scriptures and received instruction, and maintained a blameless deport-ment. That one seems to be thb Hung sew tseuen, the chief; and the narrator was, perhaps, the gentleman who came with him, but soon returned home. When the chief first came to us he presented a paper written by himself, giving a minute account of having received the book of which his friend speaks in his narrative ; of his being taken sick, during which he professed to see a vision, and gave the detiuls of what he saw, which he said confirmed him in the belief of what he read in the book. And he told some things in the account of his vision which I confess I was then at a loss, and still am, to know whence he got them without a more exten-sive knowledge of the Scriptures. He requested to be bap-tized, but left for Kwang se before we were fully satisfied of his fitness ; but what had become of him I knew not until now. Description of the man : — He is a man of ordinary appearance, about five feet four or five inches high; well built, round faced, regular featured, rather handsome, about middle age, and gentlemanly in his manners." — 77^ Chifiese and General Missionary Gleaner. London, February, 1853.

With the exception of this passage, Mr. Boberts* summary has, as an account of Hung sew tseuen and hb proceedings, been completely superseded by the fuller information given in Mr. Hamberg's book ; but its publication in the above-named number of the '^ Gleaner " is invaluable, as proving beyond all question that the narrative of Hung Jin was in no respect a fabrication concocted by him from reports of what we learnt in April, 1853, by the visit of the Hermes to Nanking.

In December, 18^1, some months before the above direct

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positive information respecting the origin and the religious features of the rebellion were communicated to Mr. Hamberg at Hong Kong, I had left the south of China for Shanghae.

Before doing so^ I had been in the habit of sending in to Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary monthly reports of the military progress of the rebellion in Kwang se« This work I however gave up on removing to Shanghae, at the mouth of the Great River, where it was no longer my province to keep watch over the political movement in Southern China. But when the rebels crossed, in June, 1852, the southern watershed into the valley of the Great Biver, it again became my duty to note their progress, and I accordingly commence(!t .my periodical reports. But my knowledge of the Chinese mind, joined to the dejected admissions that Protestant.missionaries of many years* standing occasionally made of the J^itless-ness of their labours, had convinced me that Cbp^ianity, as hardened into our sectarian creeds, e4>uld n^t pos8i1[)ly find converts among the Chinese, except here and there perhaps an isolated individual. Consequently when it was once or twice rumoured that the large body of men who were setting Imperial armies at defiance *^ were Christians,'* I refused to give the rumour credence. It did not occur to me that the Chi-nese convert, through some tracts of a Chinese convert, might either fail to see, or (if he saw them) might spontaneously eliminate the dogmas and congealed forms of merely sectarian Christianity, and then by preaching simply the great religious truth of a One God, and the pure morality of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, obtain numbers of followers among people disgusted with the idolatry and the immorality that they and those around them were engulfed in. As we have seen above, this was actually the case with Hung sew tseuen. The same incredulity that I entertained characterised the foreign commu-nities generally. Viewing the small success — the almost no-success — of adult proselytism, in spite of the ten years* efforts of the missionaries under their eyes, at and near the Five Ports, they could not credit the few vague and confused

o

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IH THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

reports that did reach us to the effect, that the army of rebels were Christian converts. These few reports appeared at intervals in the columns of a Hong Kong journal, *' The Friend of China." They were, as the sequel proved, sub-stantially correct ; and to the editor of that journal belongs the credit of having first obtained and promulgated them. But unfortunately he had at his command no one sufficiently acquainted with the Chinese language, institutions, &c. to be able rightly to appreciate, and to put into an authoritative shape the undoubtedly valuable intelligence he succeeded in obtaining through native agents. Hence the vagueness and confusion alluded to.

In stating the above particulars, my object has been to lead the reader to understand and to picture to himself the fact, that until after the rebels had taken Nanking, the circum-stance of the movement having been originated and guided by a sect of native Christians was practically unknown to the foreigners at the Five Ports. We marked the progress of the rebels as exhibited in the admissions of the Peking Gazette, for more than two years ; and we saw large bodies of troops despatched to act against them ; but of that peculiar feature which has given the movement its deepest interest for the Occident, we remained ignorant The mandarins told us nothing ; they were, of course, only anxious to keep from our knowledge what they might naturally conclude would have excited our sympathies.

The Intendant of the Soo sung tae Circuit, whose station is Shanghae, and who is the Authority with whom the Foreign Consuls there deal in all international affiurs, was at the time when the Tae pings first descended on Nanking, a native of Canton, named Woa He was an example of that abnormal class of mandarins whom the Imperial Government, constrained by financial difficulties, had re-cently admitted in large numbers : he had purchased all the official steps up to the Intendancy. He had not passed even the lowest of the Public Service Examinations ; had little or

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STATE OF SEA-BOARD OK APPROACH OF TA£ PINGS. 195

no acquaintance with the national political literature; and could not even speak intelligiblj the mandarin Chinese, i.e. the Chinese as pronounced by the higher classes, and whidi is in 60 far equivalent to the English of educated Londoners or the Parisian French. He had however a special acquire-ment which put him out of the class of mere commission buyers: he could speak the broken English which I have noticed at page 56. And having commenced life and made his money as one of the class of brokers there mentioned, he was supposed to be specially fitted to deal with the trading barbarians. I believe there is no other mandarin in the Imperial service — there is certainly no other mandarin of the rank of Inteudant — who can converse, however imperfectly, in an Occidental language.

Ajb the rebels descended the Great Biver, this Intendant, Woo, showed a commendable zeal in his Imperial Master's behalf, by fitting out at Shanghae and despatching to Nanking some score of vessels of southern pirate-build and rig, each well armed with six or eight foreign guns, and manned by crews of his compatriots, coastlanders of Kwang tung. These, as low sea-going vessels with flush decks, were much better fitted for fighting and for manoeuvering in the broad stream of the lower portions of the Great Biver than the high, clumsily-decked but smaller merchant craft which the Tae pings had collected on its upper affluents and were employing to convey them down-stream. Nevertheless, the numbers of the latter enabled them to drive the Intendant's Kwang tung squadron before them, when they met some days' sail above Nanking. When this intelligence reached him, he was at length com-pelled to apply for the aid of foreigners ; but as he could not commit his Government to the step of inviting the assistance of a foreign State as an ally, he, in the first instance, proposed to Mr. Consul Alcock to hire the vessel on the station, H.M.^8 sloop LUy. Having been informed that such a pro-posal could not even be communicated to her Commander, the increasing imminency of the danger to Nanking squeezed

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out of him a formal despatch reqaesting that her services might be lerU to him. Capt. Sanderson declined acceding to the request. This was a wise course in a political point of view, though he was careful to base hb refusal on the purely professional ground of the inadequacy of so small a vessel as a sixteen-gun brig — a sailing vessel — to operate with effect in the rapid currents of the Great River against the hundreds of rebel craft which the Intendant spoke of. The Intendant then begged that letters might be sent to Hong Kong for war steamers; and in the meantime he, with the mandarins at Ningpo, succeeded in hiring, and despatched up the Great Biver, thirteen Macao Portuguese lorchas, vessels such as those fitted out by Intendant Woo himself, but larger, with more of the foreign build in them, and manned by Macao Portuguese, to certain of whom they belonged. On the 21st March Sir George Bonham arrived at Shanghae in the Hermes, which was accompanied by the Salamander, both war steamers ; whereon Intendant Woo renewed his applica-tions for assistance by word and by letter, and in his own name as well as on the part of his superior, the Governor of Keang soo. While this was going on it began to be rumoured that Nanking had fallen ; and at length, on the 5th of April, I received a letter from an agent that I had despatched up the country, not only corroborating the rumours as to Nanking, but giving us the first intelligence of the fall of Chin heang; from which to Shanghae there is a direct water communica* tion as well by the Grand Canal as by the Great River — ^by the " inner river " and the " outer river." The population of the four large intermediate cities, as also that of Shanghae now began to fly, carrying with them such of their household effects as they could remove at a time when every conveyance was taken up ; and the foreign residents began to take steps for enrolling themselves into a volunteer corps, and for throwing up field works, batteries, &c., around their settlements.

The tract of country which was the scene of this panic and

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STATE OP SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 197"

preparation is one of the most remarkable in the world. From Hang chow on the north bank of the Tseen tang^ and Cha poo on the northern shore of its estuary, the Hang chow bay, northward to Hwae gan on the south side of the Yellow River, the whole country is a vast alluvial flat extending along the sea for some 300 miles, and inland to the distance of 100 to 120 miles. Through the length of this alluvial plain, but nearer its inland than its seaboard edge, runs the Bouthem portion of the celebrated Grand Canal ; while it is crossed at about its middle by the Great Biver. It has in fact been formed in the course of long ages by the deposits of the Great River— the third in the world — and those of its sister stream the Yellow River. The yellow waters of both continue to this day to form a land which is gradually banking its way into the sea. The large island of Tsung ming, now a well cultivated and populous district, was originally nothing but a mud bank ; and there is not a stone upon it which has not been carried thither. Twelve years ago, there was in the Great River, off the mouth of its Shanghae affluent, a low bank which the tides then regularly concealed from the view of the newly-arrived foreign community. It is now cultivated, and has houses on it, with people con-stantly living in them. The whole of this alluvial plain, which has now the extent of the kingdom of Portugal, was formerly sea, sparingly studded with islands, either standing isolated like that called Gutzlafi^, now at the mouth of the Great River, or in groups, like the Rugged Islands and others further south. As the land advanced eastward, what were formerly islands in the sea became hills in the plain. The isolated picturesque Kwan shan which stands on the way from Shanghae to Soo chow, within the walls of the district city to which it gives its name, was formerly a Gutz-laff ; and " the Hills " which one can discern from the British church steeple at Shanghae were a group of Ruggeds. But these hills are few and widely separated, the character of the whole tract indicated being essentially that of an alluvial

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plain, which is seldom more than two or three yards above Bpring tides, and is in many places below them. Besides being traversed by the Grand Canal and crossed by the Great Biver, this alluvial plain is intersected by a thick network of water communications, which can neither be called rivers nor canals. They are the channels which, as the mud flats were reclaimed from the sea in past ages, were specially kept open to allow the rain water that fell farther inland a free passage outward, as also for the purposes of irrigation and easy water communication. As they approach the sea the rapid tidal currents impart to them the appearance of rivers, while farther inland their sluggish flow and artificially maintained banks give them the look of canals. The alluvial plain is bounded, as said, by the Yellow Biver on the north and Hang chow bay on the south ; but it belongs essentially to the Great Biver, with which the system of water communication just described is directly and freely connected at many points. The Yellow Biver, which lies higher and hence causes devastating inundations when it bursts its banks, is separated from this water system by dams and sluices; while, at its southern extremity. Hang chow bay is separated from it by a bank that runs from the city of Hang chow down past Cha poo to the mouth of the Great Biver. The rain which falls at Cha poo does not run into the Bay at hand, but flows by a navigable canal-river^ est-y / -ward, past Shanghae, into the estuary of the Great Biver. The reader will now understand that a boat may start from Shanghae and visit the whole of this alluvial plain, in size equal to Portugal, crossing and recrossing the Grand Canal from<feast to west, land the Great Biver fron/north to south, i V each at many different points, without ever being impeded' by locks or dams, or even without its being absolutely neces-sary that the crew should land if they have any object in keeping close to their vessel.*

• See Essaj on Ciyillzation, Clukpter III.i for some further description of the alluTial plain ; which in its greatest extent may be said to consist of the whole proyince of Eoang soo, with the northern angle of Che keang.

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STATE OF 8EA-B0ABD ON APPBOAOH OF TA£ PINGS. 199

When at Canton^ I had an excursion-boat in which I used to explore the numerous intersecting riyer passages in the Delta around that city. Apart from the personal gratification which it afforded me to see, and know the nature of the sur-rounding country, I^ as already shewn, felt convinced that troublous times were coming, when knowledge of the various river branches would be valuable in a public point of view. It so happened that I left Canton before the expected troubles reached the place. But as soon as I had established myself at Shanghae, I set about the fitting up of a boat, suitable for the somewhat different inland navigation there. At Canton the hostility of the people to foreigners — a hos-tility the fruit of some two centuries of mutual under-estima-tion, prejudice and rows, recently ripened in their minds by a conviction that we intended seizing their country, — this hostility was so great, that I and my brother, who usually accompanied me, could rarely land except (well armed) at the foot of some hill, by ascending the ridge of which we attained our object of seeing the country, while keepiog our boat and the way of retreat to it in view. By this means we however did manage to see in the course of two or three years a good deal of the surrounding country.* But the risk

* Only one other foreigner, Dr. Ball, an American Medical Missionary, saw as much — or perhaps more, ffe effected his object partly by prescribing for diseases, but more by purely moral agencies. His "ammunition," as he called it, consisted of tracts which many of the rustics were curious to read as exposi-tions of doctrine, and which nearly all of them were glad to get for the sake of the comparative Chinese and Foreign Almanack of the current year that Dr. Ball wisely appended to most. I accompanied him once or twice, and he would not even permit me to take even a walking-stick — on the contrary I was armed irith some of his ammunition. We were usually mobbed, and that by stalwart, Bon-bumt rustics armed with agricultural implements really formidable as weapons of offence ; but they formed curious and amused mobs whose only object was to get from us all our " ammunition." When Dr. Ball visited a new locality, the following process usually occurred. So soon as he was perceived approaching a village, the inhabitants would be summoned out and would approach him with really hostile intentions— sometimes they actually began pelting him with stones. He immediately discharged at the top of his voice the pacificatory moralagency shot that he had merely come to give them good books, and that if they did not want him to enter their village or walk in their

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was considerable; six of our mercantile countrymen who landed only a few miles above Canton, without taking the precautions we always took, had their retreat cut off and were killed; many others have sustained grave injury; and though we ourselves did avoid actual collision, we were more than once on the very point of a most unequal fight ; so that three well-paid crews — fifteen men — left me in succession rather than expose themselves to the constantly threatening danger. But at Shanghae and Ningpo, the English have only been known for twelve years, and from the first known either as irresistible fighters, or as wealthy merchants, whose presence was giving a great impetus to production and com-merce. There we are, if not liked, at least feared; and until the disturbances of the last two years, the assemblage of troops, &c., engendered a somewhat different spirit and brought many bad characters to the neighbourhood, foreigners could, unarmed, make excursions in any direction with the most perfect safety so long as they avoided very large cities, and the somewhat independent fellows from the mountainous province of Shantung, who lead the migratory life of navi-gating the Imperial Grain Junks to and from Peking on the Grand Canal. Let the reader add to this safety — which

fields lie would of coune go back to Us boat again and leaye. This mental shot always told with effect on the reasoning Chinese, and silenced their physical artilleiy of stones. They saw a comprehensible object for his coming, which was not that of spying the land in order to seize it ; and his readiness to yield to "min tsing, the feelings of the people,** operated on their good nature. So far as I remember he told me that the invariable result of these encounters was his being invited into their viUagea and homes. The western foreigner who hears of the Cantonese murders and murderous assaults —those in the text not less than others— committed not by robbers but by the countiy population^ must bear in mind the above; which is literal and sober fact I hare dwelt much on the turfndent character of the South Eastern Coastlanders. But it must be remembered that their turbulence is merely relative, as com-pared with the extremely quiet disposition of the inhabitants of central China. While they are undoubtedly energetic and persevering, they must not for a moment be pictured as resembling, in riotous disposition, the unculUvated Irishman. At bottom they too possess the national character of indisposition to violence as a means of dealing with other men. For several reasons my brother and I could net adopt Dr, Bairs procedure.

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might be called perfect when one thinks of our highway murders and robberies — the presence of fine pheasants in abundance in the cotton-fields, and of wild-fowl of many varieties and in great quantity on the waters, together with the absence of game and preserve laws ; and he will at once get view of an important feature of foreign life at Ningpo and Shanghae, and at the same time understand .why I on being stationed in that quarter, immediately set about the fitting up of an excursion and shooting boat.

While there is a certain generic resemblance in all the boats that are employed on the river passages of the great alluvial plain, there are numberless varieties formed by differences in the deck, cabins, masts and sails. When the opium trade extended to the north, the inland smugglers naturally selected the quickest ; and J as naturally followed their example when selecting a craft for an excursion boat ; the kind chosen being, the reader must remember, still far more largely used for legitimate than for illicit trafiSc. With a view to quicker movement with an equal crew, I de-termined it should be as small as possible, provided that it gave BufiScient accommodation to myself and servants, with my traps, dogs, &c. A small boat had the further very im-portant recommendation that it could pass through compara-tively narrow and shallow river passages, and under low bridges — things which my preparatory questioning of old shooters taught me had often stopped their roomier craft. All boats throughout that extensive river system are pro-pelled, the large ones by two or more sculls, the small ones by one scull. The sculls have very broad blades with pecu-liarly formed long handles, balanced (by means of a hole about midway between blade and grip) on a short, round-headed iron bolt. The men work them standing, stepping forward with a push and throwing themselves back with a pull ; thus making the blade perform wide sweeps from side to side in the water, like the broad tail of an enormous fish. There is a natural beauty in the motion, for, when following

CHAPTER XV (PART 2 OF 2)

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close after a large boat in dear water^ I could sit for minutes watching the sweeps of the scull blades as one might watch waves surging regularly over rocks. The rate at which one such scuUy worked by two men only» will propel a heavy boat would surprise the home-reader. One scull in a boat gives it a regular but very strong oscillatory motion, render-ing most kinds of occupations inside impossible. Two sculls on the other hand, one at each quarter of the little stem deck, neutralise the oscillating tendency by mutual counter-action. The opposite scullers keep time, step forward to-gether till their heads nearly touch, then throw themselves back till their bodies hang well over the two sides, the boat is sent forward with great force and perfect steadiness ; and you inside the cabin, if at your dinner can fill your glass to the rim, or if you have pen in hand can look quietly at the cabin roof for your idea, or if in bed can fall off to sleep, your person being in each case quite unshaken, and your mind rather soothed than otherwise by the regulated thudding and stamping on the deck behind of the scullers' bare feet, whose movements are — to conclude this long sentence with a little poetic effusion— oft accompanied by the low and wild but simple chant of the celestial boatmen of the inner waters, i.e. by a really not unmusical kind of song that they hum away at in order to keep up the steam for their rather hard work. I had six men, four of whom sculled while two rested.

My boat, I describe from memory and cannot therefore give quite exact dimensions, but the boating and yachting reader will be able to form a tolerably good idea of her appearance and accommodations from the foUowing; in which he must however supply the word abotd before all the figures. She was thirty-five feet long, with a moveable deck (or deck planking) all over at two feet above the water-line. Where deepest she drew twelve or fifteen inches. In the transverse section her bottom was flat elliptical. She was deepest and broadest at twelve feet from the stem, where she

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measured seven and a lialf feet across at the level of the deck and six and a half on the bottom. Eight feet further for-ward, the breadth was reduced to seven feet at deck and six feet at bottom. This broadest portion of eight feet of the hold was divided as a separate compartment from the por-tions forward and aft by two strong hard wood, water-tight partitions; and had a wooden house built over it From deck to the roof of this house (which was, like the boat's bot-tom, flat elliptical) the height was four feet ; and here when the boat was in native hands the crew or chance passengers would sit or lie on their bedding, while opium or other valu-able cargo was stowed away in the water-tight compartment underneath them. But I immediately discarded the deck planking, put in a flooring a few inches above the bottom, and thus got a cabin eight feet long, about six and a half high, and averaging six and a quarter in breadth. This, I may tell the untravelled reader, is much more than a lieutenant of a man-of-war gets for himself and all his outfit during his three years' commission ; and is a space which a steam-boat com-pany will mercilessly compel three first class passengers to sleep and dress in, during a twelve days' voyage within the tropics. I bought a boat nearly new, but still one which had been some time engaged in the smuggling traffic, which was the best guarantee of efficiency. I had the moveable panels of wood, reaching from the fore-deck to the roof of the cabin and constituting its front entrance, entirely replaced by smalUpaned glass sliding panels, which thus formed at once a spacious window and a nearly air-tight door. This very occidental-looking window-door I could, as the reader will hereafter learn, easily conceal irom view when I wished, and as it rendered all side-windows unnecessary I was thus enabled to seclude the interior arrangements entirely from persons outside ; while I was careful in refitting the boat to conserve her external appearance of a well-found native craft. This I did for the express purpose of travelling unnoticed throughout the alluvial plain I have described. Were I a

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foot shorter in person than I am, I could, by hiding my deep« set occidental eyes under a pair of the broad-rimmed Chinese spectacles, travel openly all over China with small riek of detection. But my length of six feet one inch, which is not common among ourselves, approaches the gigantic among the shorter Chinese race ; it immediately attracts general attention, and then the deep-set eyes, the beard however closely shaven, and even the short hair on the hands and wrists, are all marks that unfailingly lead to detection. By adopting the Chinese tail and dress, and using a boat containing nothing foreign whatever, not even a penknife, I could, by shamming sick and keeping a sitting or lying posture when the internal Customs' examination were being made, travel through the country after the fashion of the Catholic priests ; but that mode implies a considerable amount of privation ; and as the Customs' examinations are not many, I hoped to be able to effect my purposes by fitting my boat up internally as com-fortably as possible for an Englishman, externally as an ordinary Chinese boat of the same class.

The fore-deck narrowed from its breadth of seven feet at front of the cabin to three feet at the bows ; which were square on deck, though the hull underneath was rounded. For four feet back from the bows to the hole in which the foremast was stepped when used, there were no bulwarks, and thus a space was kept perfectly free, from'which the anchor could be thrown, or a man work with a pole, when there was a crowd of boats or other danger of collision. But immediately behind the foremast there was a low wooden door across the deck, from whence ran on both sides a two feet high bulwark back till it joined the cabin. At two places in the length of the fore-deck a light wooden arch could be fitted together, spanning from bulwark to bulwark, and as the top of the little door in front was also arch-shaped, the whole of the fore-deck (with the exception of the little working space at the bows) could be transformed into a house by drawing over it some strong double mats, each large enough to reach over the arches from

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bulwark to bulwark. As the first mat overlapped the roof of the cabin, was itself overlapped by the second, &c., while each overlapped the bulwarks, and was tied down to them ; a long low cabin was thus formed, tolerably protected from the wind and altogether impervious to the rain. These large mats when not thus employed were conveniently spread over the roof of the cabin. The mainmast was stepped immediately in front of the cabin, but when the boat was not under sail both it and the foremast were slung along the outside of the boat a little below the level of the deck, one on each side, and both projecting a foot or so beyond the bows. In this position they protected the boat in a crush as fenders or buffers ; and also served as a road for the boatmen to get from the stem to the fore deck, though the roof of the cabin was the usual route. Immediately behind the cabin compartment, was another smaller one of three feet, separated from the stem deck by a partition with a sliding door, just as it was itself separated from the main cabin. The wooden roof extended over both. On one side of this small cabin a compact cast-iron boat cook-ing stove (an English thing) was placed, while the rest of the space was devoted to my cook. The crew had their cooking apparatus under the stem deck further aft The stem deck which measured some nine feet fore and aft with an average breadth of six feet, was protected from sun and rain by a rec-tangular mat raised on wooden posts to the height of about seven feet above it, and three feet higher than the roof of the cabin, over which the scullers could thus look when propelling the boat on her course. At night, when at anchor, the sides of this space were completely enclosed by additional mats ; and there the crew slept — ^the head boatman only taking his bedding to the front and sleeping under the mat-roofed house, which was at night always put up over the fore-deck. The fore part of the forehold was fitted up as a snug doghouse, while the larger after portion was divided into compartments for stowage of my bundle of blankets, changes of shooting chaussure, liquors, my moveable table, &c. &c. The chief

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cabin which, as said, was eight feet long bj six and a half high and six and a quarter broad, was fitted up in exact accordance with a minute plan of uiy own, bj which every half inch of space was utilized. The two water-tight bnlk-heads, extending from the boat^s bottom to the level of the deck, I did not alter; and as egress in front was achieved by stepping up over the fore one, so the communication with the cook's place behind was maintained by a two feet broad slidiiij^ door fitted between the aft one and the roof, through which I myself could manage to pass out, and which was therefore ample in size for the smaller and more supple Chinamen. From front to back of the cabin there was down the middle an open passage of three feet in breadth. In the fore part of this open space, a firm but easily unshipped table was set up at meal times, or when I wished to write. It was three feet broad by four in length, so that, as club-diners know, two people could dine at it with perfect comfort. Measuring from the front, the first six and a quarter feet of the cabin on each side of the middle passage, was a well-cushioned long seat that at night formed a sleeping berth, one much more convenient than the passenger of a steamer usually gets. Under each of these seats were shelves for three gun-cases besides a back locker and drawers, which gave room for an ample stock of clothing. The next six inches of the length of the cabin was devoted to two racks, one on each side, and in each of which two double barrels and a long duck gun could stand ready for instant use if an alarm either of wild fowl or wild men were given. I may be an inch or half-an-inch out in the above dimensions but hardly more, for, as said, I myself planned all the cabin arrangements and recollect them still very well. Now if the reader will calculate, he will see that there still remained fifteen inches of the length of the boat (just where she was broadest) on each side of the three feet middle-passage. These spaces were devoted to safe, sideboard, cellar, &c. &c. &c., arranged in the best possible manner — the heavier articles being at the bottom — as two dozen of

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STATE OP SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OP TAB PING8. 207

wine and beer in the lowest space on one side, and the piles of double-bottomed hot-water plates and dishes on the other. In the open space between these arrangements my body ser-vant stood when I was dining, separated only from my chef by the eliding door at his back, with everything so much at hand that I was in fact more rapidly served by one man there than by two in my house.

In the two parts of this volume I have touched on no nnall variety of subjects. Let me here say a word for the gourmand: I never in my life ate such delicious pan-cakes as I got in that boat. Every man of the commonest sense, and possessing that rudimentary knowledge without which he is placed beyond the pale of humanity by ceasing to be truthfully definable as a cooking animal — every such man is aware that scientifically infused caloric is an essential element of a true pancake. Now my last cook, who was two years with me but whose name I never knew, and my last body servant, who was four years with me and who was called " Yang chun^ Eternally obedient " — these two young men seemed to take a special pleasure in serving me the pancakes under circumstances so calorific that it was as much as the skin of my fingers was worth to touch the hot-water plate on which each thin, delicious, smoking — I had almost said fizzing — morceau was separately served up. And as I ate, they kept on preparing and serving, till I was fairly <ickiet&d by a repast of which these pancakes were but one solitary though most admirable trait. Let the sportsman now suppose me to have had a satisfactory day's shooting; let the gourmand imagine me sitting down hungry to a dinner such as that just hinted at, with the boat anchored head to wind, and the sliding doors just opened sufficiently to waft all odours out aft ; let the philosopher then conceive me, my bed having been arranged, lying down in it with a pair of candles behind my head, my mind tolerably satisfied with things in general, and an interesting volume of Chinese or German metaphysics in my hand ; let the darmeur then picture me sinking in due

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time gently into forgetfulness, roused but for a moment by the light reading just mentioned falling on my nose^ laying the volume aside, extinguishing the candles, and then settling myself comfortably in the bedding and going off into one of those luscious sleeps, the beginning of which is like biting slowly into a mellow peach, and which continue in deepest unconsciousness for eight hours of unbroken repose ; let all picture this to themselves, and then all — sportsman and^otcr-mandy philosopher and dormeur — will give me ready credence when I say that many of the pleasanter hours of my life were passed during my shooting excursions on the " inner waters" of China.

To resume the narrative. When the panic and the terror of the advancing rebels, mentioned at page 19, as having seized the populations in and around Shanghae were at their height, I, on the 7th April, went into the city to communicate to the Intendant the decision of Sir G. Bonham as to the question of aid. I was received at the gates of his yamun with the Chinese salute of three guns, but observed as my sedan was carried through the outer courts, that they had a deserted look ; and that the Intendant himself while going through the customary civilities of reception, seemed very downcast* When we were seated, and I had delivered my message, to the effect that the British would defend their lives and pro-perty against all attacks, but that no aid would be given him in the defence of the city, he looked to the ground for a while, shaking his head in silence; then casting a glance around the apartment said quietly, " My domestics are leav-ing me.*' He afterwards asked me what I thought he should do. I advised him, as a Kwang tung man who could speak English and, as he himself often mentioned, had begun life as a merchant, to retire with his family and property to Hong Kong, where he could, among his own compatriots and English merchants, occupy himself with trade. The then panic having passed over, he remained at Shanghae ; and after

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]*unning great risks and suffering many indignities, was ulti-mately deprived of the Intendancy and is, if not a pri-soner at Peking, now assisting in some subordinate capacity, in the operations against the Tae pings. Yet he did more to stop the advance of these latter eastward, than any other Imperial mandarin. About the time I saw him as above stated, he was purchasing three or four American and English merchantmen, which he subsequently despatched to Chin keang after they had been armed, and had been officered and manned by English and Americans. In the meantime the Portuguese lorchas sent up had, on the approach of theTae pings to Chin keang, played the part described as follows by several eye-witnesses^ — in particular by three mandarin fol-lowers who viewed the proceedings from the top of the hill that abuts on the Great River on the north-east of the city, about midway between Golden and Silver Islands: —

The firing commenced at early dawn. When the spectators got up to the top of the hill mentioned, they found that the Portuguese lorchas aided by Intendant Woo's Kwang tung vessels were, with the help of a south-east wind, repel-ling the Tae ping fleet. It was misty at this time. The Tae ping fleet retired some three or four miles above Golden Island. At about 10 A.M. the wind changed to the north-east, and the weather cleared. The Tae pings then hoisted sail and bore down in full force with a fair wind and tide. The whole face of the river was covered with their fleet of up-country craft. A large red flag was hoisted as the signal to advance, and when a black flag was hoisted the firing began. Nothing was then heard but the roar of the guns. As the Tae pings approached the Imperialist vessels, they discharged numbers of rockets which set fire to their sails. About this time tho temples on Golden Island were seen to be in flames; and Intendant Woo's Kwang tung vessels fled. The Portuguese lorchas also retired, but kept firing back into the pursuing fleet. They thus all passed under the hill on which the

P

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narrators were standing. At about 12 o'clock the Lorchas were as far down as Silver Island, when they also ceased firing and fled. The Tae pings did not pursue them, but after setting fire to the temples on Silver Island, returned to Ching keang and prepared to land ; seeing which, the narrators made off as hard as they could in the direction of Tan jang. They said that the '^ barbarians " in the Portuguese Lorchas fought really well, and, before their powder was exhausted, crippled and sank great numbers of the Tae ping vessels. This was the first intercourse of the new Chinese Christians with the Catholic Christians of the West.

The lorchas retired to a point twelve miles below Chin keang, where they were joined by the above-noticed Occidental vessels bought by Intendant Woo, and manned by English and Americans. When the Hermes passed up toward Nanking three weeks afterwards, the whole squadron took the oppor-tunity to follow her to Chin keang and Kwa chow, where they cannonaded the Tae ping positions, and made prizes of five or six unarmed junks. That was the first intercourse of the new Chinese Christians with the Protestant Christians of the West.

Before describing the Hermes' visit to Nanking, I shall give, in the ensuing chapter, an account of the circumstances which led to it, particularly of an attempt made by me to reach the rebels by way of the Grand Canal, in the course of which I had opportunities of observing the state of the country in the in-terior of China, there where it is thought likely to become the scene of war, and to mark how the Imperial forces moved from one position to another. On the(7th April,\the inhabi-tants of Shanghae were as stated seeking safety in^he country from the dangers of the expected attack on that city, and even the Intendant's domestics, whose means of information were good, were deserting him from fear of the advancing rebels. On the^th, a paper began to be handed about purporting to be a C9Py of a proclamation issued by Lo and Hwang, two

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STATE OP SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH X)F TAE PINGS. 211

rebel leaders, in which threats were held out against the foreigners at Shanghae. I was at the time strongly inclined to believe this a fabrication of the Imperialists or others who wished to get up an inimical feeling between foreigners and tbe rebels. And after we had ascertained the Christianity of the Tae pings, I had no doubt that, whether fabricated or genuine, it was purposely played into our hands to prevent friendly communication between us. Throughout the period of his attempts to obtain our aid, Intendant Woo gave not the slightest hint of the peculiar religious feature of the rebellious movement, though his own mind must have been full of it, and though he was well aware we should consider it a circumstance of much weight. We were still, at the period I speak of, practically ignorant of it. We were, indeed, totally without reliable data to guide us as to the intentions of the rebels toward foreigners. Hence we were adopting measures to defend the settlement, so as to be prepared for every contingency. But the aspect of affairs being such, it seemed to me highly necessary that some direct communica-tion should be opened with the rebel chiefs. Without suspecting what information it was that the mandarins were withholding, I saw clearly that they were under the influence of an unusually strong spirit of mystification and reticence ; and that if the rebels were actually advancing on Shanghae, we ought to have some speech with them while there was at least a chance of modifying hostile prepossessions. My offer to go myself was accepted. My wish was rather to have proceeded by the Great River, which I had formerly ascended on exploring excursions — once for some fifty or sixty miles — and on which I knew I could, if necessary, constrain the boat-men to take me right up to the walls of Chin keang. On the (jrrand Canal I had no power to enforce my wishes, inasmuch AS the boatmen could leave me at any time they pleased by wading or swimming to the bank ; and the panic was so great that I had no hope that money would induce any of them to take me within a day's journey of the rebels. But Sir G.

r 2

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Bonham wished me to proceed by the Canal; and there was this to be said in favour of the latter route, that if the rebels were really advancing I could tcaii till they came up to me, though deserted by the boatmen ; while by the Great River route I should, if they advanced by way of Soo chow, miss them altogether. ^

I accordingly started on the evening of thQ[9th April for Soo chow and the Grand Canal, in my own excursion and shooting boat. ^ > -> w' ' \ -

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BXCUK8I0N ON THE GRAND CANAU 213

CHAPTER XVI (PART 1 OF 3)

EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL TO OBTAIN INFORMATION RESPECTING THE REBELS.

The reader will understand from what has been said above of the internal navigation, of the boats, and of the physical disability of height, which rendered it nearly impossible for me to pass myself as a Chinese in broad daylight on shore ; that it was necessary for me to have an agent with me, of somewhat higher station and greater information than a servant, to land and do much for me that I could not do for myself. The best man I knew at that period, I had (page 196) already despatched in the direction of the rebels. But having long felt the practical value of the Chinese political maxim that the requisite for the efficient despatch of business is able men, I was careful to keep at all times a list of the ablest I could get knowledge of, and whose circumstances were such that it would be in my power to command their services. It was in the then position of affairs not to be expected that any orderly living individual would be prepared, at short notice, to start on an expedition which combined several risks; but I sent into the city for a fellow — we will call him Fang — who as a native of Teen tsin spoke excellent mandarin, had eonsiderable literary ability, great experience of the life of Yamuns, and, lastly, that reckless indifference to possible contingencies which is often seen in the confirmed opium smoker. As I expected, he followed my messenger out. His packing was easily done : he had only to stand up and shake himself — his worldly possessions consisting of the

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clothes on his back. My body servant or valet, a native of Kwang tung, agreed to go at once ; and the cook also con-sented, after some argument and banter on my part. So far from commanding the services of any, I was careful to enumerate the various risks they would incur, and then overcame reluctance by the offer of rewards. On the present occasion the cooking was a very secondary consideration; but my cook, besides speaking intelligible mandarin, was as a native of Keangsoo a master of the local patois ; he might therefore be useful as an agent^ and I could not have too many strings to my bow.

The following incident illustrates a feature of Chinese character, and may at the same time teach Occidentals by what procedure they may best get Chinese servants to run risks in their behalf. A few hours before starting, when in the bustle of preparation in my sitting-room, my Kwang tung servant came in, evidently somewhat bashful and at a loss how to express himself. At length he managed to stammer through a request that I would give him a note to some one of my friends, begging that the bundle he held under his arm (and which contained such valuables as he possessed) might be forwarded to his father at Canton, in case ^^our affairs were unfortunate, and we did not come back.** This is one of the circumlocutions which the Chinese, who avoid the use of such words as '^ death," employ to express loss of life. I immediately replied, " I have no time to write a note— you see how busy I am, and " (with a wave of my hand round a room littered with books, papers, &c.) "that I am leaving all my own matters in their usual confusion. But look;"' I added, holding up a sealed letter, '^ this I leave with a friend to be sent to my brother at Ningpo in case, as you call it, ' we do not come back again.' Now I have told him in such case to take care to have one hundred dollars paid over to your father in Canton, in consideration of your going with me. He will consequently get far more than the value of your traps. Make the best disposition of them you can

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yourself." This evidence of unasked-for care on my part to relieve what I knew would be the chief anxiety on his mind, actually made him forget to do what a Chinaman rarely neglects : to return thanks. I found out afterwards that all my people— body servant, cook and my two permanent boat-men— had been to the Ching hwang meaou, or City Temple, to offer sacrifices for protection. I had usually only two boatmen in my employ, the Laou ta or Captain (literally ; Old great). When I started on an excursion I hired four others. On the present occasion, these four extra men were only engaged to take me to Soo chow, to which the way was still known to be open, I knew it would be in vain to speak at Shanghae of going farther.

The quotations in what follows are from a journal kept in the boat; the (rectangular) brackets inclose what I now add.

"9th April, 1853. I left the Consulate Jetty at about 6 P.M. and proceeded to the Hermes^ where I borrowed (and gave an ofiicial receipt for) two boat muskets with a hundred rounds of ball-cartridge and six pikes, the latter intended for the use of my Chinese in case they should have the courage to resist an attack of robbers. I left the Hermes at about 6 p. M. and proceeded with a fair wind against the ebb tide nearly as far as the Soo chow bridge, below which I anchored. It was then nearly dark, and*' [here follows a measure, which was intended to meet the danger of being waylaid between Soo chow and Shanghae by emissaries of the Shanghae Authorities] " I accordingly lifted anchor, passed the Soo chow bridge barrier, just as it was about to be closed^ anchored above it, and dined while waiting for the flood, with the first of which and a fair southerly wind I started at about 9i p. m. I had little or no sleep all night, the swaying of the boat, as the sail was shifted at every turn, and the stir on board consequent on her grounding from time to time " [from the narrowness of the stream and the darkness] " pre-vented my dropping off for more than a few minutes at a time.

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*^ Sunday, 10th April. After breakfast this momiiig, I instructed my servant Yung shun in musket-loading, I firing off about a dozen of the ball-cartridge as he loaded the two guns." [We were then still in a part of the country which foreignei-s visit openly.] *'I then disposed the arms and ammunition in the best manner for instant use. Besides the two ships' muskets and pikes, I have my double-barrelled fowling-piece, my pistols and cutlass." [At about noon we reached the limits of foreigners' excursions in that direction ; when I had the mat roofing arranged over the fore part of the boat, which completely concealed my cabin front window-door from view, and left us thoroughly Chinese on the

outside.] '^ I anchored under the walls of Soochow

at about 3 p. m. I immediately sent off my head-boatman to

all the places likely to be visited by " [This was the

agent whom I had despatched up the country some six or eight days before, and whom I will here call Chang. I thought it probable that he might be on his way back to Shanghae with more definite intelligence about the rebels than had yet been obtained ; for which reason, as well as on account of the general usefulness of the man, it was expedient that I should call him in to me. Considering that the city under the walls of which I was then lying contained some two millions of inhabitants ; that I had to pass through three other large cities before reaching Chin keang ; that the man had no notion of my following him ; and that circumspection was necessary in my endeavours to communicate, it might seem a hopeless undertaking to attempt to effect that object So futile did it seem to my people, that I was obliged to keep hounding them on to the work : which did eventually prove successful.] *^ I also sent off Fang to get me some general news to be despatched to Shanghae this evening. I am now, 3^ p. M., awaiting the return of the latter."

'* Fang returned at about four o'clock ; and a little before dark I asked the four daily-hired boatmen for their final

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EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. '217

answer to the proposal I made them at noon to-day^ to go on with me as far at least as Chang chow ; and on their declining I gave them their wages and told them at once to leave the boat. I told all my people that even if all left me> I should not return^ but remain alone. Fang^ my body ser-vant and my cook, all three, agreed to proceed, as also my two permanent men.'' [I had ofiered the four daily-hired men a present of ten dollars each, besides good wages ; but the aspect of things at Soo chow was by no means reassuring, half of the shops being shut up and people still engaged in moving to the open country. The reader will see from the above the advantage I had in being in my ofwn boat]

** Monday, 11th April, 1853. I went to bed last night very early and had a long and good sleep. Fang went ashore before bed-time, and did not return till about noon to-day. He told me he had engaged four men, and as my own head-boatman had found one, it was arranged that the father-in-law of the latter" [my second permanent boatman] «* should return to Shanghae while we proceeded with the new men. The father-in-law was accordingly despatched at about 5 p.m.

with my letter of this date to Sir George Bouham

Immediately after starting this man I gave the order to move out some distance from Soo chow to pass the night, it being too late to get now to the Seu sze kwan in order to pass it, before closed for the night. While I write we are moving off." [The net-work of river passages converges into (me cord, the Grand Canal, a little beyond Soo chow ; and, like a knot on this cord, stands the great internal Custom-house, the Seu sze kwan. The cord begins to run through a net again, some miles beyond the Custom-house, but this latter must be passed ; and had, from the strictness of the examinations, been an effectual bar to the excursions of foreigners in that direction since the peace.]

** Tuesday, 12th April. We stopped last night in a little canal leading from the Grand Canal, in an unfrequented spot with a grove on each side, to one of the trees in which the boat's

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head was made fast. At the distance of a few hundred jtada, but on the Grand Canal, and out of sight, a body of some three or four hundred soldiers of the command of the Hang chow Hee [Major- General of Hang chow] were encamped. A gong was beaten there and some kind of small arm discharged about every half-hour.

'* I here told my people how I wished them to act ia case an alarm of robbers was given. My head-boatman, body servant Yung shun, and the cook sleep under the matting oa the deck in front of my main cabin ; which latter is occupied by myself alone, and where are all the arms except the Hermes* six pikes. In the small after cabin, separated by the sliding door from the main one and in like manner from the after deck by another sliding door, sleeps my clerk Fang. At the back^ on the after deck, sleep the five hired men. To these men, who profess great yalour, cocking up their thumbs in Chinese fashion and saying of the robbers, ' Let them dare to come!' I have entrusted five pikes; with orders either to defend the after deck or to fly to the shore and wait the event there, as they may please ; but on no account to come to the front, as I cannot distinguish people at night, and, as soon as arrangements are effected there, will fire at every one who shows himself. These arrangements in the front are that the head-boatman, a perfect specimen of a Keang soo coward, shall on the alarm being given instantly throw open the front door, and then make for the shore or the back of the boat as he pleases. Yung shun and the cook are to sit up but to remain in their places till I call them by name ; when they are both to jump down into my cabin and go to the back of it. The cook is instantly to hold together the two parts of the sliding door at the back until he has ascertained that Fang has closed the back doors and is holding them, so that the back is secured. Fang is then to remain in charge of the back entrance, attending to nothing else, while the cook is to take the sixth pike, placed every night on the floor of my cabin, and be ready to prevent any one bolting in at

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the front door while I open to fire out at it. Yung Bhun is

to get out the muskets for me and be ready to load them.

He 18 to have one of the bayonets and Fang the other.

These arrangements made, I propose opening the front door

and clearing the front deck by firing out of the cabin, and

then seizing an opportunity to jump out (after my shooting

jacket Trith ammunition in the pockets, and my waist belt

and pistols are put on) to the fore deck. I must load the

double gun at night with No. 5 cartridges alone, both because

there is more chance of hitting and because the loading is

more speedy. When out I can fire either at the back, if I

find my own people are not in possession, or at the robbers'

vessel to drive it off. I must not discharge any of my pistols

unless forced at the first rush to prevent entrance into my

cabin^ but keep them to be ready for any sudden rush at me

after I sally out. The firing before that must be done with

the muskets and double barrel. When Yung shun comes in

he must shut the door before doing anything else."

[I have inserted the above at length because it amuses even myself now. It reads like a bit of Bobinson Crusoe's artillery preparations in his castle to keep off the savages. But my preparations were very serious and very necessary. The paralyzation of the Authorities had, I knew, given scope to the ^^ savages of civilization," who abound in the enormous cities of China as in our own ; the Chinese regular military, who were moving in considerable numbers on and near the Canal, were by no means indisposed to do a little robbery at night; and the " Kwang yung, Kwang tung braves" or irre-gulars, of whom numbers were also on the Canal, were most of them South Eastern pirates by profession. Lastly my five new boatmen, whom I was only too glad to find willing to take me on, were members of the great fraternity of Imperial Grain junkmen, of whom we know from Imperial Statistics that there are about one hundred and twenty thousand on the entire length of the Grand Canal, and probably not less than twenty thousand on that very portion of it which I was about to

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navigate. Now these men, who are either natiyes of Shan tung and Chih le or members of families originally from that part of China, but themselves natives of the migratory Grain Junks — sons of the Grand Canal, one might say — ^these men are of notorious turbulence as well as loose notions respecting rights of property. It was quite consistent with their habits, especially in the then position of affairs, to assume the posribi-lity of their concerting with a dozen or two of their comrades to make a night attack on me when they saw that the boat, with her contents, would be no insignificant prize for them. The best plan to ward off this danger altogether was that which enabled me to meet the others, viz., to let my crew know that I was not only resolved but had deliberately pre-pared to make a serious defence, no matter what they did. I am sorry to say I was not a novice in such matters. Some years before, when returning to Canton, not from an excursion, but from an official visit to Whampoo some twelve miles down the river, I was attacked, in a very dark night about nine or ten o'clock while asleep in my cabin, by a river pirate con-taining some dozen of ruffians. I shot one of them and (as appeared from the investigations of the Authorities) wounded another with a brace of pistols, but then could not get my double rifle which I had not looked to for some weeks to g^ off. In the meantime they were firing their peculiar com-bustibles into my boat, and prodding, by such light as these gave, at my ribs with their long spears. The result was that I had to follow the example given by my crew at the earliest period of the proceedings, by throwing myself into the river and swimming to the shore. Several people having been killed who had been taken at a disadvantage in a similar way, I was fortunate in getting off with a wetting and a slight spear wound on one hand ; but the affair was provoking, to say the least of it, and I solemnly vowed that under no cir-cumstances whatever — not even where there was least like-lihood of attack — would I ever be again unprepared at night. At present, on the Grand Canal, I had, besides the particular

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dangers of the time and of the country, considerable reason to expect a visit from some of my old Kwang tung acquaintances.]

** At daylight this morning we started, sculling^ and in about an hour and a half reached the Seu sze Custom-house. There are here two stone bridges over the Canal at the dis-tance of about one-third of a mile apart, between which is the Custom-house. It was arranged that the boatmen should make a sudden push after some other vessel as we approached, and thus get the boat in every case to the north side of the floating barrier. If we were hailed Fang was to go on shore and report us as a travelling boat with no goods. If they insisted on examining I was to '* [here a measure, which was not employed as it so happened]. * *

'^ . • . . . All this being arranged, and myself and Yung shun crouched on the fore deck looking at the place through the interstices of the matting, which I separated a little for the purpose, and Fang standing afl ready to go ashore if necessary; we sculled quietly toward the great barrier hitherto in the way of foreigners, to say nothing of foreign goods, getting northward. As we got near, I heard Fang exclaiming: — 'What's the meaning of this? Why there's nobody there! All! there's a messenger [chae] on the wharf. Eh I Eh I ^ [the Chinese note to attract attention] ' May I ask what's become of all your gentlemen ? ' [Yay mun, the superintending officers] ' Have they been frightened away ? ^ A short affirmative answer was given. * So they have all been scared into bolting, have they ? She chay ma cho, ta mun too hea paou leaou ma?' rejoined my man in the same jaunty tone, and in the excellent Peking mandarin he speaks. This cool remark, shouted out from the middle of the Canal, at the dreaded barrier itself, was followed by a loud burst of laughter from my boatmen, joined in by the hearers on the shore. The messenger, thinking we belonged to the troops of whom boatloads were then passing in the same direction, asked. How many there were of us ? Fang, who

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knew nothing of the matter, answered without an insiccni^s hesitation ' About forty vessels.' The tears streamed out of mj Kwang tung servant's eyes in his admiring laughter at these doings of Fang."

[Just before we came within hail of the Custom-house, this servant forgot for an instant the proper demeanour which the '' relation of servant and master " requires. In a boat that was sculling for a time parallel to ours, he caught sight of the intent gaze of a soldier fixed on the interstice by which I was looking out ; whereupon he seized me by the body and jerked me suddenly backward, with the exclamation : ** Keen leaou laou yay, He has seen your Honour.*' If any youth who has yet to make his way, if not his fortune, in the world should read this, let him now observe the practical value of improving his mind by solid historical reading. I had seen the soldier myself with his eyes fixed right in my direction, but, remembering, that in the " Last of the Mohicans " the red man stared from the light into the darkened cavern recess in which his white foes were sitting without seeing them, I, instead of withdrawing my head, began closely watching the face of my yellow foe. I presently saw that there was no discovery in it — that he was looking, but not seeing ; all which " my honour " explained to my servant to his consider-able edification. The getting past the barrier in the way just described, together with the self-possession and adroit-ness of Fang, and the unembarrassed, free and easy bearing of my five grain junkmen, made me now begin to hope, what had seemed hopeless at Shanghae, that I should really be able to get to the rebels by this route.]

" Nothing worthy of notice occurred till we got to Woo seih, where the questions addressed by Fang and the boatmen to other boats which we met or passed at this (apparently very busy) place became rather interesting. It here became evident that the rebels " [of whom it was rumoured at Soo chow, that they had all returned to Nanking] " are considered to be still in possession of Chin keang, as people going to Yang

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chow said they were going by way of Keang yin district city, or the Mung ho " [two passages by which the Great River can be crossed about fifty to sixty miles below Chin keang]. ^* Fang landed at Woo seih and the boat took me on to a place agreed upon^ where he and two of the boatmen who landed with him were to rejoin us. To my no great pleasure, I found when we threw our anchor on the shore here, that we were in a row of some two hundred small vessels occu* pied by troops from Che keang, both Chinese and Manchoos, some two or three hundred of each ; and * braves ' or volun-teers from the sea-borders of Fuh keen and Kwang tung. I was obliged to leave the fore deck were I was journal-izing and go inside." [With the fore part of the boat covered in, my cabin was too much darkened to admit of my writing there without candles, which it was not expedient to use in daytime; but by raising a portion of the fore deck and sitting on a camp-stool in the shallow hold, I could use the unraised portions of the deck as writing-table, and get plenty of light through the interstices between the mats.] ** The Che keang troops, Chinese and Manchoos, are I learn to remain at that place. The volunteers are to go on. Fang returned after I had been there about an hour and a half; during which, as my body servant tells me, there was a con-stant danger of my being discovered owing to the terrified whispering and hiding air of my head-boatman. I think of sending him back from Chang chow to-morrow, with letters, to prevent his terrors betraying us.''

[He had sent away with his father-in-law from Soo chow everything he had in the boat, retaining only a suit of clothes so patched, that they put me in mind of an old English country-made quilt. The look of him in this rig w^as enough to excite suspicion. Something about us certainly did excite the suspicion of a man in one of the contiguous boats, whose after deck was only a foot or two distant firom ours, as the boats lay parallel. At a time when every one had gone ashore but my cook, who was deeply engaged in the

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preparation of some dish, I observed tliis individual putting his head out from behind a mat screen in his own boat, and then suddenly disappearing, when it seemed that the cook was about to look in his direction. After a while, I would see the half of his face and one eye reappear at the edge of the screen, then the whole head, and at length, in his eager spying, an outstretched neck also. I sat the whole time, full-fronting him in the darkened cabin, watching all his motions ; and I do not remember ever seeing a face in which the villany of treachery was so strongly impressed. There was an extreme intensity, besides a trait of lurking triumph in his look, like that of a scoundrel who felt that he was on the point of discovering a secret which he could turn to great profit. I should have given much to have been able to take his portrait. I forget now what put an end to his Jack-in-the-box proceedings — I think it was the return of some erf the grain junkmen ; who had a swagger about them quite enough to frighten him definitively behind his screen.]

** The report in Woo seih is that the Acting Governor-General Yang is at Keang yin, where he has stationed him-self under the pretence of guarding the inlet there from the Yang tsze to Woo seih, and so on to Soo chow. The Educational Examiner of the Province, whose permanent station is Keang yin, objected very strongly to the Governor-General's coming there, saying that he himself— a high officer — was quite enough. He is of course naturally afraid that the presence of the Governor-General may attract some portion of the insurgent forces to the place; which might otherwise long escape their attention. The other news that Fang got was that the insurgents have left garrisons, both at

Chin keang and Yang chow We left Woo seih

about 6 P.M. and a little after dark I had the bow of the boat shoved into a little creek in the southern bank; where we passed the night without adventure.''

'* Wednesday, 13th April. Started this morning at day-light, with the mainsail up and a fair wind. I have given

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orders to make no stay whatever at Chang chow, but to make use of this wind to push on to Tan yang.

" Two o'clock P.M. On coming near Chang chow the wind died away^ rendering it of less importance to keep moving. I therefore wrote my letter No. 3 to Sir George, which has just been despatched to the care of Yung shun*s friend [i.e. it was enclosed to a Chinese, in a Chinese envelope, so as to be transmissible by the Chinese posts]. Fang has taken this letter on shore^ and is to get intelligence."

'* After Fang left, we had a collision with a boat, coming from the opposite direction. I heard a crash of crockery, and we were instantly boarded in the bows by an old woman, who endeavoured to bully us out of some ccLsh as compen-sation. There was a great row between her and my new, boatmen for some time ; but the latter were not to be beaten. "^ They kept sculling on, told her she need not come into our boat * to make her fortune,' and that they would tal^ h^r to Chin keang, &c. &c. She at last asked to be put ashore^^'

[When two Chinese boats meet there is usually «n ^xe^ange of the two questions : " Na le keu, Ne na Jte Keuj^. Where are you bound for ? Where are you bound for ?" Tfie stand-ing answer of our boatman was, '^ To Chin ke^ng," which invariably produced broad grins in the crew and passengers of the other boat. The idea of going to the long-haired rebels was considered not a bad joke. The joke for us lay in the fact that we really did intend going there. In ordinary times we should not have got rid of the old woman so easily, for the Canal passed there through the suburbs of a hurge departmental city, and was a crowded thoroughfare ; and the grievance of the screaming old female would have been taken up by the public. As it was, the thoroughfare was (n^er-crowded, and the concentration of an army then going on at the place, together with the continual supply of fresh rumours about the ^^ chang fa tsih, the long-haired rebels,'* left no room for attention to boat collisions.

CHAPTER XVI (PART 2 OF 3)

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NeTertheless I was not a little alarmed at the possible even-tualities of this invasion ; and, after creeping cautiously for-ward and viewing the dreaded object squatted on the bows, retreated hastily to the cabin, and proposed to pay at once what was demanded ; wiiich, however, my people decidedly objected to. I was, of course, careful not to cool in any way the zeal or ardor of our new people ; and after the old woman left us, was not a little pleased with the manner in which they pushed through the press of vessels, some of them hand-some barges containing local civilians, travelling to and fro on official duty ; others large travelling boats containing the families and valuables of rich residents of Chang chow, some going off to the country and others returning from it — an opposite proceeding that showed the conflict of opinion as to the state of aflairs ; and, lastly, boats of every size and de-scription— ^most of them pressed — containing the troops and the military officers who were to form the force then con-centrating there. Instead of sneaking humbly through all this, my men had the sense and spirit to take the high tone. They sculled hard, and bawled to every boat to keep to one side, without the slightest regard to the mandarin flags hang-ing to the masts of many, or to the followers of the inmates, who were usually lounging on the fore deck. The boats are almost always navigated by their owners, and hence in the greatest crowd and bustle collisions are rare, both parties being anxious to avoid the consequent damage, and showing a remarkable adroitness in handling their respective craft. But my boatmen were little restrained by such considerations, the boat was not theirs, and they ran without hesitation into everything that did not choose, or was not able to obey the summons to clear the way. Before we got to the northern, side of Chang chow, I was well able to give a graphic descrip-tion of the encounters between Boman and Carthaginian fleets.]

" After we had taken up Fang, and started for Tan yang, we had gone but a short distance when Yung shun rushed

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into the cabin to saj that ^ a man was being put to death.' I found that a decapitated body, with its head, having long hairy beside it, was lying on the Canal bank surrounded by a number of people. The blood was still smoking. In Chang chow proclamations were out, stating that the Lieutenant-General of Teen tsin, named Le, had been ordered by the Imperial Commissioner, Heang yung, to take up his quarters there, with two thousand men from the army at Nanking. Another was out by the Prefect, stating he had received a despatch from the Governor of Che keang, announcing the approach of 10,000 troops from that province; viz. 3,000 regulars, 1,500 marines, 500 Manchoo Bannermen, and 5,000 volunteers from the departments of the Tseen tang valley. These are the men with whom we have been travelling from Soo chow ; and we are now meeting great numbers of the others. Some say they are coming from Tan yang, others say from Nanking. Most are in boats, in bodies of eight or ten ; but many are coming singly or in pairs, seldom three together, along the tracking-path. A few horsemen with buttons [mandarins] and their horses well belled have also come along. There is nothing like an orderly progress in this ; but still they have not the appearance of people flying. They are, however, all moving away from the insurgents. One man, who stated he was from Nanking, and was asked how matters stood there, answered, * Chang fa chen leaou — the long-haired have seized it,' in a way that set us all a laughing. From another we learn that the [Imperial] Generalissimo, Heang yung, was on the 9th at Tsun hwa, a town situated about thirty-five le [twelve miles] from Nan-king, on the south-east, on the direct road to Tan yang.

''About dark we entered a small branch on the left hand, with the view of getting into a quiet place to pass the night. "We found, however, vessels coming out, the second of which had great difficulty in pushing past us. The people in it began abusing ours, who thought fit to be very hasty on the receipt of any observations. A perfect storm of reciprocal

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abuse arose, to which I was at last obliged to put a stop myself, by stepping out in front and declaring to all parties that such a noise was totally beyond my endurance ; that the boat was now past ; that if the people in it wished to fight, they must at once come back and lay on ; but that if the^ did not want to fight, the noise must cease. It was already too dark for the strangers and villagers who had collected to see that it was a foreigner who was talking, but the authori-tative tone and, I doubt not, the invitation to immediate blows had the efiect of producing silence. As I learnt from another boat, that passed soon afler, that this narrow branch was a thoroughfare to many populous places, I saw that it would necessarily be a most unquiet position to be in. We therefore moved out and anchored close to the western bank of the Grand Canal.'' [The only portion of the above alter-cation that imprinted itself on my memory waa a string of vociferations delivered by the youngest of my grain junk-men—all of whom as natives of Shantung and Chih le speak very good mandarin. In the exertions made to give the strangers* boat room to pass us, he had jumped ashore and thrown his jacket on the ground. When the villagers col-lected some one of them must have presumed to make some remark about it, for my attention was attracted by some-thing like the following delivered in a loud fierce tone: " What's the matter with my jacket? Can my jacket not lie on the bank of the river? Can't I put off my jacket and throw it on the groimd ? Your jackets are all good jackets ! My jacket is a bad jacket ! Your river bank is fine ground, and my jacket stinks I There's my jacket lying. Who dares to touch my jacket, &c. &c. &c." During the whole of this time he was stamping about at the side of his jacket in his long tracking boots, looking altogether more like a wild Irishman than a civilized Chinese. The villagers — quiet countrymen not prepared to brawl on short notice — made at first only patient remarks, but at length a middle-aged rustic got heated by the provocation and began to bawl at the

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top of his voice. In the meantime the other four boatmen were, aided by occasional ejaculations from Fang and my two BervantSy keeping up a fire of bawls with the occupants of the other boat^ which had halted a little beyond us. The reader may judge what a treat it was altogether on the banks of the Grand Canal for a solitary Englishman^ who wanted to go quietly to bed.]

" Thursday 14th April. After a very quiet night (at the beginning of which I heard the discharge of a gun at no great distance and the singing of the bullet in the air) we started at daylight this morning, against a head wind from the north-west. We are tracking, but making very slow progress, and will hardly reach Tan yang before dark." [The tracking is done by stepping a long stout bamboo in the hole for the foremast, attaching a long cord to its top and sending four men ashore, who harness themselves to it by short sticks across the breast and so drag the boat on her course, one man at a scull keeping her the while off the shore.] *• Soldiers in boats, on horseback and on foot, are passing in the same way as yesterday. Their arms are chiefly spears and swords, single and double-handled; but they have also got match-locks, gingalls and small canon, the latter carried each by four men. I see no sign of defeat or flight in the demeanour of the men of this detachment, but its marching disorder seems to extend over a space of some twenty miles ; and, if this is to be taken as a fair specimen of the usual mode of progression of an Imperial army nearest the enemy, we may easily understand how such must be routed by an unexpected movement taking them in the flank. Since we left Soo chow we have seen very few vessels with goods, but a considerable number moving private property in different directions. I now see no vessels at all, except those with the soldiers and now and then a small one belonging to the country people. Mine seems to be the only one going to Tan yang.

