I think the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was responsible for the statement that "no great man of history can be seen as he really was until at least a century after his death". As more years than those prescribed by Gibbon have passed since Hung Hsiu-ch'uan established himself at Nanking, the time is opportune to set out on this quest. At least we shall be free from those prejudices that have obscured the vision of earlier observers, who were too close to their object to see clearly.
If we are to succeed in our search, it is essential that we be equipped with an honest purpose and a devotion to the truth. Otherwise we shall miss the way, as indeed has already happened to certain university professors and other "experts" in the United States. Setting out with the fixed idea that Washington should recognize Peking, and Communist China should be admitted to the United Nations, they have endeavoured to prove that Communism is indigenous to China and not really a Russian imposition. It is not surprising, then, that they have discovered in Hung Hsiu-chu'an a precursor of modern Communism. Of course, it does not seem to disturb these professed sinologues that they distort the known facts of Chinese history to suit their thesis.
What kind of man, then, was the real Hung Hsiu-ch'uan? What were the forces that made him what he was? What was the dynamic purpose that drove him on? These are questions we can answer only after we have found him and seen him face to face. So, refusing to regard history as just an open book, where "each his doctrine seeks and each his doctrine finds", we set out in search of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan.
I. The God-Worshippers Society
On January 29, 1833, a fourth son was born to an officer of the Royal Artillery at Woolwich, England. During the same month of that same year, on the other side of the world, a young Chinese student was listening, intently, to a German missionary expounding the Ten Commandments. Both were destined to make history. They were not to meet, face to face, but the Englishman was to smash, by military might, the material realm of the Chinese, and, out of the ruins was to emerge a greater force, a spiritual dynamic, destined to reshape the minds and lives of millions of Chinese.
Hung Hsiu-ch'uan the Chinese student was born in the year 1813 in the small Hwa village about 30 miles from Canton. The Manchu regime, set up by the psychopathic Shun Chih was then in its decline. The Court of Peking still retained its luxurious living and dalliance romped unchecked. Palaces were still being enlarged and ornamented, without any respect for costs, to provide entertainment for the innumerable officials and their equally innumerable ladies. But throughout China poverty stalked in its nakedness, corruption among officials was rife, the gentry extended their exploitation, and scholarship had become so decadent that all creative impulses were stifled at birth. Western civilisation was throbbing with new life but in China the long day was threatening to end in the darkest of nights. There were no lights of promise on the horizon; what were seen were but the fading flickers of a dying splendour.
Over the past century, there had been an unprecedented growth in the population of China. Official census returns had shown a rise of from 185 to 375 millions between 1754 and 1814, and however the accuracy of these Chinese figures might be discounted, the growth must have been staggering. Certain it is that there were too many mouths to be fed off the available land. Since 1720, such conflicts as there had been, were confined to border warfare, which hardly touched the lives of the ordinary people. As a result, the human ravages of war, which, in other times had so decimated the population that there had been enough land for the survivors, made little difference to the nation at large. China was in the throes of general starvation, unparalleled in the long history of that country.
The resultant death rate did little to ease the situation. With their characteristic desire for more sons, the Chinese refused to heed the warnings of those very mentors, whose philosophy they professed to follow. Mencius had said that "an increasing population over a long period brings strife and disorder" and Han Fei-tzu had pronounced the aphorism that "people are more but wealth is less", adding "the wealth of the nation depends not upon the number of its people but rather upon the nation having sufficient food". In 1813, however, nobod y in China was interested in facing up to the problem; everybody was more concerned with increasing his family: irrespective of the fact that there was no rice to feed the newcomers.
The avarice of landlords aggravated the situation. At the best, China is a poor country, where a conscience-less landlordism can create havoc at will. Twenty per cent of the land surface of China is possibly the maximum that can profitably be worked, the remaining eighty per cent being unsuitable for cultivation, a considerable portion of this being marginal land unfit for productive purposes. At the time Hung Hsiu-ch'uan was born, tenant-farmers were required to pay as rent more than one-half of their scanty production, leaving little for the provision of ever-increasing families. In Kwantung Province, where the Hung family lived, landlords, mostly absentee, held seventy per cent of the land. Temples, graves, and paths accounted for five per cent, and if we add a further modest allowance for village and city areas, it will be realised how little was left for food production. To make the position even more acute, many landlords finding opium production more profitable than that of rice, only rented their fields to such as would grow poppies.
Poverty and nation-wide starvation were not the only blights that had settled upon China at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Like a canker eating into the heart of the nation, corruption in high places was rife. That moral superiority, which, in the past, had enabled China to withstand the constant assault of the foreign foe and endued her with power to conquer her conquerors, was becoming weakened rapidly. The evil legacy of Ho Shen, Grand Secretary under Emperor Ch'ien Lung, had poisoned official life. Manchus held official positions, not because of fitness or qualifications, but simply because they belonged to the dominant race. In many cases, they bought their posts. The public examinations, which had guaranteed a certain standard of efficiency and moral integrity for nearly 2,000 years, went by the board. Manchus, unable to carry out their official duties, engaged Chinese assistants at a price, and these, in turn, extorted from the people the funds needed to buy their positions. As this vicious practice became widespread, the condition of the people, hungry and poorly clad, moved towards a dangerous desperation.
Industrial development might have eased the situation but Peking was too busy with its gaieties and debaucheries to be interested. As for the wealthy gentry, the production and merchandising of opium were proving so profitable that any industrial plans would have found little response from them. They were more concerned with increasing their holdings.
