CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE
CHARLES WILLIAM WASON
COLLECTION ON CHINA
AND THE CHINESE

 
Cornell University Library

The Chinese and their rebellions viewed
a

THE CHINESE

AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
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ieee
LONDON :
R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.
THE CHINESE
AND THEIR REBELLIONS,

VIEWED IN CONNECTION WITH

THEIR NATIONAL PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS, LEGISLATION,
AND ADMINISTRATION.

TO WHICH I8 ADDED,

AN ESSAY ON CIVILIZATION

AND ITS PRESENT STATE IN THE EAST AND WEST.

BY

THOMAS TAYLOR MEADOWS,

CHINESE INTERPRETER IN H. M. CIVIL SERVICE.

LONDON:
SMITH, ELDER & CO. 65, CORNHILL. .
BOMBAY: SMITH, TAYLOR & CO.
1856.
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mys

WAZ34

[The Author reserves to himself the right of Translation. ]
PREFACE.

British trade with China commenced about two
centuries ago. During the first half of that period, it
was conducted at Ningpo and Amoy as well as at
Canton, but only in a desultory manner ; and, after the
middle of the eighteenth century, the restrictions of the
Manchoo-Chinese government confined it altogether to
Canton (and the Portuguese settlement of Macao),
where it was placed exclusively under the control of a
close corporation, called the Hong merchants. On the
side of the English, it was in like manner placed as a
monopoly in the hands of one body, the East India
Company. ‘Troubles arose from time to time between
these two commercial bodies, originating not unfre-
quently in the exactions of the mandarins on the foreign
trade, committed through the former ; and at the instance
of the latter, the British Imperial Government sent two
embassies to Peking, to advocate their interests ;—the
one in 1792, under Lord Macartney, the other 1816,
under Lord Amherst. But up to the period of the |
arrival, and after the departure of these Ambassadors,
who were called tribute bearers by the Chinese autho-

rities, the latter would hold no direct intercourse with
b
vi PREFACE.

the barbarian merchants; and the two close trading
companies continued to serve as international buffers.

When, however, one of these was removed, by the
abolition of the East India Company’s privileges in
1834, and British Imperial officers were appointed to
support our interests, a collision between Governments,
which were influenced by totally different views, became
inevitable. After some lesser hostile acts on both sides,
war was formally commenced in 1840, the immediate
cause being the attempt of the Chinese Government to
suppress, by coercion, at once opium smoking and the
opium trade.

The misapplication of a word, viz. #, Barbarian, was
a deeper cause, which would in time have led to hosti-
lities, even if nothing more capable of abuse than cotton
cloths and teas had been an article of commerce between
the two countries. In the course of their history, the
Chinese had never met with a people that was at all to
be compared to themselves in point of civilization ; all
but themselves were barbarians, and accordingly met
with a policy (pp. 234, 279) founded on a long experience
and a just appreciation of their more or less barbarous
characteristics. ‘The maritime strangers from the Occi-
dent who first appeared on the sea board of China had,
as adventurous and turbulent seamen, many of the out-
ward qualities of the continental peoples hitherto known.
It never occurred to the Chinese that these men might
be among the least cultivated members of a large
orderly community; and they did not even inquire
whether the resemblances in the specimens before them
were anything but superficial. They called them barba-
rians, ascribed to them ad/ the qualities of barbarians,
PREFACE. vii

and, very naturally, observed towards them that policy
which experience had proved to be most advantageous
in dealing with barbarians. As a part of this policy,
the Chinese Imperial officers would not communicate
directly with the “barbarian headmen,” nor speak of
them except in the style of superiors speaking of in-
feriors. On the other hand, the British Imperial officers
could not communicate otherwise than directly with the
“semi-barbarous”” mandarins, nor as less than their
equals. The mental agencies were denied all oppor-
tunity of efficient action, and the physical came un-
avoidably into play.

After two years of active hostilities, a treaty of peace
was signed on the 29th of August, 1842, by which the
island of Hong-kong was ceded to Great Britain, and
the ports of Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghae
were opened to foreign trade; making together with
Canton what have since been known as the Five Ports.

In November 1841, about a year before the treaty
was signed, I commenced the study of the Chinese
language at the University of Munich. I had then been
about three years in Germany, engaged in various
studies. Happening to notice the announcement of
a course of lectures on the language of the Chinese by
Professor Neumann, the interest I had always taken in
the people, induced me to employ an otherwise vacant
hour in learning something of their tongue. But I pre-
sently began to devote my whole time to it, with the
intention of seeking a place under our Government in
China ;—which country I reached, not in time to see
anything of the war, already brought to a close by the
abovenamed treaty, but in time to see the ratified copies

b 2
il EFACE.
Vill PREFAC e

of the latter exchanged at Hong-kong, and then to take
the post of Interpreter in the Canton Consulate from
the day that trade was opened there under the new
system. My Chinese experience commenced, therefore,
with the inauguration of a new era in Anglo-Chinese
intercourse.

By the Treaty, trade was thrown open to every one,
English or Chinese, who choose to engage in it, on’ pay-
ment of fixed duties; and Englishmen, merchants or
others, had the right to hire or build houses, and live
with their families at any of the Five Ports without
restriction. British subjects residing at these Ports
were not amenable, as in other countries, to the laws of
the land, but to those of England, modified in minor
matters to suit the peculiar circumstances. It was to
watch over the dne observance of this Treaty, and to
form Courts of first instance in matters criminal and
civil, that Consulates were established at the Ports.
They consisted each of five permanent members of the
British Consular Service, viz. a Consul, a Vice-Consul,
an Interpreter and two Assistants, besides a greater or
less number of Chinese clerks, messengers, &c. The
chief occupation of the Interpreter is to conduct the
communications, written and oral, between the Consul
and the Chinese authorities ;—communications relating
to a vast variety of subjects, especially at the two prin-
cipal ports of Canton and Shanghae, which were my
stations in China for ten years and a half. Besides
a steady flow of cases of theft, and bad debts, and
breaches of contract and disputes about the payment of
duties, we had river-piracies committed by the Chinese
on the English, and homicides, justifiable and unjusti-
PREFACE. ix

fiable, on both sides. The factories at Canton form
a close block of buildings facing the river and sur-
rounded by high walls; and there the two or three
hundred foreign residents—chiefly English, Americans
and Parsees—had several times to stand a sort of siege
from infuriated mobs who tried to fire the factories, and
whom we had to repel by force of arms. During and
after these affairs, the Interpreter had of course a busy
time of it. But it was when taken or sent away by
H. M.’s Plenipotentiary on special missions, that I had
my most interesting experiences. Some of these are de-
scribed in the following pages; and the scattered notices
which the reader will there find of my avocations, will,
together with what has just been said, give him a very
sufficient idea of the opportunities which T have had to
gain a knowledge of the subjects which I discuss.

Among other things, he will observe that I was sent
to the Loochoo islands by Sir G. Bonham. About a
year afterwards, the Japanese expedition of the Americans
under Commodore Perry visited the same place. An
educated Chinese, who accompanied the expedition,
wrote a description of the little State, a translation of
which appeared (4th March, 1854) in the “ North China
Herald.” In describing the Loochoo officials, the writer
says of one of them :—

“ Yung kung is well practised in the literary art, has
good abilities, and speaks the mandarin of Peking.
This accomplishment he acquired from having accom-
panied an embassy in 1835, when he remained six
years in the Capital. He has in consequence a perfect
knowledge of my country’s manners and institutions,
and is unquestionably without a rival in all Loochoo.
x PREFACE.

Last year when T. T. Meadows, Esq., was here, he was
interpreter, and admired that gentleman’s command of
the Peking dialect. He often invited me to take wine
with him and write verses with a certain rhyme. Then
when poetizing was over, he praised my productions
highly. When he came to see me, as he frequently did,
our conversation was upon poetry or the news of the
day. Sometimes we, talked of the institutions of the
country.”

No compliment on the subject of the Chinese lan-
guage has afforded me so much gratification as the
perfectly spontaneous praise, which was given in the
above conversation between these two curious Asiatics,
over their “wine and verses” out in that little island
principality of the Pacific. The Loochooan Yung kung I
remember, but his Chinese interlocutor is quite unknown
to me, and I do not know who translated his narrative
for the Shanghae Journal; in which it did not appear
till some months after I had left for England. Under
the circumstances, I may hope to be pardoned for
quoting a certificate so impartial.

A year or two before leaving China, I had planned
three books. The first was to have been a description
of the Chinese people, rigorously based on the principle
of proceeding from the general to the special. It was
to have commenced with an exposition of the funda-
mental beliefs of the Chinese, and then to have given
a view of their legislation, their administration and their
social customs, as based on these fundamental beliefs.
This would have been accompanied by the correspond-
ing historical sketches, viz. a sketch of the history of
philosophy and of political history; together with a
PREFACE. x1

notice of political geography, and of the physical features
of the country in so far as they have influeuced the na-
tional mind. Some portions of what would have consti-
tuted this proposed work have been embodied, in a less
systematic manner, in the present volume. And it is
still my intention to execute, at some future day, the
work as originally planned ; for, though all the subjects
have been handled in already existing works, the method
of representation would, I conceive, throw much new
light on the whole.

The second work was to have been a narrative of all
that I thought amusing or interesting in my own move-
ments and experiences from the time I left England
in 1842 till my return in 1854, together with a view of
the present Chinese rebellion. This latter portion has
been completely executed in the present volume ; while
some of the experiences and movements have found
their way naturally into Chapters XV. XVI. and XVIL.,
as also into some portions of the Essay on Civilization.

The third book was to have been on the Union of
the British Empire and the Improvement of the British
Executive. It would have consisted of a detailed plan
for the effectuation of these two objects,—chiefly (though
not altogether) by one and the same means, viz. a
system of Public Service Competitive Examinations.
The present volume dwells frequently on the effect that
such Examinations have had on the Chinese people ; and
I shall close this Preface with an enumeration of some
of the leading features of the plan for the British Empire.
At some future time, I shall go into the whole subject,
unless forestalled by some one in the enjoyment of better
health and more leisure.
xi PREFACE.

It is ill-health that has prevented the preparation of
the above three works, and which has caused even the
present to be less systematic than I should otherwise
have made it. Chapter V. was written upwards of a
year ago, and was originally intended to form, with
some other matter, an article in a quarterly review.
When I gave up that idea and wrote Chapters I. II.
and III., I had no intention that the volume should
extend to a third of the size which it has finally reached.
Hence I therein shortly noticed some points that are
dwelt on at length in later Chapters. The Essay on
Civilization was originally intended for separate publi-
cation. That Essay and the first fifteen Chapters were in
the hands of the printer six months ago ; the remaining five
long Chapters, comprising nearly the half of the volume,
having been since written as my strength permitted.

But though ill-health has greatly retarded my labours
by making them exceedingly uphill work at times, and
partially prevented a systematic arrangement, the same
leading ideas and principles pervade and give unity to
the book. Further, the reader may rest assured that the
after extensions which took place were made solely to
give greater completeness to the view of the whole sub-
ject. For instance, I regard Chapter XVIII. on the
Philosophy &c. &c: as the most valuable portion of the
work ; while as to arrangement, if the reader will peruse
the Essay on Civilization first, then that Chapter, and
afterwards the other Chapters in the order in which
they staud, beginning with the first,—he will find that
he is led along a nearly straight path from general and
remote principles to special and recent occurrences. I
strongly recommend this course to those who may have
PREFACE. xiii

reasons for wishing to get all the information that the
volume affords, and who may resolve to go through it
for that purpose.

From the sketch of the first work that it was my
intention to have prepared, it will be observed, that
it formed no part of my plan to deal with inanimate
nature in China, or even with the state of material
civilization there except in the most general way. Up
to the period when I commenced the study of the
Chinese language, I had devoted most of my time to
mathematics and the physical sciences. And so loth
was I to give up one of the most attractive of the latter,
Chemistry—in which I had advanced so far as to make
(qualitative) analyses—that I had a chest of Reagents
constructed at Munich with the intention of taking it
out to China. But before starting from London I
began to perceive that it was only to animate nature,
and to one, though by far the most important section
of that, viz. to man, that I should thenceforth have to
devote my whole attention. Accordingly I left my
Reagents behind, and have never since allowed myself
to be attracted by the scientific study of inanimate
nature in any of its features. Subdivision of labour
requires (and this may be considered a portion of what
I have to say on the improvement of the Executive)
that international agents should devote themselves first
to languages,—their means of operation,—and next to
the study of man, as an individual and in communities ;
from the general principles of psychology, through
ethnology and morality, to the details of practical
legislation and of family customs. ‘That is assuredly a
sufficiently wide field—one which few will ever venture
X1V PREFACE.

to hold themselves fully acquainted with. For a
Diplomatic or Consular officer to occupy his time with
botany or geology or practical chemistry or meteorology,
is a complete misdirection of his energies. For instance,
it in nowise affects the discharge of his duties, whether
a Consul in China regards the stout bamboo pole of
the goods’ porter as a bit of wood or, what it botanically
is, a bit of thick grass ; but it may very much affect the
right discharge of those duties in Anglo-Chinese dis-
putes, if he is ignorant of the requirements of the doctrine
of filial piety, which would justify the same porters in
insisting on absenting themselves from the business of
the British merchant, their employer, for the time
necessary to sacrifice at their forefathers’ graves. All
military officers may usefully apply themselves to the
physical sciences, and those of the Engineers and Com-
missariat must severally study certain of them. But
apart from these members of the Executive, it must be
left to professional students to make discoveries as to
the state of inanimate nature in foreign countries; to
such men for instance as Mr. Fortune,—who has thrown
light on the botany of China.

There is, unfortunately, in British official life still so
much ignorance of, and consequent inattention to funda-
mental beliefs and general principles, that, in presenting
a work which professes to deal with such beliefs and
principles, I feel compelled in self-defence to advert
particularly to the circumstance. Men of cultivated
minds know very well that “les institutions et la con-
dition d’un peuple sont toujours l’application de la
morale qui y est dominante ;” and that consequently, in
every really sound political procedure, the dominant
PREFACE. xV

morality should constantly be kept in view. To the
merely closet speculator, however sound his speculations
may be, the British public is slow to give attention.
This being a well known fact, I may hope to be excused
for reminding the reader that the present writer is no
merely closet thinker. The enumeration given above of
the various kinds of business I have had to deal with as
Interpreter, as also the events narrated in the following
pages will show him that my life, for eleven years, has
been eminently practical. I have constantly been
brought into contact with, and had opportunities of
observing, people—officials and others—just when they
were engaged in affairs likely to affect their fame, or
their pecuniary resources, or, not unfrequently, their very
lives. Now a result of this really positive, this factual,
experience has been to convince me that, so far as British
official procedure is concerned, a large proportion of our
errors arises from our neglecting to connect our practice
with corresponding theoretical principles; the mere
attempt to do which would often expose the unsoundness
of measures, before we were irrevocably embarked in their
execution. There are numbers of men—and those, men
who have great interests to watch over, to advance and
to defend—who do not even know what a general prin-
ciple is. Such men take refuge in what ¢hey call
practical views, though they are, of all people, the most
unpractical; especially when placed in totally novel
circumstances,—when precedents fail them and they are
called upon to think as well as to remember. So extreme
is their ignorance, that with them, “ visionary specula-
tion,” “theory,” and “mental philosophy ” are “all the
same thing.” In opposition to that, they set up their
XV1 PREFACE.
e

“ eommon sense.” But common sense is a term, which
if not originated by the mental philosophy of Reid
certainly owes its now very extensive use to his meta-
physical discussions. It means the convictions, opinions
or feelings—the sense—of human beings generally or in
common. But this philosophical use has become per-
verted into a nearly opposite signification, viz. the crude
and vague notions, on any subject, of each single person.
When the self-styled “practical” man says: “Let's
have no theorizing about the matter; Z take a common
sense view of it;” he does not mean common sense at
all, but only his own individual nonsense.