'' I heard the boatmen talking among themselves last night about our farther progress, and on questioning Fang

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this momingy I find they are coming the * wife and family * dodge (which is indeed more valid in their mouths than in those of people that can leave their families in wealth), and that they are now not willing to go beyond Tan yang. I suspect they are intimidated by the sight of all these troops coming in from Heang yung's army, and of the body and smoking blood of the long-haired man yesterday — all signs of our vicinity to the scene of action. I shall not speak to them myself till we get to Tan yang.^'*

'' As we approached Tan yang, just as we were abont to pass a bridge^ Yung shun came into the cabin to say that Chang was ihere ; and I at the same time heard my cook and head-boatman shouting out his name. Immediately afterwards he entered the boat himself. The first thing he said was that it would be impossible for me to go on." [I found that even before the rebels took Chin keang^ the Canal between Tan yang and that place had become impas-sable from shallowness, except for the smallest fishing-boats having only one or two men in them, and drawing but a few inches of water. Between Tan yang and Chin keang the Grand Canal becomes something like a canal^ as we represent that sort of water communication to ourselves. It there in "^ct enters at some points on the higher ground at the back of the alluvial plain, and is altogether an artificially exca-vated channel, the periodical clearing of which forms a standing item in the account of Imperial disbursements of the local authorities ; who, however, disburse as much of the money as possible into their own pockets. The certainty I arrived at he^ that the rebels would not move on Soo chow and Shanghaefor a month to come; the strange and impor-tant information I did get respecting them; and which it was advisable to communicate at once to Sir George Bon-ham ; but, more than all of course, the shallowness of the Canal and the impossibility of proceeding by it even if 1 could have procured other boatmen willing to take me on, made me resolve on returning to Shanghae and proceeding

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from thence^ as I had originally proposed^ in a sea-going craft by the Great River right up to Chin keang.

^^ I had a long conversation with mj agent Chang. On his reaching Tan yang when he first came up the country, he hired a mule and rode first in the direction of Chin keang and afterwards in that of Nanking, going till within eight or ten miles of the former, and fifteen or twenty of the latter, but what he ascertained from fugitives of the way in which the rebels were pressing men for soldiers deterred him from going nearer. He had got as far as Soo chow on his way back, rwhen one of the letters I had left there came to his hands, showing him that we had crossed each other. He instantly turned again in pursuit. He got a great fright when he was searching for me at Chang chow, and heard that * a long-haired man with deep-set eyes ' had been beheaded, and was only then reassured when further description did not tally with my appearance. Being on foot and without baggage, he got to Tan yang before we did with our head wind and tracking ; and was making a second search at the wharfs there for my boat and people, when they, as stated, descried him. His story was a very interesting one; and the reader will not blame me, I think, for quoting the follow-ing incident from his narrative of proceedings, which I note^ from his mouth at the time. I must first state that this man was no opium-smoker nor drinker, but a prudent money-saving fellow, a native of the north of China, who, after having failed in business there, regarded a permanent connection with me as his best, if not only, means of re-establishment in worldly afiairs; and who knew from experience that far more was to be got out of me by telling tn^s, agreeable or disagreeable, than by any trickery or humbug, which was sure to be discovered sooner or later. He had knocked about a great deal in different provinces of China; and had, indeed, been twice away in the country for months on my account, entrusted with sums of money, for him considerable. *' From Chang chow to Tan yang he travelled in a passage-^

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boat in which was a beggar and his wife, both of whom Had been in the hands of the insurgents some three or four days at Chin keang. The man had been employed tending tlieir horses ; and made off after a few days, leaving his wife and two children. The wife had come out after him, and foand him at Chang chow, and they were then going back to Chin keang. Chang, after various questions [his business was to get information], asked the beggar what the insurgents wanted with his wife. Upon which all the bystanding passengers said with deprecating smiles : * What questions you ask !' " ^

[Chang and myself were, at that period, both puzzled by the proceedings , of this couple. How did she, a small-footed woman, hobble away from a walled and strictly guarded city, and why were the two going back to Chin keang ? What we learned afterwards of Tae ping conscription solved these questions. The rebels had sent her out to bring back her husband, the children being detained as the string which was to pull both back.]

^' At about nightfall he reached Tan yang. He had been accompanied all the way from Soo chow by a man calling himself Wang, who said he was going toward Nanking to seek his younger brother, a soldier in the Imperial camp. My agent, under his assumed name of Chang, described himself as a Shantung clerk to a dealer in fruits and other Shantung edibles, who had been at Shanghae in the way of business ; was unable to return by sea, as the pirates were beating the sea craft back ; and was now here to ascertain the best route for himself and his master and another clerk homewards. These two, Chang and Wang, went to the same tea-house [equivalent to our so-called coffee-house] at Tan yang ; where they arranged with the people for passing the night, neither of them being acquainted with any inn in the place. The doors had been closed and the two men were sleeping on the tea-tables, &c. placed together, when they were roused by a knocking at the door, which being opened by the tea-house people, a yay mun [mandarin's follower]

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EXGUB8I0N ON THE QBAND CANAL. 233

entered with a posse of volunteers, armed with three-pronged Hpears, pikes^ &€.

Yay mun (shouting.) Hoigh 1 You two I Who are you ?

Chang. We are travellers.

Yay nmn. Travellers ! Where are you going to ?

Chang. To Shantung.

Yay mun. Shantung ! Don't you know the passage across the river is barred ?

Chang {assuming the indifferent and careless.) If it is I must just see about it, that's all.

Yay mun. What is your name ?

Chang. Chang [as common as our Smith] .

Yay mun. And yours ?

7%^ other Traveller. Wang [as common as our Brown].

Yay mun. Oh I ah! Quite right! Chang, Wang, Le, Chaou ! [Equivalent to Smithy Broum, Jones, and Robinson],

Chang {sneering and indifferent). Yes ! Chang, Wang, Le, Chaou. We're all one family.

(Here Chang heard one of the posse saying to the others that the two should be taken to the Yamun.)

Chang. To the Yamun ! / have no fear of going to the Yamun.

[They then all went off to the Yamun (District Magistracy) where they were examined preliminarily by the Mun shang (who is the principal follower of the Magistrate, and next to him the most influential person in the establishment). He repeated the questions as to name and business.]

Chang {with an air of perfect candour y which he sponta-neously reproduced for my benefit in telling his story). To be frank, I am an agent of the Shanghae Intendant, sent out here to collect news.

Mun shang {who knew something of the Intendant and his establishment). Where does the Intendant come from ?

Chang. From Kwang tung.

Mun shang. How long have you been with him ?

Chang. I came from Peking with the former Intendant,

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234 THE CHINESE ilND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Lin, and was by him recommended to the Intendant, Woo.

Mun sha$ig. Are there any other northern men there ?

Chang. Yes. A Chih le man named Woo, also recom-mended by the Intendant, Lin.

Munshang. What business have you charge of at Shanghae ?

Chang. I am in the Great Custom-house [thai ai uMeh foreign duties are paid.}

Mun shang. Who else is there ?

Chang. There is a person named Lew who speaks the barbarian language.

Mun shang. {Apologetically, being now JuUy convinced of Mr. Chang's veracity, from knowing himself the people named). You must not be angry with them [t?ie night watch"] . You know Chin keang is taken, and that it is necessary to keep strict watch over all strangers. You {addressing the passe which was beginning to melt away) you see you have made a mistake. You had better go.

[In consequence of Chang's victory, the other man was merely asked a question or two.]

Mun shang. I am ashamed that you should have been troubled. But it was their duty to bring you here.

Chang. Our coming here is of itself of no great conse-quence. But now they've brought us here, what are we to do for a night's lodging ?

{On this cool question being put, the Mun shang told a policeman to give Messrs. Chang and Wang a room in the Magistracy for the night ; and after a comfortable sleep they left unquestioned in the morning).

The above was, the reader will remember, narrated to me at the very city where the arrest and release took place, and only a week after the event. It struck me as so charac-teristic an incident of Chinese life that, while I merely made an abstract of most other parts of Chang's account of his mission, I made him re-narrate the above conversation and

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took it down literally. The slightest unusual noise on shore,

or bustle on board caused by the other denizens of the boat

coining ofi^ made him stop short and listen breathlessly, with

fixed looks. I myself had to guard against robbers, against

disorderly soldiers, and against emissaries whom it was quite

possible the m^darins might despatch to stop my mission

clandestinely, it they heard of it But once fairly in open

contact with the established authorities, I knew very well

how to protect myself, I was indeed certain to be prevented

from proceeding, but that was the worst that could then happen

to me ; as even the newest and most ant i- foreign mandarin

from the interior would hardly have dared to subject me to

personal ill-usage. But if Chang had been discovered in my

boat, it was extremely doubtful that even a fierce fight on

my part and a peremptory use of the British lion would have

kept his head on his shoulders. He had therefore much

cause to listen in alarm at unusual noises. Suddenly a

strange pattering noise on the top of the boat struck his ear

and transformed him again into a listening statue. '^ It^s

only rain," I explained ; ^' it must be raining heavily outside,

and that is the noise of the drops on the roof." Chang

immediately spread both hands with a sort of unction on my

table, and looking to the roof with a face expressive of

immense relief exclaimed, '' Haou ah ! Haou ah ! Haou ah !

Good! Good! Very good!" This meant: My countrymen,

the police and military will most ceilainly not come out of

their quarters at night in a heavy rain to search boats for

rebel agents or any other persons.

I now quote from my journal again : — " Friday, 15th April. We passed the night quietly enough in front of the Official Post Establishment. The watchman belonging to it, believing the tale of my people that we had come from the Shanghae Intendant to get intel-ligence, look care of us, advised us to move up to some other boats for mutual protection, &c. &c. We made him a present of twenty cash'* [less than a penny at the ordinary

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rate of exchange, but in food value equivalent to tlireepenoe or fourpence in England] . '^ At daylight this morning we started in a heavy rain, and it has been nuning ever since till now, about 3^ p.m., when we are entering Chang chow. Fang is here going ashore to copy the proclamatioii aboat the steamers.

** We left Chang chow at 5J p.m., and proceeded with a light, puffy but favorable breeze.

^^ Saturday, 16th April. Anchored in the Canal last night about a couple of hours after dark. Heard village guards beating gongs all night and also the firing at regular intervals of guns. To-day met great numbers of boats conveying troops. We passed Woo seih at about 10 a.m., and are now 5^ P.M. near to the Seu sze Custom-house, on this [the north] side of which I propose remaining to-night.

*' Sunday, 17th April. Passed the night on the northern side of the Seu sze Custom-house. At daybreak we started again and proceeded as far as the barrier, which was not then opened. Fang went ashore to report, as was intended when we passed before. It seems that orders were given by the Customs' officers {now returned) to the sub-examiners to see that there was no cargo, and then to open the barrier and let us pass. I was sitting as usual in the cabin when one of the fore deck mats was pulled back. I ordered it to be replaced. The boatman then said a man had come to examine the hold. I told them to let him in by the little front door, which they did. He crept in, a young mandarin follower ; and one of my Shantung boatman then opened the fore hold compartments and showed him them, commencing with the foremost. The foreign boots do not appear to have attracted his attention — at least he said nothing about them — the bottles of water rfirf." [I carried a stock of filtered drinking-water from Shanghae, it being difficult to procure wholesome clean water in these alluvial flats.] ^' The grain junkman, in answer to his inquiries, told him that there was opium [the traffic in which is severely punishable] inside of them; a

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piece of jocularity which the youthful examiner received in dignified silence. Chang had, on the man's coming in, passed to my front window-door and, while standing in the inside, stuck his head and body out, thereby preventing the ex-aminer from seeing me ; but as I was pretty sure he would require to see the back part, I now, as he approached the door, pulled Chang back, put my head out till it was about eighteen inches from his face, and said, ' What do you want ?' '' [He had never seen a barbarian before, had probably heard nothing but terrible tales about them, while his mind was doubtless filled with dread of long-haired people generally, after the doings of the strange long-haired men at Nanking ; while, besides my whiskers, my face was rendered more hairy than any Chinaman's by stub beard and moustachios of eight days' growth. A turnpike-keeper going to a car-riage-window for his pence, and there having a tiger's face thrust with a fierce growl into his, may give the reader some notion of the young man's state.] " He was so startled by the apparition, that he merely stared with widely-opened eyes and answered mechanically, 'To examine the hold.' ' Well,' I answered, * you have seen the fore hold, and here ' (with a wave of my hand inside) 'don't you see, there are no goods. What more examining do you want to do?' He crept backward to the door saying, with his eyes still fixed intently on my face, * Well, I won't examine.' At the door however he began, but apparently quite mechanically, to speak of the main object of his visit, a present of money. This was to Fang, who was kneeling at the front. * What is that ? ' I asked, 'don't you ' (to the examiner) ' understand that a man of my looks has not come here without important business to do? Get out and open the barriers, and don't be troublesome.' Fang at once fell into my tone. ' Go, and report to your masters,' he said, ' but be quick and open the barrier.' In a short time the frightened man had told all his fellows, and a crowd of them collected to see ; but all was now closed. Three morning guns were then fired, the bar-

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riers opened and we passed with, to my disgust, a load got-up, derisive burst of laughter from my boatmen and people, which I checked immediately." [Proclamations were out in the country to reassure the people by the informatioii that among other measures taken to stop the rebels, the bturba-rians were sending steamers to fight with them, and the Custom-house officers might vary naturally suppose that I had been by the " inner waters " to see the Governor-General about that business.] ** At about noon we reached Soo chow, going this time into the city, and lying in a canal not far from the principal yamuns. Sent Chang on shore for ins baggage, which he had left behind at Soo chow, and also to see if there were any return letters for me at the Shanghae letter-carrier's. Fang has gone on shore for information."'

** Chang returned bringing no return letters for me ; but the letter-carrier, learning he was then en route for Shanghae, and having some previous acquaintance with him, thought it a good opportunity to send on his mail, and ac-cordingly entrusted him with three packets ; one addressed to Yaou, the district magistrate of Shanghae, another to some private person there, and a third which, to Chang's astonish-ment, I took possession of and began to open. I saw that it was the letter, posted at Chang chow, containing my No. 3 to Sir George Bonham, which had only got as far as Soo chow and has now fallen into my own hands again. Fang told me that a placard on yellow paper [t. e. an address to the public from some private people few or many] had been posted, exhorting the inhabitants, instead of flying from their homes, to enroll themselves as volunteers and keep the rebels out of their city, as the people of Canton had kept the bar-barians out of theirs when they insisted on entering some time back." [The ultra Peace party in England are not aware that they were the cause of an address being issued to the two millions of Chinese at Soo chow in which the British were disparaged as people who had been beaten. It

CHAPTER XVI (PART 3 OF 3)

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EXGUB8I0N ON THE QBAND CANAL. 239

i^as the rampancy of their party at home that prevented us in 1849 from supporting our treaty claim to enter the city of Canton by force ; and the Chinese Govemment informed the vrhole nation that we had been deterred by farce.'] " He also told me that two o£Scers had left Soo chow the day before for Shanghae, the one despatched by the Generalissimo Heang yung, the other by the Governor-General Yung wan ting. These have doubtless gone to see about steamers." [I had myself to tell them at Slianghae^ a few days later, that we could give no aid.] " The yellow placard was torn down by order of the authorities lest the British barbarians should hear of it and be angry at the allusion made to them. I afterwards put on a Chinese dress, stepped into a small chair, and went through the greater portion of Soo chow^ resting always for some time in front of each of the great Yamuns. Fang accompanied me on foot, together with a servant and one of my boatmen. During one of the stoppages the peo-ple went to get liquor at an adjoining spirit-shop, and the after bearer nearly took too much. At subsequent stoppages he bawled out, ' Let's go and have a glass (cup),' and stag-gered a good deal as he carried me. The front bearer got yery anxious, hurried on our return as much as he could, and was evidently much relieved when I had stepped into the boat again without being detected as a foreigner.

^' Monday y 18M April. Started at daylight. I immedi-ately began looking out, and as soon as we had passed out at the water gate, near the south-western angle of the city wall, and there entered the Grand Canal, which forms the moat of the southern face of the city, I came out in the front alto-gether, and had the matting removed from the fore deck ; " ^f,^. again began to travel openly as a foreigner,] '^ to my no little relief. Great numbers of the grain junks are lying along the sides of the canal here, and also for some distance up the western face of the city. About half way up the moat of the eastern face we turned off at right angles into the canal leading to Kwan shan, in which direction we are now progressing by tracking,^'

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I closed my journal with the above entry. I was then still from forty to fifty miles from Shanghae, but already at a point visited by me in my shooting and exploring excursions, and as free from constraint — ^much freer, in fact — than in Eng-land. Head winds, and the flood tides as we approached Shanghae, prevented my reaching that place till the evening of the 19th. I at once wrote out and handed to H.M-'s Plenipotentiary, a report of the business portion of my doings, &c., and of the intelligence collected respecting the rebels from various fugitives from Nanking and Chin keang, u e. from persons who had seen what they talked about. They were most of them illiterate men, and hence their account of the books of the Tae pings was meagre and partially incorrect; but in all matters that they could themselves judge of, their information was very accurate, as will be seen on a comparison of the following condensed extracts from my Grand Canal report, with the notices of the same subjects given in the other parts of this volume.

"The most diflScult point to fix, even approximately, is the number of the insurgents. But it would appear that of trusted and voluntary adherents, forming the nucleus and strength of their force, there are not less than thirty or forty thousand, all of whom have long hair. Of voluntary ad-herents, who have been too short a time with them to have long hair, and of pressed men, there seems to be some eighty or one hundred thousand at least. About the chiefs there is also much uncertainty. It appears, however, that one person who bears the title of Tae ping Prince, and is a son or other relative, of him known as Teen tih,* is the acknowledged

* During the first two years of the rebellion in Ewang se, foreigners, when they did get any answer to the query of what was the title assumed by the new aspirant to the throne, were told that it appeared to be Teen tih. Hence we got into a habit of speaking of the leader under that name. In a Peking Imperial Gazette of June, 1852, it was stated that Hung ta tseuen, who, under the title of Teen tih, had been associated with Hung sew tseuen, the 8elf-«tyled Tae ping Prince, was taken as the rebels left Tung gan in Ewang se, and put to death at Peking. That a man who had been captured at Tung gan was so executed, there can be little doubt ; and that he had declared himself to be, aft Teen tih, an associate of the Tae ping Prince is very probable ; for, death being

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head. Besides hiin^ there are four others that bear the title of Prince : the Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern. These would seem to have no direct military duties, but to form a State Council. The chief military man is named ITang sew tsing. The distinguishing mark of a private in their army is a red cap or turban, composed of a single piece of doth ; with squares of yellow cloth on breast and back, with the name of their corps or division in black characters. I enclose for Your Excellency's inspection a red head-cloth, and a back and breast-cloth, which circumstances make me

in any case ineyitable, torture and the desire to die as a person of importance would canse most Chinese, so situated, to make a confession to that effect But though the name obtained currency in this way throughout the country, and has consequently appeared in all European books on China and the insurrec-tion, that of M. Hue included ; nevertheless, after haying questioned many of the Tae pings at Nanking, inclusive of the Northern Prince, and after having considered all that has been written on it by Europeans, as well as searched the Tae ping books for traces of its snppression, I am fully convinced that no each title, and consequently no person bearing such title, ever had existence among the Tae pings themselves. The full title adopted by them for the new State is ''Tae ping teen kwoh, Heavenly Kingdom of Universal Peace." But while Tae ping (Universal Peace) is an old and greatly esteemed Chinese term which can well be assumed as the title of a Chinese dynasty ; the next words, teen kwoh, in so far as their position is concerned, read like the title of an individual monarch of that dynasty, just as we read, in Chinese dates, &c., Ta tsing taou kwang, t. e. (the Emperor) Taou kwang of the Ta tsing dynasty. Now, as Mr. Hambex^g shows at page 87 of '' The Rebel Chief," the Eih keas, of whom the Society of Godworshippers consisted, pronounce Teen kwoh as Teen kweh. Further, the title was first formally adopted by them in Yung gan, of their doings in which city during the seven months they held it, their foes, the blockading Imperialists, would get only the vaguest information. Under all these circumstances, the sinologue will readily perceive how the mandarin-pronouncing Imperialist Officers would fall into the error of substituting Teen tih for Teen kweh, and consider it the title adopted by the rebel leader; also how the error would spread from their camps to Canton and Hong Kong. Bvery reader, sinologue or not, will perceive that^ even if a person bearing that title did exist, he was according to the "Imperial Gazette" itself, only a subordinated associate of the " Tae ping Prince," and was put to death at a period when the rebellion was comparatively insignificant. But I repeat, there never was any such person ; and readers who do not wish to confuse their ideas must think only. of Hung sew tseuen and the other individuals mentioned in my narrative as the originators and sole chiefii of the rebellion. Teen tih is not even a myth : he is a pure mistake.

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believe genuine^ [they were genuine], " The one yellow cloth bears the inscription * Holy Warrior,' the other that of ' First front corps of Tae ping.' A deserter when caught is carried round the camp on a hand-barrow, and compelled to exhort all * his brethren ' not to follow his example. He is then decapitated. There is a regular plan of promotion, to which military talents and administrative ability alone constitute claims ; but about the higher leaders none of the informants could say much, except that their relative rank is marked chiefly in the cap, and that the highest wore yellow. There is a complete organization, by which every diflferent kind of service is attended to by special officiab ; and those at Chin keang have their respective titles written at the gates of the Yamuns, temples, and large private houses which they occupy. The strangest, and what will probably prove by far the most important fact connected with them is, that they have got a Sacred Book, which the chiefs and the older members of the army not only peruse and repeat diligently themselves, but earnestly admonish all new comers to learn.

" From high to low they eat in parties of eight, each party having one table. Before seating themselves to eat all kneel, and the chief person at the table devoutly repeats a consider-able portion of this book. All the fugitives from Nanking, Chin keang, and Yang chow agreed as to this circumptance of reverent recitation by the whoh army before meals. The insur-gents declare that the book was sent down from Heaven. The only passage obtained is, ^ Tsan mei shang te,' which, in the absence of context, I should translate, ^Laud and glorify God.' [The translation was correct.] The fugitives all say : * In short they are teen choo keaou teih, followers of the doctrine of the Lord of Heaven.' This is the appellative taken by the Boman Catholics, but in the mouths of Chinese from the interior, who know nothing of Christian sectarianism, it means. Christians. Nothing was heard of * Teen choo,' the term by which the Bomanists render 'God;' and the circumstance of the Book being said to be a direct revelation,

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EXCUB8I0N ON THE QBAND CANAL, 243

militates against the supposition of the insurgents being Christians of any sect. Another striking fact, equally well authenticated as that of the recitation before meals^ is that rape and adultery in the cities taken by storm are inexorably punished by death. The different fugitives conversed with, though anything but friendly to the insurgents, when ques-tioned on this point all scouted, in the way one scouts some outrageous calumny of one's unfriends, the idea of rape being permitted by them. On the contrary, all spoke in terms of wonder, if not of respect, of their chastity. The Chinese women found in Nanking and Chin keang are all, young and old, shut up in separate buildings, and divided into squads of twenty-five, of whom the senior is constituted overseer, and according to which regular rations are served out to them. They are employed in preparing ammunition. No male, not even as father or husband, is allowed to enter the buildings thus appropriated. Whoever does so is put to death without further question. But the women were told by the leaders that their separation from their husbands and male relatives was only a temporary measure, and that as soon as affairs were settled all would be re-united. Great care is taken of all children that come into their possession. The ragged are at once well clothed ; and the boys are bar-racked -^nder special officials, by whom they are carefully instructed in the knowledge of the Sacred Book and in the use of arms. I have now only to add that all informants declare opium-smoking to be punished by decapitation, and even tobacco-smoking by bambooing; and Your Excellency will perceive that there are in the scanty, but tolerably well authenticated particulars ascertained, striking indications of this movement being puritanic and religious, if not fanatical, as well as patriotic and political. I should expect to find the new faith a spiritualized monotheistic Confucianism, i, e. the hitherto existing excellent system of national ethics with the addition of the two things wanting, a God and an immortal life; these latter borrowed in reality from Christian missionary

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translations and writings, but now taught from the new Koran of a Chinese prophet. I may add that all the idols at Nan-king, Chin keang and Yang chow have been destroyed, and all priests killed who have not made submission and allowed the hair of their heads to grow, Le. abjured. But at the same time that I see indications of a strong reli^ous feeling or even of fanaticism^ a careful consideration of all the various acts attributed to the insurgents leads to the conclasion that their laws and rules are the work of sagacious and well-r^u-lated minds ; such laws and rules all tending to the gradual but sure extension of their numbers from a daily increasing nucleus of tried and devoted adherents^ whether originally volunteers or pressed men."

The reader will remember that up to the time of this excursion, though aware of the military progress of the rebels from Kwang se to Nanking, we knew nothing of the religious features of the movement. It was while collating, in my boat on the Grand Canal, the scraps of intelligence procured, that I caught the first glimpses of the fact; to which the sucoesses just achieved by the rebels imparted a vast significance. For I saw, with that mixed feeling of admiration and awe which fills us as we watch powerful forces working deep convulsions and grand transformations in animate or inanimate nature, that the Chinese people was imminently threatened with a revolution far exceeding in profundity and gravity any change it had undergone throughout its long duration of four thousand years.

I immediately began my preparations for proceeding by the Great Kiver to a nearer examination of this, now more than ever interesting movement. Apart from the deeper interest they now excited, our original international reasons for wish-ing to put ourselves into direct communication with the rebels, had received additional force from the following proclamation, a copy which I had brought with me from Chang chow; and the falsity of which it was necessary to explain to people whose operations had already produced grave effects on our

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trade, and who had weighty claims to be regarded as an abiding power in the country :

" CHANG, Prefect of the Department of Chang chow, in the Province of Keang soo, hereby notifies that he has received a note from the Prefect of Soo chow, stating : —

** * I have received a despatch from the Intendant at Shanghae to the efiect that of the ten and odd steamers whose services his Excellency the Governor (of Keang soo) has borrowed, the first division, consisting of five vessels, having proceeded up the river to the encounter of the rebels, passed the port of Fuh shan on the 2d instant; and instruct-ing me to have it notified to the inhabitants along the river that there is no cause to be alarmed at their appearance.'

" These instructions having reached me, I have to issue a proclamation accordingly,

" I now, therefore, issue this notification, for the full infor-mation of the inhabitants : —

" The ships of the barbarian volunteers (braves) which have been engaged* are strong, and their guns efiective, while they themselves are filled with a strong feeling of common hatred to the rebels ; in their desire to exterminate whom they pro-vide themselves with necessaries at their own cost. Within a definite period they will reach the portion of the river beyond Chin keang, when there will be no difficulty in sweeping off this detestable set. You, the people, have no occasion for entertaining alarm, doubt, or fear. The gentry and scholars are hereby authorized to point out for prosecu-tion all persons who may invent false reports, tending to the insecurity of regular occupations, and to whom no indulgence will be shown. A special proclamation.^^ t

Some eight or ten months before the rebels reached

• The term employed implies, usually, that a pecuniary reward or induce-ment is giyen, generally what we call a bounty, besides regular wages."— T. T. M.

t This proclamation was printed with the Parliamentary Papers on the Civil War in China, 1863.

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Nanking, and when all was yet quiet in the sea-boaTd pro-vincesy I made an excursion to the island and the chief dtj of Tsung ming, and from thence about fifty miles up the Great River to a much-revered temple and pagoda lying on the northern bank. This I did not perform in my own boat, which being adapted only for the inner water navigation, would have been foundered by the waves of the Ghreat River estuary, even in ordinary weather. I took two sailing-boats called Kwan kwae, of which the larger description are sufficiently sea-worthy to serve as pilot-boats. When passing Woosung, the place where some six or eight laige foreign opium-ships lie in the Shanghae river just where it falls into the Great River, the chief officer of one, Mr. E. A. Reynolds, offered to accompany me on my trip. We were nearly shipwrecked by a high wind driving us on to a lee shore in our first attempt to enter at night the creek which forms the port of the Tsung ming city ; but were fortunate enough to get off and enter safely at a second attempt. The next morning, the weather being very hot, we engaged a travelling wheelbarrow, a machine composed entirely of wood, with one large wheel (cased in) in the centre, and a seat at each side. We each took a side, and with one man between the handles, and an extra man pulling at a rope, wheeled off to the district city, a mile or two inland. No foreigners had ever before visited it, unless some of the Catholic missionaries did so 150 years ago. Even the shores of the island had, I believe, not been trod on by any foreigners since the British War, when some of our people were killed in a fight with the islanders. The city is the station of a Chinese vice-admiral, or lieutenant-general of marines, whose forces are cantoned there. We walked round the ramparts ; visited the established lions of a Chinese city, viz. the Yamuns, whose outer courts are open to the public, the Public Service Examination Hall and the City Temple ; and then wheeled back to our boats. From thence we sailed up the river to the nearest point to the pagoda above mentioned, which is

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called Ziong shan. It lies about five miles inland from the river^ from which it is however a very conspicuous object, being erected on the top of a conical hill, about three or four hundred feet high, such as I have described as rising at intervals out of the alluvial plain, and being itself about one hundred feet in height. This place had also never been visited by foreigners, and we in consequence created a great sensation. As we wheeled along at an unusual pace, each on his own barrow with two men and relays, the villages and hamlets emptied themselves of their inhabitants of both sexes to see us. The hill on which the pagoda stands has many picturesque tem-ples on its sides, and, being a great resort of pilgrims, there is no lack of inns and tea-houses at its foot. After having ascended the pagoda and enjoyed the fine prospect from its top gal-lery, we took some tea at the bottom of the hill, with only two or three hundred people watching our every motion (the houses are open in front in summer), and then returned to our boats. I got back to Shanghae after an interesting trip of three or four days ; during which I had ample opportunity of seeing that my shipmate, Mr. Reynolds, was a very good hand at dealing vrith Chinese sea-going boats and boatmen. When I therefore, in my Grand Canal excursion found myself deserted at Soo chow by my boatmen, I wrote to Mr. Reynolds, then living at Shanghae, to get a good Kwan kwae ready waiting for me at a specified place in the river, and either be ready to accompany me himself to Chin keang, or get one or two of his acquaintances, like himself mates of opium-ships, to volunteer for the service ; my intention then being, if I did not succeed in getting boatmen to take me on by the Canal, to return to Shanghae privately, transfer everything from my own boat to the Kwan kwae, and start by way of the Great Kiver, without intimation to any one. When I did eventually return, I found a good boat in readiness and my former companion glad to join in person in an excursion that promised no little excitement-. I was just busy with the final preparations when Sir Geoi^e Bonham resolved himself

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to ascend the river in the Hermes with my boat in tow. ^Fhe following were his reasons for this resolution, as given to tlie Earl of Clarendon, after a statement of the substance of the information that I had collected on the Grand Canal : —

" The above, xnj Lord, embraces in a few words the l>e8t and most reliable information it has been in my power ix^ gather since my arrival here. But as I am by no me&os satisfied in regard to the intentions of the insurgents towards foreigners, and as the former appear to be a more formidable body than has hitherto been supposed, I am unwilling to rest until I shall have obtained a declaration of those intentions, more especially as I have the best evidence that the Shanghae Intendant hais spared no pains in spreading false rumours, and^ in short, in endeavouring, by every means in his power, to induce the insurgents to believe that we are to take the part of the Imperialists against them. He has, in his official despatches to other mandarins, announced that we were arming and despatching steamers to assist the Emperor's troops at Nanking and Chin keang. The inclosed trans-lation [that given above] of a proclamation, issued by the Prefect of Chang chow will, I think, confirm the above statements.

*^ Under these circumstances I have thought it expedient that I should immediately proceed in Her Majesty's sloop Hermes up the Yang tsze keang, where my further pro-ceedings, as regards reaching Chin keang and Nanking, must be guided by circumstances. My present object is to explidn clearly to all parties that the British Government are for the present neutral, and thereby undeceive the insurgents in regard to the false statements made by the Shanghae Inten-dant. Perhaps this measure will further have the effect of inducing the Insurgent Chiefs to declare their intentions towards foreigners, at all events it will enable me to convey Mr. Meadows safely close to the scene of action, and prevent

any possibility of his being detained on his way "*

* From the ParliameniAry Papers on the Civil War in China.

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Before closing this chapter, I give the following incident, the account of which was obtained during our Grand Canal excursion, from the principal actor himself, Tso, a native of Shan se ; a province which gives birth to the most enterprising and wealthiest merchants engaged in the inland trade of China. This man saw the Tae ping Western Prince, Seaou, in Keang se on the Poyang Lake, near its northern extremity, under the. following circumstances: —

" Tso, who was about forty years of age, had three small craft, each containing 300 peculs [about twenty tons] of kernels of peach and other fruit-stones. They were sailing quietly down the lake, bound for Nan chang, when they sud-denly perceived a squadron of vessels coming toward them, evidently containing * long-haired rebels.' Two of Tso's vessels, in spite of his remonstrances, attempted flight, were fired at and sunk, with total loss of crew and cargo. The one in which Tso himself was did not fly. It was soon sur-rounded, and he himself taken on board of a large passenger craft of the kind used by officials and wealthy people. At the end of the cabin, which was lined on both sides by spear and sword men, sat a man of about forty years of age, of a florid complexion, and dressed in a yellow jacket with embroidered dragons, and a yellow cap with a white stone or pearl in front. Tso accordingly gave him the title of Prince; and afterwards found that his boatmen had learned from the train of this personage, that he was Seaou, the Western Prince.

" Tso kotowed several times to the Prince, who enquired what part of the country he came from, and what he was doing there. Tso told him that he had had three vessels laden with ftuit-stone kernels, which he was carrying to Nan chang for sale ; that * His Highness had done him the honor [mung wang yay] to sink two;' and that he pro-posed continuing his journey with the third. The Prince said he must have the third for the public service. Tso answered that • His Highness could not have it.' His High-ness ndsed his eyebrows in surprise, and said sternly:

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' What I I cannot have it I ' Tso hastened to appease by explaining that he meant that he (Tso) wonld be reduced to beggary if he lost his cargo. His respectful phraseology and naive tone at last raised in the Prince a friendly feeling for him. He sud, ' Well then you had best come with me to Kew keang and discharge your cargo for sale there/ Tso answered that upon His Highnesses honored approadi Kew keang had been deserted by the inhabitants. The Prince then stud : ' But you don't mean to assert that you will find purchasers at Nan chang ; ' to which Tso replied that ^ His Highness had not honored that place with his presence-^ His Highness then said that he must in any case have the vessel. Tso replied that it was a very small one, and unfit for His Highnesses use. His Highness answered that both large and small were useftd, each kind in its way ; and the matter ended by Tso's goods being landed for him at the place and his vessel being taken off. Tso then procured two still smaller vessels from a hamlet in the immediate vicinity, and proceeded with them to Nan chang."

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CHAPTER XVII (PART 1 OF 6)

IHTKRCOUBSE OF THE TAE PINGS WITH WESTERN FOREIGNERS.

Th£ Hermes started on the 22d April, 1853, with the Chinese boat under charge of Mr. Reynolds in tow.*

^' On the 26th April, the difficulties of the intervening navigation having been overcome, the Shanghae Intendant's fleet, of Macao Portuguese lorchaa and Occidental vessels manned by British and Americans, was passed lying at anchor about twelve miles below Ching keang. At about 11 A« M. the Hermes anchored off Silver Island, where, ac-cording to statements of Imperialist mandarins made the day before, and assurances of fishermen who had just been spoken to, the Rebels had an outpost. But on landing in the Chinese boat I found in the temples only a few priests."

It was here that, for the second time, a sense of the immense significance of the rebellious movement fell forcibly on my mind. As I hurried rapidly through the deserted courts and halls, I found everywhere on the spots which are invariably occupied by enormous idols, only heaps of the clay, that had formed portions of the gods of this famed temple. Further, the few scared priests who followed my

* Unleas otherwise stated, aU those portions in this Chapter which are inclosed in doable commas are extracts either from my official reports to H. IL's Flenipotentiaiy, as given in the " Parliamentaiy Papers on the Ciyil War in China^" or from my oontribations to the " Korth China Herald," written (like the reports) immediately after our return, when the occnrrences were quite fresh in my memory. In the extracts from the " Herald" I have substi-tuted / for my name, and made a few similar alterations.

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steps had the hair growing all over their heads, and told me that the Rebels had prohibited them on pain of death from practising the monastic rite of shaving. I thus had direct evidence of that strictly anti-idolatrous spirit which I had learnt on the Grand Canal to be a leading characteristic of the rebels. There was, however, no time for musiiig on the fate of faiths. '' The assurance of the monks that the rebels had no permanent post on the ishind but only visited it occasionally seemed true. They, however, stated that certain junks, lying opposite the north-eastern heights of Chin keang about two miles farther up, were manned by the Kebels. To these vessels I therefore repaired, but found them unarmed, and occupied only by two or three men in each, who declared themselves to be the original trading crews compelled after their capture to lie at that spot. In the meantime the steamer had weighed anchor and followed my boat; and a great bustle was observed on shore. One or two armed boats on the beach began firing guns, and the Insurgent troops were seen running to man the stockades both there and on the heights above. The cause of all this was soon found not to be merely the appearance of the Hermes^ but the approach of the whole of the Intendant's fleet, which had weighed anchor and closely followed her; and which appeared to have been sooner descried from the heights than had been done from the steamer, owing to a thick fog on the river which only then began to clear off. The lorchas had all red flags, that at a little distance were not to be distinguished from a faded British red-ensign; and after the fabe proclamations that had been issued about steamers, the Rebels naturally took the Hermes for the first of an attacking squadron. They accordingly opened a fire on her, and as the fleet was rapidly nearing and a general action imminent, no course was left but to steam on at once to Nanking ; which was done, after a note explanatory of the circumstances had been handed to a boatman for delivery to the Bebel Commanders. The Hermes continued to be fired

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FOREiaN INTERCOURSE OP TAE PINGS. 253

at from junks and stockades on both sides of the river till she Had passed Kwa chow ;* and we are told that the occa-sional 'whizzing of round shot close over the awning of the quarter-deck bj no means detracted from the excitement caused by the singular and highly picturesque scene in her rear. As she had appeared in very suspicious company, and it bad become still more necessary than before to convince the Insurgents of our neutrality, she did not even prepare to return the fire directed against her.

'* This portion of the Great Biver must at all times have much interest. Out of the wide expanse of channel through which the turbid waters of the third river in the world roll rapidly towards the ocean, rise at the distance of three or four miles fi-om each other two high islands, covered with temples and wood. Between these, known to foreigners as Golden and Silver Islands, the north-eastern heights of Chin keang, a high promontory, likewise capped with temple and pagoda, overlooks the stream from the southern bank.f The islands were not occupied by the Rebels ; but the promon-tory and large portions of the river-banks underneath had been fortified by stockades. Past Silver Island and up into this scene the lorchas now advanced and, sailing close in-shore, opened a vigorous and well-sustained fire on the stockades and on the armed boats on and near the beach. There were few guns in the latter, but these the Rebels, nothing daunted by the sudden attack, coolly manned and discharged on their advancing enemy. In the meantime the noise of the cannonade was bringing down numbers of their comrades from the city, the officers on horseback and the men running along on foot. Many of these bore banners, a few had matchlocks, but the great majority were armed only with swords and spears. Yet they came rapidly

* It was here that I was complimented by the " shot on the Great I^yer** that the reader will find mentioned in Chapter IIL of " Ciyilization.'*

t See page 285, for some further description of this important and interest-ing locality.

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down and planted themselves on the beach in the fsioe of the heavy fire with a boldness that excited the admiration of our countrymen. The groups had a varied and liTely appearance, quite new in bodies of Chinese. Many of the men had broad red sashes, all had coloured cloths for head-dress, unless when the whole hair of the head was very long, and the officers wore yellow or red hoods and jackets. One of the latter, probably the Commandant of Chin keang, had stationed himself in the most conspicuous position of the locality : under a dome at the extremity of the promontory, on which the iron pagoda stands. He had a number of guards around and yellow banners planted near; while the picturesque effect of the group was heightened, from time to time, by the flash and smoke from a gun a yard or two lower down.

*^ The Intendant*s fleet penetrated as &r as Kwa <ioWj the head of the Grand Canal on the northern bank, where they were firing on the junks and stockades when the HermeSj in her progress up the river, steamed beyond the range of sight'*

I have already stated that this was the first intercourse of the new Chinese Christians with the Protestant Christians of the West ; and if first impressions are the most durable, we have no cause to expect them to think of us with any friendly feeling. But as regards the immediate military consequences, ** the result of the action, as subsequently ascertained, was that the fleet retired to their original station, after expending no small quantity of ammunition, taking with them the five or six trading vessels anchored in the midst of the river, but no armed prizes. They did not dare to attempt a landing. One lorcha got aground at Silver Island and had to signalize for assistance; whereon one of her fellows returned, into which her crew after an hour or two was transferred. The priests of the adjoining temples said it was then about dark, and that they retired to their dormitories for the night, but were soon roused by a loud

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report ^wliich shook their buildings, and on running out they

found the vessel in flames. This account was corroborated

by the Rebels, who said they had not approached her, and

that she must have been fired by her crew before being

deserted. So far as could be ascertained or perceived by

the HermeB on her return a week after, the attack had had

no other effect on the Bebels than to make them dispose

their grain junks in a position more protected by their

batteries, and to moimt more guns in, and make material

additions to, the latter.*'

Ab we were leaving the above fight behind us on the 26th, we took two men out of one of the unarmed Bebel vessels, of winch several were flying up the river. This one had only some four or five men on board of her. She was one of the up-country trading craft that the Rebels had seized on their way down to Nanking, and the two men we took were a part of her original crew. They were, therefore, not " long haired " rebels ; but, viewing the cannonading through which we had just passed, it was deemed expedient to take them to Nanking^ there to be used as the means of allaying any alarm which our approach might create, and of so rendering peaceful communication possible. As illiterate boatmen, who had been but a few weeks with the Bebels, little infor-mation was to be obtained from them. Of the Tae ping religion they could tell me no more than I had learnt on the Grand Canal; but they were able to corroborate the fact that Yang sew tsing, the Eastern Prince, was the chief niilitary and political authority. The Heavenly Prince, they said, was the acknowledged Sovereign, but he was never seen, and spent his time in ^' peen shoo, writing books.'' At first these men took the Hermes for a vessel of the Imperial fleet ; but when I had made them comprehend our object, they were evidently not ill-pleased to get away from the fighting and become the bearers of a message which, they presently saw, would be a relief to the Bebels in the batteries ^ Nanking. At dark the Hermes anchored about twelve

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miles below that place. "During the night several lar^ timber-rafts passed her on fire. In the forenoon of the 27u she anchored ofi^ the northern angle of Nanking, below tk first battery planted by the Insurgents to defend the entrance to two creeks running under the walls, and in which lav an immense number of large river junks. A great hustk was observed on shore, and a gun or two in the batteir began firing at the steamer, but ceased when the two people that had been taken the preceding day landed with a letter explaining that she had come with no hostile intentioDs. Shortly after, some eight or ten of the insurgents came along-side in a small boat, the first to appear on the deck heing a good-looking young man, an officer, in a close fitting red Chinese jacket, who from his long hair was evidently a genuine ** rebel " of old standing and who, as the first specimen of these much discussed people met with, was viewed and ques-tioned with some interest by our countrymen. Other boats speedily followed, in one of which Mr. Reynolds took a passage on shore ; where he met with a civil reception from a leader in charge of the stockaded battery that had just been firing. In the meantime a reply having been received to the note despatched on arrival, the Plenipotentiary sent me on shore to open a communication with some more influential leader."

The reply just received, though from the leader who had charge of the river batteries and the conunand over some thousands of men, was illiterate ; but it was curious as show-ing how thoroughly the theory of right to the sovereignty, which I have expounded in Chapter II., is known even to the less informed Chinese. The note sent on shore was in the name of Capt Fishboume, and merely stated the fact of the arrival of the Plenipotentiary and his wish to put himself into communication with the persons in chief authority at Nanking. But the reply entered at once into general ques-tions, and laid down lie "right to rebel." The writer stated that the Chinese had long wished to expel " the Tar-

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tars (Hoo noo or Huns)," but that "the Divine Commission not having been taken from them," they (the Chinese) were constrained to await *^ Heaven's own time." Now, however, ** the Divine Commission had been conferred on the Chinese," and hence they were " bound (puh tih puh) to do their duty to Heaven by extirpating the demons (Manchoos) and aiding in the establishment of their own Sovereign." The reader will do well to remember that, whatever the immediate causes may be which induce Chinese to take up arms against the Imperial Government at the present time, few would venture to do it but for the existence of this grand old national doctrine, as a justification.

I landed in one of the Hermes'' boats, and was accompa-nied on the occasion by her second lieutenant, Mr. Spratt. Feeling that it would only delay matters to get into talk with our illiterate correspondent, " I requested to be con- , ducted to the highest authority to whom immediajt^ accesd could be obtained. After about half an hour's walk, letl-by one or two volunteer guides, and surrounded by numbeifs of the Insurgent troops, we were stopped in front, of a bouse in the northern suburb. Our attendants h^re ranged them-selves in two rows, forming an avenue of^ten or £Ilfceen yards in length from the door of the house* to ourselves. Two persons clothed in yellow silk gowns and hoQ^s then appeared at the threshold, and the soldiers about called on me to kneel. This I refused to do, but advanced and, uncovering, told the two persons that I had been sent by Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary to make inquiries and arrangements respect-ing a meeting between him and the chief authorities at Nan-king. As they retreated into the house without giving any reply, while the summons to kneel was being continued, and Mr. Spratt was called on by words and gestures to lay aside his sword, I, after recommending that gentleman to disre-gard the requisition, deemed it advisable to follow the Chiefs without awaiting invitation. I accordingly entered the house, and, advancing to the spot where they had seated themselves,

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on the only two chairs within sight, agtun infonned iiiexn. of the purpose for which I had come. Before I had well finished I heard scuffling and angry shouting at the door behind me, and the Chiefs cry ing out, * Ta 1 ' ^Beat!' two or three oi their armed followers commenced beating the man who had been most prominent in guiding us there. One of the Chiefs, whom I subsequently ascertained to be known as the Northern Prince, then asked if I worshipped 'God the Heavenly Father?' I replied that the English had done so for eight or nine hundred years. On this he exchanged a glance of consultation with his companion (the Asaistaot Prince), and then ordered seats to be brought. Afler I and my companion had seated ourselves^ a conversation of con-siderable length ensued between myself and the Northern Prince, the first in rank of the two; the other^ the As-sistant Prince, listening and observing attentively, but saying nothing to me directly, and only making a short remark when looked to or addressed by his superordinate* The con-versation on my part was turned chiefly on the number and relative rank of the Insurgent Chiefs, and on the drcum-stances under which they would be prepared to meet Sir George Bonham; but I also explained, as authorized, the simple object of his visit, viz., to notify the desire of the British Government to remain perfectly neutral in the struggle between them and the Manchoos, and to learn their feelings towards us and their intentions in the event of their forces advancing on Shanghae. I explained to him that we had no concern with the square-rigged vessels^ lorchas, and other craft that had followed the -Harm^* into Chin keang ; also that the proclamations of the Manchoo officials, stating that they had engaged the services of a num-ber of foreign steamers, were false in so far as British vessels were included ; and that though we could not prevent the sale of English craft, private property, more than the sale of manufactures generally, such craft, after sale, were not en-titled to the use of the national colours.

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^' la all this the Northern Prince listened, but made little or no rejoinder; the conversation, in so far as directed by him, consisting mainly of inquiries as to our religious beliefs and expositions of their own. He stated that as children and ^worshippers of one God we were all brethren ; and after receiving my assurance that such had long been our view also, inquired if I knew the * Heavenly Rules' (Teen teaou). I replied that I was most likely acquainted with them, though -unable to recognise them under that name ; and, after a mo-ment's thought, asked if they were ten in number. He answered eagerly in the afiSrmative. I then began repeating the substance of the first of the Ten Commandments, but had not proceeded far before he laid his hand on my shoulder in a friendly way, and exclaimed, * The same as ourselves ! the same as ourselves 1 ' while the simply observant expres-sion on the face of his companion disappeared before one of satisfaction as the two exchanged glances. He then stated, with reference to my previous inquiry as to their feelings and intentions towards the British, that not merely might peace exist between us, but that we might be intimate friends. He added, we might now, at Nanking, land and walk about where we pleased. He spoke repeatedly of a foreigner at Canton, whom he named Lo ho sun, as being a 'good man.'* He described this person as one who cured the sick without remuneration, and as having been recently home for a short period.* He recurred again and again, with an appearance of much gratitude, to the circumstance that he and his companions in arms had enjoyed the special protection and aid of God, without which they could never have been able to do what they had done against superior numbers and resources ; and alluding to our declaration of neutrality and non-assistance to the Manchoos^ said, with a quiet air of thorough conviction, ' It would be wrong for you to help them ; and, what is more, it would be of no use. Our

* I afterwards ascertained that Lo ho sun was the Chinese name assumed by Mr. Roberts. There cannot be a doubt that he was the person referred to.

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Heavenly Father helps us^ and no one can fi^ht ^tli Him.'

*^ With respect to the proposed meeting, he pointed to one of his officers standing near, and eaid the latter woald come on the following day to guide any who might choose to come to an interview. I replied that such an arrangement might do very well for myself and others, but that Sir George Bon-ham was an officer of high rank in Her Britannic Majesty's service, and could certainly not proceed to any meeting un-less it were previously settled where, by whom, and how he was to be received. * However high his rank may be,' was the reply, * he cannot be so high as the persons in whose presence you are now sitting.' And I could obtain nothing more definite than that the reception would take place in a yamun in the city, and that we should have no cause to take objections to the station of the personages met. I said I should make my report to his Excellency accordingly, but could not answer for his landing. In reply to my inquiries respecting the Tae ping Wang, the Prince of Peace, the Northern Prince explained in writing that he was the * True Lord ' or Sovereign ; that * the Lord of China is the Lord of the whole world ; he is the second Son of God, and all people in the whole world must obey and follow him.' As I read this without remark, he said, looking at me interrogatively, ' The True Lord is not merely the Lord of China ; he is not only our Lord, he is your Lord also.' As I still made no remark, but merely kept looking at him, he did not think fit to insist on an answer, and, after a while, turned his head, and b^an talking of other matters. His conversation gave great reason to conclude that though his religious beliefs were derived from the writings, or it might even be the teachings, of foreigners, still he was quite ignorant of the relative posi-tions of foreign countries ; and had probably got most of his notions of international dealings from the Chinese records of periods when the territory of the present Empire was divided into several States."

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These "Princes" were southern men speaking as their native tongue a southern dialect^ and I observed that it cost the Northern Prince some effort to pronounce according to the mandarin pronunciation. When I therefore began in-quiring about Teen tih, I wrote these words with a pencil on a sheet of memorandum paper to prevent misunderstanding. After finishing with Teen tih, I wrote Tee ping, and again handed the paper to the Northern Prince ; upon which he asked for the pencil also and wrote the words translated in the text. Fortunately I have chanced to preserve an auto-graph so curious. Mr. Hamberg and Mr. Roberts had already heard at Hong Kong of the Rebels being a Christian sect ; but this was the first announcement to any foreigner of the astounding claims put forward in behalf of the Hea-venly Prince. The fact of the latter having, at the head of eighty thousand men, taken Nanking and inexorably put to death twenty to thirty thousand of those whom he regarded as the born enemies of his people, made his supernatural claim no truer indeed in my eyes, but it gave immense political significance to what I should otherwise have merely laughed at as the delusion of a fanatic.

We returned to our boat surrounded, as in coming, by numbers of the armed crowd, but meeting with neither molestation nor insult.

There would appear to have been some discussion and division of opinion among the chief counsellors of the new dynasty as to the precise course to be pursued toward us ; and it was probably the will of the Eastern Prince that de-cided that the official who was to have acted as guide did not appear, but, late in the afternoon, two others in his place, with the following open and unsealed ^^ mandate : '^

" Commands are hereby issued to the brethren from afar that they may all understand the rules of ceremony.

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" Whereas God the Heavenly Father has sent our Sove-reign down on earthy as the true Sovereign of all natioDs in the world, all people in the world who wish to appear at his Court must yield obedience to the rules of ceremony. They must prepare representations, stating who and what they are, and from whence they come, after previous presen-tation of which only can audience be accorded them. Obey these commands.

" 24th day of the 3rd month of the 3rd year of the Hea-venly State of Tae ping (28th April, 1853).

" Note. — No seal is affixed because your petition of yes-terday had none."

It was manifest from this reassertion on paper of the notion of universal supremacy enunciated the day before by the Northern Prince, that we could not too soon begin to disabuse them of it^ I accordingly returned the paper with a message to the senders, conveying in the plainest posdble terms our own views of fuU national equality with any and every State, I may here mention that I was not, in any of the conversations I had with the Tae pings, cramped by mere interpreting. Sir George Bonham did not of course intend seeing any officials of secondary or lesser rank, and did not, it so happened, see any of the higher men. Hence though I was the expounder of his views as to neutrality, &c., I was free to select my own arguments and phraseology, unfettered by purely English ideas and idioms. On the present occasion, in order to make those two officers clearly aware of our inde-pendent position hitherto at Hong Kong and the Five Ports, I got out my copy in Chinese and English of our treaties with the Manchoo Government ; and, at the request of the Plenipotentiary, it was eventually sent by their hands to their superiors in his name.

During the whole of this and the following days, that the Hermes lay off Nanking, her decks were crowded by a suc-cession of curious visitors, officers as well as men ; while there was always a party sitting in my Chinese boat talking with

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my clerks^ Chang and Fang, my cook and servant. In this

way ^we had some amusing conversations, and learnt some par«

ticulars that could not be got in the official discussions. The

Great Jliver at Nanking is upwards of a mile in breadth with

an average depth of fifteen fathoms. On the day of her

arrival the Hermes lay pretty close in-shore, on the Nanking

side ; but at night, the Imperialists sending down a number of

large fire rafts, she was compelled to anchor fully three quarters

of a mile off on the opposite side, out of the way of the strength

of the current, and therefore less exposed to such dangerous

visitors. Thither the Rebels came to us in open boats, which

seemed to belong to nobody, and of which there was great

abundance.

On the afternoon of the day after we returned the " man-date,^' an intimation came on board to the effect that Lae, the second of the Tae pings beneath those bearing the title of Prince, had come down to the landing-place and wanted to communicate. I at once despatched my man Chang to get him to come on board if possible. Chang succeeded so well in his mission that we soon saw Lae coming off in a fine up-country travelling vessel bearing a large flag^ and with a band of music playing on the foredeck.

Lae, whom I may here introduce to the reader as that man among the Tae ping leaders who showed most desire to esta-blish friendly relations with the " foreign brethren," at once ^^ apologized for the tone of the mandate of the preceding day, saying it had been drawn up by persons ignorant of the fact that 'Wae heung te, foreign brethren,' could not be ad-dressed in the same style as native brethren. I distinctly explained to him that while the English had, for 900 years, adored the Great Being whom he called the Heavenly Father, they on earth acknowledged allegiance to but one Lord, the Sovereign of the British Empire ; and that, under no circum-stances whatsoever, woulu they for an instant admit fealty to any other ; though they were quite prepared to recognbe as the Sovereign of the Chinese whomsoever the Chinese them-

CHAPTER XVII (PART 2 OF 6)

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selves might choose or submit to as such. Afler this had been fully assented to by Lae^ I stated to him^ at considerable lengthy the circumstances of our desire to preserve neutrality, of our having no connection with the vessels in the employ of the Manchoo Government, &c. &c., as had been done to the Northern and Assistant Princes two days before. After this it was settled that Lae, or a lesser officer^, Leang, who accompanied him, should be in attendance at the landing-])lace on the following day, at 11 a.m., with a sufficient number of chairs and horses to convey Her Majesty's Pleni-potentiary, his suite, and some naval officers to the residences of the Northern and Eastern Princes.

*^ On the 30th of April, the two officers, Lae and Lieaog^ came to the landing-place with chairs and horses as bad been arranged, but his Excellency sent to state, that the tem-pestuous weather (which rendered it difficult to land dry) and indisposition prevented his carrying out the intention of yes-terday, and that I should in an hour or two land as the bearer of a letter, communicating all that was to have been stated verbally. Handed accordingly at 1 p.m., Captain Fishboume and Messrs. Woodgate and Burton accompanying me. Horses were furnished at the landing-place, and we were guided into the city, to a house occupied as a Yamun, by the four officers next in rank below those called Princes, Lae being of the number. We found that the latter had, after leaving the landing-place, gone to the Northern and Eastern Princes, and had not yet returned to his residence. As one of the other occupants was just then engaged in investigating a case of rape, we found the place crowded with spectators, whose curi-osity subjected us to some annoyance until the house-steward procured us seats in an inner apartment. We waited here about an hour, during which tea and other refreshments were offered us, and an officer came from Lae to apologize for his delay in appearing, and to beg us to attribute it to nothing but to pressing business. Eventually we were received by the Ching seang, his immediate superordinate, and three

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others. I was explaining the nature of my errand^ and en* deavouring to get them to take me either to the Northern or Kastem Prince to deliver the letter, when Lae appeared. lie and the others pressed us very much to dine and sleep there that night, engaging to take us to the Northern and Eastern Princes on the following morning; but as we were quite unprepared for this, I ultimately delivered the letter to Lae, and we reached the Hermes again just before dark.'' The following was the letter in question : —

''Hermes, off Nanking , April 28, 1853.

** I received yesterday your message conveyed through the Ministers sent on board for that purpose, to the effect that you were willing to receive me in the city, in the event of my being desirous of paying you a visit. It was at first my intention to see you on shore, but the weather and other cir-cumstances prevent my doing so, and, therefore, I have to convey to you in writing the sentiments I should have com-municated to you verbally had I visited you. Those sentiments are to the following effect : —

" Our nation, the British, have had commercial dealings

with the Chinese at the port of Canton for upwards of 200

years; and about ten years back a Treaty of Peace and a set

of commercial regulations were agreed on, whereby British

merchants and other British subjects are entitled to erect

houses and dwell with their families at the five ports of

Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghae, and, on

due payment of the tariff duties, to carry on an unrestricted

commerce without let or hindrance. At each of the five

ports, British Consular officers are stationed, specially charged

with the authority over British subjects, and I have had the

honor to receive instructions from my Sovereign, whereby

I am stationed at Hong Kong, with the general control of

British subjects and affairs at the five ports, and it falls

within my province to arrange all international questions that

arise between the two States. This state of things has con-

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tinued without change for more than ten years. Secendj, however, it came to my ears that a contest was going on between the native Chinese and tiie Manchoos^ and that you, the Eastern Prince, had taken Nanking. A variety of reports^ connected with the subject, were in circulation, and certain of the Manchoo authorities had issued a proclamation to the effect that they had ' borrowed the services of ten and odd steamers of Western nations, which would proceed up the Yang tsze to attack your forces.' This is altogether Mse. It is the established custom of our nation in no wise to inter-fere with any contests that may take place in the countries frequented by our subjects for commercial purposes. It is, therefore, totally out of the question that we should now in China lend the services of our steamers to give assistance in the struggle. Of the lorchas hired by the Manchoo authori-ties and the square-rigged vessels purchased by them I know nothing ; British merchant vessels are not allowed to let their services in such contest ; but I cannot prevent the sale of vessels, the private property of British subjects, still less those of other nations, any more than I can prevent the sale of cotton manufactures or other merchandise, with which it stands on the same footing. Vessels once sold are, howeven not permitted to hoist our national colours, and British sub-jects have no right to continue on board of the same in the service of the Manchoo authorities, and will, under such cir-cumstances, receive no protection whatever from our Gk>vem-ment. In short, it is our desire to remsun perfectly neutral in the conflict between you and the Manchoos. But oar nation has a large establishment at Shanghae, of dwelling-houses, places for public worship, and warehouses, while the port is frequented by numbers of our vessels. You, on the other hand, have now reached Nanking, at no great distance from Shanghae, and we hear it reported that it is the inten-tion of your forces to proceed to Soochow, Sung keang, and the neighbouring places. Under these circumstances it be-comes desirable to know by what spirit you will be actuated

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FOREIGN INTEBCOURSE OF TAE PINGS* 267

in your measaree having relation to the British j in the event of your proceeding to Shanghae.

'^ In concluBion I have only to add, that it is my intention

to proceed this afternoon a short distance up this river, and

as to-morrow is Sunday, and a day of rest, no business can

be transacted before Monday, when I shall be again at this

anchorage early in the morning, and ready to receive any

reply that you may have to give to the above communication.

At the same time should you or any one of the four Princes

see fit to come then on board to see the ship, I shall willingly

receive you and promise you a suitable reception and a safe

landing.

(Signed) "S. G. Bonham."

The last paragraph of the above letter gives the chief cause of our declining to pass the night in the city.

*' At daylight on the 1st of May the Hermes got under weigh and proceeded up the river. When about eight miles above Nanking, some 15 or 20 river craft of the Canton build and rig (centipedes) were observed ahead, getting their sails up and going off as if in flight. They were at once perceived to be the Imperialist upper flotilla. The rearmost was soon closed with and called dongside. One of those in advance, seeing her consort proceeding quietly to the steamer and see-ing the latter stop, doubtless comprehended there was no hostile intention, and tlierefore thought proper to fire a gun which sent its shot over the bows of the Hermes. The boat that had been called alongside was sent on to tell the others that there was no occasion either to fire or to move, as the Hermes had come merely to get information as to the state of affairs. She proceeded on this mission very leisurely, and as two more shotted guns were fired by vessels she had spoken to, Captain Fishboume ordered the ports to be dropped and the guns prepared. After this there was no more firing. The vessels which composed the flotilla had been built at the head of the Hoonan branch of the Great River and had been

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following in the track of the Rebels down. They were found to be manned altogether by Canton volunteer gunners or 'cannon braves,* many of whom the mandarins have since stated to be reclaimed pirates. There were no regular forces nor aar mandarins present, and each vessel was stated to be independ* ent of the others. Several of the headmen or commanders came on board the Hermes ; but no exact information respect-ing the position and strength of the Imperial armies could be obtained from them. One who had all the appearance and manner of an impudent China-street shopkeeper was however at pains to explain emphatically^ and with an air of much disgust, that the Bebels were ^ Christians and robbers^ robbers and Christians/ The Hermes anchored again off Xankbg about dsLvk"

Instead of lying, as I had hitherto done, alongside of the steamer, I went to the Nanking side, where I lay during the night among the Rebel craft ; and before it was quite dark Mr. Reynolds and myself had a ramble through a part of their position. In doing so, we entered the office of a Sze shwae or General of Division, and saw several men being en-rolled, who had come in from the country to join the Tac pings. My clerks dined with the officer in charge of that particular portion of the river front in which our boat lay. He was, I think, a Leu shwae (or Colonel commanding 525 men). Both the General of Division and the Colonel had long hair, but both were Hoonan men, who had joined the Tae pings since their entrance into the Great Eiver valley. The Colonel almost complained to my people of the severity of the discipline maintained. Negligence, not to speak of dis-obedience, was, he said, punished with immediate decapita-tion. As we had had several complete sets of the religious, political and military publications of the Tae pings for some days in our possession (I had asked the Northern Prince and Lae to send us copies of all they had issued) we had now a tolerably good notion of their principles and organization; and were better able to put further questions.