The demand for land was so keen that any price could be obtained. In China, as elsewhere, the desperation of the landless, especially when the landless are poor, was the golden opportunity for the landlords. Many among the larger landholders invested their money in opium chain-stores throughout the country. British merchants were not allowed to operate beyond Canton and this gave the wealthy Chinese their chance. They set up their Hongs there and from their warehouses sent out a stream of opium to their agencies spread throughout the land. In the year Hung Hsiu-ch'uan was born, the import of opium into China by British merchants had risen to 30,000 chests a year, each containing 130 pounds weight of opium. The Chinese gentry waxed prosperous with this increasing trade and the British treasury in India fared likewise by imposing a heavy export duty on the opium. As the Chinese taste for the drug grew, so did the British gain, both on export and import. The demoralisation that resulted in China occasioned London little concern. The deepening poverty that resulted from money being spent on opium, that should have bought food for starving Chinese women and children, did not disturb either the minds or consciences of the men who governed from Westminster any more than the knowledge that goods in Communist China today are produced by slave labour worries them.
Previously, the British merchants had paid for their cargoes of Chinese silks and teas with silver but it was soon discovered that opium was a much more convenient and indeed profitable means of exchange. Opium required less cargo space than the manufactured goods that promised to find a market in China. The temporary loss of the newly-established mills in Britain was more than made up for by the profits of shipping management and the British Government in India.
Such a position, however, could not remain indefinitely. Sooner or later a starving people will assert itself. The Chinese, through their long history, had only once revolted against their form of government, but that was long before, when the fascism of the Shang had given place to the feudalism of the Chou. Prior to 1911, there had been only that one revolution in China. But, through the centuries, the Chinese, the least revolutionary of all peoples, have been the most rebellious. They never hesitated to rebel against the Emperor when they believed he had forfeited the Mandate of Heaven, a circumstance witnessed by the occurrence of flood or famine or other national disaster. These were regarded as signs that Heaven was displeased with the occupant of the Dragon Throne and whoever could wrest it from him was accepted as the legitimate ruler. Emperor Ch'ien Lung, before his abdication in 1796, had been wise enough to sense the growing unrest, especially in the southern provinces, and had instituted an inquisition in the hope of suppressing any uprising before it assumed national proportions. Under the pretext of collating and arranging all the worth-while literature of the past, to be known as Ssu-k'u Ch'uan Shu, he had libraries ransacked, houses searched, and book collectors were invited to lend or sell rare editions and manuscripts in order that the compilation should be complete. The officials deputed to carry out this task were well aware of the imperial intention. The Governors of Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces, where unrest threatened to assume disquieting proportions, reported to Peking that they would do their utmost to investigate and examine all books "in order to check their corrupting influences". Higher officials encouraged their underlings in their search by offering monetary rewards to such as brought in the most suspects. All books praising the Mings or criticising the Chings were burnt and their authors as well as those found in possession of the books punished. If the authors could not be traced, their families were held accountable for such books. If families could not be located, then the bodies of the authors were taken from their graves and publicly dismembered. The grim details of the case of the author of A History of the Ming Dynasty have come down to us. A poet lost his life for writing two lines, which were interpreted as reflecting on the Chings, indeed because of one word in these two lines:
"Oh bright wind, you don't know how to read,
Why throw my pages into confusion?"
Officialdom concluded that the use of the word ch'ing (bright), which was also the name of the dynasty, was intended to stigmatise Peking as responsible for the dissatisfaction that was prevalent throughout the country and the poverty that was spreading its pall of death on all sides.
When Chia Ch'ing succeeded Ch'ien Lung in 1796, he carried on this inquisition with increased vigour. One of his first edicts was the command to all officials to intensify their search for all such subversive literature. But this persecution defeated its own purpose. The old proverb had said that "the mandarin derives his power from the law but people derive their power from the secret society" and never was this more clearly demonstrated than during the early years of Chia Ch'ing's reign. As Peking put on the pressure, so the secret societies gained strength. Each new prescript issued from Peking was accompanied throughout China by the creation of further underground groups, pledged to overthrow the Manchus. Special precautions had to be taken to safeguard the Emperor himself, as it was feared that an attempt might be made at any time to murder him.
Such an attempt nearly succeeded in the year that Hung Hsiu-ch'uan was born. The conspiracy, led by Lin Ch'ing, although it failed to achieve its immediate objective, was, nevertheless, of historic importance in showing how widespread the discontent was and in its connection with Formosa. Lin Ch'ing had been working for some years to unite all the secret societies that had the common aim of restoring the Mings. He seems to have succeeded in large measure, for the date had been fixed for the assault on the Palace. A simultaneous rising had been planned in Formosa. But the Manchu officials there were very vigilant as the San Ho Hui had staged a number of insurrections over the past dozen years. This secret society, known also as Hung Hui, and to Westerners as the Triad, because it aimed at promoting harmony between heaven, earth, and man, under a restored Ming dynasty, had been established in Tainan in 1863 by the followers of Cheng Chen-kung. From the time it was set up it had instigated various attempts to overthrow Manchu rule in Formosa. One of these had occurred at the very time Chia Ch'ing was ascending the Dragon Throne in succession to Ch'ien Lung. In 1800, under the leadership of Wong Kong another unsuccessful attempt had been made. In the latter part of 1812, while Lin Ch'ing was campaigning among the secret societies on the mainland, K'ung was travelling throughout Formosa, preparing for rebellion there. The Manchu Prefect at Tamsui heard of this and immediately reported to the Governor, who, when he questioned a number of suspects, was told that Lin Ch'ing was their leader and Ko K'uang was acting under his instructions. Fearing that any warning he might send to Peking would be misconstrued, he took no further action other than suppress the outbreak in Formosa, which took place while Lin Ch'ing and his confederates were smashing their way into the Peking Palace.