The remarks made above with reference to abstinence
from the physical sciences on the part of international
officials, have of course no application to works, original
in some portions, but in others avowedly compilations,
because intended to give, in the compass of one book,
a view of the state of a country generally. The best
work of the kind with reference to China is decidedly
“The Chinese,” by Sir John Davis. I may state, in
support of my own views (given at pages 400—404) that
though he, in the outset of his chapter on “ Government
and Legislation,” adverts to “parental authority” as
“the model of political rule in China,” and quotes a
passage from the senior English lay sinologue, which
points to the doctrine of submission to that authority as
the cause of the long duration of the Chinese, still Sir
John Davis, by other quotations and by his own
language, in subsequent portions of the same chapter,
obviously indicates the principle of rule by moral force,
coupled with the institution of public examinations, as
the real causes of that long duration.
PREFACE. XVil

To those who can read German, I strongly recommend
a work whose title prevents it from obtaining that
attention which its real value deserves. ‘This is “ Die
Volker der Mandschurey,” by J. H. Plath, 1831. It
was not until I began the study of the Manchoo language
that I got this book from Europe; when I found it, to
my surprise, to be a very informing work about the
Chinese ;—though informing less from massing of
details than from the philosophic spirit in which the
writer deals with his subject. It might be called the
History of the Chinese Empire under the domination of
the Manchoos. It has the merit of being written in
a clear untechnical German. A rendering into English
with an historical continuation, would be a decided boon
to English and Americans interested in Eastern Asia.

Next to the work of Sir John Davis, in point of
general usefulness, stands the Middle Kingdom (7. e. the
Chinese Empire) by Mr. (now Dr.) Williams, 1848.
This, being compiled some ten years after the former
work, is fuller as to recent history ; and, with the help
of translations made in that period, gives more details
on the geography of China Proper, and also some good
notices of the other great divisions of the Chinese
Empire. .

These three works,—the first by a British officer who
had served both the Company and the Queen, the
second by a philosophic Géttingen Professor, and the third
by an American Missionary, twelve years a resident in
China,—are comprised in six volumes, which, together
with that now laid before the public, form a very com-
plete library about the Chinese Empire and the Chinese

people.
XVili PREFACE.
e

In an historical point of view, the present volume may
be regarded as a supplement to the above works, detail-
ing as it does the chief political occurrences of the last
six eventful years; while Chapter XVIII. professes to
give an entirely new view of the national fundamental
beliefs, and more particularly of the language in which
these are enunciated in the Sacred Books.

My maps specially indicate that physical feature
which gives a peculiar character to the South-Eastern
portion of China Proper and its inhabitants. Apart
from that, they are intended exclusively as illustrations
of historical, and of political or administerial geography.
The smallest shows roughly the five great divisions of
the Chinese Empire, with the object of more effectually
limiting attention to the chief one, China Proper. The
purpose of the largest is sufficiently explained by its title
and observations. Of district cities, I have only entered
in it such as have been occupied by the Tae pings, together
with a few on the coast which have been visited by myself.
The sketch of Kwang tung is an enlargement and im-
provement of one which I drew for a former work. The
reader must conceive all the other seventeen provinces of
the large map as divided in a similar manner into Circuits,
Departments and Districts, and as each containing, on the
average, a proportionate number of District Cities.

With regard to the yellow shading on the large map,
which indicates the country commanded by the Tae pings,
I have now to state, by way of supplement to Chapter
XIV., that the last mail brought intelligence of the
re-occupation of Loo chow by the Imperialists. On the
other hand, it would seem that the Tae pings had pene-
trated up the Great River into Sze chuen, and also
PREFACE. X1X

extended the range of their operations further to the
south in Hoo nan and Keang se. We learn nothing
more of the reported movement of the Eastern Prince
with a large army on Hwuy chow.

The chief source of information respecting the origin
of the Tae ping sect and their first resort to arms against
the Imperial authorities is a little book compiled by the
late Mr. Hamberg, a Protestant missionary at Hong-
kong; who got the details from Hung jin, a relative
(pp. 191, 192) of the founder of the sect, the now
Heavenly Prince at Nanking. The extracts.in Chapters
VI. VII. and VIII. are from this book, of which there
exists a cheap London republication under the title of
“The Chinese Rebel Chief.” A number of extrinsic
corroborative circumstances, as well as certain of its in-
trinsic features, convince me of the perfect truthfulness
of this narrative. The manifest errors of Hung jin and
certain delusions he labours under are precisely those
which a Chinese, such as himself, was likely to be subject
to, while desiring to give the most faithful account.

With reference to one number in this volume, that. of
eighty thousand on page 64, it has been taken from
a work by Dr. Ryan on the subject. The dates and
numbers with respect to dealings between Chinese and
Occidentals, I have myself taken from the accounts of
these latter. All the purely Chinese dates and numbers,
whether referring to the present rebellion or to the pre-
vious history of the Chinese, I have taken directly from
the best Chinese authorities. This has formed one of the
greatest labowrs connected with the preparation of the
volume. For instance, the general nature of the occurrences
narrated on the three pages, 108, 109, and 110, had long
xx PREFACE.

been familiar to me in China; but in order to ensure
accuracy in the few dates and numbers there given,
I read, here in London, some three volumes of a work
entitled “ Shing woo ke, Record of the Holy Wars,” and
which is a history of the various wars by which the Man-
choos fought their way to power in Eastern Asia. There
is, in the present volume, not a single statement as to facts
connected with Chinese political history or Chinese phi-
losophy that I have not verified on various original works
of acknowledged authority ; of which I brought upwards
of 800 volumes home with me for that purpose.

I take this opportunity of publishing the fact, that
after having been at the trouble of selecting and packing
all these books, and at the expense of bringing them
home overland, I had to pay a considerable sum im the
shape of duties and the cost of clearing them at our
London Customhouse. In a book that treats of civiliza-
tion, I feel bound to denounce this infliction of a fine on
endeavours to advance knowledge, as a piece of sheer
barbarism or savagery. In China, not only is the press
free, but books are, at every Customhouse throughout
the country, maritime or internal, exempt from all duty.
I believe the most extortionate mandarin would be
shocked at the notion of levying a tax on the great
means of diffusing instruction.

Returning to what I have stated about the trouble
taken by me to secure accuracy, I think more attention —
should be directed to the fact, that writers who publish .
on foreign nations, without taking such trouble, are
deserving not merely of close criticism, which all must
expect, but of severe reprehension. Great social and
international mischiefs are the ultimate consequences of
PREFACE, xxi

the loose statements thereby put into circulation. Most
reprehensible of all is that style of sweeping assertion
of moral worthlessness, or even of utter vileness, as
the ascertained character of whole nations. The same
assertions, indulged in with respect to individuals or to
families, would subject the offenders to heavy damages
for libel. False praise cannot in the end be useful to
human progress, but it is at least an amiable error.
False vilification, on the other hand, directly engenders
mutual contempt and loathing: both without real
grounds, yet both certainly leading to overt insults, to
fights and to wars. The reader will perceive that I have
given myself some trouble to refute those who have
written on the Chinese in this spirit of wanton depre-
ciation. With other writers whose positions I have dis-
puted, as Drs. Medhurst and Williams, my differences
are only questions of correctness as to philosophical
literature ; a subject of great importance certainly, but
where errors may, after much care, be made on either
side; and where they do not, moreover, at once lead to
those mischiefs of which flippant abuse is the direct
cause. I trust these words will show the true bearing
of my criticisms ;—and, in every case, no future writer
on China must conceive himself personally attacked if
his labours are criticized by me.

In the Essay on Civilization, I have explained how it
was that. the examination of that subject forced itself
upon me. In other respects also, the Essay speaks for
itself; and as the subject is one which thousands of
home residents are as well enabled by opportunities to
judge of as myself, I leave it, without further comment,
to public consideration.
XXil PREFACE.

At pages 606, 607 and 608, I have shown that nine years ago,
I published a volume entitled “Desultory Notes on China,” one
of the main objects of which was to urge the institution of Public
Service Competitive Examinations for all British subjects, with a
view to the IuprovementT oF THE British EXECUTIVE AND THE
Union oF THE British EMPIRE.

About the time when I published that volume, I actually em-
ployed Competitive Examinations for the British Service. Having
discovered three of our permanent Chinese clerks—men whose
salaries appear in the Downing Street accounts—engaged in tak-
ing illicit fees from a Chinese suitor, I turned them off; and, with
the sanction of the then Consul, Mr. Macgregor, had a printed
official notice posted throughout Canton, (a city containing from
seven hundred thousand to a million of inhabitants;) whereby
educated men, acquainted with native publicebusiness, were invited
to appear as competitors for the vacant posts. The salaries were
two hundred and forty dollars a year, a sum which, taking into
consideration the difference in the style of living, may be about
equivalent to £200 a year in England. That was not much; but
the number of educated men whom the National Examinations
call into existence is so great that, in spite of the stigma which
rested then, still more than it now does, on Chinese serving in the
barbarian factories, some did make their appearance among the
forty or fifty competitors who came forward within the few days
to which I limited my Examinations. I saw each candidate
separately, and commenced his examination by placing before him
an Imperial preface to one of the Sacred Books ; which I desired
him to explain to me sentence by sentence and, in portions, word
for word. As these prefaces touch historically and descriptively
on the contents of the works to which they are prefixed, a man,
ignorant of literature and literary history, could not go through”
two pages of them without grossly exposing himself; and I was,
by this test alone, enabled to divide the competitors rapidly into
three classes, viz.:—first, well educated and well read men, whose
acquaintance with the literature in all respects vastly exceeded my
own; secondly, men not equal to myself in some points, though
superior in others ; and lastly, a number of more or less illiterate
fellows, who came in the hope of imposing by high pretensions on the
PREFACE, Xxill

presumed utter ignorance of the barbarian. It was an amusement
to the Chinese about the establishment, to watch the crest-fallen
air with which these men came out of my office,—some of them in
high perspiration from their wild plunging about in an Imperial
preface. I took the address of every competitor ; summoned those
of the first class, of whom there were only five or six, to two or
three additional and more extensive examinations; and ultimately
selected three men, who were perfect strangers, not only to myself,
but to every Chinese in the factories, Of course, this totally wn-
precedented procedure on my part raised both ridicule and repro-
bation among a certain class of my countrymen; but I gained my
object. T got better men about me than had ever been employed
in the factories before; and it is worthy of note that that man,
whom, esteeming him intellectually the ablest, I selected for the
most important work, proved on longer acquaintance to be morally
higher than perhaps any other Chinese whose character and conduct
I have had opportunities of closely and frequently observing : he
never smoked opium, was a thorough believer in, and unflinching
defender of the Confucian philosophy and morality, and endea-
voured to square his conduct with his principles. At other periods
I held two similar examinations; but these were to procure men
for private, not officially paid clerkships.

From the particulars detailed, the reader will perceive that, im
the matter of Competitive Examinations, whether my opinions are
sound or not, they are the result of much thought based on some
personal practice, and on the great spectacle of the Chinese National
Examinations going on before my eyes. I had a plan for British
Competitive Examinations written out in 1846 ; and it was only
a special circumstance that prevented its being sent home for
publication with the MSS. of the “Desultory Notes.” Since that,
the subject has often occupied my thoughts ; and, during the last
two years, I have naturally observed theprogress of our Civil Service
and Military Examinations with very great interest. Our young
system, if such the several unconnected examinations can be called,
is far from having reached that stage which was sketched in my
plan of 1846; but on every side I see cheering signs of a gradual
approach to it, Some permanent heads of departments, impelled
either by a wish to promote the general national interests, or by

c2
XXIV PREFACE,

an honourable desire to bring their own special branch of the Service
to the. highest possible efficiency, are deserving the gratitude of

‘future generations by earnest and steady exertions in the matter ;
the most influential portion of the press has distinctly taken it up;
‘and the nation, when it shall have become more enlightened by its
prolonged discussion, will assuredly not fail to insist on the com-
plete establishment of an Institution by which the management of
its executive affairs will be unerringly committed to the best in-
telligence of the country. The thing has merely become a question
of time: so surely as we now have a uniform penny postage,
after various stages of old systems of four-penny, six-penny and
shilling rates,—so surely will we work our way to a uniform
system of strictly impartial and strictly competitive Public Service
Examinations, for every branch of the Executive. This will be
the case with respect to the British Isles; and, in so far as they
are concerned, I might spare myself the labour of writing. But the
Union of the Empire, by the extension of such a system of Ex-
aminations to the colonies, is a measure of vastly greater moment ;
and it is one which, if steps are not taken within the next few
years to effect it, will, I fear, become impossible of execution: the
elements of disunion between the colonies and the mother country
will have quietly gained so much strength that union will have
become impracticable. The following statement of definitions,
principles, and leading regulations is my present contribution to
the discussion of the subject :—

§ 1. By the colonies is meant only those whose climate renders
them capable of maintaining a population of European descent in.
undegeneracy of race ; and more especially the colonies of British
North America, Southern Africa, Australia, Van Dieman’s Land,
and New Zealand. If we can, by mental agencies, succeed in
making these large regions, with their inhabitants present and
future, integral portions of one great British Empire,—considering
themselves as much such as now do Cornwall and Cumberland,
Inverness and Londonderry,—then we shall have little difficulty in
holding British India and such small possessions or military sta-
tions as Hong-kong, the Mauritius, St. Helena and the Bermudas,
against the aggressions of any nation now existing, however
powerful such nation may in time become. I say nothing of our
PREFACE. XXV

West Indian possessions. To attempt to include them at present,
would raise extremely difficult questions connected with difference
of race ; and I doubt if it will ever be deemed advisable to try to
make any tropical region an integral portion of a homogeneous |
British Empire,

§ 2. The persons who conduct the government and transact the
public business of the British Empire (7. e. the whole of its govern-
ment personel) fall into three great bodies, the Legislative, the
Judicial and the Executive, by which latter term is understood
collectively al? members of the government personel not included
in the first two, With the Legislative and Judicial bodies, the
proposed Public Service Examinations have nothing whatsoever to
do. With all the faults that they have had and may still retain,
it is to our Houses of Parliament, our Juries, our Bench and our
Bar that England owes her freedom and her greatness, and the
present writer would be among the most prompt to join in resist-
ing attempts to introduce organic changes into them. The Bar
has begun to improve itself by examinations ; and, indirectly, all
these Institutions would be benefited by the Executive or Public
Service Examinations ; both because of the promotion of education
and enlightenment generally, and because one chief text-book of the
first, or lowest of the Examinations would be a highly paid for
prize essay on the general functions of these Institutions, and on
the modes in which they operate to preserve the freedom, and pro-
mote the greatness of the nation. The effect would be, to attach
all the inhabitants of the Empire as much to them as the en-
lightened portion now is. Magistrates should be included in the
Judicial Body ; the Police Force, on the other hand, in the Execu- ‘
tive Body.