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lEarly on the morning of the 3rd the following communi-* ^sLtiofn^ written on a long piece of yellow silk, was received >rft. board:

"OF THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM OF TAE PING

BT

THE TRUE DIVINE COMMISSION,

WE,

Yang, Seaou,

the Eastern Prince Ho nae the Western Prince,

:&rlaster,* Lord Healer of g Assistant Minister

Diseases, First Minister and ^ and

Commmander of the Chief Second Commander of

Army ; the Chief Army ;

Hereby issue a decree to the English from afar, who have . hitherto revered Heaven and have now come to give in their alle-giance to our Sovereign, specially enjoining them to entertain no doubts but to set their minds at rest.

" The Great God, the Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord in the beginning created, in six days, heaven and earth, land and sea, men and things ; from that time till this, the whole world has been one house, and all within the four seas have been brethren ; there can be no difference between man and man, no distinction between high and low born. But from the time that evil spirits entered into the hearts of men, they have not acknowledged the great grace of God, the Heavenly Father, in giving and sustaining life, neither have they ac-knowledged the great merit of Jesus, the Heavenly Brother, in the work of redemption ; and they have caused lumps of

* This title has no meaning in the Chinese language. The aeeond name, " sew,** of the Eastern Prince la composed of two other characters, ho and nae. The title probably refers to his powers as a seer.

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day, wood and stone to do strange things in this w(»ld. Hence it was that the Tartars, the demon Huns, succeeded in thieyishly possessing themselves of onr Heavenly comifzy.

'* But happily the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother have from early times displayed divine manifestations among you English; and yon have long revered and worshipped Grod, the Heavenly Father, and Jesus, the Heavenly Brother^ so that the true doctrine has been preserved, and the gospei has had its guardians.

** Happily, now again, the Great God, the Heavenly Fath^v the Supreme Lord has manifested His great grace. He sent angels to take the Heavenly Prince, our Sovereign^ up into Heaven ; and there personally gave him power to sweep swaj from the thirty-three heavens the evil spirits, whom he expelled from thence into this nether world. Again, to our great bliss, in the third month of the Mow shin year (April, 1848) the Great God, the Heavenly Father manifested Wa great grace and compassion by descending on earth, and in the ninth month (October) the Lord, the Saviour of the world, the Heavenly Brother also manifested His great grace and compassion by descending on earth. From that time, for six years, the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother have largely directed our affairs and helped us with a mighty arm, displaying numberless manifestations and evidences, exterminating a vast number of evil spirits and demons and aiding our Heavenly Prince in assuming the sovereignty of the world.

** Now since you English have not held vast distances too far, but have come to acknowledge allegiance here, not only are the armies of our Heavenly Dynasty in great delight and joy, but in the high heavens even, the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother will also regard with pleasure this evidence of your loyalty* and sincerity. We therefore issue this special decree, permitting you the English chief, with the

' * The Chinese word is that ased to mark the proper feeling of a subject iowardfl hiB Sovereign.

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>]-etlireii under your superintendence^ constant ingress and ^^Tees in full accordance with your own inclination and wish, ii^hether to aid us in the extermination of the demons * or to pi:&r8ue as usual your commercial avocations. And it is our earnest hope that you will, with us, achieve the merit of diligently serving our Sovereign, and, with us, repay the goodness of the Father of souls.

** TVe now bestow upon you English the new Books of I>eclaration8 of the Tae ping dynasty, in order that the whole ivorld may learn to revere and worship the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother ; and also know where the Heavenly Prince exists, so that all may offer their congratulations Inhere the true commission (to rule) has fallen.

** A special decree for the information of all men, given this twenty-sixth day of the third month of the Kwei haou year (1st May, 1853,) of the Heavenly Kingdom of Tae ping."

Lae, the second officer beneath the Princes, followed the

above communication on board of the Hermes. I have little

doubt that the assertion of the universal supremacy of the

Heavenly Prince which it contained was made contrary to

his advice. It was to him that I had, but three days before,

distinctly expounded the international doctrine of the perfect

equality of independent States and their Sovereigns. I had

shown him that in point of rank the Sovereign of even the

smallest Christian State was considered on an equality with

that of the largest; and that the idea of our Sovereign, who

was at the head of one of the most powerful States in the

world, being in any manner or respect beneath any Chinese

Sovereign was not for a moment to be entertained, being in

fact absurd. I had seen that in mind as well as in words he

had assented to this, for him quite novel doctrine ; and my

opinion was that he came off to the Hermes afler the above

'* Decree," in the wish to soften the effect which its reasser-

• All oppoBen of Hnng sew tseuen's xnission are held to boloog to the king-dom of the devil, and are called " demons.'

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lion of supremacy was sure to produce. But it was intimated to him by order of the Plenipotentiary, that the contents d the "Decree" were such as to render further discusscm useless; that an answer would be given immediately; and that we should leave at 4 p.m. He departed, and the answer followed him soon after by the hands of a young aide-de-camp, whom he had left to bring it- It was as follows :

" I have received your communication, part of which I am unable to understand, and especially that portion which implies that the English are subordinate to your Sovereign. Owing to its contents, I am now compelled to renaind you that my nation, by Treaty entered into with the Chinese Government, has obtained the right of trading at the fire ports of Canton, Foochow, Amoy, Ningpo and Shanghae; and that if you or any other people presume to injure, in any manner, the persons or property of British subjects, immediate steps will be taken to resent the injury in the same manner as similar injuries were resented ten years ago, resulting in the capture of Chin kiang, Nanking, and the neighbouring cities, and in the Treaty of Peace, the condi-tions of which you will have learnt from the copy sent to you the day before yesterday.

(Signed) « S. G. Bonhajc"

Shortly after this letter was taken ashore, we saw one of the yellow-clothed Princes and another leader in a yellow jacket and red gown ride in great haste down to the river bank ; whither, it presently appeared, they had come for [the purpose of urging on the completion of a ditch and stockade from the river to the city walls on the western side of their position. This was the side nearest the Imperial flotilla, which the Hermes had visited the day before ; and it was plain that that visit, coupled with the tone of our letter of the succeeding morning, had led them to apprehend a combined attack. The two leaders ascended the high stern of one of the vessels which were lying with their heads

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touching the bank ; and I then with the help of a glass made t^hcm out to be the Northern Prince whom I saw on the day of our arrival, and the Ching seang, the officer next in rank to the Princes, whom we had seen in the city. From the stem of the vessel they could at once see up the river, and a.t the same time get the best view of the men laboring at tlic trench and stockade where these works abutted on the Ijank. There were as many men employed as could get at the work, several of the officers in their short yellow jackets ^vith broad scarlet borders laboring with the spade or the pile-driver to stimulate the others. A large state umbrella ivas held over the head of the Northern Prince, who was attended by aide-de-camps and body guards in scarlet-bordered yeUow jackets ; and this group together with the men and officers laboring like ants at the trench and stockade formed a very peculiar and striking sight.

The Hermes started at 4 p.m., on the 2nd May, anchored fur the night some distance above Kwa chow and Chin keang, the former of which places we reached early in the forenoon of the 3rd. Before Lae left us on the preceding day, I had explained to him that in ascending the river the Hermes^ though fired upon several times, had not returned the fire because she had appeared under suspicious circumstances; but that now aU parties having been made fully aware of the pacific nature of her visit, any future firing at Chin keang or other places must be returned. "In reply he stated, that no thought need be taken on that score as communications had, since the arrival of the vessel, been exchanged with Chin keang, and that the nature of her position to the Tae pings was there well known. The com-munications in question would not appear, however, to have been acted on with sufficient promptitude by publication to the forces generally : for on the approach of the Hermes to the stockaded batteries erected to protect the entrance of the Grand Canal at Kwa chow she was fired at ; and, so far as could be judged on after inquiry and consideration,

T

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it was done merely in pursuance of general orders to resist all attempts of other than their own people to pass tbeir lines. In every case the attack could not have been pre-meditated on the part of the higher officers, as many of ti» guns in the stockades were not manned. Enough were, however, in readiness in the first stockade and the adjoining junks to enable them to discharge five or six shots before Capt. Fishboume's order to load, and run out the guns oooM be carried into effect. The Hermes then began to retom the fire, proceeding at the same time slowly down the river, carried by the current and either steaming easily, or, occa-sionally, with her engines stopped to permit of a better aim at some more conspicuous assailant. After passing the stockades that lined the Kwa chow side of the river, she had to sustain a similar fire from those on the Chin keang side, distributing in return some forty or fifty round shot and a few shell ; after which she anchored off Silver Island, about two miles below the fortified heights. Within an hour afterward, a letter of a civil and pacific character, evidently prepared some days before, was brought down by a messenger to the bank opposite and sent on board by a fishing boat. While the answer to this was being written, a group containing several yellow-jacketed leaders was observed collecting on the bank and making signs of a desire to communicate. I was accordingly sent on shore, and found it was the rebel general Lo ta kang, who explained that the fire had been opened at Kwa chow by mistake by some new troops, who were not aware of our having been in peaceful communication with their Princes at Nanking. He stated that, on hearing the noise of the firing, he had hurried down from the city of Chin keang to the stockades to stop it. I told him, as instructed, that Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary was still willing to continue neutral, but that all acts of aggression would be repelled by force, and might compel the British Government to side with the Manchoos. He aslced why wc, who had an old enmity with the Manchoos, and

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POREiaN INTERCOUESE OP TAE PINGS. 275

Tvere on the other hand brethren of his party^ inasmuch as

-we acknowledge the same God and Christ, did not rather

aid the latter. I replied that it was an established rule of

tlie British Goyernment not to interfere with the internal

struggles of foreign states; moreover, that though we had

been at war with the Manchoos, we had concluded a treaty

of peace with them, and could not therefore take arms

ag£un8t them without breaking our plighted faith. He then

introduced the subject of opium, saying we ought not to sell

it. I replied that it was with the opium as with the vessels

bought by the Manchoo officials, the British Government

took no cognizance of it, but left it to the Chinese authorities

to deal with those found engaged in the traffic as they

thought fit. I invited him to accompany me on board, assuring

him of a safe landing whenever he pleased, but he declined.

I then asked for one of their people to come on board, in

order to take back a reply to their letter. Three volunteered

at once, cue of whom was found to be a Meaoutsze or inde*

pendent aboriginal mountaineer from Kwei chow. He was

a middlesized young man, of earnest gesture and expression.

He spoke mandarin purely but with some effort, like a

foreigner. He said 3,000 of his people were with the Tae

pings, and spoke with pride of the fact that they had never

submitted to the rule of the Manchoos ; in proof whereof he

showed his long hair, not shortened by shaving from his

youth up. When the letter was handed to him, he promised

to bring an answer within an hour, and kept his word by

riding down with it within that period in a heavy rain."

In the preceding paragraph it is stated, that the first letter received from the Chin keang commanders had '* evidently been prepared some days before." It had been so prepared in consequence of one of my people having in our Grand Canal excursion succeeded in discovering two emissaries of the Tae pings who had been sent from Chin keang with a letter to a person in Soochow. They were pressed men, «. e. two of the original residents of Chin keang for whose faithfulness

t2

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276 THE CHINESE AND THEIR SEBELLIOKS*

in discharging the duty and returning to that city the Uycs of their relatives there were to stand security. That my man should have detected in these two persons emissaries of the '* long haired rebels,'' and should have then, in order to gain their confidence, been the first to disclose himself as an agent of the barbarians, and all in a part of the ooontry filled with Imperial troops, was no slight proof of discern-ment and courage. These men declined to be the bearers of any lengthened communication, but they did undertake tjo convey to the leaders at Chin keang a short letter stating that the British intended to observe neutrality in the struggle then going on, and that though our steamers would probably sooner or later ascend the Great River to their positions, it would only be to make inquiries, not to assist the Imperialbts. He letter further pointed out how the rebel commanders could enter into a correspondence with the British authorities at Shanghae ; and requested if any communication was sent, that these two emissaries might, as known people, be its bearers It was at the wish of the two men themselves that this request was made. They were anxious to be sent away again from Clun keang at a^time when they thought it likely that that place might be attacked and stormed by the Imperialists. We hod therefore no doubt that they would deliver the letter, but could not even surmise what the result would be, as we then knew nothing of the rebel leaders, except what is stated at the close of the preceding chapter. It would appear that the request at the end of the letter made the Tae pings regard the whole thing as a ruse on the part of the two men to get away from the place. But when a British steamer did afterwards actually pass up without returning the fire directed on her, their story gained credence ; and a letter was prepared in three copies, each contained in a handsome yellow silk envelope carefully sealed, and all of which were despatched on board the Hermes as soon as it was perceived that she had anchored off Silver Island. I subjoin the substance of it only ; for, though carefully

CHAPTER XVII (PART 3 OF 6)

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X>repared, it is in a literary point of view, somewhat deficient ; &o nmch so that a translation is less likely to be infomiiDg -to the English reader than an abstract, Lo ta kang, the oommandant of Chin keang, has been mentioned in page 152 aa originally a Triad Society rebel leader, who joined the Tae pings in Kwangse. Though one of their best generals, And therefore placed in charge of a position at once so exposed and so important as Chin keang, his literary attain-ments were of the scantiest ; and there were in consequence manifest signs of some confusion in the Chin keang secretariat. His letter commenced with the national justification of the rebellion. The Divine Commission to rule had been con-ferred on the Heavenly Prince with the special mission of destroying the Tartars. "When the Will of Heaven was fixed, it was vain for man to make opposition ; and it was the duty of the loyal and patriotic to^ exert themselves in behalf of the Divinely Appointed. When the affairs of the Tartars were in a flourishing state, they had, contrary to the wishes of the Chinese, shown themselves opposed to the [English, who had in consequence levied a rightful war against them. Nevertheless, these same Tartars were now, when in straits, mean enough to apply to their former adver-saries for aid ; and were endeavouring to make the British and Chinese mutual enemies* Mention was then made of some of the British Commanders during hostilities at Canton, as if Lo ta kang had there been acquainted with them, but the phraseology of the letter is in this portion of that formal complimentary kind which must not be taken literally. Reference was next made to the letter sent from the Grand Canal, to which it was stated an answer had been despatched. When the Hermes appeared, a few days before, it was sup-posed that it had come with a rejoinder ; and hence the fire directed against her (by the subordinates in the batteries) had been stopped. But as no rejoinder had been brought, it was concluded that his (the Commandant^s) reply had not reached its destination. Hence another (the present) letter

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had been prepared for the British Ciyil and Military Autho-rities with the view of cultivating friendly relations witk them ; so that they might obey the will of the Heaveolj Father, and achieve the (dynastic) merit ''^ of diligently serving the True Sovereign; who would make no distinc-tions, but would reward all in like manner. If, however^ we allowed ourselves to be cheated by the demon Huns into aiding them, then it was hoped that we would give a reply distinctly announcing such our intentions.

To this an answer was sent by the Meaou tsze, summarily stating the circumstances under which the Hermes had fir^t passed up ; our notification of neutrality to the Princes at Nanking ; that we were still disposed to preserve neutrality; but that all firing directed t^inst us would be returned.

General Lo ta kang's rejoinder to this was to the effect that the current reports about the Tartars having procured our assistance, and the necessity of being watchful, had led to some new troops opening fire upon us in misapprehension of the actual circumstances in our case ; but that the true circumstances having now been made known, nothing of the kind would again occur.

The tone of all these letters, as well as of the language and personal bearing of Lo ta kang himself, was perfectly courteous, without being in the slightest degree mean. He had, as he- himself told me, *^ seen us fight ^' at Canton, but his knowledge of the British, excepting as formidable adver-saries, was very limited ; and, this considered, his conduct was that of a brave but sagacious and prudent man who was anxious to avoid increasing the difficulties of his position. The following passage, which I translate from Guizot'd "R^publique d'Angleterre," seems to me, indeed, to be exceedingly well applicable to most of the Tae ping leaders, and to this man in particular :

** In the midst of numerous marks of inexperience and

* The Chinese word exprcascs that kind of merit which consists more ei$pecial]y in securing the rightful sovereign in possession of the Throne.

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- FOREIGN INTEECOUKSE OP TAB PINGS. 279

some arrogant fancies the conduct of the republican leaders mn their foreign policy showed' as much reserve as pride^ an Intelligent prudence^ and the desire to be at peace without, iLn order not to aggravate the difficulties and burdens of their gOYernment within."

When the Meaou tsze rode down with the last letter, I landed to receive it, immediately after which the Hermes started for Shanghae; and so was closed the first act of JBiitish diplomacy in our relations with the Tae pings.

I am happy to think that, while desirous of going further even than we did in repelling their notions of universal supremacy, as not less baneful to themselves than insufferable by us, I nevertheless succeeded, in so far as I was personally concerned, in making a favourable impression on those with -whom I came into contact. It was, indeed, with me no difficult task. Their claim of dynastic supremacy was, in so far as we were nationally concerned, the only objectionable feature of their policy, of which it did not moreover appear to me to be an absolutely essential element. I felt that, if met by firm and reasoning repudiation on our part, it would be given up with their increase in geographical and inter-national knowledge. As to the rest, I knew that the old Chinese, with their scholars the Manchoos, acted on the historically formed conviction that the best policy with respect to powerful barbarians was to pacify them, when necessary, by granting them material benefits in the way of trade, &c. &c. ; but always to accompany such concessions by restrictions, and in particular by a cold, reserved dignity of demeanour intended to keep them at a distance. I have an authoritative Chinese work in my possession in which this policy is distinctly enunciated ; and I had had, in the course of a ten years' constant dealing with mandarins of all ranks, ample opportunity to observe that it was practically acted on, with forethought and deliberation. It had long been clear to me that, in order to obtain from the existing Chinese government a more extended intercourse and i&dditional corn-

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mercial privileges, mere reasoning on the mutual advantages might prove unavailing for generations, and that, if obtained at all, it would have to be by force — by war in one shape or the other, a method of international action to which the British public was wisely becoming more and more av^erse. But these new Chinese Christians, so far from being likely to apply to U8 the historically established national policy towards '^ barbarians," had not only formally ceased to call us by that name, but were, in the very books in which they asserted their right to the sovereignty of the country, pointing to us as the preservers of the highest truths throughout long' centuries, during which the Chinese had been the victims of blinded religious ignorance. And they were moreover earnestly inculcating, as one of their fundamental doctrines, the perfect equality of all human beings as children of the " Father of Souls ;" and were distinctly deducing from that doctrine the practical duty, to which it so obviously pointe, of liberal dealing and free intercourse among all those nations who as children and worshippers of the One True €rod bad become spiritual "brethren.*' I saw, therefore, that if these people succeeded in their difficult enterprise of establishing themselves in the sovereignty of the country, the few pre-judices which might cling to the present generation in spite of themselves must eventually disappear before such deep-> seated principles of assimilation ; and that, with their success, a totally unhoped-for prospect would open to us of obtaining, by purely amicable means, complete freedom of commercial action throughout the whole of the Chinese Empire ; provided always we did not in the meantime give them just ground of mortal offence when struggling with the dangers of their early career.

The possibility of establishing durable friendly relations and a free and mutually advantageous intercourse with China, through the medium of these new Chinese Christians, had struck my mind so forcibly before my interview with the Northern Prince closed, that I spoke to him in a way and with

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rOEEIGN INTEECOUESE OF TAE PIKGS. 281

an earnestness in which I shall probably never speak to any

person during the remainder of my life — all with the view of

creating a favourable first impression, and of preventing an

opportunity, such as might never again occur, from passing

unused. The official report, given above, of our conversation

contains merely the diplomatic facts. It was originally my

intention to have added aU that I remember of what passed ;

but as the rebel " Prince " may yet be an acknowledged

Imperial Prince of the Chinese Empire I think it best to

preserve silence. He had never spoken with an Occidental

foreigner till he saw me, and it was clear, from his own

language and demeanour, that when I left he was not disposed

to think unfavourably of us. With Lae also I parted good

friends* While it was evident from the manner of several

of his colleagues, that they were desirous of keeping on 0Qod

terms with us only out of policy, I am much indipea io

believe that Lae was, as one of the first Kwangse Converts'

of Fung yun san and a devoted member of the nej¥ Christikn

community, actuated by a genuine sympathy for his " foireign

brethren.** It was he whom I particularized^ at th3 time in

the following passage,* descriptive of the old^Tae pings

generally: —

" Their moral code, the Rebels call the ' Heavenly Rules ; ' which on examination proved to be the T^n Commandments. The observance of these is strictly enforced by the leaders of the movement, chiefly Kwang tung and Kwang se men, who are not merely formal professors of a religious system, but practical and spiritual Christians, deeply influenced by the belief that God is always with them. The hardships they have suffered, and the dangers they have incurred, are punishments and trials of their Heavenly Father; the suc-cesses they have achieved, are instances of His Grace. In conversation they * bore ' the more worldly minded by con-stant recurrence to that special attention of the Almighty of which they believe themselves to be the objects. With * An extract from my contributions to the " North China Herald."

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proud hamility and with the glistening eyes of gratitude, the; point back to the fact that at the beginning of their enter-prise some four years ago, they numbered bat one or two hundred, and that, except for the direct help of their Heavenly Father, they never could have done "what they have done.

"*They,' said one, speaking of the Imperialists^ * spread all kinds of lies about us. They say we employ magical arts : the only kind of magic we have used is prayer to God. In Kwang se, when we occupied Yung Gan, we were sorely pressed : there was then only some two or three thousand of us. We were beset on all sides by much greater numbers ; we had no powder left and our provisions were all done. But our Heavenly Father came down and showed iis the way to break out. So we put our wives and children in the middle, and not only forced a passage but completely beat our enemies.' After a short pause he added — * If it be the will of God that our Tae ping Prince shall be the Sovereign of China he will be the Sovereign of China. If not, then we will die here.'

** The man who used this language of courageous fidelity to the cause in every extreme, and of confidence in God, was a shrivelled up, elderly, little individual, who made an odd figure in his yellow and red hood. But he could think the thoughts and speak the speech of a hero. He and others like him have succeeded in infusing their own sentiments of courage and morality to no slight extent, considering the materials operated upon, into the minds of their adherents."

Lae was the first leader of rank who came on board the HermeSy and the highest who did come on board. The courage and devotion which this act implied may not be at once apparent to the English reader. But it must be remembered that the proclamations of the Imperialists had announced the approach of foreign steamers to help them ; also that the Tae pings had, in their ignorance of foreigners, no means whatever of judging that the Hemies was not such

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a steamer, which had come to Nanking under false pretences

in order to entrap their chiefs on board and take them off for

Bale to tlie Imperialists, who would have paid very highly for

8otne of them. All this must have been on Lae's mind;

nevertheless he came off to us with no better guarantee of

safety than the assurances of my clerk Change which I believe

the latter volunteered, Lae not having himself descended to

enquiries about the matter. Shortly before he left us, after

OUT receipt of the unfortunate yellow silk " Decree/' I

presented him with a telescope. The eagerness with which

he, on getting it, at once broke off the discussion in which we

were engaged, and hastened on deck to acquaint himself with

itsnses^ showed the value he set upon the instrument. There

was not another in the possession of the Tae pings, he said ;

and, when the reader bears in mind the important part that

telescopes play in military operations, he will see the great

practical value of my gift apart from its symbolical quality as

an expression of goodwill.

Exactly one month afler the above narrated occurrences^

Dr. Taylor, an American medical missionary, ascended the

river in a China boat till within two miles of Chin keang

when, his men refusing to go farther, he landed and walked

up to the position of the Tae pings ; by whom he was well

received. He remained with them three days, during which

he was entertained at the residence of the Commandant

Lo ta kang. He took with him some Christian publications

together with a stock of medicines, and treated many of the

garrision medically and surgically. Unfortunately Dr. Taylor

spoke only the Shanghae patois, while Lo ta kang and the

other Kwang tung and Kwang se men speak the dialect of

these two provinces and the mandarin. He was therefore not

able to get so much information as his bold visit and good

offices would otherwise have enabled him to procure. The

following extract from his narrative in the "North China

Herald " contains the most interesting circumstances observed

by him : —

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'^ We understand our friend was present at their woidiip. which he describes as consisting of chaunting hymns and doxologies in a very solemn manner whilst those engaged in it remained seated. After that, all kneeled apparently with much reverence, closing their eyes while one of their number uttered an audible prayer. Their chaunting was aoooiii-panied with the usual dissonant instruments employed by Chinese at their festivals. These acts of worship were repeated twice or thrice a day> and included in them grnoe before meat ; and immediately afterwards, they proceeded to the tables without further ceremony* Doctor Taylor aavr ao females, and on enquiry was informed they were all at !Nan-king. He saw tables placed with bowls of various Idndff of food, as offerings to the Supreme Being ; among which were three bowls of tea, one for each person of the Trinity. He was struck with the calm and earnest enthusiasm that per-vaded the entire body, and the perfect confidence evinced m the justice of their cause and its final success."

During this period the Shanghae Intendant Woo did Dot relax his endeavours to mmntain a squadron of square rigged vessels manned by Occidentals, in addition to twelve or fifteen Macao lorchas, to aid the Imperial Chinese fleet in blockading Chin keang ; and, in consequence of the high wages ofifered, seamen deserted from the men-of-war as well as from the merchantmen lying at Shanghae. As one means of putting a stop to this evil, Capt. Fishboume determined to send an officer with a party of seamen and marines up to the Imperial fleet in order to search it for certain deserters ; and as this formed an excellent opportunity for getting some direct and reliable information respecting the state of affairs, my ofiicial chief Mr. Alcock detached me with the party for that purpose.

We started in four boats, in one of which was myself, with my body servant and cook aft ; in another, my two clerks Chang and Fang ; in the third, a lieutenant, Mr. Spratt, and a midshipman, Mr. Williams, of the Hermes^ with a ship's boy, Spratt's servaot ; and in the fourth, four marine artil-

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srymexi and two seamen. With the details connected with bese latter I had of course nothing to do ; but the general ommand of the expedition was officially allotted to me* rbis circumstance, together with the fact of the boats being ill navigated hj Chinese, but by Chinese who had never been up the Great Biver^ made me virtual Commodore of a small squadron on the way to Chin keang and back, in addi-tion to my proper function of international agent in dealing \vith the Tae ping and Imperialist commanders in and around Chin keang. With the exception of one dark night, during vf hich I was anxious to get to the district city of Keang yin^ and in which by the help of a pocket compass and a chart that 1 hsid taken with me, I did guide our squadron into the affluent on which it lies, we always anchored at night. In the day time, my real business being to obtain information, I always stopped when there was a town or city to visit or when, as we approached Chin keang, there was a hill com-manding a good prospect. The expedition lasted in this way for fourteen days, several of which were spent at and near Chin keang, chiefly at the temple wharf on the southern side of the picturesque Silver Island. This was strictly speaking within the Imperialist lines, for on the northern side of the island lay the seventy Imperialist vessels one astern of the other, the Macao lorchas being nearest the Tae pings ; but the river between us and the latter was quite clear.

Silver Island lies at a point in the Great Biver where the latter describes nearly a right angle. Straight westward, about two miles above Silver Island, lies Chin keang ; straight southward, about three miles below Silver Island, lies the town of Tan too, at a point where the Grand Canal comes so close to the Great Biver that a passage of only three quarters of a mile in length joins the two. From this place the Grand Canal goes off in a north-westerly direction to Chin keang, forming with the passage just named an irregular hypothe-nuse, some four miles in length, to the right angle described

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by the Biver. Across this hypothenuse tbe Imperialist camp were established, within long gun shot of Chin keang. Ti^ thus commanded the Grand Canal, as the fleet at Slr^ Island commanded the Great Biver. It was at the pc»iit where the Biver was joined by the Tan too passage that tLe chief civilian having the general charge of the bemegix^ operations, and his suite, lay in some half dozen large mer travelling vessels. Whether the Tae pings broke out hj land or by the Biver, he had in each case ample time to slip cable and fly down with the rapid stream of the latter, h the day time he sailed occasionally up to the fleet, but at night always returned to his safe position. He was a Mas-choo, one of the most polished and cultivated I ever met. His name was Lin; he was then Superintendent of Finances, but he had formerly been Intendant at Shangfaae, and I knew him well.

At the time we left Shanghae, a fifth boat, containing an unattached or expectant Chinese civilian. Hoc, started also and partly kept company with us. This mandarin, Hoo, bad been deputed by the Intendant to communicate with Super-intendent Lin, and insure our being allowed to search the fleet ; without which there was likely to be serious trouble with the British ofiicers at Shanghae. I had not the remotest hope of finding the missing men ; because, if actually with the fleet, there was nothing to prevent them sitting hidden among the tall water-reeds on the bank, where they could laugh in safety at our formal search ; but I knew that the trouble to which that operation would put the mandarins, joined to their uncertainty as to what odd thing the barba-rians would neo^t do, if desertion increased, would form our best guarantee for their not enticing any men away. The following narrative of our doings is almost altogether com-piled from my boat journal and my ofiicial report of the expedition.

At about 4 P.M. on the 29th June, our flotilla moored at Silver Island quay. The place being now commanded by

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the ImperialistSy we found more of the priests here than

^when vre passed in the Hermes two months before ; but none

of the idols had been replaced, and in the interior the temples

had their former desolate look. With one of the priests

I had a good deal of conversation, during our three days*

stay, about Buddhism, the Tae ping Christians, and the state

of the country. He was a very well educated man who,

being tired of the world, had withdrawn from a respectable

position in it, to end his days in quiet in the monastery

here.

On this, the day of our arrival, I did not in passing Tan too call on Superintendent Lin, I left it to the mandarin Hoo to settle about the search. At seven o'clock Hoo joined us; and it was arranged that after our breakfast the next morn-ing, we should go in our boats to the vessel of Admiral Le, in the fleet on the other side of the island* Earlier than that, Hoo said he would not be out of bed. Hoo at first wanted me to go round and lie astern of the Admiral's vessel till he was visible. This I politely declined doing, without stating my reason, which was that it would have put us, who as strangers were entitled to immediate reception, in the position of humble waiters upon a great man before the whole fleet. This was in reality what Hoo wanted ; and the reader sees here an example of the little plans we have perpetually to guard against in Anglo-Chinese official life.

On the following morning at daylight, I took my own boat to the southern bank of the river, landed and followed the road which leads round the back of the Seang Hill* I passed through a long village until I came to the ridge of which that hill is the extreme point, I then ascended by the crest of this ridge till I reached the conical knoll at the south-west extremity of the Seang Hill, where I had the Imperialist campa on my left, the Imperialist fleet on my right — together with the walls of Chin keang in front of me, all in view. I remained there about an hour, observing all through my glass. There was a constant exchange of shots going on

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288 THE CHINESE AND THEIfi EEBEIXIOKS.

between some guns that the Tae pings had mounted on the south-eastern angle of the city walls, and a battery that the Imperialists had established at an angle of their most adviuiced camp. I heard also a good deal of firing going on at ll^ south- western side of the city, but only the smoke was visible from the hill on which I stood. From the same spot, I had a view of the Tae ping position at Kwa chow about four miles up the river; and could just make out, over the inter-vening alluvial land, the yellow banners of the Tae pings planted along the walls of Yang chow, some eight or ten miles to the north. My more immediate object was to see what difficulties lay in the way of my walking into Chin keang, in case I was prevented from going up in my boat. The Imperial battery which was firing on the south-eastern angle of the city, was on ground as high as that on which the city walls stood. But from this battery northward to the river, a dbtance of about two miles, the ground sank into an alluvial flat, while the walls, on the contrary, ran along a ridge of one or two hundred feet high at the back of that flat The city wall stopped short on this ridge where the latter sank suddenly at about three quarters of a mile from the river. The wall there turned ofl* westward, keeping, in an irregular manner, parallel to the river at half to three quarters of a mile from it. But the ridge continued, and (afler its aforenoted depression) with a const&ntly increasing elevation, till it abutted on the river as a promontory of some three hundred feet in height. This is called the Pih koo Hill. There is a temple, an iron pagoda of forty to fifty feet in height, and an open pavilion or dome supported by four granite pillars on this hill. This latter building stands just over the river. It was here that the three observers stood who watched the battle described at page 209 between the Imperialist and Tae ping fleets; it was here that the Tae ping Commandant Lo ta kang posted himself when the mercenary Portuguese and Anglo- American Imperialist fleet followed the Hermea and attacked the rebel position as

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FOEBiaN INTEBCOUBSE OF TAB PINGS. 289

xiarrated at page 254, and It was at the foot of this promontory ^hat exactly ten years before the period when I viewed -the whole scene, the column of General Schoedde landed xinopposed and marched to the north eastern angle of the city, Tvhere it effected an escalade. It was characteristic of the military strategy of the Manchoos, originally nomadic horse-men, when they settled a garrison of their own countrymen at Chin keang, and thus constituted that city one of their special fortresses, that they should not connect the fortifica* tions with the river bank, but allow an open space of some three quarters of a mile to intervene between the northern front of the wall and the strand.* This space is, immediately to the west of the narrow Pih koo Hill ridge, low and level. It was equally characteristic of the Tae ping leaders, as natives of South Eastern China accustomed from youth to river or coasting navigation, that they should, as soon as Chin keang fell into their hands, run a stockade along the ridge from the north eastern angle of the wall to Pih koo shan promontory, and constitute the latter one of their chief works of defence. A similar stockade ran along the low river bank on the west of the Pih koo shan, to prevent the landing of a hostile force ; and then back to the city wall again. So energetic were the Tae pings in these works, that when the Hermes passed up some three weeks after they had occupied Chin keang they were finished. They used for the purpose the doors and window-shutters of the houses in the city ; which had been deserted on their approach. Not content with this,

CHAPTER XVII (PART 4 OF 6)

* At each of the four cities garnBoned by Manchoo bannermen which I have Tisited, Tiz. Kwang chow, Chapoo, Chin keang, and Nanking, not only does there intervene an nnwalled spaoe between the water and the city walle, but the ''Tartar city," or Manchoo citadel, occupies in each case the portion of the whole wailed space which lies ftrthest from the riyer and nearest the open dry coantry. Something of the same kind I remarked in Egypt, whei^ the present Cairo, the Cairo of the nomadic Arab Caliphs is a considerable distance (more than a mile, so fiur as I recollect) back from the Kile, while the citadel occapiea the most distant point, being in fiust within the verge of the sandy desert. The old Cairo of the Greeks, Bomans, and native Egyptians lay immediately on the banks of the river.

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BO BOOH as all the more urgentlj required works of defence were finished, they commenced replacing the stockade aloi^ the Pih koo Hill ridge by a high and substantial wall, for which the walls of the deserted dwellings of the city fumLshed them with abundance of materiaL At the very time when I was taking my view from the Seang Hill^ their early labourers were engaged in completing the top portion of the new wall along the face of the promontory; that is to say, they had just about finished extending the city wall to the river, in the face of a besieging Imperialist force from four to five times the strength of their garrison. I could see the bricklayers on ladders and scaffolds trowelling away on the outside, and occasionally turning their heads to take a look at the Imperialist fleet or camps, lazily scratching themselves while so doing* The above-mentioned alluvial flat lay on the east of the ridge on which this new wall had been built, and was commanded by the city guns, by the camps, and by the fleet. One of the most curious sights in the scene before me was, consequently, that of some half dozen countrymen working in the rice fields into which it was divided, as quietly as if in a land of perfect peace. The top of the artificial embankment which separated the Great River from this low ground, formed a good path up to the Pih koo Hill; which I could observe nothing to prevent my following if it should be necessary, though the Imperialists might have a scout or two concealed among the reeds, that rose to the height of seven feet on both sides of it Having ascertained this, I descended the knoll, and was soon surrounded by a number of the rustics, young and old, from the village I had previously passed. When I had told them that I was a neutral and had been in the foreign steamer that ascended the river two months before, they talked about both of the contending parties with great frankness. After the Tae pings entered Chin keang a body of them came to this village and took away all articles of gold and silver that they could see, but did not interfere with the women, and destroyed nothing.

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I saw the Tvornen sitting at the doors of their houses at work, as if no "war were near. Whether or not the Tae ping higher officers knew of the gold and silver — chiefly female ornaments — haying been taken awaj, the villagers could not say. These latter had not been compelled to let the hair grow over their heads. The Tae pings of Chin keang, knowing that they could not hold this village^ had not ordered the inhabitants to do what was certain to compromise them with the Imperialists. The Buddhist monks were special priests of the ** denwns," and the God-worshippers cared little whether they were compromised or not ; but the above, with a number of other circumstances ascertained at Nanking, convince me that it is the policy of the Tae pings to abstain as much as possible from extending their system of conscrip-tion, or the usual hardships of war, to the food producing classes. They command the personal services of all in-habitants of cities, whether men of wealth or tradesmen, and &eize unhesitatingly the whole of their property, and they also press the produce carriers^ the river boatmen. But, while they take possession of government corn stores as theirs by right, and probably do not spare the stores of large com merchants in the towns they enter, it is certain that they purchase from t|jie/arf?ier*, and make a point of giving liberal prices. The consequence is, that whenever the country people could find an opportunity of slipping unobserved into Chin keang with com or vegetables they never failed to do so. The people of this village told me that the Imperialists by whom the city was invested subjected them to far more annoyance than the Tae pings had done ; but they spoke in very high terms of my old acquaintance, the Manchoo Lin, as a commander who listened courteously to the complaints of the country people, and endeavoured to prevent excesses of the soldiery. When I questioned them about the new religion they made reproaches, in a very serious tone, against the Tae pings for having " sha, killed," one particular idol-god on Silver Island whose name I regret not having entered in

IT 2

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292 TBE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS*

my journaL The destruction of the others was not after all a matter of great consequence, but their *^ having shsL ta, killed him/' was a proof of a very bad heart.

After I had rejoined my party at Silver Island, and mre bad breakfasted, we set off for the vessel of Admiral Le. As I ran along side of it, Supt. Lin stepped into a small boat in order to return to his own vessel after a visit to the Admiral, doubtless about our own affair. I sent my Chinese card to him, upon which, the little boat he was in being too small for a reception, he at once stepped into mine with all the old ready courtesy and frankness of manner that had made him, when he was Intendant at Shanghae, personally so agreeable to foreigners. On the present occasion he immediately began inquiring about all those he had known. That over, he adverted, with a half melancholy smile and shaking his head, to the extraordinary circumstances under which we had again met. He then uttered some friendly and regretful reproaches because we had not helped his party, and had, on the contrar^v entered into amicable relations with his enemies. I seized the opportunity of explaining our proper position at length to a Manchoo of high standing who was certain to be in private^ frank correspondence with influential people at Court, and whom I knew to be a man of more t^an sufficient in-telligence and cultivation to comprehend and report exactly what I stated. I expounded our doctrine of non-intervention in the internal affairs of foreign states as one which was constantly acquiring a greater practical acceptance in the West. I illustrated the doctrine by the attitude of England towards France, the general facts of which were known to him. There a dynastic change had taken place similar to those common to Chinese history. Misgovemment under the old French dynasty had reduced the people to such misery that they rebelled and destroyed it. After a period of great anarchy, one of the sons of a small landed proprietor in a remote province had made himself Emperor. He had been unseated, and the old family restored ; but this, having been

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done by foreign interyentlon proved a temporary and futile measure. The French had driven one sovereign away, and put in his place another of the same family; and this time no foreign state interfered. But in 1848 they expelled the family altogether (at mention of which Lin nodded assent as to a fact known to him at the time), and tried to govern themselves as the Americans did, without a sovereign, but only a sort of Governor General of the whole country, elected every four years. This was the best way of expressing ** republican government " to Lin, who knew about America from the Americans. But they elected for Governor General the nephew of him who had been driven away by foreign interference ; and this nephew, the *^ feelings of the common people '^ being with him, had just made himself sovereign, and was likely to be the founder of a new dynasty. England had not in the least intermeddled with these changes, but had acknowledged whomsoever the French people submitted to as rulers. As the present sovereign, when the fortunes of his family were low, had lived in our country, so the old one had taken refuge in it, and died there. With these latter facts, Lin siud he was acquainted. I then drew, at length, a parallel between our position in British India and that of the Manchoos in China. There we were, a small military foreign body, rfOing by title of conquest over natives many times more numerous than our whole English people. If the natives rose to expel us, we could not in our hearts regard them as criminals for doing it, and though all we English would deem it our duty to fight hard, as the Man-choos were now fighting in China, to keep possession of the country, we should not expect the most friendly Occidental nation to help us. I observed that this analogical argument, telling against the speaker, and based on facts also known to Lin, went home to his reason more still than that based on the somewhat more abstract doctrine of non-intervention. I was glad to have an opportunity of showing a Manchoo of rank that our neutrality was dictated by principles of inter-

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national justice; bat the conclusions I constrained Ldn^ judgment to accept were naturally not palatable to lum, going, as they did, to cut off all hope of obtaining oar aid. After some general talk he left. When taking leaye he said, " After searching the vessels you will go back? " I replied that I should wish to see him again. To this he rejoined, apologetically, that he had no ** kung kwan, temporary official dwellmg-house/* to receive me in, his charge over the fleet compelling him to be on the water, but that I should find him at anchor near Tan too.

I with my naval companions then went to see Vice-Admiral Le. I had met him before when he had the rank of Rear- Admiral, but did not recognise him till he mentioned the circumstance. I found with him a Capt. Chang, a stout healthy-complezioned man, also a former acquaintance, who had seen a good deal of the English during and after the war, and spoke of Sir Henry Pottinger and other British officials. There was also a fat-faced, hoarse-voiced, blue-buttoned mandarin, a stranger, of the rank of Yew keih or post-captain, l^ese were all Chinese. Hence when they, too, introduced the subject of our amicable communications with the rebels, and our refusal to aid the Imperialists, I expounded the grounds of our neutral policy in a somewhat different manner. England had only trading interests in China; she had made war twelve years before because the irrational behaviour of Commissioner Lin and others, who would not even discuss difficulties with our high officers except by letter, and as superiors, made war the only means of obtaining a hearing ; but I appealed to Chang as witness of the facts that, though we held military possession of many important parts of the territory of China, and could have kept them had we been so disposed, we had ^ven up all except a small barren island at the extremity of the Empire; which we wanted merely for the contiguous fine harbour, and the occupation of which could hardly be called a terri-torial encroachment. If we now wanted to possess ourselves

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FOREIGN INTEBC0UB8E OF TAE PINGS. 295

of i>ortion8 of China, then we should interfere in her internal troubles, but we only wished to extend, as much as possible, a free trade, which brought great advantages to both nations ; and if it did harm to either (this alluded to opium) such was the fault of that nation itself, as no one was compelled to buy what they did not want. Such being our position, why should we bring ships and troops to shoot down Chinese, in order to help the present young Manchoo Emperor, who, 80 soon as he came to the throne, had degraded, in a very humiliating way, all those mandarins who had had any share in making the treaty of peace and commerce ; in particular, Xe ying, the chief negotiator and the friend of Sir Henry Pottinger. This I said to Capt. Chang. We knew from the emperor's own edicts in the ** Peking Gazettes,^' that he had virtually broken the treaty in his heart, and was con-sulting with his high officers as to the best means and time for withdrawing our privileges, when this very rebellion gave him other matters to think of. But even if the old Emperor had been alive, and our friends, the members of the con-ciliatory party, still in power, how could we, strangers, pre-sume to dictate to the Chinese people who should rule over them? If the majority wanted the Manchoos, the Manchoos would remain in power. But if the majority was dissatisfied with the Manchoo government, what right had we to attempt to support that government by force? Tartars had ruled the country before and had been expelled by the Chinese, under a leader who had been a servant to priests in a monas-tery. That man was the Divinely Appointed, and founded the Ming dynasty* How could we, foreigners, presume to decide that any Chinese who rose against the present Tartars had not received the Divine Commission to rule, and oppose Heaven by fighting against him ?

What I had said before about the British war, &c., was known to be true, and was, therefore, strictiy speaking un-answerable; still the mandarins did take objections* But these latter arguments silenced them. They could only

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repeat, — '^ Ta mun muh yew fung teen ming, ta mun she tsih: They (the Tae pings) have received no Divine Commission; they are (usurping) rebels." I replied, that in such case they would be destroyed by the Imperialists with-out extraneous aid, which would give them (the Imperialists) much more dignity in the eyes of the people generally than if they depended on foreign troops for being kept in power. This fairly ended the discussion ; for there was much in the closing argument to which the mandarins were more acutely alive than I could be« None could know, could feel, so well as themselves that the domination of the originally barbarous Manchoos would, if maint^ned by the military support of Western barbarians, necessarily become a rule of mere force — ^well known to Chinese to be the very lowest description of rule ; that, being regarded with rooted aversion and con-tempt by the whole people, such rule would only be effective where upheldby troops ; and that the country^ throughout its length and breadth, would soon be one scene of misgovern-ment by violence, alternating with no government and anarchy.

The reader must not suppose that my arguments were at bottom really disagreeable to these Chinese mandarins. As officials, who had attained a considerable rank, they were sel-fishly interested in the Government under which they held that rank; but, as Chinese, all that I said was an appeal to their na-tional sense of right, and to their national pride. In particular, what I introduced incidentally as it were, but in reality pur-posely, about our grand object in China being the extension of our trade only, and our being decidedly averse to the acquisition of territory, was calculated to dispel that jealousy which is now the main cause of Chinese ezclusi veness. Once convince a large majority of the industrial and commercial Chinese people that all we want is to trade, and that we are, besides, capable of conducting ourselves in ajtist and orderly manner with respect to the persons, families, and property of the natives ; and we should find our presence eagerly sought for in every province

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of the countrj. The second part of this task is the most difficult. It is a/oc/y that all we want is to trade; and the historical and geographical works being published by Pro-testant missionaries to a reading people like the Chinese, i^ill, in time, bring that fact home to their minds. But it is equally a fact, that a considerable proportion of the Occi-dental residents in China are quite incapable of conducting themselves in a just and orderly manner with respect to the persons and property of the natives. And the excesses of one individual of this kind on one occasion in one locality, is, unfortunately, sufficient to nullify throughout a whole country side the good effects that may have been produced by the gentlemanly behaviour of half a dozen others, on a number of separate occasions, in the same neighbourhood. I shall have to treat this subject specially before I clos^^' in the meantime I return to our search of the fleojt.^^ 'W^^ started in two parties to get through the search more rapidly. Williams, with the fat, hoarse* voiced post-caj^tain, azid a Chinese (English speaking) linguist, taking OQe'^et of Vessels; while Spratt, the Admiral, another English ^pe^kipg Chinese, and myself went to visit another set. ^ra{( ' and Williams had each a couple of marines and a blue*js^.ket with them. We began with the Portuguese lorchaQ. ; After examining one or two, my curiosity was satisfied ; and I left my com-panion with his men and the linguist to do the searching while I sat in the boat with the Admiral. His demeanour did not correspond with British notions of an Admiral in com-mand of a naval besieging force. He soon closed his eyes and went off to sleep. Two or three times he was near to falling on his face, and the slaver streamed out of the corners of his mouth as he sat nodding there. His body servant, on one occasion when he sprang forward to hold him up, felt the scene to be so painfully ridiculous that he explained to me, transfomung his face into a look of grave concern, that his master was ruining his health in the anxious discharge of bis duties, sitting up late at night writing despatches, &c. &c*

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298 THB CHINESE AND THEIB BEBBLLI0N8..

But I took an opportunity of questioning the £ngliah ^leik-ing Chinese in English as to the cause of the AdminJa exhaustion ; and was at once told that he spent the greater part of the night in smoking opium Vnd listening to ini»c girls. Before we had finished a score of the yeoocla, the Admiral declared he could hold out no longer, which was indeed plain enough, and he went o£f to his own Yeaady the fat post-captain beiog transferred to our party, and another man allotted to Williams. But we had not progreesed much further when Williams came alongside to say that his mandarin and Chinese linguist had both made off; and I had to go to the Admiral's vessel and politely hound out sabsti-tutes, with whom I started Williams again. My fkt friend with the blue button maintained his position ; but he yawned dreadfully, and seemed to think that he was undergoing great fatigues in the service of his sovereign. By the time we had finished the last of the sixty or seventy vessels, and gone off in our own boats, I felt that this peculiar method of deter-ring the mandarins from enticing our men away was likely to prove effective. We ssdled at once for Tan too to open the second scene of bother by asking Lin to authorize us to search the camps. He received us with his accustomed civility, but declined taking any step to forward my wishes as to the camps. He declared that he could not even take cognisance of them officially, as the communication from the Shanghae Intendant had reference to the fleet only. He stated that the latter was under his command, but that he had no authority whatever on shore ; that the land force was under the command of General Tang; that he (Lin) had not seen thb officer, and did not know him ; that the camps were filthy, and the troops disorderly ; and that he himself had never been in any of them, not considering it quite safe. I replied that we had no apprehensions on the score of per« sonal safety, but could not, of course, go into the camps to make a search without the sanction of the commanding officer; and that I should require Hoo, the Intendant's

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FOliEIQN INTEBCOUBSE OF TAE PINGS. 299

Jeputy^ to pat me into commumcation with him. In reply to !Lfin*& argument, that we might on the same grounds ask to search any military station in the interior, I stated that at the least some fifty or sixty English had been employed by the Imperial officials for a month or more in the vicinity of Chin keang ; that some of these were known to have visited the Imperial camps ; and that, if the deserters sought for were in that quarter, nothing was more likely than that, the fleet being comparatively idle, they should be employed in directing the cannonade against the walls of Chin keang. lain^s rejoinder was merely that his own authority was limited to the shipping. I then told him that I had been in-Btmcted, if the deserters were not found among the Impe-rialists, to make inquiries of the Tae pings; that I proposed, in pursuance of these instructions, proceeding to Chin keang ; and I requested him to give orders to the fleet to offer no impediment to the passage of our party. He said that if he conld take no cognisance of our wish to search the camps, still less could he know anything officially of our commimi-cating with the rebels. I replied that as he declared himself to have no authority over, or influence with the land force, I shotdd say no more to him about it ; but that I must persist in requesting him, as Commander of the Naval Force, to take steps to prevent its interfering with the execution of the duty with which I had been charged ; and which did not prejudice the essential objects of the blockade* He at length declared, with great earnestness of manner, that he had indeed command of the ships, but not of the guns on board of them, which, he said, were at the orders of the Vice-Admiraly Le. Now an international agent of the '^ ener-getic" class — one of those of whom it is usually said that ** they know how to break through the wiles of Asiatic duplicity*' — would have told Lin he was lying, and that they would pass in defiance of him. Not having much faith in the ultimate efficacy of that easy kind of " energy," I merely told Lin, with an earnestness that must have been a credit*

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SOO THE CHINESE AND THEIB REBELLIONS.

able imitation of his own, that I should not £ail to prefer the same request to Yice-Admiral Le, the officer having autho-rity over the guns. Lin broke into a smile, and said, ejeiiig me in a peculiarly knowing manner, '* Wo kan chuh ne t^ e sze^ wo kan chuh ne teih e sze, I perceive what your inten-tions are, I perceive what your intentions are." To this day I remain unable to guess what it could have been that occupied his own mind when he said this. If he fancied that (beyond deserter searching) I had any object, but that of gaining information, he was wrong ; and, viewing the total want of truthfulness with which the Imperialist authorita^ at Shanghae met him, my chief, Mr. Alcock, was fully justi-fied in despatching me to get, in an unostentatious way^ some reliable intelligence of the position and probable movements of the Tae pings. For anything we then knew to the coo* trary, an army might have been preparing to force its way to Soo chow and Shanghae. Soon after the above I took s friendly leave of Lin; and then applied to the expectant Hoo to get permission from General Tfing for us to search the camps. His answer was, that if one of the higher civilians, the Governor General or the Governor, of the province had been near, he would on his own responsibility have applied to him on the subject ; but that he would risk his head if he, a civilian of subordinate rank, went, without any authority from his superiors, into the camp to prefer our request to the military officers in command. As I had never hoped to find the missing men, so now I considered that the search annoy* ance had been sufficiently prolonged; and determined to employ the remaining hour or two of daylight in walking up the short passage to Tan too on the Grand Canal. The expectant Hoo said that he should retTirn to Shanghae by the inner waters, the voyage by the Great River being ** extremely fatiguing" for him. We found the streets of Tan too crowded with soldiers from the camps, na-tives of many different" provinces. We got back to the boats at about dark, and the wind being fair, set sail for

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POREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAfi PINGS. 301

Silver Island. I first had sent to inform Superintendent Lin^ that after notifying on the following day my inten-tion to Admiral Le I should go up Chin keang. It was past nine o'clock before we started for Silver Island, and the current being very strong we made way but slowly. I there-fore soon went to bed, after a rather fatiguing day for a man v^hose ten years' residence in China was beginning to tell on his health. The three to four miles of river which we had to pass over had been quite clear of blockading vessels since our arrival in the vicinity, and was so at sunset. I thought, therefore^ that the boatmen would have no difficulty in laying our squadron alongside of the Temple wharf again. At about half-past ten I was, however, roused out of my sleep by an authoritative challenge, and by a man who was in the bows of my boat returning the answer, " From Shanghae.'* I extricated myself from my boat mosquito curtains at once, and stepped out on to the foredeck, where, to my surprise, I found that we were, — my own boat in advance of the others, — sailing into the middle of a squadron at anchor. ** Where have we got to?" inquired I of the boatman. ** We're at the turn not far from Silver Island, and these are mandarin vessels," he answered. In the meantime we were being hailed — "Where are you going to?" "From Shanghae," I shouted. "Where are you going to?" was repeated in a louder tone. " From Shanghae," bawled I, at the top of my voice. ** Stop to be examined," was the re-joinder. "To Silver Island," I now began to answer. " Stop to be examined." " To Silver Island." " Drop your anchor, or we'll fire." "Fire, and be hanged 1" said I in English to myself, for we were leaving the vessel out of sight in the gloom. I had, however, immediately to begin giving the same set of behind-the-time answers to the same series of questions from the next vessel, which I also kept in play till we got out of sight. The next was shorter in his interlocutory, and did fire with a matchlock or gingall; and 80 the fourth. But I was then past the whole squadron.

CHAPTER XVII (PART 5 OF 6)

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dose to a boat anchored in shore (one of the unarmed negU-tered ones which supplied the fleet with proTisions); and could, had I pleased, at once haTe suled up to Chin keang without further interruption. But I now told the boatmen to stop ; for none of our companions were visible "vrliile the bawling and firing from the mandarin vessels had increased. The headmost vessel of the mandarin squadron was just visible ; and from the stern of the provision boat a man — or a voice, for I could see nothing — ^kept repeating to me with the hoarseness and monotony of a coffee-mill, " liaou ta puh paou maou^ fang paou ah I Laou ta^ puh paou,** &c. &c dec " Boatmaster, if you don't anchor theyll fire at yon y^itb cannon I Boatmaster, if you don't, &c. &c.'' I gave no answer to this, being engaged in looking back into the dark-ness for the boats of my companions. But the indistinct utterance of the speaker, with the Chinese suppression of pronouns, led my servant, who was in the cabin, to under-stand the man as threatening that, if we did not anchor, Ae would fire at us with cannon ; so getting angry at length with the coffee-grinding repetition of the threat, he bolted out past me to the head of our boat, and shouted fiercely, *' Ne yew to ma ta teih paou? What's the size of your cannon?" This very Chinese way of squaring up to the foe, and crying, "Come on, if you darel" set me a laughing; and I was accordingly, when a mandarin boat came alongside to make inquiries, in a somewhat better temper than when first roused out of my sleep. After some parley with the subor-dinate naval ofiicer, who, lantern in hand, was standing in the ship's boat, and being told by him that this squadron had come round at dusk from the main fleet by order of Super-intendent Lin to prevent communication with Chin keang at night, that they had not recognised us in the dark as the foreigners, &c. &c., I gave the order to go back to look for the rest of my flotilla. I found it all higgledy-piggledy ; the boats' heads together as they formed a cluster ; their sidls just as they had fallen when the halyards had been let go on the

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,^j

irlng commencing ; and my two companions, with their men

m the fore -decks of their respective boats, wondering where

.hey ^were^ and what was the matter. It was one of the many

nstances that have come under my observation of the

immense power that the faculty of speech gives. I could

have run np to Chin keang. Having explained our position

to my companions, I ended the talk of the mandarin people

by declaring that we should not pass their squadron till the

momingy but anchor there for the night ; for I was sorely in

want of sleep. I had not, however, slept long when I was again

awakened ; and, listening, found it was by the noise of voices

resounding in deep earnest calls from ship to ship and boat

to boat. The tones were alarmed and almost tragic. '* What

on earth is the matter now ?" said I to myself, as I, for the

second time, sprang up from my summer sleeping-mat, and

stepped out at the open forenloor. I saw the rocks and trees

of the western end of Silver Island and the whole of the

Tiver there lighted up by a glare of red light; and presently

distinguished the cry that the ^' long haired " were breaking

out and sending down fire rafts before them. The windlasses

of the nearest vessels were working as hard as they could,

weighing anchor and hoisting sail ; and in a very short time

two or three were making off down the river. As that was

clearly not the time and place to open communications with

the Tae pings, we followed their example. But observing

that the light and the alarm were alike dying away, we

presently anchored again ; passed the night without further

interruption ; and at daybreak sailed through the reassembled

squadron up to our old station at Silver Island. We had

seen, however, how the native men of war would meet

rebel sallies. The Tae pings had only sent a single fire rafb

down.

On the following day, when Admiral Le had risen, I made the same request to him that I had made to Superintendent Lb. He replied he must communicate with Lin who had the general and chief control of the fieet. I then, in order to

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elicit an answer to the point, pnt the questiony irliethery \l our boat passed up tl)p river, his fleet would fire at ber os not ? He replied that they would not; but at the same time repeated that he must consult with Lin on the matter. The remainder of the day we passed at Silver Isbind; whither a number of Imperialist soldiers irom the camps came to look at us.

That Admiral Le's fleet would openly fire on a boat, even a native craft, which was well known to contain Sritish ofiicers engaged in o£Scial duty was, I knew from the first, extremely unlikely. But had I started in her without giving due intimation, as also sufiicient time for the various veasek of the fleet to become acquainted with my intention, it was by no means improbable that some of them, with their general orders to stop all communication, and not knowing exactly who was in the boat, might fire on her. Now, had we, or any one of us, been killed, under such circumstances, the case would at once have constituted a nice difficulty. ^* Sash breach of blockade," and '^Wanton massacre of British officers," would have been the terms employed by the usual two parties among ourselves. But the triumph of an inter* national agent, whether in great or small afiairs, consists in effecting the object without any fighting, or giving rise to future troubles. My business, in the present case, was to give a sufficient quantity of trouble about the deserters ; then to get reliable information as to the state of things both with Imperialists and rebels; and afterwards to bring the boats back to Shanghae, without rows and without injury to any one. Hence my distinct applications to Lin and Le ; and, there being no reason for hurrying away, but rather tlie reverse, hence my allowing some thirty-six hours for the full operation of the mental agencies employed.

On the morning of the 2nd my two naval companions, with two of the marines, the two seamen and myself, started in my boat. The mandarins having conveyed threatening intima-tions to my clerks and servants and to the boatmen^ I left

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them all behind at Silver Island, to their great Batisfaction. For my own people I had no particular use, but I did wish some of the boatmen to volunteer. I had presently cause to regret not having taken a couple, whether they liked or not ; for the wind we started with failed us soon, and our English-men could not work the sculls at all, while at the novel labour of tracking and poling inshore, they proved very inexpert. AVhen we had, with great difficulty, got up to within three quarters of a mile of the high promontory, the Pih koo Hill, I determined to land and walk the rest of the way. Besides the wish to save time, we saw a party of the Tae pings Btatioiiing themselves about midway down the nearly perpen-dicular face of the promontory over the water, where they were flashing off their matchlocks; and I thought if the whole boatload of us went up together they might fire, which they were not likely to do if a single man approached. Mr. Spratt volunteered to accompany me instead of following in the boat ; which then received orders to remain where it was, imless a signal was made for it to follow. When we got near the foot of the Hill, we found our progress impeded by ditches, and palisades of pointed stakes ; in addition to which the ways of access were stuck all over with short pointed pieces of split bamboo, which would have formed a serious obstacle to the advance of Chinese soldiers with their bare ankles and either no chaussure at all or only straw sandals. A number of the Tae pings had come out on to the hill side, and a few descended a zigzag path, reserved on its carefully scarped face. To the nearest of these I ^called to aid us through the labyrinth we had entered, and which looked as if it contained trous de loup. The man approached, when we scrambled, under his guidance, up to the foot of the new wall, wept through an embrasure on a level with the ground, and so entered the fortifications of Chin keang. The heat was excessive; and I am convinced that one fifth part of the exposure and fatigue which I underwent in this expe-dition would, if endured in some monotonous routine work

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for which I had no liking, have certainly killed me in my then impaired state of health. It was in the same month of Julj, exactly ten years before, that the British forces Btonned this city, when, as Sir John Davis states, '^ the excesBive heat of the weather tended greatly to aggravate the toils of iht day, and the deaths from the effects of the sun were about aa numerous as those from the enemy." *

Within the exterior wall, we found a few old Kwang se Tae pings superintending the completion of the works at tfak key of their position on the river. They ordered a spearmaa to conduct us to the Commandant. With him we deaccaded the western face of the Pih koo Hill, and crossed the plain be-tween the river and the walls of the city ; which we entered bj the North gate. Nanking, which I had traversed two mootbg before, had a very desolate appearance ; the women and the children being all quartered in streets through which we were not led ; the male population being nearly all engaged in mili-tary duties and labours at the exterior fortifications ; and no trade being possible from the fact that the Tae pings had seized everything. Still the bulk of their forces being there, and in particular all the higher leaders, the streeta did show signs of life. But those of Chin keang were the moat com-plete picture of desolation I ever beheld. There were no inhabitants ; the few women taken in the place had been re-moved to Nanking; and it now contained only a garrison of some three thousand men, nearly all of whom were neces-sarily located, night and day, at the exterior defences. The doors and wooden window-shutters of the houses and shops had been employed in the construction of the river stockades; and as we passed through street after street without meeting a soul, we stopped occasionally to inspect the empty dwell-ings. On the floor of a room in one we noticed a large heap of good rice. The Tae ping Commandant, Lo ta kang, occu-pied the fine Yamun, the quarters of the former Imperialist Commandant, the Lieutenant-General of the Tartar Banner-* Cliinft, during the War and since the Peace.