Emperor Chia Ch'ing was absent from Peking at the time offering sacrifice at the tomb of his father Ch'ien Lung, but, on his return, was informed of the heroic defence of the Palace by a number of eunuchs and officials. The conspirators, learning that the Emperor was not at the Palace, had not put up much of a fight, and their leader had taken refuge in an outlying village, where he hoped to escape notice till the Imperial anger had subsided. Chia Ch'ing, however, ordered a search, and Lin Ch'ing was captured. When thorough investigations were carried out, it was learnt that some of the eunuchs themselves had been involved and had been in communication with the rebels. However, the affair soon was forgotten and the Court again returned to its for former dissipation without a thought for the starving nation. While Chia Ch'ing and his entourage disported themselves in wild abandon in Peking, throughout China the pangs of hunger were gripping ever tighter the throats of the people.
The destitution of the times was felt most keenly among the people in Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces known as Hakkas. Some sinologues have written off these people as ignorant peasants of inferior rank to their neighbours, but modern researches do not support this approach. These Hakkas were the descendants of a virile stock from North China, which had moved south during Sung dynasty owing to Tartar pressure. Prior to their arrival in Kwangtung and Kwangsi, there had been another migration from the north and those migrants had been responsible for opening up the valley regions of those two provinces. The first record of land tenure in those valleys dates from the tenth century with the arrival of the Punti families and later Ming records contain the names of many Punti families which took part in the agrarian development of the area. Their descendants were well established when the first Hakka migration took place. These Punti feudal lords did not welcome the new arrivals, although they were of the same stock as themselves, and every obstacle was put in the way of their establishment on the land. As a result these Hakkas never succeeded in becoming large land-holders but had to be content as poor tenant-farmers. The Tang family, which had migrated from Honan in the tenth century and secured large strips of land, was typical of many Puntis. Their wealth gained them many friends at court and both the hard-pressed Sungs and later the Mings were only too pleased to have such feudal lords who recognized their sovereignty, provided no attempt was made to interfere with their large estates. To the Puntis the Hakkas were "strangers," hence the name given them.
The Hung family rented a few small fields near the Hakka village of Hwa at the time the third son, Hung Hsiu-ch'uan was born. As a boy he seems to have displayed more than ordinary intelligence, with the result that the family denied itself whatever comforts the few fields afforded, in order to keep him at the village school till he was sixteen. Possibly a branch of the family in Kwangsi Province, which was in somewhat better circumstances, gave some assistance. The Kwangsi Hungs had been able to acquire a small property known as Valley Home and were thus free from the rent burden which crippled most Hakka families. With the Confucian classics in his hands, Hung the scholar would spend his leisure hours in tending the family cattle on the hills, and at the age of seventeen he had reached such proficiency in those texts that he was appointed a village teacher. This good fortune brought relief to his family by easing the financial strain and also made it possible for him to prepare for the district test, first of the public examinations. He passed with credit the following year.
Hung seems to have made frequent visits to Canton, the provincial capital. On one of these in 1833, the young student-teacher, now twenty years of age, noticed a group around a street preacher, the German missionary Gutzlaff, who, with the aid of an interpreter, was discoursing on the Ten Commandments. Hung must have been deeply impressed, for the following day he sought out Leang the interpreter and received from him some booklets, which recounted Leang's conversion to Christianity, together with a copy of Morrison's translation of the Bible. Robert Morrison of the London Missionary Society had arrived in Canton in 1807 and had set up his own printing press with Leang as helper.
Before Hung had reached his village the following day he had read every word in Leang's booklets. Several times during that 30-mile walk he sat down by the roadside to read again those Ten Commandments that had so impressed him as he had listened to the preacher. Already the thought had come to him that those injunctions had a special application to his own country in her present conditions. Yet, how were these things to be reconciled with the Confucian teaching that he dare not deny? But perhaps, after all, this new philosophy might be just another of those imports from the outer world, now beginning to show themselves in China. From that outer world also had come opium and he himself had been shocked by its effects in his own village. Again and again he had seen poor hungry people taking refuge from their distress in the opium pipe. How, then, could these two imports be reconciled? Opium and the Ten Commandments! Surely a strange contradiction! Yet the white man was the purveyor of both. By the time he had reached the village he had dismissed it all from his mind. It was all so baffling. Yet that street preacher had seemed sincere. So had Leang. He would forget it all and prepare hard for his examination. Some day he might be a member of the Hanlin; if not that, then a magistrate. How his family would be proud of him. He would be able to relieve the hard lot of them all. And his name would be inscribed on an ivory tablet and outside his father's house the sign that a member of the family had passed the examinations.
Often in the silence of the long evenings, when the rest of the Hung family had retired, weary after the day's toil and struggle to feed hungry mouths with little food, his mind would revert to the street preacher in Canton and Leang the interpreter. Strive as he would to keep his thoughts on his coming examination, he could not get these out of his mind. Side by side with the Lun Yu, the Confucian Analects, were Leang's booklets and in one of these were words that Hung read over again and again. It was Morrison's translation into Chinese of St. John's description of the City of God. Did it not say that "the wall of the city had twelve foundations" and "on the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates"? So very much like a Chinese city was this City of God, with its walls and gates. The inhabitants of that city "hunger no more" and there was "neither sorrow nor crying nor any more pain". How different to all that he saw around him, with hunger on every face, and tears born of despair in the eyes of his people! Had he not seen these in the eyes of his own father? The condition of entry into that city was the keeping of those Ten Commandments the street preacher had spoken about. And yet, after all, there was little difference between the standard set in those ten rules and the maxims the Master, Kung, had expounded. He had said that there are seven steps for the virtuous man to follow. Hung reached across his table and opened his Lnn Yu, repeating the seven steps: "the investigation of things; the completion of knowledge; the sincerity of thoughts; the rectifying of the heart; the cultivation of the person; the regulation of the family; and the government of the State". Still, these Ten Commandments seemed to go much further. Perhaps it was those extra three steps that led to the City of God, so vividly described in Leang's booklet. So wondered the young village student-teacher as he pondered over these things in the silence of the Kwangtung nights.
