300 PROBLEMS IX (JHIXA 



tion to the emperor is to send an annual tribute to Pekin, upon the 

 size of which depends his favor at court. Naturally his. one object 

 durinof his short term of office is to extort as much mone}^ as possible 

 from his unfortunate subjects, and his example is imitated by all his 

 subordinates down to the lowest magistrate. Xow, it has been per- 

 fectl}'' evident to all intelligent Chinese that as their government has 

 grown more corrupt it has become weaker. Its weakness has never 

 been demonstrated so clearly to them as in the latest times, in the 

 ignominious defeat by Japan, the absolute inability to resist the occu- 

 pation of Chinese territor}'' b}' the German, Russian, P^nglish, and 

 French powers. Here are conspicuously, then, the conditions which 

 make it the dut}' of a faithful disciple of Confucius to rebel against 

 his ruler: injustice, oppression, and incompetency. 



Added to this impulse to revolution is his unfading memory of a 

 glorious past when China was under the guiding care of sovereigns of 

 his own l)lood. It has onl}' needed at an}- time in the last centur}'- 

 a leader of ability and a definite crv to cause the discontented people 

 to break into ojien revolt. Such a leader fifty years ago was Hung- 

 siu-tsuen. The founder of a " Society of the Worshippers of God," 

 he proclaimed "himself as sent by heaven to drive out the Tatars 

 and to restore in his own person the succession to China." Multi- 

 tudes flocked to a standard raised " to extirpate rulers who, both in 

 their public laws and in their private acts, were standing examples 

 of all that was base and vile in human nature." Hung-siu-tsuen de- 

 feated the imperialist forces sent against him, and in 1853 he stormed 

 the great city of Nankin. Here a native Chinese Taiping dynasty 

 was inaugurated, of which he was the first emperor, assuming the title 

 of Taiping Wang, King of Great Peace, or Heavenl}'^ King. Subordi- 

 nate aims were the destruction of idolatrv and the })rohibition of 

 opium. 



It was in its origin a religious and temperance as well as a national 

 movement. Tliis is not the time to discuss the causes of its rapid 

 degeneracy and final overthroAV, in 1S64, by General Gordon, nor the 

 strange blindness of the western powers to its distinctively Christian 

 character. The Taipings, for instance, based their moral teachings 

 on •' The Ten Words " of Moses. They observed the " Lord's Day " 

 and printed and distributed thousands of copies of translations of 

 Genesis, Exodus, and St Matthew, as well as Christian devotional 

 works. '■ The temples were burnt and thrown down," says an English 

 ej^e-witness, " and not a whole image was to be seen in city or country 