§ 3. The whole Executive Body is capable of several different
classifications. One necessary for our present purpose is the three-
fold division into the Local, the Provincial, and the Imperiat
Executives.

§ 4, The Local Executive is composed of those persons who conduct
and transact the parish, borough and county government and busi-
ness. It should in the first instance not be made compulsory on the
appointing powers, whoever they may be, to appoint only people
who had passed one or more of the Public Service Examinations.
XXVi PREFACE.

Should that hereafter appear to the country to be expedient, it
could, of course, easily be done by an act of the Legislature.

§ 5. The Provincial Executive is composed of those persons who
transact the executive business of each of the separately legislating
provinces of the Empire, viz. the British Isles (or, in some
matters, England, Scotland and Ireland separately considered,)
Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward’s Isle, New-
foundland, Cape Colony, (Capeland,) New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, West Australia, Van Dieman’s Land, and New
Zealand. The Provincial Executive is that which has, in each of
these Provinces, to manage its own general affairs as distinguished
from its county and parish affairs, but which has no connection
with the affairs of any other province. The Provincial Executive
of the British Isles, for instance, consists mainly of the Customs
and Inland Revenue Establishments, the Home Office with all the
officials appointed by it, and that large portion of the Postal Esta-
blishment which attends only to the post offices of the British Isles.
The Provincial Executive of the British Isles should in every
case be taken from the graduates of the proposed Examinations; -
and the Provincial Executives of all the other above-named pro-
vinces algo, unless,—what is very unlikely,—their respective Legis-
lative Bodies objected. The Provincial Executive of each Province
should in every case be composed of either children or wards of
people permanently settled in it, and be paid from its own revenues.

-§ 6. The Imperial Executive is composed of those persons who
transact the business not of any one or more provinces, but of the
Empire generally. These are mainly the officers of the Inter-
national Service (4. ¢. the Diplomatic and Consular, see page 592),
and. those of the Navy and Army, together with the officials of
the Central Imperial Offices which rule the preceding, viz. the
Foreign Office, the Admiralty, the Ministry of War and the Horse
Guards. To the Imperial Executive belong also the Treasury, the
Pay Office and Audit Office,—all Offices, in short, which con-
trol the salaries and expenses of the other branches of the Imperial
Executive. Also the Colonial Office, together with the representa-
tives of the Imperial Sovereign, in all the colonies, i.¢ the
Governors and one or two of the higher officials; and all the
officials of those smaller colonies, which, having no independent
PREFACE. XXVi1

Legislatures, have not the rank of Provinces in the sense here
used—where the posts depend altogether on the Colonial Office.

In the following sections, it is the Imperial Executive, as here
defined, that is referred to, except where the other executives are
expressly mentioned.

§ 7. The Imperial Executive consists of two parts, the Political

and the Permanent. The Political, which is and must remain the
‘dominant, is that which changes with every change of Ministry :
the Permanent only changes or loses its members from causes con-
nected with those members as individuals. The highest members
of the Imperial Permanent Executive are the Permanent Under
Secretaries of State in the Foreign and Colonial Offices, and similar
Officers in the other great Imperial Offices.

§ 8. All members of the Imperial Permanent Executive are to
be taken from the highest graduates of the Public Service Exami-
nations ; who will pass the whole series of the Examinations before
they are draughted, by lot, into the lowest vacancies of that branch
for which they have respectively passed. The only exceptions to
this rule will be the naval cadets and junior masters’ assistants ;
for whom there will be a special series of Examinations: it being
necessary that those who are destined for a naval life should begin
it when very young. Naval surgeons and pursers are, before
receiving their first appointments, to go through the full series of
Examinations in the same manner as the other members of the
Executive ; but with the exception of these, it must be understood
that the sea-going Naval Executive is not referred to in what
follows. All those posts, Civiland Military, of British India which
it shall otherwise be deemed proper to reserve for British subjects
of European race, to be in like manner filled by the highest graduates
of the Public Service Examinations, i.e. these latter to constitute, in
so far, the East India Company’s Examinations. It will be seen
hereafter that the constitution of the Examinations is such that it
would be no inconvenience (?. ¢. in nowise interfere with their chief
object) if coloured natives of the Hast and West Indies were
admitted as Competitors, with a view to their fillmg as many posts
in these two territories as might be decided on by the Legislatures.

§ 9, As the members of the Political Executive are also mem-
bers of the Legislative or Judicial Bodies, and as it is a part of the
plan that it should not interfere with these bodies (§ 2), it follows
XXVii PREFACE.
e

their appointment (and that of their private Secretaries) must in
nowise be affected by the Examinations. Any officials who may
have hitherto been changed with the Ministry, but who belong
neither to the Legislative nor the Judicial Body, should cease to
be so changed, and should be subjected to all the rules for the
Permanent Executive.

§ 10. In the mixed British Constitution there are two great
antagonistic elements: the monarchic and the democratic. The
monarchic is the element of stability and union: the democratic
is the element of change and separation. The Sovereign and
the Permanent Executives are the visible representatives of the
monarchic element: the people, the House of Commons, and the
Ministry are the representatives of the democratic element. (The
House of Lords and the Judicial Body side sometimes with the
one element, sometimes with the other.) In the Colonial Provinces
the elected Legislatures and the Provincial Ministries represent the
democratic element. From all this it follows that measures
specially intended to ensure the union of the Empire must be
effected through the Permanent Executive,—the representative of
monarchical stability and unity. To give to prominent mem-
bers of colonial parliaments high posts in the Imperial Permanent
Executive, would be on the one hand a premium on agitation
among colonial seekers of places, and on the other a cause of dis-
gust among the inhabitants of the colonial provinces, who would
believe their provincial interests betrayed : it would produce dis-
affection and separation.

§ 11. The essential feature of the plan for securing the lasting
union of the British Empire is that the members of each larger
branch of the Imperial Permanent Executive are to be selected
from all the thirteen provinces specified in § 5, in proportion to the
number of their inhabitants, and with the help of Competitive
Examinations, Thus, taking the whole population of the British
Isles at 28,000,000, that of Canada at 1,200,000, and that of Nova
Scotia (with Cape Breton) at 200,000 ; then, the proportion being
as 144: 6: 1, the plan requires that, for every 144 vacancies in
the Diplomatic and Consular Services, in the Army, and in the
respective Chief Offices in London, filled by natives of the British
Isles, there shall be six filled with Canadians and one with a Nova
Scotian. And so of the other Colonial Provinces.
PREFACE. XX1X

§ 12. In discussing the Improvement of the Executive, three
matters require to be clearly distinguished, viz. :—

(a) The Method of selection for first appointment to a govern-
ment post, or the Method of Appointment.

(6) The Method of selecting persons for advancement from
among those who have already served some time, or the Method of
Promotion.

(ce) The Method of conducting the business of the various
departments and offices.

§ 13, The proposed Public Service Examinations are intended
to constitute the decisive feature of the Method of Appointment.
So far as anything human can be absolute, they would secure abso-
lute impartiality ; and, at the same time, guard so much against
errors of judgment on the part of the Examiners that it would
really be the ablest of the candidates who would be passed. In
China, when that country is in its normal state, a very great
degree of impartiality is attained ; but we, with all our appliances
of material civilisation, with short-hand Examination reporters to
aid the Examiners, and with our free press to watch over them,
shall be able to elaborate a system of Examinations in the perfect
impartiality and unfailing accuracy of which, every scholar through-
out the Empire would place implicit reliance, and exert himself
accordingly. The following sections give a general idea of their
nature.

§ 14. The Examinations to be of three kinds, viz. District, Pro-
vincial, and Special, and all to be held annually.

§ 15. The District Examinations to be held for counties or
groups of counties, as might best suit the density of population, the
means of locomotion, &e. &c. As the number of persons who
passed, and who would be called District Graduates (D. G.), would
be proportioned to the number of inhabitants, it would, of course,
not affect the impartialityof the system, if, in fixing the boundaries
of the Examination Districts, one embraced more inhabitants than
another. No limit to be set to the numbers who may choose to
attend these District Examinations ; but the candidates to be in
every case either natives of the District or brought up there by
parents or guardians who had permanently settled in it; and all
candidates to have completed their sixteenth and not entered their
XXX PREFACE.

nineteenth year. With respect to moral character, there should be
no positive tests whatever. Certificates will (as every one knows
who has had experience of them) never keep out bad characters ;
while they, on the other hand, from being often dishonestly or
carelessly given, do, to a certain extent, the serious mischief of
whitening black sheep. The best security is to give, to the candi.
dates generally, the right to object to a disreputable character being
examined with them. A number of young men, with a sense of
responsibility upon them, would never be found uniting to persecute
an irreproachable man ; while it is found in China that they will
unitedly object to their examination being sullied by the presence
of improper people. The only valid grounds of objection to be
crimes or disreputable acts committed by the person himself.

The qualifications for passing these District Examinations to be
physical as well as intellectual. In running and in muscular power,
all candidates to pass a suficing (not competitive) examination, the
degrees of power required, to vary with the exact age and height
of each candidate, and to be sufficiently high to test the existence
of sound Jungs and limbs. These degrees should be carefully fixed
for all the Empire, by a commission of surgeons, after very extensive
experiments on young people of seventeen and eighteen years of
age. The examinations in seeing and hearing to be competitive.
The mental qualifications not to be high. The graduates should
be good copyists, should be able to write from dictation, 7.e be
good spellers, quick at arithmetic and perfectly acquainted with
some simple text-books on the history and geography of the world
and of the British Empire in particular,—above all, with a text-
book on British Institutions, Imperial and Provincial, such as is
described in § 2. The number of candidates allowed to pass the
District Examinations annually, would have to be finally regu-
lated by experience. In the first instance, the proportion of
District Graduates to Government vacancies might be fixed at
two hundred to one. The one hundred and ninety-nine who either
did not attend, or failed to pass the next higher examination
would find their diploma of D. G. very useful to them in getting
employment in non-official life. And the men employed to do
what Sir Stafford Northcote and Sir C. Trevelyan have named the
mechanical work of public offices, might be taken from these
PREFACE. XXxX1

District Graduates. So employed, they would constitute the non-
commissioned officers of the civil branches of the Executive.

§ 16. The Provincial Examinations to be held at the Capitals
of the Provinces enumerated in § 5. Only District Graduates of
the same Province, and above sixteen but under twenty-one years
of age, to be received as candidates at each of these examinations;
and the collective body to have the same right of objection as
before to a notoriously bad character. But the Graduates who had
failed to pass at previous Provincial Examinations not to be
excluded. Much higher qualifications to be required at these, than
at the District Examinations : all the qualifications, in short, which
are expected in an able and a well. (though not professionally)
educated young man,—with the exception of the dead languages
which till now have been expected. No foreign language, either
ancient or modern, to be requisite for this Examination ; but the
passing to be made to depend very much on the greatest mastery
of the English language in (prose) composition and in making of
abstracts. All the candidates would, as District Graduates, be
acquainted with the essential features of the British Constitution.
They should now be required to know the philosophy of govern-
ment and legislation ;—-to know, for instance, the peculiar virtues
and vices of the extreme types, extreme autocracy, and extreme
democracy; and the general principles which should guide legis-
lators in penal and civil legislation. In order to know this, an
acquaintance would be necessary with the body of generally
accepted doctrines of psychology and morality. They should also
know generally the nature of the positive criminal and civil laws
of the British Empire ; and something of the rules of giving and
weighing evidence. Lastly, they should know the general prin-
ciples of political economy. The extent to which they should be
acquainted with each of these several subjects cannot be accurately
defined without some experience. But in every case the examina-
tions should be limited to special text-books for each subject,—the

- results of prizes offered for essays where no good treatise existed,—
and then, as those who knew most would rank highest, there would
be no difficulty about starting the system. The object of this
description of knowledge is to produce homogeneity of fundamental
beliefs on man’s duties towards, and dealings with man, throughout
XXXil PREFACE.
e

every portion of the wide-spread British Empire ; to make all ker
people intelligently attached to her Institutions ; and to fit them all
—non-officials as well as officials—to aid better in the working of
those Institutions, whether in the witness-box or on the jury, as elec-
tors or as members of parliament. The candidates at the Provincial
Examinations should also be acquainted with political and physical
geography, more especially the former ; with the general history of
all nations; more in detail with the history of the British Empire ;
and, as an intellectual exercise, with the first five books of Euclid.
At the outset, the annual number of Provincial Graduates might be
fixed at twenty times the number of Government vacancies. Only
the experience of some years, as to the results and effects of the
Examinations for society and for the public service, can tell us the
proportion which should be finally fixed on.

§ 17. The Special Examinations to be held in London. Only
Provincial Graduates above eighteen and under twenty-three years
of age to be admitted. The same right of objection to be allowed
the collective body. Previous failures to pass not to form a cause
of exclusion. On the first occasion of each Provincial Graduate
attending the Special Examinations, his expenses (from his Province
to the Imperial Capital, while staying at the latter place during the
Examinations, and back to his province again,) to be paid out of.
the public revenue of that province. In the case of colonies being,
for the first few years, too poor to do this (as possibly New Zealand),
they should receive the necessary aid from the public revenues of
the British Isles: the free passage, &c., being absolutely necessary
to the working of the whole system. The Special Examinations
would, as their name indicates, test the qualifications for each
special division and (larger) subdivison of the Imperial Permanent
Executive, as also of the Provincial Permanent Executive of the
British Isles and of those other Provinces whose Legislatures may
choose to make these Examinations the basis of appointment. The
International Service falls naturally into four great subdivisions,
among which there would be no interchanges of officers, as each -
requires special kinds of knowledge. The subdivisions are based
partly on religion, partly on language.

The first would include the Diplomatic and Consular Service in
Teutonic or Scandinavian and Protestant ®tates, as the United
PREFACE. XXXIil

States, Germany, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden. In this class
the International Service in Russia might be placed.

The second would include the Service in Romanic and Romanist
States, as France, Belgium, Spain, (Manilla and Cuba,) Portugal, the
various States of South America, and the Italian States.

The third would include the Service in all the Mohammedan
States of Northern Africa, also in Arabia, Persia, Syria and Euro-
pean Turkey ; and in it the members of the Service in Greece
might be placed.

The fourth would include the Service in the States of Eastern
Asia in which Confucianism is the chief social and political basis,
viz. the Chinese Empire, Japan, Siam, Cochin China and Corea.

All International Officers should be able to read French and
German ; but while those of the first subdivision should speak
French fluently as the diplomatic language, they should be masters
of German in its most familiar, its scientific, and its ethical as well
as its more diplomatic styles and phraseology, and they should also
know Swedish and Russian. If these Competitive Examinations
were in operation for a few years, many more young men of twenty-
two than could be employed, would be found in full possession of
that amount of philological knowledge, and at the same time quite
at home in international law and in the religious and moral state
(the fundamental beliefs), the history, geography, &., of the
countries for which their subdivision of the Service was intended.

