762 



TAE-PING REBELLION. 



ing to Chinese ideas, a powerful and well-dis- 

 ciplined army, strongly attached to him per- 

 sonally, and ready to fight to the death for 

 their creed. The rebel chief now commenced 

 issuing proclamations, in which the influence 

 of flattery in producing arrogance and intoler- 

 able conceit were very evident. He assumed 

 the title of Tien-Wang (king of Heaven), and 

 soon began to claim divine honors ; at first he 

 declared himself the brother and equal of 

 Christ, and required the same homage, but of 

 late he has grouped in his manifestoes God the 

 Father, Jesus Christ, himself, and his son, 

 whom he styles the junior Lord, as the co-equal 

 rulers of the Universe ; and at one time he 

 conferred the title of the third person of the 

 Trinity upon Tung- Wang, the most blood- 

 thirsty of his subordinate kings, but subse- 

 quently withdrew it, and now admits no 

 other divine personages but those we have 

 mentioned. He professes to have often visited 

 heaven, and of late declares that his favorite 

 wife (he has 108 in his harem) has also been 

 permitted to ascend to the celestial regions. 

 His proclamations, whatever may be their 

 principal topic, are always interlarded with 

 theological disquisitions, and as he has read 

 extensively theological and religious books, 

 they often present a singular medley of truth 

 and error, presented in a most arrogant and 

 grandiloquent style. 



But with all his religious vagaries, he showed 

 a considerable amount of administrative ability. 

 In August, 1851, he captured the city of Yung- 

 an, and held it until April 7, 1852, when, at 

 the head of a large force, he traversed and 

 ravaged the province of Hoo-nan, destroying 

 many of its finest cities ; he next descended the 

 Yang-tsze river, visited Hankow and other 

 cities on its banks, and early in 1853 sat down 

 before the great city of Nanking, which surren- 

 dered to him on the 19th of March, 1853, after 

 a feeble resistance, and whose inhabitants to 

 the number of more than 20,000 he put to 

 death. One hundred only of those who fell 

 into his hands were saved. This ferocity he 

 justified by some of the examples of the Old 

 Testament. The people, he said, were idola- 

 ters, whom it was his right, as king of Heaven, 

 to destroy. 



Nanking, thus captured, was made his capi- 

 tal, and instead of moving forward, as he could 

 have done, upon Pekin, he retired into com- 

 plete seclusion, forbidding the admission even 

 of most of his officers to his presence, and 

 spending his whole time in his harem, in theo- 

 logical studies, and in the composition of 

 prayers and proclamations. The imperial forces 

 soon commenced the siege of the city, but did 

 not for several years close the river, and the 

 Tae-pings were not distressed ; finally a fleet 

 of junks blockaded the river, and starvation be- 

 gan to threaten the Tien-Wang and his follow- 

 ers. In the emergency he composed a doxol- 

 ogy, which all the officers and soldiers were 

 required to commit to memory, the purport of 



which was that the power of God would be 

 exerted. for their relief, day after day as the 

 rations grew more scanty, this doxology was 

 shouted by the Tae-ping army, till at last two 

 of the kings, who were at some distance, at- 

 tacked the imperial force from the rear, 

 while the besieged made a sortie which broke 

 up the siege. Shanghae was subsequently 

 attacked by the Tae-pings, but the English 

 naval force defended it, and made terrible 

 havoc among the rebel troops with their artil- 

 tery. 



During the war between the allied forces 

 (England and France) and the Chinese emper- 

 or, which terminated in the treaty of Tien-tsin 

 in Oct. 1860, the Tae-pings contented them- 

 selves with plundering the region about Nan- 

 kin, and attempted no great enterprises ; but 

 since that time they have been more active, 

 and on the 9th Dec. 1861, captured the city 

 of Ningpo, one of the free ports, at which the 

 Western powers traded. They respected the 

 lives and property of the foreign residents, but 

 butchered without mercy the native inhabi- 

 tants. They next announced their determina- 

 tion to attack Shanghae ; but the allied forces 

 notified them that that city was under their 

 protection. The Tae-pings paid no attention 

 to this notice, but approached the city, and 

 prepared to assault it. Thus defied, the allied 

 forces attacked them in April, 1862, and be- 

 tween the 17th of that month, and the 19th of 

 May, had captured six large cities, and among 

 them Ningpo, which were occupied by the 

 rebels. These successes were not obtained with- 

 out considerable losses both from the fire of 

 the Tae-pings and the climate, and though they 

 were able to protect Shanghae from invasion, 

 they could not act further on the offensive. 

 The imperial Government, meantime, had sig- 

 nified its willingness to undertake the putting 

 down of the rebellion if it could be supplied 

 with ships of war and artillery, which the 

 European powers have agreed to furnish. 



The changes which have taken place in the 

 imperial Government of China since August, 

 1861, give some reason to hope that the period 

 of misrule there is past, and that a wiser policy 

 is to be pursued in the future. The emperor, 

 Hien-fung, on the approach of the allied 

 forces to Pekin in 1860, had gone to his coun- 

 try palace of .Jehoh or Jehol, in Chinese Tar- 

 tary, where he remained, refusing to return 

 after the treaty of peace had been concluded 

 between the allies and his brother, Prince 

 Kung. At this palace he died on the 22d 

 August, 1861, at the age of 30, after a reign of 

 of a little more than ten years. He was the 

 fourth son of Tao-Kouang, whom he succeeded, 

 but had been chosen by his father as his suc- 

 cessor, in the belief that he possessed high 

 capacities for the ruler of a great nation. He 

 was but 19 years of age when he ascended the 

 throne, and he was surrounded by artful cour- 

 tiers, who soon persuaded him to give himself 

 up to the pleasures of the harem, and leave to 