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TOBEIQN INTEfiCOUBSB OF TAB PINGS. 807

man. j^ we neared these head-quarters signs of life began to ahow themselves again. At length we escaped from the glare of tbe blamig sun on the stone flagging of the streets into one of the spacious ant&-halls of the Yamun; where I sig-nalized my advent by drinking three or four cups of tea in rapid succession. While Lo ta kang was preparing to receive the unexpected visitors^ the old Tae pings not on duty col-lected in the hall where we were. From the emissaries met on the Orand Canal, I knew there were not more than three hundred of them in Chin keang ; and I now saw a large pro-portion of that number before me. They were, without exception, dressed in the simplest and plainest clothing, viz., black Chinese jackets and trousers. Amidst all the variety of figure and feature, there was invariably the grave and earnest demeanour and expression naturally to be expected in men who had for three years been engaged in an unre-mitting fight for their existence. After a while the fold«-ing-doors at the back of the hall in which we were seated were thrown open, music struck up, and we were ushered through one or two more halls into the presence of Com-mandant Lo, who received us in his full yellow and red tixuform. He at once recognised me as the person who, two months before, had landed from the Hertnes, to speak to him after we had been firing at each other. He said no foreign deserters had come within his position, nor had any foreigners been observed directing the guns fired from the Imperialist camps against the city. After this formal matter had been discussed, we had some conversation on other subjects, mili-tary and religious. I inquired how it was that the Tae pings did not make greater use of the smaller firearms, mus-kets and pistols, the former of which I said were, with the attached bayonet, our chief arms ? I was induced to ask this because, while there was a great demand among the Tae pmg soldiers for swords, they seemed to take little interest in guns. Lo said, that his people did not understand the use of them, and that they were valueless when the supply

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of ammunition ran out or the springs went wrong. Sword: and spears, he said, seldom got out of order, were easily repaired, and he found that his people could always beat the Imperialists with them. Some ''tens*' of his men hadyLe said, sallied out the day before to drive off some two or three hundred of the Imperialists who were adyancrng too dose to the walls, and had made them run with ease. He said, ''' I am beginning to get old now, but give me a good spear, and I am still not afraid to meet any ten of them." There seemed to be a very intimate relation — almost a filial relation— between his black-clothed followers and himself. Some fiflj to a hundred of them were standing in the hall opposite to where I was sitting, and Lo, castmg a glance over them, asked if I thought they looked like men who could '^ conquer the rivers and the mountains ? " I asked him how it was that both at Chin keang and Nanking they allowed such large numbers of the Imperialists to encamp in their inmie* diate vicinity ; and why they did not concentrate their forces and rout them? He replied, that he should merely act on the defensive till intelligence came of the final success of the Tae ping army that had marched to the North ; when he would sally out and attack his besiegers in their camps. He volunteered the statement that the Tae pings had not ad-vanced on Soo chow and Shanghae, because they wished to avoid, as much as possible, whatever might cause interruption to the commercial operations of the season. In saying this there was no pretence of extreme friendly feeling. It simply meant, ^^ You see, where we can avoid it, we are willing to spare your countrymen loss." He and all his people received us as persons in no way hostile to him, and with a civility that appeared to cost them no effort ; but he intimated that it would be better if we refrained from passing to and fro between the Tae pings and the Imperialists, as he was appre-hensive the latter might put some of us to death, and then say his people had done it. He had the delicacy to refrain from saying, what circumstances would have justified^ viz.,

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that some of us might come nominally as friends. In reality as spies. Lo appeared to be about fifty years of age ; he 'was middle-sized as to height, and squarely built, without, how-ever, being remarkably broad. He said he had " seen us fight '' some twelve years before at Canton ; and his manner implied that we did it well. It had, I know, excited the admiration of the Cantonese at that time, that the English soldiers, when they advanced to storm the detached forts at the back of the city, '*came on the faster, the more they were fired at."

When we took leave of Lo, horses were furnished us, and

an escort appointed to take us back to the Pih koo Hill. At

my request, a man accompanied us with a large bundle of

Tae ping books. We issued by the same embrasure by

which we had entered, and which was in full view of several

Imperial camps and of the whole Imperial fleet. A number

of the Tae pings issued with us, and spread themselves along

the brow of the hill. From the nearest Imperial camp a

shot was fired at a high elevation. It was intended doubtless

for the crowd on the hill, though it fell with a flop into the

muddy ground of a rice field which my companion, and I

with the man carrying the books were just then passing.

Spratt having noticed the spying face of a man among the

reeds, which, as they considerably overtopped my head on both

sides of the path, might easily contain an Imperialist picket,

I soon shouldered the books myself, and made our isolated

Tae ping return, after rewarding him with my umbrella;

which several of his comrades had anxiously asked me if I

was willing to sell to them. We reached the boat and our

little squadron at Silver Island without adventure.

I there found some of superintendent Lin's boats. The mandarins, though their own threats had deterred my people from accompanying me, would, I knew, now only be too glad to find out through them what I had seen and done. I therefore observed absolute silence, and gave orders for our immediate return to Shanghae. We reached that place.

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after an absence of fourteen days^ all in health and safety, and without other mishap than the breaking of my mainmast, which gave way in a strong breeze and caused a day's atcq^ page at Keang ying.

Both Mr. Spratt and myself had estimated the total strength of the Tae ping garrison of Chin keang at not more than three thousand. This force had to guard and defend exterior defences of five miles in circuit. The crews <^ the Imperialist fleet alone nearly equalled it in numbers, and had more guns. The Imperial land force, all inquiries of myself and people showed to be from ten to fifteen thousand strongs occupying some six or eight detached fortified camps, placed on various favourable positions around the besieged city. Notwithstanding all this, I closed my ofiEicial report as follows : —

'' I may state that many circumstances, which it requires too much space to enumerate, render it extremely impro-bable that Chin keang will be retaken by the Imperial forces which now beleaguer it. It is much more likdy that tliey will disband from want of pay.''

The observant reader will have marked several of the circumstances which led me to affirm, in spite of the great disparity in numbers and in war material, that Chin keang was not likely to be retaken. The scarcity of pay on the side of the Imperialists was a fact of which I had ample testimony from their own men. A considerable number did disband shortly afterwards, some hundreds deserting to the Tae pings in the city. And though the Imperialists have always managed to maintain a fleet and army in the vicinity, Chin keang has for the two years that have since elapsed remuned constantly in the possesion of the Tae pings.

From July, 1853, till December of the same year, the Tae pings were unvisited by Occidentals. At the latter period, the French Minister ascended the Great Kiver, in the war-steamer CoMtm, and lay off Nanking for eight days.

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FOREIGN IKTEKCX)nBS£ OF TAE PING& 311

Five raonthfl later^ in the end of May, 1854, the American Minister Tisited Nanking, in the war-steamer SwquehannaA, and stayed four days.

About a month afterward, a second visit was paid by the

'British. H.M.'8 steamers Battler and Styw went to Nanking,

on behalf of the Plenipotentiary, Sir John Bowring, who

detached with them his Chinese Secretary, Mr. Medhurst, to

obtain information. The two vessels left Shanghae on the

16th of June, and returned on the 7th of July, 1854. Since

then, there has been no communication between the Tae pings

and western foreigners.

On the occasion of each of the above three visits, interviews

took place with Tae ping officers under the rank of those

bearing the title of Prince ; and there was also an exchange

of written communications. The details have not been made

known, as in the case of the Hermes^ visit, by the publication

of the official documents, and cannot, therefore, be here given.

But the general nature of what passed on the occasion of the

French and American visits was made known at the time by

authoritative narratives sent to the Shanghae periodical, the

'* North China Herald ; " and special information has been

furnished me, which, though I am not at liberty to make it

public, necessarily guides me in the collation of what has

been published elsewhere.

The chief gain, in so far as information was concerned, lay in the procuring of some additional religious and other works, published by the Tae pings subsequent to the visit of the Hermes. These, which prove a gradual development of their peculiarities, will be considered in a future Chapter. As to the rest, none of the highest leaders, the " Princes," were seen ; but in their communications, and in the language and demeanour of the secondary men who were seen, there was the same assumption of the universal supremacy of the Hea-venly Prince. This supremacy was asserted in more complete terms at each successive visit ; and, on the occasion of the two visits in the summer of 1854, the Americans and English

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were informed that it was their duty to " tsin iutiff," present the tribute of vassals to their lord. It is clear that^ in so far, the successive visits had had a prejudicial effect. It was difficult for these Chinese from the interior, most of them ignorant even of that very little concerning the political status of foreigners which can be learnt at the Five Ports; totally ignorant of the community of nations on a footing of equality that exists in the Occident ; and all accus-tomed^ even before they became Tae pings, to think of but one earthly sovereign, the Emperor of China — it was diffi-cult for them to comprehend that position of neutrality and equality which the foreigners assumed. When I got one intelligent and friendly disposed man, Lae, before me in the cabin of the Hermes^ I was able, by dint of argument and illustration, to give him an idea of the actual facts. But when the remembrance of my arguments and illustrations began to grow dim in his mind, there would be an inevitable tendency to revert to the ideas that had ruled there from his youth up, and which had never been shaken in the minds of his friends and constant associates ; for they heard only of the bare assertion of equality, unsupported by argument or ex-planation. To them it must have seemed that, in refusing to admit their supremacy, we secretly acknowledged that of their enemies, the Manchoos ; or perhaps had views of esta-blishing our own, by getting possession of the country. There is, therefore, nothing strange in the circumstance, that with each successive visit the difficulties in the way of easy and frank official intercourse with the Tae ping leaders should be found to have increased. If we did not come to Nanking to secure our interests by acknowledging their supremacy, then our visits had no sufficient visible object, and must have some concealed one, inimical to themselves. Hence their communications began to evidence a certain amount of irri-tation and displeasure, one of the most significant marks of which was the application to their visitors of the term, "^, barbarians ;" a term which was not only never onoe heard

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FOREiaN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 313

during the visit of the Hermes^ but which we found carefully avoided in the Tae ping publications which we then procured. In the same way, at the time the Hermes visited them in Aprils 1853, there appeared to be no objections on their part to unlimited commercial intercourse. Lae said distinctly, that our merchantmen might come to Nanking. It was only necessary, he added, that they should send boats ahead to prevent their being fired on. But on the occasion of the visits in the summer of 1854, while both English and Americans were told that it was free, not to their nations only, but to all nations in the world, to come to them to trade, a restric-tive spirit began to manifest itself. It was intimated that, in matters of trade the ordonnances of Heaven must be reve-rently obeyed ; and that traders must stop at Chin keang, and submit themselves to the arrangements instituted by the Commandant at that city. I lay no stress whatever on a refusal to sell some coal that was stored at Nanking. The coals were the property of the Sovereign, and even at ordi-nary times a Chinese would regard the offer to buy them much as we regarded the desire expressed by the Shang-hae Intendant to hire the services of Her Majesty^s sloop Ltli/. Further, Nanking was, at the time, simply an immense citadel, a citadel which had a hostile army before it, and which might chance to be completely invested. Everything useful in the place was war material ; and it would have been strange indeed if they, rich in money and so circumstanced, had consented to sell so useful an article as coal.

With regard to the military and political position of the Tae pings, little was learned beyond what was ascertained during the Hermes^ visit, the substance of which has already been given. In so far, the three subsequent visits of foreigners were chiefly useful as confirmatory of what had been ascer-tained at the first visit, and as showing that at different later periods the power of the Tae pings, as opposed to the Impe-rialists, was steadily increasing. The Americans did see some-thing new by ascending the river for about seventy miles

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above Nanking to Woo hoo. In tbe foUowing extract fioa their account we have unquestionable evidence that the T« pings had not been constrained to carry out rigorouslj th^ system of pressing men and seizing property at one laigedtr, at the least, which was entirely in their power. I ban shown above that they had not molested the agiicultoni population near Chin keang : —

^^Here the most cordial feeling was manifested by tk authorities and people. The visit to this place was of gret: interest, as it afforded an opportunity of learning fixHn p^-sonal observation the character of the insurgent rule over the people in districts which are no longer the seat of war. Tk state of things is entirely different from that at Nanking. The people are engaged in their ordinary avocations; shopi are opened, and trade carried on, as under the old regime, though the former prosperity of the place is by no mesci restored. Here there is no separation of the men and womsa, as at Nanking, but the laws prohibiting the use of opium and tobacco are rigidly enforced. The people stand in great awe of their new rulers, and are obviously governed with a strong hand. The city has suffered severely in the war, a huge poi^ tion of it having been burned, leaving many acres of laod covered with heaps of rubbish and crumbling walls.

CHAPTER XVII (PART 6 OF 6)

^' Few, if any, of the people had ever seen a foreigner or & foreign Tcssel before, and their curiosity and wonder were very great. The greatest deference was shown, however, to those who went ashore. In several instances respectable men [original inhabitants] even fell on their knees in the street before the foreigners and their guides, to testify their respect The place cannot have been more than three or four months under the undisturbed control of the insurgents, as was shown by the short hair of the inhabitants, who are not now per-mitted to shave the head. It was first taken on the 4th of March, 1853. The inhabitants probably fled at that time} and have since gradually returned.

^^Of the many Tae ping officials who here visited the

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FOfiEIGN INTEBCOUBSE OF TAE PINGS. 315

iteamer, one stated that he was on his way up the river to ittend to the collection of the revenue ; another was going ap for cliarcoal for the use of the Heavenly Prince ; and a third Tvas in charge of a raft of heavy timber, designed for the erection of palaces at Nanking, for the parents of the Five Princea. A variety of coal was found at Woo hoo, said to l^ve come from the province of Hoo pih."

While there was the old assumption of the universal supre-macy of* their sovereign on the part of the higher men at Nanking, there was also the same acknowledgment of the brotherhood of all true worshippers of the One Heavenly Father^ and the same manifestation of friendly feeling on the part of the people and subordinate officials ; who crowded the decks of the steamers as they had done those of the Hermes. Such was the testimony which the members of the French and American missions themselves severally gave. Both agreed in attributing the '^ arrogant pretensions of the chiefs" to '' ignorance and pride ;" to ^' their ignorance respecting the importance of western nations and the sense of their own relative power.'' ^' These dispositions," said the French narrative, *' would probably wear off^ should circumstances bring them into more frequent contact with foreigners ; but that is a question which time alone can decide/' The Ame-rican narrative said : ^^ The reception given to foreigners at Nanking does not prove the existence of a feeling of hostility on the part of the insurgent chiefs. They are naturally averse to auch visits, because they cannot understand their object ; and it is not strange that they should be suspicious of those whom they know to be on friendly terms with their enemies. How are they to know that their visitors are not spies seeking to gain ii^ormaiion for the benefit of the Imperial generals?"

I have italicised the last sentence; and I would now, speaking as a member of the great human fraternity, beg, with all due courtesy, the serious attention of French and American officials in China, and of the respective depart-

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ments of their Home Governments to the following extract?: some portions of which I give likewise in italics.

The French narrative of the voyage up the rirer states: —

** On approaching Silver Island the Cassini passed a p«n of the Imperial fleet, which was anchored along the southern bank, a schooner brig bearing the Admiral's flag lay alone in the middle of the channel, and as the steamer passed ski saluted Jier. A little beyond Silver Island, near the opposite shore, was stationed another portion of the Imperial fleet, amongst which there were also several [Portuguese] lorchsa. The following day the steamer [which had passed the night with the Imperialist blockading fleet] having got und^ weigh, soon arrived opposite the batteries of Chin keang, which she passed quite closely without any hostile demonstra-tions on the part of the rebels. Further on she passed in the same manner the batteries established by them on the other

side of the river a little above Kwa chow

. . • • . . As the steamer neared Nanking, a shot was fired at her from one of the batteries on the low land, whidi is in advance of the city walls. Preparations were imme-diately made to return the fire in case the insult should hare been repeated, the ' Cassini ' continuing to move slowly tq) to-wards the spot designed for her anchorage, but no other shot was fired. As soon as she dropped her anchor, a boat was sent on shore with an oflScer and interpreter to ask for ex-planations, who soon returned bringing satisfactory answers; and shortly afler, an oflScer from the general commanding the outposts (General Seu) came on board with ample apologies for the shot that had been fired, saying that it had been through the mistake of a subordinate, &c. &c. This fir^ difficulty having been removed '*

The American narrative of the movements of the Susque-hannah states: —

" The ship only running during the day, and when the weather was favourable. Silver Island, where the Imperial

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eet is anchored, was not reached until Thursday the SSth, l>out nine o'clock, a. m.

•* The Imperial Admiral and suite at once came on board : le had been apprised of the visit, and had a long interview 2^-1 th His Excellency Mr. McLane, the nature of which is not known, although it is said to have been perfectly friendly. A.a the ship approached the Imperial fleet, salutes were fired throughout the line, in honour of His Excellency Mr. McLane, ^vhich were promptly returned by the ' Susquehannah.' [All this took place within sight of the Tae pings at Chin keang, Tvlio had no means whatever of knowing that the Imperialists had not at length succeeded in hiring the help of a foreign steamer.]

^* As Chin keang, the first point on the river in the pos-session of the Rebel forces, was approached, a shot was fired across the bows of the Susqtiehannah. Captain Bu-chanan tuiTne^fui/e/^ stopped directly abreast of the batteries, and orders were instantly given to clear the ship for action^ her heavy guns were run out, and everything was in readiness, if any further hostile indications had been shown, to adminis-ter a proper rebuke : a boat was lowered, and Lieutenant Duer, and Mr. Lewis Carr of the Legation, accompanied by Rev. Dr. Bridgman and Rev. Mr. Culbertson as interpreters, were sent on shore, to communicate with the authorities, and demand an explanation for the shot. The rain fell in tor-rents, and it was only after a great diflSculty they succeeded in finding the ofiScer in command of the garrison, whose resi-dence was distant some two or three miles inside the walls . •

"The General stated that the shot had been fired, be-cause they found it necessary to stop all vessels ascending the river; but now that the friendly character of the ship was ascertained, proper instructions' would be given to the ofiScers at the batteries to prevent a recurrence of it.

" Mr. Carr was instructed by His Excellency the Minister to state, that citizens of the United States, residing in China under the guarantees of a solemn Treaty, were much exposed.

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both in their persons and property^ by the ciYil strife now extending itself over the Empire ; and that it was tlie deter-mination of the Minister io exact, from both parUes* a proper raped to <mr neutral rights; and, in order that he might obtain accurate information of their rebitiye posatioos, he intended to ascend the river some distance ; that lie wooU stop at Nanking, and might there oommnnicate with the authorities. Woo replied, that he would mndi prefier that the Minieter would remain at Chin ieang, uniU he eomU mate known his intended visit to the Eastern Prince; and that the visit of EQs Excellency would be made more aatiafactary by so doing. The interview was somewhat protracted, owing to the peculiar dialect used, which the interpreters imperfectly understood. The result of this interview being reported. Captain Buchanan, on full consultation with Mr, McLane, wa» not altogether satisfied, and he then addressed a letter to General Woo, demanding an immediate spologyfor the insult that had been offered to the American Flag, and that, tmless it wasjvll and ample, he would effectually prevent a similar oc-currence from that battery at least. He also enclosed kirn a drawing qf the Flag, that it might not again be fbrffotten. Lieutenant Duer, accompanied by Mr. E. A. Le Hoy, of the Legation, was directed to deliver the letter. Before it was received, however, a communication was sent on boards con-taining a very satisfactory apology, accon^nmied with a reite-rated hope that JEBs Excellency the Minister should await some communication from Nanking. Mr. McLane being unwilling to suffer such detention. Captain Buchanan apprised General Woo that he would proceed on the following day at noon, which he accordingly did : none of the batteries appeared at all disposed to obstruct the progress of the ship. On ap-proaching Kwa chow, some distance above Chin keang, a strongly fortified point at the mouth of the Grand C-anal, in the possession of the Rebels, the officer in command approach-ing the Susquehannah with a letter, r€peati$ig what had pre-viously been written by Woo, about going on : — it was said to him in reply, that the object of the Minister was friendly,

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FOBEiaN INTEBCOUBSE OF TAB FINGB. 319

cid that he conid only have intercourse with the higher uiJiorides at Nanking. • • • .

'^ On approaching Nanking, on all the low flat land outside F -tlie North-east wall of the city, crowds were assembled^ and 8 it was from this point that the Hermes and Cassitd were ired at^ the men were beat to quarters^ and every preparation fK€uie to give them a broadside^ if any hostile demonstration lad been made ; none was, however, and the Susquehannah alo^v^ly and gracefully moved up to her anchorage just off the corner of the wall above-mentioned. The day was beautiful^ and the thousands and thousands who gazed at her as she approached were evidently much impressed with her fine appearance. Lieutenant Duer and Mr. Carr, with the Rev. Dr. Bridgman, were again sent on shore with a letter from Captain Buchanan to the highest officer commanding at Nan-king, announcing the arrival of a United States ship of war, with the American Minister on board.''

Now what right had the American Commander, after haing been engaged in friendly intercourse with a besieging force to take his ship, in contempt of the usual requisition to stop in the shape of a shot fired across his bows, right up to a position commanding the batteries of the besieged force^ without giving the latter the slightest facility for ascer« taining the real character of the approaching vessel ? Judg* ing, I will not say by our conventional laws of war, but by what a little reflection tells every man must be a natu-ral law of all war, it is plain that we Occidentals, if we really do intend to be neutral, must acknowledge in our practice the right of the Tae pings to make certain that Imperialist auxiliaries do not take up commanding posi-tions before their defences, under the guise of the govern-ment vessels of neutral foreign states. The Tae pings, in their efforts to free their country from the foreign Tartar domination, have this right, whether we allow it or not. It was not them, but the Americans, who deserved «* a proper rebuke.'* The latter, before "exacting a proper

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respect to their neutral rights/' were, in common justice, bound to evince a proper respect for the national and bellh gerent rights of the Tae pings. It was, in the above cases, not the French and Americans, but the Tae pings, who were insulted : they were insulted by a deliberate and open dis-regard of a rule of war, based on self-evident military neces-sities. It is, however, impossible for me to believe that the commanders of the Cctssini and the Susquehannah could take any pleasure in destroying men, weak, as opposed to them, and who were then stru^ling against already heavy odds, in a gallant attempt to free themselves from a foreign domina-tion. I am morally convinced that they must have acted from a total misconception of the circumstances. Their conduct is to me but another proof of my proposition, that China is the best misunderstood country in the world. I will, in the wish to make the real relation of all parties clearer, suppose what I am personally happy to feel is a national impossibility. I will suppose the Santal rebels to be in so far successful in their rising as to maintain themselves in arms against our English and native Indian royalist troops for two years ; to besiege and take, at the end of that time, Patna and Benares, exterminating all the bom English founJ at those places ; and to hold the two cities, and command the river between them for eight or ten months, in defiance oi the hostile efforts of the royal armies. I will further suppose the Ganges to be navigable for the largest foreign steamers up beyond Benares. Would the Americans and French, in such case, feel entitled or inclined to send steamers right up to both places, without giving the Santal garrisons the least opportunity of ascertaining whether they were, or were not, British royalist steamers that had hoisted French and Ameri-can flags? Suppose an American vessel so to act at Patna; suppose the Santal Commandant to have, yielding to force, respectfully apologised for having exercised his belligerent right of firing a shot to bring the vessel to ; suppose him then to argue : After seeing your vessel, I am inclined to believe

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that you are really Americans and not onr British oppressors^ but I see on board several native Indians, my countrymen, ygffho, though in your employ, may be acting as British spies; please to stop here, therefore, till I communicate ^vith my superiors at Benares. Suppose the American Captain to reply : No, I will not stop ; my countrymen have got com-mercial interests at various places along the coast of British India ; the nearest is Dacca, some two or three hundred miles off at the mouth of this river, where the exchange and the import trade of late have been very unfavourable in conse-quence of your operations ; therefore I intend to go up to Benares to-morrow, and if any of your batteries fire upon us, I will destroy them. Lastly, suppose the vessel to pro-ceed to Benares accordingly, and, ns she approached th^ place, to beat to quarters and prepare to pour a broadside^ into the assembled crowds in case one of their leaders cbtoced Y to fire a shot as a requisition to bring to ; what, I aak, would be the opinions of the American public as to the whole 4^-0-ceeding? Let the French and Americans {^bstitute the Great River, Chin keang and Nanking for tb^ 'Ganges, Patna and Benares; Shanghae for Dacca; JSiC^nchoos for English ; native Chinese imperialist troops, for native Indian royalist troops ; and Tae pings for Santais ; and they will then have an analogy that may give them a more correct idea, than the Commanders of the Cassini and Susquekannah appear to have had, of their position in China. But the ana-logy is imperfect, and that to the prejudice of the Tae pings. The Santal chiefs are illiterate savages, not to be compared, either in their social or in their religious aspect, with the well-educated men who originated and have guided the Tae ping rebellion ; and who are now republishing and sedu-lously spreading a Protestant translation of the Christian Scriptures as a moral and religious canon. Further, the English rule in India not merely as military conquerors, but as a nation far superior in civilization to the most advanced of the natives; while, on the other hand, in China the highest

T

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J

of the Manchoos are entirely indebted for all they bsTe of ciyilization to that Chinese people whom certain lucky coincidences enabled them to subject.

The Hermes^ when she ascended the river, suffered herself to be fired on by the batteries at Chin keang, by armed crad on the riyer, and again by the batteries at Kwa chow with-out even preparing to return fire. On approaching Nan-king she stopped when fired at until the officers in chai^ge of the strand batteries had ascertained her pacific character, when only she steamed up to them. On her return vojage, she was assured in answer to inquiries, specially made to obviate difficulties, that she would not be fired on, as the true nature of her errand was well known. After ail this, she was perfectly justified in returning the fire that was unexpectedly opened on her when she repassed Kwa chow and Chin keang. To have then abstained would have led the Tae pings into the error, mischievous for themselves, of supposing that British war vessels were unable or afraid to defend themselves.

In how far it may be justifiable or advisable for foreign vessels of war again to ascend the Great River to the Tae pings is a point that I shall discuss in the last chapter. But it must I think be now manifest to every reader that foreign vessels are on approaching as neutrals any position, whether of the Tae pings or the Imperialists, bound to stop beyond gun range ; to send a message by an unarmed boat to the commander of the position in question ; and not to approach nearer without his consent. British, French, and American men-of-war are perfectly able to violate this rule with small risk to themselves. But if they do so, there must be no talk of neutrality, for the act is by its very nature a hostile one ; and it would be so considered by every belligerent force, revolutionary or Imperialist, in every country of the Occident. It is however one of those many acts that are committed in the weak East without ulterior intentions and merely from an overbearing haughtiness. Occidentals^ while loudly accusing the Chinese of arrogance^ are themselves constantly

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guilty of the arrogance of refusing to observe just rules and submit to reasonable restrictions^ which the Chinese have the right y but not the power to enforce. Many of these Occi-dentals even labour under the delusion that they thereby uphold the honour of their respective countries. Such con-duct can only be stopped by plain exposure, and by the just and strong condemnation of all right-minded men through* out the Civilized West.

I must now more fully explain to those of my readers who have not hitherto attended to the Chinese and their opinions, that the notion of the new party, the Tae pings, as to the universal supremacy of their sovereign, the Heavenly Prince, is not peculiar to them. It has always been a nationally unquestioned attribute of the Kuler of China. There may be, and often has been doubts as to who was that Ruler, as to who it was that had received the Di-vine Commission ; but that question once settled, there can be no doubt that he is the Kuler by right, if not de facto, of the whole world. There can be no two Sovereigns, no two *' sons of Heaven" on earth. It is but a natural conse-quence of all this, that nothing can exceed the arrogance of the views and language of the Manchoo Emperors with respect to foreigners. Before the war, the delegate of the Emperor Taou kwang, the Commissioner Lin, when he found that his method of dealing with the opium question threatened to in-volve him in difficulties, did so far condescend as to address a letter on a footing of equality * to Queen Victoria, in which he among other things called upon her to search the hold of every vessel of her country that left for China, in order to see that they contained no opium. But he refused to address the British Plenipotentiary except by " mandates ^' enjoin-ing obedience to his " orders ;" and would receive no com-

* The relative Bianding of the writer and the person addressed is nn-nistakeftbly indicated by the form and phraseology of a Chinese letter. So much is this the case that one of the difiSculties of foreign official interpreters is to find perfectly neutral forms and phraseology, such as express neither tuperiority, nor inferiority, nor equality.

y2

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munications unless as humbly worded '' petitions." The British war showed the Manchoos that we were certainly their equals in military power, but it lefl their old conviction of the rightful supremacy of their Sovereign^ because the de facto Sovereign of China, wholly unchanged. He was a suzerain who was unable to control a rebellious and too powerfiil vassal. In the treaties of peace and commerce, the Emperor was compelled to admit of a phraseology being employed which marked a standing for foreign sovereigns equal to his own ; but in the reports of the negotiations which were pub-lished in the Peking Gazettes^ all expressions indicative of equality were suppressed, and the free nature of the com-merce conceded was as much as possible concealed. In the latest editions of the Penal Code, the laws awarding punish-ments for intercourse and trading with the barbarians remain unaltered.*

The reader may now still better understand why I, while condemning all intervention whatever either for or against the Tae pings, nevertheless do feel politically desirous for their success. Their claims of supremacy for their sovereign are in no wise more exaggerated than those of the Manchoos, whom they are endeavouring to oust. The present dynasty continues, notwithstanding the British war and in opposition to the spirit of the treaties, pertinaciously to act on the old national policy of '' making a distinction between natives and barbarians," of '' avoiding friendly relations '' with the latter, and of " keeping them off." t The Tae pings on the other hand, apart from the claim to supremacy, have, by the testimony of all who have visited them, manifested a de-cidedly friendly feeling. Though the successive visits had

* If the ManchooB succeed in re-eBtablisbing themselyes in power in Chinsy Occidental states should, in the revision of their respective treaties, have a clause inserted binding the Imperial goyemment to abrogate these laws by a deex^ published in the Peking Otuette; and they should take steps to see the clause faithfully acted on.

f These were the terms employed in discussing the anti-barbarian policy about 700 years ago by various writers, who are still indubitable authorities on the subject

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EOREiaN INTEECOURSE OF TAB PINGS. 325

the effect of modifying this feeling on the part of the leaders so far as to make them at length begin applying to us the term *^ barbarian," there still remained the essential cir-cumstance that they called us " barbarian brethren/' a con-junction in which the first word is necessarily much modified by the second. And, what is of most importance, they are themselves, in certain of their fundamental religious doc-trines, sedulously diffusing principles by which that very claim to supremacy, which they now urge, will be over-thrown in the minds of their own people, with their future certain increase in geographical and historical knowledge. Hence, with the establishment of the Tae pings, foreigners will be in no respect worse placed as to all legitimate inter-national objects than they were before, while a broad and firm basis will be laid for the assimilation of national funda-mental beliefs and for a consequent peaceable extension of free intercourse and commercial privileges. The last fifteen years' experience has finally proved that these advantages can be obtained from the present dynasty only by wars, bloody and disastrous for the Chinese; wars engendering long national hatred and tending directly to destroy that very national industry which alone makes conunerdal intercourse valuable.

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326 THE CHINESE AND THEIS SBBaSLLIONB.

CHAPTER XVIII (PART 1 OF 7)

NOTICE OP THE PHILOSOPHY, MORAUTT, AND POLITT OF THE CHINESE, AND OF THE RELIGION OF THE GOVERNING CLASS-

The Chinese have acquired, in the course of their long exist-ence, more than one different kind of philosophy ; that is to finy, there exist in China several radically different ways of viewing the nature of the inanimate world and of man. The principal of these are the Taouist, the Buddhist, and what may in order to distinguish it from the others be called the Confucian. The Taouist is, like the Confucian, indigenous. Laou tsze the founder of Taouism lived in the sixth century before Christ. Buddhism penetrated into China from India in the first century after Christ. There was a long struggle for the mastery among the adherents of these three systemsiy a struggle which expressed itself in mutual proscriptions and persecutions. But the Confucian, which existed in China long before the others, has, since their rise, always succeeded in maintaining for itself the greatest ascendancy, except during some comparatively short periods ; and it became defi-nitively paramount fully ten centuries ago. From that time to this it has continued dominant in the country. It has been the philosophy and morality of all the great historians of China, and has formed the basis of her peculiar national system of legislation and administrative procedure. It may be described as the assemblage of those fundamental beliefs which are entertained by all cultivated Chinese on the phenomena of animate and inanimate nature. The literature in which it is set forth, and which it has moulded, whether

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oxstologicol, psychical^ ethical, legislative or historical, is that ca^clusiveltfy an intimate and extensive acquaintance with ^wliich has, for many centuries, heen made indispensable to the Y>£^ssiDg of the Public Service Examinations ; which are, for -the talent and ambition of China, far more than the hustings, -tlie avenues to church preferment, and the bar, all combined, are for the talent and ambition of England. Hence Confu-cianism is, and has long been in the fullest sense of the terms tlie national, orthodox philosophy and morality of the Chinese people. Taouist and Buddhist temples exist all over China, and in later centuries Mahommedan mosques have been erected in many of its cities ; but the dominant Confucianism merely endures Taouism, Buddhism, and Mahommedanism as erroneous and superstitious systems of beliefs prevalent among, because most suited to people of uncultivated or weak minds, whether rich or poor; but which find most acceptance among the poorer, and therefore unlearned and unenlightened classes. They have no influence on the national polity. The people are in nowise prohibited from worshipping in the Buddhist and Taouist temples, in other words they may regulate their purely religious life by the tenets of these, or indeed of any other sect. But where Taouism or Buddhism would leave the region of Religion and, in the form of phi-losophy or morality, extend their direct influence into the domain of the Social Science and Art, there Confucianism peremptorily and effectually prohibits their action. Not only are the national legislation and administration founded ex-clusively on Confucian principles ; it is by them also that the more important acts of the private life of the Chinese are regulated : as, for instance, marriage. The cause of the pre-valence of Taouism, Buddhism, and Mahommedanism in China, in spite of discouragements, lies in the fact that Con-fucianism says little or nothing of a supernatural world or of a future existence. Hence it leaves almost unsatisfied those ineradicable cravings of human nature, the desire to revere and the longing for immortal life. That it has, notwith-

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Standing its want of these holds on the human heart, tuned itself, not simply in existence, but as the ruling system, is a fact that must, so soon as it is perceived, form for every true thinker a decisive proof of the existence of great and ▼ital truths in its theories, as well as thorough soundness and wholesomeness in the practical rules which it dictates.

By Chinese philosophy, then, I mean the Confucian phi-losophy ; and by Chinese morality, the moral principles rooted in that philosophy. And my object being essentially prac-tical, I shall take no account of the philosophical doctrines contained in Buddhism and Taouism in what is to follow ; though I may have again to allude to the actual inflaence which these systems exercise as religions.

The Chinese philosophy, much as it has been written about, has never yet been rightly stated. The picture stood there in full view of the Jesuits, the first Christians who gained access to the literature of the Chinese ; it was sur-veyed by them, and has since been surveyed by others ; it has been long looked at and even minutely described ; but it has never yet been described from the right point of view. Let the reader remark my allusion to a picture. A series of critical observers might place themselves, note-book in hand^ before a large painting and might prolong their observations for years, but by placing themselves either on the right or the lefl of that true stand-point from which only each picture is to be rightly seen, they would fail to gain, and be unable to give a clear and right idea of what it expressed ; and that though their descriptions left not an inch of it unnoticed. Now this is what has happened with the Chinese philosophy — a position that I must endeavour to establish before closing the chapter, there being unfortunately a large amount of error to be cleared away before the work of sound construc-tion can be fully accomplished*

In order to get a distinct general conception of the Chinese philosophical literature, two epochs must be specially kept in mind

\

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The first began with Confucius (Kung tsze), who was born B.C. 551, and ended with Mencius (MaDg tsze), who died about b.c. 317.

The second began with Chow leen ke or Chow tsze, who commenced his labours about a.d. 1034; and ended with Choc ke or Choo tsze, who died in a.d. 1200.

The first lasted for seven generations. It was separated by an interval of thirteen hundred years from the second ; ^which lasted for five generations. Both were periods of re-vival of ancient learning and of further development. Both embraced several celebrated philosophers'^ besides those mentioned ; but in each case it was the originator and closer of the epoch who became most celebrated. The writers of the second are often mentioned as the philosophers of the Sang dynasty; which latter was established in a.d. 960, about 70 years before Chow tsze's labors began, and con-tinued in possession of the sovereignty till a.d. 1271, till about 70 years after Choo tsze's labors closed.

Confucius, though his name has in the West become iden-tified with Chinese learning, was by no means its originator. Authentic though not fuU records, embodying ethical and political doctrines, extend back to b.c. 2357, or to about eighteen hundred years before Confucius ; while the Chinese philosophy originated with Fuh he, who lived, according to tradition, some twenty-three generations before, the exact chronological era ; which latter took place b.c. 2637 with the institution of the national cycle of sixty years. Allowing thirty years to a generation,t this would place Fuh he about B.C. 3327. It was he who substituted writing for the knotted strings that had previously formed the only means of record;

* It is a carious coincidence that the first was contemporary with an epoch of philosophical and literary activity eqaally important for the West ; that which commenced with Pythagoras, a contemporary of Confucius ; embraced Zeno, Bmpedocles, Herodotus, Thucydides, Socrates and Plato ; and ended with Aristotle, who died about the same time as Mencius.

' t ^e long fiunily histories of the descendants of Confucius and Mencius now lifing in China show that the average to a generation is thirty years.

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THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBELLIOH8.

and it was he who first established marriages, and sepmte families. To him are also ascribed some civilizing labors d lesser, but still great importance, aa for instance the divi-sion of the day into twelve she shin or watches of two hours each.* Fuh he is therefore the founder of Chinese ciTiluatiofi generally. But he is perhaps best known as the originator of the national philosophy, and in particular as the anthor of the ** Eight Diagrams,'^ which were drawn by him as follows :

// %

III

III

% #

The multiplication of these eight diagrams by themselves produced sixty-four doubled diagrams such as : —

* This diyision still maintaiiui itself in legal and official language, UMnffh the practical value of the European clocks and watches, now largely used in China, is gradnally substituting for it the Occidental division of twice twelve hours.

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HI8T0BY OP CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 331

The annotation of Confucius to the ancient work, the Yih mgs states that Fuh he got the idea of the diagrams from figure on the back of a " dragon horse *' that issued from . river. The same annotation states that, before Fuh he avented the Eight Diagrams, he observed the configurations ind appearances in the heavens and the earth and the marks >n birds and beasts; also that he derived information from his own person and from things around him. These terse passages of an ancient author are, when taken literally, apt to give a ridiculous air to the *^ Eight Diagrams/' But a little examination shows the meaning to be that Fuh he constructed the Eight Diagrams only after a careful and extensive survey of nature and its varied phenomena, as exhibited in the departments which we call astronomy, meteorology, physical geography and natural history; and after reflection on his own nature, physical and mental, and on the nature of men generally as manifested in the events of the social life around him. The Eight Diagrams formed in fact an illustrative figure intended to elucidate Fuh he's theory of the universe, a theory adopted after careful reflec-tion on all animate and inanimate nature within his ken. They are in so far undoubtedly the foundation of Chinese philosophy ; but it must not be assumed that learned Chinese conceive any occult power to lie in them. Much in the same way we might say that

is the foundation of our astronomy and navigation. The founder of the Chow dynasty, known as Wan wang,

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332 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REB£LLIONS«

the Literary Prince, having been imprisoned (while be was still a vassal of the dynasty he overthrew) by his jealoos suzerain, during the years b.c. 1144, 1143, 1142, made in that seclusion a different arrangement of the Eight Diagrams; and he with one of his sons, Chow kung, who labored a£i& the establishment of the family in the sovereignty, gave permanency to their joint development of the national phi-losophy by attaching a few words of explication to each of the sixty-four doubled diagrams. Fuh he's diagrams as rearranged, together with the short explications of the Sxst monarch of the Chow dynasty and his son, form the basis or text of the first of the Chinese Sacred Books, the Yih king.

After an interval of six centuries Confucius appeared, and among his other celebrated literary labors, undertaken in B.C. 490 and the following years, edited the Yih king and appended those annotations which have given the work its subsequent value. What philosophical views may have been attached to the Yih king of Wan wang and Chow kiing by the cotemporaries of Confucius, we know not That work^ together with the other three works edited or compiled by Confucius, viz. the Shoo king, the She king, and the Lte ke,"^ constitute the whole of the ancient literature of China which has come down to posterity ; and we have it only as it was explained, arranged or modified in passing through his hands. It is well known that he expressly repudiated portions of it, as containing doctrines adverse to the views which he* held and strove to diffuse. The names only of some celebrated ancient books, one dating from the times of Fuh he himself, have been preserved. It is these circumstances which consti-tute the labors of Confucius, the commencement of a distinct literary epoch.

Apart from the labors of Confucius himself, the permanent literary results of this, the first of the two great epochs to

* A fifth work, the Tsan tsew, which with those named in the text fonns he Woo king or Five Canonical Books, is a history which was wriUen bj Confiicias himself.

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^vp^hich I have directed attention, are contained in the coUec-

-t^lon of works called the Four Books, composed by different

xmembers of the school which he founded. The last contains

^L record of the ethical and political teachings of Mencius,

i^ho, as already stated, died in b.c. 317 and closed the first

epoch.

The following are a few of the most noteworthy occur-rences which influenced Chinese literature, in the thirteen biindred years that elapsed before the commencement of the second epoch.

About B.C. 221 the prince of Tsin, one of the vs^sal states into which the till then feudally governed China had been divided, made himself sovereign of the Empire under the title of Che hwang. It was he who took the first steps for the esta-blishment of centralized administration. But he wished to establish a despotism, not that morally supported autocracy iBvhich I have shown to be the true Chinese rule. Hence he ordered all books to be burnt, with the exception of those on the healing art, on agriculture, and on divination ; that is to say, he spared whatever conduced to merely material prospe-rity or ministered to superstition, but ordered the destruction of all literature that inculcated the necessity of governing by the higher mental agencies rather than by physical force. He was a great conqueror ; and was successful in opposing the inroads of the northern barbarians, the Heung noo or Huns, one of his measures to withstand whom was the erection of the celebrated Great Wall. But, so alien were his principles of rule to the Chinese mind, that the power of his house ended with his life ; and he is always mentioned with detes-tation by the orthodox historians and philosophers. After his death, the books which he attempted to destroy were recovered in various ways, while the literature which he patronised died out unattacked. ''From this," says a Chinese writer of authority, ** it is evident that the canons of the Holy Men and teachings of the Sages will never decay, while low and heterodox doctrines will perish though spe-

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cially cared for. From the first, the continued ezieteiKse rf either has not depended on the tastes of the actual SovereigBs^" As the enigmatically terse Yih king, with its myst^ou^j looking diagrams, had been made the basis of systems of divi-nation, it was expressly spared in the general destruction of the books. It is in consequence held to be the least imperfect as well as the most ancient portion of Chinese literature.

In the beginning of the tenth century printing was ist-vented ; and in a.d. 932 that mode of multiplying copies of books received the Imperial sanction ; a printed Impeiial edition of all the sacred works having been then published.* Chinese writers lay little or no stress on the efiect of this invention on the advancement of literature. But there cab be small doubt that the second great epoch of literary activity, which began about a century later, after thirteen hundred years of comparative torpitude, was mainly owing to the spread of education consequent on the cheapenii^ of books. The originative capacities of many minds, which would otherwise have lain dormant in unlettered ignorance, must have been brought into fruitful action in the fields of philosophical speculation and historical inquiry.

One such mind was that of Chow tsze, the originator of the second epoch of philosophical development. To him is ascribed the merit of having revived that distinct knowledge of the greatest truths, which had been lost to the world for the thirteen centuries that had elapsed after the death of Mencius. And he regained that knowledge by the inde-pendent efforts of his own mind, unaided by any master. Only two of his works have been preserved, the Tae keih too shwo and the Tung shoo. It is not denied by the writen of the second epoch and subsequent annotators, that the Sacred Books, bequeathed from the first epoch, were studied in the long interval which elapsed between the two. But it is

* *' The greatest of all the arts" was not invented in Barope till fiye hundred years after this. Marco Polo speaks much of the " stamped " paper monev of the Chinese ; and he most have seen their printed books.

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mSTOBT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY.

xnaintained that eyen the best of students daring that inter-"val attached themselves blindly to the letter of the ancient ^writings, and never thoroughly penetrated their spirit. The fact is, however, that though the authors of the first and Becond epochs^ Confucius himself included, professed to teach only what was contained in preexisting Sacred Books, and though they doubtless themselves believed that they did only teach what was virtually contained in such preexisting Socks; they nevertheless did in each case originate some entirely new views and doctrines. In the interval between tlie two epochs the national philosophy was, on the other hand, stationary, or any permanent developments which did take - place proceeded by such minute increments as to have escaped notice ; and have consequently failed to be connected with their originators by later writers. Further, a certain amount of creative activity in philosophical speculation was exhibited during the interval between Mencius and Chow tsze, but it ^was repudiated by the school which the latter originated as perversion, not development, of the philosophy contained in the old Sacred Books. Some of the heterodox literature which it produced has, however, come down to our day. One of the chief examples is formed by the works of Seun tsze, a philosopher and political teacher of great authority about B.C. 255 ; but who, as I shall have occasion to show, main-tained a psychical theory directly opposed to one of the most characteristic doctrines of the national orthodox philosophy. We have now to consider Choo he or Choc ts^ze, with whom the second great epoch of philosophical development closed. This man is the fashioner of Chinese mental life as it now exists ; and is, in virtue of the immense practical effect of his labors, fairly entitled to be considered one of the greatest men that history makes known to us. Like most great Chinese he held office, beginning his career with one of the lower posts and being gradually promoted to a place among the leading men of the country. There can be little doubt that the soundness of the teachings of the celebrated

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Chinese moralists and politicians is in great measure owing to the fact, that they all had very ample opportunities of forming and correcting their theoretical views on the ex-perience of practical life. Choo tsze, in one of the first posts which he held, was placed in command of the north-western angle of the wall of Tung yang, the chief city of the district in which Amoy is situated, when it was threatened by an attack of rebels. In the lesser posts generally which • he held, he had constant opportimities, such as private indi-viduals never can have, of observing the phenomena of social life as well as the working of detailed legislation. Lastlj, in his later places, he was personally consulted by the Sove-reign in matters of Imperial significance, and could watch the intrigues and vicissitudes of court life and the higher political career. That a man who lived such a life and who was gifted with a mind unusually candid, clear, and powerful, should have written one of the best histories of the nation, need not surprise us. In his 34th year he completed his first annotations on a portion of the Four Books ; and from that time till within a month or two of his death, in his seventieth year, he was unremitting in his literary labors. In 37 years he published about 25 separate works. Two of these were historical, the one that general history of the country which has just been alluded to, the other '* The Sayings and Doings of Celebrated Statesmen.*' These were published in his 43rd year. The most of the others were commentaries and introductions to the Sacred Books which had descended from the first literary epoch; annotated editions of the works of his predecessors in the second epoch ; and sketches of the history of philosophy. He died in A.D. 1200 ; and in a.d. 1241 an Imperial rescript ordered his tablet, with those of four of his immediate predecessors whose works he had annotated, to be placed in the temple of Confucius which is to be found in every district city through* out the Empire. From that time to this, a period of six hundred years, his views of philosophy, morality, and politics

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have been supreme in China. At this day, his commentaries on the Yih king and the Four Books are learnt hj heart hj millions of Chinese, with the text of these works. The Public Service Examinations cannot be passed unless this be done.

Since the close of the second epoch there have been hosts of writers in China ; but if any have put forth original and divergent views they have not met with acceptance from the people and the government. Those whose labors have obtained currency are esteemed merely as able expositors of the views of Choo tsze. But several works of very great value even to us, as smoothing the way to a full knowledge of the outward and inner life of the Chinese people past and present, have been prepared in the shape of encyclopedias and dictionaries. Many of these have been prepared under the direct superintendence of Emperors and the highest officers of state, assisted by large numbers of lesser officials divided into committees and sub-committees, to each of which special portions of the works were assigned. All this is easy in a country where the most powerful intellects and best stored minds are sedulously attracted to the service of the State. Before the Sung family, under whom Choo tsze lived, it had become an established dynastic procedure in China for each Imperial house to have a history compiled of the rule of that which it had ousted ; and to form an Imperial library, by col-> lecting books from all districts of the empire and having new editions of them published. The facilities affi>rded by the cen-tralized form of government for homogeneous action through-out the length and breadth of the country, together with the rewards given for valuable new works or rare copies of old ones, is cause that these Imperial libraries have been very com-plete. The Yuen dynasty which succeeded the Sungs in a.d. 1271 were Mongols, immediate descendants of Ghenhis E^han; who adopted Chinese civilization only in a very slight degree, and were, consequently, soon expeUed again. The first Emperor of the native dynasty, the Mings, which succeeded

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338 THE CHINESE AND THEIB BEBELLIOK&

them in a.d. 1368, though a promoter of literature, was faim-self illiterate, having been a servant in a monastery* But the tUrd Sovereign of the line, who began to reign a.i>. 1403, had a splendid library formed and several encydopediac works compiled. He published an edition of the Sacr^ Books, which b known by the affix to their title of ^ ta tseuen, in full completeness.'' By this is meant that all annotations of any authority, that could be ccdlected, have been attached to the text He then had the philo0O{^caI writings of the second epoch, with a large mass of annota-tion and commentary from subsequent writers, published A.D. 1413^ in a collected form under the title of Smff fe ia tseuefu The meaning of ta tseuen I have just explained Sing le, literally nature and the immaterial princ^^, or (if we choose to regard the words as in construction) the ground principles of nature^ mean here not the things themselves^ but the formalized knowledge or the science of these things. The term is a very fair Chinese equivalent of our word pkUo^qpkjf taken in its wider signification. Sing le ta tseuen means therefore. Philosophy in full completeness, or more shcntly, but in opposition to Chinese grammar, the Complete Philo-sophy. This, book, of which I have got a very old copy from the Imperial press, was published in a.i>. 1415. It is in 70 chapters ; my copy being bound up in sixteen Chinese volumes, a translation of which would fill more than that number of our volumes of a larger octavo size. It was oom* piled by a commission of forty-one officers taken from several different branches of the executive and of various ranks, at the head of whom stood the Minister of State, Hoo kwang. At the beginning of the book stand the two treatises of Chow tsze, the Tae keih too 8hw5 and the Tung shoo (page 834), in fulL Then follows a treatise, entitled Se ming, by Chang tsze, another of the great authors of the second literary epoch. After that come five other complete treatises, making eight in all. These occupy twenty-five chapters. The remaining forty-five chapters consist of extracts from the

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. HISTORT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 839

writings or recorded discourses of one hundred and twenty men of more or less standing, arranged under thirteen heads ; which, again, are subdivided into upwards of one hundred and thirty sections. These may be described as various branches of what we denote by ontology, cosmogony, psycho* logy and ethics, together with discussions on supernatural existences, on life and death, on the science and art of educa-* tion, on public service examinations, on the science and art of government, and on fine literature, as also notices of the general history of these subjects and of the men who wrote about them.

CHAPTER XVIII (PART 2 OF 7)

In AA}. 1717, in the 56th year of the reign of Kang he, the second Emperor of the present Manchoo dynasty, a second edition of the above book was prepared, likewise by an Imperial commission, which was composed of twenty-five ofiScials under the Minister Le kwang te. By the orders of the Emperor himself, this new edition was made a very mate-rial abridgement of the original work. The compilers of the latter had, as its title indicates, made completeness and ful-ness their main objects ; and hence they collected from all previous writers of any note. Considering the abstruse nature of many of the subjects dealt with, there was certain to be a considerable number of real, and a still greater number of verbal discrepancies in the treatises and in the mass of extracts placed in juxtaposition. Further, the mere quantity of the matter impaired the usefulness of the book, embracing, as it did, no small amount of mere repetition in more or less varied phraseology. Lastly, several of the subjects intro-duced did not, strictly speaking, fall within the scope of the work. For these various reasons its size was, in the second edition, reduced from seventy to twelve chapters, which are contained in four moderate sized, instead of sixteen large volumes. The abridgement, being virtually another work, was entitled Sing le ising e, literally. Philosophy's essential signification, but which I usually render more shortly by, the Essence of Philosophy. The two works, the Essence of

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Philosophy of the present Manchoo dynasty, and the Com-plete Philosophy of the preceding native dynasty, are of inestimable value to Occidentals as aids to the right compre-hension of the Sacred Books ; and as facilitating endeavours to obtain a sound and thorough knowledge of the funda-mental beliefs and opinions of the Chinese of the present and last preceding generations — an object of undoubted^ pracdcal importance to all who have to deal with them.

In the Imperial preface and the introduction to the Essence of Philosophy, it is distinctly stated that the views of Choo tsze had been taken as the rule in selecting from the Com-plete Philosophy. And Kang he, in a still earlier period of his reign, had openly ascribed to Choo tsze the merit of having, after full consideration of the works of his predeces-sors, definitively fixed the national — and national because true — views of philosophy. Hence for the last 150 years the authority of Choo tsze has been, if possible, more exclu-sively paramount than before. During that period more than ever, it has been by his eyes that the Chinese have read their ancient Sacred Books. To bring this fact home to the mind of the reader, has been one of my main objects in giving the above retrospect of the fortunes of Chinese philosophical literature. The more important ontological, psychical and ethical of the ancient Sacred Books were carefully annotated by Choo tsze ; and he wrote a General History, the distinctive feature of which, as compared with other general histories, is held to lie in the more philosophical treatment of the subject matter : '^ it gives prominence to the grander signification of events, and facilitates a distinct perception of the relative mo-rality of actions.'^ Now even supposing, what is a supposition of the wildest improbability, that any Occidental could, by direct study of the ancient Sacred Writers, attain a juster comprehension of their meaning throughout than Choo tsze, the result would be valueless except in an antiquarian point of view. The Chinese nation understands the ancient writings, which constitute the root of its social life, only as Choo tsze

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understood them ; and it is evident that, for practical pur-poses, we must learn what the Chinese of the present and last preceding generations think and thought, not what their remotest ancestors may have thought. For these reasons, I hold translations of the mere text of those works which have been annotated by Choo tsze, to be comparatively value-less. His annotations are got by heart by every educated Chinese ; it is in them that we find an intelligible exposition of all the most important national beliefs ; and though they by no means supersede the ancient texts — and would as a matter of course scarcely be intelligible without the latter — they constitute, as virtually contwning further developments of what they profess merely to expound, a new text in themselves.

It is the more necessary to direct particular attention to Choo tsze's annotations, commentaries, summary views em-bodied in prefaces, &c. &c. as he never himself published any systematic general treatise on philosophy, entirely in his own language. Ko one, however, who notes the invariable clear-ness and logical consistency of his remarks, can doubt that he had a definite system in his own mind ; and it is plainly necessary to the right comprehension of what he did write, to know what that system was. From the following It will be seen that we are, fortunately, left in no doubt on a subject so important.

At page 338 it is stated that of the eight entire treatises which st^nd at the head of the Complete Philosophy of A.D. 1415,* the first three are the Tae keih too shw6, the Tung shoo, and the Se ming. In the Essence of Philosophy of A.o. 1717, while all else is either excluded or greatly abridged, these three treatises are given again in full. Now these treatises are the only works, not classed with the Sacred Literature, that Choo tsze was at the trouble to anno-tate. Further, his annotations are given in full again in the Essence of Philosophy ; the Imperial introduction to which states that the three treatises are works such as had not been

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342 TH£ CHINESE JlND THEUt SEBELLI0K3.

equalled since the days of Confucios and Mendos. It was in fact these works, particularly the first two by Chow toe, which originated the second literary epoch. In them we find a systematic ontology, cosmc^ny, and psychol<^y, though in terms so very terse that they could only have been intended as text books, to goide their authors in their oral teachings. A consequence of this terseness is that they would not have been now intelligible without Choo tsze's annotations. But as accompanied by his annotations, we have in them the general features of that theory of the universe — of that view of animate and inanimate nature — which ruled Choo tsze*8 own mind in all his other literary labors. He annotated them in his forty-third and forty-fourth years, at which period his philosophical views may be fairly assumed to have been fully matured ; but he did not publish his annotated editions till his fifty-ninth year.

I now give the leading features of the dunese philosophy, as fixed by Choo tsze's annotations to the above works and to the Sacred Books, more especially those to the Yih king and the Chung yung.

All nature, animate and inanimate — ^the universe in the widest or proper sense of the word — is based on, and subsists by an ultimate Entity, the specific or proper name of whidi is Tae keih. This term, rendered literally, means the Grand Extreme ; and it is intended to express the extreme point to which man^s speculations on the nature of existence have been able to read). As this Grand Extreme, which I have just called an Entity, is absolutely immaterial, and as it operates in the process by which the material universe is produced in an invariable way, yet without intelligence and without will, it may be viewed as a Law — as the fixed Order in which all the multifold and varied phenomena of the universe take place. Much of the language of Chinese phi-losophers reads as if they regarded the Grand Extreme sim-ply as a name for the actual order of succession of appear-ances and events; and as if their theory of the universe was

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in 80 far identical with that of Occidental positivists. But

there exist at the same time, in the phraseology of orthodox

-writings, unmistakeable evidences that the Grand Extreme is

regarded as a something having a separate existence — an

entity — and as being, though always unintelligent and will-

leesy possessed of a causative power. The Chinese view of

nature then approaches that of Occidental metaphysiciansi as

distinguished from positivists. I do not think that the

Chinese are alive to the difference between these two methods

of viewing the phenomena of the universe. Now as our

word, prinoipte^ expresses alike, cause, sovrce and law, its

ambiguity well corresponds with the undistinguishing view

just indicated, as that taken by the Chinese philosophy at its

starting point; and I shall therefore call the Tae keih the

Ultimate Principle.

The Ultimate Principle has operated from all eternity, and now ceaselessly operates, by a dynamical process in virtue of which animate and inanimate nature has existed from all eternity. This process is represented as pulsative, as a suc-cession of active expansive and passive intensive states; which succession, as already indicated, never had a beginning. The Ultimate Principle, in its active expansive operation, constitutes and produces the Yang or Positive Essence; in its passive intensive operation it constitutes and produces the Yin or Negative Essence. When the active expansive phase of the process has reached its extreme limit, the operation becomes passive and intensive ; and when the passive inten-sive phase has reached its extreme limit, the operation again becomes active and expansive: each phase roots in the other in the course of a sort of subjective vibration or twofold expansive and intensive action, which is, however, no motion in space. Not only did all material and mental existences, of which we are cognisant, originate by the process described— if we may speak of the origination of that which has ex-isted from eternity — but all existences do now subsist in virtue of the same process, operating in ceaseless repetition.

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I have chosen the terms Positive and Negative as, on the whole^ those in the English language best adapted to express at once the opposition, and the general nature of the action of the Yang and Yin« The following are my. reasons for adding the word. Essence, to each of these terms. Begarded from one point of view, the Yang and Yin are merely the two phases of the operation of the inmiaterial Ultimate Principle. But the Chinese philosophy distinctly states that the Ultimate Principle is the way or method which precedes form, while the Yang and Yin are the instruments which follow form; in which explication the words, precede and follow, have relation to time, not to space. Further, the Yang and Yin are called the Two ke, and ke is defined as the most ethereal or least material shape of matter that is conceivable. The most appropriate equivalent for ke in English seemed to me to be, essence ; and hence I call Yang the Positive Essence, and Yin the Negative Essence. It is here that Chinese philosophy slips over the much discussed, hitherto unsolved, and apparently insolvable question of the existence of matter. Hence it is, that in describing above the mode of universal origination, I have been obliged to say *' constitutes and produces.^' The active - expansive and passive - intensive pulsatory process constitutes but the method of operation of immateriality, yet it produces materiality.

