ABBREVIATIONS
| BPP / Elgin | British Parliamentary Papers, Correspondence Relative to the Earl of Elgin’s Special Missions to China and Japan, 1857–1859 (London, 1859) |
| BPP / IUP | British Parliamentary Papers, Irish University Press Area Studies Series, China, 32, Correspondence, Memorials, Orders in Council, and Other Papers Respecting the Taiping Rebellion in China, 1852–1864 |
| CR | The Chinese Repository, 20 vols. (Canton and Macao, 1831–51) |
| DSCN | Daily Shipping and Commercial News |
| NCH | The North China Herald |
| LMS | London Missionary Society |
| NA-DD | National Archives, Diplomatic Despatches from United States Ministers to China, 1843–1867 |
| PRO / FO | Public Records Office / Foreign Office Archives |
| TR | Franz Michael and Chung-li Chang, The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, vols. 2–3 |
FOREWORD
1. Some aspects of Taiping growth and communitarian sense in a time of radical change and foreign impact fit well with the analysis in Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities; see esp. 20, 22, on “sacred” and “truth” languages; 40, on “the privileged access” and “high center”; and 55, on pilgrimages and “centres of sacred geographies.”
2. Cohn, Cosmos, 19–20.
3. Ibid., 55.
4. Ibid., 77, 95, on dating of millenarian ideas; quoted 56, 99, for phrases. Cohn (96) hypothesizes that these millenarian beliefs sprang from the “suffering” caused to Zoroaster and other thinkers by the destruction of their “ancient way of life, with its familiar certainties and safeguards.”
5. Wilhelm, I Ching, 9, 29, 121, hexagrams “ch’ien,” “sung,” and “li.”
6. Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, tr. D. C. Lau, 101, 103.
7. See Seidel, “Image,” 216, 223, and quotations on 225 from the “Sutra of the Transformations of Lao Tzu.”
8. Zürcher, “Prince Moonlight,” 2–5, 12–18, 21, 53. Boardman, “Millenary Aspects,” 70–71, 79, discusses the Taiping in relation to Norman Cohn’s categories of millenarian thought.
9. Ter Haar, White Lotus, 212, 260. On 120 Ter Haar specifically rejects the idea that Manichaean elements influenced the Chinese case.
10. A good introduction to the European tradition is McGinn, Visions. On Hussites, Taborites, and Anabaptists, see Cohn, Pursuit of the Millennium; on the Puritan “Diggers” and “Levellers,” see Woodhouse, Puritanism and Liberty; and on the ethos of John Bunyan’s world, Hill, Tinker. For the American experience, see Holstun, Rational Millennium, esp. 103–65, on John Eliot and his “empirical millennialism,” and Bloch, Visionary Republic, 25, 120, 205. Rubinstein, Origins, gives an erudite analysis of the work of the early nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries in China.
11. The English edition of Jen Yu-wen’s work was brought to completion after Mary Wright’s death by Adrienne Suddard, and published as The Taiping Revolutionary Movement (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973).
12. These texts are entitled the Tianfu Shengzhi and the Tianxiong Shengzhi. For Wang Qingcheng’s latest analysis of their importance, see his essay “ ‘Tianfu Shengzhi,’ ‘Tianxiong Shengzhi’ he Taiping Tianguo Lishi,” in his Taiping Tianguo de wenxian he lishi (Beijing, 1993), 197–244.
13. A forceful exposition of this view is given by Esherick, Origins, esp. 326, where he argues that like other peasant societies China was replete with “teachers, prophets, or just plain madmen preaching a variety of new cults and doctrines” and that therefore it is “far less important to know where they got their ideas than to understand how their ideas attracted an audience.” See Wills, Mountain of Fame, 259–73, for a recent biographical summary of Hong.
14. A recent exploration of this important area of Bible translation and missionary endeavor is that by Smalley, Translation as Mission.
15. The best surveys in English of Taiping history remain Jen, Revolutionary Movement, and TR. On Taiping religion the subtlest coverage is in Bohr, “Eschatology,” and Wagner, Heavenly Vision. On suppresion, the key works remain Wright, Last Stand, Kuhn, Rebellion, and Smith, Mercenaries.
CHAPTER 1: WALLS
1. Chinese Repository (hereafter CR), 2:196; CR, 4:536, on top of walls; Canton Register, Jan. 26, 1836, on perimeter walk; Canton Press, Nov. 28, 1835, on fire; Downing, Fan-qui, 3:74, on factory roofs. S. Wells Williams discussed the 1835 fire in a letter to his brother Fred, Canton, Nov. 24, 1835. See Williams Papers, MS no. 547.
2. Hillard, Journal, 78–82; Hunter, Fan Kwae, 74. A detailed plan of the factories, drawn in 1840, is in Morse, East India Company, 3:1.
3. Hodges, Peacock, 347 n. 20, on opium sales; Morrison, Commercial Guide, 11, on mail, passim on trade; King and Clarke, Research Guide; Canton Register, Aug. 26, 1834; Hunter, Fan Kwae, 50–51, on the milking cows; Hutcheon, Chinnery, 65, 78, 109, for illustrations of the buildings; Downing, Fan-qui, 1:259–67, on the hotels.
4. Hunter, Fan Kwae, 12–15, 18–19, 78; Hutcheon Chinnery, 65, 78, 109. A vivid description of the fire by Robert Morrison is in CR, 4:34–36. For successive panoramas of the factories and waterfront between 1730 and 1832, see Morse, East India Company, 1:192, 256,2:144, 3:218, 368, 4:64, 336.
5. Hunter, Fan Kwae, 54–55.
6. Ibid., 64.
7. CR, 4:437.
8. Hodges, Peacock, 158–59, 343–44; Hillard, Journal, 153–54.
9. Stifler, “Language Students,” 62–67.
10. Ibid., for detailed coverage; Hunter, Fan Kwae, 19, 27; Stevens, “Gospel,” 432; Barrett, Singular Listlessness.
11. CR, 4:535; Morrison, Commercial Guide, 46.
12. Hunter, Fan Kwae, 27, 37–39; CR, 4:428–35; “Jargon spoken at Canton,” Canton Press, Feb. 6, 1836; Morrison, Commercial Guide, glossary following p. xii; Fairbank, Trade, 13; Downing, Fan-qui, 2:124.
13. CR, 4:432–33.
14. Adapted from Hunter, Fan Kwae, 22.
15. Ibid., 8–9.
16. CR, 4:189; Hodges, Peacock, 180–81.
17. CR, 4:44, 342.
18. CR, 4:192–93.
19. Hunter, Fan Kwae, 21–24, 31–32; CR, 5:432.
20. CR, 4:464–71; compare with Hoo Loo, who died at Guy’s Hospital, 1831; CR, 3:489–96.
21. CR, 4:462–64, and tables, 472; Gulick, Parker.
22. CR, 4:244.
23. CR, 4:190.
24. CR, 4:342, 535.
25. CR, 4:38–39, 43–44, 191.
26. Hodges, Peacock,
27. CR, 4:44–45, 101–2, 245.
28. Hodges, Peacock, 171–72; Morrison, Commercial Guide, 13; CR, 4:291–92, for paintings, including Battle of the Bogue.
29. CR, 4:102, “An Outcast,” dated Sat., June 6, 1835.
CHAPTER 2: THE WORD
1. Bridgman, “Obituary,” 314–15; Wylie, Memorials, 84; CR, 4:436–37, on robberies; Morrison, Commercial Guide, 12, on the journey. For the detailed background of the Canton Protestant community, see Rubinstein, Origins, chaps. 5–8.
2. CR, 4:45.
3. Stevens, “Seamen,” 423–24; Morrison, Commercial Guide, 13.
4. CR, 1:292, estimate; Downing, Fan-qui, 1:239–44; Canton Register, Oct. 4, 1836, on Portsmouth Point, and Nov. 15, 1836; Shen Fu, Six Records, 118–19, for a Chinese view.
5. Dialogue from Downing, Fan-qui, 1:84, also cited with variants in Hutcheon, Chinnery, 88–89, and Collis, Foreign Mud, 33; on Tanka dress and morals, see Bingham, Narrative, 2:272.
6. Morrison, Commercial Guide, 12; Downing, Fan-qui, 200–201.
7. Bridgman, “Obituary,” 516.
8. Ibid., 515–16.
9. Liang, Quanshi, 291, 96; Bohr, “Liang Fa’s Quest,” 36–38; Stevens, “Milne,” 322; Milne, Memorials, 22–30.
10. Liang, Quanshi, 302; Wylie, Memorials, 21; Gutzlaff, Journal, lxxi–lxxvii; Bays, “Christian Tracts,” 22–25.
11. Liang, Quanshi, 306; Wylie, Memorials, 22; Robert Morrison, letter of Nov. 26, 1819, LMS, “South China,” Box 2, folder 1.
12. Liang, Quanshi; McNeur, Liang A-fa; Bohr, “Liang Fa’s Quest,” 40–46.
13. Liang discusses his methodology in his diaries, which are extracted by Robert Morrison in various letters between 1830 and 1833. See LMS, “South China,” esp. Box 3, folders 1 and 2.
14. Wylie, Memorials, 11–12, on Kew Agong.
15. Ibid., 22.
16. Stevens, “Gospel,” 434.
17. Ibid., 436; Schlyter, Gutzlaff als Missionar, 92–93, 294–95. Gutzlaff’s strong influence in the United States is explored in Lutz, “Grand Illusion.”
18. Stevens, “Bohea,” 92–93. Letters to Peter Parker, Canton, Aug. 27, 1835, Williams Papers.
19. Ibid., 87–88, 93; Stevens, “Huron,” 330–33; Medhurst, “Huron,” 408, was less excited, claiming only 3,500 books distributed in Shandong.
20. Stevens, “Morrison,” 180–81. For a detailed study of Morrison and the missionary background, see Rubinstein, Origins, chaps. 1–4.
21. Hunter, Fan Kwae, 43; Lutz, “Karl Gutzlaff,” 68–69; Gutzlaff, Journal, 103; Stevens, “Bohea,” 85, 89; Hutcheon, Chinnery, 102, for an illustration of Gutzlaff in Chinese dress; see also Stifler, “Language Students,” 64, 74, 79, for earlier cases of Thomas Manning and Lee / Plumb.
22. Stevens, “Bohea,” 93. In a letter to his brother dated Canton, Feb. 19, 1835, S. Wells Williams noted Stevens’ presence, Gutzlaff’s present work, and Liang Afa’s recent departure. See Williams Papers, MS no. 547.
23. CR, 4:343, citing edict of Daoguang 15/8/24.
24. Canton Register, April 15, 1834; Milne’s original edition is summarized in Wylie, Memorials, 19–20. Drake, “Protestant Geography,” 95–100, is skeptical of the effectiveness of Gutzlaff’s journal.
25. Canton Register, June 14, 1836, mentioning that the printer “Keuhachaou” “is still in prison where he has lain for some months past.”
26. Stevens, “Bohea,” 94; Stevens, “Huron,” 317–19.
27. Stevens, “Bohea,” 95–96.
CHAPTER 3: HOME GROUND
1. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 12–14. Snowfall: Canton Register, Feb. 9, 1836, and CR, 5:581. Exam timing is based on calculations in Canton Register, April 14, 1835, and CR, 1:483 n. For a summary of the earlier possible dates, see Boardman, Christian Influence, 98–99 n. 124.
2. Earlier discrepancies on Hong’s family are cleared up by Chen Zhoutang, Hongshi zongpu, 54, which proves Hong’s mother’s name was Wang, correcting Hamberg, Visions, 2, which gives her name as Choo; by Wang Qingcheng, “Zupu”; and Luo Ergang, Taiping Tianguo shi, 1697–99. On Hong’s first arranged marriage to the sister of Su Si’an, see Chen Zhoutang, ed., Guangdong dichu, 46–47. Hamberg, Visions, 6, on the stipends. My thanks to Xia Chuntao for much help in clarifying these relationships.
3. Canton Register, Sept. 8, 1835.
4. Huaxian zhi, prefaces; juan 1, 12–18, and chap. 4, 1–26, on founding; juan 3, 1–7, on staff and garrisons; juan 2, 25–26, on acreage and population.
5. Hamberg, Visions, 3; Wang Qingcheng, “Zupu,” 493–94.
6. Hashimoto, Hakka Dialect, 1. The background of Hakka history is thoroughly presented in Bohr, “Eschatology,” 14–19, 285–86. He discusses the Hakka quotas in 296 n. 67.
7. CR, 4:494.
8. The fullest historical overview of Hakka culture is Luo Xianglin, Kejia. Contemporary Hakka remnants of former customs in Taiwan are fully analyzed by Gao, Kejia. On Tanka, see Davis, Chinese, 2:27.
9. Hashimoto, Hakka Dialect, 16, referring to Chang Shou-p’eng and Lu Fei’s work of 1783, and the Hsing-ning hsien-chih of 1811.
10. Chen Zhoutang, Hongshi zongpu, 6, 15, 22–23; Cohen, “Hakka,” 242, expresses skepticism on the pre-Song data.
11. Chen Zhoutang, Hongshi zongpu, 40–44.
12. Huaxian zhi, 3:37–46.
13. Cohen, “Hakka,” 249–54, 271–73; Luo Xianglin, Kejia, 336–45, illustrations 20–24.
14. Hamberg, Visions, 4.
15. Huaxian zhi, 1:38–45.
16. Wieger, Moral Tenets, 133–34; Mair, “Language and Ideology,” 335–40, 349–56.
17. Huaxian zhi, 1:46b, 51b-52.
18. Ibid., 58–59.
19. Ibid., 61.
20. Canton Register, April 28, May 5, May 12, 1835.
21. Ibid., June 2, 1835.
22. Ibid., Sept. 6, 1836.
23. Hamberg, Visions, 8.
24. Ibid., 8–9. Guangzhou fuzhi, juan 8, has detailed maps and a plan of the examination halls. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 14 n.
25. Wylie, Memorials, 84; Bridgman, “Obituary of Stevens,” 515.
26. Stevens, “Gospel,” 432.
27. Bridgman, “Obituary,” 514.
28. As in CR, 5:169. Shen Fu, Six Records, 124, confirms ease of Canton gate bribes.
29. Stevens, “Huron,” 326.
30. Wylie, Memorials, 12, 22.
31. J. R. Morrison, letter to Rev. Ellis, Canton, May 15, 1836, LMS, “South China,” Box 3, folder 2, jacket C.
32. Bridgman, “Obituary,” 517; Wylie, Memorials, 84. S. Wells Williams refers to Stevens’ death in three letters written from Macao, Feb. 22, May 15, and Dec. 26, 1837. See Williams Papers, MS no. 547.
33. Hamberg, Visions, 9.
34. Liang, Quanshi, reprint 3, line 7, for Hong and destruction; 213, line 4, for Jehovah. On earlier Chinese deluge themes see Zürcher, “Prince Moonlight,” 21–22, 29.