A reading knowledge of the German would be sufficient for the
second class, who should on the other hand be thorough masters of
French, and proficients in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

What languages the officers of the third and fourth subdivisions
should be specially proficient in, is obvious.

It is a very important rule, that in fixing on the kind of qualifi-
cations in which a particular subdivision of the Permanent Execu-
tive should compete, we should keep in mind what will be directly
useful to its members in business, not what it has been customary
hitherto for “well educated men” to learn. View the subject as I
may, I am forced to conclude that study of Greek and Latin, by
any subdivision, would be time wasted. (See page 564.) For
every subdivision, there are kinds of knowledge which, while tending
equally with Greek and Latin to mental cultivation, have the great
XXXIV PREFACE.

additional merit of being practically useful ; while, on the other
hand, every subdivision, if compelled to devote years to the acquire-
ment of a competing knowledge of these dead languages, would
have to abstain from learning something which is indispensable to
efficient International Agents.

Again, with reference to the above rule, it is clear that while
diplomatists should confine their attention to a few languages, in
order to attain a thorough mastery of them both as to reading and
speaking, pursers of the navy should, on the other hand, endeavour
to attain a limited mercantile knowledge of the greatest possible
number of languages. The same holds, though in a lesser degree,
of a certain amount of knowledge of as many languages as possible
on the part of naval and military officers generally ; provided such
knowledge is in addition to the essential professional qualifications
expected in them. But in the competitions for the staff subdi-
visions of the army, a great proficiency in French and German at
least, should be made to tell considerably in the passing, as these
officers have at times to carry on military negotiations.

All candidates for the mounted departments of the army should
pass a sufficing examination in horsemanship, i.e. have to ride over
a fixed tract of country more or less rough,—say over a staked
course on Aldershott. And all candidates should pass a sufficing
examination, proportioned to their ages and size, in running, and
lifting and throwing weights,—as at the District Examinations. It
has quite astonished me to read the amount of nonsense that has
been uttered about “pale faced students,” in the discussions on
Examinations. Physical qualities are more easily tested than the
intellectual. And as every really good measure brings with it
collateral benefits, so the plan now proposed would have the
effect of inducing great numbers of young men (and their parents)
to pay much more attention to their health than they otherwise
would. I know that the Military Examinations in China have
that effect, though they are otherwise of little value, because not
requiring intellectual military acquirements.

§ 18. In the original arranging and subsequent improving of the
detailed methods of examination, it should be steadily kept in view
that the first object is to guard against faults of feeling and of
head on the part of the Examiners—against emotional partiality
PREFACE. XXXV

and intellectual error. Each naturally distinct qualification should
form the subject of a separate examination ; even French speaking
and interpreting, for instance, being competed in apart from French
translating. There should always be at least five Examiners, in order
to have a sufficient security against indolence or against idiosyncratic
eccentricity. The written examinations in each subject should be
finished before the oral commence. The signatures on each student’s
paper should be completely hidden by some covering sealed over
it, and have a number attached to it. All should then be passed
into a room of copyists ; five copies made of each with its number;
the originals laid by ; and the copies only handed in to the Examiners.
The Examination Buildings should contain five separate suits of
apartments, each composed of the number of rooms, &c. necessary
for the comfortable accommodation of an Examiner, and wherein
the Examiners should be shut up, without possibility of communi-
cation with each other or with the public, till each had fixed the
orders of the papers according to the degree of their excellence.
The following will give an idea of the circumstances under
which all papers should be prepared. We will suppose the Exami-
nation to be in translating from French into English and from
English into French. As this would be one of those attended by
the greatest number of candidates, the latter could be divided into
two or three sets by lot. As many as the Examination Hall could
accommodate should be let into it at one time, and each candidate
take possession of one of the boxes into which the whole of its floor
should be divided. These boxes should have sides so high as to
prevent the candidates communicating with each other, yet leave
the motions of each open to observation from a gallery running
round the Hall. Each candidate would bring his own ink and pens,
but would find blank paper on the desk in his box. Each would there
also find, in a closed envelope, the two papers which were to be trans-
lated. These would be selected by lot in the morning in the
Examiners’ common room from various books, and would each con-
sist of a page or two on different subjects. As soon as selected,
as many copies would be printed in the Examiner’s room as there
were candidates, and then closed in the envelopes,—the printers
not being allowed to leave till the last set of candidates had finished
their translations. Each candidate on entering his box would hold
up the envelope above his head till all were placed, when, on a bell
XXXVI PREFACE.

being struck, each would open his envelope and set to work, the
time of commencement being publicly announced and noted. As
each candidate finished his translations, he would sign them, seal
the cover over his name and then proceed from his box to, and put
them through, a hole in the wall, of which there should be one at
the end of all the aisles between the boxes. At each of these
holes, on the other side of the wall, would be officials who under
public eye would write the hour and minute on each paper. At
the end of an amply sufficient time, all the papers, whether finished
or unfinished, should be put through the holes ; and the whole
number taken to the copyist’s hall. The second set of candidates
would be admitted as soon as the Hall was prepared as for the
first ; and, as two hours would be quite enough to allow for each
set, in one day the whole of the candidates’ work in this French
examination would be done. That of the Examiners would com-
mence so soon as the first copies were handed into them, and might
continue for two or three days. But practice in the work would
enable them to get through it with great rapidity. The proper
translations of each task would be agreed upon by the Examiners
before each repaired to his own apartments, and the business of
each would only be to settle which papers differed least from it.
As, in practice, it is, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, of far
greater importance that a translation should be done accurately
than rapidly, the time would only be considered where the papers
were, in point of accuracy, alike. And if, after judgment had been
passed on the copies, it was found by inspection of the originals
that rapidity had been attained by bad writing, then a more than
full proportion of time should be added,—bad writing being, in
practical affairs, very objectionable.

The examination in speaking and interpreting would require
much more of the Examiners’ time. They would each be seated
in a box open in front. On one side of a table, on a lower level
before them, would be a Frenchman, on the other side an English-
man. Between these two, and facing the Examiners, each candi-
date would seat himself and interpret a fixed set of questions and
answers between them. The two interlocutors would speak at fixed
intervals, irrespective of the candidate’s interpretations. Every
word uttered by him would be taken down by the Examination
short-hand writers ; and the Examiners would each make notes on
PREFACE. XXXViL

@ paper with that candidate’s number on it. Either before or after
-the interpreting, the candidate would have to read, in a loud voice,
a passage from a French book ;—the Reporters and Examiners
taking notes as before. On the printed Reports and on his own
notes, each Examiner would subsequently make out his list of
candidates. This oral Examination might last ten or twenty days,
according to the number of the candidates, It would, therefore,
be necessary to have a new conversation, and a new passage to
read, for every day, (care being, of course, taken that they should
be alike in point of difficulty,) as it would be impossible to keep
one conversation and passage secret beyond a single day from the
candidates who were to be examined. After each sitting, the Exa-
miners should be conducted to their own apartments, and should
hold no communications with each other or the public till after
making out their lists. Altogether the written and oral Examina-
tions would occupy the five Examiners in French for several
weeks. In China the Examiners are always occupied for some
such period. But the candidates would each only be occupied
for two days; before and after which they would be severally
undergoing the other Examinations, appointed for that subdivision
of the Executive which they competed for.

I have given the above details because many who would not
otherwise object to the proposed system of Examinations give up
the idea of instituting them because they cannot conceive how it
could be possible in practice to conduct examinations in so many
different qualifications of so many candidates. It is, however, evi-
dent from the above that, after two or three years’ experience and
modification of details, the work would be done rapidly and with
great order as well as with impartiality and accuracy. As every-
thing would be printed after each Examination, the Examiners
and the public together would soon discover what was, with refer-
ence to each qualification, the smallest quantity of work that
would afford sufficient scope for distinguishing between the degrees
of proficiency in each candidate, as also how to get, in the most
speedy way, at the essentials of each particular branch of know-
ledge. It may appear to some readers that I have projected an
unnecessary amount of precautions to secure impartiality on the
part of the Examiners. But it must be remembered that entrance

d
XXXVIli PREFACE.

to the Public Offices at home, to the Diplomatic and Consular
Services, and to the Army, being only possible through these Exa-
minations, every conceivable agency of corruption will be brought
to bear on the Examiners, and that, to all the right-minded among
them, it would be a relief to be put beyond every suspicion. Be-
sides, we have to guard against what might be called incorrupt,
because unconscious impartialities and the suspicion of them,
When a small proportion only of Scotch passed at one of our recent
examinations (one of the first I believe), it was immediately
pointed out that there were no Scots among the Examiners,

§ 19. As I understand the present method of passing candidates
by means of marks, it appears to me to involve a risk of con-
siderable inaccuracy. It requires the Examiners to refer to an
imaginary standard. Speaking of the Indian Civil Service
Examinations, we find, for instance, “Composition” put down at
500, and we hear that none of the candidates attained this highest
number. The number 500 represents, therefore, some imaginary
degree of excellence, the conception of which must manifestly vary
considerably in the minds of the different Examiners, and even in
the mind of each Examiner at different times. If they affix their
marks separately, there is certain to be a wide range in those
attached to one paper. My plan requires no comparison of a real
thing with an imaginary one, but of one (candidate’s) paper with
another. Given five papers of really different degrees of excel-
lence, it is easy, by comparing and recomparing them with each
other, to number them 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5; and there will be little,
if any difference in the order adopted by separately-judging
Examiners. In all this matter, we should never forget what is
the practical object. The practical object is to select yearly, from
the young men who present themselves for examinations, the
required fixed number of the very ablest. Whether or not the
graduates of this year stand higher than the graduates of last year,
is undoubtedly an interesting question, and it is one which can
be solved. But it is not the practical question, and can hardly
be solved during each year’s examinations. It is extremely
doubtful if the judging faculties of any Examiners (supposing
them to be the same men) would remain from year to year
sufficiently consistent to enable them to solve it directly ; and
PREFACE, XXX1X

there is much reason to believe that the attempt so to solve it,
would greatly interfere with the accurate solution of the really
practical question. When the year’s Examinations were closed,
then would be the proper time to ascertain, by a direct comparison
of this year’s papers, notes, &c. with those of last year, which had
produced the ablest graduates in each qualification.

§ 20. If at a District or Provincial Examination twenty candi-
dates were to be passed, and there were three or four hundred
candidates, the business of each Examiner (in each subject) would
be to make out a list of some lesser number of the best,—say forty
or fifty,—so as to allow for differences of judgment between him
and his colleagues. By making these separate lists sufficiently
extensive (in which experience would be the guide), it would
always occur that twenty of the names would appear in all the
five lists, though they might not occupy the same positions in each.
With the making out of his separate list, each Examiner's judging
duty would end. The making out of the average list from the five
separate lists, would depend on the application, to the latter, of a
set of rules, so detailed as to meet all possible differences in the posi-
tion of the names in them, and thus leaving nothing to opinion. As
all the papers, &c., and the separate lists, would be made public,
the Examiners would in this way be themselves examined: for if
it should be found that any one Examiner differed considerably from
every set of four colleagues with whom he was associated, that
would prove incapacity or indolence on his part, and render his
dismissal a matter of necessity.

§ 21. In the Special Examinations each separate list for each
subject would have to contain all the candidates. As I have
already shown in the case of the French language, different divi-
sions and subdivisions of the Executive require different degrees of
excellence. Further, it is not the best candidates from the Empire
collectively taken, but a certain number of the best from each
province that are wanted. Experience alone could show whether
the average lists for each qualification at the Special Examinations
should contain the whole number of candidates or not, The sepa-
rate lists being there in full, all the subsequent operations, up to
the giving of the diplomas of Special Graduate for the various sub-
divisions of the Executive, would be merely the application of sets

d2
xl PREFACE.

of fixed rules for each subdivision. Before the Special Examina-
tions commenced, each candidate would announce himself as stand-
ing for a particular subdivision, and would attend that group of
examinations which had been fixed on for it. After the general
-average lists were made out, the candidates for each subdivision
would be picked out from it, in the order in which they stood ;
and would then constitute a special list. It is at this stage that
the plan of giving marks might be employed advantageously, The
highest name on the special list would have a high number attached
to it, the second a smaller number, and so on to the last, in propor-
tion to the places they occupied on the general average list. How
high the highest number should be, would depend on the greater or
lesser importance of the particular qualification for that special sub-
division of the Executive. J¢ is by the increasing and decreasing of
the highest numbers for each qualification, from year to year as expe-
rience dictated, that the Government would have it in its power, to
direct the efforts of the youth of the country more or less to the attain-
ment of different qualifications. For it would be the highest total
of all the numbers that would place the candidate at the head of the
Final Special List ; in other words, make him the first Special
Graduate for his subdivision of the Executive for the year, and
each would of course strive to attain the highest place on that pre-
liminary special list which had the largest numbers given to it.
The preliminary special lists for the first subdivision of the Interna-
tional Executive would give high numbers to the German and
French qualifications ; while there would be no list for Spanish. In
the second subdivision, a very high series of numbers would be at-
tached to the French list, a comparatively low one to the German,
and there would be no Swedish list. For all subdivisions of the
International Executive a low number would be given to seeing
and hearing ; while for all subdivisions of the Army comparatively
higher numbers would be attached to these qualifications (so that
no oificers should be shot or taken prisoners from short sight), and
comparatively lower to French and German ; the highest numbers
being reserved for professional intellectual qualifications.

§ 22, As there are in each subdivision of the Executive, initial
posts of greater and lesser desirability, the Special Graduates would
be appointed by lot as the vacancies occurred ; and every necessary
PREFACE. xli

precaution taken, in other respects, to prevent the objects of the
Hxaminations being defeated by partiality at this stage, ¢.¢. in the
Method of Appointment.

§ 23. I have said nothing about Universities, High Schools, dec.
The practical object is to get the best qualified youth of the country
for the Public Service: where they attain the qualifications is a
matter of no consequence. One of the collateral advantages of
these Examinations would be to force Universities to reform them-
selves and thus spare debates in Parliament. If year passed after year
and not a single student from some one University or School ap-
peared on any of the lists of Special Graduates, Parliament would
begin to discuss the propriety of taking away its revenues from it.
It is by no means improbable that in the cowrse of ten or twenty years,
scholars from large private schools would carry off most of the Special
Graduateships. Given the stimulus, it will probably be found that
free competition in educating youth will produce the highest results ;
and that the function of Universities and endowed Public Schools
would be to give education cheaply to the children of persons who were
pecuniarily unable to put their children under the tuition of those
private masters who were most successful in producing Special
Graduates. The separate lists at the Special Examinations would
form the basis of many interesting statistical tables. It might, for
instance, be found that the back districts of Canada and other
colonies produced the best seers and hearers, noisy towns the worst
hearers; some districts the best mathematicians, others the best lin-
guists ; or, what would be equally interesting as an ascertained fact,
that eyesight, hearing, facile organs of speech, and the intellectual
powers, were very equally distributed over all parts of the British
Empire.