In 1837, Hung, then 26 years of age, was ready for his first public examination. Already it had been announced that the provincial examiner would begin the tests in Canton. With high hopes, both for himself and his family, Hung Hsiu-ch'uan set out for the capital. The examination was competitive and Hung's name did not appear in the list of successful candidates. This failure distressed him sorely, for so much depended on it. His family, in spite of the little assistance he was able to give from his earnings as a teacher, was nevertheless suffering acutely and Hung connected his mother's illness with lack of proper food. This failure so worked on his mind that he had a complete breakdown and friends had to take him home as he was unable to tramp the 30-mile journey to the village. For more than a month he was so ill that he could not attend to his duties at the village school, but it was during this period that he passed through the strange experience that was to change his whole life.
This was in the form of a vision. Hung saw "a great company of men, playing on musical instruments, and approaching him with a beautiful sedan chair, in which, having invited him to be seated, they carried him away". He was taken to a river, where he was asked "Why has thou defiled thyself?" and immediately a voice answered "Thou must be made clean". So he was purified by "washing in the river". Then he was taken to a place where many venerable sages were gathered, one of whom "opened his body and took out his heart, replacing it with another, the wound immediately healing". Later he saw "a man with a golden beard, dressed in a black robe, who presented him with a sword, commanding him to exterminate all demons". Then he added that "the people on this earth have perverse hearts and vice and depravity are widespread". The man with the golden beard then took his place on a high seat and addressing the assembled company said "all human beings in the world have been created by me, yet none venerate me. They take my gifts but they worship not me but demons." Turning to Hung, he warned him, to "beware lest thou doest the same". Some of those present cried out "Yes, we have forgotten our duty to the Venerable One" but others said "Why should we venerate him, let us be merry and drink with our friends". As Hung looked at the man in the high place, he saw that he was weeping. Then, in his vision, there approached him "one of middle age, the Elder Brother, who instructed him how to act, and who promised to be by his side always, giving him strength to overcome evil and destroy the demons".
When Hung returned to his duties at the village school, the momentous happenings at Canton, only thirty miles away, which had set the whole country agog, left him little time to think of himself. Day after day the news became more exciting. The Imperial Commissioner, Lin Tze-hsu had seized 20,000 chests of opium from the English merchants and destroyed them. For some time, tempers on both sides had been frayed. Britain, leading maritime commercial country of the time and anxious to expand her Chinese market, had become impatient with the Chinese restrictions, tonnage dues, and other taxes. The Chinese were disturbed with the growth of the opium trade and the increasing export of silver from the country. When the Chinese asked for an assurance that the trade in opium should cease, Britain decided to get tough. Acting under instructions from Peking, Commissioner Lin retaliated by seizing the opium. Thereupon Britain forced the issue. The Chinese were no match for Britain's naval and military strength, with the result that they had to pay dearly for losing the war forced on them. Hongkong was ceded to Britain, her war costs had to be paid by China, together with compensation for the opium destroyed. Appraising the situation of that time, a modern historian, K.S. Latourette, has written that "had the British been ready to abide by a basic principle of that international law by which they professed to be guided - the sovereignty of each nation - they might well have reminded themselves that they had no treaty rights in the country, were there on sufferance, and, if they did not like such terms as the Chinese gave them, they had no option but to ask for modification peacefully or to withdraw".
Hung had made up his mind to face the public examination again and was encouraged in this resolve by his friend Li, also a teacher in the village school, who himself was preparing to take the tests. Together, in the evenings, these two would tramp over the hills and over the countryside, returning to continue their reading in Hung's room. Neither regretted the defeat of the Peking Government but they resented the way in which opium was being forced on their country against its will. At times their minds strayed from the Confucian Classics to Leang's booklets, which they would read together, seeking some explanation of the vision that had come to Hung during his illness. Many questions took shape in their minds. That "washing in the river" which Hung had experienced in his vision, for instance. Could it have any connection with the baptism mentioned in one of the booklets? And that Venerable One with the golden beard, robed in black, who had spoken to him. Could he have been God the Father, referred to by Leang? And that Elder Brother, who encouraged him with assurances of support. Was he the Jesus of Leang's booklets? Were the demons he had been told to destroy, those countless idols that were to be seen in the temples everywhere? Again and again they discussed these things till eventually both were convinced that Hung's visions had a definite purpose. Finally, each baptised the other, confident that they had a Divine commission to spread the new teaching throughout China.
Early in 1843, Hung, being then 30 years of age, set out on his mission. His own immediate family, which believed in him and had embraced his teaching, together with some relatives, encouraged him to abandon his work at the village school and embark on the larger task. Another young teacher, Fung Yun-san, decided to accompany him. This determination was forced on them to some extent by the refusal of some of the villagers to send their children to a school from which Hung had removed the tablet of Confucius. Empty pockets resulted from this first crusade against idolatry. The two young men thereupon resolved to travel the country as itinerant preachers, like the monks of the Middle Ages, with their baskets of brushes and ink-slabs, the sale of which was to be their sole means of livelihood. Whatever else they may need they hoped to secure from their converts. By the middle of the following year they had reached Kwangsi Province and were with Hung's relations at Valley Home in Kwei district, just a few miles north of Nanning. From that centre they campaigned in different districts and their reports, covering the next six months, indicated that they were well received in most places. In one village no less than 100 persons accepted their teaching. The esteem in which the Hungs of Kwangsi were held contributed, doubtless, to the reception given the two young itinerant preachers, and enabled them to establish more than twenty congregations during that period. It was their custom to proclaim their evangel in front of a village temple.