35. Liang, Quanshi, 213–20, for translation of Genesis chap. 6 and chap. 7, up to verse 23.
36. Ibid., index 6, line; on 271–74 Liang paraphrases the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
CHAPTER 4: SKY WAR
1. Huaxian zhi, 1:32–33; Canton Register, April 14, 1835, Feb. 23, 1836. Tragedy sometimes mixed with local belief, as in the case of the racing crew from a village near Canton. Ignoring the custom that all dragon boats be buried under the ground between the annual festivals, they had kept theirs above ground all year. Practicing in 1836 on the river near a rival’s village, they sank suddenly, and twenty of their village men were drowned, including one military licentiate from the recent exams. See Canton Register, June 28, 1836.
2. Huaxian zhi, 1:31–33; Canton Register, Sept. 1, 1835; these descriptions from Hua can be compared with the detailed coverage in Wieger, Moral Tenets, 405–39.
3. Canton Register, Sept. 29, 1835, July 19, Oct. 25, 1836. At other times, the mishaps are merely comic, though close to tragedy, as when two small boys, climbing a tree to watch the festival plays outside the west gate, fall in their excitement on the head of an old man underneath; they could have killed him, but fortunately all survived. Ibid., Nov. 3, 1835.
4. Huaxian zhi, 1:30–33.
5. Ibid, 1:32; Canton Register, Feb. 16, 1836.
6. Huaxian zhi, 1:32b.
7. Ibid., l:32b–33, 35.
8. Ibid., 1:32, 33b, 34; Canton Register, Oct. 13, 1835; for contemporary Hakka following of such practices, see Gao, Kejia, chap. 6 and passim.
9. Kaltenmark, “Ideology,” 39; Wilhelm, I Ching (book of changes), first hexagram; Wieger, Moral Tenets, 399–400.
10. De Groot, Religious System, 6:953–55.
11. Ibid., 963.
12. Hou, “Baleful Stars,” 209–19.
13. De Groot, Religious System, 6:957.
14. Ibid., 967–68.
15. Yuli zhibaochao, 39–40; G. W. Clarke, “Yu-li,” 233–44. On possible links between this text and Taiping doctrine, see Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 50–51.
16. The British Library 1839 copy of the Jade Record, Yulichao chuan jingshi (Blackfriars Road, cat. no. 15103.C35), has a supplement listing the sums contributed and the copies distributed by the faithful.
17. Yuli zhibaochao, 33b–34, for illustration; 38b for Tiandi’s transmission; 55 for monks’ reception; 68 for Li Zongmin’s historical reconstruction.
18. Wieger, Moral Tenets, 119; Rong, “Yan Luo he Yuli,” for the range of editions, and the provocative suggestion that the texts in fact support aspects of Confucian statism.
19. Yuli zhibaochao, 43–44; Wieger, Moral Tenets, 363–67; G. W. Clarke, “Yu-li,” 324–27.
20. Wieger, Moral Tenets, 367; Yuli zhibaochao, 44.
21. The term for Jade Emperor the Highest God was Yuhuang datiandi. See Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 34–35, 49–50; G. W. Clarke, “Yu-Li,” 238–39; Shuck, “Sketch of Yuhwang Shangte.”
22. Yuli zhibaochao 39; Wieger, Moral Tenets, 347–49; G. W. Clarke, “Yu-Li,” 251–54.
23. G. W. Clarke, “Yu-Li,” 272.
24. Ibid., 289.
25. Ibid., Yuli zhibaochao, and Wieger, Moral Tenets, passim.
26. For annual executions in the hundreds, and totals of up to seventeen a day, see CR, 1:291,4:385.
27. Canton Register, Aug. 25, 1835.
28. CR, 4:376, 384.
29. Canton Register, Oct. 27, 1835, and CR, 4:536, on the prevalence of child kidnapping; Canton Register, Aug. 23, 1836; on similar “diabolical arts,” see G. W. Clarke, “Yu-li,” 360–67.
30. Yuli zhibaochao, 50b-51b, 58b; G. W. Clarke, “Yu-li,” 398–400; Wieger, Moral Tenets, 391, has variants of these themes.
31. Yuli zhibaochao, 50; G. W. Clarke, “Yu-Li,” 394; Wieger, Moral Tenets, 385.
32. Canton Register, Aug. 30, 1836. From the late summer date, we know this was for licentiates who had passed the lower two stages of the exam.
33. Yuli zhibaochao, 78b, 79, for the Huang and Xu family exam successes, and G. W. Clarke, “Yu-li,” examples passim. On the printers’ shortage, see Canton Register, June 28, 1836.
34. Hamberg, Visions, 9; Yuli zhibaochao, 58.
35. Hamberg, Visions, 9.
36. Franz Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, vols. 2–3 (hereafter cited as TR), 53, slightly modified following Chin, Shiliao, 6, and Xiang, Ziliao, 2:632.
37. Hamberg, Visions, 9; TR, 53. The two texts intersect at numerous points, but are not identical, even though both are ascribed to Hong Rengan. For a subtle analysis of the dream, see Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 18–19, 34. The dream is presented as the “delirium fable” or a “twilight state” in the pioneering essay by Yap, “Mental Illness,” 298. A comparative context for Hong’s dream is provided in Wagner, “Imperial Dreams.”
38. See the transcript of Taiping tianri, as reproduced in Taiping Tianguo yinshu, vol. 1, item 3, p. 4; TR, 54, 1516; Hamberg, Visions, 10.
39. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 4b; TR, 54.
40. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 5b; TR, 54.
41. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 6; TR, 55.
42. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 6b–7b; TR, 55–56.
43. M., 54–59. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 10b, for the sword and seal; 11b for the sparing of Yan Luo.
44. TR, 59–60. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 13, on palace and family.
45. On the names, see Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 13; TR, 59–60.
46. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 16b; TR, 62.
47. Hamberg, Visions, 12. Compare Zürcher, “Prince Moonlight,” 38, where the Mara kings, wielding “diamond clubs,” also shout sha, “kill.”
48. Adapted from the Chinese version of Hamberg, Visions, 12, and the translation in TR, 1517.
49. TR, 20 [C. L. Chang]; Xiang, Ziliao, 2:848. Kuhn, “Origins,” 357–58, sees the poems as foretelling a “vague but immense personal mission.”
50. Hamberg, Visions, 12, on the brothers’ watchfulness; Ng, Madness, explains the legal implications of insanity.
51. Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 21–25, gives an insightful analysis of the idea of corroboration and categories in this dream. Yap, “Mental Illness,” 295, discusses the overlays of inflexibility and “submission to dominating ideas” shown by Hong, and on 299 sees him as “hysterical,” not schizophrenic.
CHAPTER 5: THE KEY
1. Hamberg, Visions, 19; TR, 63–64.
2. Among the scholars who have worked most carefully on Liang’s tracts and their theology in the context of Hong’s thought are Jen Yu-wen, T’ung-k’ao, 1665–93 (chap. 18, sec. 6); Bohr, “Eschatology”; and Xia, Zongjiao. See also works listed under Wagner, Shih, Boardman, Barnett, Kuhn, and Doezema. My especial thanks to Liu Chiu-ti for helping me enormously in my attempt to understand the whole of Liang’s nine tracts.
3. Hunter, Fan Kwae, 87–89; Fairbank, Trade, 64–65.
4. Hunter, Fan Kwae, 88.
5. On this looting see Bernard, Nemesis, 2:13, and CR, 10:295.
6. Wakeman, Strangers, 12; Fairbank, Trade, 81; Bernard, Nemesis, 2:11–12, for false queues, and 37–39; Rait, Gough, 2:181–91.
7. Wakeman, Strangers, 16–17; CR, 10:530, on the stolen foot.
8. Wakeman, Strangers, 17–19; Bernard, Nemesis, 2:54–55; Bingham, Narrative, vol. 2, chap. 5; CR, 10:399–400.
9. Wakeman, Strangers, 19–21, 40–41; Bernard, Nemesis, 2:57; CR, 10:519–22.
10. Wakeman, Strangers, 73; CR, 10:527–528; Yapian zhanzheng, 3:15–16.
11. Wakeman, Strangers, 48–50; CR, 10:292, for sticks in ears.
12. Wakeman, Strangers, 50.
13. Bernard, Nemesis, 2:331; Fairbank, Trade, 87–89; Elliott, “Bannerman.”
14. Isaiah 1:5–7, changing “head” to “heart” in verse 5, following Liang; Liang, Quanshi, 47–48 (1/16). Bohr, “Eschatology,” chap. 2, gives a different but intense reading of Liang’s text.
15. Bernard, Nemesis, 1:271, on the Jan. 7, 1841, battle in Anson’s Bay.
16. Ibid., 264–65, 272–73.
17. On this ship, briefly renamed the Chesapeake, originally the Cambridge, see Bingham, Narrative, 1:167, 2:153; Bernard, Nemesis, 1:357–60; also Hunter, Fan Kwae, 90–91, though Hunter appears to conflate the Anson’s Bay battle with the sinking of the Cambridge, events over a month apart.
18. Isaiah 1:28–31; Liang, Quanshi, 51 (1/18), subsituting Liang’s “hemp fibers” for the Bible’s “tow.”
19. Liang, Quanshi, 17 (1/1). The strange being(s) is / are termed Ge-lu-bi-mai, Liang’s version of “Cherubims.”
20. Ibid., 158–59 (3/13–14), 69 (2/1), 281 (6/1).
21. Ibid., 158 (3/13b), 23 (1/3b-4).
22. “Out of a state of nothingness” is zi wuwu zhong, ibid, 80–81 (2/6b–7).
23. Ibid., 163 (3/16).
24. Ibid., 163 (3/16), 156 (3/12b).
25. Ibid., 72–74 (2/2b–3b).
26. Ibid., 163–64 (3/16).
27. Ibid., 87 (2/10).
28. Matthew 5:10–12; Liang, Quanshi, 52 (1/18b).
29. Matthew 6:9–13; Liang, Quanshi, 59 (1/22).
30. Matthew 7:15–20; Liang, Quanshi, 64 (1/24b).
31. Liang, Quanshi, 25–26 (1/5–6). My thanks to Liu Chiu-ti for her rendering of this passage.
32. Ibid., 82 (2/7b).
33. Ibid., 25 (1/4b–5).
34. Ibid., 31 (1/8).
35. Ibid., 32 (1/8b).
36. Ibid., 33 (1/9).
37. Ibid., 35 (1/10).
38. Ibid., 34 (1/9b).
39. Ibid., 29–30 (1/7).
40. Ibid., 27 (1/6).
41. Ibid., 359 (7/17).
42. Ibid., 362–63 (7/17b–18).
43. Pruden, “Roberts,” 35–45, 66 n. 56, for Hakka speech; Coughlin, “Strangers,” 113–18; Schlyter, Gutzlaff als Missionar, 129–30.
44. Liang, Quanshi, 401 (8/3).
45. Ibid., 88 (2/10b); Matthew 19:18–19; Liang, Quanshi, 96 (2/14b), on opium, yang yan. The “Collection of Missionary Works in Chinese,” folder 14, contains several anti-opium tracts, including one vividly illustrated Rake’s Progress of an opium addict, and one on “the six evils of opium.”
46. Liang, Quanshi, 402–4 (8/3b–4b).
47. Ibid., 407 (8/6b).
48. Ibid., 409 (8/7).
49. Ibid., 430–31 (8/17b–18).
50. Acts 19:1–8; Liang, Quanshi, 461 (9/1).
51. Liang, Quanshi, 298–99 (6/9b–10).
52. Ibid., 302 (6/11b), 307 (6/14), 308 (6/14b).
53. Ibid., 456 (8/30b).
54. Ibid., 496 (9/18b), 498 (9/19b).
55. Ibid., 500–501 (9/20b–21).
CHAPTER 6: WANDERING
1. Hamberg, Visions, 20; TR, 4, 21, 65, retranslated; Liang, Quanshi, 144 (3/6b).
2. Hamberg, Visions, 24–25, modified according to his Chinese text. The characters were “Zhan yao jian.”
3. Ibid., 19–22; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 17; Liang, Quanshi, 306–7; in this work Liang does not, as far as I can discover, translate any of the clearest baptismal texts, such as those in Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, or John 1.
4. Hamberg, Visions, 21–22. The puritan essence of Hong’s new belief is explored by Zurcher, “Purity.”
5. Psalms 19:3–4; Liang, Quanshi, 166 (3/17b); Hamberg, Visions, 22, which confuses verses 3 and 4.
6. Psalms 19:9–10; Liang, Quanshi, 167 (3/18); Hamberg, Visions, 22–23.
7. Psalms 19:12; Liang, Quanshi, 167 (3/18); Hamberg, Visions, 23.
8. Hamberg, Visions, 27.
9. Huaxian zhi, 2:8.
10. Ibid., 2:8b–17. Wilson, Genealogy, 23–71, gives a full history of the process of “canonization” of Confucius’ followers. A complete list is given Ibid., appendix A.
11. Hamberg, Visions, 22; the significance of this incident is discussed in Weller, Resistance, 39. Hamberg, Visions, 23–24, seems to suggest it is Hong Rengan who converts Hong Xiuquan’s family, but his wording is ambiguous.
12. Hamberg, Visions, 25, reworked.
13. Ibid., 26, reworked.
14. Ibid., 26; Weller, Resistance, 39.
15. TR, 66; Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 22.
16. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 22; lunar calendar Daoguang 24/2/15, solar April 2; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 24, suggests they were “disguised” as peddlers, which seems a rather strained interpretation.
17. Taiping Tianri, in Yinshu, 22b; lunar 3/18, solar May 5. Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 19–20; Jen, Quanshi, 1:67–68.
18. TR, 66; Taiping Tianri, in Yinshu, 22b.
19. See route map in Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 19.
20. Taiping Tianri, in Yinshu 23; TR, 66, lunar 4/5. For the general situation in Guiping, see Weller, Resistance, 40–43.
21. Taiping Tianri, in Yinshu, 23b; TR, 67; Hamburg, Visions, 27. A thorough evaluation of these early writings is given by Bohr, “Eschatology,” 105–35. The chronology of Hong Xiuquan’s own writings becomes an important part of the story at this point, but is not easy to disentangle. Before leaving for Guangxi in 1844, Hong had written only short poems. During the seven months of his 1844 sojourn in Sigu in Guangxi, according to an early brief account by his cousin Hong Rengan, Xiuquan wrote “more than fifty items” (gong you wushi yu zhi). See TR, 4; Xiang, Ziliao, 2:689. The word I translate here as “items” (zhi) could refer to pamphlets, chapters, volumes, or even loose sheets. Hong Rengan specifies four of these alleged fifty: Quanshi zhenwen (True words to exhort the age); Baizheng Ge (Ode on the hundred correct things); Gaixie quizheng (Eschewing heterodoxy and returning to the true); and a four-word title of which two characters are now missing, Yuan . . . jing (Classic of the original . . . ). Hamberg, in Visions, 29 however, who used mainly Hong Rengan as his source, writes that after returning from Guangxi to Guanlubu, (i.e., after Dec. 1844, or in 1845–47), Hong Xiuquan wrote “An Ode on the Hundred Correct Things,” “An Essay on the Origin of Virtue for the Awakening of the Age,” “Further Exhortations for Awakening the Age,” and “Alter the Corrupt and Turn to the Correct,” adding that “most of which are contained in the ‘Imperial Declaration of Thai-p’hing,’ afterwards printed at Nanking”–a clear reference to the Taiping zhaoshu.