§ 24. The Naval Examinations would constitute a separate
series. Each Province should contribute its due proportion of
naval cadets and expectant masters’ assistants, The first Examina-
tion should take place at the Capital of each province for lads in
their thirteenth and fourteenth years. The qualifications should
be much the same as those for the District Examinations. The
annual proportion of Naval Graduates to the annual number of
vacancies might at first be fixed at ten to one. The Graduates
should be immediately sent on board of vessels of the Royal Navy,
xii PREFACE.

specially intended for Naval Instruction, and carrying a strong
working, but not a fighting crew of able-bodied seamen. These
vessels should be kept very much at sea, Any Graduates guilty
of disreputable conduct to be dismissed—for lesser offences to be
punished. At the end of two or more years, as scientific and
experienced naval officers may decide, all the Graduates to undergo
a strictly Competitive Examination at London. No certificate
beyond that establishing identity to be sent with any of the
candidates, and all the above detailed measures taken to secure
impartiality and accuracy. The appointments to vacancies of
midshipmen and masters’ assistants to be made by lot as they
occur, There are very many reasons, connected with the efficiency
of the Service, for believing that the grades of Masters’ Assistants
and Masters should be abolished, and mates and second lieutenants
respectively required to do their work for some years before pro-
motion to the higher steps of the service. Of the nine-tenths of
the Naval Graduates who failed to pass many would probably
enter the mercantile navy. The failure to pass would be by no
means a proof of incompetency, but only that the unsuccessful
candidate was not the best out of ten.

§ 25. Every means should be taken to secure impartiality in the
Method of Promotion ; but I am convinced that it is not for the
good of the public interests to attempt to do this by means of
competitive examinations applied to persons actually in the Service.
It must be left to the heads of departments ; and endeavours must
be directed to secure impartiality by making the interests of the
persons who influence, and decide on, the promotions, coincide with the
advance of the ablest of the younger officials. I believe this could
be done to an extent not hitherto considered possible ; especially
after the institution of the Method of Appointment exclusively by
competitive examinations ; for the largest number of those who are
now unduly favoured would never be able even to enter into any
branch of the Public Service. Special care should be taken that,
in war, self-possession and fertility of resource under threatening
circumstances, as also active bravery, should be made the ground
for extensive promotions from the ranks of those men who could
read and write English. The same qualities fairly proven should also
be made weighty causes of preference among commissioned officers.
PREFACE. xhiti

§ 26. For the general Improvement of the Executive in ap-
pointment, in promotion, and in the transaction of business, con-
stant attention should be paid to two classes into one of which
every man falls.

Men, let us premise, may be divided according to physical quali-
ties into black-eyed and blue-eyed, which classification may be
useful to the oculist ; and into short and tall, which is useful for
the recruiting officer. They may be divided according to their
intellectual qualities, as into good and bad rememberers, ¢. e. pos-
sessing good or bad memories ; and divided according to moral or
emotional qualities, into enthusiastic and apathetic. Competitive
Examinations will effectually exclude the men of bad memories
from the government service ; and hence, in gradually elaborating
(as we should do) a handbook on the Art of Executive Govern-
ment, we could leave them altogether out of consideration. But
as the moral or emotional qualities are beyond the direct grasp of
any examinations that we can institute, and as apathetic men will
consequently be found to have entered the government service, it
would be a distinct step in advance, if a list were made out of all
those kinds of affairs and duties in which they could be employed
with least disadvantage to the public interests, as a help to such
of their future superiors as were accurate discriminators of character.

It will be observed that some classifications are of lesser, others
of greater importance. One of the most important classifications
that can be made with reference to the Art of Government is that
alluded to at the outset of this § 26, viz. that which divides men on
the one hand into the critical, originative and self-reliant, and, on
the other hand, into the acceptive (i.e. inapt to detect blemishes or
wants), imitative and dependent. The three characteristics of each
class are, as the general rule, found associated. The acceptive man,
who deals with a subject for a lifetime without ever seeing its
blemishes or its needs, is not likely to originate alterations or
substitutions. But being inapt to see anything wrong, his very
trustfulness itself enables him to do unhesitatingly and easily
whatever has been done before, ¢.¢. to imitate. On the other hand,
in the man of critical and originative faculties, these are in like
manner the complement, the one of the other. Again, the spon-
taneously originative man—the man to whom invention is a plea-
xliv PREFACE.

sure—is necessarily far more self-reliant than the imitative man, to
whom the origination of new measures under novel circumstances is
an unnatural effort.

The inexperienced and unreflective of each class look on the
other class with ill-feeling. The imitative men are apt to look
with dislike on the others as snarlers, planners of unpleasant
changes, and self-sufficient. The originative men are apt to look
with contempt on the others, as toadies, routinists and timorous,
But the characteristic qualities of each class are intellectual, not
moral; and hence in each class both high and low natures are to
be found. The good men of the imitative class are the preservers
of real order,—and the heroic will sacrifice themselves to preserve
that order. The good men of the originative class are the pro-
moters of true progress,—and the heroic will sacrifice themselves
to promote that progress. In the language of my Essay, the
originative class produces the Civilizers of humanity: the imitative
class produces the readiest and best Employers of Funded Civiliza-
tion. It is the existence in the actual world of the originative
class, which gives validity to the proposition of the social science,
that no real order can be established, still less last, if it is not fully
compatible with progress. It is clear that all change whatever
and all progress,—which means beneficial change,—can only pro-
ceed from the originative minds: the imitative men start nothing
novel. It is also sufficiently evident that originative minds ex-
isting, they are certain to operate. They cannot nullify themselves
by absolute inaction, neither can they act contrary to their own
nature: to order a man of critical and originative mind to cease
criticising and originating, is to order a man with black eyes to look
with blue. And it is harder for the former to cease employing his
mind, than for the latter to cease using his eyes. Hence, if in any
existing social system—in any existing order of things—room is
not left by the system itself for the originative men to effect bene-
ficial changes, to effect progress in harmony with that system, they
will inevitably originate changes in disharmony with it, ¢.e. they will
attack the defective system or existing order itself. Therefore, real
enduring order requires progress, because originative minds exist.

These conclusions show why it is that nations progress with free
institutions, and stagnate under despotisms. These conclusions
PREFACE. xlv

also show why despotically-constituted bodies in a free community
lag behind the other portion of the community: they show why
that has existed which has recently been so much censured in different
branches of the British Executive under the epithets of “ general
routine,” “ official dulness,” “ red-tapeism,” &e. dsc. All those, both
in and out of office, who interest themselves in the “ Re-organiza-
tion of the Civil Service,” or “ Administrative Reform,” or in Im-
provement of the British Executive (as I call it) must bear in mind
that the necessity for so great a change as a “re-organization,” or
“geform,” arises from the fact that the originative men have hitherto
been systematically discouraged.

Hitherto, nay up to the present moment, and to the best of my
belief, in all the three great divisions of the Imperial Permanent
Executive, in the International Service, in the Navy, and in the
Army, the subordinate of critical and originative mind—the very
man most likely to see blemishes and wants and best enabled to
suggest remedies—damus his career if he, in the spontaneous exer-
cise of the faculties given him by nature, endeavours to benefit the
public interests. The best he can then expect is that he will not be
positively punished,—that on each of his endeavours, only another
black mark will be mentally made against his name, and nothing
said to him. This is the case in the Civil Branches. In the
Military, which is necessarily a more despotically constituted body,
we have recently had evidence that if a subordinate points out a
grave evil and suggests, however respectfully, a remedy, his General
will openly regard his proceeding as an act of insubordination, and
threaten to put him under arrest.

If there were in the Method of Appointment, special arrange-
ments made for obtaining men of the originative class, and in the
Method of Promotion, special arrangements made for something
like their fair, if not hearty or generous, encouragement ; then as
officials have necessarily more opportunities than non-officials, the
Executive will, as regards its own organisation and its methods of
transacting business, keep always in advance of the public. But
if originative men continue to be systematically (2. e. in accordance
with certain unreasoning stock notions) discouraged, by passive
neglect or by positive reprobation ; then the Executive will be
periodically convicted of “routinery,” “red-tapery,” and helpless
stagnancy ; and will be subjected to the disgrace of being driven
xlvi PREFACE.

to self-improvement or of having improvement directly dictated to
it ;—but, unfortunately, not till after serious damage has accrued to
the national interests. With respect to the special arrangements
in the Method of Appointment, there will be little difficulty. If
not expressly excluded, originative capacity is sure to find its way
into the Service through Competitive Examinations. With respect
to the arrangements after Appointment, there are more difficulties;
but much is gained when the necessity for making them is dis.
tinctly perceived. And, though I cannot at present pursue the
subject, I am convinced that the difficulties are the reverse of
insuperable. Meantime the problem may be stated: To ensure
the complete efficiency of the Executive by combining strict, true
discipline with full freedom for critical, originative individuality.

That the ImprovEMENT oF THE EXECUTIVE would be greatly
advanced by the Public Service Examinations of which the above
sections indicate the leading features, will now hardly be gain-
sayed by any influential voice. That the political Union oF THE
Empire would be thereby rendered more intimate and preserved
to distant times, may not be quite clear to those who have not,
like myself, long had under their eyes, what nine years ago 1
already called “a great practical lesson of four thousand years
standing: the Chinese Empire.” What is said in the following
pages on the duration and unity of the Chinese people will, I hope,
do something to convince my readers that it is possible, by this
means, to constitute and perpetuate, in Europe, Northern America,
Southern Africa and Australasia, a great, united and homogeneous
British people under their present mixed institutions, those tried
guarantees of order and progress.

How much this unity must benefit the British Isles, may be
shown by a reference to occurrences fresh in all our memories.
Had the proposed system been instituted nine years ago, there
would have been in the winter of Fifty-four some forty to fifty
Canadian officers in the different regiments of the British army
before Sebastopol ; men from various classes and parts of Canada,
and the fate of each of whom would have been watched with
affection and friendship by large family and social circles in their
native districts. Would the Canadians in that case have limited
their assistance to the twenty thousand pounds subscribed when
PREFACE. xlvii

they had no friends there? Or would they have lavished large
sums to despatch to the aid of their worn out, sickening, and
endangered sons and brothers, some two or three strong regiments
containing a large proportion of hunters from American Siberia,
for whom the Crimean winter would have had no terrors, but
whose rifles would have been terrible to the Russians? And if the
present war party of the United States knew that the British
Americans had a son or two in every Royal regiment, in each
Queen’s ship of war, and in each of the Imperial Public Offices in
London, would that party be so very ready to insist on a war,
which would bring these same regiments and ships upon them,
zealously and anxiously backed by all the forces that the two hardy
millions which lie along their northern boundaries could throw
into the contest? Looking at the matter in a pecuniary point of
view, the Union of the British Empire would be an enormous
saving to the inhabitants of the British Isles, even if the latter
paid for the building of all the Examination Halls and defrayed all
subsequent costs of the System. For that union would prevent
wars, and we have just seen how much two single years of war
cost us. But there can be little doubt from what we know of
the feeling in British America and in Australia, that all the larger
colonial Provinces would defray their own share of the Examina-
tion expenses from the first. There can also be little doubt that
when they had increased in population and in realized wealth, their
Legislatures would, in the event of future wars, while leaving the
British Isles to deal with their debt as before, voluntarily come
forward to bear their full share of the new Imperial burdens.

We could, through the proposed Public Service Examinations,
promote, to such of the colonial provinces as we pleased, an emigra-
tion of classes which have not hitherto furnished emigrants, and
which would not only rapidly people such Provinces, but make
them truly British in all respects. I mean married people, them-
selves of good standing in point of family connections, but whose
means are not such as to enable them to bring up their own in-
creasing families in the same grade of society, By allotting a
considerably larger proportion of Special Graduateships to some
colonial ‘Provinces (of which New Zealand might be one), we can
see that the following consequences would ensue ; especially when
we keep in view the submarine telegraphs and the always increasing
xlvili PREFACE.

rapidity of ocean steamers. People of the above class, far from
feeling as now, that in emigrating they really desert England and
aid to establish a separate and possibly hostile State, would feel
that, on the other side of the world, their sons, with a certainty of
possessing the necessaries of existence which they have not on this
side, and with an equal chance of obtaining posts in the Provincial
Executive, would, at the same time, have greater chances of enter-
ing the British Public Offices, the Diplomatic and Consular Ser.
vices, the Army and the Navy, than they had in England. I have
already indicated the fact of the existence of some millions of a
homogeneous British people at the Cape and in Australasia, (places
to which Indian officers now occasionally retire) as the best
guarantee for the preservation of our Hast Indian possessions against
external aggression. I have now to add that British America on
the Pacific is a portion of the Empire which it is a most urgent
duty to people, as rapidly as possible, with a thoroughly British
population. Besides other means taken to effect this, a very large
proportion of Special Graduateships (i.e. officer’s vacancies) should
be allotted to it ; and, to prevent defeat of the main object, a purely
British or British American descent might be made an indispen-
sable condition in the settlers admitted to compete for them.

I have not thought it necessary to dwell much on the high
efficiency which the proposed Public Service Examinations would,
when perfected by experience, give to the British Imperial Execu-
tive. In the course of twenty or five-and-twenty years, that
Executive would consist of an official body unequalled in past
history ; and the members of which would be regarded with curio-
sity, interest, and respect in every cultivated society in every
foreign country throughout the world. For they would, in their
origin, be the product of a harmonious operation of the monarchic
and democratic elements in our unrivalled Constitution ; and they
would all be men, physically and intellectually, the very flower of
the best youth and manhood of the finest race on earth, men
drawn from every region of a wide-spread but thoroughly united
Empire, such as its people might well love to claim as their own,
and its Sovereign be indeed proud to reign over.

T. T, M.

OrizntaL CLUB,
March, 1856.
CONTENTS.

PREFACE.—v—xxi.

PLAN FOR THE UNION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE IMPROVEMENT
OF THE BRITISH EXECUTIVE.—xxii—xlviii.

CHAPTER I.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY.

The Five Great Divisions of the Chinese Empire, 1, China Proper, 4.
The Independent Mountaineers, 5. The Executive System. The
District Magistrate, 6. The Prefect and the Intendant, 8. The
higher Provincial Authorities, 9. The Army, 12. The Central Im-
perial Government, 13.

CHAPTER ILI.

THEORY AND PRACTICAL WORKING OF THE NORMAL CHINESE
AUTOCRACY.

The Emperor absolute, 16. Not Sovereign by birth, 17. How rejected
by Heaven, 18. Chief Principle of Good Government, 20. Public
Service Examinations, 21. Principles of Legislation, 22, Right of
Rebellion, 24. Self-Government and Freedom, 27.

CHAPTER III.

ACCESSION, ABNORMAL POLICY, AND WEAKNESS OF THE MANCHOO
DYNASTY.

Manchoo Conquest, 30. Chinese Disaffection, 31. Manchoo Officials
and Sale of Posts, 32, English War, 33.
1 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE, CAUSES OF ITS UNITY anp
GENERAL HOMOGENEITY, AND OF CERTAIN PECULIARITIES IN THE SOUTH-
EASTERN CHINESE.

Original Seat of the People, and Modes of Progress, 34, China Proper,
and Chinese Empire, 35. Cause of Unity and Homogeneity, 38.
Meditations on the Great Pyramid, 39. The great Southern Water-
shed, 43. The South-Eastern Chinese, 44.

CHAPTER V.
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE.