After that stage in the production of the universe which is marked by the distinct existence of the Positive and N^a-tive Essences, these two are next represented as working together in the further development. This is however done in vaguely general phraseology; and the Chinese writers themselves give the warning intimation, that all the language used of these primary evolutionary operations must be taken in a figurative sense, the subject being in reality too abstruse for language to lay hold of. The Positive Essence is said to transform, the Negative to unite. By the action which is thus indicated, they produce the Five Elements of the mate*

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rial world, i.e. water, fire, wood, metal and earth ; by which the reader must not understand the visible palpable things so named, but five innate essences, one possessed by each, and constituting it what it is^ as distinguished from the others. This theory is very like that held in the West till within a surprisingly short period from our own time — till within the last half of the last century, I believe. Chemistry has grown BO rapidly, and become so widely known that it is somewhat difficult for us now even to conceive, how such a theory could be believed in. Lest its acceptance should lead us to undervalue the Chinese intellect, we should remember that it dominated in the days of Bacon and reigned unquestioned in the minds of learned men long after him.

At the same time that the Five Elements are produced, the Four Seasons come into existence. By the Four Seasons must be understood not merely four divisions of the time of a year, but four special though secondary principles, or rather four specialized forms of the Ultimate Principle, each of which has a certain predominance in nature during one of the periods called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

A transcendental union and coagulation now takes place of the Ultimate Principle, the Two Essences, and the Five Elements; the Positive Essence becomes the masculine power, the Negative Essence the feminine power — conceived in which character the former constitutes the Heavenly Mode or Principle, the latter the Earthly Mode or Principle ; by a mutual influencing, the two produce all things in the visible, palpable world; and the double work of evolution and dissolution goes on without end.

In the course of the process of universal production, man is constituted of the finer portion of the elements at work, and is the most intelligent of all things ; the unintelligent, zoological world, being included in the term, things. It is at this stage that the mental, as different from the material world mani-fests itself in the form of a distinct existence. As we believe that mind and matter have the same common origin in the

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incomprehensible workings of the Author of eziBtence ; w the Chinese believe that mind and matter have the saoM common origin in the transcendent operations of the Ulti-mate Principle, the Tae keih. Man's Sing or Nature, as allotted to him in the course of these operations, is perfectly good. Its qualities as exhibited in active relation to the world are classified under five heads, Jin, E, Le, Che, and Sin, which are called the Five Hh or Five Virtaea; tih being a word that like our English, virtue, signifies Grst, qualities or characteristics generally whether of man or at things ; and then, collectively, the best qualities of man^ or Virtue as opposed to Vice* In accordance with the diction* aries, Jin is usually rendered by Benevolence (or Charity in its widest sense) ; E, by Righteousness ; Le, by Propriety ; Che, by Wisdom ; and Sin, by Sincerity. But sinologues will perceive that as the Five Tih embrace the whoie of what we consider the better ude of man's nature, it is not certain that these five English words are exhaustive ; while it is quite certain, as a consequence of the independent growth of Chinese morality and language, that even if ex-haustive, they could not prove parallel synonyms of the five Chinese words.^ Propriety and Righteousness are, in par-ticular, very inadequate as synonyms of Le and £. I may state here that the Chinese have not set up that division of man's mental nature into intellectual and moral qualities, which plays so prominent a part in all discussions of Ocd-dental philosophy. Hence a quality designated, wisdcxn, is placed with those called, benevolence and sincerity.

Man's form having been produced, and consciousness having ensued, his originally pure nature is influenced by the objective

^ For infltaaoe, in many cases E meaasy Pabli&«pirited« i. e. aeiaatod bj a dMire for the common fl^ood. There are in China E fan, pablic or free cemeteries ; E heo, public or free schools ; and E tsang, pnblic (non-otBdal) granaries; all which are partly benerolent or charitable institntionsy and shovld Uierelbre according to onr notions rather be called Jin tan, Jin heo, if we take Jia as meaning Oharity. E ping again most be rendered Patriotic soldiers^ certainly not Bighteons soldiem

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worlds good and evil come thereby into separate existence^ and all human afikirs arise. As in the region of ontology and cosmogony the Two Essences and the Five Elements are the sources of all things ; so — man having been constituted as a separate existence— in the region of psjcholc^y and sociologj, the Two Essences and the Five Virtues are the sources of all affairs. Mental and material existences^ with all that results from both, originate in the Two Essences and their one root the Ultimate Principle. In all things and in all acts the Ultimate Principle operates as the Two Essences, When man is able to follow the dictates of his pure nature^ and thus to act in accordance with that Principle in its ope* ration^ harmony is the consequence and his actions are good : when he allows himself to be unduly influenced by the outer world, and in consequence to act differently from, or con* trary to it in its operation, a jarring discord ensues and his actions are eyil. Here the Chinese philosophy slips over the question of the existence of evil, a question which has been as much argued in the world as that of the exist-ence of matter.

The Shing jin or Holy Man is one who has an instinctive apperception of the operation of the Ultimate Principle as the Two Essences, and who spontaneously obeys all the dic-tates of the Sing or perfect Nature allotted to him in common with all other men. Hence all his thoughts are perfectly good, all his sayings absolutely true, and all his acts thoroughly right. Fuh he was the first of the Holy Men. After him came several others, the principal of whom are Yaou and Shun, who are mentioned at page 18 ; and Wan wang and Chow kung who are mentioned at pages 331, 332. Confucius himself closed the series. He died B.C. 479 ; and since his death there has been no Holy Man in China.

The fact that the Holy Men had an instinctive appercep-tion of the operation of the Ultimate Principle in the animate and inanimate world, and that their teachings were in conse-quence absolutely true, gives to the Chinese Shing Shoo, the Holy or Sacred Books, their infallible authority and their

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title. These Books have suffered mutilations in the course <£ transmission and are avowedly incomplete ; but^ in so fiur as they do contun the teachings of the Holy Men, their aatho-rity is indisputable*

Immediately after the Holy Men, stands another class, which requires special notice. This consists of the Keen jin, the wise and worthy men or Sages.* The Sage does not possess intuitively a full apperception of the working of the Ultimate Principle in men and things, nor the faculty of spontaneously yielding complete obedience to the dictates of his own perfect human nature ; but he attains a full apper-ception and a complete obedience by dint of study and effort. The Sages stand, therefore, decidedly below the Holy Men: there are even degrees among the Sages, while the Holy Men, being from the first all perfectly wise and perfectly good, are all equal. Still the Sage, who does attain that highest standard of excellence which is the object of his efforts, stands as a teacher, almost if not quite, on a level with the Holy Man. This is the case with Mencius, the greatest of the Sages ; and hence the work which records his teachings forms one, the latest and closing one, of the Sacred Books. His chief merit is considered to consist in the fact, that it was he who first distinctly taught that man's fundamental nature is good ; though that, with all other doctrines of the national philosophy^ is not the less held to be but a necessary deduc* tion from, or development of, the principles embodied in the earlier Sacred Writings.

The above view of the history and character of Chinese

* The first Occidental Binologaes, all missionariea, natnraUy dinink as pro-fessional theologians from applying the word Holy to any heathens, and henoe rendered Shing by Sage. But in so doing they were gnllty of falsification in their translations, howeyer excusable it may be held on account of the feeling that led to it. The business of a translator is not to correct the meaning of hid original, but to give again, fsuthftilly and truthfully, what that original means. Holy, heUig, and saint are the only words in English, German and French that at all express the perfect moral purity and wisdom which is attributed to the Shing Jin. On the other hand Sage is about the best equiyalent in Bnglish of Heen, as implying, not wisdom only, but moral worth also. We speak of a dever scoundrel, nerer of a wise scoundrel

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orthodox speculation on the phenomena of the universe, though summary, appears to be all that is necessary for the general reader; and it is amply sufficient to make it now possible to give to students of Chinese the clue to the right comprehension of the Sacred Books or, in other words, the key to the expositions, by the Chinese themselves, of their own system of fundamental beliefs. It might seem that if the preceding view be true, it ought of itself to prove the key to that system, as set forth in the Sacred Books, if key be want-ing. It will presently be seen why this is not the case, and why the few pages which now follow will prove the standing-* np of Columbus' egg for sinologues generally.*

The Sacred Books and their annotations, read by the light afforded by our dictionaries and by hitherto existing Occi-dental notices of the doctrines which these Books are repre-sented as iuculcating, contain a number of propositions which appear to be not ouly extravagant and absurd in themselves, but to be also mutually inconsistent — ^totally irreconcilable the one with the other. As a consequence of this, I am forced to believe that every one of the existing sinologues — their number is not great — will be ready to maintain that he can pick out a dozen important passages, noticing fundamental powers and principles which have had no place in the pre-ceding exposition ; and that he can pick out a dozen other passages, containing mutually conflicting and discordant views as to the origin and nature of the world and of man ; and consequently proving that the Sacred Books with their nationally adopted, orthodox annotations, teach no one defi-nite theory on these subjects — ^least of all any one self-connstent theory. But I have great hopes that several of these same sinologues will, after trying the key which I shall now present, speedily admit the correctness of the views I have given; and I feel quite certain that, in the course of a few years, our successors of the rising generation will

* See page 864 for a confeaBion of non-compreheiiBion on the part of the celebrated Pariaiaa aiiiologae, M. B^mnaat.

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literally wonder how any other view could ever have been entertained by people who had studied the writings in the original language. It is but a question of fact, for the defini-tive solution of which ample means exist

The following is a list of words, single and compound, which occupy prominent positions in the Sacred Books, and the prevalent misconceptions as to which are the more iuune-diate causes of the hitherto existing misapprehensions. I give the philosophical and ethical meanings of each, as they stand in Part IL of Morrison's Dictionary ; which is the least erroneous, on the whole, that the Occident possesses. The numbers are those attached to the words in that dictionary : —

TAE KEIH. 5914. That wliich existed preTionsly to the dlTulon of Heaven and earth ; or the preeent system of the aniTerBei

SINQ. 9475. The nature, prinoiples or properties oommnnicated hy heaven ; innate qualities ; what is bom with man. The nature or properties of a thing. The natural constitution, ability, disposition, or temper of man.

BIN. 9453. The heart ; the affections ; the mind ; the intenUons ; the origin.

TAOU. 9945. A my, A principle. The principle from which hearen, earth, man and all nature emanates, he [the next following word] ia a latent principle ; Taou is a principle in action. Correct yirtuona principles and course of action. Order and good principles in a goremment and country. To speak ; to direct. To accord with or go in a comae pointed out.

Taou le, [the le being the next following word] Bight prindples, a natural sense of right and fitness ; reason ; reasonable.

LE. 6942. To rule; the principles in matter, in bodies, in the unlTene and in man by which they are regulated ; right principles ; reason in man; the principle of order by which the unirerse is regulated.

Le, as distinguished from Ee [5811] is an immaterial iueorporesl prineiple. Ke is the more subtle or insensible parts of material existences. WliateTer has Jigure is founded on Ke; whateyer is destitute of shape or figure, belongs to Le and to Taou. Ke is below Hing, i.e. farm ot figure; It ia the primary matter. Le is the Tacu, or principle which is upon or tukeremt in material bodies and is considered their root or origin. Nor has it any place in particular where it is appended to or attached to them.

Le also denotes a kind of principU of organization : the itUemal eend eseeniiaiform of Europeana.

Le is sometimes spoken of as a kind of aoul o/the univerw. The heavens and earth and all animate and inanimate creatures are but one Le or principle; and as to human beings ereiy one has an indiTidnal and dia> tinct Le. The universal Le is compared to the water of the ocean ont of

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CHAPTER XVIII (PART 3 OF 7)

which each person takes a part, some more and some less ; still at J beloug

to the water of the ocean which is supreme. TIH. 10202. Virtue, commonly in a good sense. Power; for ca^ B^^uevo-

lenoe. Yirtaons instructions. TE. 9992. The appellation of one who judges the world, or of one who rubt

oyer the nations ; celestial yirtue. Shang te, the highest SoToreigDj the

Supreme Buler ; Heaven or the God of Heaven. TEEK. 10095. The highest ; that which is resident above. To rule and Icccp

in subjection the creatures below. Heaven ; used for the material heavens^

the sky and for a Supreme and Intelligent Power which vicwn Umuaa

actions and thoughts, and which rewards and punishes individiiak or

nations, but which seems to want personality. There is a great T&detj of

expression and confusion of idea connected with the word. Teen le [the le above numbered 6942] heavenly principles ; th« moml

sense; Providence. Teen taou [the taou above numbered 9945] the ways of heaven ;

Providence. MING. 7782. Fate ; Datum est quod dii fouUur, The destiny of individuals

in this life. The life of human beings. A command. Teen ming [the teen being the last preceding word] the decree or will

of heaven. CHING. 1084. Without guile; sincerity; truth.

Ching nftng tung wan wuh, Sincerity can influence, move, or excite all

nature.

The key to the right understandiog of the Chinese Sacred Books with their established annotations^ as comprehending a theory of all mental and material existence, lies in the per-ception of the fact that the above fourteen words or terras Tae keih. Sing, Sin, Taou, Taou le, Le, Tih, Shang te (or Te), Teen, Teen le. Teen taou, Ming, Teen ming, and Ching mean one and the same thing : the Ultimate Principle of my exposition.

The differences among these various words are purely of a nominal kind ; the words themselves are, all of them, names for the Ultimate Principle as it is conceived either in operation at various stages of the evolution of the universe ; or as more especially forming the root of, and working in some division or subdivision of the universe ; or as considered with more particular reference to some one feature of its own action: in no case do they, as philosophical term@, mean anything distinct from, or less than, or more than the Ulri-mate Principle.

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i

Tae keih is the name used when the Ultiniate Prinaple » r^arded with reference to its quality as the nldmate or extreme originating point of the universe. Taoa is the term that marks it as the fixed way or course of the uniTene ; Le as the rule or fixed order of the universe. Teen is the name for it when viewed as an overruling force or power, which visits departure from its order with the fiuluie and misery in which attempts to oppose the invariable law of nature necessarily involve men ; and which ensures suooeas and happiness to those who conform to its law or rule. In the process of universal production, the Ultimate iPriaciple is often represented as " flowing forth " in order to constitute men and things. In that case it is, as an efflux^ called Teen ming, the decree or will of heaven : as an inflmx into huma-nity, Jin sing, the nature of man. The nature of man ts therefore perfectly good, for it is identical teith the wiU of Aeateuy that is to say, with the fixed course of the ons tUti-mate principle of the universe. Sing being used of the nature of things, as well as of that of man, it follows that inanimate nature, is to the Chinese mind, as perfect as it is considered by us when spoken of as, fresh from its Maker's hands, &c. Teen le means the rule or regulated order of heaven ; Teen taou, the way of heaven : both are synonyms of Teen ming as signifying^ with it, the fixed order of action or course of the Ultimate Principle. The name Te or Shang te expresses still more strongly the ruling, reward-ing-harmony and punishing-violation characteristic of the Ultimate Principle. Both Teen and Te, but Te more especially, may be said to personify the fixed course of nature. When Teen is used in its sense of sky or visible blue heaven, then Te is described as its Sin or mincL Man's Sin or mind is nothing but his Sing or nature, conceived as it exists in him, at a somewhat later stage of the evolutionary process. Tih denotes the Ultimate Principle as an inherent power or virtue of that universe which, in reality, is pro-duced by it. Hence when Tih is used to express a quality'

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oF xnaD^ it, as identical with the Ultimate Principle inherent in hiin, necessarily means perfect goodness or Virtue as opposed to Vice. Ching is used of the Ultimate Principle ivhen constituting the sing or sin^ the nature or mind, of the Holy Man. Viewing Ching from the stand point of the individuality of the Holy Man, it means his instinctive apperception of, and spontaneous accordance with the Ulti-mate Principle — his complete embodiment of it.

The above remarks constitute an unfailing pass-key * to the comprehension of all philosophical passages in the Chi-nese Sacred Books, as understood by the Chinese themselves. I may observe, fiuiher, that it aids much to the understand-ing of these Books to keep the well-known fact steadily in mind, that all terms used of abstract things were first used of things visible and palpable. They were words taken from common language and employed figuratively in philosophical language ; in mosf cases without ceasing to be used in their original sense. There is another change constantly going on which must, in like manner, be kept in mind. Philosophical terms are constantly popularizing : after being used for a time of things philosophical they begin, in consequence of the popularization of philosophy, to be used of things com-mon, though still in a sense derived from their philosophical meaning. The word Taou in the Chinese is a marked example ; and the following additional remarks about it, and some others of the foregoing terms, may not prove unwelcome to those whose business it will be to arrive at a complete , realization of their virtual identity.

One of the commonest, and probably the original signi-fication of Taou is, way or path. Then it appears to have

• For the satiBfaction of the rising generation of ChineBe students, I here state that snch I hare found it to be throughout a long course of reading with learned Chinese by my side; and I recommend them— as they would spare themselves the &tigue and loss of many months, perhaps years, of hopeless groping in the obscurity and confusion created by our dictionaries and the hitherto existing expositions— to try this VeyJU-sL When they hare, after fiill trial, found my Tiew untrue, then let them seek for other light.

A A

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been employed as our word, way is employed when we speak of the ways, ie. of manner of acting, of men, and after-wards of the way of heaven. It then began to be, and is now used, in language still more philosophical, to denote the way of the development of the imiverse — the manner of action of the Ultimate Principle in the evolutionary process. The transition from this to the meaning of truth, i. e. abso-lute truth, is easily seen. For absolute truth is nothing but the all-pervading and fundamental fact or reality of the uni-verse : the course or way of nature, animate and inanimate. The connexion between the unchanging fundamental law of the universe, or absolute truth, and an absolutely right course in human aifairs, or reason, is a necessary one ; at bottom the things are identical Hence Taou, espedally in conjunction with Le, one of the other names of the Ulti-mate Principle, as Taou le means, Eeason. Perfect con-formity, in all things, with the fixed course of nature must be perfect goodness or virtue. And accordingly Tih, virtue, is defined to be ^' the complete possession of Taou or absolute truth by man." Taou and Tih, truth and virtue, are ex-plained to be one and the same thing ; Tih, virtue, being its manifestation in man ; while Taou, absolute truth, or the real way of nature, is its existence from all time in the universe. The transition from truth to the expression of truth in human language, and its inculcation by precept and by example, is natural and easy. Hence " to cultivate or realize Taou or truth in one's own person is called keaou,*' which latter word in common language means to instruct. Hence also one of the commonest applications of Taou, in literary language, is in the signification of true doctrines. Taou tung, the continuation or connected transmission of Taou, is the name of a section, common in Chinese encyclo-pedias ; and which is simply a history of true doctrines or a history of philosophy : not, however, the description of vary-ing human speculation in the course of ages, but of the manner in which the only true, the orthodox philosophy, has

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been transmitted from the earliest times. Science and philo-Bophj mean the collection of general principles which are con-nected with a division of nature ; Art means action according to those principles. Such being the case, it was to be expected that TaoUy which means the ultimate principle underlying all nature^ should come to be used like our, science or philosophy, as opposed to art. In every case it is so used : che taou means the science or philosophy of government ; while che fa jneans the art of government, the two terms being severally used in encyclopedias as headings of sections which treat of these two subjects. The step from the expression and incul-cation of truth in language, to the use of language generally — jfrom the meaning of teach to the meaning of speak — ^is not a wide one. At all events, however Taou came to be used in that sense, it is the fact that, to speak is one of its com-monest significations.

We have, therefore, Taou meaning way, course, method, the way of the universe or the law of nature, absolute truth, true principles, science, virtue, reason, true doctrines, to speak. It is a striking example of what has been described as " a number of different words written in the same way." One important advantage, attendant on the study and use of foreign languages, is to keep constantly before the mind the extensive existence of the fact that certain sounds and signs {i.e. oral and written words) have each different meanings attached to them. Minds of the first order, which have not had that advantage-— Grecian philosophers for instance — ^have been led into the error of assuming different things to be the same, because denoted by the same word. Now we may safely assert, that not one of the Chinese writers of authority knew any language but his own. It is, therefore, not surprising that, though perfectly well aware that Taou has different meanings, some of them should, at times, make a confusing use of the word, especially in its two less easily distinguished significations of, absolute truth, and, true doctrines.

We can now consider, more closely, the ofiice which Choo

aa2

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tsze performed, when he gave to the national philosophy that shape which it has ever since retained. We shall, in doing this, see how it is that the Ultimate Principle comes to have so many more names than there needs to be, for the construction and lucid exposition of the system of which it is the basis. I have endeavoured above to fix the particular aspects of the Ultimate Principle or those stages of the evolutionary process which are indicated by its various names ; but while we can see an advantage in having some of the separate designations for it — as for instance, Ching, in order to denote its complete embodiment by the very peculiar Shing jin or Holy Man — other designations are useless. Taou and Le, for example, are, as names of it, so nearly exact synonyms that the use of both produces confusion rather than clearness.

The office of Choo tsze was that of a combiner. He com-bined or assimilated. He studied the ancient Sacred Books of his country with the firm and reverent conviction, that there could be no real discrepancies among the views or doctrines of the succession of Holy men, men who were venerated as the authors and establishers of those political institutions and that civilization which made his countrymen so immeasurably superior to the tribes and hordes of surrounding barbarians. Differences there certainly seemed at first sight to be, in the recorded teachings contained in Sacred Writings of different dates, but these could be only verbal, not real ; and his business was to discover the virtual identities which lay hidden under the nominal distinctions. The work had been commenced by Chow tsze, his predecessor in the second epoch and its founder, whose two important treatises, tbe Tae keih too shwo and the Tung shoo, consisted largely of quotations from the Sacred Books, fitted into his exposition of his own system and giving it its validity. Chow tsze's two treatises, which the reader will remember were written about a century before Choo tsze edited and annotated them, are so terse that without the anno-tations they would not be intelligible. Whether Choo tsze rightly understood them or not, there is now no means of

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bedding. But he published his annotated edition in his fi9th year (after keeping it by him in manuscript for sixteen years) for the express purpose of superseding other, ill-edited and falsely annotated versions, which were then obtaining currency ; and^ as his edition has superseded all the others, it is clear that his contemporaries, at least, judged him to have rightly construed the original treatises. Choo tsze's annota-tions are mainly meant to show the perfect conformity of Chow tsze's system with a number of important philosophical passages from the Sacred Books, in addition to those already interwoven by Chow tsze himself in his own text. These additional passages are of a general and fundamental nature on cosmogony and psychology; which, from the different nomenclature employed, might easily have become each the basis of a separate system ; but which were definitively assi-milated by Choo tsze's annotations to the two treatises above named, and to the Sacred Books themselves. He referred all the philosophical passages of the latter to Chow tsze's system as he understood it ; and, by ascertaining their individual accor^ dance with it, established their own mutual agreement. He was very much aided in his labors by two or three propositions of other philosophers of the second epoch besides Chow tsze ; as, for instance, Shaou kang tseg and Ching e chuen. Thus we are told that Shaou kang tse§ affirmed the following iden-tities : — " Taou wei Tae keih, the Way (of the universe) is the Ultimate Principle ;'' and " Sin wei Tae keih, the Mind is the Ultimate Principle.'' We are further told that an in-quirer, after specially referring to these two propositions, asked Choo tsze : — '* Does Taou refer to the spontaneous Order (Le) of heaven, earth and all things ; and does Sin refer to that Order received by man and constituting the master (choo) of his body?'' To which Choo tsze replied :— " Cer-tainly. But Tae keih is the Unity which has no Opposite.'' Again we have the following from Choo tsze's own pen:— *^ Nature {sing) is the Order of the universe {le). Since the times of Confucius, Ching e chuen is the only person who has

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fully asserted this proposition." It is in this spirit of coales-cence, and with a full personal faith in a virtual identity of the teachings of the Sacred Books, that all Choo tsze's annotations and commentaries were conceived. This circumstance, which rendered it unnecessary for his countrymen, in adopting his views, to discard any part of what they had long so highly esteemed ; together with the fact that his style combined, in a wonderful degree, simplicity with completeness and lucidity with eloquence, procured unmistakeable supremacy for his writings soon after his death ; and constituted him the definitive fashioner of the Chinese mind.

As already intimated, my object in this volume is the prac-tical one of showing what the Chinese now are, with a view to the observance by Occidentals of a rational and consistent policy in dealing with them. My sketches of their philo-sophical and political history have been made solely with regard to this object. What the Chinese mind may have been in the days of Confucius, in those of Mencius, and at other times, earlier and later, are questions of professed his-tory, which it would now not be easy to solve. Reasoning, however, from general analogies, as well as from what we can understand of the Sacred Books viewed apart from their received annotations, we may safely conclude that there did not exist that complete identity of views among the Holy Men and Sages which Choo tsze has established for his country-men. And on one point we may venture to differ altogether from the Chinese orthodox interpretation of the writings which existed previous to the time of Confucius. The latter, with an honesty and candor which do him great honor, refused to speak of the supernatural world, on the ground that he knew nothing of it. But in the Shoo king, a work composed of historical documents which he edited, there is unmistakeable evidence of the existence at a very early period of a national belief in a chiefs if not an only God, variously designated by the term Shang te and Teen (pi^e 351) and also by Shang teen and Hwang teen. Supreme Ruler, Heaven,

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and Supreme or Sovereign Heaven, The Shoo king contains a manifesto issued by Ching tang, who subverted the Hea dynasty and founded that of Shang in B.C. 1766. In this document, he declares that '^Heaven had commanded the destruction of the Heas," and that, as he " feared the Supreme Buler,^' he did not dare to abstain from executing the judg-ment In B.C. 1122^ when the Shang dynasty was in its turn finaUy subverted by that of Chow, Woo wang, who completed the work of subversion, in like manner issued a manifesto in which he repeatedly refers to the same Supreme God, under the various designations of Shang te. Teen, Hwang teen and Shang teen. It is stated that He had in great anger com-manded the destruction of the last Shang monarch because the latter had, in tyrannizing over the people, ceased to reverence Him. It is also stated that He raises up monarchs in order to assist Himself in protecting and instructing the people. I may observe here that it is more especially in this manifesto and its commentaries that the Chinese doctrine of rightful rebellion is distinctly propounded, " Heaven esta-blishes sovereigns merely for the sake of the people ; whom the people desire for sovereign, him will Heaven protect; whom the people dislike as sovereign, him will Heaven reject." Hence it is said that the sovereign is ** Teen le, the oflScer of Heaven;^' that his "real way of serving Heaven is to love the people;" and that, when "he fails to love the people Heaven will, for the sake of the people, cast him out." All this stands at the present day in fine Imperial editions of the Sacred Shoo king, which the rules of the Public Service Exa-minations compel all aspirants for office to get by heart. In Austria and Eussia such doctrines are not taught by order in the government schools and colleges.

Choo tsze did not publish any complete and formal anno-tations of the Shoo king, but he left commentaries on many of its passages ; and at first sight it would seem to us, that he must have been guilty of deliberate dishonesty in under-standing anything but an intelligent personal Being, the

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ruler of the worlds by the terms Shang te. Teen, &c in the preceding manifestoes, as well as in other sections of that Book. There are, however, good reasons for believing that we should wrong him hj assuming the existence of anj dis-honesty on his part He approached the subject under cir-cumstances very different from ours. We are trained from infancy to think of the world and ourselves as produced by the will of a personal God, '^ our Father in heaven ;" and when we come, in the literature of another people, upon indi-cations of some kind of Ruler, whose more special residence is said to be heaven, we are very apt to endow him at once with all the well-known attributes of the God of the Bible — in particular with will and personality. Further, our acquaintance with the beliefs of a large number of yery dif-ferent peoples, great and small, of ancient and modem times and of every grade of barbarism and civilization, has taught us that religion is natural to the human mind. In all men is inherent a faculty of reverence, to gratify which they picture to themselves gods or a God, whom they endow with the highest attributes that their mental cultivation enables them to form a conception of; and to whom they appeal in times of distress. With this knowledge, we cannot avoid concluding that the ancient Chinese must, like all other peoples, have had their gods, probably a chief god, possibly a one only God, whom it is not easy for us to conceive as other than as a think-ing and willing Being. Hence the passages of the Shoo king from which I have quoted have no dlflSculty for us. Nothing of this was, however, the case with Choo tsze. Personal deities were indeed known to him from his infancy, among others a Shang te. But these were, all of them, idols in the Buddhist and Taouist temples ; and it was impossible for a mind like his to believe that the wise and able monarchs of ancient times could have solemnly worshipped such things. Again he, unlike us, knew few foreign peoples, and these few, very imperfectly. He could not therefore know that the religious faculties, being inherent in all men, must have had objects for their

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satisfaction in the days of Ching tang and Woo wang^ as in his own times. Taken altogether, the circumstances in which he was placed were likely to lead a man of his great intelli-gence to suppress the religious tendencies of his own nature ; and to adopt that theory of the development of the universe from one unintelligent and will-less principle, which Chow tsze had based on the sacred Yih king. We know from experience what a wonderful capacity even the most candid minded men possess for mis-seeing facts, that conflict with systems of belief which they have conscientiously adopted, and which give satisfaction to their intellectual and moral needs ; and we can consequently understand how Choo tsze could manage to see in Shang te. Teen and Shang teen, as xiaed in the Shoo king, nothing but some additional appella-tions of the Ultimate Principle. He was frequently ques-tioned by bis immediate scholars, and by his correspondents as to the qualities of hearing, seeing, protecting, commanding, &C. ascribed to Shang te and Teen, and his answers are all to the effect that such expressions were used figuratively. His interpretations of the Sacred Books having been adopted by the intelligence of the country, it follows that, for the edu-cated Chinese of the present day, these Books, the sole stan-dard of their beliefs, ignore everything like a God. All cultivated Chinese are — intellectually at least — strict and conscientious atheists. But however consistent in their views, as taken by the bare understanding, it is impossible for them practically to repress the action of their naturally inherent religious faculties. Argue with them, and you find them unmistakeably atheists. Let them talk themselves about the vicissitudes of human affairs and about their own lot in life, and you find them influenced by a belief in Teen as a supreme, intelligent, rewarding and punishing power, with more or less of will and personality. Theoretically they are atheists ; practically they are pantheists or even deists.

There exists, indeed, a state worship, which has descended from the earliest times. It consists of an adoration of heaven

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and earth, of the sun and moon, of certain mountains and rivers and other natural objects. The service, fixed by Imperial regulation, is performed by the Emperor and his officials. The people have no share in it ; and the Emperor alone is permitted to worship the highest objects, heaven and earth. Further, as the state worship is associated with no theological doctrines, but is a mere ceremonial; and as it exercises no influence on the national principles of morality and legislation, it does not fall within the scope of this volume to furnish details regarding it.*

While remembering that the state ritual-worship concerns the officials only, and more especially the highest official, the Emperor, the reader must bear in mind that what is said above, of theoretical atheism and practical pantheism or deism, refers mainly to the educated classes of Chinese. The unedu-cated require something grosser for the satisfaction of their religious cravings than that the overruling power called Heaven ; of which their uncultivated intellects find it difficult to form a sufficiently distinct conception. This circumstance it is, which has obtained for Buddhism and Taouism, with their idols, a general acceptance among the poorer classes of Chinese -men, and among all Chinese women ; the most wealthy of which latter obtain little mental cultivation. But even the uneducated Chinese, the habitual idol-worshippers, are perfectly well aware of the paramounce of the over-ruling Teen or Heaven. They will, for instance, blurt out into laughter in the presence of their most honored idol if a foreigner, with assumed gravity, discourses of him as the person in virtue of whose " ming or will " the Emperor reigns. And here we have the simple explanation of what seems to us, with our notions of the high attributes of a " god," so irrational a proceeding in China, viz. the occa-sional promotion of a god by an Imperial decree. Not pnly

CHAPTER XVIII (PART 4 OF 7)

• In Chapters XIV. and XV. of Davis* China, the religions and saperstiUons of the Chinese, as distinguished from the national philosophy and moralitj, are ampljr and satisfactorilj handled.

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is Teen, Heaven, the paramount power, in virtue of whose '* Will '^ the " Jin keun, the Sovereign of Men '' reigns ; but the latter has, as the " Teen tsze or Teen le, the Son or Officer of Heaven/' the power to promote all lesser objects of worship. In short, the devout, uneducated Chinese, man or woman, habitually adores and supplicates the idol-god in preference to Heaven, just as we see in Bavaria or Italy the devout, but mentally unenlightened Romanist habitually adore and supplicate the images of the saints in preference to God ; both being, the whole time, fully conscious of the existence of the Supreme Power, Heaven or God.

The two words of my list — to return to the synonyms of the Ultimate Extreme — which appear to have given the most trouble to Occidental Sinologues are Taou and Ching. The real meaning of the latter they have altogether failed to perceive; while with respect to Taou, they have not per-ceived, or have not suflficiently realized the fact that, even in philosophical treatises, it has several distinct meanings. These two words, Ching and Taou, play a great part in the Chung yung, one of the Four Books, and the most important of the Chinese works bearing on psychology. Speaking generally, the object of the Chung yung is to show, first, the identity of the Ultimate Principle with Man's Nature ; and secondly, the high results of the complete, personal realization of the Ultimate Principle by the Holy Man ; who is then held up as an exemplar for all future ages. Now Ching is the word used to express the Ultimate Principle as realized in the Holy Man ; a superlative being sometimes added to indicate unmistakeably its completest realization.

Of the Chung yung. Sir John Davis says that it contains ^' much that is extremely obscure and sometimes almost un-intelligible The best translation is that by Abel

K^musat, late professor of Chinese at Paris : but his version has been properly censured for being rather too verbal, and for too close an adherence to the mere letter of the text in a work which of all others, in that language, requires to be

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illustrated with some degree of freedom in order to make it intelligible."

R^musat renders Ching by v^rit^^ v^ritablement parfait, perfection, perfection morale, perfection de la yertu, &c. But I may spare myself further comment after informing the reader, that Remusaty in the preface to his translation, states : — ^' Les Missionaires [Romanist] ne nous ont donn^, sur lam^ta-physique Chinoise que des notions imparfaites et fort super-ficielles: mon projet est d'y revenir quelque jour, si je paroiens h en ddbrouiUer le chaos.^^ Imagine a Frenchman making a translation of one of the most abstruse of Hegel's treatises, without having mastered his system I Yet the German-French Dictionaries are perfection in comparison with our best Chinese dictionaries.

Another French translation of the Chung yung has since been made by M. Panthier. It is a queer production, a sort of mixture of text and annotation inaccurately rendered ; and is on the whole not equal to the older version by R6musat. Nevertheless M. Hue quotes from it by way of giving Occi-dentals an idea of the original I A word may have several meanings, but in one place it can only have one. Yet in one place, M. Panthier renders Ching by no less than three dis-tinct significations, viz. by " Le parfait, le vrai, d6gag6 de tout melange ;" in another place he renders it by " la perfec-tion morale ou la v^rit^ sans melange ;'* in a third by '^ Tdtat de perfection ;" and in a fourth by " le parfait ou la perfec-tion," as in the following passage : — " Le parfait est le com-mencement et la fin de tout les Stres ; sans le parfait ou la perfection, les Stres ne sentient pas."

The Chung yung was, with the others of the Four Books, translated into English in 1828 by Mr. Collie, a Protestant missionary. In Mr. Williams' Middle Kingdom published 1848, he quotes from it; and in fact it has not yet been superseded by any better version. Mr. Collie renders Ching by Sincerity, giving the following explanation in a foot-note : — ** I am quite sensible that our word sincerity does not by any

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meaiiB express fully the sense of the original word, and yet

I eazmot find any term which seems to come so near it. The

Commentators define the word to be reality without anything

untrue, or disorderly, and some may be apt from the manner

in i^bich it is used in this work to deem our word perfection

u better rendering than the word sincerity. But still there

are objections to the word perfection, as a correct rendering

of the original word, such as the sign of the superlative

degree being attached to it, &c.''

Had Mr. Collie known the significance of the two words 19700 wang, which in the above note he renders ''without anything disorderly," he might have found his way out of tbe obscurity in which he was involved. Woo wang is the name of one of the sixty-four Diagrams of the Yih king ; in the Imperial edition of which Book, Choo tsze^s commentary declares it to designate '' the spontaneity of the true Le or Ultimate Principle ;" while that of his predecessor, Ching tsze, defines it to be *^ the (taou or) way of heaven," t.e. the method of operation of the Ultimate Principle. Woo wang is in fact but one of the many names of this latter basis of the Chinese philosophical system ; and .would, as such, have had a place in my list, were it not so little known to sinologues. Less technically it means, naturally right, as distinct from being right by dint of effort. Apart however from the signification of the term Woo wang as derived from the Yih king, Mr. Collie had, in the commentary before his eyes, a perfectly plain and complete definition of Ching ; only he would not see it. It runs ^' Ching chay, chin shih woo wang che wei, teen le che pun jen yay. Ching is what is called (or is the name of) the true, the real, the naturally right: it is the radical nature of the fixed order of heaven.^' On this second part of the definition of Ching, Mr. Collie shut his eyes ; pro-bably because his previous misconceptions about the word prevented his comprehending a sentence which is, in reality, quite plain. If any sinologue requires further proof that Ching is but a name for the Tae keih, the Ultimate Principle,

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conceived as operating under special circumstances, be wiB find it in the Imperial " Essence of Philosophy " where the treatise called the Tung shoo and Choc tsze^s annotations con-tain the following definitions : — '^ Ching is the fundamental characteristic of the Holy Man." *' Ching is the name of the perfectly real and naturally right ; it is the true, fixed order (le) which nature received from heaven. All men get it ; and that which makes the Holy Man holy, is nothing else but merely his complete personal realization of it .... • Ching is what is called the Tae keih." "Holy is merely Ching.'' '^ That which makes the Holy Man holy is nothing but hi? complete personal realization of the real order of the universe : it is what is called Tae keih.^' " He who possesses Ching entirely comprises within himself the spontaneousness of all true principles : with perfect ease — without thought or effort — ^he keeps undeviatingly in the Way of the Universe."

In one of his foot-notes about Taou Mr. Collie says : — *' As we have already observed, it seems impossible to comprehend what this Taou is. Here as in many other parts of their writings, it is said to be omnipresent and to fill and influence all things. Now the very same ^is repeatedly said of the virtue of the superior man and of the sage [Holy Man]." Again: — " Their speculations are however so mysterious and to us contradictory, that it is extremely difficult, if not im-possible to obtain any distinct idea of their sentiments on these subjects. How happy they who possess the light of divine revelation ! " With such thorough uncleamess in his mind as to the nature of Taou and Ching, it was very natural that Mr. Collie should, in his translation of a work mainly intended to elucidate these two things, bring out such propositions as the following, some portions of which I italicise : —

*^ Where there is sincerity there must be intelligence ; where intelligence is it must lead to sincerity." " The Taou (or reason) of the supremely sincere enables them to fore-know things When either happiness or misery is

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s^bout to come the sages will foreknow both the good and the evil, so that the supremely sincere are equal to the gods ..... Sincerity is the origin and consummation of things.

fVithout sincerity there would be nothing Hence the

utmost sincerity is interminable The law of heaven

and earth may be compressed in one word (i. e. sincerity).'*

All this is unintelligible or self-contradictory. But if, for Mr. Collie's " sincerity," we substitute one of the real equi--valents of Ching, for instance ultimate principle, or absolute truth, according as the context requires, then even the passage about the prescience of the Holy Men (sages) becomes intelli-gible and, whether true or false, at least perfectly consistent with the Chinese theory ; while the other propositions are in such exact conformity with our own best known principles, that they may be called philosophical truisms. We, too, believe that '^ the law of heaven and earth may be expressed in one term, absolute truth.'' In the last sentence Mr. Collie had in fact a definition of Ching, at once complete, concise and clear ; — but he would not see it. He closes his translation with a foot-note as follows : — " In this treatise which contains the leading doctrines of the Confucian philosophy, there are two grand and fundamental defects. In the first place it presents us with no accurate account of one self-existent. Almighty, Omnipresent, and Infinitely Gracious and Holy Being as the Creator and Father of the Universe. From this as a natural consequence another sad defect arises^ viz. : the perfect absence of a single direction how guilty depraved man may regain the favor and image of his Creator." In a former note he says : — " It does not appear that Confucius wished to publish false unfounded principles, or to impose on mankind either by abstruse speculations, or by pretensions to miraculous powers, but that he has through gross ignorance of that truth of all others the most important to man, de-ceived millions of immortal beings, must be evident to every impartial mind which has studied his system.^' In these and similar passages we have the clue to the

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chief cause of the errors of the earlier Protestant missioiiaries in dealing with Chinese philosophy and moral principles. Confucianism was quite independent of Christianity and had been much praised, with the view of disparaging Clirie-tianity, by the flippant sceptics of the Voltairian achooL The missionaries appear to have felt it necessary, not only to oppose the exaggerated eulogies of these latter, but to shnt their eyes upon everything that was rational and good in a system self-avowedly derived from ** the light of nature ;" lest they should, by seeing profound and widely woridng truths in that system, afford support to " the enemies of reve-lation/^ The same feeling induced them, as it induces some still, to close their eyes on the vast benefits to one third of hu-manity which have been produced by Confucianism, as also to exaggerate all that is bad in Chinese social life ;— as if Chris-tianity needed the help of misrepresentation I But when large masses of people and long periods are concerned, the truth is certain to compel recognition. - As an inevitable consequetfSb of a longer and better acquaintance with Chinese principles and their practical results, we find Protestant missionaries writing of late in a different, and much better spirit. Williams* Middle Kingdom says accordingly : — " It is a re-markable thing that the writings of Confucius and his dis-ciples should have been regarded with such reverence ; and we are disposed to look upon their teachings as sustained and invigorated by the all-wise Governor of nations for his own gracious designs, more directly perhaps than second causes would lead us to conclude/' Again, after compar-ing the *^ commanding influence " of the Confncian writings as compared with the weak and transitory effect of those of Socrates, Plato and Seneca, Mr. Williaihs adds : — " No answer so satisfactory can be obtained, when seeking an ex-planation of the influence these ancient works have exerted over the Chinese, as by considering them to have been granted from the Source of all wisdom for the end, by his blessing of producing these effects." The earlier Romanist

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xxiisaionaries were divided into two parties. The one of these Enaintained views resembling that expressed in the above extracts from the Middle Kingdom, but stronger, being to the ^fiect that the ancient Chinese had been favoured with rev^a-tions from God. This the other party denied, and, like Mr. OoUie, were disposed to see as much evil as possible, and to shut their eyes on all the good in the Sacred Books. No-thing but disfigurement could result from all this : to under-stand the Chinese ancient writings aright, they must be con-sidered altogether apart from the Christian revelation.

To return to my own exposition of the Chinese philosophy, ., the reader must observe that I have as yet given no judgment ' as to its truth or falsehood — as to the conformity or npn-' confojrmity of its doctrines with the realities of the uni^ers^. I have only been establishing the fact, that the Chiite^^>^ philosophical writings are not that mass of absurditiei.wl^ch erroneous Occidental renderings have made them appear tp be; that, whether absolutely true or not, they are af least logically true and perfectly self-consistent. The tru^th is how-ever, that even those propositions of Chinese philosophy, which the non-metaphysical reader will be apt to pronounce most extravagant or incomprehensible, go, in these respects, not a whit beyond highly accredited European systems of ancient and modem times. Take, for instance, the chief expositor of modem philosophy in our own country at this moment: Mr. Morel] . In the region of ontology and on the powers of the human mind, there are between his views and those of Choo tsze a striking similarity — at times perfect agreement. Chingy viewed as constituting the mind of the Holy Man is exactly Mr. Morell's intuitional consciousness, and tsze jen exa<^ly his spontaneity^ by which that consciousness obtains knowledge. In his Philosophy of Religion he says : — " Were our intuitional nature absolutely perfect then indeed its results would be infallible. If we imagine our minds to be perfectly harmonized morally, intellectually and religiously with all truth — if we can imagine them without any discord of the

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interior being, to stand in the midst of a universe upon which God has impressed his own divine ideas, and receive the truth as it presents itself to the consciousness, just as the retina receives the images of external things — ^then indeed we should comprehend all things as they are ; and the mere manifestation would be its own evidence of their reality. A mind so harmonized with nature and with God would per-ceive at a glance ih^ processes and ends of all things." In this passage the " absolutely perfect intuitional nature ^ is ex-actly the " eke ching, the highest degree of ching;" and if we consider Teen, Heaven, as the equivalent of " God," then the whole forms an exact description of the Holy Man. Again, when speaking of the method of attuning the knowledge of truth, he says : — " More especially should we look to those minds whose inward harmony with truth has become per-fected, and whose power of spiritual vision we account as being an inspiration from the Almighty.'* If for " inspiration of the Almighty" we substitute the stereotyped phrase *' Teen so foo, that which Heaven bestows," then here again we have a description of the Holy Man ; and Mr. MorelFs admonition is precisely that of Chinese moral philosophers at this day. As to i\iQ possibility of the Chinese Heen jin or Sage — the man who by dint of study and effort attains to an apperception of the working of the Ultimate Principle of the Universe — Mr. Morell has the following, bearing on the subject, in his History of Philosophy : — "We cannot divest our minds of the belief, that there is something positive in the glance which the human soul casts upon the world of eternity and infinity. Whether we rise to the contemplation of the Absolute through the medium of the true, the beautiful, or the good, we cannot imagine that our highest conceptions of these termi-nate in darkness, in a total negation of all knowledge. So far from this, there seem to be flashes of light, ineffable it may be, but still real, which envelope the soul in a lustre all divine, when it catches glimpses of infinite truth, infimte beauty, and infinite excellence Until we are

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driven from this position by irresistible evidence, we must still regard the notion of the infinite^ the absolute^ the eternal^ as forming one of our fundamental notions; and one which opens to us the highest field, both for our present meditation and our future prospects."

With respect to ontology, there are some strong points of resemblance between the Chinese theory and the views, which, from the following extracts, Mr. Morell appears to entertiun: —

" To us it appears evident, that the whole tendency of philosophy, from the time of Leibnitz,* has been to bring us nearer and nearer to a purely dynamical theory of the

universe even in natural theology the only truly

conceivable notion we can form of the act of creation, is that of the Divine power and thought going forth to the produc-tion of form in the wondrous processes of nature and mind. That the phenomena we term material must ever exist is self-evident ; that they indicate a substratum is equally certain ; but that the real philosophic analysis of this substratum will bring us to no other result than that of an action and reaction of forces, appears to me to amount almost to a demonstration.'' Let the reader compare the above with my exposition at

« Mr. Uorell here and at other places intiiiiates that it waa Leibnitz who originated the dynamic theory. I have never seen hia works, but judging from the descriptions of his monadology given by Mr. Morell and by M. Consln, there are some remarkable resemblances between that system and the Chinese theory, especially if some of the annotations of Choo tsze be understood too lite-rally and apart from the light thrown on them by others. For, as Otioo tsze shows that Tae keih is the origin of all things, so he states that " each thing comprises (yih) a Tae keih," by which ''yih, a" however he merely endeavours to make clearer the universal operation of the one Tae keih. As the Tae keih aponianeowly developes itself we have here Leibnitifs monads generaUy, as also the absolute monad from which aU the rest have their origin. Further in Leibnitz's decree or will of God, which harmonized the action of all the mo-nads, we have the Chinese Teen ming which constituted the original nature and harmonious order of all things. Leibnitz busied himself with Chinese studies, — if my memory does not fail me, with Chinese philosophy. Can it be possible that he therein got the hint to the main features of his system, and that aU German idealism started from the philosophical speculations of the Chinese !

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pages 342 — 345^ in connexion with the following note of Choo tsze, and he will perceive the ontological similarities mrhich I refer to: "The active-expansive and passive-intensive operation of the Ultimate Principle is the flowing forth of the Will of Heaven/'

Having, as I hope, sufficiently attiuned my object in making these comparisons, ue. shown that the Chinese mmd is not to be hastily undervalued because of the nature of its philosophical views, I proceed to examine another €>f the misrepresentations of those views, arising from bad trans-lating, in addition to imperfect acquaintance with the subject generally.

In A.D. 1718 the Emperor !Kang he had a work compiled which he called '* Choo tsze tseuen shoo, the Complete Works of Choo tsze." This is not, as might be inferred from the title, a complete set of all the works prepared by Choo tsze himself. It embraces in encyclopediac formy. i e. arranged under separate heads, the substance of two works compiled by his scholars ; the one, his Collected (fragmentary) Writings; the other, his Conversations or Sayings. Kang he's compilation collects ft-om these, and places together, all passages on each particular subject, as for instance EklucatioD, Psychology, the History of Philosophy, or the Science of Government. Some of these passages consist only of a few words, others cover a page or two. Further, the greater number are portions of answers, given orally, or by letter, and at wide intervals of time, to questions on special dif-ficulties connected with the subject which is indicated by the general heading. It is clear, therefore, that it would be most unfair to consider the sections of the Tseuen shoo as treatises, or even as fugitive essays by Choo tsze on the sub-jects to which they relate. Nevertheless Mr. Williams, in his Middle Kingdom, calls the section headed Le ke, and which treats of Ontology and Cosmogony, " a discussion by Choo tsze ; " and gives some " extracts " from it in order to ** show the way in which he reasons on the primum mobile.'' To

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crown the whole, the translation from which Mr. Williame extracts^ and which was made by Dr. Medhurst, one of the oldest of the Protestant missionaries, contains inaccuracies iv'hich render some passages utterly unintelligible. The section opens with passages in which Choo tsze explained that the word Le meant the immaterial principle ; the word Ke, the first, finest form of matter ; and that, though the two things were in reality coetemal, yet if his interlocutors felt it necessary to conceive the one or the other as existing first, then the Le, the immaterial principle, must be that one. The reader is aware that in Choo tsze's system Le is but another name for the Ultimate Principle, while Ke is an equivalent term for Yang and Yin, the Positive and Negative Essences ; which are sometimes called the Two Ke, and in whose evolution matter makes its first appearance. As the Tae keih or Ultimate Principle has been ceaselessly operating in its two phases from all eternity ; and as its action in-stantaneously produces the Two Essences, t. e. matter in its first shape, it follows, that the two things, under the different names of Le and Ke, must be in reality coexistent from all eternity. This premised, I subjoin Dr. Medhurst's and my own translations of the first few passages. To make com-parison in other respects more easy, I retain his terms '* immaterial principle" and "primary matter" for Le and Ke; and I recommend the reader not to let the merely verbal differences occupy his attention, but to look only to the sense. The numbers show what sentences are intended for translations of the same words of the original : — ^

Dr, MedhwrsPs Versum, My own Vernon.

1 Under the whole heaven there ia IC ^In the whole world there exists no

no primary matter without the imma- primary matter devoid of the imma*

terial principle, 'and no immaterial terial principle; 'and no immaterial

principle apart from the primary principle apart from primary matter.

matter. 'Saheeqnentto the existence 'The immaterial principle existed of the immaterial principle is pro- previous to the production of primary duoed primary matter, * which is de- matter; * which is deducible from

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THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

dacible from the axiom that 'the one male and one female principle of na-ture may be denominated Taoa or Logoe, the active principle from which all things emanate; "thus nature is spontaneously possessed of benevo-lence and righteousness (which are included in the idea of Taou).

'First of all existed Teen U (the ce-lestial principle or loul of the nni-verse) and then came primary matter; *primai7 matter accumulated con-stituted Chih (body, substance or the accidents and qualities of matter), * and nature was arranged.

>^ Should any ask whether the immaterial principle or primaxy matter existed first, I should say,

^^that the immaterial principle on assuming a figure ascended, *'and primary matter on assuming foim descended; ''when we come to speak of assuming fonn and ascending or descending, '*how can we divest ounelves of the idea of priority and subsequence 1 '' When the immaterial principle does not as-sume a form, '* primaiy matter then becomes coarse, and forms a sediment

*" Once a Negative, onee a Poaitipe, is called Taou, the Waj (or me-thod of operation of the Ultimale Principle)."*

•This is like natore spontaneously (the qualities of) volence and righteousnes&f

' First of all there existed the bea-venly principle, then came piimazy matter; 'primaiy matter aocnmii-lated and thereby constituted safastaoee (the name of a grosser form of niaiter}, * its nature^ being comprised within K.

1* Being asked whether the inuiiate> rial principle or primaiy matter firrt existed he (Choo tsze) said : The ua-mcUerialprijiciple has never eeparaied from primary matter ;i **but tlie immaterial principle is what is pte-vious to form, i' while prim&iy matter is what is subsequent to form ; i* and hence, speaking with reference to ante-cedence and Bubseqnenoe to fonn, ^* there Lb unquestionably a differenee (between le and ke) as to place in time: ''The immaterial principle is form-less ; ** while pHmaiy matter is coaxaer and forms a sediment.

CHAPTER XVIII (PART 5 OF 7)

* This is a sentence from the Yih king. The Taou is the Ultimate Principle, the operation of which in the active-expansive and passive-intensive process is here indicated by the names of the renUts of the prooess, viz. : the Two Essences. Now these have often been called, male and female; but in so fiir as Dr. Med-hurst's rendering does not give the idea of a process in actual operation^ it is faulty.

t This is an illustrative parallelism. As, in psychology, the root of man*s being, his sing or nature, evidences itself in the less occult forms of benevolence and righteousness ; so, in ontology, the root of all being, Le or the immaterial principle assumes the less occult form of the Two Ke or primaty matter.

X The Chinese sing never means nature in the sense of the universe, as Br. Medhurst here renders it, but only the innate, fundamental quality of a thing. The Chinese equivalent for nature in the first sense is Teen te wan wuh. Heaven, earth and ten thousand things, i. e. all things.

§ This sentence In italics is altogether omitted in Dr. MedhursVs version.

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After that last sentence no further comparison can be necessary. The metaphysical reader, even if no sinologue, will at once decide in favour of my version. It is intelligible in itself, and accords exactly with my exposition of the Chinese philosophy. The other is simply nonsense. Yet it professes to be a translation of a passage selected from the writings of a man who was remarkable for his perspicuity, selected by a commission of the first scholars living in China in A.D. 1713, and published by the Emperor, Kang he, for the instruction of his people. Now the Emperor, Kang he, was known to the Jesuits as an unusually clear-headed man, who under their tuition made considerable progress in the exact sciences; and I beg to assure the reader, that the Chinese are a remarkably sober-piinded and acutely-reason-ing people, who do not admire incoherence and unintelligibi-lity. The fact is, that Dr. Medhurst has understood words which denote place in time, to denote motion in space. I have now only to state that Dr. Medhurst was a Chinese scholar of more than twenty years standing when his trans-lation appeared in the Chinese Repository; and that Mr. Williams had studied Chinese for twelve years when he, in 1848, inserted it in his '^ Middle Kingdom ; *' and then, bearing in mind the admission of M. Rgmusat at page 364, it will probably be admitted that there is good ground for my assertion, that Chinese philosophy has not hitherto been rightly understood.

Of passages, rendered more or less like the above, the Middle Kingdom gives nearly three pages in a small type, the last page being on the Tae keih, the Ultimate Principle. The closing passage, which describes the construction of the Eight Diagrams, is made to end as follows :— " But from the time of Confucius no one has been able to get hold of this idea.'* To which, Mr. Williams immediately says on his own part : — *' And, it might be added, no one ever will be able to get hold of it himself Here we have Choo tsze's disciples making him declare, that for seventeen hundred years no one

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— ^himself being by implication included — ^had been able to comprehend the very basis of that philosophy^ which he spent a long life in discussing. The fact is that the sentence is broken off in the middle. It runs thus: — "But from ^e time of Confucius, not a single individual was able to p^^ ceive its real significance, until Shaou kang tseS, after ^^hich it became clear/^ Shaou kang tsee lived a few generations before Choo tsze, being one of the founders of the second literary epoch.

One of the modem works on China and the Chineee, copies of which are to be found in libraries in all parts of the civUized world, is ** China Opened," by the late Dr. Ghitzlafi^ a man of European reputation as a "profound" Chinese scholar. In twenty pages, devoted to Chinese philosophical writings, the following is aU that he says about one of the greatest Chinese philosophers: —

" Choo tsze, the celebrated collector of fragments, and works of every description (a.d. 1420), has embodied all the notions of the Chinese philosophers in the Sing le ta tseuen (a complete system of the principles of nature)."

By referring to the preceding pages, the reader will observe that Choo tsze was not a collector, but a commentator and original author; that he did not labor in a.d. 1420, having died exactly two hundred and twenty years before that time; that the Sing le ta tseuen was not compiled by him, but by a numerous Imperial Commission ; and, lastly, that it was not compiled in a.d. 1420, but in a.d. 1415. Probably few men have excelled Dr. Gutzlaff in the capacity for rapidly inditing sentences, containing a number of propositions not one of which should be correct. In fact, all his labors are charac-terized by a superficiality, a lack of thorough research, and a profusion of unfounded assertion so extremely un-German, as forcibly to remind one that his name indicates not a Teutonic, but a Sclavish descent. In the Transactions of the China Branch of the Boyal Asiatic Sodety, stands a paper, furnished by him two or three years before his death,

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on " The Mines of China." In this he, speaking of a quite xincomeatable region in Chinese Tartary, gravdy gives the following piece of information : — " The mountainous surface of Turfan has many still undiscovered riches, but centuries are likely to elapse before these can be rendered available for the use of man."

I may for the present close with the unsatisfactory, but absolutely necessary labor of pointing out the errors of former publications. Translations, some carefully made, others with culpable haste and slovenliness, but all in a more or less prejudiced spirit — very many in the conviction that the things to be translated mtist be morally bad, or intel-lectually absurd, or both — these with confidently-uttered generalizations drawn in China, but from the narrowest ex-perience, have been the fruitful sources of a vast amount of erroneous views regarding the Chinese. With such materials to work upon,* it is no wonder that European authors — some of them men of imusual mental power — should have erred, and erred greatly, in writing on the Chinese.f I have sought

* K. Jalien, a Parisian ainologne, by which I mean one who has neyer been in China, has nuide a nomber of translations with remarkable care ; but he has not glren forth any yersion of the philosophical Chung yung ; and the follow-ing note in his Taou tih king, with some other passages, induce me to believe that he has not paid special attention to the Chinese system of fundamental beliefii. Speaking of Sean tsze he says : — "On le regarde en Chine comme le plos oel^bre ^criyain de Tteole de Confadus, et on place son ouyrage imm6-diatement apr^ les Quatre liyres classiqnes. II traite de la politique et de la morale. On Testime autant pour la justesse de ses connaissances que pour la clartd de son style." The reader will peroeiye from what is said at pages 885 and 890^ that Seun tsze is noted for haying propounded a pi^chfcal doctrine diametrically opposed to a yery important one of Confucianism.

t For the first three years of my stay in China, I was myself a victim. During that period the mere acquisition of the language as it is used by the mandarins in conyeraation and oorrespondenee, and of a knowledge of the official and penal codes gave me fuU occupation. And as the style of the Sacred Books, which has all the terseness of very early language, makes it quite unavailabe for busi-ness purposes, I, trusting in the translators, was of opinion that it would be a waste of time for any but missionaries to study these writings in the original ; and that officials and merchants should turn to translations in order to get their knowledge of the fundamental beliefs of the nation. This opinion I inserted in my Notes on China in 1846. But that volume had scarcely been published before an increasing knowledge of the language began to diow me that the existing translatious were extremely faulty, so much so as to render the study

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in vain in French, German, and English works for anythi^ like a correct view of ChiDese fundamental belieis and men-tal life generally. To instance the German, where, if any-where, correctness was to be expected, the sections on these subjects in Hegel's Geschichte der Philosophic and Philo-sophic der Geschichte are totally wrong. Again, tlie first volume of Windischmann's Philosophie im Fortgang der Weltgeschichte is devoted to China. Everything is men-tioned, but everything is more or less disfigured. The author, a Boman CathoUc professor at Bonn, is particularly bitter on the philosophers of the second epoch, whom be calls neolo^ts, and through whom he hits at the neologists of Germany. The Chinese '^neolc^ists'' approached the Sacred Books with profound respect. Do we observe, in the manner German neology deals with the Bible, any analogy with that characteristic? There can be little doubt that Choo tsze misunderstood the signification of Shang te and Teen, but it was his very respect for Confucius (who dis-countenanced attention to a supernatural world of which he knew nothing) together with the irrational idolatry by which he was surrounded, that led him into the mistake. There are cogent reasons for believing that, in all other respects, he recognbed in the Sacred Books whatever was good in them ; and gave to it greater distinctness and further development. In his closing paragraph, Windischmann speaks in high terms of the endeavours to effect moral regeneration of the people on the part of the '^ noble Em-peror, Kang he — an upright Tartar mind.'' Now it so hap-pens that the "neologist" Choo tsze probably never had a greater admirer than this very Emperor, Eang he. It is his fine editions of Choo tsze's commentaries and other works,

of the originals an absolato necessity for all who wished to know the people thoroughly. And by translations I mean those into Manchoo as well as those into Occidental languages. The former, though made under Imperial superin-tendence by men who were masters both of Chinese and Manchoo, and though as a consequence not inaccurate, are so yery literal and contain so many inrented words that they arc valueless; as I found to my extreme regret, after having gone to the trouble of learning Manchoo for the purpose of reading them.

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and his decrees respecting them, which have made them, for the last century and a half the standard of the national beliefs, more exdusivelj, if possible, than they were before.

In Die Religion und die Philosophic, by A. Gladisch, published so recently as 1852, the bases of Chinese mental life are still more misunderstood than they were by Windisch-mann. There is in China a school of speculators who may be called, Numerists, inasmuch as they have adopted a theory of the universe, which is founded on numbers, taken in con-nexion with the Eight Diagrams of the Yih king. In their hands, the Diagrams and numbers become things rather than the representatives of things ; and varied combinations of these things form the basis of divination. In so far, the theory of the Numerists has some little influence on the superstitions of the Chinese, but it has none whatever on their moral and political life. Gladisch gives it however as the national phi-losophy of the Chinese ; with whom it has, in reality, about that amount of authority which clairvoyance, table turning and fortune telling have with us.