A median version is presented in the often month-by-month account of Hong’s period in Guangxi later published by the Taiping themselves, the Taiping tianri (Taiping heavenly chronicle). This states clearly (yinshu version, 27a; TR, 70) that only after Hong Xiuquan returned to Guangdong from Guangxi, during the yisi year (i.e., 1845), when he was thirty-three^/ old, did he write the Yuandao jiushi zhao and the Yuandao jiushi xun, which surely refer to the two longest titles subsequently included in the four-piece Taiping zhaoshu. But while Hong Xiuquan was in Guangxi in the jiachen year (1844), the Taiping tianri also says, Hong Xiuquan “wrote proclamations (zhao) exhorting (quan) the people to worship the Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord and Great God, and distributed them among the people.” (Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 23a and b, somewhat modifying TR, 67.) The Taiping tianri does not specify what these proclamations were, but since it explicitly says three pages later they were not either the Yuandao jiushi zhao or the Yuandao jiushi xun, we can conclude that if they were not works now totally lost, then they included the two other titles later collected in the official Taiping collection the Taiping zhaoshu–namely, the Yuandao jiushi ge (Ode on the origin of the way and our salvation) and the Baizheng ge (ode on the hundred correct things). The Baizheng ge seems incomplete, perhaps an abandoned draft, later rescued and published. But the “Ode on the Origin of the Way and Our Salvation,” originally with a different title (probably one of the first two mentioned by Hong Rengan in his list of four in his earliest account) seems to fit the Guangxi circumstances perfectly. Hong still knew only the six commandments, which he was trying to refine to his Guangxi world. He was still genuinely full of praise for Confucius’ moral virtue. He did not use too many scholarly analogies, and those he did use were close to his basic memorized readings, and would have needed no textual checking. Jen, Quanshi, 1:84–85, dates the Baizheng ge in 1844 and the Yuandao jiushi ge to 1845, citing the Taiping tianri as his evidence. But this seems to be a slip, since the Taiping tianri in fact says the Yuandao jiushi zhao and xun were written in 1845 or later. It does not mention the ge.
It also seems to me probable that the earliest prayers used in Guangxi would have been the simplest ones, echoing in part those Hong had just read in Matthew’s Gospel via Liang Afa’s translation of the Sermon on the Mount; these simple prayers contain no anachronistic references to the Ten Commandments or other theological matters of which Hong Xiuquan knew nothing until later (as, for example, does the prayer on TR, 119). Hence I place them here.
22. The various Confucian elements in Hong’s early thought are carefully examined in Shih, Taiping Ideology, chap. 8. If Hong did need help with a quotation or a detail, it is almost certain that one of the families with whom he lodged would have had at least one of the scores of simplified cribs and outlines that circulated in China at the time, and could be bought in local bookshops, perhaps even from roving peddlers in town or country. See Bai, “Primers and Paradigms,” chap. 2.
23. Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 1; TR, 25.
24. The six can be clearly seen in Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 2–5; TR, 26–30.
25. Legge, The She King (shijing), 19.
26. Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 2b, echoing Legge, Analects, 250, feili siwu.
27. The exact characters used by Hong for this episode in Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu 3, are in the Shujing. See Legge, Shoo-king, 2/3/21, 66. With variants, the passage is also glossed in Mencius–see Legge, Mencius, 5/1/1, 342–43. Hong seems to have conflated this with a Zuozhuan passage on the elephants’ and birds’ actions at the time of Shun’s death–see Yinshu, 3, and Murohashi, Daikanwa, 11105 (10:663), top line.
Again, Hong turns to an allusion from the Book of Poetry that he learned by heart in school, an allegorical poem in which a grieving son expresses his sorrow and remorse that he could not have served his parents better while they lived.
Fatherless, who is there to rely on?
Motherless, who is there to depend on?
When I go abroad, I carry my grief with me;
When I come home, I have no one to go to.
Cold and bleak is the Southern Hill,
The rushing wind is very fierce.
Other people all are happy—
Why am I alone so miserable?
The Southern Hill is very steep,
The rushing wind is blustering.
Other people all are happy—
I alone have left my tasks unfinished.
TR, 237, and Yinshu, 3b; Legge, She-King, 2/5/8, verses 3, 5, 6, with minor changes, 350–51.
28. Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 3b–4; TR, 29.
29. TR, 29; Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 4; Watson, Meng Ch’iu, 118.
30. TR, 29; Watson, Meng Ch’iu, 57.
31. TR, 29, Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 5; see passages in Liang, Quanshi, 101–2, 490. Hong may well be echoing the philosopher Xunzi here.
32. TR, 30–31; Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 6.
33. Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 6, modifying TR, 31.
34. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 23b, amending TR, 67; Hamberg, Visions, 38.
35. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 24, modifying TR, 67.
36. Hamberg, Visions, 35–36. For the hymns, see Isabel Wong, “Geming Gequ,” 113–14.
37. TR, 115–16 and n. 13, slightly modified following Tiantiao shu, in Yinshu, 3. On dating the prayers, see TR, 111, and discussion in Bohr, “Eschatology,” 161.
38. Hamberg, Visions, 28. This ritual is startlingly like the Taoist ritual of “the Sacrifice of the Writings,” as described in Schipper, Taoist Body, 89, though there the documents are burned “outside the ritual area” and the presiding masters “mime drunkenness.”
39. Hamberg, Visions, 28, 35–36, and TR, 116, both slightly modified following Tiantiao shu, in Yinshu, 3b.
40. Hamberg, Visions, 27–28. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 24–25 (TR, 68), gives a rather different time span, with the young man’s release being on 8/15. There is a misprint in the son Huang Weizheng’s name in Yinshu, 25.
41. TR, 68; Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 25–26.
42. TR, 69; Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 25b–26.
CHAPTER 7: THE BASE
1. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 25b–26b; TR, 69; Hamberg, Visions, 29.
2. Hamberg, Visions, 29.
3. See Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 26b; TR, 69; and the detailed map in Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 21.
4. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 26b-27; TR, 69–70; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 21.
5. Laai, “Pirates,” 167, drawing on later Nanjing God-worshipers’ registers.
6. Curwen, Deposition, 83, 88.
7. Laai, “Pirates,” 169.
8. Murray, Pirates, 57–59.
9. Ibid., 25, 67–68.
10. Ibid., 71–73, 149–50. Shi Yang was also often known simply as Zheng Yi Sao, “Zheng Yi’s wife.”
11. Fox, Admirals, 89–91, 96–97.
12. Ibid., 93–95.
13. Laai, “Pirates,” 109.
14. Ibid., 30, 182; Fox, Admirals, 92, and Scott, Destruction, 7.
15. Scott, Destruction, 47.
16. Ibid., 100 n, 141; Laai, “Pirates,” 27, 78.
17. Scott, Destruction, 97–98, 248–50.
18. Laai, “Pirates,” 68–70, 112; Bingham, Narrative, 2:264, emphasizes the number of these mixed liaisons in Macao.
19. Scott, Destruction, 209–10, 217, 234; Laai, “Pirates,” 79–80.
20. Scott, Destruction, 224, on children and rent; 218 on guns; 235 on spoiled opium; 226, 232, for her possessions.
21. Ibid., 229, 235; Laai, “Pirates,” 83.
22. Laai, “Pirates,” 62, 90, 109, 110.
23. Ibid., 108, 118–19. There were eleven such “companies”–mifanzhu tang—in Nanning alone by 1850.
24. Murray and Qin, Tiandihui, 16–19, 143–44; Ibid., 18, translates the phrase jushi as “carry out a rebellion,” which seems too precise in the context. The Heaven-and-Earth Society was just one of dozens of informal and clandestine groups and federations that spread in China at this time, as vastly growing populations brought new pressures on the land, compounded by bureaucratic inefficiencies, unfair taxation patterns, natural disasters, erosion of uplands, and other environmental damage to lakes, hills, and waterways. But unlike many others, it survived and spread, sparking more than fifty-five local uprisings or attacks on cities in the southeast coastal provinces and in Guangxi between 1800 and 1840, prompting massive government reprisals, and thus a deepened sense of injustice. See Ibid., 231–35, appendix C. This number also included occasional risings in Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, and Jiangxi.
25. Ibid., 189, omitting the Chinese transcriptions; see also Murray, “Migration,” 180; David Ownby, introduction to Secret Societies Reconsidered, 18. An excellent overview of the intersection of demographic problems with the growth of the secret societies is Jones and Kuhn, “Dynastic Decline,” 108–13, 134–44.
26. Murray and Qin, Tiandihui, 183–84; Ter Haar, “Messianism,” 169.
27. Murray and Qin, Tiandihui, 45, 185.
28. Ibid., 44, 48.
29. Ibid., 30, 290, and other references as listed Ibid., index, 344.
30. Ter Haar, “Messianism,” 159, 165, 169.
31. Ibid., 156; Murray and Qin, Tiandihui, 75, 189, 192.
32. Murray and Qin, Tiandihui, 69–76; Laai, “Pirates,” 13–14, 31–32, 179.
33. Scott, Destruction, 248; Laai, “Pirates,” 15; Scott, Destruction, 219, 233, testimony of the Chinese interpreter Tom Achik.
34. Laai, “Pirates,” 31–32, 36, 112, 173.
35. Ibid., 185–87.
36. Ibid., 92–93; 95 n. 18, for the phrase Chou ke fensheng.
37. Ibid., 96, 101–2.
38. Ibid., 150, 176.
39. Curwen, Deposition, 88, with minor changes. The sense of the passage seems much clearer if we drop, as I do here, the extra phrase “if they were God-worshipers.”
40. P. Clarke, “Coming,” 148–49; Schlyter, Gutzlaff als Missionar, chap. 5.
41. P. Clarke, “Coming,” 153, correcting the misprint of “effectuatelly.”
42. Ibid., 152, 154, 158, 166 n. 55, 176 n. 80, 161, 163–64. However, Clarke’s attempt to include Feng Yunshan among the Hong Kong converts to the Chinese Union (the Hanhui) is firmly rebutted by Mao, “Guanyu Guo Shili,” 269, 271. For more details on the Chinese Union see Schlyter, Gutzlaff als Missionar, chap. 6, and 266–99.
43. P. Clarke, “Coming,” 149, 179–80.
44. Variants of these formats can be seen in the New York Public Library, the British Library, and the Library of Congress. The base of Gutzlaff’s European support is studied in Schlyter, Heimatbasis, chap. 4, for the growth period of the 1840s.
45. Romans 1:14–15. Twenty-six numbered Chinese Union tracts are listed with titles and summaries in Robert Douglas’ 1877 Catalogue of the British Museum, 3–5, 37. The serial numbers cited there range from Tract 10, the lowest, to Tract 52. In the same chapter, Paul gives his own list of prohibitions that far exceeds in comprehensiveness either the six prohibitions of Hong Xiuquan or the Ten Commandments handed to Moses by God at Sinai. Though, like Hong’s, Paul’s list (Romans 1:26–31) includes murder, lust, and disobedience to parents, it adds almost twenty further sins, including envy, whispering and backbiting, pride and malignity, and the practice of male homosexuality.
46. TR, 35–36; Legge, Li-Ki.
47. TR, 36, Wilhelm/Baynes, I Ching, 56–57, hexagram tongren; Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 10.
48. TR, 34, modified following Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 8.
49. TR, 36, slightly modified following Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 10.
50. TR, 38.
51. TR, 38–39, 44. On the Yuliji see Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 12.
52. See TR, 39, 41, 46–47.
53. See detailed accounts in Coughlin, “Strangers,” and Pruden, “Roberts.”
54. A full description of such a baptism is given by Roberts in two letters to Gutzlaff of July 21 and July 29, 1844. See “Chun’s Doings in Canton,” #19 (July 21, 1844) 3, plate 1927, fiche 17; and #20 (July 29, 1844) 1 and 2, plates 1917 and 1918, fiche 17. My thanks to Laura McDaniel for furnishing me transcripts of “Chun’s Doings.”
55. P. Clarke, “Coming,” 171, on the assistant Zhou Daoxing and Gutzlaff’s union connection; TR, 70; Hamberg, Visions, 31.
56. Hamberg, Visions, 32; Coughlin, “Strangers,” 256–61.
57. Hamberg, Visions, 32; TR, 70–71; Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 28.
58. Canton Register, Sept. 1, 1835. See also Shilu, Daoguang, 269/3b.
59. Laai, “Pirates,” 36, 66–67.
60. Ibid., 113, 144.
61. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 28b; TR, 71. For earlier esoteric use of cryptic utterances and finger codes see Zürcher, “Prince Moonlight,” 37.
62. Hamberg, Visions, 33.
63. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 30b; TR, 72. The characters jiusui, translated as “according to the old calendar” in TR, 72, must surely in fact mean “the previous year”; otherwise the chronology makes no sense. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 47, amends the text in this sense.
64. TR, 72, modified; Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 30b–31; compare the use of “Wu” in the opening line of the poem Ibid., 20b.
65. Dates in Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 30b, 31; TR, 72; Hamberg, Visions, 34.
CHAPTER 8: JUDGMENTS
1. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 31, for “their writings are distributed” (xieshu songren), even though the nature of these shu, or “writings,” is not specified; the translation in TR, 72, “wrote letters to be sent to people,” seems somewhat too limited. See also Wang, Tianfu, 159, 191, and Bohr, “Eschatology,” 136–76, for their work at this time.
2. Liang, Quanshi, 359 (7/17); TR, 41, modified; Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 14. Hong here combines Exodus 20:4–5 and 31:18.
3. Psalms 115:1–8; TR, 43; and Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 16. Hong uses this fuller passage of Psalms 115:1–8, rather than the briefer list in Psalms 135:16–17.
4. TR, 45, retranslated from Taiping zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 17b.
5. TR, 57, modified after Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 10, and abbreviating repetitions of God’s full name.
6. TR, 61; Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 15b.
7. TR, 62, modified; Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 16.
8. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 27, 31b; TR, 69–70, 73; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 21.
9. Hamberg, Visions, 36; TR, 73; Weller, Resistance, 57–58, on shrine numbers and reputation.
10. Hamberg, Visions, 36; TR, 73; I interpret Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 31b–32, as showing it was the worshipers, not “temple guardians,” who took these preventive measures.
11. Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 32; TR, 73.
12. TR, 73–76; Taiping tianri, in Yinshu, 32–35b; Hamberg, Visions, 37; Hong Rengan variants in TR, 1518–19; Weller, Resistance, 62–63.
13. Jen, Quanshi, 1:120–23; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 38–39; Li, Zhongxing bieji, 1:6.
14. Li, Zhongxing bieji, 1:6a; Xia, Zongjiao, 33.
15. Li, Zhongxing bieji.
16. For the general Guangxi background, see Kuhn, “Taiping Rebellion,” 264–66. See also Xia, Zongjiao, 29, on the Guiping area militias (tuanlian) and God-worshipers.