L’Empire Chinois, 51. Chinese Catholics, 52. Foreign Missionaries,
53. M. Huc’s Opportunities, 54. The Two British Embassies, 55.
Opportunities of Foreigners at the Five Ports, 56. Errors of PEm-
pire Chinois, 59. Character of the Chinese, 63. Scandinavian Sea-
King and Learned Chinese, 67. Chinese Character illustrated from
Language, 68. Various Opinions contrasted, 72.

CHAPTER VI.

HUNG SEW TSEUEN, THE ORIGINATOR OF THE REBELLION, HIS EARLY
BIOGRAPHY AND HIS ADOPTION OF CHRISTIANITY,

Hung sew tseuen’s Parentage and Youth, 74, His Vision, 76, Chris-
tian Missionary Tracts, 79. Hung sew tseuen reads them, 80. Is
converted, and believes he has a Mission, 81.

CHAPTER VII.

HUNG SEW TSEUEN’S ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS IN
KWANG SE, AND CAUSES OF HIS SUCCESS.

His first Converts, and Departure for Kwang se, 84. Society of God-
worshippers established, 85. Hung sew tseuen with Mr. Roberts at
Canton, 87. Acknowledged Chief of Godworshippers in Kwang se,
88. Causes of Spread of Religious Movements, 89. Character of
Kwang se Chinese, 91. Causes of their Conversion by Hung sew
tseuen, 92, Dr. Gutzlafi’s Chinese Testament, 94, Godworshippers
destroy Idols, and are persecuted, 96.
CONTENTS. li

CHAPTER VIII.

ORIGIN OF THE GROSSER FANATICISMS OF THE NEW SECT OF
CHRISTIANS.

Alleged Descents of God into the World, 98. Proclamations respecting
them, 99, Will of God communicated by Yang sew tsing, 102. Why
accepted by Hung sew tseuen, 103,

CHAPTER IX.

RETROSPECTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANCHOO
POWER IN CHINA,

Chinese Rebel overthrows Native Dynasty, 106. Chinese General
invites the Aid of the Manchoos, 107. They establish themselves in
Peking, 108. Their Second Emperér Kang he, 109. Suppresses a
Rebellion, and conquers Formosa, 110.

CHAPTER X.

- FORMATION OF CHINESE POLITICAL SOCIETIES AGAINST THE MANCHOO
DOMINATION, AND ORIGIN OF CHINESE THRUREEOHONG AND REBELLIONS
GENERALLY.

-

Secret Political Societies in South-Eastern China, 112. Origin of
Chinese Insurrections, 113. Origin of Bandit Rebel Leaders, 117.
Occidentals’ Misconceptions on Chinese Robbers, Pirates, and Rebels,
118. Chinese Civilization, 120. Present Rebellions foreseen by
Writer, 121.

CHAPTER XI.

CONVERSATIONS OF THE OLD BMPEROR TAOU EKWANG WITH A HIGH
MANDARIN RESPECTING BRITISH PROJECTS AND THE STATE OF SOUTHERN

CHINA.

Imperial Administrative Levees, 123. Their Object, 124. How the
Emperor’s Conversations became known, 125. The Mandarin Pih
kwei, 126. Has an Audience with the Emperor, 127, Emperor
inquires about English Barbarians, 128; and their Troops at Hong-
kong, 129. Emperor promotes Pih kwei, and exhorts him to do his
Duty, 130. Concludes the English Barbarians are mere Traders, 132.
Describes his Inner Garments, 133, Speaks about Opium-smoking,
134, Inquires about the Future Conduct of English Barbarians, 135.
lia CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII.

MEASURES OF THE IMPERIAL AUTHORITIES AGAINST THE KWANG SE CHRIS-
TIANS; AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THESE INTO RELIGIOUS POLI-
TICAL REBELS,

English Squadron turns Pirates into Rebels, 1387; Bandit Rebels in
Kwang se, 138. Embroil the Godworshippers with Authorities, 139,
Hung sew tseuen rescued by Yang sew tsing, 142, Formal Rise of
Godworshippers as Tae ping Rebels, 143.

CHAPTER XIII.
MILITARY AND POLITICAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS FROM
THEIR FIRST RISING TILL AFTER THEIR OCCUPATION OF NANKING,

Anxiety of the Imperial Government, 145. Despatches the Prime
Minister against the Tae pings, 146. General Nature of the War,
147. Divine Mission of Hung sew tseuen as the Heavenly Prince,
149. Female Rebel Chiefs, 151. Triad Society, 151. Letter of an
Imperial Commander on the Rebellion, 153. Describes Cowardice of
Imperialist Regulars, 155. And Extent of Rebellion, 156. And the
Rebel Leaders and Tactics, 157, Report of a Manchoo General on
the Inefficiency of the Army, 160. Emperor orders Teaching of
Confucianism to prevent Spread of Christianity, 162. Tae pings
take Yung gan, 163. Organization of Tae ping Forces, 164. The Tae
ping “Princes,” 165, They leave for the Valley of the Great River,
166. Take Woo chang and Nanking, and kill all the Manchoos, 167—
169. Take Chin keang, 170, Their position at Nanking and Chin
Keang, 171. Their Method of Conscription, 173.

CHAPTER XIV.

MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAR PINGS, AFTER THE OCCUPATION OF
NANKING, UP TO THE PRESENT TIME.

Tae Ping Northern Army crosses the Yellow River, and besieges Hwae
king, 175. Raises the Siege, and marches northward to Tsing hae,
176. Shut up there by the Imperialists, 177. Remarkable Nature
of its March, 177. Tae ping Auxiliary Army, 179. Penetrates to
Lin Tsing, 180. Imperialists force the Tae pings to re-cross the
Yellow River, 181. Operations and Position of the Tae pings in the
Great River Valley, 182. Proceedings foreseen by Writer, 185.
CONTENTS. hi

CHAPTER XV.

STATE OF THE SEA-BOARD POPULATION AT THE MOUTH OF THE GREAT
RIVER, ON THE APPROACH OF THE TAE PINGS.

Mr. Hamberg’s Book, 191. Description of Hung sew tseuen, 192.
Christianity of Rebels at first unknown to Occidentals, 193. The
Shanghae Intendant Woo wants to hire H.M.’s Sloop Lily, 195. And
sends Portuguese Vessels against the Tae pings, 196. Description of
the Great Alluvial Plain, 197. Writer’s Canton Boat and Excursions,
199. Boats in the Great Alluvial Plain, 201. Writer’s Boat de-
scribed, 202, A Word for the gourmand, 207. Panic at Shanghae,
and British Neutrality announced, 208. Naval Battle between the
Tae pings and Portuguese, 209. Necessity for obtaining Infor-
mation, 211.

CHAPTER XVI.

EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL TO OBTAIN INFORMATION RESPECTING
THE REBELS.

Writer’s Chinese Clerk and Servants, 213. Start with him for the
Grand Canal, 215. Reach Soo chow, 216. Boatmen leave, and others
~ procured, 217. Preparations for repelling Robbers, 218. Risks on
the Grand Canal, 219. Affair with Pirates at Canton, 220. The Seu
sze Custom-house on the Grand Canal passed, 221. Value of His-
torical Lore, 222. Suspicious Spyer at Woo seih, 223. Boarded by
an Old Woman at Chang chow, 225. Army assembling at Chang
chow, and Rebel beheaded on the Canal bank, 226. Chinese Army
marching, 227. A wordy Fight on the Grand Canal, 228. Tracking
against Headwind, 229. Stoppage at Tan yang, and Appearance of
Writer's Agent, Chang, 230. Chang’s Apprehension by the Night-
watch, his Examination and Release, 232. Safety in Rain, 235.
Re-pass the Seu sze Custom-house, and Fright of Examiner, 236.
Soo chow and British Peace Party, 288. Return to Shanghae again,
and Report handed in, 240. Mandarin Proclamation, 245. Former
Excursion on the Great River, 246. H.M.’s Plenipotentiary resolves to
proceed to Nanking, 248. The Tae ping Western Prince seizes the

Vessels of a Native Merchant, 249.

e
liv CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVII.
INTERCOURSE OF THE TAE PINGS WITH WESTERN FOREIGNERS.

The War Steamer Hermes starts for Nanking, 251. Fired on by the
Tae pings at Chin keang, 252. Imperialist Fleet attacks the Tae
ping Batteries, 253, Result of the Action, 254. Hermes reaches
Nanking, and communicates with the Tae pings, 256. Writer's inter-
view with the Northern Prince, 257. Lae, a Tae ping Officer, visits
the Hermes, 263. Ride into the City of Nanking, 264, The Plenipo-
tentiary’s Declaration of Neutrality, 265. Hermes fired on by the
Imperial Squadron, 267. Tae ping Manifesto to the English, 269,
The English Reply, 272. The Tae ping Trenches, 273. The Hermes
returns the Tae ping Fire at Chin keang, 274. Interview with the
Tae ping Commandant, 274. Correspondence with him, 275. Gene-
ral Bearing of the Tae ping Leaders, 278. The Writer’s personal
Dealings with them, 279. The Officer Lae, 281. An American Mis-
sionary visits Chin keang, 283. The Tae pings at Worship, 284.
Boat Expedition on the Great River for Deserters and Information,
284, Arrives at Silver Island, 286. The Imperialist Officers before
Chin keang, 286. Tae ping Fortifications, 287. Their Treatment of
the People and Idols, 290. British Neutrality justified to a High
Manchoo, 292. And to Chinese Imperialist Officers, 294. The
Imperialist Warriors of the Deep, 297. Discussion about passing
into Chin keang, 299. Night Adventures with an Imperialist
Squadron, 301. Start for Chin keang, 304. The Tae ping Outworks,
305. Appearance of Chin keang, 306. The Old Tae Pings, ard
Interview with the Commandant, 307. Return to Shanghae, 309.
Three subsequent Visits of Occidentals to Nanking, 310. Violations
of the Tae ping Belligerent Rights, 315. True Neutrality, 320.
Universal Supremacy of the Ruler of China, 323. Manchoo and
Tae ping Attitude towards Foreigners, 324.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NOTICE OF THE PHILOSOPHY, MORALITY, AND POLITY OF THE CHINESE,
AND OF THE RELIGION OF THE GOVERNING CLASS.

Confucianism the dominant Chinese Philosophy, 326. Hitherto not
rightly described, 328. Two Epochs of Philosophical Literature, 329.
Fuh he the Founder of Chinese Civilization, 329. Confucius, Mencius,
and the First Epoch, 332. Intervals between Epochs, 333. Chow
CONTENTS. lv

tsze Originator of Second Epoch, 334. Choo tsze, its Closer, 335.
Subsequent Literature, 337. The “Complete Philosophy,” 338. The
“Essence of Philosophy,” 339. Choo tsze’s Authority Paramount, 340.
Evolution of the Universe, 342. Man’s Nature, 346. The Holy Man,
347, The Sage, 348. Key to the Chinese Sacred Books, 349. Meanings
of the word Taou, 353. Choo tsze’s Office in Philosophy, 356.
Religion of the Governing Class, 359. State Ritual Worship, 361.
Religion of the Uneducated, 362. Rémusat’s Translation of the
Chung yung, 363. Pauthier’s, 364. Mr. Collie’s, 364. Clue to the
various Misconceptions, 368. Resemblances between Chinese Philo-
sophy and European Systems, 369. Misconception of Chinese Philo-
sophy by Drs. Medhurst and Williams, 372. Errors of Dr. Gutzlaff’s
“China Opened,” 376. Error unavoidable among Writers in Europe,
377. Chinese New Words by Synthesis of Contradictories, 379. Three
Important Propositions of Chinese Philosophy, 381. First, Unity
underlies all Variety, 381. Second, Harmonious Order in all Change,
382. Third, Man’s Nature is perfectly Good, 385. The same Word
means Publicity and Justice, 388. Psychical Basis of Chinese Govern-
ment by Moral Force, 389. Obligation of Chinese Morality, 392.
Exceptions to Government by Moral Force: Slavery and Concubi-
nage, 395. Remarkable Purity of Sacred Literature, 396. M.Huc’s
Exaggerations of Chinese Immorality, 397. Standing of different
Occupations in China, 398. Paternal Power, 399. Causes of un-
equalled Duration and Increase of Chinese People, 400. Public
Service Examinations, 402, Notice of Examinations in 1851 at
Nanking, 404.

CHAPTER XIX.
CHRISTIANITY AND PROSPECTS OF THE TAE PINGS.

Three Classes of Tae ping Publications, 410. Christianity invariably
modified by pre-existing Beliefs, 412. Influence of Confucianism on
Hung sew tseuen’s Christianity, 413. His Vindication of his Beliefs
to Educated Chinese, 414. Tenets of Tae ping Christianity, 418.
Anthropomorphism, 418. The Human Soul, 419. Man’s Original
Nature Good, 419. The Devil identified in the Chinese Pluto, 420.
Tae ping View of the Confucian Holy Man, 421. The Nature of
Jesus, 422. The Tae ping Moral Code, 425. The Essentials of Tae
ping Christianity, 427. The Trinity, Imputed Sin and Redemption, 428.
Fanatical Features of Tae pingism, 429. Alleged possession of the
“Eastern Prince” by the Spirit of God, 429. Extraordinary proceed-
ings at Nanking, 431. Causes of Hung sew tseuen’s submission to
i CONTENTS.
lvi “

Pretensions of the Eastern Prince, 486. Honest Delusions of Hung
sew tseuen, 438. Views of Fanatical Party degenerating, 440. Hung
sew tseuen remains consistent, 441. Polygamy of the Tae pings, 443,
The Bible to be the Text Book of the Public Service Examinations,
446. Protestant Chinese Bibles should be accompanied by Notes, 447.
The Originals should be published with Interlinear Renderings, 448,
Progress of Civilization requires Non-interference by Force with
Chinese Politics, 449. Notice of the Rebellious Movements at Amoy
and Shanghae, 451; and at Canton, 453. Indiscriminate Executions
by the Imperialists, 454. The bulk of the educated and well-to-do
Chinese against the Tae pings, 456. The uneducated and the dis-
affected for them, 457. Their Belief that God protects them a great
Element of Success, 458. The English Puritans, the Mahommedans,
and the Tae pings, 459. Result of Rebellion not to be foreseen, 463.

CHAPTER XX.

THE BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES TOWARDS CHINA.

Occidentals have no right to interfere with Chinese internal Politics,
464. Doctrine of Non-interference stated, 467. The four most Power-
ful Nations interested in China, 468. Should combine to prevent
the Interference of any Single Nation, 469. Armed Protection
to be given to Missionaries, but not to Chinese Christians, 470.
Danger of Russian Aggressions on China, 472. If allowed to conquer
China she will be Mistress of the World, 473; and will conquer
America, 474, Her past Aggressions on Chinese Empire, 475. How
future Aggressions may be made, 477. China herself unable to resist
for the next Generation, 478. Danger to the United States of a
mistaken Policy, 480. England, France, and America can stop
Russian Aggressions, 481. Draft of Compact they should make to
preserve the Chinese Empire, 482. Its Advantages, 483. No abso-
lute Necessity for Hostilities with Manchoo or Tae pings, 485. The
Opium Question, 486. Its Morality, 487, Real Difficulty between
British and Chinese regarding it, 489. The Subject practically redu-

cible to Three Questions, 490. Not inevitably a Source of Quarrel,
491.
CONTENTS. lvii

CIVILIZATION, &c.

CHAPTER I.
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION.