There is a peculiar feature of the Chinese language which deserves mention here, as there is reason to believe that it originated in the views of the national philosophy. That philo-sophy represents all existence as resulting from the interac-tion of two opposites, viz. the positive Yang and the negative Yin. Further, there are traces of the doctrine, on which however little stress is laid, that " tub peih yew tuy, every individual thing has its opposite.*' The reader has seen that Choo tsze was at pains to except the Tae keih, as the '' unity without an opposite*'* The philological feature to which I refer is the power of exactly expressing, by the juxta-position of two words of directly opposite or contradictory meanings, a third idea which is inexactly expressed by both or is, as it were, in dispute between them : it may be described as tlie power of forming new words by the synthesis of contradictories. For instance, orally the Chinese will ask how " far '' it is to a certain place, but in the slightly more exact language of writing he asks about its yuen-kin, far-nearness, i.e. its dis-

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iance. So also to-kwa^ much-littleness, means quantity. In these two cases, and probably in a few others (as weight = the Chinese king-chung ligJU-heaviness) we happen to have in English, words which express the synthesis or the disputed idea. But in a great number of other commonly occurring cases we are obliged to express it, very clumsily, by employing one of the contradictories. Hence we are forced to speak of the breadth of a hair and the height of a chessman ; where the Chinese speak of the broad-narrowness of the one and the kaou te, the high-lowness of the other. Our length (of a fl&i for instance) is in Chinese long-shortness. Tables have been formed of the more common of these Chinese opposites, for they stand out too prominently in the language to be over-looked ; but I am not aware that the most important fact connected with them has been before noticed, viz. that they in every case form a new dissyllabic word, expressing the synthesis of the two. Yet this is the point to which the student should attend; for the feature pervades the whole language, and the literal rendering of both the terms is but a clumsy method of translation, if we have a word in English that is synonymous with the dissyllable. Here a few more instances. The Chinese speak of the seen how, the before-aftemess of two occurrences; of the hwan keih the leisure-hasteness of affairs ; of the yew woo, there is — there is not-ness or the existence * of a thing ; and of its che chung, its beginning-endness. In discussing the qualities of writings, they speak of their tung e, similar-differentness, and thdr tseang leo, copious-conciseness. In fact, the genius of the language permits in this way the creation of new words ; and the consequent expression of entirely new ideas, so idiomatically as to render all definition and explanation un-necessary, by at once conveying them directly and forcibly to minds for whom the synthetical operation is more a mechanical habit than a conscious effort.

The Chinese system of fundamental beliefs cannot be called,

* Soyn and N chts. = Dascyn.

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philosophy, in the modem restricted sense of that European ijv-ord. Of avowedly independent inquiry into the nature of man's mind and of the world around roan, and of syllogistic deduction from principles so arrived at^ we find little or nothing. The system is entirely dependent on the Sacred Writings. And so soon as it has explained, in the general ^w^ay indicated in the foregoing pages, the origin and con-tinued existence of the inanimate world, in such manner as to satisfy man's irrepressible desire for a credible theory on these points, it leaves cosmogony and betakes itself to psy-chology, morality and politics.

I shall now particularize three of its more important propositions.

The first is, that a fundamental unity underlies the multitude of phenomenal variety ; the second, that in the midst of all change there is an eternal, harmonious order ; the third, that man is endowed at his birth with a nature that is perfectly good.

These are three constant, unchanging convictions, or funda-mental beliefs of the Chinese nation; and they are among the principal of those which have made them one nation : real nationality being at bottom comprised in the fact of a com-munity of the deepest and most widely operating convictions. But they are more particularly the beliefs of the cultivated portion of the nation ; and it is precisely the most intelligent of the cultivated, who by the operation of the Public Service Examinations are placed, with the approbation of the others, in entire possession of all legislative and executive powers — it is precisely these, who are most thoroughly imbued with them.

The first, the belief in a unity underlying all phenomenal variety, is one that may be assumed to be equally present to the consciousness of all cultivated people in the West, of whatever school of philosophy or shade of religious opinion. In China we see it manifesting itself in the centralized insti-tutions of the country. The Will of the Emperor is the

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Ultimate Principle of legislation and administration opeiatiB| alike at the capital and in the remotest comers of the Cmpit: it is the Tae keih of the Political World. And as in ^ political institutionsi so also in the language, the belk: appears to find expression. There is a term much used bod in writing and speaking, wan ffih literally, ten thousand ok. Morrison's Dictionary gives as its signification, " One in tes thousand ;'' Medhursf s renders it, " Perhaps." AAer some puzzling, the student of Chinese learns, from the context ot passages, that its real meaning is '' In the event o^ or Sup-pose that; " but how such a compound came to acquire sncfa a meaning, he is totally unable to conceive. The study of Chinese philosophy ^ves me the impression, that it is notfaiog but an abbreviated expression of the first of the above fun-damental beliefs. Wan besides meaning ten thousand, is a very common equivalent of our, aU, every, &c., and wan yih, which is generally employed when speaking of preparing (oi some possible contingency, means : Should it, in the fmMf-plicity of affairs that spring from the fundamental w^y, happen that, &c &c.

The fundamental belief in harmonious order finds practical expression in the great amount of system, of regularity and method, that pervades all Chinese life, political, puUic or private, as also in the decidedly national characteristic of a love of concord among men. This finds large and frequait expression in the language, more especially in the, to Occi-dentals perplexingly frequent employment of the word Ho^ harmony or concord, and which abo meajia peace. Harmony with what ? This is a question they are often obliged to ask themselves ; for this one word is often used alone, as an abbre-viated form of expressing the desirable harmony of man*8 acts with the fixed order of the universe ; which is identical with man's radical nature ; which is perfectly good. Yioe is, with the Chinese, nothing but an infringement of the harmonions order of the universe, which, being punished by the operation of that order, leads to misery. Hence the constant association

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of Shen and Fuh, 65 and Ho> Goodness and Happiness, Wickedness and Misery. And the belief, on the part of the rulers of China, in the fundamental unity as well as the eternal order of the universe leads to the practical conviction, so strange to us, that unusual convulsions in inanimate nature, long dearths, &c. may be caused by bad government. In the case of a long continued absence of rain, the Emperor will anxiously examine into, and cause his mandarins throughout the country to re-investigate the cases of convicted prisoners ; lest unjust condemnations, i. e. a neglect on the part of the judges to harmonize their decisions with the dictates of their radically perfect nature, should, by their jarring effect, have produced the stoppage in the natural course of meteorological phenomena. It is the belief in the fixed order which makes the rulers so thoroughly averse to those prayers for rain, which the uncultivated Chinese will address to the deities. The Suddhist and Taouist priests or bonzes are then of course in full activity, and for a time personages of importance. And, when a prolonged dearth proves the intercession of the priests to be unavailing, the people entreat the mandarins to pray for them, and in great extremity will even compel them to do so. But, though an exceptional case does occur now and then of a weakminded mandarin — a man analogous to our well edu-cated Protestant of high station who becomes a Komanist — even taking the initiative in these proceedings, the grand majority hold to the opinions of Imperial edicts, which have condemned them as ^* waste of time and money.^' Here we see, that educated Chinese have long given practical recog-nition to a great truth, which is still not accepted by a very large number of educated English. The progress of physical science, however, daily obtains for it more adherence. The very general applause, which greeted Lord Palmerston's recent answer to a body of Edinburgh divines, proves that the nation be^ns to comprehend, that it is our duty to labour to adapt ourselves to the laws of the universe ; instead of hoping that vacillating interferences with these laws will take

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place, in order to suit our always shortsighted Yiews of what is best.

The Chinese nation, with a written history extending s& far back as that of any other which the world has known, b the only one that has throughout retained its nationality, and has never been ousted from the land where it first appeared. And that it has, between civil wars like the present — wars necessary for the production of beneficial changes, whether administerial or dynastic — enjoyed long periods of a safety to life and property, even now scarcely exceeded in the most civilized countries in the West, is a truth as well known from authentic history, as it may be inferred from the fact, that its numbers now equal one half of the rest of the faumas race, while its industrial products penetrate into every r^on of the earth. It is surprising what a large number of Occi-dentab can manage not to see the sufficiently plwi inference, that results, so long enduring and so vast, must be owing to the social and political life of the Chinese being founded on great and eternal truths. The enlightened and candid minded reader cannot know so well as I do, with my dolor-ous experience of the existing prejudice and stolidity on the subject, how necessary it is to insist on the above, and insist on it, and insist on it, and insist on it again. There is one class of the stolid that requires special mention ; as it has unfortunately some modifying effect on our habits of thought. The grand characteristic of the man of this class lies in his greeting everything that he never heard of, or never saw before, either with solemn brays of reprobation or broad grins of derision. Many very sensible people stand in awe alike of his brays and his grins ; while the force of sympathy alone leads others into a thoughtless braying and grinning with him. It is therefore necessary that I should warn my readers against his influence when I have to point out some things hitherto but little if at all heard of, or per-ceived. Even to the stolid man himself, I may however make it dimly comprehensible, that in some branches of the

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social science it is jxist possible that the Chinese may be in Advance of the West^ in spite of their shaving their heads and wearing tails — aye, and dreadful thought ! shoes with white soles to them. The stolid man has either seen or heard a good deal of the art of printing and of the mariner's com-pass. He has also seen or heard of gunpowder, though he certainly never would have invented it. Now these things were known and used by the Chinese, centuries before they ¥rere known in the West. May it not then be possible that a race, whose intellect enabled it to discover these great in-struments of civilization long before we did, may dso have been able, long ago, to discover in the region of morality and politics — a region which it has always preferred to that of physical science — certain important truths, toward which we are but beginning to grope our way ?

Let us now proceed to the third of the Chinese funda-mental beliefs, selected for special consideration. I am not aware that Chinese thinkers are fully sensible of the effects on their practical life of the first two ; but they are quite conscious that the third, that man is endowed at his birth with a nature which is perfectly good, has great influence on their whole moral and political system.

Very learned and good men in the West, who have taken

the Bible as the standard of their beliefs, have found therein

the doctrine that man is by nature vicious; and equally

learned and good men, who have taken the Bible as the

standard of their beliefs, declare that no such doctrine is

therein contidned: that it is a sectarian fiction arrived at

by straining of texts, and that man is by nature good. So

far therefore as the authority of those who have long devoted

themselves to the study of the Bible in the original languages

is concerned, we are at liberty to adopt either view. It is

necessary to premise this; for, as the doctrine that man's

nature is vicious, happens to be that which has been adopted by

the national churches of England and Scotland, many who

read this volume because interested in China, but who are little

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acquainted with theological dispates, — who have never ex^-cised the right of private judgement, but merely accepted the doctrines which they were taught^ — ^many sucb will be apt to jump to the conclusion, that it is^ in the Occident, a uniTer-sally admitted fact that the Chinese orthodox doctrine is fake.

In order to procure a candid consideration for Chinese morality, it is necessary to give warning against another source of error. Many, seeing how unscientific and unaoiind the Chinese views of physical nature are> fall into the mis^ take of assuming that their views of mental nature must be equally unsound. They may be unsound; but that mvist^fie inferred from a low state of physical science. Phy^cs and morals belong to two independent regions, which the latest discoveries have not enabled us to connect Even the philoso-phers of the positivist school are unable to show the connexion between non-thinking and thinking life; or, at all events, &il to show how the study of the latter can commence otherwise than in perfectly independent observation. Practise in physics may have taught us better methods of conducting observations generally ; but that is the sole advantage we have over the Chinese. In dealing with mind, our most potent chemical tests, our most delicate weighing machines, and our most powerful microscopes are of no avail. In the words of Mr. J. S. Mill, " the successions which obtain among mental phe-nomena, do not admit of being deduced from the phydo-logical laws of our nervous organization ; and all real know-ledge of them must continue for a long time at least, if not for ever, to be sought in the direct study by observation and experiment of the mental successions themselves.*'

CHAPTER XVIII (PART 6 OF 7)

Let us now consider what the common sense of manldnd says to the goodness or vice of man's nature at his birth. It is evident at once, what Mencius, the originator of the Chinese doctrine, himself admitted, that affirmations about its nature at that earliest period of individual existence are purely theories, are assumptions adopted to explain what we observe of man, i.e. of ourselves and others, at later periods.

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The question is, therefore, which of the two theories, Man^s nature is radically bad, and, Man^s nature is radically good, best explains what we know and feel to be true of ourselves and what we believe to be true of others.

If in a contest between two parties in which we are in nowise interested, we observe that the one is unjust and overbearing, the other in the right and disposed to be con-ciliatory, to which do we wish success, which do we feel inclined to help? Invariably the latter. Here the theory that man^s nature is radically bad fails to explain the observed phenomenon. If we were really bad by nature, why should iTve wish to help the good side? Again, when a man suffers injustice at the hands of another and is unable to redress his wrongs himself, what does he forthwith do ? He immediately appeals to the greatest possible number of other men, even though he may know them to be, in no degree whatever, personally interested in helping him. Here again the theory that man's nature is radically bad fails to explain a fact of daily occurrence. Why appeal from one radically bad nature to a great number of bad natures, from an individual piece of corruption to a mass of corruption ? That would be merely to see the committed injustice approved of, and probably to suffer additional wrongs instead of getting help. The common testimony of men, given in their practical life, is clearly to the effect that, where a man's own passions and interests are not concerned, he almost invariably prefers doing good to doing evil. I have said " almost," because we do occasionally see men who act otherwise. But they are eminently of those exceptional cases that prove the general rule. What do we say of a man who likes to do ill, which does not in any way benefit himself? " That creature," we will say of such a man, ^' is always doing mischief for the mere sake of mis-chief; he is quite a monkey, he is a perfect ape." We deny that his nature is that of a man. The great number of English and Scotch say that they believe, and perhaps think that they believe man's nature to be radically bad, but by

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all their acts they show that in their hearts they believe something thevery reverse^ viz. that though men, when thdr passions and selfish desires are roused by contact with the world, will do more or less wrong to obtain gratification, nevertheless their nature is at bottom good ; and 80 much so, that even the wrongful gratification of passions and de^res is at least partially balanced by the sacrifices some men make and the risks they incur to do good, where there is no hope whatever of return. This is precisely the Chinese funda-mental belief. It is a belief that, like the first two men-tioned, has expressed itself in their language. For instance, our words, openly, publicly, and public, justly, just, and justice could be used as in the following sentence, not with elegance certainly, but with perfect propriety : — ** The mat-ter was publicly discussed in a public meeting openly con-vened ; and it was very justly decided that public business should be, as much as possible, transacted by men of just minds, who would strive earnestly to act in accordance with the highest justice." Here all these words fall into one of two classes of paronyms, of which one has the idea of pubUcityy the other that of justice. Now in Chinese, all the members of both classes are rendered by one and the same word, Kung. Here, therefore, we have the whole Chinese nation spontane-ously testifying to the existence of a close, radical connexion between the two things which we understand by publicity and justice ;'^ in other words, that, wherever the natures of a great number of human beings are brought to bear upon an afiair, the result is justice.

In the annexed Essay I conceive myself to have established the following propositions : —

* Words of the kind considered in the text are often very inatmctire. When expatiating, in a pamphlet I published six years ago, on the exi>edience, inter-nationally, of obtaining an accurate knowledge of the Chinese language, I said: — ** I need hardly dwell on the ease with which disputes arise out of niisappie> hension. The whole English people, by attaching the meaning of quarrel to the word, misunderstanding, has distinctly affirmed the almost unavoidable connexion between the two things.**

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That Civilization is the aggregate introduction by man of efficient intellectual and moral agencies to the reduction of the jphysicaly or of moral to the reduction of the intellectual, in his struggle with animate and inanimate nature.

That the highest kind of civilization is the greatest possible ^predominance oftlie moral agencies only, in man^s struggle with man ; and that it is identical tvith the practice of the highest Christian morality as expressed in the emphatic forms of incul-cation : Love your enemies ; return good for evil.

That, (flw the use of moral agencies only necessarily implies perfectly voluntary or free action in the persons operated on, therefore) whatever the form of government may be, that people is necessarily the freest in which the highest kind of civiliza-iion has most prevalence.

To these I have now to add : — . That the theory that maris nature is radically viciotis is the true psychical basis of despotic, or physical force government ; while the theory that man's nature is radically good is the true psychical basis of free, or moral force government.

Referring the reader to the concluding pages of " Civiliza-tion," I have to state, that the Chinese Government explicitly grounds that large and systematic use of the moral agencies, which constitute its normal procedure, upon the doctrine that man's nature is radically good. In this, h priori reasoning completely justifies them. If man's nature be radically bad, where is the use of appealing to a sense of right, a gene-rosity, a charity, or a love of peace which have no existence ? It is obvious that in such case physical force, whether as a restraint or as a stimulant, is the only practicable means of government.* But if man's nature be radically good, the easiest means of attaining the ends of government is evidently to appeal to his higher qualities ; the very exist-

* Henoe it is, that the upholden of ne^ slayery in the United States are constrained to adopt the theory that the nature of the negro is lower than that of the irhite man — ^a circninstance which, by the by, shows the intimate con-nexion between theories and practical life.

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ence of which are, on the other hand, certun to make lum indignantly intractable, if physical force is gratuitously employed.

Looking to the testimony of experience^ we find that Chinese history contains an example, on a grand scale, of the eflfect which the temporary acceptance of the doctrine that man^s nature is radically vicious has had on government.

On page 335 mention was made of Seun tsze, as a philoso-pher and politician whose opinions had great authority about B.C. 255, but who taught a doctrine, at variance with one of the principal beliefs of Confucianism. That doctrine was, that man's nature is vicious. One of the twenty chapters into which his works are, at the present day, divided is entirely devoted to its establishment. Now Seun tsze also maintained the necessity of governing by physical force. It is admitted by the historians and philosophers of authority, that he was a man of great ability, and of the best intentions, but it is added that his "doctrines were low;" that in particular, in the one doctrine, "man's nature is vicious^" the "grand basis " of morality was missed ; and that, though he himself did not anticipate the calamities to which his views led, they nevertheless, when carried out to their legitimate consequences by his scholar Le she, a councillor of Che kwang, proved the cause of the much execrated bxuning of the Sacred Books by that Emperor, and formed the springs of his essentially de-spotic rule. And, as the power of his house ended with his own life, while the power of the Han dynasty, which followed and which lasted for centuries, was established by a rule of " jin e, benevolence and righteousness ;'' the disastrous cha-racter, alike for people and for prince, of Che kwang's policy is pointed to, as a grand historical example of the consequences of government by physical force, emanating from the doctrine that man's nature is vicious.

Passing from Eastern Asia, in the third century before Christ, to Western Europe in the nineteenth century after Christ, I ask, who is it that at the present day, in our own

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oountrj, advocate government by physical force ; who, go-vernment by moral force? Is it not among those who most xigidly uphold the doctrine, "man's nature is depraved," that ^we find the advocates of enforcement of abstinence and of Sabbatarianism by the aid of the policeman ; and is it not among those who maintain, or who lean to the doctrine, *' man's nature is good," that we find the advocates of moral force — of education and enlightenment — as the only efficient means of teaching the people temperance, morality, and true religion ?

It is on the theory that man's nature is good, that Chinese moralists believe the practicability of morality to depend : '' Let people first know this one root and source of morality, and then they will earnestly endeavour to be good and to put away vice." Accordingly Choo tsze teaches, that the indolence people manifest in self-improvement does not pro-ceed from a real weakness, but from a dread that the task is impossible, and that their weak apathy is therefore the result of habit ; that, though there is a struggle in his heart between impulses to do good and to do evil, yet " man^s heart is radi-cally good ; " that " his first impulse to do a good act is a primary manifestation of his true heart, but is subsequently smothered by the influence of the outward world ; " and that, with reference to the practice of morality, *' there is no other method, in the work of self-mastery, than simply that adopted by a weak army, which, when it finds itself sud-denly confronted by a powerful enemy, presses forward with all its strength and regardless of death." In short, Chinese moralists stimulate all to manful self-exertion, by telling all that, the root of their nature being perfectly good, it entirely depends on themselves whether their conduct and character throughout life shall be good and honourable or bad and mean. I may add, as a further proof of the great importance the Chinese attach to the doctrine which we are now considering, that in the Book of Three Characters — a versified enumeration of fundamental beliefs, in lines of

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392 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONSi

three characters or words, for the use of children — the first two lines run, '^ Jin che tsoo> Sing pun shen. At manV beginning, His nature is radically good,"

From all this we see^ that the doctrine in question at once forms the basis of government by moral agency in preference to that by physical force, and at the same time is held to be the root of all that is good in the private and public conduct of tho Chinese people.

Utilitarianism, and what is called enlightened selfishness have no place in Chinese morality; and expediency, as opposed to right, has no place in their science of government. All these, which have had, and still have much currency with JiSj are decidedly repudiated in China. Hence the present Em-peror, notwithstanding the extreme distress of the govern-ment for money, has answered in the negative the recom-mendations that have been made to legalize and levy a tax on opium — a certain source of a very large income. The moral feeling of the country at present decidedly prohibits such a step; yet it would, as to morality, be neither worse nor better than what we yearly do in taxing gin and other ardent spirits.

Bearing in mind the fundamental beliefs : that there is a harmonious order of the universe ; that man's nature is good ; and, lastly, that it is but the harmonious order of the universe operating in man which constitutes the goodness of his nature — ^bearing these beliefs in mind5 the reader may perceive, from the following extracts, what it is that constitutes for the Chinese the obligation of their morality. The extracts, some portions of which I italicize, are from the Droit Naturel of JoufTroy i* —

• MoreH'a History of Philosophy classes Jouffiroy, aa a metaphysician, with the philosophers of the Scottish schooli Reid, Stewart, &c As a moralist, ii says, ** that there is no writer of the present day who has grappled with the great problems of moral science, so manfully and snccessfully — and who has i^ncceeded in throwing so much fresh light upon a subject which has commanded the energies of the greatest minds."

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*^Le bien, le bien en soi^ le bien absolu, c'eBt la realisation de la fin absolue de la creation, c'est Fordre universeV^

** Or, d& que Tidfe de I'ordre a et6 concjue par notre raison, ily a entre notre raison et cette idee une sympathie si profonde^ si vraie, si immediate, qu'elle se prosterne devant cette id^e, qu^elle la reconnait sacrie et obligatoire pour etle, qu'elle fhonore et s'y soumet comme a sa lot naturelle et (temelle* Violer I'ordre, e'est une indignite aux yeux de la raison; rSaliser Fordre autant qu'il est donn^ k votre faiblesse, c^ est bien, cela est beau. Un nouveau motif d'agir est apparu^ une nouvelle rSgle v^ritablement regie, une nouvclle ioi veri-. tablement Ioi, une Ioi qui se Ugitime par elle-mAne, quiot^pe immSdiatementf quin'a besoin pour se faire respecter, eirecon-naitre, d*invoquer rien qui lui soit etranger, rieii (qUi lui soit ant^rieur ou super leur." \^ '

" Tout devoir, tout droit, toute obligation, toute morale d^coulent done d'une m^me source qui^est Tidde du bien en Boi, ridee de Tordre. Supprimer cette id^e, il n'y a plus rien de sacr6 en soi pour la raison, par consequent plus de diffe-rence morale entre les actions que nous pouvons faire; la creation est inintelligible, est toute destin^e une enigme. R^tablisser la, touit devient clair dans Tunivers et dans rhomme ; il 7 a un ordre 8acr6 qup toute creature raisonnable doit respecter et concourir a accomplir en elle et hors d'elle ; par consequent des devoirs, par consequent des droits, par consequent une morale, une legislation naturelle de la conduite humaine."

*^ Mais cette idee de I'ordre en elle-mdme n'est pas le dernier terme de la pensee humaine ; elle s'eifeve jusqu'd Dieu qui a cr66 cet ordre universel, et qui a donnS h chaque creature qui y concourt, sa constitution, et par consequent sa fin et son bien. Ainsi rattache a sa substance etemelle, Fordre sort de son abstraction metaphysique et devient Texpression de la pensee divine : d^s lors aussi la morale montre son cote religieux. Mais il n'etait pas besoin quelle le niontrdt pour qu'elle fQt obligatoire. Au del^ de Tordre, notre raison n'aurait pas vu DieUf que Fordre vCen serait pas moins sacrepour elle, Seule-

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menty quand Dieu apparait comme la volont^ qui I'a etablit, la Boumission religieuse B'unit k la soumission moraley et par la encore I'ordre devient respectable."

'' Le bien, le beau* et la vrai ne sant que Vordre sous trois faces diff^rentes, et Vordre West autre chose que la voUmti, la fnanifestation de Dieu."

In the above extracts, I'ordre nniversel is synonymous with Le ; la vrai, with Taou ; and le bien, as realized in man, with the Chinese shen, or that goodness which constitutes his radical nature. And, bearing in mind that educated Chinese, though theoretically athebts are practically deists, then practically Teen is synonymous with Dieu ; Teen ming, with la volenti de Dieu ; and Sing, man's nature, is sa constitution which Dieu a donn6 a chaque creature. The large amount of public and private morality (taking the word of coursein its wider sense) that has existed in China during past ages, forms a complete substantiation, from experience, of Joufiroy's proposition that the idea of order is obligatory.

On the detailed, positive rules of Chinese morality, it is not necessary to dwell in this volume. Speaking generally^ they accord very nearly with those of the ten command-ments which show the nature of man's duty to man ; for the Confucianist, like the Christian, sums them up in the injunction : Do to others as you would be done by. As to the extent to which their rules of morality are obeyed, in other words, as to the amount of practical virtue and vice existing in China, I refer the reader to pages 64 — 73 and page 91.

As to the extent to which the doctrine of government by moral agency is carried out in i)ractice ; as to the identity of that description of government with virtual freedom ; and as to the particular shape under which it operates in China:

• The idea of the beantiful plays no snch prominent part in Chinese philo-sophical discussions as in those of the Occident. With respect to the fine arts, painting and sculpture are not patronised by Confucianism. Poetiy and music are, on the contrary, highly esteemed by it» especially ancient poetiy and music One of the Sacred Books is poetical ; and a great writer states : — " In ancient times music was employed to civilize man : in modem times it la em-ployed to excite his passions."

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I refer to page 120, to the footnote at pages 46 and 47, and to the whole of Chapter II. The chief exceptions are slavery and the institution of secondary wives ; which latter, though we have called them " wives," have in Chinese a different name from that of the real wife, and are acquired property — are, in fact, nothing but female slaves who have been called to the bed of their owner. These institutions — some of the e^il effects of which are noticed in the Essay on Civilization — are the great and very serious exceptions to the operation of government by moral agency ; and they are, I believe, the nudn causes of whatever misery and vice is peculiar to China, as compared with England.

One of the morally lesser evils, which must be regarded as a consequence of polygamy, is that lack of physical refinement, evidenced in frequent and noisy expectoration, non-use of pocket-handkerchief, &c, which is at times really a very sore trial for our senses and temper. That jealous separation of the sexes, which is an inevitable attendant on polygamy, pre-vents the frequent intercourse which has imdoubtedly a mutually refining effect. Besides the wish to stand well with the opposite sex generally, people must, in our mono-gamic and free country, be careful not to become personally disagreeable, if they would hope to get a desirable mate. But the sale of women, which necessarily accompanies poly-gamy or concubinage, makes it possible for the man of the most offensive habits to procure the most beautiful females, if he only be wealthy.

In the matters of slavery and concubinage, the morality of Christianity, as now understoodby Teutonic nations, is as much superior to Confucianism, as the latter has proved itself gene-rally superior to all the other systems. The idea of a nation with-out slavery and without concubinage cannot be said to be known to the Chinese mind, and hence the ruling body can hardly be expected to think of engaging in the work of abolishing these institutions. Indeed the very exaggerated, unnatural and therefore, as it appears to me, in several respects morally unwholesome weight that is laid in China on the doctrine of

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filial piety^ in particular on the duties of sons, is among other things, likely always to prove a bar to the abolition of conca-binage. If, after years of marriage, the wife proper has no sons, it is held to be her duty to insist on her husband taking a concubine ; and if she fails to discharge this duty she begins to be looked upon as a person of unworthy character- Uet the reader make the necessary allowances'* for the differences between a nomadic and an old settled state, and then the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar will serve him as an illustration of the relative positions of husbands, wives, and concubines in China*

Though the ruling body there is not likely to attempt the abolition of slavery and concubinage, it at least exerts itself earnestly to alleviate the hardships and check the vices which they engender. To give one instance : the law prescribes corporeal punishment for masters who do not effect marriages for the female slaves of their household and thereby condemn them to a life of " lonely isolation," Again, the very cause which in a Mahommedan state makes out of barber-boys the Pachas who nullify the defence of a E[ars, prevents in Con-fucian China not only barbers, but their children even, from being admitted to the Public Service Examinations : for the support of morality, an originally right feeling is made the basis of wrongful severity to the innocent.

No people, whether of ancient or modern times, has possessed a Sacred Literature so completely exempt as the Chinese from licentious descriptions, and from every offensive expression. There is not a single sentence in the whole of the Sacred Books and their annotations that may not, when translated word for word, be read aloud in any family circle in England. Again, in every other non-Christian countiy, idolatry has been asso-ciated with human sacrifices and with the deification of vice, accompanied by licentious rites and orgies. Not a sign of all this exists in China. Idolatry is endured by Confucianism as a superstition ; but immoral ceremonies are prohibited, and not a single indecent idol is exposed in any of the numerous temples in the country. Mr. Williams points to this as one

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of the probable causes of the long duration of the Chinese people ; and no doubt it is a helping cause, for all morality tends to preservation: — "One pagan nation has come down from ancient times and this alone is distinguished for its absence from religious slaughter of innocent blood, and the unsanctified license of unblushing lust/^*

In closing this subject, I must once more warn the reader against believing the ridiculously exaggerated descriptions given forth by some writers of every bad feature that they could detect in Chinese life. Civil war has of late years let loose passions, which are in happier times restrained by the national morality ; and the Manchoo government is exciting in the West a feeling of astonishment and horror by its indiscriminate executions of thousands of rebel prisoners. But this is done in flagrant violation of the principles of Chinese polity. And I venture to say, that even now the Chinese are nowhere what they are represented as having been a few years ago in M. Hue's Chinese Empire. For instance, M. Hue broadly asserts that the birth of a daughter " is in general regarded as a humiliation and dishonor for the family; it is a manifest proof of a curse of heaven." Can any English fathers and mothers believe that ? I have seen hundreds of fathers walking about with such little dishonors and curses in their arms, handsomely dressed and prattling away to the pleased and proud papas. M. Hue has however himself fortunately furnished the home reader with the means of estimating the value of his views of Chinese life. In that region, he could allow his fancy a liberty very convenient for the creation of a circulating library book ; for few could con-tradict him, and of these few none might like to perform the duty. But in one place he cannot resist the temptation of making an amusing paragraph out of a British frigate also ; and there hundreds of thousands of English, and of French too, know well what can and what cannot be done. Referring, therefore, to page 63, I recommend to the home reader the

* " Middle Kingdom." Religion of the Chinese.

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following rule of proportion : — As M. Hue's description of naval offieers sitting, and drinking champagne on the quarter deck of a British man of war in action, is to the reality; so are M. Hue's descriptions of the strange, the ridiculoos;, and the bad in Chinese life to the corresponding realities.

As we occasionally see it stated by writers of the first rank who have occasion to allude to China — for instance Compte in his Philosophic Positive — that the institution of caste exists there, it may be well to mention that this is altogether a mistake. Only the sons of barbers, players, and of people following one or two similar occupations, i. e. a very limited number of Chinese, are excluded by their birth from an equal competition for all the dignities of the State; and even that limited number can engage in any private business they please. No Chinese is compelled to follow the occupation of his father. It is an ancient classification of the inhabitants of a country into Scholars, Agriculturalists, Artificers, and Traders, which has given rise to the mistake. There are one or two points worth noting connected with this classification ; which, it will be observed gives the Scholars or Learned Men the highest rank, and places the Traders last. The Positive Philosophy of Europe shows that the tendency of social pro-gress is to assign to the various workers of a community, rank and power in proportion to the generality and artificiality of the subjects with which they deal. Thus the Agriculturist, who deals with industrial produce in its most natural form, stands lowest ; the Artificer, who shapes and manufactures it, stands next ; the Merchant, who merely transmits it from place to place, stands next ; the Banker, who exchanges it in its general form as represented by money, stands next ; while the specula-tive or Learned class, which deals with abstract representations, and which rules the body through the mind, stands highest. There seems to be sufficient reason for holding the extent to which this spontaneous gradation has obtained virtual exist-ence in any country, to be a fair test of progress in civilization. And as the gradation is that which it appears certain will exist in the highest state of civilization, when the professionally

CHAPTER XVIII (PART 7 OF 7)

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destructive, as opposed to the productive class, viz. the mili-tary, will have altogether disappeared, so the military have no place in it. Now it is worthy of note that, in the old Chinese classification, the military have no place ; while the learned have already their proper position^ at the head of the hier-archy. Mencius, who two thousand years ago preached free trade, also insisted on the necessity of sub-division of labor, and in particular declared that ^* those who laboured with the mind were the rulers, those who laboured with the body, the ruled." It never was disgraceful in China to be able to read and write. We occasionally have proof that that opi-nion is not altogether extinct in this country. A military or naval man will now and then be at pains to state, not from a laudable modesty, but as if it were something to be proud of that he is " more accustomed to Avield the sword than the pen;.'* forgetting that it is more creditable to do both, — after the example of Julius Caesar. The relative position of the other three classes, in the old times of China, is that natural to an early stage of civilization. It is a proof of the soundness of the positivist theory, that their standing is, in these more advanced times, virtually reversed in that country. The most influential men in China, next to the learned class, is at the present day composed of the bankers and large merchants ; next to them in social position stand the manufacturers or artificers ; while the actual tillers of the soil, farmers and farm labourers, stand lowest. Of course the learned men are often, the bankers perhaps are always, possessors of land; but, in so far as they themselves are labourers, the first deal with ideas, the second with money.

Fathers in China have the power of life and death over their children. So long as the latter are children, this power cannot be said practically to militate against the Chinese doctrine of government by moral force ; for parents may be presumed not to use physical force till it is absolutely neces-sary. But when the children have become men and women, the power is discivilising. Those who maintain that the long

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duration of the Chinese people is owing to the peculiar rela-tion, upheld by its education and laws» between father and son, must in consistency deny this. But it will not bear denial. Chinese training and law gives the husband virtual power of life and death over his wife. No one will mountain that that is civilizing ; yet the relation between husband and wife is by Chinese moralists pointed to as the first — ^that irom which all the others take their rise — which it undoubtedly is; and it has been perhaps quite as much written about as the other. The power possessed by Chinese fathers to sell their children — a power often exercised in cases of want — is one of the chief aids to the prolongation of slavery and concubinage. It is the promise which appears to be attached to the fifth of our Ten Commandments^ together with the fact that all the earlier sinologues were professional theologians, that accounts for the parental institution having been taken by Occidentals as the cause of the unequalled duration of the Chinese. But apart from the fact that Hebrew scholars doubt that long national existence is meant by the words of the fifth com-mandment; the theory that the patriarchal features in the Chinese Government system are the cause of the long du-ration of the nation as such, will not bear close examination. Only a belief in a special miracle can procure for it accept-ance. No support is afforded it by psychical reasoning on the possibility of the deep love which, as the general rule, exists in the heart of the father being engendered by any teaching in the heart of the Sovereign ; or on the possibility of the affection which is borne by sons to the father of the family being directed in any operative degree to the head of the State. History discountenances it All those peoples in which every member was a descendant from one and the same stocky as for instance the Jews, had at the first a government veritably patri-archal; but all soon became merely patriarchal in form. So long as the virtual government remained despotic or autocratic, there was no necessity for changing the old names connected with that form. But the governments are then no more really

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patriarchal, than is the government of a British man of wan The long existence of the patriarchal form and its nomen-clature in China — ^where, by the by, the nomenclature is very far from being so much used as Occidental accounts would make it appear to be — ^is not a cause : it is in reality a consequence. From the oldest times to the present, the Chinese people has, from other causes, endured as a nation ; and was therefore able to bring down with it, from the earliest times to the present, a patriarchal nomenclature sufficiently appropriate to that autocratic form of the government which actually existed, to render its application unforced. In truth, the analogy between the family and the State does not hold good on Chinese views themselves. In China, sons never have the right to resist the cruelties of the most tyrannical father : by one of the oldest and most deeply rooted of the national doctrines, the people have the distinct right to depose and put to death a tyrannical Emperor. And this very departure from the strict patriarchality is one of the causes of the stability of the nation : it is thereby permitted to free itself from tyrannical government, which, if prolonged, would cause its destruction.

The real causes of the unequalled duration and constant increase of the Chinese people, as one and the same nation, have been sufficiently dilated on, in various parts of this volume ; but it may be well to place them, once more, suc-cinctly before the reader. They consist of tkree doctrines, together with an institution by means of which the efficient performance of the work prescribed by two of these doc-trines is attained, and by which a living practical belief in all three is maintained in the mind of the nation. The doctrines are 2 —

I. That the nation must be governed by moral agency in preference to physical force.

II. That the services of the wisest and ablest men in the nation are indispensable to its good government.

III. That the people have the right to depose a sovereign

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who, either from active wickedness or viciaus indolence, ; cause to oppressive and tyrannical rule. The institution is : —

The system of public service competitive exammaiume^ The three doctrines are laid down, with the greatest di»-tinctness, in a variety of places in the Shoo king^ or Historical Canon, which, next to the Yih king, is the oldest of the Sacred Books. They are also all dwelt on in the Sacred Works called the Sze shoo or Four Books, the literary result of the first epoch of revival of learning ; and they are still more expa-tiated on in the literature of the second epoch, as exhibited in the two Imperial compilations, the Complete Philoeophy and the Essence of Philosophy ; in which they are expounded under the heads of Instruction, Public Schools, Examina-tions, Dynasties, the Philosophy of Government,* &a Hie minds of the people are to be improved by the " diffusion of instruction," and thus rendered amenable to that government of '' benevolence and righteousness '' which the true sovereign observes — ^such are the general terms in which the govern-ment by moral agency is inculcated. And it is the duty of the sovereign to improve his own mind first. To use the language of the subjoined Essay on Civilization, — general self-cultivation is to prepare the way for the efficient operation of the highest civilized process. There is evidence, considered credible by almost everyone who has studied Chinese records in the original, that government schools existed under the Empe-rors Yaou and Shun upwards of four thousand years ago, and, notwithstanding periods of perversion and neglect, the system of Public Service Examinations based on general instruction has been gradually perfecting itself up to the latest times-f

* One fifth part of the Eeaence of Philosophy is composed of the Seetion headed Philosophy of GoTemxnent, in which, to Uie best of my belief, the doty of filial piety is not referred to more than half a dozen Umes^ and then only incidentally.

t M. Edouard Blot, a Parisian slnologae, has performed a sabstantial and im-portant service, by collecting all the information on the subject contained in Chinese books of the Biblioth^qne Imp6riale| and anaoging it chroi&ologieally in his " Instruction Publique en Chine.''

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Public libraries, and schools, and salaried government officials called Eeaou kwan. Instructing Officers exist now; but education is, in fact, altogether gained in private schools or from family tutors, and the Keaou kwan are merely Public Examiners. Given the stimulus, in the shape of the wealth and rank of official station, and the practical result in China appears to be, that the people find they can educate themselves better than the government can educate them. In every case the institution of Public Service Examinations (which have long been strictly competitive) is the cause of the continued duration of the Chinese nation : it is that which preserves the other causes and gives efficacy to their operation. By it all parents throughout the country, who can compass the means, are induced to impart to their sons an intimate know-ledge of the literature which contains the three doctrines above cited, together with many others conducive to a high mental cultivation. By it all the ability of the country is enlisted on the side of that Government which takes care to preserve it in purity. By it, with its impartiality, the poorest man in the country is constrained to say, thi^t if his lot in life is a low one it is so in virtue of the ** will of Heaven," and that no unjust barriers created by his fellow men prevent him from elevating himself. In consequence of its neglect or corruption, if prolonged, the able men of the country are spurred by their natural and honorable ambition to the overthrow of the, in their eyes and in the eyes of the nation, guilty rulers; a new dynasty is then established, which consolidates its power by restoring the institution in integrity and purity ; and all the legislative and executive powers are again placed in the hands of the Heen n&ng, the Wise and Able, who — the ablest men being always the best — ^rule the country, not only with great soundness of judgment, but with much of that " righteous-ness and benevolence ^^ which is dictated as well by their own moral nature as by the old and venerated rules of national polity. Then follows one of those long periods, which are marked in Chinese history by the reign of justice, peace,

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conteaty cheerful induBtry, and general proeperity; and a glorioos succession of which has made the Chinese people not only the oldest but so vastly the largest of all the nationsu

On pages 10, 20, 21, 22, 37 and 38, is given some description of the Public Service Examinations. As it may be satisfactory to the reader to know what other rea-dents in China at the present time think of them, I extract, from the Shanghae Almanack, the following notice of the examinations for the degree of Licentiate held at Nanking in 1851. I do not happen to know who the writer was, but know enough of the residents at Shanghae to affirm that it could have been none other than a Protestant missionary. Without remembering anything of the particular examination discussed, I am able to warrant the general correctness of the paper : —

*' The examination for the degree of Keu jin,* or Licen* tiate, takes place at the principal city of each province once in three years, commencing on the eighth day of the eighlii month. ExtraortUnary examinations are granted by the Emperor, on his |iscending the throne, as in the present instance. These are called Gran kaou, examinatiom by ipedal grace. Keang nanf has sixteen departments — and the degree of Sew tsae or Bachelor being conferred in each of them annually, the number of candidates at the higher examination held at Nanking is large. The average number is twenty thousand. Of these on the average only two

* I make a few merely verbal • alterations and some unimportant omisatons, with the object of bringing the paper into conformity as to orthography, && with other parts of this yolnme, and thus sparing ezplanatoiy footnotes.

t The two present provinoes of Keang soo and Gan hwny (see map) formed, abont a century ago, one provinoe, named Keang nan, the capital of which was Nan king. Till the Tae pings seized that city it was (as it still is in the eyes of the Imperialists) the seat of the Qoyemor General of the two modem pro-Tinces, and there a good deal of the administratire business of both was still transacted. The two rank in population, and in the comparative abundance of literary ability possessed by that population, with the first provinces in the Em-pire. Hence the enormous number of Bachelors — ^twenty thousand — ^there shut up in the Examination Hall in order to compete for the degree of Licentiate;

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hundred are successful [a limit being set to the number of degrees which the Examiners can give.] In the report of the examination for 1851^ we observe that there are 144 names of first-dass candidates. A second class is appended of twenty-two candidates inferior in merits but allowed, for reasons satisfactory to the Examiners, to take the degree. In the first class, there are thirteen upwards of forty years of age, and in the second class five. The youngest is fourteen years of age, and stands eighty-ninth in order. The next youngest is fifteen, and there are six more under twenty all in the first class.*

'* The Mandarins, named as being engaged either .in examining or other duties are sixty-five in number. In addition to them there are many subordinate official people. The two Chief Examiners are specially sent from Peking. When the candidates enter the examination hall, they are searched for books f or scraps of writing, that . might assist them in writing their essays ; and the strictest precautions are taken to prevent any communication between them while in the examination-hall. Three sets of themes are given, each occupying two days and a night, and until that time is

* AU thow lads must have had the whole of the Sacred Books with their aathorixed annotations by heart, besides being well read in history. Bat this is less astonishing when we remember that they were among the choicest capsr cities produced in two or three years by an eztensirely educated population of seventy millions. Eeang soo, that great alluvial plain which I have described, is the most densely peopled province in the Empire and contains not less than thirty-eight millions ; while Gan hwuy contains thirty-four millions. Care is taken that the Examiners should know nothing of the writers of the essays ; hence young lads are never passed because they know so tnudi/or i^eir age,

t Little books, such as may be slipped into a hole in the thick sole of the Chinese shoe, are specially printed in a very small type from copper plates. On opening a volume of one, now on my table, I find tiie first five pages con-tain a condensed history of the old feudal institutions of China. We shall have analogous books in England in due time. Many other plans have been invented for enabling mediocre people to pass ; plans which it would require a small volume to describe. The government is perfectly well aware of their existence, and in normal times great pains are taken to counteract them. Persons dis-covered engaged in attempts at imposition are mined for life, and that with the approbation of the public

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406 THE CHINESE AND TUEIR BEBELUON&

expired no one is allowed to leave his allotted apartment, [which is barely large enough to sleep in at night] What they need for food and rest they take with them. When the essays are written, they are scrutinised by officers appointed for that duty^ to know if they conform to the regulations. They must not exceed 700 characters, nor must there be any character written over the ruled red lines [of the examination paper which all have to use.] No erasure or correction of any kind is allowed. Essays of former examinations must not be repeated ; and any obvious fault in composition ob-served by the officers who superintend this department would prevent the essay from being placed in the hands of the higher examiners. These latter then select the best essays to the number of two or three hundred and subject them to the judgment of the two Chief Examiners, who finally decide which are the best and arrange them in the order of merit. In granting offices the Emperor follows the order of names In this and the higher examinations.*

" On the first two days, the themes are taken from the Four Books, with a line of poetry. On the next, from the five older, pre-Confucian Sacred Books, one from each. And lastly, five papers of miscellaneous questions are given. To answer these questions if the papers before us be taken as an average example, a most extensive reading in general lite-rature must be expected from the candidates in addition to their study of the Sacred Books.

*^ The first of these papers on miscellaneous subjects takes for its range the commentators on the Sacred Books, e.g. ' Choo tsze in commenting on the Shoo king f made use of four authors, who sometimes say too much, at other times too little — sometimes their explanations are forced, at other

* When young lads are found to be among those that attain the degree of Tsln Bze or Doctor at Peking, they are usually employed as Chief Bzaminers in the proTlnceo. For these offices their great knowledge eminently fits them; ▼hile they cannot be supposed to have either the cool judgment or the experi-ence of life requisite for magisterial business.

t Sec page 869.

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times too ornamental. What have you to observe on them ? ' — * In the Han dynasty, there were three commentators on the Yih king, whose explanations and divisions into chapters and sentences were all different. Can you give any accoant of them?^ The paper concludes with saying: — 'Under oar present sacred dynasty, literature and learning are in a moet flourishing state. You, candidates, have been study-ing for several years. Let each of you make use of what he knows, and reply to these questions.'

'* The second paper has for its subject Histories, inviting a criticism from the candidate on the historical works of each dynasty in succession, from Sze ma, * the Herodotus of China,' downwards to the Ming emperors. It is obvious that the examination can be no child's play, when such comprehensive questions as these form a part of it. We again select an example or two. * Sze ma, in making his history, took the Sacred Books and ancient records and arranged the facts they detailed. Some have accused him of unduly exalting Taouists and thinking too highly of wealth and power. Pan koo a writer of the Han dynasty is clear and comprehensive, but on Astronomy and the Five Elements he has written more than enough. Can you give examples and proofs of these statements ? ' ' Chin show had admirable abilities for historical writing. In his Three Kingdoms he has depre-* elated Choo ko leang and made very light of E and E, two other celebrated characters. What is it that he says of them?'

'' The third paper questions the candidates on the ancient and modem divisions of the Empire. They are required to state the authorities who record the earliest division into nine provinces, the changes that followed, and the discrepancies between different authors in their accounts of them. Then the changes that occurred under more recent dynasties in the number, designations, and mode of government of the pro-vinces are asked for. It is then added, that the size of the Empire having increased much beyond what it was in former times, diligent study ought to be bestowed on Geography,

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and the candidates are invited accordingly not to conceal their knowledge, but state all they can.

** The next paper is on books. The candidates are re-quested to relate where the existing accounts of certun lost books of high antiquity are found, and what emperors have made efforts to preserve books and form libraries. It is asked : — * The Suy dynasty* collected books to the number of 370,000; these were reduced by selection to 37,000; where was the library in which they were kept, and who performed the work of selection ? ' Questions are also asked on what catalogues of books have been made, and the methods of classifying them that have been employed. It is then plea-santly added: — * Keang nan has always been eminent for its men of learning and refinement ; will you not vindicate your claim to the same character by giving a full answer to these questions P '

'' The last paper is on the history of the water-courses and flood-gates in the eastern parts of this province. It b^ins with the emperor Ta yu's hydraulic achievements, and asks for an account of the early names of this reign. It then inquires how it is that the Woo sung river is so beneficial to the neighbouring departments by affording an outlet to the waters of the Great Lake at Soo chow. At the dose it is added : — ' Our Emperor is always seeking to promote the people^s good. You, who are inhabitants of this province, ought to be fully informed on the subject of its water com-munications. Now show your knowledge that there may be proof of your fitness to be presented to the Emperor.'

" The answers to these miscellaneous questions are of course not written in the regular essay form in which the compositions founded on themes from the Sacred Books are written, their subjects being unsuited to it. On the earlier days of this examination eight essays are written, all in exact conformity with the established plan of such compositions in length and arrangement.

• A.D. 581—617.

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'^ The existence of these examinations is alone enough to make good the claim of China to a place among civilized and literary nations ; and, while they remain, the spirit of study and the love of books cannot die away. The oddities of the country, so prominent to a foreign eye, must not allow us to forget the circumstances that call for our sympathy and admiration. Multitudes of the people spend their early years in the study of a rich and extensive literature, and thus pass through a training in some respects similar to that which the classical languages supply to Europeans. By it they learn to express their thoughts in a highly elaborate and finished style, which European students of it say they admire, in pro-portion to their acquaintance with it. The reputation prized most highly among them is that which is acquired by a longs and laborious course of application to books. This ought^ surely to prevent us from despising them, and from rej^e- . ' senting them as a people devoted exclusively to a gro^ ^d -" sordid life/' '/ S^

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CHAPTER XIX (PART 1 OF 4)

CHRISTIANITY AND PB06PEGT8 OP THE TAE PING&

OiTR means of ascertaiDing the religious and moral tenets of the Tae pings consist almost altogether in the examinatioii of their own publications, all of which are of pamphlet sue; and of one or two short official documents addreeeed to the western foreigners who visited them at Nanking. Their publications are divisible into three classes : — L Those emanating firom Hung sew tseuen himself, as-sisted probably by some of the earliest and most devout of the Gkxlworshippers. One or two of the books of this class were certainly published before the movement became poll* tical, and they all of them, the latest included, say little or nothing of the political objects of the Tae pings. They may be called Hung sew tseuen^s propagandist or missionary publications; and if we except allusions to the visions which he had in his twenty-fourth year, and which subsequently formed the authority for his mission, they contain nothing whatever of a new revelation. They are founded on the earlier Protestant translations of the Old and New Testaments, as understood by him. The translation of the two Testaments which the Tae pings are now printing unaltered in Nanking falls within this class of their publications.

II. Those publications which dwell on the new alleged reve-lations from God or Christ ; and which record Their alleged descents into the world. All these necessarily emanate from Yang sew tsing and Seaou chaou hwuy, the Eastern and

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^Western Princes ; and several run in the names of these two personages. The purpose of this class is evidently to further 'the political and military objects of the Tae pings, by working on man's religious feelings. The documents addressed to Occidentals who visited Nanking belong to it, as emanating from the Eastern Prince or his party. t

UL Those publications which are altogether political^ as army and court regulations, &c. &c.

The third class is unmistakeably constituted a distinct class by the contents alone of the publications which it comprises. The information which they convey has been sufficiently em-ployed in the compilation of former Chapters, and they need not, therefore, be dwelt on here.

A. careful consideration of the contents of the first two classes gives great reason to conclude, that that gradual with-drawal on the part of Hung sew tseuen, the Heavenly Prince, from the guidance of the temporal affairs of the Tae pings, which we found completed when we first met them at Nan-king, must have been caused by his dissatisfaction with the torn affairs took in consequence of the ecstatical revelations of the Eastern and Western Princes — ^more especially those of the former. From the day on which the Godworshippers rose in arms, about the end of 1850, the Eastern Prince played a prominent part in their military affairs ; and about the middle or end of 1852, Hung sew tseuen appears to have resigned them entirely to his guidance, occupying himself since that time exclusively with the propagation of his reli-gious views. From the publications of the second class we observe, on the other hand, that the pretensions of the Eastern Prince have been gradually increasing. On the occasion of the latest Occidental visits in the summer of 1854, Hung sew tseuen was still spoken of, in all writings proceeding from the Eastern Prince, with the greatest respect ; but there are good grounds for believing that the latter is only deterred from ynf^Ving himsclf the nominal, as he undoubtedly is the virtual head, by the certainty first, that such a step would engage

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him in a phjrsical fight with an earnest section of the earfier Godworohippers who under the present arrangement still lend him their aid ; and secondly, that the deposal of the " second eon of God " could not fail to destroy, in the minds of the people generally, the mental basis of the whole movement.

Some such question as the following has very frequently been put to me : " How is it about the religion of these rebels ? Are they or are they not Christians ?" And I haTe found that I could most speedily put the matter in the right light by rejoining with another question: '^What kind of Christians do you mean ? Do you mean Bomanist Christians, or Lutheran Christians, or Nestorian Christians, or Calvinist Christians, or Armenian Christians, or Abysinnian Christians, or Coptic Christians, or Greek Christians?"

That in one nation, which at one period had only one way of viewing Christianity, widely different sects will certainly arise in the course of time is a, or rather is the great fact proved by the history of Christian churches. And, as we have seen that Christianity certainly has, in the past 1,800 years of its existence/ been invariably much modified by the different pre-existing systems of fundamental beliefs entertained by the different nations which have accepted it hitherto; so we ought to infe^ that it will continue to be modified by die pre-existing beliefs of the nations which accept it in future. Even illite* rate tribes, with tiieir few and vague convictions, will, while accepting the whole of the phraseology of that kind of Chris-tianity which is preached to them, attach to that phraseology a meaning somewhat different from the sense which it has for the preachers* That a number of adult converts of a nation like the Chinese, which has so long entertained, and is BO thoroughly imbued with, a peculiar set of fundamental beliefs, would, with or without express intention, considerably modify the Christianity which had attracted them was not simply probable, — ^it was, humanly speaking, a certainty.

The Christianity of Hung sew tseuen and the better edu* cated of the God worshippers, as exhibited in what I have called

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the publications of the first class, is the product of an unas-* sisted consideration of more or less inaccurate translations of the Old and New Testaments^ by men who had, up to the age of full manhood, devoted themselyes to the study of the Chinese Sacred Books^ and who more or less firmly l>elieyed that those fundamental views, which have been expounded in my last Chapter, truly pictured the origin and nature of the universe, and constituted the bases of the only true psychology and morality.

Hung sew tseuen was thirty years of age, when he began to study those Christian missionary tracts which he had cursorily looked at some few years before ; and from his childhood he had been a professional student of orthodox Confucianism. When he embraced Christianity, he did so without reserve ; but it is next to certain, that neither he nor Fung jrun shan would have been morally and intellectually able to embrace it at all, if they could have supposed that it required them to repudiate, as something either irrational or immoral, several of the more important tenets of Confucianism, — tenets that had hitherto constituted their deepest mental life. Mr. Ham-berg's book, together with those of the Tae ping publications which professedly emanate from the pen of the Heavenly Prince himself, place it beyond a doubt, that Hung sew tseuen is a man of strong religious feelings, — a man who must, at all times, have strongly felt the craving of humanity to reverence a higher Being, and its longing for an immortal existence. As such, he could have little natural sympathy for the athe^ istical interpretation of Shang te, the Supreme Buler, and Teen, Heaven, which the good faith and unrivalled genius of Choo tsze had imposed on the nation; and hence he must be placed with those whom I have described as in-clining to the most deistical interpretation of the Sacred Books, that orthodoxy permitted. The words, Te and Teen, formed the hinge on which he turned from Con-fucianism to Christianity. He had always reverenced the Being indicated by these terms, as the Supreme Buler of

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the world ; and from Leang a&h*6 miasioiiary tracts, he learnt that, in the most ancient and moBt venerated Books of die western foreigners, that very Being was not rimply mentioned a few times, as in the Chinese Sacred Books, but formed their chief subject, as the Creator and Ruler of the TJni verse, with the attribute of distinct personality. And, when he got these books himself, he found that, while Shang te wms in-deed every where referred to under that very name as the One Almighty Ruler, a greater personality was therein given to his other name. Teen, by the addition of Foo, father; which latter word, it will be remembered, awakens peculiarly reve-rent feelings in the mind of a Chinese. Hence in taking, as he distinctly has done, the Old and New Testaments, as the highest standard of truth, he has not been constrained to dis-card the Chinese Sacred Books, but merely to view those pas-sages which refer to Shang te and Teen, by the light which is thrown on them by the attributes and acts ascribed, in die foreign Sacred Books, to the Being so named. For the res^ the morality, taught by precept and example in the Chinese Sacred Books, corresponded so completely with that taught by precept and example in the foreign Sacred Books, that in this respect also the acceptance of the latter, as the highest stan-dard, led to no condemnation of the former : on the contrary the two mutually confirmed each other.

The most important of the Tae ping publications, for ear present purpose, is that entitled **Tae ping Chaou shoo, the Tae ping Book of Declarations or Instructions ; " first, because it is avowedly the work of Hung sew tseuen himself; and secondly, because it, being a vindication, addressed to the educated of his countrymen, of the system which he preaches, — a vindication supported by numerous references to the Chinese sacred and historical literature — really shows us what it was that (in addition to the mental aberration which he manifestly himself believed to have been a real ascent of " his soul" into heaven) produced his own conversion. I may take this opportunity of stating, that this one book completely

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disproves what some people have sud about the lack of lite-rary ability on the part of the Tae pings. It shows that their chief himself is a man well versed in the very extensive literature of his country, the more philosophical portion of it included. And his style has that clearness and simplicity which an earnest man, more anxious to plant conviction in the minds of his readers, than to excite admiration of himself, ia sure to adopt if really an able writer. I recommend Hung sew tseuen's '^ critics'' to attend to the following: — *' Men frequently admire as eloquent, and sometimes admire the most, what they do not at all, or do not fully, comprehend, if elevated and highnsounding words be arranged in graceftd and sonorous periods. Those of uncultivated, or ill-cultivated, minds, especially, are apt to think meanly of anything that is brought down perfectly to the low level of their capacity ; though to do this with respect to valuable truths which are not trite, is one of the most admirable feats of genius. They admire the profundity of one who is mystical and obscure ; mistaking the muddiness of water for depth; and magni-fying in their ima^nations what is viewed through a fog."* HuDg sew tseuen's Book of Declarations not being intended for men of '^ uncultivated or ill-cultivated minds," is written as plainly as possible.

Its first sentence forms a substantiation of all that I have just said respecting it. The translation published at Shanghaef Gommenees : —

*' The great origin of Tirtue la firom Heayen : Let OS now reyerently allude to Heayen's

ways, in order to arouse you worthies. The way of Heayen is to punish the abandoned

and bless the good."

But the first line is a quotation, forming the text, as it were, to the first section of the Book, which is in verse. The word rendered "virtue" is the Taou, which has been

* Archbishop Wbately.

t All the Tae ping publications haye been translated by Dr. Medhurat and were published in the " Korth China Herald," as also separately.

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explained at length in the last Chapter ; and the wh<de line runs: —

''Taott che ta ynen chnh yn Teen." Trath'B grand originatioii proceeded from Heaven.

Or, '^ Heaven is the grand origin of Truth." It was first used by Tung chung shoo, a philosopher who lived in the third century before Christy and one of whose chief merits was the addition of the proposition which it enundateSy to the national body of doctrines. Choo tsze gave it his sancliofn ; and it stands, as a text, at the head of several of the best essays on the national philosophy, that the orthodox school has produced, — essays written from five to six centuries ago. Taou is, as I have shown, at times synonymous with cfor *' virtue ; " but the authoritative essays, just mentioned, prove that, in this time-honoured sentence, it conveys to Chinese tbe meaning of Truth, as identical with the Teen ming, the Will of Heaven, and with Teen taou, the Way (or true course) of Heaven. By the use which the founder of the Tae ping Christianity makes of this and of several similar, stereotyped sentences of the national philosophy, he addresses a powerful appeal to the educated of his countrymen : '* You know," say these sentences in his mouth, '^ that Teen has always been considered by us to be the same as Shang te ; consequently that the Will and Way of Teen are the Will and Way of Shang te; and you know well how much trouble it cost Choo tsze to establish the doctrine that Shang te was merely the personified Ultimate Principle. The fact is, that Shang te is the intelligent. Supreme Buler, the originator of all things ; and our ^ ultimate principle ' is nothing but His Will or Way in operation, as the all-originating and all-sustaining power. The foreigners' Sacred Books, from beginning to end, represent Him and His Will and His Way in no other light ; and the foreigners have, from the most ancient times up to the present day, devoutly worshipped him. Does this not explain the circumstance, that one small nation of these foreigners, when they sent a few thousands of troops from

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at great distance to fight the Manchoo rulers of our vast China» were conquerors in every battle? Was that not because thej have always worshipped the Shang te« whom Ching tang adored and obeyed when he overthrew the Hea dynasty; whose commands Woo wang executed when he overthrew the Shang dynasty; and whom the foreigners' Sacred Books show to have often conmianded the destruction of the idolatrous and the vicious, such as are our Manchoo rulers, and such as are now the whole people of China?''

Hung sew tseuen nowhere alludes to the fact of the foreigners having beaten the Manchoos; but the great influ-ence that the success of British military operations had in his conversion is, I conceive, fuUy established by the singular coincidences noted at pages 80 and 87. All the other views expressed in the above suppositional address are either enun-ciated in plain terms in different parts of his writings, or are unmistakeably implied by the passages which he quotes or embodies. For instance, the third of the above lines runs : —

Teen

taon

ho

yin

wei

fnh

shen.