17. Kikuchi, “Taihei tengoku,” 7, for the Lan and Luo families in Jintian; Inada, “Taihei tengoku,” 61–64, on “Hakka” as a term. My special thanks to Wen-wen Liu for help with these articles.
18. Kikuchi, “Taihei tengoku,” 4, on the Xus, originally from Tongcheng, Anhui, and their long reign as Guiping magistrates.
19. Ibid., 7, on the “Yaoming huiguan.”
20. Ibid., 8.
21. Ibid., 9–11.
22. Ibid., 12–15, 16, on the Anliang yue.
23. Ibid., 17; Anliang yue, 347–48.
24. Kikuchi, “Taihei tengoku,” 19–20, on the Huang family, which was not related to Hong’s friends, the Sigu village Huangs.
25. Ibid., 24, 26–27.
26. Inada, “Taihei tengoku,” 71.
27. Ibid., 74; Anliang yue, 345.
28. Inada, “Taihei tengoku,” 76–77, citing Anliang yue.
29. Ibid., 78–79, on gongbao registry.
30. This is especially significant for Wei Changhui—later the Taiping “North King”—and his father’s and uncle’s landholdings, as discussed Ibid., 75; see Ibid., 82, for the Wei family’s token payment of 4 qian to the local shrine. On p. 78 Inada argues that “perhaps” Wei’s Hakka identity was a factor here.
31. See Laai, “Pirates,” 167 n. 36, 168 n. 37.
32. Li, Zhongxing bieji, 1:6b; Wang, Tianfu, 192; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 38–40; Naquin, Millenarian Rebellion, and Kuhn, Soulstealers, both offer vivid examples of such treatment of suspects under investigation.
33. Wang, Tianfu, 192; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 40.
34. As analyzed in Weller, Resistance, 70–75.
35. Xia, Zongjiao, 30–31; Hamberg, Visions, 34, cites Xiao’s wife, Yang Yunjiao, as also having visions. See also TR, 69, on Hong Rengan; for Xiao’s hour-long trances see Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:4b–5. Bohr, “Eschatology,” 177, argues that during this period of Hong’s and Feng’s absence from Guangxi, Yang and Xiao, by their “shamanic leadership,” were “unleashing the revolutionary implications” of Hong’s theology.
36. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:1, 2, 8; Wang, Tianfu, 4, 9.
37. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:9; Wang, Tianfu, 10.
38. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:6; Wang, Tianfu, 7–8; Weller, Resistance, 82–83, suggests this as a prototype for women’s power and possession.
39. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:7–8, 9b; Wang, Tianfu, 8–11; Zhong Wendian on Hakka idioms, interview with author in Guilin, summer 1992; Xia, Zongjiao, 34, discusses the importance of this consanguinity in local religious terms.
40. Weller, Resistance, discusses this rich mix at length—see esp. p. 56, on the Jintian area as “thick with extraordinary possibilities,” and p. 84, on the final “saturation.” For these examples see Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:3, 10, 12; Wang, Tianfu, 5, 11, 13. The two accounts of the same incident in the text have a variant reading, Siwang and Shiwang, for the name of the village. For its location, see Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 24.
41. Hamberg, Visions, 45.
42. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:2b, 5, first description by Jesus, second by Xiao Chaogui.
43. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:3b; Wang, Tianfu, 5.
44. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:5b, “shouzhi . . . yu wo kan,” “pointed out with His hand, for me to see.”
45. Genesis 32:24; Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:5b, “gangshou chiao.” That the phrase refers to a Hakka wrestling grip was explained to me by Zhong Wendian in 1992.
46. Kutcher, “Death and Mourning”; Kuhn, Soulstealers, 58–59, 102–3. The “three years” of mourning was usually interpreted as twenty-seven months.
47. Hamberg, Vision, 40; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 40. Wang, Tianfu, 192. Hong’s son was born in Daoguang 29/10/9 (Nov. 23, 1849), a little more than nine months after Hong’s return to Guanlubu.
CHAPTER 9: ASSEMBLING
1. Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 23, 25, 27.
2. Many are listed in Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 65–70.
3. Graham, China Station, chap. 9; Hay, Suppression, 27–44; Laai, “Pirates,” 66–72; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 68–69.
4. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:16b.
5. Ibid., 1:17; Wang, Tianfu, 17.
6. Hamberg, Visions, 46.
7. Ibid., 46–47; Weller, Resistance.
8. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:21, for Daoguang 29/10/23; Wang, Tianfu, 22, which accidentally omits the leaders’ uneasy reply.
9. The two are Huang Weizheng and Ji Nengshan. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:18b, Daoguang 29/9/11; this is clearly earlier than the early part of 1850 suggested for these events by Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 54.
10. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:19a, dated 29/9/14.
11. Ibid., 1:20b, dated 29/9/28, where God is called “Gao Lao” for the first time in this text. For the term “Gao Lao” see Luo Ergang, “Jingji kao” 28; TR, 99.
12. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:20b, dated 29/10/4, and 1:35a, 30/1/4; Hamberg, Visions, 51. Bohr, “Eschatology,” 194–96, on militia and Taiping organizations.
13. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 42–44; TR, 378–79; Curwen, Desposition, 80–81.
14. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:33b, Daoguang 30/1/4 (Feb. 15, 1850); Wang, Tianfu, 33–34.
15. Hamberg, Visions, 42.
16. Retranslated from the Chinese Ibid., 43.
17. Tianxiong shengzhi, l:41b-42, dated 30/2/23.
18. Hamberg, Visions, 43.
19. Ibid., 55–56, modernizing romanization of Chinese names.
20. Ibid., 50, Chinese text, modifying his translation and that in TR, 77.
21. The key passages are in Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:28b–31b, Daoguang 29/12/27 and 29/ 12/29; Hong’s leg injury is mentioned Ibid., 1:21b, under Daoguang 29/10/23; Wang, Tianfu, 29–31.
22. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:20b–21, Daoguang 30/8/13; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 84, has other details on Shi Dakai’s involvement at Baisha.
23. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:31b–32b, Daoguang 30/1/2.
24. Ibid., 1:34a, Daoguang 30/1/4, and 1:36–37, Daoguang 30/1/16; Wang, Tianfu, 36 n, explains the codes. There was a similar ceremony on 30/1/17.
25. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:38b, Daoguang 30/1/17.
26. Ibid., 1:41b, Daoguang 30/2/23.
27. Ibid., l:42–44b, for initiation, 1:46b, for baptism, Daoguang 30/2/27 and 28; Wang, Tianfu, 41–43, 45.
28. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:25b, Daoguang 29/12/1; Wang, Tianfu, 27; Hamberg, Visions, 34, however, suggests it was Xiao’s first wife, Yang-yun-kiau, who was the women’s model.
29. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:26.
30. Ibid., 1:20b, Daoguang 29/10/4, describes the woman as being guai dai, “kidnapped” or “decoyed.”
31. Ibid., 1:26b, where Jesus calls her his baomei. On the true identity of Xiao’s wife, nee Huang, who later used the name of Yang, see Luo Ergang, “Chongkao,” 134, 136.
32. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:26b. This “second sister Chen” was possibly older sister to “third sister Chen,” prominent among Hong’s court women in 1860, as shown in TR, 931.
33. TR, 390, translation of Tianqing daolishu, in Yinshu, 29b.
34. Hamberg, Visions, 45, says Hong Rengan sent the message. Hong’s son was born in Daoguang 29/10/9. Jen, Quanshi, 1:128.
35. The three were Huang Shengjue, Hou Changbo, and Jiang Longchang. See Jen, Quanshi, 1:191; Hamberg, Visions, 47, 53; TR, 811, on “Hou Ch’ang-po and Huang Sheng-chueh,” probably also refers to their role on this trip. See also Wang, Tianfu, 81 and n. 1, on Hou Changbo; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 352–53, on Jiang Longchang’s death in 1852.
36. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 55; Jen, Quanshi, 1:192.
37. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:24b, Daoguang 29/11/27.
38. Hamberg, Visions, 47–48.
39. TR, 374; Hamberg, Visions, 46; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 56.
40. TR, 374–75, modified from Tianqing daolishu, in Yinshu, 11b; Wang Qingcheng, in Tianfu, 195 n. 1, explains why he believes Yang had recovered by Sept., as opposed to the Nov. date given in Tianqing daolishu.
41. On the ulcers (chuangdu) see Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:13b, Daoguang 30/8/1; Wang, Tianfu, 66.
42. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:46b–47, Daoguang 30/3/4.
43. Ibid., 1:47b, Daoguang 30/4/22.
44. Ibid., 2:8, Daoguang 30/7/26.
45. Ibid., 1:52b, Daoguang 30/6/20; Wang, Tianfu, 50; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 43–44, for Chen and Qin.
46. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:54b–55.
47. Ibid., 1:53.
48. Ibid., l:53b-54.
49. Ibid., 1:54.
50. The logistics, quarrels, and final success can be reconstructed from several messages in Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:1–3b, those dated Daoguang 30/7/5, 30/7/16, 30/7/18, 30/7/19, and 30/7/21; Wang, Tianfu, 55–57.
CHAPTER 10: EARTH WAR
1. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:48, Daoguang 30/6/19 (27 July 1850); Jiang, “Dengji,” suggests April 3, 1850, as Hong’s throne day.
2. Zhuang, “Ling Shiba,” 102, gives a full list.
3. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:25, Daoguang 30/9/10.
4. Ibid., 2:26b, Daoguang 30/9/25; Wang, Tianfu, 77; Wang, “Jintian qiyi,” 72–88, fully analyzes the uprising as a process throughout 1850.
5. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 49, and Zhuang, “Ling Shiba,” 101.
6. TR, 133, Taiping junmu, in Yinshu, 1–2.
7. TR, 137–38, Taiping junmu, in Yinshu, 32; TR, 419–20.
8. See Shih, Taiping Ideology, 259–64, for a meticulous analysis; and Biot, trans., Le Tcheou-li, vol. 2, bk. 28.
9. E.g., Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:23, Daoguang 30/8/20, for “face” in the context of Yang’s illness.
10. See Ibid., 2:11b–12, Daoguang 30/7/29, literally “Those two men don’t recognize much of characters written in ink” and “accomplish things by natural talent.” See also the mockery of geographical and astronomical scholarship Ibid., 2:18b, Daoguang 30/8/9, and of classical poetry in 2:33b, Taiping 1/3/18.
11. Ibid., 2:22, where Yang Liu is given a hundred blows on Daoguang 30/8/19 although he had apparently already reached the eighth commandment without an error.
12. TR, 123, modified following Tian tiaoshu, in Yinshu, llb-12.
13. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 58–60; Hamberg, Visions, 48–49; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 92.
14. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 67–68; Laai, “Pirates,” 95, 199–204; Jen, Quanshi, 1:214–20, valiantly tries to unravel all the overlapping and contradictory accounts of these conflicts.
15. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 62–63; Jen, Quanshi, 1:218–19, on Zhang Yong; Wang, “Jintian qiyi,” 64–71, dismisses much prior discussion of this battle as unreliable.
16. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:27, Daoguang 30/11/first ten days of month.
17. Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 33–34.
18. TR, 425.
19. TR, 425–26.
20. The Chinese date of the battle was Daoguang 30/11/29. Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 33–34; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 64–65; Jen, Quanshi, 1:221–23; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 97. Jen somewhat garbles Ikedanbu’s name.
21. Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 6, modifying TR, 103; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 98. Kuhn, “Taiping Rebellion,” 273–74, sees Hong’s Jan. 11, 1851, birthday as marking the time “a political regime had at last emerged from Hung’s messianic vision.”
22. Laai, “Pirates,” 204–5; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 68; Hamberg, Visions, 55–56; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 98, 100.
23. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 104–7; Hamberg, Visions, 53–55; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 71–72.
24. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:40, for this zaibing of Hong, Taiping 1/3/20; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 108–15; Wang, “Jintian qiyi,” 84–87; Jiang, “Dengji,” suggests a formal earlier date of April 3, 1850.
25. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:30, Taiping 1/2/28.
26. Ibid., 2:30–32b, Taiping 1/2/28.
27. TR, 99.
28. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:35.
29. Ibid., 2:37b-38, Taiping 1/3/18, modifying TR, 99–100; this is one of the only Tianxiong shengzhi passages chosen for inclusion in the Tianming zhaozhi shu; see Yinshu ed., 2.
30. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:38b–39, for Lai’s failure to attend, and 2:39–40, for Huang’s and Wei’s lateness, and Chen’s hasty responses.
31. Zhuang, “Ling Shiba.” Ling never joined Hong and was killed by Qing troops in 1852. Ling’s two 1850 approaches to Jintian and the Taiping caution are in Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:4a-5b and 2:25b, Daoguang 30/7/22 and 30/9/10; Ling’s campaigns are shown in detail in Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 28, 31; for a harsh Taiping view of Ling see TR, 392–93.
32. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:40b, Taiping 1/5/12.
33. Women in Tianxiong shengzhi 2:42, Taiping 1/6/27.
34. TR, 427 and n. 2. The Taiping used the phrase “belonging to the third watch”–i.e., the midnight hours—as a euphemism for the deserters.
35. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:42, Taiping 1/6/27.
36. See TR, 100, and Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:42, both dated 1/7/13.
37. TR, 104, Xianfeng 1/7/19, modified according to Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 6b-7b.
38. Curwen, Deposition, 83.
39. Zhong, Yongan 11–13; Guo Yisheng, Ditu 41–42.
1. Zhong, Yongan, 22–23, on Hong’s residence.
2. TR, 105–6, modified from Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 8b–9.
3. Zhong, Yongan, 24–26.
4. Ibid., 29–32, 36, 42–43.
5. Shih, Taiping Ideology, 158–60, on the treasury and brotherhood; Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 48–57, on salvation history and the millennium. Kuhn, “Taiping Rebellion,” 276, emphasizes the mix in Yongan of “religious content” and “ethnic nationalism.” Bohr, “Eschatology,” 198–206, discusses the emergence in Yongan of a new form of “charismatic” leadership, and the identification of the Manchus with the forces of evil.
6. TR, 106; Tianming zhaozhi shu, 9b, on the Xiaotiantang. There has been considerable discussion of this Xiaotiantang by scholars: see Laai, “Pirates,” 248; Su, “ ‘Xiaotiantang’ xinjie,” argues for Beijing, not Nanjing; Fang and Cui, “Taiping Tianguo ‘Xiaotiantang,’ ” also argues against prior identifications of Nanjing. See also Xia, Zongjiao, 84–85; Wang, Lishi he sixiang, 208–9; Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 67–69.
7. TR, 323–24, and discussion of sources Ibid., 321–23; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 80–81; Zhong, Yongan, 94–96.
8. TR, 107; Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 10b.
9. TR, 125–28.
10. TR, 108, slightly modified following Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 12; decree formally issued on Dec. 17, 1851, though I assume it was prepared a few days earlier; and Taiping lizhi, in Yinshu, 5b–6, and TR, 129, for one-thousand-year titles.
11. That this character shift was already in place in Yongan can be seen from the 1852 Sanzijing, in Yinshu, 2b, where the pharaoh of Egypt is referred to as the kuang rather than the wang, as are all Chinese rulers later in the same text.
