Part 136

"This remarkable movement, which at one time excited much interest in Western lands, originated with a man named Hung Sew-tseuen [or Hung Siu-tseuen], son of a humble peasant residing in a village near Canton. On the occasion of one of his visits to the provincial city, probably in the year 1833, he appears to have seen a foreign Protestant missionary addressing the populace in the streets, assisted by a native interpreter. Either then or on the following day he received from some tract-distributor a book entitled 'Good Words for Exhorting the Age,' which consisted of essays and sermons by Leang A-fah, a well-known convert and evangelist. Taking the volume home with him, he looked it over with some interest, but carelessly laid it aside in his book-case. A few years afterward he attended for the second time the competitive literary examination with high hopes of honor and distinction, having already passed with much credit the lower examination in the district city. His ambitious venture, however, met with severe disappointment, and he returned to his friends sick in mind and body. During this state of mental depression and physical infirmity, which continued for some forty days, he had certain strange visions, in which he received commands from heaven to destroy the idols. These fancied revelations seem to have produced a deep impression on his mind, and led to a certain gravity of demeanor after his recovery and return to his quiet occupation as a student and village schoolmaster. When the English war broke out, and foreigners swept up Canton River with their wonderful fire-ships, … it is not surprising that Hung should have had his attention again attracted to the Christian publication which had lain so long neglected in his library. … The writings of Leang A-fah contained chapters from the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which he found to correspond in a striking manner with the preternatural sights and voices of that memorable period in his history [during his sickness, six years before]; and this strange coincidence convinced him of their truth, and of his being divinely appointed to restore the world, that is China, to the worship of the true God. Hung Sew-tseuen accepted his mission and began the work of propagating the faith he had espoused. Among his first converts was one Fung Yun-san, who became a most ardent missionary and disinterested preacher. These two leaders of the movement traveled far and near through the country, teaching the people of all classes and forming a society of God-worshippers. All the converts renounced idolatry and gave up the worship of Confucius. Hung, at this time apparently a sincere and earnest seeker after truth, went to Canton and placed himself under the instructions of the Reverend Mr. Roberts, an American missionary, who for some cause fearing that his novitiate might be inspired by mercenary motives, denied him the rite of baptism. But, without being offended at this cold and suspicious treatment, he went home and taught his converts how to baptize themselves. The God-worshippers rapidly increased in numbers, and were known and feared as zealous iconoclasts. … For a year after Hung Sew-tseuen had rejoined the God-worshippers that society retained its exclusively religious nature, but in the autumn of 1850 it was brought into direct collision with the civil magistrates, when the movement assumed a political character of the highest aims." It was soon a movement of declared rebellion, and allied with a rebel army of bandits and pirates which had taken arms against the government in south-eastern China.

_L. N. Wheeler, The Foreigner in China, chapter 13._

"The Hakka schoolmaster proclaimed his 'mission' in 1850. A vast horde gathered to him. He nominated five 'Wangs' or soldier sub-kings from out of his clan, and commenced his northward movement from Woosewen in January, 1851. Through the rich prosperous provinces his desultory march, interspersed with frequent halts, spread destruction and desolation. The peaceful fled shudderingly before this wave of fierce, stalwart ruffianhood, with its tatterdemalian tawdriness, its flaunting banners, its rusty naked weapons. Everywhere it gathered in the local scoundrelism. The pirates came from the coast; the robbers from the interior mountains rallied to an enterprise that promised so well for their trade. In the perturbed state of the Chinese population the horde grew like an avalanche as it rolled along. The Heavenly King [as Hung now styled himself] met with no opposition to speak of, and in 1853 his promenade ended under the shadow of the Porcelain Tower, in the city of Nanking, the second metropolis of the Chinese Empire, where, till the rebellion and his life ended simultaneously, he lived a life of licentiousness, darkened further by the grossest cruelties. The rebellion had lasted nearly ten years when the fates brought it into collision with the armed civilization of the West. The Imperialist forces had made sluggishly some head against it. Nanking had been invested after a fashion for years on end. 'The prospects of the Tai-pings,' says Commander Brine, 'in the early spring of 1860, had become very gloomy.' The Imperialist generals had hemmed Tai-pingdom within certain limits in the lower valley of the Yantsze, and the movement languished further 'from its destructive and exhausting nature, which for continued vitality constantly required new districts of country to exhaust and destroy.' But in 1859 China and the West came into collision. … The rebellion had opportunity to recover lost ground. For the sixth time the 'Faithful King' relieved Nanking. The Imperialist generals fell back, and then the Tai-pings took the offensive, and as the result of sundry victories, the rebellion regained an active and flourishing condition. … Shanghai, one of the treaty ports, was threatened."