Necessity for a Definition, 493. Examination of the Description in
M. Guizot’s “Civilization in Europe,” 494. Civilizers always suffer,
497. Mill’s Logic on Definitions and on Civilization being undefined,
498. An Englishman and a Chinaman contrasted as civilized Men,
500. Definition of Civilization, 501. Explanation of the Terms of the
Definition, 502, Rise and Progress of Civilization generally, 504.
Four kinds of Civilization, 509. Definition of Cultivation, 511. Word,
efficient, in the Definition of Civilization ; and “It’s all very well in
Theory, but it won’t do in Practice,” 512. The British Peace Party,
513. Illustrations of different Kinds of Civilization, 513. Advantage
of high individual Cultivation, 514. Quality and working of the
different Kinds of Civilization, 515. Employment of the different
Kinds in the Hast, 517. The Civilized and Civilizing Process—
funded Civilization—and the Savage of Civilization, 518. Relative
meanings of Savage, Barbarous, Semi-barbarous and Civilized, 519.
Most palpable and striking Marks of Civilization, 520. ,

CHAPTER II.
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART.

The Religious Faculties, 521. Essence of all Religions, 522. Christ’s
two Great Commands, 522. Highest Civilization enjoined by Second
Great Command, 524, Perfect Harmony of Religion and Civiliza-
tion, 525. Civilizing Influence of First Great Command, 525. Origin
of Religious Persecutions and Wars, 526. Non-coercion and Non-
interference in Religion indispensable to Civilization, 527. Sec-
tarian Persecutions ultimately unsuccessful, 528. Existing Confusion
of Terms, 528. Sound and vicious Science and Art, 529. Four
chief natural Impellants to the Struggle of Civilization, 531. I.
Parental Affection, 5381. Its Over-indulgence Barbarous, 531. II.
Aversion to Pain, 532. Civilization shrinks from the Sight of
Human Suffering, 532. Overdressing Barbarous, 533. Healing, Art,
and.Quackery, 583, III. The Nutritional Appetite, 5383. Gluttony and
lviii CONTENTS.

Drunkenness Barbarous and Discivilizing, 533. Most perfect Satisfac-
tion of Nutritional Appetite, 534. Cookery as a vicious Art, 534.
Insufficient Physiology, 535. Defective Social State—Overworking
with Starvation—Indolence with Waste, 535. Ameliorative Legisla-
lation necessarily gradual and slow, 536. IV. The Sexual Appetite,
537. Sexual Excess Barbarous and Discivilizing, 537. The Sexual
Appetite and Parental Cravings, 537. Equality of Male and Female
Births, and tendency to Pair, 538. Polygamy and its Results, 538,
Mormon Polygamy, 539. The Coercions of Civilization and those of
Religion, 540. Know-nothings, Romanism, and Mormonism, 542,
Civilizades and Crusades, 543. Best Course for Americans with Mor-
mons, 543. Mahommedan and Chinese Polygamy, 544. Our low
Civilization as regards the Sexual Appetite, 545. The one Remedy—
Universal Prevalence of Marriage—opposed by Political Economy, 545,
Sphere of Political Economy, 546. Mill’s Political Economy as to the
best future Relations of the Sexes, 547. Right Gratification of all
natural Faculties indispensable to Civilization, 547. Restraint of
Population required by Political Economists, 548, That Science does
not deal with Prostitution, 549. Only Remedy for this Evil, 550,
Discivilizing Elements counterbalanced by Civilizing Processes, 550.
Degradation of Race, 551. Marriage and Marriage Ceremonies, 552.
Divorce, 553. Love and its “Illusions ;” Marriage and its “ Dis-
enchantments,” 554, Illustrative Chinese Tale, 556. Celibacy and
hereditary Disease, 557. Amelioration can only be gradual and slow,
559. Complete pecuniary Independence of Woman, 559. Calumny
of Animals and Goethe amended, 559. Woman and remunerative
Labour, 560. Shop Men and Shop Women, 560. Medical Women,
561. Woman’s chief social Function, and the Knowledge most
required for it, 562. Woman, as a domestic Worker, will be remune-
rated in advance by Gifts and Bequests, 565. Fortune Hunting, 566.
The Fine Arts, 567. Refinement, 568. General Observations on the
foregoing Discussion, 568.

CHAPTER III,

MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM CHRISTIAN AND CONFUCIAN

CIVILIZATIONS.

The Definition of Civilization employed as a Test, 571. Civilized and
Discivilized Clocks and other Machines, 571, The Inventor and the
philosophical Genius as Civilizers, 572. Oz Peace and its Occupations,
573. Trade in itself not Debasing, 574. National Consequences of
CONTENTS, lix

lying and swindling in Trade and Politics, 575. On Government in
General, 576. Man’s Desire to Rule, and his Craving for Admiration,
577. Cause of long Duration of the Chinese as a Nation, 578. Mr.
Mill’s desirable State of Society, 578. His chief Measure for securing
it impracticable, 579. The Civilizing Processes produce an improved
Humanity and Beauty for Man in inanimate Nature, 580. Best re-
membered Prospects of inanimate Nature seen by Writer, 581.
Prospect on the north-east Coast of England, 581. Prospect from
the Brocken, 582. Prospect from the Hills of Chapoo, 582. Pro-
spect from the Palace-hill at Loochoo, with some Description
of the Principality, 584. Prospect from the Great Pyramid, 588.
Aksthetic result, for Man, of Trade and Agriculture on Sea, Marsh,
Plain and Mountain, 588, Trading Communities produce the greatest
Philosophers, Artists, and Warriors, 589. Peace not necessarily ener-
vating, 590. Perseverance a Civilized Method, 591. On War, 592.
Wars Barbarous or Civilized in their Origin, 592. The International
Service and its Functions, 592. Our War with Russia Civilized in its
Origin, 593. War in its Conduct, or Barbarous and Civilized War-
fare, 593. Destructive Engines civilize War, 594. Slaughter of
Wounded, why Discivilizing, 595. Use of poisoned Arrows a Step in
the civilizing of War, 596. Moorsom Shells an Instrument of Civi-
lized Warfare, 597. Our Poet-laureate on the Horrors of Peace and
the Blessings of War, 598. On War-dancing, 599. The Chinese
Barbarous in the Conduct of War, 599. Some Chinese War-dancing
at the Siege of Shanghae, 600. A Shot on the Great River, 603.
British War-dancing, 605. Struggle with Russia anticipated, and
Public Service Examinations recommended nine years ago, 605. Our
Boasting Barbarous, 608. Military Bands, 610. “Maud” and Noses,
snub and aquiline, 610. Barbarisms of our Dress, 611. Our black
Hat, 612. Nature and purposes of Dress generally, 612. Civilizing
Process requires Independence, 613. On Shaving, 614. On Military
Dress, 615. Treatment of Animals by Chinese and Anglo-Saxons, 615.
Our Treatment of Horses, &c., 615. Chinese Procedure with domestic
Animals, 616. Chinese Boy and Goose, 616. Chinese Servants and
Shanghae Fowl, 617. Dogs and Moral Agencies, 618, Communica-
tion with Dogs by Language, 618. Importance of Language to Civilization,
620. Universal Language now Forming, 622, Civilization simplifies
Forms of Address, 623. Gain from simplification of our Official
Letters, 624. Simplification of Forms in the House of Commons,
625. Barbarous Old English Lettering in the House, 627, The same
on the new Florin, 627. Scott’s Novels and barbarizing Imitations of
ancient Times, 628. Slavery essentially Barbarous, 628. The States of
ancient Greece Barbarous as Slave States, 629, The Fine Arts not
lx

CONTENTS.

a Proof of true Civilization, 631. Anglo-Saxon Females really Slaves,

632.

Civilization requires Political Union of Nations, 633. Position of

Females in China, 634. Duelling, 685, Civilization and Freedom,

636.

Freedom in China, 637. Value of British fundamental Insti-

tutions, 637.

Appenpix A.—On Minitary Dress,
APPENDIX B.—Form FOR OFFICIAL LETTERS.

APPENDIX O.—EXECUTION AT CANTON.

Map or Carina Proper, ¢o face Title.
SketcH Map orf THE CHINESE EMPIRE, fo fuce page 1.
Sxerch Mar or Kwana Tuna, to fuce page 6.

ERRATA.

At page 48, line 26, for “favorably” read “ favorable.”

”
”

» 49, line 23, for “Meaon” read ‘“ Meaou.”

» 54, line 15, for “Au tchang fou” read “Ou tchang fou.”

»» 108, note, line 1, for “Ham kenn” read “Han keun.”

» 187, line 9, for “ peik” read “ peih.”

» 176, line 30, for “They then defeated” read “ They there defeated.”

» 196, line 25, for “ Chin heang” read “Chin keang.”

x 207, line 19, for “ Yang chun ” read “ Yung shun.”

», 281, line 35, at the end of the second paragraph supply a }.

,, 261, line 7, for “Tee ping” read “Tae ping.”

» 261, line 10, for “text” read “last page.”

» 806, line 3, for “ten years” read “eleven years.”

», 364, lines 16 and 22, for “Panthier” read “ Pauthier.”

» 470, line 24, for “they may not act together” read “they may act
together.”
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elder & C° Londen

ed by

 
THE

CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

CHAPTER I.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ADMINISTRATIVE
MACHINERY.

Tue present Chinese Empire is composed of five great
divisions, Manchooria, Mongolia, Turkestan or Little Bu-
charia, Tibet, and lastly China Proper. It is with the last
only, which is occupied by the 360 millions of that peculiar
people whom we call Chinese, that we have here almost
exclusively to do.

The first-named divisions are of great extent, are thinly
inhabited, as compared with China Proper, and are each
much less civilized.

Manchooria is the country of the Manchoo Tartars, a half
settled, half nomadic race which has attracted attention
chiefly because it is that from which sprang the present
Imperial dynasty of China.

Mongolia is mainly composed of deserts; and is altogether
occupied by veritable nomads, shepherds living in tents.
They are the most believing of Lamaistic Buddhists.

Turkestan is inhabited by a settled Turkish race of Ma-

hommedan faith. It contains the two great and famed cities
of Cashgar and Yarkand; besides a few smaller, bearing
names less familiar to our ears.
B
2 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Tibet is likewise inhabited by a settled people. It is the
centre and stronghold of Lamaistic Buddhism ; whose chief,
the Dalai Lama, the incarnate Buddha, has his seat in its
capital, Lassa.

Each of these four great divisions is, then, inhabited by a
distinct people, speaking each its own language, and each
marked by peculiar national manners. To the mind of the
Chinaman, more, perhaps, than they would be to us, these
several territories are uncultivated, wild, “ uncomfortable”
regions; to him the languages are jargons and the manners
“barbarous.” Chinese mandarins (officials), who are (rightly
or wrongly) held convicted of administrative faults, are sent
by the Emperor to some high or low post in these portions
of his dominions as a punishment. If our institutions per-
mitted it, and Her Majesty were to send unsuccessful minis-
ters to Capeland to “soothe” the Dutch Colonists and
“ tranquillize”’ the Caffres, it would form a tolerably close
parallel to what occurs frequently in China. So also, if one
were put in charge of Ceylon with strict injunctions “ to
repair past short-comings by future good services”—the stereo-
typed official phrase on such occasions. Still closer parallels
are found in Russia, when the Emperor transfers one of his
“ mandarins ”’* from Muscovy to Siberia or Kamskatka.

In spite of this view taken of the “outer” dominions of
their Sovereign, the redundancy of the population in China
proper itself, together with the enterprising mercantile and
colonizing spirit of the Chinese, is the cause that numbers of
them are to be found throughout these very territories as
settlers or as traders; by whom, and by the Chinese officials,
Chinese ideas, and even Chinese words have been introduced,
and have more or less (partially) modified the original man-
ners and languages. Tibet and Turkestan have been the
least influenced in this way. The latter, the latest of the

* Chin is one of the names of the Chinese mandarins or chinovink. I may
add that Russia appears to me to have borrowed many good administrative
rules from China,
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY. 3

“annexed” or conquered territories, holds a relation to China
very much like that of Algeria to France. In a last ex-
tremity, the Emperor might withdraw his garrisons from both
to aid in extinguishing existing rebellions in China. Apart
from this possibility, the two former Countries can exercise
no influence on the march of events in the latter, and may,
therefore, be left out of further consideration in this volume.*

Manchooria and Mongolia have been somewhat more in-
fluenced by Chinese civilization ; especially the former, whose
original Tartar language has been nearly superseded by that
of China. The Manchoos may be said to consist of the
family and clan or tribe of the present Imperial House. It
was their military support which placed it in possession of
the Imperial Throne 210 years ago; and upon which it now
greatly relies for its maintenance in that possession. Next
to his own nation of Manchoo Tartars, the Emperor looks for
assistance to the Mongols, which latter, as Tartars, have con-
siderable affinity with the former; and whose Princes and
Chiefs moreover stand mostly in the relation of consan-
guinity to the present dynasty, in consequence of marriages
durin successive generations with daughters of the Imperial
House—marriages ambitious on the one side, politic on the
other.

The Chinese, in referring to the above four territories, use in
writing and in conversation the aggregate appellative “ Kow
wae, Outside of the gates or passes,” because Manchooria

* Since the above was written intelligence has reached us of an invasion of
Thibet by the Nepaulese. The British public and our Indian government do
not appear to be alive to the fact that this is as much an attack on the Emperor
of China as an invasion of Algeria would be an attack on Napoleon III. or an
invasion of British India anattack on Queen Victoria. It is really very likely
that the Emperor Heen fung has been prevented by this Nepaulese attack
from drawing forces from his Thibetan garrisons to aid him against the rebels
in China. The Indian papers appear to be rather congratulating themselves
on the fact of a somewhat dangerous neighbour being otherwise occupied than
in annoying us. They do not however reflect that his present occupation may
have considerable though indirect influence on the future of the Indian
opium and cotton trade with China.

B2
4 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION§.

and Mongolia do literally lie on the “outside” of the gates
in the great wall, while Tibet lies beyond the “ passes” in
the western mountains. A Chinese rebel, if successful, will
endeavour to get possession of all ultimately ; because these,
and even more of the contiguous regions, have been in the
course of history under the sway of the “ black-haired
race” of China. But he will consider his work substantially
achieved when the 360 millions of the latter accord him their
allegiance, and when he is thus undisputed master of the
« Shih pa sing, the Eighteen provinces;” the term by which
China Proper is commonly designated in conversation.

This China Proper being one country, occupied by one race,
speaking one language, Europeans are very apt to picture to
themselves as about the size of one country in Europe, as
for instance France; only populated throughout with an
astounding,—an almost incredible—density, like that of the
basin of Paris, or of our manufacturing and shipping district,
around Manchester and Liverpool. This is a most confusing
conception. China is not more densely populated than Eng-
land;. and contains its 360 millions only because of its
enormous territorial extent. If the reader imagine to
himself Scotland doubled down upon the north-west of
England and upon Wales, and then picture to himself
eighteen of such compact Great Britains placed together so
as to form one well rounded state, he will attain a more
correct notion of the extent and population of China Proper,
as composed of its Eighteen provinces. Some of these
provinces consist almost entirely of alluvial plains, but the
greater number exhibit an alternation of fertile river valleys,
covered, like that of the Thames, with large, populous towns;
and of thinly inhabited hilly or mountainous regions, more
or less difficult of access.