12. TR, 142–43; Banxing zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 1–2; TR, 143, 144 n. 4.
13. See Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:41b-42, for 1/6/27. The most dramatic example, that of Zhou Xineng and 190 others, originated in July 1851 and was discovered in November. The unmasking of the spies was given extensive coverage by the Taiping as an example of Yang Xiuqing’s perspicacity. See TR, 88–97, 382–84.
14. Zhong, Yongan, 53–56. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 78, estimates the Taiping in Yongan at 40,000, of whom half were combatants.
15. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 136–40, lists these numerous attacks, as does Zhong, Yongan, 64–75; on p. 61 Zhong gives the 46,000 figure; on pp. 107–10 he discusses illicit trade; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 43–44, has detailed maps.
16. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 141, dated 1/10/18; Laai, “Pirates,” 254. This may be the battle described for 1/10/17 in the Overland Friend of China, as cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 14–15.
17. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:45.
18. Ibid., 2:45b.
19. Ibid., 2:47, and on the pain (Zhongku); TR, 102, cites the almost identical passage as it is found in Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 5.
20. The last phrases uttered by Jesus are on 2/3/15 in Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:49b, i.e., May 3, 1852, during the Guilin siege.
21. TR, 102.
22. TR, 108, Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 12b.
23. TR, 139–141, modified from Taiping tiaogui, in Yinshu.
24. Zhong, Yongan, 99–102, on Yongan printing. The tables of contents, from 1851 and 1853, in Yinshu editions of You xue shi and Taiping jiushi ge both show thirteen titles. The New Testament was not included. The misprinting of item 9, Taiping tiaogui, in these two volumes as Taiping guitiao, was later corrected, and serves as evidence of these texts’ early date.
25. TR, 153–55, some changes following Sanzijing, in Yinshu, 1b–6b. Since the biblical term for “manna” was rendered “sweet dew” in Chinese, I use “manna” here.
26. TR, 121–22, modified from Tiantiao shu, Yinshu, 7b–8.
27. TR, 109; Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 12b–13.
28. TR, 108, Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 12b, guifei.
29. Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:28b.
30. You xue shi, in Yinshu, 9, modifying TR, 166. For the imagery in the third line of the husband’s stanza—Hedong shizi, “the lion east of the river”—see the lengthy entry in Murohashi, Daikanwa, 6:6727. The third line of the wife’s stanza, literally “if the hen calls out the dawn,” has the sense of the English-language idiom “if the woman wears the trousers.”
31. TR, 129–30. Jen, Tongfyao, 2:1251–59, surveys the evidence and provides some names. The man known as Hong Daquan estimated in 1852 that Hong had thirty-six consorts in the city, and took “thirty or so” of them with him when he left. See the confession of Hong Daquan, in TR, 191–92. But the exact rank and identity of this man have been long debated and the accuracy of his confession disputed. See TR, 187–88; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 153–75; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 84.
32. TR, 110, modified according to Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 14.
33. Zhong, Yongan, 106–7.
34. TR, 109, modified according to Tianming zhaozhi shu, in Yinshu, 13.
35. Zhong, Yongan, 122, 127.
36. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 83–86; Zhong, Yongan, 127; TR, 191–92, confession of Hong Daquan; Curwen, Deposition, 83–84.
CHAPTER 12: THE HUNT
1. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 85; Curwen, Deposition, 187 n. 60.
2. Laai, “Pirates,” 205–7.
3. See analysis by Zhong, “Youguan Taiping Jun.”
4. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 86; Curwen, Deposition, 187 n. 61.
5. Laai, “Pirates,” 245, 256.
6. Ibid., 254–56. Ling was killed by Qing troops in July 1852.
7. Guo Yishu, Ditu, 47–48; Laai, “Pirates,” 208, 257. This bribe led to Big-head Yang’s execution by the Qing.
8. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 88–89. When exactly Feng was fatally wounded is still debated by historians. Luo Ergang, Taiping Tianguo shi, vol. 3, juan 43, agrees with Jen Yu-wen; but Mao Jiaqi, in Taiping Tianguo tongshi, 1:307–12, expresses doubt that Feng was first struck at Quanzhou. My thanks to Xia Chuntao for clarification of this point.
9. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 89–90.
10. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 181.
11. Kuhn, Rebellion, 106–7; Cai, “Lei Zaihao he Li Yuanfa,” concludes these were not Tiandihui risings.
12. Kuhn, Rebellion, 106–11.
13. Ibid., 113–15; Eminent Chinese, 136–37.
14. Jen, Quanshi, 1:388–89, based on his own survey of the area; Laai, “Pirates,” 258.
15. Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 49–50; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 90–92; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 182, estimates the date a little later, on June 10; Laai, “Pirates,” 258–59.
16. Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 53; Curwen, Deposition, 188 n. 65.
17. TR, 143, 148.
18. TR, 144.
19. Zhong, “Taiping jun daqi,” 246–47; see also Taiping Tianguo shige qiantan, 13–17, 50.
20. TR, 146, modified following Banxing zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 5b.
21. TR, 148, modified following Banxing zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 7b.
22. TR, 146–47, modified following Banxzing zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 6.
23. TR, 145–46, modified following Banxing zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 4b–5.
24. TR, 147; Banxing zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 6b; Wilhelm / Baynes, I-Ching, 9. For parallel slogans on early Taiping banners, see Zhong, “Taiping jun daqi,” 244–45.
25. TR, 151; Banxing zhaoshu, in Yinshu, 10b.
26. Curwen, Deposition, 84; Wang, “Renzi ernian,” 166.
27. Curwen, Deposition, 84, 188 n. 65; Laai, “Pirates,” 261.
28. Wang, “Renzi ernian,” 164–69; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 186–92; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 98. With Xiao’s death following Feng’s, the subordinate kings have been reduced from five to three; though this news is surely known to all inside the Taiping ranks, Hong regularly issues decrees in the dead kings’ names. The Qing learn the news when captured Taiping prisoners reveal the location of Xiao’s grave to their Qing inquisitors and his corpse is disinterred, dismembered, and defaced. See Cheng, Taiping Rebellion, 31.
29. Wang, “Renzi ernian,” 170.
30. See Ibid., 172, for calculations.
31. Eminent Chinese, 537; Qingshi liezhuan, 45:24.
32. Qingshi liezhuan, 45:25b–26.
33. Laai, “Pirates,” 262; Wang, “Renzi ernian,” 179–82, on Shi Dakai; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 55.
34. Curwen, Deposition, 189, 191, discusses these techniques at various sieges; Wang, “Renzi ernian,” 182–83.
35. Curwen, Deposition, 189.
36. This seems to be the ex-pirate Luo Dagang’s idea coordinated with those of Yang Xiuqing, the East King. Laai, “Pirates,” 241–42, 263.
37. TR, 421–22.
38. TR, 423–24.
39. TR, 421, slightly modified from Xingjun zongyao, in Yinshu, 5.
40. Li Xiucheng in Curwen, Deposition, 83, talks of villagers lost one hundred li from home.
41. TR, 417–18, slightly modified from Xingjun zongyao, in Yinshu, 1.
42. TR, 391–92.
43. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 100–102; Laai, “Pirates,” 264–68.
44. Chen Huiyan, Wuchang jishi, 587–90.
45. Zhao, “Chengshi zhengce,” 49–50; Chen Huiyan, Wuchang jishi, 593–96.
46. Cheng, Taiping Rebellion, 27–30.
47. Laai, “Pirates,” 268–69.
48. Curwen, Deposition, 193–94 n. 86.
49. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 108–12.
50. TR, 185–86.
51. TR, 183–84, slightly modified and titles translated.
52. Rait, Gough, 1:278–79; Davis, China during the War, 1:289.
53. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 116–18, 124; Zhang Runan, Jinling, 692–705; Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 58–62.
CHAPTER 13: THE EARTHLY PARADISE
1. TR, 314–15, 320, and Tianchao tianmou, in Yinshu, 2b–3, 7b. Bohr, “Eschatology,” 219–66, discusses the Nanjing early years of the Taiping as a “theocratic millennium.” Bohr emphasizes the importance of Hong’s biblical commentaries at this time, though I see their composition and influence as coming later in the Taiping, after the death of Yang Xiuqing.
2. TR, 314–15; Tianchao tianmou, Yinshu, 2b–3. Kuhn, “Taiping Rebellion,” 279, points out the “perplexing problem” that the land regulations never discuss “the idea of periodic reallocation of land.”
3. TR, 314–15.
4. TR, 320; Tianchao tianmou, in Yinshu, 8.
5. TR, 318–19.
6. Xie, Jinling guijia, 651; Zhang Runan, Jinling, 695.
7. TR, 564–65. The originals of some other household registration sheets are preserved in the Jen Yu-wen Collection.
8. TR, 566–69.
9. Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 199–200; Zhao, “Chengshi zhengce,” 50–52.
10. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 121–22, on the Hankou merchant Wu Fucheng; Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 76–77, discusses women’s dress and makeup.
11. TR, 448–50; Chin, Shiliao, 130–31; Jen Yu-wen Collection.
12. See Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 87–90.
13. Alexander Wylie, report of 1859, cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 220.
14. Report by Xavier Maresca, in Mercier, Cassini, 268–69; on disorder, see Withers, “Heavenly Capital” 53–54.
15. Report of Xavier Maresca, in Mercier, Cassini, 269–72.
16. By an even more ironic decision, the office of gunpowder manufacture is placed in the former temple to Guandi, Goddess of Mercy. Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 104, 107–8; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 126; Qi, “Taiping Tianguo wenshu,” and Wang Qingcheng, “Guanyu zhizhun banxing,” discuss problems of printing and dispersion.
17. Despite the appearance of the Old Testament, Jiuyizhao shengshu, in some Taiping indexes of 1852, Wang Qingcheng argues firmly for the 1853 date–“Guanyu zhizhun banxing,” esp. 190 and 196–97. For variants in the early edition, see Xia, Zongjiao, 91 n. 2; TR, 221, citing NCH, July 16, 1853.
18. See British Museum edition, Jiuyi jiaoshengshu, and Ibid., Yinshu, 24; Xia, Zongjiao, 96–97. Though the theological issue is more complex than Hong thought, given the fact that Moab descended from Lot, and Ruth (wife of Boaz) was a Moabite. I am grateful to George Doramajian for this valuable gloss.
19. On numbers of printers, see Fishbourne, Impressions, 391, for the 400 figure, and Taylor, Five Years, 369–70, for 600 and on Matthew; TR, 222–24.
20. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 165–66; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 67, 73.
21. TR, 253, slightly modified by Jian Tianjing yu Jinling lun, in Yinshu, 1; other references are in TR, 254–76.
22. TR, 296, 307.
23. TR, 298–99. Three examples of wooden Taiping seals are preserved in the Jen Yuwen Collection.
24. TR, 305, 307.
25. “Qianshan sheng.” TR, 277–78; Bian yaoxue, in Yinshu, 1.
26. TR, 289, 291.
27. TR, 291; Bian yaoxue, in Yinshu, 9b; and TR, 252, on degree.
28. Shi, “Zaozi yu gaizi,” 157, 159.
29. Ibid., 157.
30. Ibid., 158–59.
31. Ibid., 157; on pp. 151–55 Shi analyzes 78 Taiping words in two basic categories: 22 new coinages and 56 substitutions; on p. 160 he adds 9 marginal variants. For Taiping period lists, see Zhang Runan, Jinling, 718, 722; Zhang Dejian, Zeqing, 242–44; Qinding jing bi ziyang; Xie, Jinling, 654; also see Luo Ergang, “Jingji kao,” 27–28. For British queries in 1854 on the reasoning behind some of these taboos, see Gregory, Great Britain, 182.
32. TR, 394, 396.
33. TR, 458.
34. TR, 580; Zhang Dejian, Zeqing, 231.
35. TR, 457.
36. TR, 563, citing Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 1:232; Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 105–6, 108.
37. Zhang Runan, Jinling, 695.
38. Ibid., 716; Zhao, “Chengshi zhengce,” 50, 52–53.
39. TR, 474, for poison plot; 473, for planned uprising.
40. TR, 451, minor changes.
41. See Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 139–40, and the couplets in TR, 548–55.
42. TR, 452; Zhang Dejian, Zeqing, 204.
43. TR, 466.
44. 466; Chin, Shiliao, 133.
45. As with the three doctors in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 185. See also the discussion and references in Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 108–10.
46. Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 59–64; TR, 533, and Zhang Runan, Jinling, 705–6.
47. For palace information, see TR, 459, 487; Zhang Runan, Jinling, 705, 706, on Hong and Yang residences; Taiping art is collected in Taiping Tianguo yishu; see also the analysis by Audrey Spiro in her “Paintings of the Heavenly Kingdom.”
48. Zhang Runan, Jinling, 710; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 130; Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 174.
49. Taylor, Five Years, 341–42, on Zhenjiang in June 1853; TR, 578–79, on stakes; Zhang Dejian, Zeqing, 134–36, has vivid illustrations of the spikes and palisades.
50. TR, 436, from Xingjun zongyao.
51. Yuzhi qianzi zhao, in Yinshu, 1–2; TR, 409.
52. TR, 415, modified following Yuzhi qianzi zhao, in Yinshu, 13b–14.
1. Wong, Calendar, 225, item 4; BPP /IUP, 12, 13, on the three ships; Mercier, Cassini, 228, on Bonham’s and Hermes’s arrival on March 21; Ibid., 229, on Susquehanna’s presence there; Ibid., 222, on Cassini’s anchoring in Shanghai on March 15; Ibid., 224, on Chinese requests that Cassini go to Nanjing, for March 17 and 19; p. 231 for April 5.
2. Mercier, Cassini, 229.
3. Ibid., 231, 233.
4. Ibid., 237.
5. NCH, April 2, 1853; Mercier, Cassini, 245; BPP I IUP, 24.
6. NCH, April 9, 1853.
7. Mercier, Cassini, 251, 254.
8. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 3–35, has a sampling of these sources.
9. Ibid., 19–20, and Wylie, Memorials, 95, both citing the Chinese and General Missionary Gleaner.
10. BPP I IUP, 23.
11. Ibid., 11, March 28, 1853.
12. Ibid., 12–13; Gregory, Great Britain, 15–24, for a summary of the mission; Mercier, Cassini, 221, on Portuguese.
13. BPP /IUP, 15.
14. Ibid., 26.
15. Ibid., 26, 28.
16. Ibid., 40.
17. Ibid., 34, 38.
18. Ibid., 38.
19. Ibid., 37.
20. Ibid.
21. Fishbourne, Impressions, 141–44, 152, 154–55.
22. See Meadows in BPP I IUP, 45–54.
23. BPP I IUP, 41–42; also cited in TR, 515–17.
24. BPP/IUP, 42–43.
25. Ibid., 32, 35.
26. Ibid., 32, 54.
27. NCH, May 14, 1853.
28. Wong, Calendar, 228–29, items 23 and 26.
29. Mercier, Cassini, 17, 18.
30. Ibid., 23–24, 29–30, 42–44, 52–53.
31. Ibid., 229–31.
32. BPP / IUP, 19–25, on defenses.
33. Mercier, Cassini, 320.
34. Ibid., 318, 326, 328. That this continued to be a problem for the French is shown by the 1854 letter of Consul Edan to Alcock, March 19, 1854, stored in PRO/FO 671/2.