_A. Forbes, Chinese Gordon, chapter 2._

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"Europe … has known evil days under the hands of fierce conquerors, plundering and destroying in religion's name; but its annals may be ransacked in vain, without finding any parallel to the miseries endured in those provinces of China over which 'The Heavenly King,' the Tai-ping prophet, extended his fell sway for ten sad years. Hung Sew-tsuen (better known in China by his assumed title, Tien Wang) … had read Christian tracts, had learnt from a Christian missionary; and when he announced publicly three years afterwards that part of his mission was to destroy the temples and images, and showed in the jargon of his pretended visions some traces of his New Testament study, the conclusion was instantly seized by the sanguine minds of a section set upon evangelizing the East, that their efforts had produced a true prophet, fit for the work. Wedded to this fancy, they rejected as the inventions of the enemies of missions the tales of Taiping cruelty which soon reached Europe: and long after the details of the impostor's life at Nankin, with its medley of visions, executions, edicts, and harem indulgence, became notorious to the world, prayers were offered for his success by devotees in Great Britain as bigoted to his cause as the bloodiest commander, or 'Wang,' whom he had raised from the ranks of his followers to carry out his 'exterminating decrees.' The Taiping cause was lost in China before it was wholly abandoned by these fanatics in England, and their belief in its excellence so powerfully reacted on our policy, that it might have preserved us from active intervention down to the present time, had not certain Imperialist successes elsewhere, the diminishing means of their wasted possessions, and the rashness of their own chiefs, brought the Taiping arms into direct collision with us. And with the occasion there was happily raised up the man whose prowess was to scatter their blood-cemented empire to pieces far more speedily than it had been built up."

_C. C. Chesney, Essays in Military Biography, chapter 10_

"The Taiping rebellion was of so barbarous a nature that its suppression had become necessary in the interests of civilization. A force raised at the expense of the Shanghai merchants, and supported by the Chinese government, had been for some years struggling against its progress. This force, known as the 'Ever Victorious Army,' was commanded at first by Ward, an American, and, on his death, by Burgevine, also an American, who was summarily dismissed; for a short time the command was held by Holland, an English marine officer, but he was defeated at Taitsan 22 February, 1863, Li Hung Chang, governor-general of the Kiang provinces, then applied to the British commander-in-chief for the services of an English officer, and Gordon [Charles George, subsequently known as 'Chinese Gordon'] was authorised to accept the command. He arrived at Sung-Kiong and entered on his new duties as a mandarin and lieutenant-colonel in the Chinese service on 24 March 1863. His force was composed of some three to four thousand Chinese, officered by 150 Europeans of almost every nationality and often of doubtful character. By the indomitable will of its commander this heterogeneous body was moulded into a little army whose high-sounding title of 'ever-victorious' became a reality, and in less than two years, after 33 engagements, the power of the Taipings was completely broken and the rebellion stamped out. The theatre of operations was the district of Kiangsoo, lying between the Yang-tze-Kiang river in the north and the bay of Hang-chow in the south." Before the summer of 1863 was over, Gordon had raised the rebel siege of Chanzu, and taken from the Taipings the towns of Fushan, Taitsan, Quinsan, Kahpoo, Wokong, Patachiaow, Leeku, Wanti, and Fusaiqwan. Finally, in December, the great city of Soo-chow was surrendered to him, Gordon was always in front of all his storming parties, "carrying no other weapon than a little cane. His men called it his 'magic wand,' regarding it as a charm that protected his life and led them on to victory. When Soo-chow fell Gordon had stipulated with the Governor-general Li for the lives of the Wangs (rebel leaders). They were treacherously murdered by Li's orders. Indignant at this perfidy, Gordon refused to serve any longer with Governor Li, and when on 1 Jan, 1864 money anti rewards were heaped upon him by the Emperor, declined them all. … After some [two] months of inaction it became evident that if Gordon did not again take the field the Taipings would regain the rescued country," and he was prevailed upon to resume his campaign, which, although badly wounded in one of the battles, he brought to an end in the following April (1864), by the capture of Chan-chu-fu, "This victory not only ended the campaign but completely destroyed the rebellion, and the Chinese regular forces were enabled to occupy Nankin in the July following. The large money present offered to Gordon by the emperor was again declined, although he had spent his pay in promoting the efficiency of his force, so that he wrote home: 'I shall leave China as poor as when I entered it.'"

_Colonel R. H. Veitch, Charles George Gordon (Dictionary of Nat. Biog.)_

ALSO IN: _A. E. Hake, The Story of Chinese Gordon, chapters 3-8._

_W. F. Butler, Charles George Gordon, chapter 2._

_S. Mossman, General Gordon in China._

_Private Diary of General Gordon in China._

_Mm. Callery and Yvan, History of the Insurrection in China._

CHINA: A. D. 1856-1860, War with England and France. Bombardment and capture of Canton. The Allies in Pekin. Their destruction of the Summer Palace. Terms of peace.