TAE-PING REBELLION. 



701 



TAE-PING REBELLION, THE. As the prin- 

 cipal interest in Chinese matters centres in this 

 rebellion, it will, perhaps, be more gratifying to 

 the readers of the Annual Cyclopaedia, to have 

 a clear and connected account of this protract- 

 ed and extensive insurrection than to read a 

 mere summary of the prominent events which 

 have transpired in China during the year 1862. 



The Government of China, though seemingly 

 so immobile, has yet passed through numerous 

 changes. Its vast area has been at some pe- 

 riods divided into two, three, and even four 

 independent kingdoms, and after years of civil 

 war again and again reunited in a single em- 

 pire; its rulers have been native Chinese, 

 Mongol Tartars, Chinese again, and lastly, 

 since 1644, Mantchoo Tartars. In the 4,000 

 years of its history, there have been few periods 

 when, either from Tartar invasion, or native 

 insurrection, from religious feuds, or conflicts 

 of race, there has not been, in one or other of 

 its populous provinces, a rebellion of some sort. 

 At the present time, under the feeble and cor- 

 rupt rule of the late Mantchoo emperor, there 

 have been and are now in existence four dis- 

 tinct insurrections ; the Tae-ping rebellion, 

 occupying a territory of over 30,000 square 

 miles on the lower Yang-Tsze ; the Tu-feh re- 

 bellion, in the vast western province of Sz'chu- 

 an, on the upper Yang-Tsze and its affluents; 

 the Chinese Mussulman insurrection, in the 

 S. "W. province of Yu-nan, and a formidable 

 and powerful band of insurgents in the north- 

 eastern province of Shan-Tung. 



All of these have native Chinese leaders, and 

 all are alike hostile to the Mantchoo dynasty ; 

 but beyond this they have little in common, 

 except that cowardly cruelty, which delights 

 in profuse slaughter, under circumstances of 

 terrible atrocity, of all their captives. The last 

 three of these insurrections, though, perhaps, 

 counting nearly as many followers as the first, 

 have not for a variety of reasons excited so 

 much attention or remark abroad as the Tae- 

 ping rebellion. 



Hung-Siu-Tsuen, the leader of the Tae-ping 

 rebellion, or as he styles himself the Tien- Wang 

 (king of Heaven), is a native of an insignificant 

 village, 30 miles from Canton, and was born in 

 1813. His parents were very poor, so poor that 

 they were unable to give him sufficient education 

 to compete successfully at the state examina- 

 tions, which every one who seeks to become 

 an officer of Government in China must pass. 

 From his 19th year, he repaired annually 

 for half a dozen years to Canton to these ex- 

 aminations, but each time failed of success. At 

 one of these visits, in 1833, an American mis- 

 sionary, Rev. I. J. Roberts, gave him a package 

 of tracts in Chinese, which he put in his pocket 

 and for the time thought no more of them. 



Four years after, again meeting with hU tiectu- 

 toined ill fortune, lie returned Lome, waa at- 

 tacked with a violent hic-kne^s dm 

 he saw visions, and uttered in;! 

 in regard to his future ; on his recovery 1, 

 gaged in menial occupations fur \-.'. 

 and once more passed an n: 

 tion. On his return home the tr.i 

 received five years before, fell under his i. 

 and he read them with avidity. I! 

 that they gave him the key to the visions he 

 had had in his sickness, and abandoning the 

 religion of Confucius, he left his native place, 

 and, betaking himself to the mountains, set 

 about making converts to his new re! 

 His views were very crude ; he at first wor- 

 shipped the name of God instead of the idols, 

 to which he had formerly burned incense and 

 gold paper, but after a few months, becoming 

 more enlightened, he abandoned this and 

 adopted some forms nearer to those of Chris- 

 tian worship, though modified to suit the sen- 

 suous ideas of the Chinese. In 1840 he had 

 made a considerable number of converts, who 

 were called God-worshippers, and not long 

 after, there were nearly 2,000 of his adherents 

 in the single district of Kevei. lie now sallied 

 forth with his followers to destroy the idola- 

 trous temples of the Buddhists and Lao-tze. 

 This provoked disturbance, and two of his dis- 

 ciples were thrown into prison, where one of 

 them died. Alarmed, perhaps, at this result 

 of his iconoclastic mission, IIung-Sin-Tsnen. 

 (or as he now called himself Sin-Tsuen. /. r. 

 elegant and perfect) abandoned his public 

 teachings, and lived a quiet life as a cattle herd 

 for some years. He seems still, however, to 

 have kept up his connection with the ' 

 worshippers, and to have been regan: 

 their leader. Up to this time, his views and 

 teachings seem to have been tho-e of an ill- 

 instructed but sincere convert to Christianity, 

 but a change for the worse took place in 

 A rebellion had sprung up in the distri. 

 Kwang-si and Hwang-rung, in the province of 

 Canton, resulting primarily from the n - 

 and wretched condition of the people, who had 

 been visited by famine and pestilence dtiringthat 

 year. Bands of robbers infested the country, 

 and being hard pressed by the imperial soldiers, 

 joined the God- worshippers, to enlist their influ- 

 ence in protecting them. The authorities sought 

 to arrest Siu-Tsuen as their ! 

 calling all his follou auj 



fortified a market town, and thus in DeCei. 

 1850, commenced the lae-pin^ (pea 

 lion. He selected from anionir the m.<-t 

 ligent and bold of his folio 

 numerous adherents who now I 

 his standard, and gave them the tit! 

 kin<*. In four months' time he had, accord- 