35. Mercier, Cassini, 222, 325, 366.
36. Ibid., 258, 338–39.
37. Ibid., 340–43.
38. Clavelin, cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 94.
39. Ibid., 96.
40. Ibid., 94–96.
41. Ibid., 106–9.
42. Ibid., 97.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid., 100; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 273–74.
45. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 101.
46. Mercier, Cassini, 356.
47. Cited from French Foreign Ministry archives by Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 90.
48. Translated by the author from Mercier, Cassini, 363–65.
49. Ibid., 372–73.
50. Ibid., 229.
51. Tong, Diplomacy, 122 n. 8, 126; Mercier, Cassini, 246, 251.
52. Mercier, Cassini, 257, 294, 370; on Marshall and Perry see R. E. Johnson, China Station, 63–66; Tong, Diplomacy, 121–25.
53. TR, 125.
54. Teng Yuan Chung, “Roberts” 60; Wylie, Memorials, 95.
55. Teng Yuan Chung, “Roberts,” 60.
56. Ibid., 61.
57. NA-DD, Microcopy 92, roll 10, Macao, April 8, 1854; and Shanghai, June 14, 1854; Teng Yuan Chung, “Roberts,” 61; Tong, Diplomacy, 148–49.
58. NA-DD, 92:10, Capt. Buchanan letter of May 26, 1854, enclosed with McLane of June 14 and marked “Exhibit A”; also cited in TR, 521–22.
59. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 109; TR, 525.
60. TR, 526.
61. As recalled by Lewin Bowring, in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 168.
62. TR, 528–29.
63. TR, 529–30, citing NA-DD, 92:10, enclosed with McLane of June 14, but reworking it in light of the Chinese original.
64. TR, 527.
65. NA-DD, memorandum of June 1, 1854, enclosed with McLane of June 14 as Exhibit C, Dispatch no. 6, by Charles F. Forbes, Assistant Surgeon.
66. See the Irish mercenary quoted in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 199.
67. NA-DD, June 1, 1854, Exhibit C.
68. TR, 531.
69. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 131.
70. McLane June 14, cited Ibid., 133.
71. Ibid., 135.
72. Ibid., 136–37.
CHAPTER 15: THE SPLIT
1. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 171, 175.
2. Ibid., 185–88.
3. Ibid., 182–83.
4. Ibid., 193–94; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 67–68.
5. Wright, Last Stand, chap. 9; Kuhn, Rebellion, chap. 4.
6. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 237–38. Chen was the nephew of Chen Chengyong.
7. Ibid., 202–3, 210–12; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 73–74, 77.
8. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 196–98, 254–56; Wakeman, Strangers, chaps. 14 and 15; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 97.
9. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 131–32; Withers, “Heavenly Capital,” 178–80.
10. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, appendix, 41–44.
11. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 206–7, on communications, and 209.
12. TR, 199–200, 203.
13. TR, 200, 204,213.
14. TR, 205, 215, 217. An early warning of Hong’s violence to his wife was given by Jesus through Xiao Chaogui in 1849; see Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:13b.
15. TR, 205–7, one change.
16. TR, 214–15.
17. TR, 217; Tianfu xiafan zhaoshu, no. 2, in Yinshu, 19.
18. See reprises in Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:5, Daoguang 28 (1848) middle of 11th month.
19. Ibid., 1:13, Daoguang 29/1/18.
20. Ibid., 2:14b, Daoguang 30/8/1.
21. TR, 217; Tianfu xiafan zhaoshu, no. 2, in Yinshu, 19.
22. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:3b–4, Daoguang 28/10/24.
23. W. H. Medhurst, the original author of this Chinese text, translated it back into English with meticulous notations on the additions and deletions, the whole Hong version appearing in NCH, Sept. 22, Sept. 29, Oct. 6, 1855. See also TR, 344–64.
24. TR, 201–3, 219; Tianfu xiafan zhaoshu, no. 2, in Yinshu, 20b; 1 John 5:7; TR, 234, for Hong’s familiarity with the verse; and Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 159–60.
25. TR, 204; Tianfu xiafan zhaoshu, no. 2, in Yinshu, 7, where Qin (the “Ting-t’ien-hou”) has to fu(a), or “carry on the back,” the East King, while Wei fu(b), “escorts,” Hong to his palace.
26. TR, 218, modified following Tianfu xiafan zhaoshu, no. 2, in Yinshu, 20.
27. TR, 214, Tianfu xiafan zhaoshu, no. 2, Yinshu, 17.
28. Fishbourne, Impressions, 239 n, for Tiangui as the third brother; TR, 202 n, citing Xie Jiehe, a Nanjing resident under the Taiping, for Feng.
29. TR, 377–78.
30. TR, 379, 391; Xia, Zongjiao, 93.
31. Tianfu shengzhi, 5–9, dated Taiping 4/1/27. Manacled were Chen Chengyong, Meng De’en, and Shi Dakai’s father-in-law, Huang Yukun; accused and pardoned, Lu Xianba; see Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 161, for Lu’s Ten Commandments work; executed was Chen Zongyang.
32. In Tianfu shengzhi, 7, God / Yang specifically reminds the audience of the earlier Huang Yizhen and Zhou Xineng cases. For Zhou, see also TR, 89–97; for Huang, TR, 102, 443.
33. Tianfu shengzhi, 3–4; see also Wagner, “Operating,” 133–34, for a somewhat different translation and analysis.
34. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:5b–6; Wang, Tianfu, 7; Wagner, “Operating,” 131.
35. TR, 200—16, identifies four different passages quoted by Yang from the Analects and one from the Great Learning.
36. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 230–31, original translation by Jen Yu-wen, slightly modified following Chinese text in Jen’s Quanshi, 2:1084.
37. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 266–67, and Quanshi, 2:1271–76.
38. Gregory, Great Britain, 173; most of this report by Lewin Bowring and W. H. Med-hurst Jr. is included in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 157–71. Their entire longhand draft, with deletions and corrections, is preserved in PRO/FO 671/2.
39. PRO / FO 17/214, folio pp. 198v-99, also cited in full in Gregory, Great Britain, 18086, quotations on 181; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 170, on the envelope.
40. PRO / FO 17/214, folio pp. 203r and v; Gregory, Great Britain, 186. Two key discussions of this passage are Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 44–46, 65, and Xia, Zongjiao, 103–8.
41. Gregory, Great Britain, 187–88.
42. Ibid., 190–91.
43. PRO / FO 17/214, folio p. 207v; Gregory, Great Britain, 189–90; Lewin Bowring in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 171, on the “synod.”
44. Gregory, Great Britain, 193.
45. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 165, 168.
46. Tianfu shengzhi, 12b–13, dated Taiping 4/6/1; Xia, Zongjiao, 98–100; Wagner, “Operating,” 136–37.
47. Tianfu shengzhi, 12b–13b, dated Taiping 4/6/1.
CHAPTER 16: THE KILLING
1. Tianfu shengzhi, 15, dated Taiping 5/3/19; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 187.
2. TR, 442, modified following Xiang, Ziliao, 3:191; Tianfu shengzhi, 16, dated 5/6/17.
3. See seven examples in Tianfu shengzhi, dated 4/8/24, 4/12/13, 5/2/13, 5/6/7, 5/6/17, 5/8/ 17, and 5/11/2.
4. All these procedures can be seen in Tianfu shengzhi, 20–24b, dated 5/7/19, and 32b–33, dated 6/3/5.
5. I.e., Tianfu shengzhi, 25b–27b, dated 5/8/26; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 196, shows a case of Hong going to Yang’s palace.
6. Tianfu shengzhi, 26b, dated 5/8/26.
7. Ibid., 31b, dated 5/9/5.
8. Ibid., 29b, dated 5/8/27, calling God “Tian Agong.”
9. See Guo Tingyi, Shishi, appendix, 21, for their 1854 kingships as Yanwang and Yuwang; Tianfu shengzhi, 14, dated 4/12/13; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 292, for cancellation.
10. Tianfu shengzhi, 14b-15, dated 5/2/13.
11. TR, 385–86, case of Li Yusong; for this punishment, see Zhang Runan, Jinling, 716.
12. TR, 393–94, case of Li Fengxian.
13. Tianfu shengzhi, 16b–19b, dated 5/6/28, for four such cases.
14. Ibid., 19b-20, dated 5/6/30.
15. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 278–86; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 181–85.
16. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 290–91; Curwen, Deposition, 86.
17. Curwen, Deposition, 198; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 180; Dr. J. MacGowan, in an article for NCH, April 25, 1857, nicknames the man “Canny,” but does not query the accuracy of his account. E. C. Bridgman, in an earlier letter to NCH, Jan. 2, 1857, also sees “no reason to question the accuracy” of the Irishman’s story. The entire account is printed in three consecutive issues of the Overland Friend of China, 1857: Jan. 15, issue 1, p. 2; Jan. 21, issue 2, p. 10; Jan. 30, issue 3, supplement. These will be cited as #1, #2, and #3. My special thanks to Nicholas Spence for procuring the copies of this text for me.
18. Wong, Calendar, 228–29, item 26.
19. Gregory, Great Britain, 208, citing Captain Mellersh, June 24, 1854; another “negro” who joined the Taiping in 1853 is mentioned in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 182.
20. Gregory, Great Britain, 34.
21. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 82, quoting Mr. Williams, June 30, 1853.
22. Gregory, Great Britain, 35; Wakeman, Strangers, 147.
23. Bowring to Clarendon, Jan. 25, 1855, cited in Gregory, Great Britain, 215 n. 12.
24. Mercier, Cassini, 225, 284.
25. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 181, 186.
26. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 182.
27. Overland Friend, #1; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 181.
28. Overland Friend, #1; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 182.
29. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 183, 185, 198.
30. Ibid., 184–85.
31. Ibid., 186–87.
32. Overland Friend, #2; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 187.
33. Overland Friend, #3; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 196.
34. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 187–88, 199.
35. Ibid., 195, 199.
36. Ibid., 196; Overland Friend, #3.
37. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 193.
38. Tianfu shengzhi, 34, dated 6/7/9.
39. Overland Friend, #2; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 188.
40. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 294–95; Curwen, Deposition, 86, 196–98. I follow Jen Yuwen and Li Xiucheng in placing Qin at the scene, rather than the version in Guo Tingyi; see Curwen, Deposition, 89, 209 n. 19.
41. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 189.
42. Overland Friend, #2; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 190–91.
43. Overland Friend, #2 and #3, records that 500 of Yang’s former palace women were beheaded, and gives a dramatic but unlikely figure of 40,000 for the total of Yang’s followers killed; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 190–92, 196.
44. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 299–300; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 191; Curwen, Deposition, 86–87, 198.
45. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 193, describes his departure from the Yangzi force.
46. Overland Friend, #2; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 195.
47. Overland Friend, #3; Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 195.
CHAPTER 17: FAMILY CIRCLES
1. TR, 931 n. 1.
2. TR, 989–91; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 158 n. 52.
3. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 755, and appendix, 20; TR, 931.
4. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 301–2; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, appendix, 20 and 22.
5. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 194.
6. Curwen, Deposition, 87, 91; TR, 1401, follows the NCH version of 1865.
7. TR, 697, modified following Xiang, Ziliao, 2:694.
8. Curwen, Deposition, 92.
9. Kuhn, Rebellion, pt. 4; Wright, Last Stand, 73–77.
10. Qingdai dangan, 1:2, 7, 10, 14, 20, 29.
11. Ibid., 57–58, Xianfeng 7/3/23 and 7/8/5; Ibid., 62–63, 8/6/24, shows that in 1858 the annual Manchu winter hunts were canceled as a further economy measure.
12. As argued by Li Xiucheng, cited in Curwen, Deposition, 92.
13. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, appendix, 19 and 23; TR, 981–82.
14. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 352–53; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, appendix, 23, 24, 38, for the “guozong” and the 1856 and 1857 dates. The “guozong” category also contained relatives of the other kings.
15. BPP/IUP, 153; also cited in TR, 985.
16. See his confession, in TR, 1530. Other contemporaries suggested a total of 148 consorts or more—see TR, 585, and Zhang Dejian, Zeqing, 310. All of these consorts were entitled to the honorable term of niangniang, or Senior Queen, and were not divided into a hierarchy of concubines by rank, as in the imperial model prevalent in Peking. See Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 138.
17. Confession, in TR, 1531.
18. TR, 898–900, Youzhu zhaoshu; memorization, TR, 1531.
19. Tianfu shi, in Yinshu, vol. 14, dated 1857, TR, 585–666, cited by stanza numbers, which are identical in the English and the Chinese versions.
20. Stanzas 139, 157, 358.
21. Stanzas 134–37, 243–45.
22. Stanzas 218, 304, 151, 230.
23. Stanzas 148, 394, 470, 212; 189 for organ, fengqin.
24. Stanzas 170, 260, 416.
25. Trash, stanza 129; leprosy, 446, 490; spittoons, 152, 154, 296; insects, 158, 159, 241; fans, 177, 263.
26. Stanzas 192, 303.
27. Stanzas 179–80, 188, 297, 224, 281.
28. Body, stanza, 283; face, 485, 200, 393; feet, 174; navel, 485.
29. Stanzas 216, 197, 237.
30. Stanzas 267, 337, 338,310.
31. Stanzas 46, 107, 153, 281.
32. Stanzas 284, 393, 286, 410–11, 9, 282.
33. Stanza 412.
34. Stanzas 217, 247, 414, 415, 422, 423, 426.
35. TR, 1531, Young Monarch’s confession.
36. Stanzas 265, 427.
37. Stanzas 275, 30.
38. Stanzas 392, 364, 390, 375.
39. Tianfu shi, in Yinshu, 28, stanza 313. A different rendering is in TR, 636.
40. Stanzas 55, 312. The same message seems implicit in stanzas 187 and 354.
41. Stanzas 378, 389.
42. Stanzas 164, 264.
43. Stanzas 264, 328.
44. Mistakes, stanza 327; good cheer, 212, 343, 362; beating, 17, 18, 111, 189; death, 340; women bathed, 429, 432.
45. Stanza 21.
46. The British Library, Oriental and India Office Collections, Blackfriars Road, London, contains two versions of the early Taiping Bible: the slightly modified Gutzlaff version, Jiuyizhao shengshu (comprising Genesis 1–28, call number 15116.b.9), and the only known surviving copy of Qinding Jiuyizhao shengshu (Genesis through Joshua) containing Hong’s full range of revisions (call number 15117.e.20) For brevity, these will be cited here as Bibles A and B. A virtually complete listing of all variants is given by Wu Liangzuo and Luo Wenqi in their invaluable essay “Taiping Tianguo yinshu jiaokan ji,” 267–73.
47. Tianfu shi, stanza 448; TR, 657.
48. Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 267.
49. Ibid., 268; a similar insertion is made in Genesis 18:16 and 22, and 48:16.
50. As Hong does in Genesis 38:12 and 43:29.
51. Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 274.