Heayen'a

Way

Infliote

on

but

gives

to the

miseiy

the

yicioQB

happinesB

yirtuoua

Now this is, with an immaterial transposition and the addition of the conjunction, but, a quotation from a justifi-catory manifesto of Ching tang,* given in the Sacred Shoo king: Teen taou Juh shen, ho yin; keang tsae yu Hea, &x;., Heaven* 8 Way gives happiness to the virtuous ^ inflicts misery on the vicious; it has sent down calamities on the Hea dynasty," &c. In the minds of the millions in China who have that passage by heart, its use, by Himg sew tseuen, recalls the old narrative of the expulsion of the Hea family at the command of Shang te.

Having shown generally how the new Chinese Chris-tianity is connected with, and modified by, pre-existing beliefs, I proceed to an exposition of its tenets; in the course of

* He iseended the throne b.o. 1788. E B

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which some farther proofs of the modification and oonnezion will be given.

Hung sew tseuen undoubtedly conceives Shang te^ the Teen foo, as existing at times imder a human form, with human attributes, i.e, his conception is anthrDpomoacphic. His ^* vision" does not account to us for this, for we know that that could be nothing but a subjective product of his waking, sober thoughts. I have indicated at page 82, that it was probably the first and third chapters of Geneius, understood literaUy, which led to it. I know that not only Bomaiaists, who paint in their churches God the Father as a venerable old man, concdive him habitually under the human form, bot that many members of the two national churches in this island are also practically anthropomorphists, though theo-retically declaring that God is a spirit ; the chief cause being the expression <* created man in his own image." A further reason may be adduced for Hung sew tseuen's anihrcqpo-morphic conception. His new fiiith was a reaction against pantheism not less than against idolatry ; and as the unity of the One Shang te opposed the multiplicity of idols in the religion of the ignorant, so the distinct human-like per-sonality of Shang te opposed the belief in a non-personal ultimate principle of the educated. Having noted this ten-dency of Hung sew tseuen's views to anthropomorphism, I need say little more on his conception of God the Father, for in all other respects that conception is identical with that of Protestant Christendom. He accepts entirely the cos-mogony of Genesis as it is understood by orthodox Episco-palians; and for him God the Father is the Alm^hty, Allwise Creator, and the Omnipresent Sustainer of the Universe.

HuDg sew tseuen gives his views of the nature of man, where he proves the brotherhood of the human race. Their bodies they derive from their parents; but as all families proceeded from one family, and that one family from one original ancestor, therefore, viewed with respect to their

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physical nature, they are all brethren. Their soulsi i.e. the eouls of all men now bom, he, guided by the second chapter of Genesis, states to be (sang) produced by, or to (chuh) proceed firom, " the breath of Shang te." In support of this doctrine of a common origin, he quotes the aphorism which tlie national philosophy applies to the Ultimate Principle: ^' The one root spread out into multifold branches ; the multi-fold branches all appertain to one root/' He also quotes two passages from the pre-Confucian Sacred Books to the eiSect that man is produced by Heaven. Lastly, what is of great importance, he quotes the opening sentence of the psycho-logical Chung yung, where Confucius says, ** Teen ming che .wei Sing, the will (or decree) of Heaven is called Nature/'

Here we have the human sotU of the new Christianity declared to be the same in constitution as the Jin Sinff^ Man's nature, of orthodox Confucianism; and here we, in consequence, see Hung sew tseuen declaring quite naturaUy, and in unconsciousness of any necessity to dwell on the pro-position, that each man's soul, as (sang) an immediate creation of, or (chuh) direct emanation firom, God, is perfectly good ; a doctrine which he, in another place, explicitly enunciates by saying, '* Bighteousness is man's inborn original nature.''

As orthodox Confucianism says nothing of a future life, it furnished no word by which man's immortal soul could be expressed. The Buddhist and Taouist superstitions of the uncultivated classes furnished the word hwan ; but this being (etymologically) composed of two others, the one meaning vapowr, the other miserable or evil spirit, or demon, its latter component rendered it objectionable, as a designation of that ' inomortal part of the human being which more espedally con-stituted him a child of Grod. Therefore Hung sew tseuen has adopted a new word, formed by discarding the demon portion of hwan, and substituting the character man as the component. In theTae ping books the soul is, consequently, designated by a new composite word, whereof the constituents are vapour and man ; forming, I may observe, a by no means inappropriate

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420 THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBELLION&

designation of that which is^ in reality, the man proper. The reader must understand that Hung sew Tseuen, in pro-pounding the doctrine of the original righteousness of each man's soul, does not set the Chinese Sacred Books in oppo-sition to the Western Sacred Books, and then decide in favour of the former : he has, in his study of the latter^ found nothing that impugned the doctrine whidi he had learnt from the former. As far as I can perceive, wherever Hung sew tseuen detects a clashing between the Woo king and Sze shoo on the one hand, and the Old and New Testaments aa the other^ he either by a re-interpretation makes the former conform to the latter, or declares them in so far wrong. He appears to have, once for all, taken the Bible as the highest standard of truth, and to have accepted everything new that he therein finds. Hence it is, that he refers the evil in the world mainly, if not altogether, to the constantly operating deceits of the ** serpent devil;" a doctrine entirely derived from the Bible, since the Chinese literature, whether Confu-cian or superstitious, attaches nothing peculiarly demoniacal to the form of the snake, while good spirits are occasionally represented under it. This *^ serpent devil '' is identified by Hung sew tseuen with the Yen lo wang, the Pluto or Eang of Hades of popular superstition ; and the intense hatred borne to him, as the great devil, with others of the evil spirits as his followers and agents, by all classes of the Tae pings, is a strik-ing practical feature of their Christianity. To the educated, the idols are but the visible representatives of these devils; but to the uncultivated the idols are the devils themselves. And the Tae ping soldiers spoke of having *' killed ** these former objects of their worship, with a fierce exultation that was to me (who, of course, regarded them only as things to be laughed at), at first, quite inexplicable. I soon found, however, that it was the result of a mental reaction. From childhood up, they had been in the habit of humbly propitiating the idols as the dread authors of ill fortune and calamity, and their present hatred and exultation was proportionate to their

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former humility and fear. The inten^ty of the feeling they exhibited, and which manifests itself in the long and earnest denunciations of the Book of Declarations, shed a new light for me on the records of the earlier Mahommedans, and indeed of every community which has deserted idolatry for mono-theiBm*

With respect to those good men of Chinese history whose images are worshipped in the temples. Hung sew tseuen merely reprobates the absurdity of adoring the representa-tions of those who ** have long since ascended into Heaven." As in his vision he saw the holy men in heaven, so in his writings he always assumes them to be there ; in one place he mentions by name Wftn, the originator of the Chow dynasty, and Confucius, saying that their souls are in the presence of God, because they were righteous; and then immediately adds that his " own soul had ascended to heaven,'' and that his *^ words are true.'' His view is that Chinese history proves the nation generally to have been followers of Shang te — Godworshippecs — ^in the period of highest antiquity, and that though '^ false gods " had begun gradually to creep in, still both Prince and people continued to worship God as of old, until the advent of the Che hwang Emperor ; whom Hung sew tseuen reprobates as much for his superstitious pro-pensities, as all educated Chinese execrate him for his book-burning and his government by violence. From that period idolatry and superstition increased ; Buddhism was formally introduced from India; and at length an Emperor of the Sung dynasty (before the commencement of the second lite-rary epoch) committed the irreverence of setting up an image of Shang te, and prefixing the epithet of Yuh, gemlike or precious, to His honourable name. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, adds Hung sew tseuen, that since then, for the last six or seven hundred years, the knowledge and fear of God should have been almost lost. This remark is almost all that he says against the philosophers of the Sung dynasty, whom he does not even mention as such. Though the atheistical or pantheistical interpreters of the Sacred Books, they were,

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at leaet^ not idolaters ; and it is idolatry aboTe all, wbkii excites Hung sew tseuen's soom and abhorrenoe.

In one or two places, he uses the term, holj, of the andent men hitherto so designated ; but it will presently be seen tEat there is good ground for believing that he, in so doings merely yields to a philological necessity, (there being no other coUectiTC name for them,) and that he does not attribute to them any intuitive consciousness of, and spontaneous con-formity with the order of the universe ; which latter is with him the Will of a personal, living God.)

It is, perhaps, in the attributes of Jesus that we find the greatest difference between the Tae ping Christianity and that of the two British churches. The Book of Declarations states that Hwang shang Te, the August Supreme Grod, is Te ; it reprobates the Sovereigns or Lords (choo) of earthly kingdoms for assuming the title of Te or Grod (as is done by the present Emperors of China), and lays it down that they should be called only Wang or Princes. It then adds the following to give force to the injunction : —

^* Even the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who is the eldest son of Hwang shang te, the August Supreme Ood, is only styled Choo, Lord. Now in heaven above, in earth beneath, and among men, there is none greater than Jesus : if even Jesus cannot be called Te, God, who is it that dares presumptuously to call himself Te?"

This is only one of a number of proofs that Jesus is not considered equal with the Heavenly Father. And the iact that a co-eternity of the Son with the Father is nowhere asserted in the Tae ping publications, together with the following circumstances, leads me to the conclusion that the former is considered to be a created or produced Being.

In the Confucian ontology, the word sdnff is used to express the production of all men and things by the operation of the Ultimate Principle ; and it is the word used in common lan-guage to express the production of children by thdr father. It is used in the translations of the New Testament, in con-nexion with the birth of Jesus, to render the word begotten ;

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id we have seen that it is used by Hung sew tseuen to signify the production of the souls of men by God. Jesus ^veas, therefore^ equally with man, sSng, ue. begotten or pro-duced by God. This, together with the first chapter of the ICpistle to the Hebrews, which speaks of Jesus as the ^* first-l>^;otten/' and of his having been begotten <^this day/* ¥¥iatefl him, for the Tae pings, at once a created being and the elder brother of all men as the sons of God. From all this, it has followed that God is mostly spoken of as Teen foo, the Heavenly Father ; and Jesus, ^his first^l^produced or eldest son, as Teen heung, the Heavenly Elder Brother. Of all the other sons of God, the greatest — ^he who has been most honored — is Hung sew tseuen ; who was summoned in spirit up into heaven ; and saw the Heavenly' Father face to face. He, therefore, being next to the Elder Brother, is the second son of the Heavenly Father: but as he has been commissioned to rule over tibe world, he is (for.the sake of euphony) commonly called Teen wang, the Heavenly Prince, — B(»netime8 Chin choo, the True Sovereign. The reader will now perceive that, for the Tae pings, with their par-ticular conceptions, there is by no means, in the name and quality of ** Second Son of God," that astounding degree of blasphemous assumption which, at first hearing, the desig-nation conveys to us. The following extractsTrom an edict issued by Hung sew tseuen, as the Heavenly Prince at Yung gan in the end of 1851, throws further light on the subject : — ** The Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord, Hwang shang te is the only true God : * no other is God save the Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord, Hwang'shang te.

* Shin in the original. It is the general teim for chjecU qf warship, andjia in BO fiw Daed aa the old Bazona probably uaed ''god." Aa Chriaiianity baa in England adopted that word, with a capital O, to deaignate the anlj/^retl Ood, 80 many of the miaaionarieB in China have adopted Shin. )lThey ahonld, in aoeordanee with the dutom of the language, alwaya laiae it to the highest place in the page ; a proceeding rery much more emphatic and diatinctiye than our capitalizing. The objection to it ia, that it is uaed also of thinga not objects of wonhip ; which ia quite true. But the Tae pings, who are not inTolved in philo-logical diaputea and are only anxiona to propagate their new faith, above all to

CHAPTER XIX (PART 2 OF 4)

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I

** The ^eayGnl7 Father, the Supreme Lord, Hwang aliai^ te, is Omniscient, Almighty and Omnipresent: He is in all things Sapreme (shang.) There is not a single man who is not produced and supported hj Him ; He onlj is Supreme ; He only is Te. To the Heayenly Father and Supreme Liord alone is due the title of Supreme, the title of Te. From this time forth, let the troops address Us as Lord* simply, they must not entitle Us Supreme, thereby offending against the HeaTenly Father.

<< The Heavenly Father is the Holy (shing) Father in Heayen; the Heavenly Elder Brother is the Holy Lord, the Saviour of the world: only the Heavenly Father and the Heavenly Elder Brother are Holy. From thb time forth, let the troops address Us as Lord simply, they must not entitle Us, Holy, thereby offending against the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Elder Brother.

*' The Heavenly Father and Supreme Lord, Hwang shang te is the father (yay) of spirits, the father of souls. Some time back, We ordered that the first and second ministers, with the commanders of the front and rear armies, should be addressed as Princely Father (wang yay). This was a tem-porary compliance with the false rules of the world and, judged by true doctrines, has in it somewhat of an offence against the Heavenly Father: He only is Father (yay)."

The edict then confers the titles of Tung waug, Se wang^ &c. Eastern Prince, Northern Prince, &c. upon the five chief men ; who are consequently never called yay. This word, yay, until about a.d. 900, was employed to signify father only. It then began to be used as a title of respect; and is

have Ood honoured, use it yeiy freqnenily with the prefix, trae. ThoM mis-Bionaries, however, who hold that the Te (with or without the a^jectlTes hwang and ehang) of the Chinese Sacred Books denoted an only Creator and Baler of the Univerae, do well to employ Te. I hare shown how much it fiunlitated the conyersion of Hung sew taenen ; who, as the text here provea, restricts it to Ood thp Father.

* Choo in the original. It means Sorereign when used of Kings and Emperors.

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now widely employed by all Chinese — ^not Tae pings — Bome-Mrhat like the Gennan Herr, lord, master, Mr. (your or his) Honor &c. Hnng sew tseuen's purism, with respect to it, is in consequence rather embarrassing to his adult followers ; but it is an additional proof of the strictness of his mono-tlieism. All the other words. Shin, Te, Shang and Shing have been long applied by the Emperors to themselves. Among the Tae pings, the first three are to be restricted to the Heavenly Father only, the last one, to the Heavenly Father with the Heavenly Elder Brother. Jesus may there-fore be called Holy, but not God, or Supreme. With the epithet holy, especially as here restricted, he is endowed in the eyes of educated Chinese with that perfect goodness and intuitive perception of the truth in all matters that come under his cognizance, which were the characteristics of the Holy Men i^ but the very wording of the above edict gives cause to doubt that omnipotence or omnipresence are ascribed to Him. In that edict, and throughout the Tae ping publi--cations, the name of Jesus, the Heavenly Elder Brother, stands one place below the name of the Heavenly Father, — an expression of subordination than which the Chinese lan-guage can furnish nothing more distinct.

The Tae ping moral code, and their as yet very simple ritual is given in their ''Book of Heavenly Bules,^' the Heavenly Bules being the Ten Commandments, which thus give the book its name. The Bules are not the Command-ments, as the latter stand in the translations of the Bible. Those which admit of it are shortened, probably with a view to easier remembrance. Thus the long second command-ment in which Moses, who had just led the Israelites from a land where nearly every '' living thing in the heaven above, in the earth beneath, and in the water under the earth " was worBhipped, felt obliged to be explicit in the prohibition of

• The express restriction of Sbing, Holy, decreed here, is my reason for be-liering the occasional application of shing to the ancient worthies of the Sacred Books to be the result of a philological necessity.

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426 THE CUIlfEBE AND THBIB BEBSLUONS.

raoh worship; but that is not necessary in China, where only human images are the objects of worship. Hence the second Heavenly Rule runs : —

<' Thau skaU not worship false Gods^

Then follows an explanatory note : —

*' Hwang Bhang te said : 'Tfaou sbalt hare none other goda (dhin) but me. . Therefore all beside Hswang hang te are &]ae gods, deeeiTen and deatio jen of mankind, whieh mnat on no account be wonhipped : whoever wonhipa ai^y ftlae goda ia a riolator of the Heayenly Bales."

Here we see, that what constitutes the first C<Mnmaiid-ment is brought in as an explanation of the second Xtnle^ The first Bule runs ** Thou shalt honor and worship Hwang shang te.** The ^rit of the Commandments is, on the whole, fairly and sufficiently giyen in the Bules; the latter are, where they do differ, made more comprehensive, as where ^* Thou shalt not bear false witness," %.e. tell one kind of lies, is changed to " Thou shalt not utter falsehoods," i.e. tell any kind of lies. The fourth Bule is an exception. It runa, ^' On the seventh day, the day of worship, thou shalt praise Hwang shang te for his goodness." This and its note enjoins more ceremonial worship than on other days, but says nothing of resting. In their present situation, military labors must be executed on all days.

The Book of Heavenly Bules describes the mode of formal acceptance of the new fidth. All men, it says, have violated the Heavenly Bules, and hitherto the manner of deliverance from the consequences has been unknown. But ''hereafter whoever makes repentance of his £^ilt before Hwang shang te, and abstains from idolatry, depravity and breach of the Heavenly Bules, will be permitted to ascend into Heaven and enjoy happiness to all eternity.'^ Those who do not, will be cast into hell and suffer misery to all eternity. Those who repent should '* kneel before Heaven and pray Hwang shang te to forgive their guilt ; in doing which, they may if they please use a written form." They are then to *' wash the body with water from a basin or, what is still

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better^ to bathe in a river," i e. they are to baptize them-selves. From that time forth, they are ** to worship Hwang shang te, morning and evening; to beseech Him for protec-tion, and for the gift of His Holy Spirit to reform their hearts; to thank Him before meals; on the seventh day, the day of worship, to praise Him for His goodness ; at all times to obey the ten Heavenly Bules ; and on no accoont to worship any of the false gods of the world, nor to practise any of the depravities of the world. Thus they will become sons and daughters of Hwang shang te ; in life they will enjoy His protection; after death their souls will ascend to heaven, and there enjoy happiness for ever. Let all the people in the world, whether Chinese or foreigners, men or women, but do this, and they will be enabled to ascend into heaven.'*

These then are, in the words of its founders, the essentials of the Tae piog Christianity.

In opposition to a regulation of the existing Chinese state worship, which permits the emperor only to adore Shang te, the Book of Heavenly Rules muntains the equal right of every one to worship Him ; and we find accordingly no sign of a priesthood, as mediators between God and man. A few forms of thanksgiving and prayer are given to be used before meat, at morning and evening, and on the ordinary occasions of domestic sorrow and rejoicing, as deaths, birth-days, mar-riages, &C. Some of these are to be accompanied by offerings (not sacrifices) of animals, and of vegetable food. Music is used in* worship, a custom which is incidentally justified by a quotation from the Yih hing, showing that it was used in the ancient worship of Shang te. Nothing is said of cele-bration of a Lord^s Supper. One of the forms which are given, consists of the following verses, intended for repetition on Sundays : —

We praiae and glorify Shang te as the Heavenly Holy Father,

We praise and glorify Jesns as the Sayionr of the worid the Holy Loid,

We praise and glorify the Holy Spirit as the Holy Intelligenoe,

We praise and glorify the three persons as the united true God :

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The tnie doctrineB anaredly diflSsr from worldly doetriuM ; Thej BATO man's boqI and lead to Ub enjoyment of happineaa withovt end. The wise joyfully receire them as a means of happiness ; The foolish, when awakened, hare by them the road to heayen cpeaed. The Heavenly Father, in his vast goodnesi^ great and withont limits Spared not his eldest son bat sent him down into the world. Who gave ap his life to redeem oar iniquities : If men will repent and reform, their sools will be enabled to ascend into Hearen.*

In the first lines of these verses, we have an obscure and partial statement of the doctrine of the Trinity — obscure and partial were it but from the impossibility of propounding, in so few words, a conception so mysterious ; and in the last lines, we have what looks like a statement of the doctrine of redemption. I say "looks like," for I have given above positive evidence of the existence of the doctrine of original purity, one which directly conflicts with that of impated sin ; and I have also translated a passage of this very book, which traces the course of a true convert from his conversion till his ascent into heaven, without alluding to any absolute neces-sity for the redemption, by the act of a third person, o( self-committed sins. With reference to the doctrine of the Trinity, the reader lias already had positive proof that the Tae pings entertain views on the nature of Jesus that militate agiunst it; and further difficulties will appear. After all

* Dr. Hedharst renders the last lines : — " To gire up his life for the redemption of all oar transgressions.

The knowledge of which, coupled with repentance, sayes the souls of men." Bat the words which I have italicized have no representatives in the original : they are supplied. I am aware that che, to know, knowledge, has no soch meaning as, wiU, given to it by the dictionaries. But it does very frequent occur in that sense, brfore verbs denoting human acts ; and so it reads to me here. The context might possibly admit of the word, thertfore, before if; bat most sinologues will agree in considering "which** and "coupled with** to be additionB not admissible in the most paraphrastic rendering. The following is from a later translation in the Shanghae Journal ; by whom furnifihed, is not stated : —

" He gave his life to redeem Ub from all iniquity; If men did but know how to repent ; Their souls would ascend to heaven."

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this, howeTer> it oannot be denied by those who are anxious to disparage the new Christiauty, in the eyes of Western orthodoxy, that the Tae pings have some knowledge of both doctrines. As to the doctrine of redemption in particular, many of their writings — for instance the letter given at page 269 — prove that they habitually preserve a consciousness, that for their hope of eternal happiness they are indebted to the labours and sufferings of Jesus Christ. The paucity of materials to judge from — a paucity owing to the fact that the Tae ping publications deal more with directly practical rules than with metaphysical theology — makes further discussion of these questions, for the present, futile.

In Chapter YUI. has been described, the first appearance of the fanatical element among the Godworshippers ; and how it was enabled to procure for itself that acceptance and authority, which has made its chief organ the virtual ruler of the Tae pings. From their publications — those which I have grouped under the second class— we learn that Yang sew tsing, the Eastern Prince, falls at times into a state of un-consciousness resembling sleep, but in which he utters com-mands and exhortations; summons other leaders to his presence, orders men, whom he declares to be traitors, to be brought before him ; convicts them out of their own testimony, elicited by cross-examination; and condemns them to im-mediate decapitation. In all this he speaks as the Heavenly Father; and it is these, his fits or trances, which constitute what are called the descents or coming down of God into the world. When the trances, which appear to be really accom-panied by an excitement followed by considerable exhaustion, are over, the Eastern Prince alleges complete unconscious-ness of what has passed ; and only learns the words which his own mouth have uttered from the notes taken of them by those who surrounded him : his soul is, in short, nullified for the time, and it is the Heavenly Father who possesses his body and makes use of it to communicate His will. In this way the Heavenly Father gives orders, at times, that certain

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information or oommands shall be oommunicated to the Eastern Prince ; and when the trance is past — which is called the retnm of the Father into heaven — oominaiiicati<»i8 are made to him aceordingly. These he then receives ^th snr-prise, delight, indignation with exposed offenders, &c^ Sec, as their nature may severally require : they being, all the wfafle, communications from himself to himself.

In the same way Seaou chaou hwuy, the Western Prince, utters commands and exhortations, as the words of the Heavenly Elder Brother. But the Tae ping books only record three of such communications ; the longest of which given on pages 100 and 101. The others are of a similar nature. Their subordinate authority, as compared with those of the Heavenly Father, may account for their cessation or their rarer occurrence.

The first intelligible address of the Heavenly Father, which is recorded, is that given at page 100, and dated 19th April, 1851. This states : *' I have sent your Lord down into the world to become the Teen wang, the Heavenly Prince." Here, I believe, we have the ori^n of this latter title.

On the 18th August, 1851, the Heavenly Father uttered an address in verse, the fifth line of which runs^ ^' I, the Heavenly Father, have produced Tseuen to be your Sove-reign." Here Hung sew tseuen * seems to have been, aa^t were, specially produced ; and this line, together with the circumstances noted at page 423, accounts to me for the '* second son-ship ^' of God ascribed to him. In every case, the position of affairs at later periods is only intelligible on the theory, that it was some utterance of the Eastern Prince, in the name of the Heavenly Father, which made Hung sew tseuen consent to the use of that designation.

The manifest object of all the first utterances is political.

• Fathers and superiors address, and speak of, their sons and inferiors hy their indiTidoal names— equivalent to our names of Baptism ; hence Tsenen alone is here used. Dr. Medhurst did not perceive^ thaVTsenen was a name, and hence has misrendered the line : — " I yonr Heavenly Father, will be your Lord all your lives long."

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TA£ PING CHBISTIANITT. 431

Dignity is given to the cause by the deyation of its chief; and to those who fight courageously for it and for him, are promised worldly honours and immortal happiness. But on the 25th December, 1853, there took place at Nanking, about ten days after the visit of the French Minister, some extraordinary proceedings; which certainly could not elevate the chief; and of which it is difficult to see how their publi-cation could advantage the cause. The following is an abstract of the published record : —

Tbe Eastern Prince, shortly after having dismissed the l^orthem Prince and other officers from a consultation on official affidrs, which had been held at his palace, fell into a trance, in the presence of the females of his family only. He then^ as the Heavenly Father, commanded the females to summon the Northern Prince; and while this was being done, gave them some lengthy instructions to be communi* cated to (himself as) the Eastern Prince. The instructions were^ that the Eastern Prince should go " to Court ^' and reprove the Heavenly Prince for violence and harshness, chiefly, it would appear, to the females about Court; and for over-indulgence of his son, the heir apparent of the sove* reignty. Four ladies, mentioned by name, were to be excused from further attendance. The Heavenly Father had returned to heaven before the arrival of the Northern Prince; who, however, supposing Him to be still in the palace of the Eastern Prince knelt, with the Marquis Ting teen and other officers, at its outer gate. They were invited to rise and enter and were informed of the nature of His in-structions. To carry these out, the whole party had seated themselves in their sedans, in order to be conveyed to the palace of the Heavenly Prince, when the Heavenly Father again came down, t. e. the Eastern Prince fell into a trance in his sedan. The Heavenly Father issued commands to the Korthem Prince, who got out of his sedan and knelt in the street to receive them, that He should be conveyed to the hall of audience which is situated at the outer gate of the Court

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432 THE CHINESE AND THEIR fiEBELLIOKS.

in the Heavenly Prince's palace. Arrived there, the Heavenlj Prince 18 summoned} comes out hastilj, and, with the NcNrtheia Prince and the others, kneels before the Heavenlj Father, to hear his commands. The Heavenly Father, i. e. the Eastern Prince, (speaking apparently from his sedan,) reproves the Heavenly Prince angrily and declares that the punishment of forty blows must be inflicted on him* The Northern Prince and the other officers throw themselves on the ground; with tears entreat for the remission of their master's puni^-ment ; and offer to receive the blows themselves. The Hea-venly Prince rebukes them, saying that he deserves the blows ; and, as the Heavenly Father does not allow Himself to be moved by the intercessions, but continues to insist on the infliction of the blows, he prostrates himself to receive them. The Heavenly Father then, in consideration of his prompt submission, remits the punishment ; orders him to permit the retirement of the four ladies ; informs him that the Eastern Prince will communicate instructions to him on some other matters ; and then returns to heaven. The Northern Prince and the others then respectfully escort the Heavenly Prince back into the interior of lus palace ; during which the Eastern Prince appears to have been occupied in recovering himself, and becoming the Eastern Prince again. The Northern Prince then reports to him the second descent of the Hea-venly Father, as the females of his family had reported to him the first descent.

The Eastern Prince then proceeds to communicate the in-structions conveyed in the first descent. The Heavenly Prince receives them with much humble contrition, and praises the wisdom manifested by the Eastern Prince, in certain sugges-tions which the latter appends. The Eastern Prince observes the most respectful language in communicating the some-what lengthy instructions ; and disclaims all personal merit as to the suggestions : they are the eflect of the influence of the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Elder Brother on his mind. The first instruction is that more care should be taken

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with the education of the successor to the throne {a mattet* on tvhich Confiicianisis lay great stress) and that he should not be allowed to expose himself too much to the weather. The second has reference to the labour of women, the pre-sence of which, in such great numbers, was evidently being made use of to effect public works. The Heavenly Prince is told not to treat them with the hasty severity which he appears to have been guilty of. The third is that he must not put offenders, whether male or female, who have com-mitted capital crimes, hastily to death, as there may be extenu-ating circumstances; and the Eastern Prince begs that alt such cases may be handed to him for careful investigation before final judgment is passed; to which the Heavenly Prince agrees.

The Heavenly Prince then declares, that it is his duty still to have the forty blows inflicted upon himself. The Eastern Prince again inquires of the Northern Prince what the Hea-venly Father, t. e, himself in his trance, had ordered ; and, on hearing the report, desires the Heavenly Prince to set his mmd at rest, assuring him that it is not necessary that he should actually receive the blows. The Heavenly Prince then refers to a circumstance that took place during his ascent into heaven (the vision of 1837). A demon had presumptuously appeared there, but the Heavenly Father tolerated him, and commanded him (the Heavenly Prince) to spare him if he made submission ; from which he (the Hea-venly Prince) argues that a comparatively trifling error, such as he had himself committed in the case of the females, may also be pardoned. The Eastern Prince again assures him that he may set his mind at ease. The audience then breaks up, the Eastern and Northern Princes, together with the officers assembled, first kneeling and exclaiming, "May the Prince live for ever!''

The other officers then conduct the Eastern Prince to his residence. Before they leave him, he formally asks if he has done right in communicating the instructions of the Heavenly

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Father; whicb question being answered in the affinnathe, he exhorts all subordinates to admonish their aaperiors when wrong, — himself, for instance^ when he commits errors.

On the 27th December, two days after the above eyents, the Eastern Prince (as such) sends for the Northern Prince and the Marquis Ting teen, to whom he intimates tfaat» on reflection, it appears to him that the reproof administered bj the Heavenly Father to the Heavenly Prince, by impUcatioo affected all of them ; that they should therefore repair to Court and comfort the Heavenly Prince by repreaenting tbe affiur in that light ; and that, as the younger brothers in ft family express their sympathy for the elder brother, when reproved or beaten by their conmion father, so now it was their duty to b^ the Heavenly Prince to set his mind at rest They accordingly repair to Court, and are there invited to ft banquet ; which is described as an act of grace to the Eastern and Northern Princes, and as an extremely high honour for the Marquis Ting teen, the only other person admitted to it. Before and during this repast, the Eastern Prince addressed the Heavenly Prince at considerable length. After endea-vouring, as it appears, to mitigate the disquiet or humiliation in the mind of the Heavenly Prince produced by the scene of two days before, he repeats his advice and su^estions about the heir apparent and the treatment of females, and touches ako on some other topics. One is the nature of the old imperial dragon, which holds a place in China analogous to that of the royal lion and unicorn in England, with this difierence that many consider it to be a spirit. The Eastern Prince sipys that the Heavenly Prince formerly held all dragons to be ^ends; but that he (the Eastern Prince) considers the national emblem should be excepted. The Heavenly Prince repliest that in one of the descents of the Heavenly Elder Brother into the world (a trance of the Western Prince) he, the Hea* venly Prince, had inquired if the dragon was a fiend or not| and was told that he was not; further, when he himself ascended into Heaven (the vision) he saw a golden dragon

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there ; and lastly, a year ago, when their army passed Han yang, he dreamt that a golden dragon had come to pay its court to him. For all these reasons, he orders that the dragon continue to be the emblem of the sovereign power. At the close of the audience, the Heavenly Prince, after referring to the promise given by the Heavenly Elder Brother Jesus in the land of Judea, that at some future day the Comforter should come into the world, declares that, considering what the Eastern Prince had said and done, he must be that Com-forter, The record then finishes with an account of the Eastern Prince having been escorted to his residence and there addressing the others, much as had been done two days before.

Even for him who has long been in the habit of talking to

heathens about religion and the supernatural world, ajird who ,

is accustomed to hear odd jumbles of the sacred and^e me^,

— even for such a man an effort is necessary, be^reh^x^in

read the above narrative with any other feeling than "(hat of

wondering ridicule ; and before he can bring his miiid'to bear

seriously on the consideration of the cau^e ahd/figteaiiing of a

scene in which fanatical presumption on the <>ne hand, and

the queerest naiveU on the other, are mingled^^rith absurdity,

triviality, good sense and sound morality. I must, therefore,

before going on, beg the reader to look at the Map and to

sober himself down, as it were, by the reflection, that the

three chief actors are, the one, the spiritual originator ; the

second, the actual general director ; and the third, the ablest

military leader of a religious-political party which commands

hundreds of miles of country in the very heart of China ;

which has probably two or three hundred thousand men under

arms ; and whose possible success will change for ever the

destiny of one-third of the human race.

Two facts appear to be indubitably established by the nar-rative. The first is, that no collusion exists between the Heavenly Prince and the Eastern Prince in the matter of the descents of God into the world ; for if there did, the former

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436 THE CHINESE AKI> THEIR REBELLIONS.

would neTer have agreed to the publication of a narratiTe in which he is made to play a part so humiliating* The seoo&d fact IB, that the political power was still not so coinpletelj in the handt) of the Eastern Prince as to permit of his openlj acting at pleasure ; for the objects which he wished to attaiD, appear to have been justifiable — nay even very laudable ; jet he was compelled to have recourse to an authority whicb must be always liable, if overstrained, to have its reahty disputed; and the denial of which would be certain ruio to his power.

If we picture to ourselves fully the circumstances in whicb Hung sew tseuen was placed, it is not so difficult, as at first thought it may appear, to comprehend how he could, in perfect good faith, play the part assigned him by the narra-tive. He was well-versed in the history of his own country, which contains numberless instances of statesmen reproving their sovereigns, though in respectful terms ; and the sove-reigns, who in such cases have accepted and rewarded the just reproofs, share in some degree in the high admiration with which the nation regards the faithful ministers. Now the language of the Eastern Prince, as such, had been perfectly becoming. As to the 6U]>ernatural part of the transaction, it has been shown (pages 103 — 105) how it was that Hung sew tseuen first came to recognise the possessions of Yang sew tsing by the Spirit of God. The Old and New Testaments contain numerous passages in which God s[)caks to man, issuing commands, and answering objections ; and in which not only individuals, but numbers of people have His Spirit poured out upon them — in which they are filled with the Holy Ghost — in which their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost — in which they speak as moved by the Holy Ghost And while the reader will have no difficulty in finding such passages, he tvill have difficulty in finding passages declaring distinctly that uU this is to cease. How then was a Chinese, with imperfect translations before him, to arrive at the conclusion, (which Protestant Christianity seems to have at least practically

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come to,) that God will never again speak to man through the lips of man ? I repeat, if we regard Hung sew tseuen as an impostor, his recorded acts and speeches — those ascribed to hizn by that last narrative more than others— become quite unintelligible. But if we suppose him to be a man by nature always of deep religious feeling, and now an earnest believer in the authority of the Bible, then the history of David alone w^ould account for nearly all that he has done, and especially for his demeanour in these last extraordinary transactions. For every new convert, the words of the Bible have a fresh-ness— a living reality — of which great numbers of routine readers and church-goers have never had an idea, — which they cannot even conceive to themselves. But for what con-vert could theee words have so much force as for Hung sew tseuen, who could, established in Sovereign state at Nanking, look back on a career more marvellous than that of any potentate now living, for he commenced life with no other ad-vantages than the Chinese lads who, like him, attended cattle on the hills, David, " who kept the sheep,'' was anointed by Samuel at the verbal order of God. And he lay with his outlawed followers in the mountains and forests, before he found a refuge in the city of Achish. Much in the same way. Hung sew tseuen had camped among the hills of Kwang se, before he found a Ziglag in Yung gan. At the outset of his political-military career, when he was compassed round about in a sort of AduUam, he had been rescued from his extreme danger by this very Eastern Prince ; who had been warned thereto by one of these very descents of the Heavenly Father. What, in truth, was more likely than that Hung sew tseuen, long a student of the Bible in circumstances so specially adapted tx) make him wish for, and pray for, and believe, that he had obtained the aid granted to the chosen of God — a reader of the Bible in the midst of great perils and arduous difficulties, followed by marvellous successes and high honours — what was more likely than that he should look on himself as a David, with an Eastern Nathan to reprove him in the name

CHAPTER XIX (PART 3 OF 4)

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of Ood, and a Northern Joab to serve his cause and thwan his inclinations?

In the above narratiye of proceedings in December 1853, Hung sew tseuen alludes repeatedly to his asoent into heaTco, which took place in 1837 ; but in all the Tae ping books we find no pretension to any subsequent converse with God on his own part. Now, that ascent was purely spiritual ; for in the Book of Declarations he says, ** My soul ascended into heaven," using for soul the new word noticed at page 419.

Hence, so far as Hung sew tseuen and his strict foUowos are concerned, the latest publications and the fullest con-sideratbus far from invalidating, decidedly strengthen ^ opinions which I expressed in the following paragraph, after returning from Nanking : * —

*^ Those who are pleased to detect evil in the new sect will doubtless pass a summary judgment of ' imposture' and ' blas-phemy.* To those who wish rather to recognise tlie good that is in them, history — ^it may be even the history o£ their own parishes in their own youth — will furnish many examples of men, of irreproachable lives and admitted good sense in all ordinary matters, who believed themselves the recipients of direct revelations. We have an eminent instance of un-deniable authenticity in Swedenbo]^> a man of science, of great intellectual power and of undoubted moral purity, who saw visions of angels, conceived himself at times trantparted out of the body 9 and believed that he had direct communica-tions with Grod. A mental error that clings to many of us throughout life, and which is the abundant source of mis-understandings, mutual dislikes and quarrels, is the notion that what we feel and think, with respect to certain subjects under certain circumstances, is also thought and felt by all others on the same subjects and under similar circumstances. The man who persists in viewing the actions of his fellow-creatures from this stand-point, passes his days in a fog of miscon-ceptions and delusions, than which no self-deceit of fanatkasm *» From the North China Herald of 28ih May, 1858.

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oah well be greater. Most of fill does be err when he dogma--tically passes his analogical judgments on the communing of other men with their God."

That individual who is proud to think himself a ** shrewd man of the world/' and believes that appellation to imply the height of sagacity, will, of course, continue to hold Hung sew tseuen to be a knavish impostor. But he who knows that, in dealing with men, the highest practical ability consists, not in assuming all to be rogues, but in truly discriminating between the good and the bad, and in the right adaptation of conduct to each, — he will, espedally if he has had experience of buman nature in its stranger divagations, be inclined to give, even to the Eastern Prince, the benefit of the facts and views stated in the preceding paragraph. If true shrewdness con-sists in judging of men's motives, not by what we are, but by what they are ; and if it is a fact that a man like Bwedenborg, the carefully educated son of a Protestant bishop, did honestly believe that *^ the Lord manifested himself to him in a per-sonal appearance,'^ that he had been transported out of the body, and that he was the honoured revealer of a new dispen-sation ;* why should not the Asiatic, Yang sew tsing, when introduced to the new world of the Bible, come at length honestly to believe that his soul at times lay dormant, while

• If I were required to glre an idea of Tae ping Ohristianity by a reference to Bome known Bnropean Beet, I ahoold describe it as a Chinese Swedenboigian Gbristianity. Both Tae-pingism and Swedenborgianism acknowledge the an-thority of the Christian Scriptures, both understand them differently from other Christians, and both add a new dispensation. The Swedenborgians, who now number twelve thousand in Great Britain, deny the doctrine of yicarious saerifice, of justification by faith alone, and of the resurrection of the material body. They hold that salvation is not obtainable without repentance and living a life of charity and faith according to the Commandments ; and that man after death rises in a spiritual body in which he lives to eternity, either in heaven or hell according to his past life. In all this there is much simiUrity with the doctrines of the Tae pings. But while Swedenborgianism is Protestant Chris-tianity modified by an extensive knowledge of physical science ; Tae-pingism is Protestant Christianity modified by Confucian philosophy. The political drenmstances of Tae-pingism, and its connexion with war, cause of course still fuitber differences ; and make it, in truth, impossible to give a correct idea of it by any analogy.

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his body was " filled by the Spirit " of that God whose fre-quent communications with man he found therein narrated? I think it will be prudent at least to suspend our jadgmeDi» on the honesty or dishonesty of the man's fanaticism, till after we have had some face to face experience of him ; for if the Tae pings succeed, with him as their political leader, the view we take, may affect our material interests by the influence it will exercise on negotiations.

The morality adopted by the Tae ping religion has hitherto been strict, and is not likely to degenerate: Confucianism and Christianity combine to prevent that. Further, by a few sentences in the introduction to the Tae ping calendar, it sweeps away the whole system of divination, fortune-telling, and ^^ lucky days,'* which many of us have cause to know is a practical trammel on the otherwise free action, as to days and times, of the unchristianiued Chinese. But its Tiews of the supernatural world are manifestly degenerating in the hands of the fanatical party. In their conception of the Deity they seem to be exaggerating more and more the originally anthropomorphic leaning of Hung sew tseuen, and to be transforming the spiritual and catholic paternity, ascribed to God in the Book of Declarations, into a corpor^ and limited fatherhood. Without having as yet published anything to that effect, they, in their official communications with foreigners, show at least a tendency to ascribe to Grod the Father a human body, with human feelings and occu-pations; to regard him as wearing man's clothing; to look on the' Virgin Mary as his wife in heaven; to establish an identity between her and the Heavenly Mother of the Chinese Pan-theon ; and to consider her the mother, not of Jesus only, but of several other sons. In like manner, they appear inclined to give to Jesus a wife from among the goddesses of the un-cultivated Chinese ; and consider him as having a family of sons and daughters, the grandchildren of God the Father. It is in fact plain, that the Eastern Prince and his followers are the representatives of a Buddhistic or Taouistic element,

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that is struggling with the Confucian element to assert for itself a place in the new religion.

The Eastern Prince has availed himself of the expression, s^sM^ribed to Hung sew tseuen on the 27th December, 1853, (viz. that he must be the Comforter whose advent is pro^ mised in the New Testament) in order to assume that desig-nation ; and he now formally enters *' the Holy Ghost, the Comforter," into his array of titles. The Doxology on pages 427, 428 has been modified, by leaving out the two lines ivhich praise the Holy Spirit and the Three Persons, and sub-stituting others, in which the Five Princes are successively praised, — ^the Eastern Prince coming first, as the Holy Ghost. No mention whatever is made of Hung sew tseuen, the Heavenly Prince ; an omission not less satisfactory to us than it must be remarkable among the Tae pings. It is only to be accounted for on the supposition — one which agrees well with the tone of the edict at page 424 — ^that he has in this instance been firm, and has positively prohibited anything like adoration of himself.

The last of the Tae ping authenticated publications — one obtained on the occasion of the second British visit to Nan-king— is a modified republication of the first of two small volumes on the nature of God, which were published by Dr. Medhurst at Shanghae some ten years ago ; and a copy of which appears to have fallen into the hands of Hung sew tseuen, at Nanking, It consists of eight sections on the existence, the unity, the name, the spirituality, the eternity, the immutability, the omnipresence and the omnipotence of God ; each of which features is handled with an amplitude quite BufiScient to convey to all Chinese who can read, the best ideas entertained regarding it in Western Christendom. Our perceptive faculties are limited : we are unable to see both sides of the shield at once. Hence it is, that when we fix our attention on the spirituality and invisible omnipre-sence of God throughout the universe, we are unable at the same time to grasp the ideas of his personality and will, and

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OUT ooneeptioii tends to pantheism. On the other hand, when we fix our eyes on his will and distinct personality, ve are unable at the same time to retain the idea of his spiritual diffusion throughout all nature, and our conception tends to anthropomorphism. I haye pointed out that Hung sew tseuen^s anthropomorphism may fairly be held a reaction to the pantheism of the ConAician philosophy ; and that in his Tisions — ^the reflex of his waking thoughts — ^he conseqoendj saw God in a human form. Now the omissions and addi-tions of his republication of Dr. Medhmrst^s treatise, show that he still holds to his original conception. He retains a sentence which states that ** in ancient times Moses ob-tained a glance of the Divine Majesty;** but omits such sentences of the original as: — ''No man has seen GrodT '' we can neither observe his form nor hear his voice.'* So also, sentences declaring, in general terms, the immateriality of God are retained, possibly because not understood in their original sense; but such as deny him a human form are omitted. With regard to these points, Hung sew tsenen, evidently prefers to take, as they stand, those passages of the Scriptures which speak of God's " hand," "arm** and "feet," and of His *' hearing," « seeing," « walking " and *' talking ;" expressions which doubtless aided in the formation of his system. Some of the additions mark the characteristic hatred of the Tae pings to the false gods, of which the idols are the representatives. And on the whole, their republication of this treatise is a very satisfactory sign, because proving that at the latest period of communication they were still engaged in laying the basis of a closer approximation of views between themselves and us.

Of slavery, no mention appears to be made in the publica-tions of the Tae ping ; but if they succeed they would make little difficulty about accepting our views on that subject, and would abolish an institution which industrial progress alone has already done much to restrict, and which is directly con-trary to the spirit of Christ's second great commandment

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Attempts have been made to fix a charge of licentious-ness on Hung sew tseuen on the ground that he is a polj-gamist. There can be no doubt that the older Tae pings, stationed in Nanking, practise polygamy in that form which has hitherto existed in the country ; and we see nothing in their publications to make us believe that they think of abolishing it But why should they think of abolishing it ? *^ Christianity requires its abolition, and if their Christianity were not a pretence they would have abolished it long ago ; '' will be the answer of many. I reply that they have learnt their Christianity frcon the Bible, and that, while polygamy is authorized again and again in the Old Testament by the highest examples, it is nowhere prohibited in the New Testa-ment The third chapter of the first E[MStle to Timothy recommends bishops and deacons to have one wife only, but it does not declare it to be a positive sin on their part to have more than one ; while it does imply that other men — not bishops or deacons — may have more than one wife, and yet be received as members of the Christian community. Further, in the Chinese translation, the word wife is rendered by tse, the name of the wife proper (the Sarah) in China, of whom Confucian Chinese can only have one. Of the tsee, the concubines (or Hagars,) nothing is said in the injunction referred to. What amount of insight into our interpreta-tions of the Bible and into our views of domestic or conjugal morality, Hung sew tseuen may have received during his two months stay with Mr. Boberts, we know not. He did not attract Mr. Boberts' particular attention. But we do know that he must often have been told that the Bible is the highest, standard of religion and morality, — that it was wholly the word of God. This being the case, the history of David, the chosen of Grod, with seven tse or wives and ten tsee or concubines, was of itself enough to refute in his mind, anything that he may have heard against polygamy or concubinage from the Europeans of the present day. And in this particular, the Chinese Sacred Becords of that period

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when Shang te was still worshipped in China, corroborated the Sacred Books of the West. For as in the Elast, the revered ancient monarchy Yaou, gave his two daughters as wives to his chosen successor, the equally revered ancient monarchy Shun ; so in the West, Laban had given bis two daughters to Jacobs the prc^enitor of David and of Jesus.

Even if the translations of the Bible were accompanied by doctrinal annotations, even in that case learned Chinese, who accept the Book as their standard of life, are not likely to follow such annotations implicitly; they will say: **Yon, the foreign annotators are not inspired, you may have erred; and we must study for ourselves a book so important." But the translations have not only no doctrinal annotations, they have not even the notices of geography, history, and customs which are absolutely necessary to make some passages intel-ligible; and with which, I may add, the Chinese Sacred Literature is so carefully provided. I have spoken to mis-sionaries in China about this and, since my return to England, to the Secretary of a large Missionary Society. I now tell those generally, who interest themselves in missionary labours, that while un-annotated copies of the Bible may answer weD enough among illiterate Polynesians or Africans, who must read it under the guidance of a teacher ; such copies, spread-ing among millions of reading Chinese, who may never see a foreigner, cannot fail to give rise to much greater diver-sities of opinion than exist in Western Christendom. We have seen, for instance, that the Tae pings baptize them^ selves ; but baptism, even in that shape, would appear to be to them an unessential form ; for, on being asked, on the occa-sion of the last visit to Nanking, what method of baptism they observed, they replied that the worship of Grod con-sisted not in sprinkling or dipping the. body but in cleansing the heart.

There are undoubtedly doctrines in the New Testament which, followed out to their consequences, lead to monogamy : such as that of the equality of the soul of woman to that of

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Tnan» and the command, Do unto others as you would be done by. But there is no special positive rule laid down on the subject, and St. Paul, who recommended one wife only for bishops, also declared that it was better to abstain alto-gether from marriage, to which opinion, the foreigners, — missionaries included, — paid little attention; as Hung sew tseuen could not help perceiving. Monogamy is, in fact, one of those things which revelation has left to be established by increasing enlightenment, aided by deduction from the above cited doctrines. How absolutely necessary I think it to the progress of civilization, several portions of this volume show ; but to blame Hung sew tseuen for having failed hitherto to prescribe it, is not less ridiculous than it would be to blame the Eang of Timbuctoo for not teaching his heir apparent the first book of Euclid ; which is certainly necessary to the pro-gress of material civilization. Next to his reprobation of false gods and their worship, there is no other crime, which the Heavenly Prince visits with so much earnest condemna-tion, as that of irregular intercourse between the sexes. And if the Tae pings succeed in establishing themselves in the sovereignty of the country, I have little doubt that his reli-gious views will, in time, triumph over those of the fanatical section. His opinions are far more calculated to gain the adherence of the learned class. These have always been accustomed to look with contempt on that plurality of deities, which the grosser fanaticism of the movement appears in-clined to introduce; but their whole previous training and habits will incline them to turn to the study of venerated ancient books ; books, too, which show them the Shang te of China's antiquity as a living God, the constantly adored protector of the now so powerful western foreigners. With them, in short, all the causes will operate which produced the conversion of Hung sew tseuen himself; and, in addition to these causes, there will be the worldly advantages at-tendant on a zealous conformity with the faith of the sove-reign. That faith accords with Confucianism in the region of

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morality, and scarcely interferes with it in the region of politbe. The essential principles and forma of government may always remain — for a long time mu3t remain — what they have bees hitherto; for those who will establish and organize the government, know no other. In every case, that gnmd institution which makes the intelligence of the Chmese nation, entirely and directly, what it everywhere is par-tially because indirectly ; the ruling power, — that institotioD will exist and operate from the first. The Eastebk Princb has stated, in writino, that under the rule of the Tas Pings, the Bible will be substttuteb for the Sacred Books of Confucianism as the Text Book dt the Public Service Examinations.

In spite of my capitals, and in spite of my having dwdt so often, and with so much emphasis on the influence of these Examinations, as the free avenue to the thousands of poets in the Empire from district magistracies to premiershipe ; and notwithstanding that I now remind the reader of the stirring effect, that the opening to competition of but 40 places a year in the exile of tropical India, has already had on every higher educational establishment of the British Isles; — in spite of, and notwithstanding all this, I fairly despair of imparting an adequate idea of the importance of that re-solve of the Tae pings, nor of the immense significance which it ^ves to the piece of yellow shading in the middle of the accompanying map of China. Upon the gradual extension or diminution of that piece of shading, during the next ensuing years, it d^>ends whether or not, in a prosperous population of 360 millions of heathens, all the males who have the means, and are not too old to learn — ^all the males from boyhood to 25 or 30 years of age who can devote their time to study — will be assiduously engaged in getting the Bible off by hearts from beginning to end. Should the thing take place, it will form a revolution as unparalleled in the world for rapidity, completeness, and extent as is the Chinese people itself for its antiquity, unity and numbers.

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** But,*' it may be objected, ** you have yourself stated that -the study of uuaunotated copies of the Bible will inevitably lead to diversities, and you have also stated that the trans-lation at present being diiSused is a very imperfect one/' My answer is, that it will be entirely the fault of the Protest-ant missionaries if one or two, much less imperfect transla-tions are not put before them; and, — ^what is of greater importance — translations rendered intelligible by philological, geographical, and historical notes, following each paragraph of the text, together with a free paraphrase of each, in a style approaching that of conversation, and embodying more or less of doctrinal views.* The Secretary of the Society above alluded to assured me that it would be quite impossible to get the various denominations of Protestant Christians to agree on any one paraphrastic version, or on any one set of notes. In that case, the next best thing is for each denomi-nation to publish its own annotated and paraphrased version of the Bible ; each making it a point of conscience to dwell as little on special differences and as much on catholic agree-ments as possible : that the conquest of heathenism may not be retarded by the battles of sectarianism. Each should com-mence with a sketch of the history of the Scriptures, expressly intended to bring it home to the minds of the Chinese, that, however the translations may vary, the Hebrew and Greek originals are substantially the same. All this unll impart a candour, a reasanablenesSy and a trviJ^vlness, to the form in which Christianity is presented, that cannot fail to be of itself attractive to the Chinese; who are, moreover, accustomed to similar historical sketches prefixed to each of their own Sacred Books (in addition to the annotations), and among whom exists, in matters of literature, a large amount of acute criticism and love of antiquarian research. This leads to the most important part of my reply to the objection supposed

« The edition of the posi-Conftician Sacred Books which \a called Sze shoo ieih ehoo fonns % good example of the manner in whioh this should be done, —of courae with necessaiy and obvious differences.

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to have been raised. The resolve of the Tae pings to make the Bible the text book at their Public Service Examinadon?, will cause a number of intelligent Chinese — private gentle-men, as well as officials, and all of them masters of their oira language — to devote themselves to the study of the Hebrew and Greek, in order to read the Book in the original lan-guages. And as, in order to do this, they will in the firet place learn the English, the common language of the two great peoples with whom they have most intercoarse* numbers of channels will thus be opened through which will pour into China, constant streams of Anglo-Saxon literature and Anglo-Saxon ideas, mingling at the very fountain bead with the flow of Chinese mental life. A prospect is hereby disclosed of a rapid assimilation of fundamental beliefs; and a consequent peaceful and mutually beneficent extension of free intercourse and free trade ; which, I repeat, it is in vwn to hope for in any other way. My conviction is, that the Tae ping government would, once fairly in secure possession of the sovereign power, itself be foremost in encouraging the study and translation of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, and that it would appoint a commission for that purpose. But to prevent the chance of its irrevocably fixing on its present imperfect version as the true one, I recommend to Missionary Societies the following step ; which, like the above mentioned preparation of paraphrastic and annotated edi-tions of the Bible, cannot, be it observed, fail to be advanta-geous to the propagation of Christianity, whether the Tae pings succeed or not. Let them, namely, publish interlinear Hebrew -English-Chinese and Greek- English-Chinese edi-tions, prefixing historical sketches, such as those above indi-cated. As this would be merely printer's work, it could be done with comparatively little labour and expense; and would prove the best safeguard against serious permanent divergen-cies, by making known the original common standard. For those who hold the opinion that Christianity is destined to spread over the whole earth, the work would have a permanent

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value, inasmuch as it cannot be supposed that any nation of educated Christians will content itself long with translations. It now often serves as a field for rhetorical expansion that ChriBtians— all sects counted — are outnumberedj some four to five times, by Mahommedans and Buddhists, and nearly equalled by the followers of Brahmaism. If the Tae pings succeed, then 480 millions of human beings, out of the 900 millions that inhabit the earth, will profess Christianity, and take the Bible as the standard of their beliefs ; and these 480 millions will comprise precisely the most energetic and most civilized half of the human race.

Those, therefore, who believe that the extension of com-merce, the progress of civilization, the difiusion of religion, and the gradual approach toward universal and lasting peace, are indissolubly connected — that they must together be for-warded, or together retarded — will do their best to see that the present struggle in China is not interfered with. Can the reader now comprehend me, and will he not now freely pardon me, if I have in one or two places been unable to repress a somewhat bitter expression of the feelings, which I entertain for all attempts to urge, or entrap, or endrift (for there is always some one who slips the cable, and that danger is the greatest), the maritime powers of the Occident into a coarse physical repression of the Tae ping rebellion ? I am aware that some gentlemen now engaged in business in China may urge : — *' All that you have said of advantages is but speculation as to the future ; toe have facts now : these Tae pings are an actual and palpable oppression to trade, and their destruction would be an immediate relief to it." I have little doubt that it would. When the runner, who has been running a hard match, throws off bis clothing and seats himself in a draft of cold air, he, too, has immediate relief from the heat that oppresses him ; and shortly after is relieved of his life. We must adopt measures of permanency, not the shifts of immediate expediency. It is long since the conviction began to fix itself on my

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450 ' THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

mind that the interference of Western States with die internal affairs of the Chinese people would certainly end in its ruin, — that such interference would unfailingly stop tfae operation of the best principles in its polity, quench its national spirit, and destroy that ^' cheerful industry " which is the cause at once of its own prosperity and of its ccfo-mercial value to us. And the conviction has only become stronger, with larger experience and greater knowledge I have, in consequence, striven to avert an interference eo fatal, and to oppose its advocates, whenever that has appeared necessary since the outbreak of this rebellion ; I have dooe BO in whatever way seemed most likely to be effective ; ai^ the present volume owes its existence in a lai^e measure to the desire to perform a duty, which appeared to call for per-formance at my hands. I have now reached a point where I feel that I have fairly answered the call, and that I have discharged the duty — weakly, indeed, in comparison with what I wished, but still to the best of my ability. I may now observe Western policy or impolicy in China, and the consequent beneficial resxdts or fatal calamities with a com-paratively quiet mind. For the present I must hurry to a close. In the desire to secure accuracy, and (so far as the space permitted) completeness, to this and the last preceding Chapter, I have made references and researches in the oii-ginid literature, which have materially retarded the restora-tion of my previously impaired health. The special ccm-sideration of the prospects of the Tae pings, and of the best policy for Occidental States at the present conjuncture, cannot therefore be carried into details'; and many points, which it might have been interesting, if not useful, to touch on, must be altogether passed over.

One aid to the success of the Tae pings lies in numerous rebellious movements and insurrections in which they have no hand, but which proceed either from secret political societies, or are brought on by the general discontent with the existing rule. Perhaps the most serious of these, are

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TAE PINa PBOSPECTS. 451

tHe three which have taken place at Amoy, Shanghae, and

Canton, under the eyes of the foreign residents. They

proceeded altogether from memhers of the political society

mentioned at pages 112 and 113. A body of these seized

Amoy on the 18th May 1853, and held it against a besieging

force, that the Imperial provincial authorities gradually

assembled, until the 11th of November, when they evacuated

it and made off by sea. The besiegers decapitated many

hundreds of the men whom they found in the place, but who,

though they might have been assisting in its defence, had

little or nothing to do with the rising, and who, when seized

and killed, were making not even a show of resistance.

Another body of some twelve or fifteen hundred members of the same Triad Society, who had been quietly assembling at Shanghae, seized that place on the 7th September, 1853, and held it until the 17th February, 1855; when it was retaken, and nearly all those still remaining in it killed. A certain portion had, however, left in the first months, while the investment of the Imperialists was still not very close ; and a young Fuh keen man, who had been the chief fighting leader throughout^ escaped at the last moment. The members of the political society, who first seized the place, were almost all natives of the South-Eastem Coastland ; but they enrolled some thousands of the young men of Shanghae, to aid them in the defence of the walls ; and it was very in-structive to observe how rapidly these, a portion of the most nnwarlike of the Chinese people, got accustomed to fighting, and fighting that was at times very serious. During the first months of the Biege, I was resident at Shanghae and had ample opportunities of observing the proceedings; which I regret that I cannot now describe. Some of them were at once very strange and very characteristic. Towards the end of the eighteen months investment, the French (whose ground is in the immediate vicinity of the city walls on the north and whose co-religionists and countrymen, the Romanist missionaries, have a settlement and a cathedral on the south)

CHAPTER XIX (PART 4 OF 4)

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got implicated in hoetilities with the rebels. The boats from their men of war surprised an outwork on the river, m^bere they spiked the guns and killed such of the rebels as thej found. Their vessels of war afterwards breached a portion of the wall, and marched in a storming party of one or two hundred seamen and marines, with whom a thousand or two of the Imperialists associated themselves. To the surprise of everyone, they were driven out again with serious loss to the French ; who attributed their repulse to the unmilitary con-duct of their Imperialist associates; upon whom, it is re-ported, they were even obliged to fire. The hostility of the French, however, hastened the capture of the place ; for the investment became by their aid stricter than ever ; and the failure of provisions produced at length such dissensions and laxity, that the Imperialists eventually entered by a surprise, and repossessed themselves of the city almost without fight-ing. Here, as at Amoy, the foreign community witneaeed the undiscriminating execution of many hundreds of the unresisting men found in the city, many of whom, to my own certain knowledge, were merely detained there by the presence of their mothers and wives, none of whom the Triads would allow to leave.^ The leaders had hoisted Tae ping flags as well as those of the Triad Society ; and they attempted to put themselves into communication with the Heavenly Prince at Nanking as his " unappointed officers.*' But as two of the Tae ping emissaries succeeded in reaching Shanghae, where they found the gods all standing in the temples and opium smoking, together with the usual vices of a large city, as prevalent as ever, there can be no doubt that their report made the Nanking Princes reject all overtures.

* At my reqaest, the Fuh keen leader. Chin (he who in the end escaped) got the consent of the othen to my bringing oat with me a Shantang fitmily — friends of one of my clerks — consisting of an old woman, her daughter-in-law, with two girls and a boy» her grand-children. But this waj} a quite exceptional business ; Chin had to strain his influence not a little to get it done ; and it would perhaps not have been done at all, if the females had had any near male relatives in the vicinity.