At the end of 1844 Fung Yun-san decided to return to his native Hwa in the adjoining Kwangtung Province, but an incident on the way resulted in his return to his former profession of teaching. Some days after he had left Valley Home, he met labourers who were carrying earth from one field to another. To maintain himself for the time being, he secured employment with them and was introduced to their employer, the owner of Thistle Mount farm. Fung seems to have interested this man considerably for he was invited to lodge with him. His missionary zeal still burning at white heat, he soon converted the owner of Thistle Mount and his workmen, all poor tenant-farmers from adjoining farms, to the new faith and baptised them. As a return for the hospitality accorded him, Fung opened a school for the teaching of the children of the area, thus relieving himself of the necessity of engaging in the manual labour of the fields. His spare hours were devoted to preaching with the result that during his stay at Thistle Mount he formed no less than twelve different congregations. The local magistrate reported to the Governor of Kwangsi Province that "these people seem to know what they are doing". Had he known Tertullian he might have added: "ita fabulantur ut qui sciant Dominum audire" "They converse as those who know that God hears".
So far, no distinctive name had been given to these assemblies. As in the case of Wesley and his Oxford associates, this was to come from their critics. A local magistrate had scornfully referred to them as "God-worshippers" and this title was gradually adopted. There is no warrant for the suggestion, put forward by a Chinese historian, that a society, bearing this name and founded by a descendant of the Mings, had failed in its struggle for power and on the execution of its leader, had invited Hung Hsiu-ch'uan to take over. The most exacting examination of the few records relating to the assemblies at that time give no hint that they observed any of the practices common to Chinese secret societies. These latter met in secret and carried out a rigid and most elaborate ritual whereas the assemblies worshipped mainly in the open as their church buildings were few and apart from the rite of baptism and public confession, their observances were very simple. Little is known of their organisation but the records mention much missionary activity throughout the countryside. Tracts and portions of the New Testament, issuing from their printing presses, were spread far and wide over Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces. We are justified, then, in concluding that a new society, of a definitely religious character, was in process of formation, and differing in many respects from those innumerable secret organisations that have dotted the pages of Chinese history.
Early in 1845 Hung Hsiu-ch'uan left Valley Home with the idea of joining Fung Yun-san, who, as he thought, must already have arrived at their native village. However, he did not know, at that time, what was transpiring at Thistle Mount and the two were not to meet again till 1848. Hung spent the next 18 months campaigning in the country around Hwa and hearing that an American, I.J. Roberts was preaching in Canton, he set out, about the end of 1848, to interview him. Some years later, Missionary Roberts, writing in the London Chinese and General Missionary Gleaner of February 1853, gave a detailed account of his meeting with Hung in these words:
"Some time in 1846 or the year following, Chinese gentlemen came to my house in Canton, professing a desire to be taught the Christian religion. One of them soon returned home, but the other continued with us for two months or more, during which time he studied the scriptures and received instruction, and maintained a blameless deportment. That one seems to be this Hung Sew Tseuen, the chief; and the narrator was, perhaps, the gentleman who came with him but soon returned home. When the chief first came to us, he presented a paper written by himself, giving a minute account of having received a book of which his friend speaks in his narrative; of his being taken sick, during which time he professed to see a vision, and gave the details of what he saw, which, he said, confirmed him in the belief of what he had read in the book. He told me some things in the account of his vision which I confess I was then at a loss, and still am, to know whence he got them without a more extensive knowledge of the scriptures. He requested to be baptised but left for Kwangsi before we were fully satisfied of his fitness; but what had become of him I knew not until now. He is a man of ordinary appearance, about five feet four or five inches in height; well built, round faced, regular features, rather handsome, about middle age, and gentlemanly in his manners."
The friend referred to in this account was probably Hung-jin, a relative of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, who fled in 1852 from the mandarins, and on reaching Hongkong, contacted Missionary Hamberg, handing him papers relating to Hung's experiences. It is most interesting to note that Mr. Roberts makes no mention of Hung having requested from him a monthly allowance, the refusal of which, according to some critics, was the real cause of his leaving the Roberts home.
Hung spent 1847 and the early months of 1848 visiting the congregations in Kwangsi Province. In the Kwei district he found many new churches and in one village there were 2,000 members of the God-worshippers Society including men of influence, as well as others who had passed the first two of the public examinations. Some of these members were extremely militant and zealous in the cause. Not content with observing the rules themselves, they considered themselves obliged to destroy the images in the village temples and this action brought the movement under official notice for the first time. Many villagers who opposed the God-worshippers offered physical resistance to the iconoclasts. There is no evidence that Hung or the other leaders made any attempt to restrain the ardour of their associates, but it must be remembered that our knowledge of the movement and its early history is far from complete. One of the larger land-holders near Ping Nan, named Wang, lodged a definite complaint with the district magistrate, charging the leaders of the movement as "rebels and despoilers of the temples". Fung and several others were thrown into prison but no attempt was made to deal with Hung himself. A conference of the leaders was summoned and Hung was commissioned to hasten to Canton and place the case before Ki Ying, the Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces. Arriving there on March 20, 1848, he learned that Ki Ying had left for Peking a few days earlier. Fearing that similar action might be taken against the leaders of the movement in his native village, Hung took the opportunity of visiting Hwa and had been there but a short time, when, to his surprise Fung arrived. The magistrate in Kwangsi had decided that the prisoner should be committed to the authorities in his own village but on the way Fung had converted his guard with the result that they released him. There was something of apostolic fervour in the reunion of the two, who spent some months in visiting the congregations, which now had a membership of more than 7,000, meeting in thirty churches.