52. See Bibles A and B, 1:11b; Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 267.
53. Genesis, 20:2–13, Yinshu, 24b–25; Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 268–69. The parallel story of Abimelech seeing Isaac “sporting” with Rebekah, in Genesis 26:7–9, uses almost identical words to clear Isaac of deceit; Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 269.
54. Divide is “fen.” Genesis 25:31–34, Bibles A and B, 1:34b; Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 269.
55. Bibles A and B, 1:36–37b; Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 270–71. Hong purges other references to wine as an offering—for instance, from Leviticus 23:13 and Numbers 6:20 and 18:27.
56. Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 281.
57. For all these corrections see Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 272–73.
58. Ibid., 275. To make space for his own rewriting, Hong cuts Exodus 22:18 altogether.
CHAPTER 18: THE WRONG MAN
1. Arrival, in BPP / Elgin, 19; armaments, Walrond, Elgin, 190, 192, 195, 198, and BPP / Elgin, 35, 40.
2. Earl of Clarendon to Elgin, April 20, 1857, BPP/Elgin, 2–3, 5. For an analysis of the “Arrow War” that sparked his mission see Fairbank, Trade, and Wong, Arrow War.
3. For the Elgins, father and son, see DNB, 104–6, 130–31.
4. Oliphant, Narrative, 1:292–350; Walrond, Elgin, 210–57.
5. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:3, dated Daoguang, 28/10/24.
6. Ibid., 1:12b, dated Daoguang, 29/1/16.
7. BPP / Elgin, 444; Walrond, Elgin, 285.
8. BPP / Elgin, 444.
9. Walrond, Elgin, 285.
10. Oliphant, Narrative, 2:311.
11. Quotations from Ibid., 313–14; see also Walrond, Elgin, 285; BPP / Elgin, 455.
12. BPP / Elgin, 454; TR, 713.
13. BPP / Elgin, 471–72, Wade’s translation with romanization modified; TR, 717.
14. TR, 718–19; BPP / Elgin, 472–73; Chin, Shiliao, 95–97.
15. Chinese text in Chin, Shiliao, 97–98; partly following translations by Thomas Wade in BPP/Elgin, 473, and TR, 720.
16. Oliphant, Narrative, 2:461.
17. Ibid., 454.
18. Chin Shiliao, 138–39; BPP / Elgin, 470; TR, 721–22.
19. Walrond, Elgin, 301–2; on the trip, see BPP / Elgin, 470; Oliphant, Narrative, 2:447–48.
20. BPP / Elgin, 451, Wade’s account.
CHAPTER 19: NEW WORLDS
1. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 356–57; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, appendix, 23.
2. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 351–56.
3. Xiang, Ziliao, 2:846, modifying TR, 1511.
4. TR, 759 n. 7, 760–61 nn. 8–10; see also Wylie, Memorials, 159–60, for Hamberg; 175–76 for Burns; 117–22 for Legge; 125–28 for Hobson; Yung, My Life, 108. Yung had been in the Yale College class of 1854.
5. Pfister, “Legge,” pt. 2, p. 34.
6. Legge, “Colony,” 169.
7. Pfister, “Legge,” pt. 1, p. 44; Legge, “Colony,” 172.
8. Legge, “Colony,” 171–72.
9. Wylie, Memorials, 118; Pfister, “Legge,” pt. 1, p. 45. Other missionaries had also championed the use of Shangdi, though it remained a controversial choice to many. A full summary of the various arguments is given in Medhurst, Dissertation.
10. Legge’s view as summarized by Pfister, in “Legge,” pt. 1, pp. 48–49.
11. Ibid., pt. 2, pp. 35–36.
12. Welsh, Hong Kong, 169; Legge, “Colony,” 165–66, 171.
13. Legge, “Colony,” 167–68; Welsh, Hong Kong, 164–66, 218.
14. Legge, “Colony,” 165; Welsh, Hong Kong, 212, on Caldwell, and 152, on entrepreneurs.
15. Legge, “Colony,” 171.
16. Pfister, “Legge,” pt. 1, p. 44; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 356.
17. TR, 1512; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 357, citing Lin-le, Ti-ping, 1:226; Wylie, Memorials, 217–18, on Chalmers, who received the letter, Legge being away at the time.
18. TR, 765, 767; Hong Rengan, Zizheng xinbian, in Yinshu, 14, 16.
19. On insurance, TR, 769; houses, 771; banks, 765–66; roads, 764, 765; patents, 766.
20. TR, 768–69.
21. TR, 767; a rather similar comment of Hong’s is on p. 764.
22. TR, 772, slight changes from Zizheng xinbian, in Yinshu, 21.
23. Yung, My Life, 110.
24. J. S. Burdon, in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 240; Forrest, “Taipings at Home,” NCH, Oct. 19, 1861, also cited Ibid., 360.
25. “Questions Recently Addressed to the Kan Wang,” NCH, Aug. 11, 1860, also cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 241.
26. NCH, Aug. 11, 1860.
27. Ibid.
28. Forrest, “Taipings at Home,” translating “Kan Wang” and “T’ien Wang.” This passage is also printed in Blakiston, Five Months, 51.
29. TR, 758, some changes following Zizheng xinbian, in Yinshu, 8b.
30. TR, 758.
31. TR, 759; Zizheng xinbian, in Yinshu, 9.
32. For Japan, TR, 763; for Germans, 760; Scandinavians and France, 761; Russia, 762.
33. TR, 773, modified following Zizheng xinbian, in Yinshu, 22.
34. Curwen, Deposition, 234 n. 77; TR, 1525.
35. Curwen, Deposition, passim; Guo Tingyi, Shishi, appendix, 21.
36. Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 233, on Li’s “small keen features” and glasses.
37. Curwen, Deposition, 109–15, 230–33; TR, 1524–25.
38. Curwen, Deposition, 117–19.
39. Brine, Taeping, 253–54; TR, 923–24, on the Catholics, and 1119–20.
40. As cited in Lin-le, Ti-ping, 1:298; this “scenario” is discussed in Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 113.
41. Brine, Taeping, 258–59, changing Shanghae to Shanghai and “imps” to “demons”; TR, 1124.
42. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 403–28, has a brilliant analysis of the Anqing (Anking) campaign; Li Xiucheng is rather casual about the loss—Curwen, Deposition, 130, and 260–64, citing piercing testimony from Zhao Liewen’s diary; Hong Rengan blames Li for the loss, TR, 1513, 1525–26.
43. Curwen, Deposition, 121, 244 n. 42.
44. NCH, Aug. 11, 1860, also cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 243, echoed by Griffith John as quoted in Lin-le, Ti-ping, 1:294; Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 59–60.
45. The 1853 illustrated Amoy edition, Tianlu licheng, is in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and an 1855 illustrated Hong Kong edition is in the British Library, Oriental Collection. A summary in thirteen leaves was published by Muirhead in 1851, according to Wylie, Memorials, 168. On other editions, see Ibid., 175–76, and Ibid., 282, for Burns’ translation of Bunyan’s follow-up volume on the journey of Christian’s wife, Christiana, published in Peking in 1866.
46. See Bunyan text, Tianlu licheng, and illustrations 1, 3, and 8, and the interpretation in Rudolf Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 59. Wagner suggests early influence through Milne’s summary of 1816; but Hong Rengan to Edkins, NCH, Aug. 11, 1860, also cited in Clarke and Gregory Reports, 243, specifies it was Burns’ translation, which first appeared in 1853, that Hong liked to read.
47. Bunyan, Tianlu licheng, 9, and 21; see comment by Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 59; Xia, Zongjiao, 151–52, also discusses this “narrow gate,” zhaimen, and its relationship to Pilgrim’s Progress.
48. TR, 939.
49. Joseph Edkins, “Narrative,” 279.
50. Much of the rest of this edict, as translated by the missionary J. L. Holmes, is too garbled to make sense. It is reproduced in TR, 1126–27, from Brine, Taeping, 266–67. I substitute Young Monarch for Junior Lord.
51. TR, 939, 941,943, 945.
52. TR, 944, 945.
53. TR, 945, 946.
54. NCH, March 2, 1861, as observed and reported by a “Native Christian” and translated by the Reverend William G. E. Cunnyngham on a Nanjing visit.
55. TR, 936.
56. TR, 940, proclamation of April 4, 1861.
57. TR, 945–46.
58. TR, 931.
59. TR, 931.
60. TR, 933, modified following Chin, Shiliao, 106.
61. Chin, Shiliao, 107; TR, 934.
CHAPTER 20: PRIEST-KING
1. Hamberg, Visions, 31–32.
2. Tianxiong shengzhi, 1:14, dated Daoguang 29/1/21. I translate qianlian as “connected together.” See also Joseph Edkins’ remark, in “Narrative,” 265, that Hong Xiuquan had been “divinely informed, so he believed,” of Roberts’ goodness.
3. TR, 573–75, for testimony of the courier Yeh. A. Happer’s record of the courier’s visit is given in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 75–80. One letter, claimed for a time to be Hong’s actual invitation, is now regarded as probably a later fabrication. See TR, 509–10.
4. BPP / Elgin, 473.
5. TR, 758.
6. See Roberts’ letter of Sept. 29, 1860, in NCH, Oct. 27, 1860, and his letter to the Overland China Mail cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 253.
7. Pruden, “Roberts,” 215, 284, and Y. C. Teng, “Roberts,” 61, on the illness of his wife; Pruden, “Roberts,” 164, on the case of the second assistant A-Chun, and 108–18 and 284 on the legal battles. The death of Chun, his first helper, in 1845 is movingly described by Roberts in a letter of April 6, 1845, Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, Richmond, Va., Roberts files, “Chun’s Doings in Canton,” Fiche 15, plate 1760, no. 49. For Virginia Young Roberts’ disgust with her husband, see her letter of Oct. 6, 1867, Ibid., correspondence, Fiche 1. My thanks to Laura McDaniel for this and other references to this collection and that of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society.
8. American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, Archives, Valley Forge, Pa., Issachar Roberts, Folder 75–5, dated Nanking, Nov. 8, 1860, and Dec. 1, 1860, enclosures to Bro[ther] Lord; Pruden, “Roberts,” 289–90.
9. Coughlin, “Strangers,” 274; Pruden, “Roberts,” 290–91; Edkins, “Narrative,” 265, 267; NCH, Sept. 7, 1861. Roberts’ former colleague T. P. Crawford, however, visited Nanjing in spring 1861 and wrote to a friend of seeing Roberts “in the old cast-off robes of the chiefs,” “the dirtiest, greasiest white man I ever saw,” cited in Coughlin, “Strangers,” 276; for the Reverend Hobson it was “a dirty yellow Chinese robe—a miserable spectacle of dirt and slovenliness”—cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 298. Yung Wing, who had met Roberts long before in Mrs. Gutzlaff’s Macao school, found him looking old, though moving “leisurely in his clumsy Chinese shoes” (My Life, 107).
10. Roberts letter, cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 254.
11. Ibid., 255.
12. NCH, Sept. 7, 1861; Wylie, Memorials, 97, item 5. For Roberts’ collaborators Charles Washington Gaillard and Rosewell Hobart Graves, see Wylie, Memorials, 230, 240–41, and Pruden, “Roberts,” 205, 285. Roberts’ own inscribed copy of the Goddard Bible is preserved in the library of Brown University, Providence, R.I.
13. Josiah Cox, cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 313, on the restriction. Roberts letter to NCH, March 30, 1861, also cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 262–64.
14. Edkins, “Narrative,” 276–77.
15. As translated by Edkins in “Narrative,” 274, and translating Kan-wang as Shield King. The idea that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2) had been read by Hong first in Liang Afa’s version; see Quanshi, 469–71. Hong also used the passage to refer to himself in his commentary on Revelation 22:17–20; see TR, 237.
16. Wylie, Memorials, 187–91; Milton and science, Ibid., 189.
17. Edkins, “Narrative,” 294–96, includes two of Hong’s own comments on his eye troubles. The eye problem is corroborated by Griffith John, letter to his brother, in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 297. See also Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 99.
18. Edkins, “Narrative,” 295; Forrest, “Nanking,” also notes Hong’s knowledge of Athanasius and other church fathers.
19. Edkins, “Narrative,” 295; Xiao, Zhaoyu, item 2 (plate 6), includes a photograph of Edkins’ Chinese text with Hong’s comments and marks of emphasis. The original is in the British Library as Or. 8143 bound into the volume 5896(J). It is written very clearly in black ink on pale blue pages.
20. Edkins, “Narrative,” 272 n, mentions that Hong saw Edkins’ writing of 1857 on this topic in a “Chinese monthly magazine.” This is presumably Edkins’ essay “On the Oneness of Jesus with God,” mentioned by Wylie, Memorials, 189, no. 8, as appearing in the Huayang hehe tongshu (Chinese and foreign concord almanac) for that year.
21. This original poem in Hong’s calligraphy is written in red ink on the last sheet of Edkins’ essay (see n. 19 above). It can be authenticated by the massive square Taiping seal on the back of the document, of which about half is legible. Jen Yu-wen has reconstructed most of the characters in his Collection, p. 33, photographs of seals. The poem is photographically reproduced in Xiao, Zhaoyu, item 2, second page, plate 7, and a transcript is printed in Xiang, Ziliao, 2:672. A rendering rather different from mine is given in TR, 1205.
22. TR, 939.
23. TR, 938.
24. J. L. Holmes, in NCH, Sept. 1, 1860, cited in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 250.
25. Parkes 1861, April 2, BPP / IUP, 122, Inclosure 2 in no. 5, Admiralty to Hammond of June 15, 1861.
26. Forrest, “Nanking.”
27. Ibid., and BPP / IUP, 100.
28. The commentaries are preserved in the British Library edition of the revised Taiping Bible, Qinding Jiuyizhao shengshu and Qinding Qianyizhao shengshu. Though it is not possible to date Hong’s commentaries precisely, the evidence of R. J. Forrest in his “Christianity of Hung Tsiu Tsuen,” 190, 200, shows that those we have now cannot be later than Oct. 1861, when Forrest obtained his copy of this Bible. Xia, Zongjiao, 142, argues for 1860.
29. Chin, Shiliao, 85, somewhat modifying TR, 234.
30. Chin, Shiliao, 80, TR, 230.
31. Acts 7:56; Chin, Shiliao, 81; TR, 231; Bohr, “Eschatology,” 362 n.
32. Chin, Shiliao, 85; TR, 235.
33. Matthew 8:15; Chin, Shiliao, 77; TR, 227.
34. Matthew 9:29; Chin, Shiliao, 77; TR, 228.
35. Mark 2:3–5; Chin, Shiliao, 79; TR, 229; and Matthew 8:3; Chin, Shiliao, 77, “upon the head” being toushang; TR, 227.
36. Luke 7:14–15; Chin, Shiliao, 80; TR, 230.
37. 1 Corinthians 15:49–53; TR, 232; Chin, Shiliao, 83.
38. Acts 15:14–16; TR, 231; Chin, Shiliao, 81.
39. Chin, Shiliao, 75, partly following TR, 225; Wu and Luo, “Yinshu,” 283, point out the misprint in the original printing of wang (king) for ju (lord), and note that Chin Yü-fu mistakenly puts this passage under chap. 15 of Genesis.