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In June, 18549 the rising took place in the vicinity of Oanton. The Triads first possessed themselves of the popu-lous manufacturing and trading city of Fuh shan, situated on one of the numerous river branches about twelve miles above Canton. They soon succeeded in getting the command of all these river branches and of the open country around Canton; the Imperialist garrison^ in which, composed of eight or ten thousand able-bodied Manchoos in addition to the purely Chinese troops^ was for some months more or less closely shut up. But as the vicinity of the foreign community to the city of Sbanghae enabled the besieged rebels to get supplies there, so the presence of the foreign community at Canton enabled the blockaded Imperialists to get supplies there. And though the rebels had near this latter city some twenty or thirty thousand men under arms, it seems that they had no leader among them of commanding influence. The result was, that the distress caused by the interruption and the deamess, though not total absence, of food enabled the Imperialist authorities to raise among the inhabitants a large body of volunteers, by whose aid they dispersed, or drove to a dis-tance, all the blockading forces, whether on land or on the rivers. This hapi)ened about the beginning of February, 1855. But this rising is of a far more serious character than those which occurred at Amoy and Shanghae. At each of these latter places, the rebels were almost immediately enclosed within the walls of a single city; on the recapture of which the rising was completely extinguished. At Canton, on the other hand, the insurgents were, from the first, in far greater numbers ; they maintained themselves in the open country as well as in several adjacent cities; and since their dispersion, a portion has retreated in the direction of Kwang se, another toward the east of Kwang tung ; in both of which quarters they were, by the latest accounts, still waging an open war with the existing government. It appears, indeed, as well from the Peking Gazettes as from the reports that have reached Hong-kong directly from the scene of operations.

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that nearly the whole of Kwang se and the southern portiofi of Hoonan is as much in the possession of rebels as of Lnpe-rialists. The latter have always held the provincial ci^itil, Kwei-lin — ^a place memorable in hbtory for its resistance to besiegers — but the rebels have taken many of the depart-mental and district cities ; and there is every reason to bdiere that some bodies of them have joined the Tae pings on the Tung ting lake ; by the leaders of whom they will, as feDow-provincials, be gladly welcomed on profession of the new faith. In the meantime, the city of Canton has been the scene of a series of executions, among the most horrible for extent and manner, of which the world has any authentic records. The Imperial authorities have, on the one hand, held out rewards for the seizure of ex-rebels; and €m the other, held out threats to the resident gentry and men of substance in the villages and country towns, if they fill to furnish a quota. The consequence is that thousands apon thousands of men have been brought into Canton and there indiscriminately decapitated in squads of one or two hun-dreds according as they come in. It has been computed that about 70,000 men have been thus put to death since the blockade was raised, most of them on the Canton execu-tion ground.* The greatest foreign friends of the Manchoo cause naturally speak of these deliberate massacres in termd of reprobation. Many, however, hold them to be proofs of strength on the part of the Imperial government. No event that has occurred since I left China, so clearly proves to rae its weakness. These slaughters are in flagrant violation of

* Appendix C is an aocount furnished to the Royal Asiatic Societj of an execution that I witnessed at Canton in 1851. It vill give the reader an idea of the place and the manner in which execations occur. It appears that looine of the pottery shops hare been cleared away to accommodate the much Urger aquads who are now slaughtered there. As to the total number that have been there executed within the last year, I must guard myself by stating that the accounts are conflicting. But if we for seventy, substitute only seven thousand — and that must be much below the actual total—all holds good thai I say in the text of such slaughtering, and of the effect on the Chinese of its being committed by the government.

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the most highly valued, and widely honoured principles of moral rule: they are but the result of hysterical ferocity. A deep and lasting disgust will be created by them in the higher order of minds; while the mere fear of falling victims to them will send no small number of peaceable men to join the rebels. The Tae pings answered the Imperial edicts commanding their '* extermination/' by proclaiming their own intention to exterminate the Manchoos wherever they found them ; and we know how inexorably they acted on their resolve at Nanking. But we know that the Tae pings are students of the Jewish history in the Old Testa-ment under circumstances of peculiar mental excitement ; and we know that they are not the first religious warriors who have held themselves commanded '* utterly to destroy the men, women and children '' of their idolatrous enemies. But looking to the effect^ on the Chinese people, of the slaugh-ters of the Imperialists and Tae pings^ apart from the inhu-manity of both in our eyes, the Tae pings have this in their favour, that it is the common foreign oppressors whom they exterminate — ^it is the " Tartars/' whom all Chinese believe must one day be destroyed or expelled from the country. Towards their own countrymen, who after having been their political opponents throw down their arms and submit, the Tae pings are not more severe than the ruling powers of Europe. The Imperialist oflScers, on the other hand — those at Canton especially — are either guided by some ferocious Tartar traditions, or are influenced by the phrensied cruelty of a scared cowardice. How entirely they are violating Chinese principles of government, is proved by the fact that the very Emperor in whose name they act, issued, a year or two ago, an edict in which the well known rule was enunciated that only the ringleaders of the rebels were to be executed and the mass of their " deluded ^ followers pardoned. Now, they are executing people in thousands, very many of whom were probably never rebels at all, were it but in name. A change would appear to have come over the policy of the Impe-

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rial government. At first it Bhowed a decided djepomdaa to make the greatest possible use of the mental agendea. Thus when it became known, in the end of 1850, that the new rebels^ who had appeared in Kwang se, were difiuang Christian publications, Luh keen ying, Governor General at Nanking,^ addressed the Emperor, recommending the distri-bution of a new edition of the Essence of Philosophy, on the ground that the mast effectual means of checking the spread of error was to diffuse a knowledge of the truth. In an edict of the 13th January, 1851, the Emperor ordered the recommen-dation to be acted on, and that candidates at the Public Service Examinations should be questioned on their know-ledge of the book.f From this we may conclude, that the Imperialists, if ultimately successful in putting down rebel-lion, will cultivate Confucianism, as depicted in my last Chap-ter, more sedulously than ever.

The Christianity first preached by Hung sew tseuen, with nothing of a new revelation about it, apart from the ascent of his soul into heaven, was by no means ill-calculated to gain adherents among the more religiously inclined of the edncated Chinese ; as the adhesion of several such men in Kwang se proved. But the Tae ping Christianity, as now disfigured by a " second sonship " of Shang te and by His descents into the body of the Eastern Prince, rouses the opposition of the learned class, — an opposition which is one of the greatest difficulties in the way of the political success of the new aspirants to the sovereignty. Could any party, which was Confucianist as well as native, attain but that amount of military power which the Tae pings had when they took Nanking, such native party would speedily have the intelligence of the country at its back to aid in the expulsion of the strangers.

* At the taking of tbat place some two years afterward he was killed by the Tae pings.

f I have now on my table the new Imperial edition which was published in consequence. It commences with a preface of the Emperor, stating the circum-stances under which it has been prepared. In other respects it is word for word like that of Kang he.

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The bulk of the wealthy and well-to-do classes are in China^ as in most countries^ averse to the extension of civil contests, i^bich however patriotic or necessary to put an end to general oppressions are very apt to cause the destruction or forcible re-distribution of special property. Now the Tae pings show, in matters of property, marks of an intention to adopt insti-tutions of equality and communism ; and though it is not a modem communism, but a compound of the communisms of primitive Christianity and of ancient China, and therefore stamped with the sanctions of religion and of antiquity, still it sets the property -holding classes, as a body, whether learned or unlearned, altogether on the side of the Imperialists.

But the very causes indicated in the last two preceding paragraphs, as making the educated and the well-to-do classes the enemies of the Tae pings, are those precisely which gain for them the adhesion of the uneducated classes, who derive a precarious livelihood from the labour of their bodies. For them, Tae-pingism, as a religion, is at least purer and more rational than the superstitions of Buddhism, while it is far more definite and attractive in its promises as to the life to come, — so often the only life to which the poor man can look forward with hope. For the poor day labourer, the institu-tion of equality of property, or at least of a sufficiency for every man, which is promised by the Tae ping leaders, is of course peculiarly attractive ; however well we may know that such an institution is, even for a very short period, impracti-cable except in name. Among the uneducated labourers, therefore, the Tae pings will gain, as they have already gained, numbers of perfectly voluntary adherents; and herein lies a great element of success. For war is essentially a con-test of physical forces, and the Tae pings are certain of con-stant accessions of the best sinew and muscle of the country. Neither does that proportion of cultivated intelligence which is also necessary in war, fail them. As their acts have proved, and as I had myself opportunity of observing, there were among the original God worshippers plenty of men — in whose

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demeanoiir I certiunly miBsed the (conyentionally) high m mandarinique and the ready politeness which characterizes the trained Imperialist official of every grade, and in place of which there was a haughty stifihess, but — who had all the natural sagacity and all the acquired knowledge that was requisite to the organization of a potent goyemment system. And then there are causes which make a small, but important portion of the learned class join them still — ^a portion, com-posed of the men who have been able to get an educatioii bat are now at once poor, ambitious and friendless; of the men, once wealthy as well as learned, but who have been ruined by mandarin oppressions; and of the men who hare edacation, and friendsanda competency but who have inherited a revenge. I had at Chin keang some conversation with a man of tliis latter, and to Occidentals least comprehensible class. He was a handsome, able-bodied man of six or eight and twenty yeare of age, whose demeanour, tinged with the air mandarinique, joined to his untanned complexion, showed that he was not a manual labourer either out of doors or indoors, but what we would call a gentleman. I questioned him accordingly, and found he was an example of the way in which the doctrine of filial duty works at times. He said that when the Manchoos first possessed themselves of Hoonan, his ancestors had been made to suffer in a peculiar degree ; and that, in consequence, no considerable rising against the Manchoo dynasty had since taken place, without some members of his family joining in it The belief, undoubtedly entertained by the Tae pings, that they are executing the will of God, and that, so long as they do that earnestly, they enjoy His special protection, is a powerful element of success. The history of Mahommedanism and of the English Puritans proves how easily a religious party, that is compelled to take up arms in self-defence becomes thoroughly imbued with this belief. Some of the phrase-ology used by the Puritans throws light both on the feelings and on the language of the Tae pings, as known to as through direct observation and through their books. Thus

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TA£ FING PROSPECTS. 459

Colonel Hutchinson '< would often say, the Lord had not thus eminently preserved him for nothing, but that he was yet kept for some eminent service or suffering in this cause.

He said this was the place where God had set him,

and protected him hitherto, and it would be in him an un* grateful distrust in God to forsake it/' A contemporary writer, speaking of the defeat by Pym of an attempt to set the city against the parliament says: — '^ So that in the managing of this day's work, God was so pleased to manifest himself, &c. &c.*' Major General Allen, in his account of the meeting of the Puritan officers at Windsor Castle, — a meet-ing spent in consultation on the bad aspect of affairs, and in praying, — states that Major Goffe ** made use of that good word ^ (which the reader must remember the Tae pings too have got, though they never heard of the English Puritans,) ** Turn you at my reproof: behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.^^ The result, says the Major General, was that, " He did direct our steps; and presently we were led and helped to a clear agreement among ourselves. That it was the duty of our day, with the forces we had, to go out and fight against those potent enemies, which that year in all places appeared against us. With an humble confidence in the name of the Lord only that we should destroy them.'* Cromwell was present at that meeting ; and it is in his letters and speeches as the utterings of a sagacious politician but also a man of fervent religious feelings and a constant Bible reader, whose spirit was sorely tried and whose life was often perilled in the struggles of warfare and the dangers of battle, — ^it is in his words that we find the greatest similarities. Thus after the taking of Bristol he writes : — " All this is none other than the work of God. He must be a very atheist that doth not acknowledge it «... . God hath put the sword in the Parliament's hands, — for the terror of evil doers and the praise of them that do well." * Again after the capitulation * CromwelVa Letters and Speeches, by Thomas Carlyle.

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of Winchester : — ** You Bee God is not weary in doing you good : I confess. Sir, his favour to you is as Tisible, when He comes by His power upon the hearts of your enemies, making them quit places of strength to you, as when He gives courage to your soldiers to attempt hard thinga.*' After describing the destruction at Preston of Hamilton and the Scottish " malignants " he says : — •* Only give me leave to add one word, showing the disparity of forces on both sides; that so you may see and all the world acknowledge, the great hand of God in this business." And, in addressing afterwards the Presbyterian rulers of Scotland on the same event, he states '^ God did, by a most mighty and strong hand, and that in a wonderful manner destroy their designs.* The following passages I put together from his letters when shut up at Dimbar, and after the victory which relieved him from the great danger he wns there in. Thus when shut up : — " We are here upon an engagement Y&ry difficult. The enemy hath blocked up our way ; and our lying here daily consumeth our men who fall sick beyond imagination. Wherefore, whatever becomes of us, it will be well for you to get what forces you can together. The only wise God knows what is best. Our spirits are comfortable, praised be the Lord, — though our present condition be as it is." And after the victory : — " The enemy lying in the posture before mentioned, having those advantages ; we lay very near him, having some weakness of the flesh, but yet consolation and support from the Lord himself to our poor weak faith, wherein I believe not a few among us stand: That because of their numbers, because of their advantages, because of our weakness, because of our strait, we were in the Mount, and in the Mount the Lord would be seen ; and that He would find out a way of deliverance and salvation

for us The best of the enemies' horse being broken

through in less than an hour's dispute, their whole army being put into confusion, it became a total rout; our men having the chase and execution of them near eight miles.

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Thus you have the prospect of one of the most

signal mercies God hath done for England and His people this war. It would do you good to see and hear our poor foot to go up and down making their boast of God.'* In his first speech, made after the war was over, and in which he reviews the course of the whole struggle, we find these pas-sages : — ** Those very great appearances of God, in crossing and thwarting the purposes of men, that He might raise up a poor and contemptible company of men, neither versed in military affsdrs nor having much natural propensity to them, into wonderful success So many insurrections, inva-sions, secret designs, open and public attempts, all quashed in so short a time, and this by the very signal appearance of

God himself It were worth the time to speak of the

carriage of some in places of trust, in most eminent places of trust, which was such as, had God not miraculously appeared, would have frustrated us of the hopes of all our

undertakings What God wrought in Ireland and Scot*

land you likewise know ; until He had finished these troubles, by His marvellous salvation wrought at Worcester."

At Nanking, we learnt from one of those who had joined the Tae pings in Hoo nan, that when they were fighting, in the neighbourhood of Changsha, with an ImperialiBt force in the fields some three thousand of the old Godworshippers knelt down in a body and prayed, then rose and charged the enemy ; and that that charge decided the battle.*

■ At the commencement of this Chapter, I had to Bhow how the conversion of Hung sew tsenen, and the educated Qod worshippers hinged on their rediscoyery, in the foreign Sacred Books, of tenets and views, long entertained, and highly esteemed in China. I may now state, that they have from the first been encou-raged in their hazardous political enterprise by the prophetic use, made in certain Scriptore texts, of the terms " Teen kwo. Heavenly Kingdom or King^ dom of Heaven," and ** Tae ping, Universal peace." Teen, Heavenly (or as Occidentals often render it» Celestial) when used of worldly affain, is exclusively associated in the mind of the Chinese people, with the Sovereign who rules over them, and with the Kwo, State or Kingdom, of which he is the Head : he is Teen tsze, the Heavenly Son ; his Court is Teen chaou, the Heavenly Court ; and his empire is territorially co-extensive with Teen hea, aU under Heaven,

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But I must warn the reader not to carry the analogy between the Tae pings and Puritans, still less between them and the Mohammedans further than the belief in the guid-ance, and in the special help of God. In other religious points, and still more in political position, the differences are ao great that analogies only mislead, Mahommed preached and fought in a desert country, inhabited by illiterate nomadic tribes, who had no common government. Hung sew tseuen preaches and fights in a fruitful, long-settled and cultivated country ; and has to contend with well-educated people, directed by a sys-tematic and highly centralized government Further, the chief foes of Hung sew tseuen are foreign conquerors, whom he is trying to expel, — a circumstance with which there is nothing to correspond in the stru^les of Mahommed and the Puii« tans. The Puritans did not fight to make proselytes, but for political liberty as a means to complete liberty of consoience; in which respect Hung sew tseuen differs from them and resembles Mahommed. Like Mahommed, too, he finds slavery and polygamy and does not abolish either; but unlike Mahommed, he has adopted the Christian Scriptures and Christian principles of morality, a step which cannot ful to end in time both slavery and polygamy.

i. e. the world . When, therefore, the GodwdlshipperB (band, in the third eh^ter of Matthew, the words, ** Teen hoo e lae, orh Ung hwny tsay e, the Heavealg Kingdom will shortly oome,— repent ye of yonr crimes {* it would hmye beea diflScnlt for them, as Chinese, to oonoeire the Heavenly Kingdom, if something that was to exist in the world, as not existing in China ; and hence they were eauly led by their wishes to apply it to Iheir state ; the establishment of wMch without Di?ine aid, might well seem to them a desperate undertaking. So also with " Tae ping, Uniyersal Peace ;" a term always in great esteem in China, becaoss expressing the completest and widest realization of the national principles of goyemment by moral agency. It is osed in the translation of the Testament to render the "peaae on earth " which the heavenly host sang on the birth of Jeans ,* and the Godworshippers hare regarded it as there referring to the nnlTeraal peace which is to exist under their " true SoTereign/' Hence all their officers call themselyes, in their titles, servants of "Tae ping Teen Kwo, the Heavenly Kingdom of Universal Peace." A double designation is, however, unnsoal and awkward ; hence they say only Tae ping teaou le, the r^^tions of Universal Peace; Tae ping chaon shoo« the Book of Declarations of Univenal Peace, ftc. fire.

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At present the Tae pings have the bulk of the learned class against them ; but continued success would have, with the latter, its usual effect on man. If the Tae pings continue to progress, the learned will go over to them and profess Tae-pingism, in constantly increasing numbers ; and then that struggle will commence between the Confucian or rational, and the Buddhistic or fanatical elements of the Tae ping Christianity, which I have pointed to as most likely to end in the triumph of the former ; and in the definitive esta-blishment of a sect, which will make the Bible alone the standard of belief and will discredit all new revelations. But, in the mean time, the Manchoo dynasty has on its side all the troops composed of its own nation, together with as many Mongol auxiliaries as it may deem safe to bring in, both backed by the intelligence and wealth of the bulk of the edu-cated and well-to-do Chinese; which intelligence and wealth is employed in raising and supporting Imperialist armies, com-posed of their poorer countrymen. All this may enable the present dynasty to put down the Tae pings, and every other rebel body. Hence^ though I have thought it might be satisfactory to the reader to enumerate the chief elements of success on each side, I must after all repeat, as to the ultimate result, what I had occasion to say in the Times some months ago, viz., that the best informed of us cannot possibly form a reliable conclusion, but that the struggle, end as it may, will certainly be hard ; and that I do not believe, that either of the contending parties themselves even, can feel assured of ultimate success, whatever their language and their hopes may be.

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CHAPTER XX (PART 1 OF 2)

THE BEST POLICY OP WESTERN STATES TOWARDS CHINA.

In the foregoing portion of this Volume^ it has been Bhown bj reasoning starting from the nature of the Chinese goyem-ment system; and by conclusions drawn from the long experience of Chinese history, that periodical dynastic rebel-lions are absolutely necessary to the continued well being of the nation : that only they are the storms that can clear the political atmosphere when it has become sultry and oppres-sive. It has also been shown, by extracts from the most widely known and most venerated Chinese works, that the nation itself is perfectly well aware of the political function of its rebellions; and that it respects successful rebellions, as executions of the Will of Heaven, operating for its preser-vation in peace, order, security, and prosperity. Whether that political system, which renders such crises from time to time indispensable, is the best that could be devised, or is one of average goodness or is a very bad one, cannot be made the question. The system is there. It exists, and exists deeply rooted in the mental nature of a large and homogene-ous people. When we have by moral agencies changed that mental nature, then we may begin to speak of forcibly inter-fering with.that system* for the benefit of that people. We^ may then beffin to argue the question ; for even then, it would be by no means certain that we had attained any right to interfere, i. e. that we should, by forcible interference, do the Chinese any good, — the^only thing that can ever give us the right to interfere by force. Such disinterested interference

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of one nation with another has never yet taken place, I believe^ in the world. But there has often been a pretence of disinterestedness in such proceedings ; and we are, at this moment, being loudly summoned to interference with the Chinese in the cause of humanity and of civilization ; hence the necessity of arguing against it too.

That interference, by force, with the internal affairs of another state cnuld, if unsuccessful, only produce a prolong-ation of the state of anarchy, or of civil war, is a proposition that requires but to be stated. Yet so true is it that all. in-terference is bad, that unsuccessful interference is, a^er all, the least bad : when put an end to, by the final sucq^ of tl^ party which it opposed, an internally very stregng" goyiehi-ment is the certidn result. On the other han^t i£ tl^js^'drmecl interference is successftd, the certain result'Hs ail Jtiternally weak government; and an internally ^eak.^vemment is identical with a cowardly government, a vioTous government, and a cruel government. External aid ^atid support imply external dictation in internal affairs, ^ut so far as the internal affairs of a state are concerned, the rulers, to be good, must only rule, and never be ruled. It would be easy to show in detail, that, in all this, psychological deduction and historical induction fully concur. But I must content myself by pointing to Oude ; to the externally supported, and therefore base and ferocious government of which, we have just put an end.

The propositions of the last preceding paragraph hold of all nations. That they nowhere can have greater force than when applied to China, with its peculiar nationality and institutions, is a truth that all my readers must by this time be ready to admit. I must beg them to rest assured that a man who knows the scene and the people practically, could trace out the very ways in which the results indicated would be produced.

But if interference with the internal affairs of the Chinese in the cause of humanity and civilization, — if a well in ten-

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tioned and perfectly disinterested interference is inadmie-sible, because it would defeat its own objects ; does not ibe right nevertheless remain to us of interfering bj force in the justifiable protection of our general commercial interests, even though the Chinese nationality should be thereby destroyed? Most certainly not; — and after the question has been thus nakedly put, without its usual accompanimeots of circumlocutory disguises and palliatives, it can hairlly be necessary to prove at length why no such right remains to us. Whether, on shipwreck on the wide ocean, a strong man^ who clings at the same moment with a weak man to a plank, insufficient to support both, has the right or not, in the cause of self-preservation, to thrust off his fellow-man to certain death, is a question that ethicists have much dis-puted on. But here there is no such nice question to be decided. British preservation does not absolutely depend on Chinese trade. Hence, if the protection of our commercial interests be (what is really not the case) at variance with the cause of humanity and civilization in that country, most assuredly our commercial interests must go unprotected; unless we prefer to engage openly in a war with humanity and civilization. We have no right to say to the Clunese or to any people, large or small : '^ Submit to bad government, to bodily misery and mental depression, that we may trade with you.*' The Chinese rebellions have not been got up to attack our trade ; and wherever they injure it in the interior of the country, the injury is incidental. So long as that remains the case, we have no right to interfere by force, however great the injury may be. It is only when the power in China, by whomsoever wielded, turns from internal to external affidrs, and attacks our commerce directly as such ; or when any of the contending parties endangers, incidentally or wilfully, our persons and property at the Five Open Ports, that we are entitled, not indeed to interfere between other parties, but to protect and defend our own persons and rights by force.

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Let VLB here place distinctly before ourselves what it is that constitutes non-interference. The doctrine of non-inter-ference is: TTiai no nation has the right to aid, by actual force or by intimidation, one of the contending parties in any other nation, unless it is to counterbalance the aid given to an opposite party by a third nation. This latter, the only justifiable description of armed interference, is analogous to the one justifiable case in which a poisonous dose may be administered to a man, viz. as an antidote to another poisonous dose. If the poisons exactly nullify each other, and are then pumped out or ejected, the man lives, though his system sustains a severe shock. If the armed forces exactly nullify each other's action in the body of the nation interfered with, and are then withdrawn or forced out, the nation lives, though it too, suffers heavily. The first interferer is an international poisoner ; the second interferer is the doctor ; — who best shows his ability by administering no more of the deadly interference than is just necessary.

There is reason to hope that the doctrine of non-inter-ference, so understood, will in time have the authority of an international axiom in the world. Then, possibly, wherever there is a poisoner there will be found one or more doctors. Let us apply the doctrine by way of illustration to one or two existing states. The republican Swiss hire themselves, in large numbers, with the avowed or tadt consent of their government, to aid the king of Naples in maintaining a despotic rule, — a despotism by all accounts atrocious, — over the inhabitants of south Italy and Sicily. Here the repub-lican Americans would be perfectly justified in fitting out an expedition to aid the people ; and the American government is in nowise required to prevent citizens of the States from engaging in such an enterprise, but rather the reverse. So long however as the Piedmontese — to instance another Italian people — settle their internal affairs among themselves, any nation in the world that would interfere by force, whether on the pretext of "order'' or of " freedom," would commit

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an outrage on the Piedmontese nation and a grave offence against humanity.

The four most powerful nations in the world are interested in China. England and America have large and increaong commercial interests ; and influential parties in both oountii^ interest themsdves in the labors of the Protestant misttoa-aries. France has small, but gradually extending com-mercial interests; and has hitherto greatly interested herself in the labors of the Bomanist nussionaries, — a large number of whom are French. Russia has considerable oommerdal interests; and necessarily interests herself in the condition of an empire which has a common boundary line with herself for thousands of miles, — and whose territories she has, niore-over, shown herself determined to encroach upon.

With respect to the external affairs of States, or inter-national relations, when we look back on the past 4^000 years of history, there is every ground for hoping that if some one country (Russia is in spite of her present check still the most likly one) does not, through the foolish disunion of the others, succeed in subjecting them all, tiiere will be established in the course of time a Universal Congress, com-posed of deputies from every Soverign State in the world, large or small, to which will be referred the decision of the disputes between any two of them. The Congress will be based on the two principles that, happen what may, there shall be no terri-torial encroachments, and that, if any one of two disputing States should demur to its decision, then the aggriet^ed nation shall itself never take other than a pecuniary or at most a d^en-sivepart in the war of enforcement; which will be conducted by two or more, as may be necessary, of those nations which are least interested in the subject of dispute ; or, if the refractory state is very powerful, by all the others (the aggrieved one excepted), — all expenses, together with a heavy pecuniary penalty for widows and orphan's pensions, &c, being in the end invariably and strictly exacted from the common offender. Were thb system once fairly in effective operation, wars

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would cease ; the certainty of defeat tvith aU the costs would prevent aggressions; and there would be a general reduction ^ on economical grounds^ of all armed force, not required for the maintenance of the internal order of each State ; — ^with which the Congress would have nothing whatever to do.

Notwithstanding the vast extension^ and the wonderful in-crease in frequency and rapidity of the communications among nations,— circumstances which cannot fail greatly to accele-rate the slow movement of past ages towards congressional union, and which might bring us unexpectedly to it in the course of another generation, — still it may be one or two hundred years, or even a longer period, before that union is attained. In the meantime, we must adopt the best methods now practicable and available.

In the present state of civilization and practice of inter-national morality, nations are obliged, like individuals where there is no virtual law, to redress their own grievances. If, therefore, any one of the nations connected with China is directly attacked in its legitimate interests by the Chinese, then full liberty must be accorded it to obtain redress by force. Under such circumstances, the others have no right to interfere, directly or indirectly, unless it were to advise or to constrain the Chinese to listen to the just demands made on them. But if any one such nation begins a contest with the Chinese on an obviously mere pretext, and prolongs it plainly with the object of effecting territorial encroachment; or attacks one Chinese party, with the manifest intention of afibrding help to some other Chinese party, for selfish pur-poses; then any other of such nations acquires thereby the distinct right to counteract such proceedings by force. And what is more to the purpose, the other three nations together have the right, as they would certainly have the power, to enforce an interdict to the mischievous proceedings of the one meddler. The three nations would have this right of combined prevention, each in protection of its own special commercial interests. But their right rests on broader,

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470 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELUON&

though less immediately tangible grounds. The peace and free-dom of the world require the existence of China as a separate State, and of the Chinese people in self-supported nationality. The British war shook the power of the Manchoo dynasty, bat it in no wise impaired the strength or vitality of the Chinese people. The latter are as yet internally nninterfered with ; and it does seem that (in the absence of the UniTersal Cent-gress above foreshadowed) the three states America, France and England might now unite to apply the principles of saeh a Congress to China at least. This they could do by IbrmaDy enga^g, first, not to make themselves, nor to alio w others to make, any further encroachments on the present territory of the Chinese empire ; and, secondly, not to interfere with the purely internal contests going on within the boundaries of that empire, even though they should result in its temporary division into separate States.

Commercially, the interests of the three nations cannot be separated; for the moment the one gains a privilege, the other two are by treaty entitled to the same privilege. No one can better itself by separate political action; while the weight of all three, acting together, may obtain for them collectively, legitimate privileges which, disunited, they might strive after in vain.

In matters of religion also, they may ■■ act together in so far as protecting to the same extent the missionaries of their respective countries is concerned. But there shoxdd be no protection of Chinese Christians agunst their own government, whether local or Imperial. To do so amounts to setting op a state within the State; for Chinese then become Christians in order to rob and oppress their neighbours and to set at defiance with impunity the just operation of the laws of their own country. When pursued for their crimes, they take refiige with the representative of the foreign State whose religious system they have professed, and pretend that they are persecuted for their religion. It might, at first thought, be supposed that it would be sufficient to require, that the foreign repre-

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sentatives should examine into the circumstances before definitively according their protection. On maturer reflec-tion, however, several reasons will suggest themselves to intelligent home residents of the three countries, why that should not be sufficient. There are other reasons, con-nected with the state of things in China, which may not occur to them, but which make it certain, that the power granted to foreign representatives of standing between Chinese subjects and Chinese government officers, on the ground of ike former being members of some foreign religious sect, will inevitably form a potent element of destruction to the Chinese State ; while it can only spread religion through the instrumentality of men who, having committed crimes against their fellow-countrymen, become hypocrites before God in order to defy the just laws of their Sovereign. If Chinese proselytes of foreign missionaries should be driven, like the Tae pings, to defend themselves, we may sympathize with them; and if such banded proselytes should be defeated, there would be no harm in facilitating their escape to foreign regions, — ^to the Polynesian Islands, to California, to Aus-tralia, or to Europe. Bui we should not be justified in using force or intimidation to aid that escape; while to insist on their being allowed to remain in the country, and there set its laws at defiance, would be nothing less than the propagation of Christianity by the sword. I am unable at present to dwell on details, but the governments and peoples of the three countries may rest assured that that attitude towards the religious question which has just been indicated, is the only one in which they can unite in China. And they must now make their choice either to trust to moral agencies and to the truth of Christianity for its propagation in China, limiting their armed support to the protection of their mis-sionaries, strictly and honestly according to the terms of the Treaties, which put all on the same footing ; or to sap the nationality of the Chinese, and thus place them at the mercy of Russia.

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Bossia is the only power that can seriouslj speculate on acquiring China for itself. None of the other three can hope to acquire China if they wished it ; but they can, by isolated and inevitably jarring operations in matters of com-merce and religion, raise quarrels among themselves; and at the same time check and thwart the spontaneous polincal action of the Chinese, in that work of self-goTernment whidi is indispensable to national health and strength, and to tiie spontaneous wholesome adoption of military science. The Chinese will then, not simply remain externally as defence-less as they now are, but will really become, internally, what many now imagine them to be, ue. unenergetic, efiete, hopeless and helpless. They would then be unable to resist those future aggressions which the severe check she has incurred in her present contest will not prevent Bussia irom attempting; so soon as her commercial and military communications by a telegraph line, by road, by river, and by railway are rendered sufficiently easy throughout the productive regions of southern Siberia up to her forts on the Amoor; — ^and for which future aggressions she is doubtless already preparing, by the less open methods of attack known to be habitual to her foreign policy. When writing some months back in opposition to one of the advocates of inter-ference with Chinese afiairs, who, among oth^ things, ridiculed our '^ guarding against imaginary Russian dangers in China,'' I stated :—^'' The greatest, though not nearest danger of a weak China lies precisely in those territorial aggressions of Russia which she began to attempt two cen* turies ago, one of which she has successfully carried out at the Amoor within the last three years ; and which if allowed to go on, will speedily give her a large and populous terri-tory, faced with Sweaborgs and Sebastopols, on the Sea-board of Eastern Asia. Turkey, by the by, forms at this moment a grave example of the consequences of former intermeddling. We went on knocking the 'man' down with one hand and lifting him up with the other till he got

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' sick;* and then, when he is unable to stand up alone to skuother great strong man, who knocks him down and kicks him when down, we are compelled to strip and fight the big l>iilly ourselves. To support the ' sick man * in the near Cast is an arduous and costly affiiir; let England, France, and America too, beware how they create a sick giant in the far East ; for they may rest assured that if * Turkey is a European necessity,* China is a world necessity.'*

From Chapter III. of '' Civilization," the reader will see that, six years ago, I penned the following sentence : — ^' China will not be conquered by any Western power until she becomes the Persia of some future Alexander the Great of Russia, the Macedon of Free Europe.*' I am therefore not now writing under the influence of the war excitement. What is more, I am not — ^not in the least — ^maintaining the Russians to be more hateful, as aggressors and conquerors, than other peoples. The best of the others, if in the same position, would, so far as conquest is concerned, be precisely the same : England, Burmah, France, Algiers, United States, Mexico — these six names spare me further illustration.

But this does not make it the less our duty to oppose Russia in China, with all our intelligence, our wealth, and military force. The cause of civilization alone would justify it; for the Chinese are freer and happier, even under the Manchoo government, than they would eventually find them-selves under that of Russia. But, as above indicated, the important fact is, that not only England and France but America too, will, if they are wise, wage, severally or col-lectively, a war of exhaustion with Russia, rather than allow her to conquer China: for when she has done that she will truly be the Mistress of the World. Those Americans who have manifested a disposition to aid Russia in her present war, are politically most short sighted. Were Russia by any chance — such a chance as American assistance for example — to come out of the war in victorious possession of Turkey, or even of the Danubian provinces, nothing is more probable

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than that she would immediately seize the opportunity of her proven strength, and of the existing troubles in China, to grasp, as the Manchoos did before her, the soTereignty of that country, with its immense natural resources ; — with its timber forests, its iron mines, its coal mines, its great m&rs. its numerous splendid harbours, and its 360 intelligent, industrious, and expert millions already accustomed to centn-lized rule, and of whom -some two or three millions of able bodied coastlanders have all the habits, and qualities neces-sary to form excellent sailors. Probably more than five hun-dred thousand of them are, at this time, either seamen, ot fishermen. Russia would then have aU the means of throw-ing, into the old States of America, an army of half a million of intelligent and enterprising men, such as are now contending for gold with the Califomians, but drilled like the defenders of Sebastopol, and commanded by Gort-schakoffs and Todtlebens. And if that army were there checked, she could send out a second to its aid without seri-ous effort ; while with serious effort, but still without leaving her own coasts defenceless, she could send forth a third and a fourth, — so great is the wealth, and so enormous the popu-lation of China. But what would be the effect of two such armies being landed — say in the slave States, and there accom* panied by the able and educated coloured men whom the Czar would not fail previously to attract to his standard?

That the danger I point to is chimerical, none can believe who have seriously reflected on the history of the world, par-ticulaxy on the history of Russia and China since a.d. 1640; but many may suppose it to be too remote to be a practical subject for the present generation. It is this precisely which makes me so dwell upon it. The subject is most practical at this very time ; for as the English, Americans, and French, now — in the next few years — deal with China and with her relations to Russia, so the event will be. Were it certain that the danger is one of a hundred years hence, it would still deserve the serious consideration of every patriotic states-

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man, and of every one who can exercise an influence, great or small, on the policy and destinies of his country. For those to whom. It will last our time, is a word of practical i^isdom and sufficient consolation, this volume is not written. That nation is no longer safe, even for one generation, when the majority of its manhood*- to abuse the word — is composed of such people.

But the danger is at hand, for all except the ostrich poli-tician, who manages not to see a threatening calamity by run-ning to some national or international bush and sticking his head into it.

The Commanders of the Russian settlements, north of the Amoor valley, began to make hostile exploring excursions into the latter about a.d. 1643 ; the time when the Manchoos were engaged with the war which ultimately made them masters of China, and when the latter country was torn by rebellions. In a.d. 1649 Chaborow made an incursion. In A.D. 1654 Stepanow descended the river, and followed up his incursion in a.d. 1655; but in a.d. 1658 the Manchoo-Chinese forces, — ^then well inured to fighting by the war in China, — met and beat the numerically weaker forces of the Russians. Nevertheless, desultory hostilities were kept up for the possession of the Amoor valley till August, a.d. 1689, i,e. till the lapse of some years after the final subjugation of China Proper, by the conquest of Formosa in 1683,* enabled the young Emperor, Kang he, to bring his veteran forces to bear on the struggle ; and thus to procure terms which placed the whole of the valley of the Amoor Proper in his hands, and only gave to Russia one bank of a portion of the Argun, an upper affluent of the Amoor. In June, 1728, another Treaty was concluded ; which, leaving the eastern boundary line between the two Empires as it was, settled that which lies westward from the Argun. The chief gain to the Rus-sians was the permanent establishment of a mission at Peking, from whence they have since been able to observe all that

• See pages 109—112.

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occurs in the ooontry, and thus to abide the best opportanities for further encroachments.

In consequence of these two treaties, the Hing gan moon-tains — the northern watershed of the Amoor valley — hare formed the eastern boundary between the Russian and Chinese empires ; and to the latter has belonged the wkaie of the yaUey from the mouth of the river back westward throi^h-out the first 1^200 or 1,500 miles of its course. Then begins the valley of the upper affluent, the Argun, of which, for about 300 miles, the Russians had the left side, the Chinese the right ; after which the whole vaUey, up to its head, lay alto-gether within the Chinese boundaries.

So things appear to have remained up to the years 1852-1853 ; when the Peking Gazette gave one or two indications that Russia had seized the opportunity of the serious rebellion in China, to extort some further concessions, — ^probably with little trouble to herself beyond that of threatening. To my official report on the Chinese rebellion of the 12th December, 1853, 1 added the following paragraph : — ^* An edict directs one officer to be promoted, and another to receive the decora-tion of the peacock's feather for ' their efficient services in the transaction of the Russian commercial affiiirs.' As grave political ttSSaiiB are frequently called commercial in the Peking Gazettes, when * barbarian * peoples are concerned, the above drcumstance may have some significance at the present time.*'

Even in China, and for a person speaking the Chinese language, it is almost impossible to get at the details of such jealously concealed transactions in a remote quarter, unless funds and ample time are expressly allowed for the purpose. But what we did learn, together with what the Allied squad-rons have since observed, shows that at that period the Rus-sians must have acquired the right of free navigation (firom their semi-portion of the Argun valley) of the Amoor down to its mouth, together with some territory at its mouth; if she has not, indeed, actually giuned the whole of the

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northern half of the valley. The right of navigation of the Ajnoor enables her to double, or to turn the flank of the Oobi desert — hitherto the great barrier to material encroach-ments on China. She can now quietly make, in her new settlements, some such a collection of war material as Sebas-topol has given us a notion of; and then, by the aid of a squad-ron of small river-steamers, — which the Chinese empire as yet furnishes no means of resisting, — ^transport it, and a large army up the Songari affluent, till within such a distance of Monkden, the capital of Manchooria, as would form but a comparatively short march through a well watered and fertile, if not a culti-vated region.^ From thence to Peking, a Russian army would meet with no serious natural obstacles. But it is more likely that she quietly would collect a sufficient fleet at and near the Amoor, and then, availing herself of the ice-free summer months, transport an army by sea up into the Peiho river. She might, in this way, be mistress of Peking and the sur-rounding country actually before the three maritime powers heard of her invasion ; and, after that, have not only esta-blished a permanent unassfdlable internal communication with the Songari, but have seized and securely occupied Chih le Shan tung and the whole of the Yellow River valley, by the time that England, France and America could bring up forces to retard her further progress. This would be the case, even if these three powers had previously arranged for instant action in the common cause. What would happen if there was no pre-vious agreement, I may leave the reader to picture to himself. But it may be asked, would the Chinese empire itself not furnish the means of resistance to invasion, till two or more of the maritime powers came to its aid ? I must answer that, in so far as the period is concerned during which the present rebellion lasts, — and it may last some years, — ^the Chinese

• We hftTO no Eu'opean ftcconnts of this region later ihan those of the Jesoit rarreyon who yisited it 150 yean ago ; but what I could glean from Chinese, led me to belieTO that large portions of it hare been brought under cultlyauon by immigrantB and conyicta from China.

CHAPTER XX (PART 2 OF 2)

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empire could of itself make aoarcely any resistance. 'Rasm would, in the first instance, accord complete reli^ous fineedom to all natives, and, guided by those of her ofBcials who under-stand the Chinese language and institutions (t. e. the sucees-sive members of her Peking mission) would so &r adopt the Confucian principles of rule, as to conciliate the educated classes. She would, therefore, gidn rapid and large accessioDs of all those Chinese whom I have shown to be averse to the Tae pings ; and to whom the change would at first appear to be merely a substitution of rulers, — of Russians for Man-choos. Eussia would, in short, have the whole population of that portion of China Proper which I have indicated — a population of 120 millions — working or fighting for her more intelligently than the bulk of her own sixty millions^ and as steadily, if not so cordially, as her Muscovites, before the three maritime powers could bring 100,000 men to bear upon her new territories. Now she would probably collect near the Agun, at Petropaulovski, &c., an army of at least that strength to make her first invasion with; and then keep moving in after it, as many troops as she could spare from the bare defence of her western boundaries.

If the anarchy in China should be past and an internally strong government established there, before Russia can suffi-ciently recover from her western effort and her present check, to organize such an invasion in eastern Asia, there are many reasons for fearing that the result would nevertheless be the same. If 4br instance the Manchoos by their oum strength put down all rebellions, then the government of the Chinese empire would be internally strong ; but for many years the Manchoo rulers would have to keep their veteran forces inthe central and southern provinces of China, the scene of the sub-dued risings; and would be ill able to meet external aggressions in the north. If, on the other hand, the Tae pings should suc-ceed in making themselves masters of the country, they will (unless prevented by a quarrel with one of the maritime States) doubtless be able to move their best forces to its northern

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boundaries. But then they would have against them the wHoIe of the Manchoos^ the people who hold that very region through which Russia, if once fairly in fortified possession of the mouth oFthe Amoor, could invade China in defiance of the hos-tility of the maritime powers. And we may he assured that under the circumstances supposed, she^ in pursuit of *'the policy of Peter the Great and Catherine/' would avail herself of the Manchoos in order, either in their name or in her own, to sub-vert the Tae ping power. If there is any one extra-Russian political revolution that would be more distasteful than all otbers to the successors of Peter and Catherine and their Mus-covite-Greek subjects, it would probably be the establishment in her contiguity of a state of 360 millions of Bible-studying Christians; whom the study of the Bible would unfailingly lead to the study of the sciences and arts of other Bible reading peoples ; and who would oppose to fanaticism another fanati-cism, supported by strong nationality, by great numbers, by great wealth, and by an increasing proficiency in all branches of the military art. If the Tae pings succeed, let the three maritime powers, on the one hand, keep Russia off, and, on the other hand, overcome the absurd Tae ping pretensions to universal supremacy or their other obstructive notions, by a due use of conciliatory reasoning, of forbearance, of firmness, and if necessary of military force vigorously applied;^ — let this but be done till Tae-pingism is fairly established for a generation, and then the rest of the world may confidently trust to the Chinese forming one of the most insuperable of the barriers to the Peter-Catherine policy of aggression, and to Russian lums at universal dominion.

That France and England will unite to prevent a Russian conquest of China, is guaranteed by the manner in which they have united to stop her attempts on Turkey. So far as they are concerned, I write only to induce them to follow, advisedly and strictly, the best method of procedure in-stead of unadvisedly exerting themselves in the furtherance of their opponent's schemes. But what will the free demo-

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cracy of civilized America do ? A suicidal party there ba? actually contemplated attacking England in the back, as she bravely fronted despotism and barbarism, with little previons preparation for the arduous enterprize. Possibly this party thinks, — ^if it indeed reflects on anything but the objects of the day,— that Russia would, even after a present humiliation of England and France, be unable to effect the complete subja-gation of western Europe, till the United States' territories were covered with a population more than adequate to enable the New World to resist the Old. How far such a calcula-tion would be well founded, as applied to western Europe, I leave English and American home readers to judge for them-selves. As applied to eastern Asia, it would be extremely ill-founded. I cannot dwell longer on the subject ; and I must therefore beg the indulgence of my American readers if I, for shortness sake, speak dogmatically. In considering the whole matter, I have kept in view the settling of the valley of the Mississipi and of the whole of North America by an enter-prising and hardworking population ; I have kept in view the time which it will require before that is done ; the chances of union and disunion among present and future States ; the reaUy small likelihood of Russia's '' crumbling to pieces ;'* and the certain though slow advance of Russia in material prosperity; together with all, and probably more of the possibilities, pro-babilities and di£ScuIties than are likely to occur to the mind^ of American home-readers, with reference to the conquest of China by Russia. After having kept in view, and duly con-sidered all this, I hold the conviction that only the interven-tion of the maritime powers can prevent that conquest ; that if there is no such intervention, the conquest may take place within the next eight, twelve or fifteen years, — ^in short when-ever Russia has completed her preparations for it ; and that, that conquest once achieved, Russia with her 420 millions — all from Petersburg and Simpheropol to Peking and Canton, closely enough allied in race to amalgamate speedily into one homogeneous people— will assuredly, within ten or fifteen

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years afterwards, commence her subjugation of the 40 or 50 miUions of more or less disunited Anglo-Saxons, Germans, Celts and Negroes, who will, by that time, inhabit the con-tinent of North America. With a wide tract of unoccupied land then still intervening between the Atlantic and the Pacific States, it would cost the Russian Emperor of China but little trouble to overwhelm the latter and so possess himself of the Califomian gold mines in the first instance.

itfow, so certain as this will ensue if the maritime powers do not intervene to keep Russia off China, so certain will it not ensue if they at once do so intervene. Let them, in the interests of human freedom and progress, feel themselves fully possessed of the right of navigating the Amoor, equally with Russia, as far as the old Russian boundary at the Argun ; and let them immediately set about exercising that right, whether granted or ungranted. That is the first and most necessary step. By this means they will, (apart from open-ing some new branches of trade,) get sufficient notice of any projected attempt on the integrity of China to thwart it effectually, if they are only united among themselves as to what is to be done by each and all. To begin at once the naviga-tion of the Amoor would be no interference with the internal affidrs of the Chinese Empire, least of all with the course of events in China Proper. On the other hand, it would most probably prove an interference with events in China Proper, if the three maritime powers were now to insist on having each a mission and trading facilities at Peking such as the Russians have there; and it should not be done unless it be-comes plain that Russia is using her peculiar privileges to take a side in the civil wars. But so soon as these civil wars are over, they should insist on having at the capital, wherever that may be, equal privileges and facilities with Russia.

The following are some of the leading articles of the Compact that should be concluded among the three maritime powers ; if they should otherwise be able to agree on joint action in China : —

1 1

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482 THE CHINESE ilKD THEIB REBELLIONS.

I. An attack of Bassia on China to place ia abeyance ao j serious discussions that might then be earned on among the three powers themselves, the matters in discussion to renuuD as they then happen to be ; and such an attack to have the effect of an armistice, leading to peace by arbitration, in the case of the existence of war among them.

II. An attack of Russia on China to constitute a dedan-tion of war against the three maritime powers; the active operations of the war to begin in a pre-arranged manner, and to be prosecuted by them, in the East and West^ until Russia agreed to pay all the costs.

III. The action of the three powers, in th^ interooorBe with China, to be in all respects regulated by agreement among themselves ; force not to be used against China by the subjects or agents of any single <me of the three powers, except in individual or local cases of mere self-defence ; and in the event of China refusing redress, in a case whidi the three powers considered a grievance to any one of than^ then the redress to be obtidned by hostile operations of the other two; — the aggrieved power remaining passive, and the costs being required from the Chinese.

ly. No concession in addition to those made by treaty^ to be demanded from China, except after agreement among the three powers, and always in the shape of a joint requisition ; and no concession to be demanded until the fullest inquiry and consi-deration had shown that it was not likely to impair the strength for good of the Chinese government, and also that the latter pos-sessed the virtual, as well as the nominal power of granting it

y* The three powers themselves to make no encioadi-ments on the present territories of the Chinese empire.

yi. The three powers neither to interfere themselves, nor to allow any other power, large or small, to interfere, — ^not even in the character of mediators, — ^with the disputes or civil wars of the present Chinese empire, whether among the Chinese themselves, or among them and the other peoples which are contained within the limits of the Empire.

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VII. Speoial care to be taken that the rulers and peoples of the Chinese empire, wherever foreigners oome into contact with them, be constantly furnished with translations of the present Compact, and of the detailed rules based upon it; together with a carefully prepared and full exposition of its object and meaning, — the expodtion to be accompanied by maps, and to be specially adapted to the geographical and historical knowledge of those whom it is meant to enlighten.

In enumerating some of the chief benefits of the above Compact, I beg the reader to bear in mind the cost in life and money of our Bussian war to uphold Turkey, and the nature of the proceedings remote and near, on the part of the great powers, which had helped to weaken Turkey, as also those which were the immediate causes of the Russian war.

1. The Chinese would know, once for aU, that encroach-ments on their territories had become a human impossibility, and one great cause of their exclusiveneas would be effectu-aUy removed.

2. The Chinese would know that they ran no risks of having any of their cities bombarded or vessels destroyed, or of any violence whatever being directed against them, if they refused to yield to wrong-headed or unjust demands of any one subordinate international agent or of the Minister of any single State.

3. The Chinese — the central government, the local mandarins, and the people — would all know that if they refused to yield to the reasonable demands of any one inter-national^agent or State, — the said demands being grounded on a fair interpretation of the treaties, — ^they would inevitably suffer the humiliation of yielding to the menaces, and if necessary, the forces of the other two ; and they would know that the individuals who first raised the dispute, would be certain to incur great damage in credit, if they did not suffer in person.

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4. One of the causes of troubles between States, especially between weak and powerful States, lies in the temptatioDy to which the vain and fame seeking among the intematiooal agents of the latter are exposed, of raising strikiiig diffi-culties in order that they may make a prominent figure in the settlement of them. Art III. would effectuallj remoTc this temptation ; for by it the moment the difficulty raised by an international agent gets somewhat serious, his individoal action is superseded or disappears in the collective action of the chief representatives of the three states; while if it should be determined to enforce the demand against the Chinese, he, with all the officials, civil, naval, and military, of his country, would be set in complete abeyance and never be heard of till the quiet routine commenced again.

5. At present, if one Occidental nation succeeds in ex* torting some privilege, the others ask for it and probably for more; both national feeling and personal pride urge their agents to strive to outdo each other in gaining concessions; and if these concessions are found on experience to be in-compatible with vital Chinese institutions, it is, with the existing isolated action, scarcely possible to give up the right to them* Art. IV. would stop all rivalry and make noxious concessions unlikely, while if want of information did lead to such concessions being insisted on, the three powers could collectively give them up without reserve ; and could notify the same to the Chinese without loss of dignity, — the more so as the joint action would have had the effect of preventing intemperance in demanding them.

6. The Chinese rulers, being as hopeless of assistance from without, as they would be fearless of interference, would be compelled to govern well — neither tyrannically nor laxly — in order to retain the goodwill and respect of the people ; and the people, being equally hopeless of aid and fearless of interference, would neither be encouraged in factious rebel-lion nor discouraged from rightful opposition: there would actually be more chances of good government and pros-

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perity in China^ than at any preTious period of its national liistorj.

7. As on the one hand the impossibility of territorial encroachment wonid remove suspicions from the minds of the Chinese people and government, which now act as a counter-poise to the desire of the latter to trade, and thus tend to prolong exclusion; so, on the other hand, the government would be prevented from resisting non-injurious demands of the three powers (out of mere pride, petulance, &c.), by the certainty that hostilities would in such case ensue^ which would shake its power, while no help would subsequently be given to it against native factions.

Such a Compact as the above, if fairly concluded by the three maritime powers would practically put an end in ^Eastern Asia to the inherited policy of the Czars ; and might have the effect of finally convincing Russia that that policy must once for all be given up. She could in any case be invited to join the union for the preservation of China, with equal rights and privileges to all parties. In the event of her doing so, only some slight verbid changes in the Compact would be required.

As to the concessions to be demanded from China, their general nature is obviously to ensure the extension of free com-merce and free intercourse. It would be useless entering into detidls tQl after the present troubles are over. In the meantime the soundest policy of foreign states is, to preserve a rigid and true neutrality ; to define their existing rights distinctly and maintun them, by reasoning if possible, by force if neces-sary, but in every case without vacillation ; and to abstain from negotiation until the country is at peace again whether as two or three states, or, what is most likely, either alto-gether Manchoo or altogether Tae ping.

Whatever party may succeed in possessing itself of the sovereignty, I see no necessity for hostilities with it, nor even a probability of them, if the proper methods be pursued. Sound argument and conciliatory expressions, if

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addressed by a weak State to a powerful one, are apt to be overruled and treated with haughty indifference ; but when they are employed by a strong power to a weaker one, they produce conviction and amity. Now the Manchoos have already felt our power, and are not very likely^ if rightly dealt with, to provoke its exercise again by retrenching privileges; which they could not, moreover^ deprive other nations af> with-out drawing down attacks from them also. AstotheTaepings^ even their fanaticism does not appear to me to be by any means a certain cause of war between them and us. When they come into contact with the western foreigners at Shanghae, they will speedily perceive, that to attempt to cram down the throats of Occidentals a second sonship of God, or the uni-versal supremacy of the Heavenly Prince, would be to declare war with three nations, one of whom has beaten with ease all the Manchoo Chinese forces that could be brought to meet it. It is morally certain, therefore, that, if pains are taken to enlighten the Tae pings and their leaders^ the Eastern Prince will fall into an ecstasy, and issue a reve-lation, making peaceable relations possiUe. All his previous revelations have had political objects; and he would, as regards the diflSoulties of foreign relations, brood over them, and over the manner of solution, till his feelings were wrought up to a pitch of intensity sufficient to produce extreme nervous excitement; when he would, in a semi-epileptic state, give an announcement precisely fitted to solve the difficulties. If he be altogether a deliberately cal-culating impostor, then the solution would come all the quicker. If the movement is by that time in the hands of Hung sew tseuen or his party, I do not think that the admission of supremacy or even of the reality of his vidon, still less of the son-ship will be requisite to the enjoyment of existing privileges. The opium question would probably ^ve the most cause for argument and negotiation. The strong objection that the Tae pings have hitherto taken to opium-emoking, as a breach of morality, is a perfectly disinterested,

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and therefore very respectable feature of their policy in our own eyes not less than in the eyes of the Chinese people generally. The foreign opium merdiants discountenance opium-smoking in the people around them^ and I never heard Chinese opium-smokers themselves justify the practice.

As to the morality of the opium question, I am fortu-nately able to give the home reader, by analogy, and in few i^ords, as exact an idea of it as I have got myself. Smoking a little opium daily is like taking a pint or two of ale, or a few glasses of wine daily ; smoking more opium is like taking brandy as well as beer, or wine, and a large allowance of these latter; smoking very much opium is like excessive brandy and gin drinking, leading to delirium tremens and premature death. After frequent consideration of the sub-ject, during thirteen years, the last two spent at home, I can only say that though the substances are different I can, as to the morality of producing, selling and consuming them, see no difference at all ; while the only difference I can observe in the consequences of consumption is that the opium-smoker 18 not so violent, so maudlin, or so disgusting as the drunk-ard. The clothes and breath of the confirmed and constant smoker are more or less marked by the peculiar, penetrating odour of opium ; and he gets careless in time of washing from his hands the stains received from the pipe. But all this is not more disagreeable than the beery, vinous, or ginny odour, and the want of cleanliness, that characterise the confirmed drunkard. In all other respects, the contrast is to the disadvantage of the drunkard. The TimtB of the 9th January last devotes an article to the support of a con-demnation of Sir B. Garden, from the bench, of street alms-giving,— ^more especially of the giving of alms to small starving children, who are mere money collectors for drunken parents or "proprietors.'* '*I am confident,'' said Sir Robert Garden, '^ that many of the low ginshops would be obliged to shut iq) if they were not fed by the money pro-cured by these children for their unnatural parents." The

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488 TU£ CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Times f after an endeavour to describe '' the miaerj, the in-describable *' misery of the children, adds : —

'^Benevolent persons who are inclined to encourage the system should not shrink from the contemplation of its results. Let them go about eleven o'clock at night to the gin-palaces frequented by the speculators in starving c^izl-dren* There let them see what it is they have encouniged. In a comer on the damp floor lies one wretch in a state of bestial imconsdousness, his rags reeking with the filtliy odours of the last dram, which he could not carry to lue cracked lips. Near the counter a strong blear-eyed fellow^ is holding on, and hiccoughing out a desire for another quaitemy while the partner of his joys and sorrows, in a shift and the draggled remains of a gown, is endeavouring to tear him away. She had better leave him alone ; this night in their nuptial bower, he will kick her out of bed, knock her down half a dozen times, and she may esteem herself fortunate it the policeman arrives before she is eased out of the window of the three-pair back. There are two or three damp cabmen drinking gin~a heap of fellows in flannel jackets, roaring and bellowing at the top of their voices and drinking gin ; female impostors rubbing out their fictitious sores and drink-ing gin ; stunted pickpockets, boys in stature, but adults in crime, with the true wandering eye of the Old Bailey dock, drinking gin ; finally, the fathers, mothers, and proprietors ot the starving children drinking more gin than any of the others. They have easier minds than the rest of that foul rabble, more certain incomes and more sustained thirst — for gm.

Nothing worse than all that can take place from opium smoking in China ; and my conviction is that nothing quite so bad does take place. If there is a weakness in the analogy which I have instituted, for the information of the reader, between the opium question and the intoxicating liquors question, it is that it rather tells too much against the opium. It is necessary to be explicit on this subject as highly immoral

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attempts have been made to liken opium trading to slave dealing, — the offering of what is in itself a most useful medi-cine to people, who are absolutely free to use it or misuse as they please, with the forcible subjugation of free men to bodily suffering and mental degradation for life I

The opium-smokers, then, are like the alcohol-drinkers, whether these latter drink the alcohol in beer or wine, or in brandy, gin, or rum; the opium smoking houses are like beer-houses and gin-palaces ; the opium-merchants like wine merchants, and brandy, gin and rum importers ; and the opium producers like vine and hop growers, maltsters, brewers and distillers.

This leads us to what I consider the chief diflSculty with

the opium question, between the British and Chinese : the

British Government or that branch of it which governs

India derives a revenue from the] production^of opium

for consumption in Chinas — a circumstance quite well known

to the Chinese. If the Canadian Government — not private

Canadians, observe— were to establish distiUeries, and to

derive a revenue by selling it to merchants who introduced it

to the State of Maine, then the position of the Canadian

Government to the State of Maine would be somewhat like

that of the Indian Government to China. And if we suppose

the Maine liquor law to fall into desuetude, and the officials

charged with its execution to levy illegal but well-known

taxes on the alcoholic liquors, then the parallel would be

more complete. But however much the opium laws in China

have fallen into desuetude, there stiU remains a large party

in that country who ^ their ignorance of what laws for the

preservation of morals, ia^matters of meats and drinks, can do

and can not do) would stiU put down opium smoking by

force ; and who regard the British with dislike, in so far

as they are the chief producers and importers of the article.

To this party the Tae pings belong. For my own part, the

opinion I published nine years ago has been fully confirmed

by inquiries made in the time that has since elapsed, viz. that

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mental agencies alone can put a stop to opium smokiiigy and that it can only cease as drunkenness has ceased in classes of Engli^, with whom that yice was^ but two generations bad^ a daily habit. And if the Chinese were, as many now are and as all eventually will be, fully convinced of this, I should cer-tainly not advocate any limitation of the opium production in India. The proper way to ascertain how to stop any widely prevalent practice, is first to ascertain how each indi-vidual begins it. Now all my inquiries on this pcmit prove that people in China begin opium smoking because it is thought rather a fine thing to do, — because it is fashionable among wealthy people ; and that, consequently, one of the most essential parts of any plan to stop opium smoking is to cheapen the article, and thus gradually vulgarize the practice. If I therefore hint at such a thing as the East India C<»n-pany producing firom its own lands sugar or other innozioiu articles^ instead of opium, it is solely on political, not on* moral grounds ; as I am thoroughly convinced that the cause of true morality in China would not be in the least bene-fited by such a step. That step would, however, undoubt-edly place us in a much more favourable position for n^o-tiating on otiier subjects with the rulers of China, whether the present Manchoos or the Tae pings. Practically, there* fore, the subject is redudble to three questions. Is the more favourable position in international dealings with the Chinese worth purchasing by the loss of revenue which the East India Company would sustain by substituting the sugar cane, &c. for the poppy? If worth purchasing, can the C<»npaDy carry on the government of India with the reduced revenue? If the Company cannot, is tiie English people willing to keep on the income tax, to make up the deficit?

As it seems certain that the last two questions can at pre-

• By this I mean articles that may be taken in coniiderable quantities inUi-out perceptibly it\jaring the health. Opinii in small quantities is an in* valuable medicine ; and sugar habitually taken in laige quantities wonld uih dennine the health. It is not the articles themselyea, but our use, misusey or abuse of them that makes them innoxious or noxious.

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sent only receive negative answers, it would be waste of time

to attempt now the solution of the first. I therefore dose

my remarks on the subject of opium, with the following

opinions as to our negotiations with the Chinese. I hold

that though we may use all those perfectly sound arguments

which prove that coercive measures directed against opium

smokers, must continue as ineffectual as they have hitherto

proved, still that we have no right whatever to prevent, by

intimidation, any Chinese rulers from tiying such measures

against the smokers, their own subjects, if they so please.

On the other hand, I hold it quite possible to strike into a

line of reasomng— perfectly truthful and therefore certain,

after suflEicient time, to produce conviction — in which a

determination not to put down the opium trade by any

physical coercion on our own part, would be completely

justified to all educated Chinese ; and I hold it possible, in

arguing with men who are acquainted with State diflSculties,

at the least to excuse, politically, our Indian government in

continuing the production of opium till we see our way to a

different means of nusing the revenue which it produces.

Consequently, I believe that, though the opium question

may prove matter for much explanation and argument, it is

not by any means an inevitable necessity that it should prove

a cause of quarrel, whether with a new native dynasty, or

with the Manchoo rulers,