During the latter half of 1849, Hung received an urgent summons to return to Kwangsi. Dissension had broken out in several of the churches and an appeal had been made to their acknowledged spiritual leader. A strange reminder of the experiences of the Apostle to the Gentiles. As soon as he heard the nature of the trouble, Hung sent a messenger to Hwa urging Fung to hasten to him with all speed. On the way Fung heard of the dispute from the congregations he visited and suspected that another session of idol-smashing had taken place. "One hall is full of idols with radiant eyes, but they are only made with clay and straw" some had said; while others, in a more cynical mood, had cried out "If one looks for protection by burning incense, set him to fire a brick-kiln and that will give a denser smoke". On his arrival at Ping Nan, however, he was to learn that the whole matter concerned Yang Hsiu-tsing and Hung's brother in law, Ts'ao Chow-kwei, both leaders of the movement in Kwangsi. Both had professed to have had visions. Yang, who seemed to have been subject to trances, would exhort the congregations in the name of God the Father and Ts'ao claimed to speak in the name of Jesus the Elder Brother. As a result of their combined intercessions, many had been healed of sickness.
Hung and Fung listened to all the reports and concluded that both Yang and Ts'ao were sincere and had not acted in any way contrary to the New Testament. Their decision was later set down in the decree stating that "when the Heavenly Father comes down into the world to instruct the people, his Sacred Will is delivered by the mouth of the Eastern Prince (Yang) and when the Heavenly Brother Jesus comes down into the world to instruct the people, his Sacred Will is delivered by the mouth of the Western Prince (Ts'ao)". This decision by Hung and Fung calmed all opposition and what had threatened to cause a cleavage a few months earlier was transformed into a mighty dynamic which inspired the members to greater endeavours. New congregations were formed and new churches erected. The movement promised to become a swelling tide that could spread over the entire country. The God-worshippers Society held the promise of renovating China and creating a new culture civilisation that would preserve the best of the old order but free from those evils that had come through contact with the West. The crusade against opium was the symbol of the latter. This new inspiration held out the hope of a new life especially as the different congregations, as much as was in their power, were giving economic assistance to the less fortunate. Their concept of Christianity was taking practical from as they translated it into Confucian terms.
At the close of the year 1849, the movement was purely religious, but opposition was beginning to take official form. The landed gentry were hostile as the demands for better conditions for tenant-farmers increased and there were many Wangs who feared for their own position. Requests to Peking to suppress the movement became more numerous and an order was issued to all provincial authorities in South China to supply information on which action might be taken. It is interesting to read some of the reports that reached Peking. The Lieutenant-General at Canton reported that "the demoralised state of the Imperial forces as a result of the successes of the barbarians (English) and the spread of strange doctrines among the people are becoming most alarming". A memorial by one high official in Kwangsi, Chou Teen-tso, referred to "the failure of officials in allowing a man of Kwangtung to escape punishment, when he had been charged with spreading strange doctrines". Fung Yun-san no doubt. Another official spoke of "the people flocking to hear these teachers of dangerous doctrines". Yet another noted that "the followers of these teachers, now in Kwangsi, conduct their lives in creditable manner but no long attend the temple ceremonies". A striking reminder of the early Christians!
Peking then decided to act. An order was issued for the arrest of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan and the dispersion of all gatherings connected with the God-worshippers Society and all officials were directed "to spread the knowledge of the national ethics (Confucianism) and thus counteract the spread of strange doctrines (Christianity)". When an attempt was made to arrest Hung, the members of the movement foiled it by their organised resistance and later by hiding their leader. However, it was realised that the hour of decision had arrived, and at a secret assembly of the leaders, Hung declared his mission "to exterminate the idolatrous and usurping Manchus and possess the empire as its true ruler".
This announcement, forced by the determination of Pcking to suppress what had been a purely religious movement, presented Hung with one of his greatest problems. The Triad society, strong in Kwangtung and Kwangsi, and pledged to expel the Manchus and restore the Mings, imagined that its opportunity had come. It offered to combine with the God-worshippers. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan had never been associated with the Triads and in spite of the attempt by some "experts" to associate his movement with them, there is not a shred of historical evidence to support such a contention. It is purely a pretext of the imagination. Hung himself had stated earlier "I have never entered the Triad Society, for there are practices connected with it that I detest and its real object has become both mean and unworthy". Members of the Triad Society had joined the God-worshippers, but had not remained long as they found the religious restrictions rather irksome and the leaders of the latter had been instructed "not to receive among your number any Triad men but such as are willing to abandon their former practices and receive instruction in the true doctrine". Still, when Hung stated his determination to overthrow the Manchus, the Triad leaders sought to capitalise his growing strength. Possibly the name Hung made a strong appeal to them as they had called themselves "members of the Hung family" and this word was the centre around which their mystic lore had gathered, although it had no connection with Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. When a member of the Triads was on a journey and called at a house, asking for tea and was offered water, he would refuse, with the words "I have drank of the water of the three united rivers". If he was then given tea, he would cover the pot with his fan and say:
"A Hung family hides Hung tea;
Hungs are one family;
My brother I don't see,
Sister gives tea to me."