40. Chin, Shiliao, 75–76, partly following TR, 225.
41. Hebrews 6:19–20. There is also a reference in Psalms 110:4, but Psalms was not printed in the Taiping Old Testament, which ended with Joshua.
42. TR, 233, modified following Chin, Shiliao, 84, and rendering “Hewang” as “Hong.”
43. TR, 236, slightly modified following Chin, Shiliao, 86.
44. TR, 235, modified following Chin, Shiliao, 86.
45. TR, 235, slightly modified following Chin, Shiliao, 86.
46. TR, 236; Chin, Shiliao, 87. I understand Hong to be using the word tai in its two different senses here, first as “womb” and then as “fetus.”
CHAPTER 21: SNOWFALL
1. BPP /IUP, 250, Roberts letter of Jan. 22, 1862, Inclosure 6 in no. 44, Medhurst to Russell, Feb. 7, 1862; also printed in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 314–15.
2. NCH, Sept. 7, 1861.
3. NCH, Feb. 8, 1862; DSCN, Feb. 3, 1862, lists Roberts among passengers arriving in Shanghai on Feb. 2, aboard the Willamette. Roberts’ follow-up letters and partial retractions of the charges against Hong Rengan are in NCH, March 6, 1862, and BPP / IUP, 370–71. Lindley in Ti-ping, 2:566–568 n, gives a blistering attack on Roberts’ activities in Nanjing.
4. BPP / IUP, 235–36, C. Goverston statement to Vice-Consul Markham, Jan. 18, 1862, Shanghai, Inclosure 11 in no. 41, Medhurst to Russell, Jan. 23, 1862. Consul Medhurst had warned British subjects against such “ventures” on Jan. 14, 1862. BPP / IUP, 227.
5. BPP / IUP, 232–37, Joseph Lambert statement to Vice-Consul Markham, Jan. 20, 1862, Inclosure 12 in no. 41, Medhurst to Russell, Jan. 23, 1862.
6. BPP / IUP, 231–32, Minutes of Special Meeting of Jan. 15, 1862, Shanghai, Inclosure 9 in no. 41; NCH, Feb. 1, 1862; BPP I IUP 256.
7. BPP / IUP 229, Minutes of Jan. 3, 1862, Inclosure 7 in no. 41.
8. BPP / IUP, 233–34, Inclosure 9 in no. 41. The same meeting is covered in NCH, Jan. 25, 1862.
9. NCH, Feb. 1, 15, 1862. BPP / IUP, 256, Medhurst to Bruce, Feb. 4, 1862.
10. Curwen, Deposition, 130, on ice and snow; Ibid., 138, 273, shows the lack of winter clothing later in 1862.
11. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 518–21.
12. NCH, March 2, 1861, by “A Native Christian,” trans. Rev. W. G. E. Cunnyngham; and J. S. Burdon in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 237–39.
13. “Native Christian,” in NCH; “H” [Hughes], in NCH, March 2, March 23, April 6, 1861.
14. BPP / IUP, 261; Yung, My Life, 101. Yung Wing dates this sight to Nov. 1859, but since it is after the fall of Suzhou, and from other internal evidence, we can tell he means Nov. 1860.
15. “Native Christian,” in NCH
16. Ibid.; Griffith John, in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 231–32.
17. J. L. Holmes, Ibid., 230.
18. Wolseley, Narrative, 350, also printed Ibid., 335. A comprehensive analysis of the loss of life during this stage of the Taiping rebellion is in Ho, Population, 236–42. Ibid., 274, gives the bleak analysis made by the scholar and Taiping captive Wang Shiduo.
19. DSCN, Feb. 3, 1862.
20. BPP / IUP, 239.
21. Ibid., 238–41, Inclosure 2 in no. 42.
22. DSCN, Jan. 27, Feb. 24, 1862.
23. PRO / FO 671/2, Gordon to Staveley, June 1862.
24. DSCN, March 27, 1862.
25. BPP / IUP, 392, Medhurst to Bruce, Shanghai, June 9, 1862.
26. DSCN, Aug. 15, 1862.
27. DSCN, Dec. 1, 1862.
28. DSCN, Feb. 21, 1862.
29. DSCN, March 11, 1862.
30. DSCN, May 30, July 7, 1862.
31. DSCN, Aug. 8, 1862.
32. DSCN, Aug. 15, Sept. 26, 1862.
33. All these lost dogs are sought by their owners in advertisements placed in DSCN between Oct. 2, 1862, and May 27, 1863.
34. Katherine Bernhardt, Rents, Taxes, chap. 3, esp. pp. 106–9; Curwen, Deposition, 133, 243 nn. 31–32.
35. Cole, Bao Lisheng, esp. 26–29, 41–43.
36. Curwen, Deposition, 118, 124–25.
37. BPP / IUP, 288–89.
38. Ibid., 116.
39. Ibid., 115, 370.
40. Forrest, “Ming Tombs,” NCH, July 6, 1861.
41. BPP/IUP, 170.
42. Edkins, “Narrative,” 291; Jane Edkins, Chinese Scenes, 201, 204. Her letters show the decision as much more debated by them and difficult than her husband suggests in his “Narrative.”
43. W. Lobschied, whose visit and letter to the Hong Kong “Daily Press” are given in Lin-le, Ti-ping, 2:598–603.
44. TR, 1527.
45. TR, 1513.
46. Growing out of the Daily Shipping News, the DSCN was first published in 1862. See King and Clarke, Guide, 77, 177.
47. The Shanghai xinbao, as announced in DSCN, Sept. 26, 1862. Shanghai’s earlier commercial history and periods of prosperity are well described in Linda Cooke Johnson, “Shanghai.”
48. R. E. Johnson, China Station, 109–13.
49. BPP / IUP 392, Medhurst to Bruce, Shanghai, June 9, 1862.
50. DSCN, Dec. 1, 1862, April 10, 1863.
51. DSCN, June 3, 1863; NCH, July 4, 1863.
52. DSCN, Nov. 22, 1862.
53. DSCN, May 26, 1863, Sept. 26, 1862.
54. DSCN, Dec. 1, 1862.
55. Fogg in DSCN, Jan. 8, 1863, and photo stores in DSCN, Jan. 27, 1862, Feb. 21, 1862, June 3, 1862. The shops were J. Newman and C. & W. Saunders.
56. Risley, DSCN, Sept. 26, 1862; racehorses, DSCN, Feb. 14, May 29, 1863.
57. PRO / FO 97/111, cases 252, 327, 120, and 328.
58. PRO / FO 17/405, cases 30, 63, and 106, and PRO / FO 97/111, case 346, for the assault on Susan Cheshire.
59. DSCN, Feb. 28, 1862; NCH, March 15, 1862, June 23, 1864.
60. Licenses, DSCN, Dec. 1, 1862; Mason, DSCN, May 30, 1863; Hayden, PRO / FO 17/405, case 112.
61. PRO / FO 97/111, passim, and cases 314, 321, and 344, for the dramatic repeat offenders. For an astonishing case of police abuse to some Shanghai “gentlemen” who are beaten and rolled in the mud see DSCN, May 20, May 21, 1863.
62. DSCN, Feb. 18, 1863.
63. PRO / FO 97/111, cases 17, 55, and 202.
64. BPP I IUP, 424, Bruce to Russell, July 14, 1862.
65. DSCN, Feb. 23, 1863.
66. BPP / IUP, 521, Staveley to Bruce, Shanghai, Nov. 13, 1862, Inclosure 3 in no. 103.
67. As in DSCN, July 7, 1862, where the gentleman concerned owns “five Colt revolvers” as well as a bloodhound.
68. NCH, Oct. 27, 1860.
69. BPP / IUP 469, Admiral Hope to Admiralty, Oct. 1862, Inclosure 1 in no. 74.
70. DSCN, May 30, 1862.
71. NCH, June 28, 1862; Curwen, Deposition, 161–62.
72. BPP / IUP, 442–43.
73. DSCN, Sept. 26, 1862, for butter; NCH, Feb. 1, 1862. This latter is a sardonic piece, dated to “1962” and signed “C’est moi.”
74. Belgian, BPP I IUP, 458; Swedish, NCH, June 15, 1861; Prussian, NCH, June 16, 1864; Italian, BPP / IUP, 489.
75. Curwen, Deposition, 118, 135, 136; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 458; BPP / IUP, 101, 247, 259, 383, for the howitzer.
76. Curwen, Deposition, 138–39.
77. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 452–60; Smith, Mercenaries, passim; Curwen, Deposition, 238–42 nn. 15–23. The most recent study of Ward is Carr, Devil Soldier.
78. Curwen, Deposition, 139–40, changing romanization.
79. Lin-le, Ti-ping, 2:623–24.
80. See Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:49b, and Tianfu shengzhi, 34a. Hong’s work on these two texts seems to fit well with the fine exposition in Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 110, that after 1853 “the vision did not provide any further guidance,” and consequently there was a “foreshortening” of the “scenario.” For Hong Rengan on the same texts, see Xia, Zongjiao, 180–81. The unique surviving copy of the Tianxiong and Tianfu shengzhi, now in the British Library, is undated. In the list of Taiping publications printed in vol. 1, the character qian, “former,” in the title of the revised New Testament, Qianyizhao shengshu, has clearly been inserted to replace the earlier xin, “new.” Thus the book was probably prepared before and circulated after the revised New Testament. Xia, Zongjiao, 142, 148, concludes from this that the book was printed after the 29th Taiping book, Hong’s elder brothers’ account of their younger brother’s revelations, which still has the xin in the title of the New Testament, and before the Taiping calendar for 1861, where qian appears in the contents as a regular-sized character. This is shrewd. But it remains unclear why the Tianxiong shengzhi, if published later, was not numbered as no. 30, and why it is in a style of print quite different from that of the other Taiping volumes, both the vol. 29 and the 1861 calendar. Since R. J. Forrest did not obtain this text in 1861 or 1862 when he got all the others, including the revised Old and New Testaments, it apparently was not in general circulation at that time.
CHAPTER 22: PARTINGS
1. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 318–19. For Shi’s immense trail of campaigns see Ibid., 304–17, and Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 115–20.
2. Curwen, Deposition, 136; Ibid., 87, suggests Li still did not know of Shi’s fate in 1864. On the growth of Li Hongzhang’s power see Spector, Li Hung-chang, and Cheng, Taiping Rebellion, chap. 6.
3. Curwen, Deposition, 122, 146.
4. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 524, says the stored grain totaled over 50,000 piculs—a picul being approximately 130 pounds.
5. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 525.
6. Curwen, Deposition, 140.
7. Ibid., 141; Xia, Zongjiao, 273, gives the religious contexts of this confrontation.
8. Curwen, Deposition, 147–48.
9. TR, 1513.
10. Prosper Giquel cites deserters’ testimony to place Hong in Huzhou in May 1864, though he was probably there some months earlier; Hong Rengan in his confession is vague on the dates; see Giquel, Journal, 80, 87; TR, 1513–14.
11. Curwen, Deposition, 289 n. 83; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 526.
12. Curwen, Deposition, 145; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 527.
13. Gordon report in Curwen, Deposition, 298 n. 42.
14. Ibid., on the scavengers; Ibid., 151, 294–95 nn. 24–26, on the fugitives.
15. Cited in Curwen, Deposition, 298 n. 42.
16. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 525. See the testimony of David Williams, alias Thomas Sayers, Charlie, Charles, NCH, Oct. 3, 1863.
17. Curwen, Deposition, 295 n. 27; quotation from Ibid., 299 n. 42.
18. Ibid., 297 n. 41.
19. Ibid., 291; Jiuyizhao shengshu, Exodus, in Yinshu, 26b.
20. Curwen, Deposition, 145–46; TR, 1474–75, with variant of Hong’s wording.
21. Li in Curwen, Deposition, 153; Hong Rengan in TR, 1513; Tiangui in TR, 1531.
22. Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 2:1072; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 528.
23. See the annotated prayer for the dead in TR, 118, as contrasted with Tiantiao shu, in Yinshu, 8. Zeng Guofan reported to the emperor that Hong’s body, wrapped in yellow satin “embroidered with dragons,” was discovered and exhumed on July 30. The corpse was then beheaded and burned. Zeng added that the head was hairless, but with a gray mustache. See Lay, Autobiography, 82, 95. On the burial of Hong see also Xia, Zongjiao, 299–302.
24. TR, 1531.
25. Curwen, Deposition, 153.
26. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 530–31; TR, 1531, Young Monarch’s confession; Curwen, Deposition, 154, 299–300 nn. 45 and 46, citing Zhao Liewen’s diary on details of the capture.
27. Curwen, Deposition, 157–58.
28. Ibid., 161–62.
29. Ibid., 182; also Ibid., 305 n. 84. Curwen’s appendixes 1 and 2 also have further conversations by Li with his captors, including Zhao Liewen. Appendix 3 contains a comprehensive analysis of the variant editions of Li’s confession.
30. Curwen, Deposition, 155; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 143, for exact route and dates.
31. See Giquel, Journal, 72, 75, on the former Gui Wang, Deng Guangming. Ibid., 101, mentions the Young Monarch’s presence in the area in Aug. On the origins of the Ever-Triumphant Army see Leibo, Transferring Technology, 26–31, 36–38.
32. Giquel, Journal, 32, 78, on bodies; Ibid., 35, 36, on commanders and officers killed.
33. “Account given by Patrick Nellis,” NCH, Nov. 12, 1864. See also “the Statement of Mark Conroy” in the same issue.
34. Richard Smith, Mercenaries, 131–32, 155–56.
35. NCH, May 21, 1864. Such blindfold wheelbarrow races, using real barrows over long courses, were common in England from the 1830s; other variants of wheelbarrow races are discussed in the eccentric and charming volume Causeries brouettiques, 212–20; Ibid., 236–40, discusses Chinese wheelbarrows.
36. Giquel, Journal, 77, 83, 88–89. For an overview of the Huzhou campaign, see Leibo, Transferring Technology, 51–60.
37. Giquel, Journal, 88–89.
38. Ibid., 77, 84, 98.
39. Ibid., 99, 102.
40. Ibid., 84.
41. Ibid., 85, 152 n. 46.
42. TR, 1507.
43. TR, 1514.
44. TR, 1521, 1529; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 536.
45. TR, 1532, slightly modified following Xiang, Ziliao, 2:856.
46. TR, 1531.
47. TR, 1532.
48. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 536. For some time after the deaths of these Taiping leaders remnants of the various Taiping field armies that had been out foraging for supplies at the time Nanjing fell fought on in Fujian and in northern Guangdong; the last of these Taiping forces was destroyed by Qing troops in early Feb. 1866. See Ibid., 537–44. Jen notes Ibid., 535 n. 63 and 536 n. 65, that one son of Hong Rengan and one son of Li Xiucheng managed to survive, and grow to maturity. Jen’s further assertion (536 n. 65) that Hong Xiuquan’s two youngest sons also managed to survive is not generally accepted by Taiping scholars.