When a member visited another member for the first time he would say:
"Heaven is above earth, hence we have ne'er met,
High hills and low plains far apart we see;
You visit this Hung house, and I regret
I can offer naught but a cup of tea".
When a local rising was ordered, each Triad member placed a red cloth over the entrance to his house with the Hung sign on it to protect his family, while the gathering Triads shouted the cry Hung shun Tien (Hungs obey Heaven), as a signal to all members to be ready.
The God-worshippers now became the "soldiers of God" like Cromwell's Roundheads. Threatened with extinction by the Manchu forces and rejecting all offers of support from the Triads, they knew that their future rested on their faith in God and their own dry powder. To them it was a case of "justum est bellum quibus necessarium" and Hung Hsiu-ch'uan would have gone further and agreed with Livy that "pia arma, quibus nulla nisi in armis relinquitur opes" - "resort to arms is righteous in those to whom no other assistance remains except by arms". Many Christian nations both before and since Hung's time have adopted this same philosophy.
The early clashes, which proved the utter incompetence of the Imperial armies, and which gave victories to the "soldiers to God", strengthened the latter's confidence both in their cause and its final triumph. One of their records tells how, before a battle, "three thousand of the God-worshippers knelt and prayed, then rose and charged the enemy, causing them to disperse in confusion". Chou Teen-tso, the Kwangsi official, who, earlier had memorialised Peking, in his account of that battle to the Governor of Hupeh, begged "speedy and large reinforcements", as he was "deeply concerned over the possible outcome". He expressed his amazement at "the increase in the number of the rebels" adding that "as far as our forces are concerned, the more they meet the enemy, the greater becomes their fear, for the rebels are not a disorderly crowd but well disciplined, and I fear that the body of the people everywhere will rise against us". Evidently he was referring to the battle of Yungan, fought in June 1851, when the Manchu forces fled to the hills in disorder, hotly pursued by the "Soldiers of God" who had been supported by many of the population.
As this crusade, formerly of a purely religious character, was henceforth to become a politico-military campaign, it is well to pause and note the causes of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan's initial phenomenal success. Any leader in Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces who called for support in overthrowing the Manchus would have been assured of a following, as every town and village had its members of some secret society pledged to that end. Many attempts had been made but had been quickly suppressed. What, then, was the secret of the success of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, who, by the time he reached the walls of Nanking, had gathered around him not less than 70,000 followers? The Peking estimate was 80,000. It is true that the rules governing the admission of new members were modified since the days when the movement was purely religious, nevertheless, there had been no weakening of religious fervour and even when the armies were on the march, part of each day was devoted to religious exercises.
First and foremost of the causes of Hung's initial success was his strong and compelling personality. He must have made a profound impression on Missionary Roberts in Canton, as he was able, seven years later, to describe clearly the appearance, height, features and manners of Hung. He had drunk deep at the fountains of Confucian philosophy and his writings suggest that he was equally conversant with Buddhism and Taoism. His conception of life was deeply spiritual. Fung Yun-san had actually established the God-worshippers society; Yang Hsiu-tsing and Ts'ao Chow-kwei had experienced visions and carried out works of healing; but Hung Hsiu-ch'uan remained the spiritual head and guide. It was to him that all appeals were made. He was the St. Paul of the movement. It was his authority and interpretation that were accepted in all disputes. There were differences between him and Yang, who was later to take over control of organisation and both political and military direction, but Hung's leadership was never questioned. A highly-strung visionary, prone to fits of dejection, yet capable of rising to heights of spiritual greatness; possessed with an insight into truth that amazed even the Western missionaries in later years; dreaming dreams and seeing things which it is not lawful for a man to utter; this man must have exercised an influence of a most unique quality over his followers, who were prepared to break with a deeply embedded traditional past and accept his leading. It was highly significant that officials who came in contact with him personally or who themselves witnessed his influence among the people always hesitated to lay hands on him and it was not till Peking gave explicit orders for his arrest that any attempt was made to do this, although the local magistrates had power to do so. They did not hesitate to imprison his associates but Hung they left alone. They preferred to leave him free, either because they feared that any action against him might precipitate wide-spread revolt or because they themselves stood in awe of this man who held increasing thousands on his word.
Added to this striking personality, Hung, whilst denouncing the worship of Confucius, held the Master Kung himself in the highest regard and actually borrowed his technique. Like the Sage of Shantung, Hung appealed to the past, the pre-Confucian past. That past, that golden age, could be regained, thanks to the revelation he had received and by obedience to the Ten Commandments. It is true that he capitalised the prevailing hatred of the Manchus, who lived in luxury while poverty stalked throughout the country. He represented Shih Huang Ti, the great iconoclast, who burned the books and wiped out the good the glorious Chous had effected, as the forerunner of the Manchus, who now pronounced the teaching of Hung as a strange doctrine, and not content with that, had ordered the dissolution of the Christian congregations. This strategy succeeded. Persecution by Peking, like the Act of Uniformity in England, defeated its own avowed purpose, and persecution only encouraged dissent from orthodoxy, so that in both cases the establishment suffered from its own weapons. Dissenters in China turned from State Confucianism to Christianity and the inquisition packed the churches of Kwangtung and kwangsi and beyond. With it all, the stature of their leader rose higher and higher in the eyes of the dissenters.
The economic expression of Hung's message must have made a strong appeal to the people, especially the poor and landless. His Christo-Confucian concept of the Kingdom of God on earth offered hope to the thousands that had attached themselves to him. There may be some truth in the contention that many of these were attracted more by the prospect of getting food and clothing than by any spiritual appeal. Reformers in the past had never succeeded in getting so near to the masses nor had such selflessness, such as Hung displayed, been a mark of their careers. Many centuries earlier, Wang Mang had introduced a system of land nationalisation and by one stroke had wiped out all private ownership, so that land could neither be bought nor sold. Later, in the XIth century, Wang An-shih had brought in a form of State capitalism. But neither of these reforms had really touched the lives of the common people. The former had served only the interests of Wang Mang himself and the latter had used his plan merely to fashion a weapon of defence against the northern invaders.
Neither of these charges could be made against Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. From the very outset, religion and economic reform were set forth as vitally related. It may be that the practice of the early Christians, as he had read in one of the pamphlets Leang had given him in Canton, influenced him. Probably, it was a case of a Christian purpose finding Confucian expression. Confucius had been very much a man of this world.
There were three distinct stages in the economic progression of the God-worshippers. When the movement began throughout Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces, it was usual for members who owned land, however small its area, to allot a portion to some landless family without payment. When this could not be done, the congregation formed its own pool of food and clothing, from which the needy were supplied. These pools continued to operate when the "soldiers of God" began their northern march towards Nanking as one means of maintaining supplies for the army. Later, when Nanking was occupied, the troops which no longer wished to remain under arms were given portions of land and payment for these took the form of a percentage of the production for the maintenance of the forces. There is no evidence that land was nationalised. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan was too Confucian in his thinking to permit any such innovation. He knew that the Chinese were too individualistic to submit to it.
His basic doctrines were set forth in two books, both of which were free from all abstraction and metaphysics. Adhering to the Confucian theory that man is essentially good, he had no place in his simple creed for the idea of original sin. His Christology knew of no hypostatic union. He did make vague references to the Trinity but he never attempted to define it. He belonged neither to the company of Arius or Athanasius. His was a Confucian Christology, which needed no priesthood and admitted no sacerdotalism. It was an indigenous creed, which knew no contact with other and older Christian bodies and this may explain, in part, many of its peculiarities, which can only be fully understood when viewed against the background of Chinese practice and traditional culture.
The Book of Instructions began with a quotation from the philosopher Tung Shung-chu of Western Han dynasty: "The way has its origin in Heaven", and then quoted from the Shu Ching (History Classic): "The way of Heaven is to punish the wicked and reward the good". Hung then proceeded to show that prior to the time of Emperor Shih Huang Ti, Shang Ti had been worshipped as the One Supreme Ruler. He had in mind the days of Chou and earlier times and he would have nothing to do with those scholars, who saw in Shang Ti merely the apotheosised ancestor of the Chou. Emperor Shih Huang Ti had begun the great apostasy when he lapsed from that ancient faith and thus made possible the worship of the many false gods to be seen in thousands of temples throughout the country. All through China's long history, scholars had endeavoured to re-discover the true Shang Ti under the mass of superstition and idolatry that had grown up around Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, but it was only in the revelations of the Old and New Testaments that Shang Ti could be found. This was the fundamental truth that Hung proclaimed and by the acceptance of it the people were returning to their most ancient faith.
There was much in the literature of his race to support Hung's interpretation. In the Li Chi (Book of Rites) for instance, it had been written that "As my father gave me birth, so Shang Ti created all things", thus personalising Shang Ti, and Mencius had attributed to Shang Ti such qualities as could not be ascribed to an impersonal Heaven. There were many Chinese scholars who opposed Hung's interpretation, but it did find support among some eminent Western sinologues, not the least of whom was Faber, the German scholar, who, in his "Lehrbegriff des Chinesischen Philosophen Mencius", asserted that the original Chinese concept was monotheistic, and Shang Ti was "the holy and merciful Creator who desires the good of all men". A later scholar, the Englishman Jennings, pointed out that in one of the Chou festal odes, Shang Ti speaks to the founder of Chou dynasty in much the same way as Jehovah spoke to Moses, and he renders the name Shang Ti as "The Great High God."
In his "Book of Heavenly Rules", Hung set forth the precepts that were to be followed in regulating human life and adjusting it to the will of Shang Ti. Each member, on admission to the God-worshippers Society, had to pledge obedience to these precepts. The Ten Commandments, which occupied a prominent place in the thinking of Hung from the time of his first contact with Christianity, appear in the opening pages of this set of rules and obedience to them will enable the members to "guard against the evils of the time; regulate conduct; protect against depravity and idolatry; lead to true repentance; and assure of happiness hereafter". Repentance must take the form of "kneeling and praying to Shang Ti for forgiveness". Then "the body must be cleansed by washing'" a kind of self-administered baptism. "Shang Ti must be worshipped and adored, morning and evening, so that His spirit will renovate the heart". All meals had to be preceded by thanksgiving. "All who follow these instructions will become sons and daughters of Shang Ti, protected by Him in this world and enjoy his presence in the world to come". Attendance at public worship was obligatory, which must begin with recital of the creed:
"We praise and glorify Shang Ti as the Heavenly Holy Father,
We praise and glorify Jesus as the Saviour of the world,
We praise and glorify the Holy Spirit as the Holy Intelligence,
We praise and glorify the three as the united true God.
The true doctrine differs from worldly doctrines,
It saves the soul and leads to endless happiness.
The wise joyfully receive it as the means of happiness,
The foolish, awakened, find the way to heaven, opened.
The Heavenly Father, in his vast goodness, great and without limit,
Spared not his eldest son but sent Him down to earth,
He gave up his life to redeem us, from iniquity;
If men will repent and reform,
Their souls will be enabled to ascend into heaven".
These two books remained the guide and canon of correction during the whole history of the movement. Decrees were issued from time to time but these remained the final court of appeal.
Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of three articles on Hung Hsiu-chu'an by Dr. W. G. Goddard. The second will follow in an early issue.