The two large islands on the coast of China form portions of
two of these provinces, Formosa belonging to the province of
Fuh-keen, Haenan to that of Kwangtung. The seaboard, and
the plains of these islands have long been occupied by Chinese
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY. 5

settlers, who have forced the aborigines back into the moun-
tain recesses; but as the doings neither of the Aborigines nor
of the colonists, exercise modifying influence on the political
state of the mainland, we may dismiss them from consideration
here. To some aboriginal tribes on the mainland I must how-
ever devote a little space, as it has been erroneously supposed
that with them the present religious rebellion originated.

I have compared the Kighteen provinces of China Proper
to Eighteen Great Britains. To make the comparison more
exact, all Celts (Scottish or Welsh) must be subtracted from
fourteen of these Great Britains; fourteen of the eighteen
Chinese provinces being inhabited by the homopeneous
Chinese only. In the remaining four, the more rugged pro-
vinces in the south west of China, there are to be found
among the mountains certain non-Chinese tribes, bearing a
relation to the Chinese who have for many hundreds of years
occupied the more accessible and largest portions of these
four provinces, similar to that which the Celts of the moun~-
tains did, about 100° years ago, to the Anglo Saxons in
the rest of Great Britain. They wear peculiar dresses and
speak peculiar languages, or more probably dialects of one
language, which have never been reduced to writing. They
have occasionally disturbed the peace of those provinces
within which their hills are included by devastating irrup-
tions into the level lands occupied by the Chinese. But
these irruptions have never assumed a more permanent
character than that of passing incursions; and, when the
population of the thirteen or fourteen provinces into which
they have never even entered is taken into consideration, the

geregate number of all these highland tribes becomes, com-
paratively, a mere-drop in the bucket. ‘They are of no political
weight; the utmost that they can do being to furnish a few
thousands of fighting men to Armies of Chinese when the
latter are disputing the Sovereignty of the Empire among
themselves. The province of Kwangse, in which the present
religious movement took its rise, contains the most of these
6 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION.

aboriginal mountaineers ; some of whom certainly joined the
rebels, while some, I believe, assisted the Imperialists. Those
who joined the ranks of the rebels were, doubtless, a wel-
come addition to their originally small force. But as the
rebels, in their march northward, left the vicinity of the
mountain homes of these auxiliaries, the latter became daily
a more insignificant part of an army that was rapidly in-
creasing by large accessions of pure Chinese. I repeat, the
mountaineers, even when they act together,—which they
rarely or never do—are politically insignificant in China.
They could not, and did not, originate or organize the rising
which is the chief subject of this volume; and in which I
shall, therefore not again dwell upon them.

The division of China Proper into its eighteen provinces
is, be it remembered, merely political or administrative. The
people are the same in all; the differences in manners and
dialects being no other in kind, and scarcely greater in
degree, than exist with us between the Glasgow factory man
and the Somersetshire peasant, or the Northumbrian “hind”
and the Cornish miner.

In order to understand the executive system by which
China Proper is governed, it is specially necessary to keep
the eye fixed on the territorial division which is called
a district. It is about the size of a county in Great Britain,
each of the eighteen provinces containing on an average
eighty such.* ach of these districts has its capital, its
district-city, surrounded by walls, and held (by government-

* As we have two names, county and shire, so the Chinese have three, heen,
chow, and ting. For further details on the provincial executive than are
furnished in the text see: Desultory Notes on the Chinese, by the writer.
I recommend the reader to forget. altogether the designations, “ cities of the
first, second and third order,” brought into use by the old French missionaries.
It is a nomenclature not always founded on the respective rank, still less on
the official powers and duties of the authorities in these cities. There isa name
in Chinese agreeing with the term “ city of the second order,” but there is no
corresponding thing with a separate distinctive existence in reality ; as all cities
bearing this name (chow) are, one moiety of them, equivalent to cities of the
first order; the other moiety, equivalent to cities of the third order.
 

 

 

——_.

fe

ma Se eS
A SKETCH OF THE PROVINCE OF

5 ee eS
—*(KWANG TUNG,
Showing us division ute
CIRCUITS DEPARTMENTS & DISTRICTS,
- By Tho* Taylor Meadows,
Lraterpreter wv Her Magestys Gril Sernice, Chine.

.o-_

U ny
\ Ung juen a! .

OBSERVATIONS.

The boundaries of the Districts are denoted by dotted and cclored
lines, and the name of each is gwev in small italics.

The Departments are each distinguished by w special color, and
the name of each ws gwew w italic capitals.

0 Marks the position of the chiel city of w district, or a district
ety, the station of a District Magistrate.

0 Denctes a departmental city, the station of w Trefect.

& Denotes the chief city ofa creat, the station ob an Intendant.
®& Denotes the Provincial Capital (tanto) the station of the

Governor General, the Governer, 4 oa garrison of Manchoo Bannermen.

* .

Approumate Scale of British Statute Miles.

4d00 80 40 W GO 50 40 30 % W @

 

THE FIVE CIRCUITS OF KWANG TUNG.

NB. The department of Fn chow,

bang the stator of the higher pro-

nnaat autheriies is not under the

contro o any Intendant of Grout.

I.7HE NAN SHAN LEEN CIRCUIT.
Shacw chow dgartment
Nav Reung "
Leer chow 9
Leen shan ”
I.7HE HWUF CHAOU KEA CIRCUIT.
Hyuy chow department
Qhacu: chow iv
Kea’ ying ”
Lah kang ”
IIL. 7H£ SHAOU LO CIRCUIT.
Shacuw hing departreent
Lo tena -
WV. 7HE HAOU LEEN CIRCUIT.
Kacw chow department
Len chow »
V.THE LU¥ KEUNG CIRCUIT.

Luy chow department
Keung chow ”

 

 

Published by Smith Elder & C° London.

 

 
ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY. 7

regulation) to be capable of standing a siege. In each of
these cities is stationed a civil mandarin, who is an all-
important official for the Chinese people, and therefore for the
Chinese government. He is at once the director of police,
the sheriff, the coroner, the receiver of taxes, and, what weighs
more than all, the judge at first instance of all cases civil
and criminal that occur within the bounds of his shire or
district. He is called by our translators, the district magis-
trate; but it will be seen from the above, that the word
‘magistrate ” indicates but very inadequately the extent of
his powers and duties. He has always one other civil man-
darin under him, and in the same city; viz., the inspector of
police or prison-master; who is specially responsible to him
and to the Imperial Government, for the custody of the
prisoners in the district jail.* In more populous districts he
is aided by one or two inspectors of police stationed out at
towns or large villages of his district; and often by an
official, of a little higher rank than the preceding and entitled
by foreigners the assistant-district-magistrate. There are
also one or two educational mandarins stationed in every
district city to assist the district magistrate in the primary
examination of candidates for the public service; the super-
intendence of which forms another of his multifarious duties.
All these subordinates are mandarins, i.e. functionaries de-
riving their appointments from the central imperial govern-
ment, and fitted by social standing to appear at the table of
the magistrate himself. But besides these he has under him
a whole host of lower agents: clerks, judicial and fiscal,
tax-gatherers, bailiffs, turnkeys and policemen.

* There are two of these officers in Ching too the capital of Sze chuen, with
one of whom M. Hue was lodged during his stay there. Heand his companion
were in fact “in prison” though not actually lodged in the common jail, and
the two vigorous individuals whom M. Hue so amusingly describes, but whom
he calls “‘ mandarins d’honneur,” were in reality special “ guards” appointed
for the better security of prisoners of unusual importance. Hence they stood
at the back of M. Huc and his companion, when the latter were being examined
by the assembled authoritics.
8 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

The next kind of territorial divisions for administrative
purposes on which it is necessary to fix the attention are the
departments,* each of which is composed of a group of the
districts just described. The departments vary greatly in
size, some consisting of only two or three districts, others of
as many as twelve or fifteen. The average throughout the
Eighteen provinces is six districts to a department. At the
head of the affairs of each department stands a civilian, the
prefect or departmental judge. ‘To him suitors may appeal
from the district courts. His Yamun or official residence
is in a subject district city, which then ceases to be called
such and is known as the departmental-city. It is the often
occurring Foo of the maps of China.

A few departments, on an average, three, are again grouped
into circuits at the head of which stands a civilian called,
Intendant (‘Taou tae). To him appeals lie from the depart-
mental courts, but he performs in reality very few judicial
or fiscal duties; being rather a superintending administrator
of general affairs. He is the lowest civilian that exercises a
direct ex-officio authority over the military, an authority
which comes into play in the case of local risings against the
proceedings of his subordinates. He usually resides in one
of the foo or departmental cities; but when these have been
outstripped in wealth and population by one of the district
cities of his circuit, he is sometimes stationed in such district
city.t

All the above-named officials: district magistrates, prefects
and intendants, are distributed throughout the provinces
in their respective jurisdictions. We have now to consider
those functionaries who are stationed in the Provincial-
capital, or chief city of each province; and who manage
all the affairs of such province in behalf of the Imperial
Central Government at Peking.

* They have two names in Chinese, Foo and Chih le chow.
+ The Intendant at the district city of Shanghae is an instance. Amoy,
where the Intendant of the Circuit resides, is not even a district city.
ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY. 9

The first is an official charged with the general control of
all affairs. In some provinces he bears the title of Governor,
in others that of Governor General,* but his powers and
duties are the same in all. He is Commander in chief as
well as principal civilian, in the province, and is the only
official in it who is empowered to write to the Cabinet Council
and to address the Emperor,+ with whom he maintains a con-
stant correspondence on all affairs. This privilege, more
than any other, confirms his already ex-officio power over all
other mandarins in the province; any one of whom he can
suspend in the first place, and then denounce to the Emperor
for degradation or absolute dismissal. "We may add that he
has the legal power of issuing death-warrants in certain
flagrant cases, such as piracy, gang robbery, &c.

Immediately under the Governor stand three officials
whose authority extends to all parts of the province; but
only in matters relating to that branch of public business
with which each is specially entrusted. These are, the
Superintendent of Provincial Finances, the Provincial Criminal
Judge, and the Provincial Educational Examiner.

The first receives the taxes from the district magistrates ;

x In five of the eighteen provinces there is both a Governor and a Governor-
general; the latter of whom exercises an authority over one or two of the
adjoining provinces in addition to that in which he is stationed. But as he is,
even in this latter, rather the superordinated associate than the official chief of
the Governor, with whom he divides the duties and powers (that of addressing
the Emperor included), it is not requisite to the right comprehension of the
administrative system to think of more than one such superior official in each
province. Both the Governor and the Governor General (whose title is in
Chinese literally tsung tuh, general governor) have been called viceroys, a
confusing designation for Europeans. For these mandarins are not men of
high hereditary rank, noblemen or princes, taken from private life and sent
to the provinces to represent the Imperial dignity. They are regular members
of the civil service, who took in early life one of the higher degrees at the
public examinations, and commenced their official career with one of the subor-
dinate posts; not a few as district magistrates.

+ Some of the superior military officers have this right as regards the affairs
of the army, but they rarely avail themselves of » privilege the exercise of
which would draw on them the enmity of the Governor, in whose hands there-
fore the advancement to all the better military posts virtually lies.
10 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

and accounts for them, first to the Governor and then to the
Fiscal Board at Peking.

To the second the district magistrates deliver all criminals
sentenced by them to banishment or death; he re-examines
them and reports their cases, first to the Governor, and then
to the Criminal Board at Peking.*

The third, the Educational Examiner, repairs twice in
every three years to each departmental city (foo) in the pro-
vince, and then, with the aid of the Prefect conducts, in the
Examination-hall, the last of the series of primary exami-
nations,} after which a legally fixed number of candidates
from each district attain the first or lowest degree (bachelor).
As the public examinations form the peculiar feature, and the
basis of the Chinese governmental system, I shall have to
devote a page or two farther on to their special consideration.
In the meantime, I would here awaken the mind of the reader
to their vast practical importance by stating that the origi-
nator and acknowledged chief of the present formidable
revolutionary movement was a candidate who failed, after
attending several examinations, to receive this degree from
the Educational Examiner of his province. Had he attained
it, he would in all probability have become one of the ordi-
nary place and promotion seekers in the official career, instead
of bringing about a dynastic crisis.

The Provincial Educational Examiner corresponds with
the Ritual and Educational Board in Peking; but his cor-
respondence, as also that of the Superintendent of Finances
and Criminal Judge with their respective Boards, is wholly
of a routine and formal nature, while they do not communi-
cate at all with the Cabinet Council, or with the Emperor.

* The fact of the district. magistrate (it would be well to change his title in
English to that of district Judge, the sentences of death and banishment which
he passes being rarely rescinded) dealing directly with these two authorities,
lessens the practical influence of the intermediate officers, the Prefects of de-
partment and Intendants of Circuit; whose posts are therefore sought, after
chiefly because they are the necessary steps to further advancement,

+I have stated above that the district magistrates! and educational officers
of the districts conduct the preliminary examinations of the serics,
ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY, 11

The Governor remains essentially ¢he link between the central
and the provincial administrative systems. Most of the Pro-
vincial capitals contain from five to seven hundred thousand
inhabitants; several of them from one to two or even three
millions.* The territorial divisions have been so arranged
that the Provincial capital is always a Foo or chief city of a
department, while the common boundary lines of two (some-
times of three) contiguous districts run through it. The
district magistracies of those districts are then built within
its walls, from whence the magistrates govern their districts,
lying out on two (or three) sides. Thus the Governor has
at hand judicial and administrative officials of every kind
above described, besides a number of others, auwiliaries of
intermediate rank, whom my space barely permits me to name,
—such as fiscal and judicial secretaries, treasurers and prison-
masters, attached to the Superintendent of Finances and
Provincial Judge; sub-prefects and deputy sub-prefects; and
the civil and military secretaries, or aide-de-camps of the
Governor himself. All these are actual incumbents of office,
but in addition to them I must notice, as one of the means of
conducting the administration, a great number of expectant
mandarins, 7.e. mandarins temporarily out of office, and
placed by the Imperial Government in the provinces at the
disposal of the Governors for the performance of special
duties or missions. These unappointed officials are of every
rank, from that of expectant Intendant of Circuit to that of
expectant inspector of police; and are employed in every
description of business from that of examining into the
causes of a local insurrection, (in which case the report of the
responsible local authority cannot be relied on) to the escort-
ing of a prisoner into the contiguous province.

* Woochang, the capital of Hoo pih, contains with Han yang and Han kow
(which are only separated from it by the Yang-tsze, and from each other by a
smaller stream) certainly not fewer inhabitants than London and all its suburbs.
M. Hue, the last foreigner who passed through the place, says that these “three
cities which, so to speak, form only one” are held to contain about eight
millions, and he leaves us to suppose that he saw no reason to consider that
number an over-estimation,
12 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

As there is a civil and an educational establishment for each
province, so there is also for each a Chinese army.* The
strength of these provincial armies varies, from the smallest
of about 8,000 men and officers, in Gan-hwuy—an inland
province inhabited exclusively by Chinese, and therefore
neither exposed to the depredations of pirates and outer bar-
barians nor of savage mountaineers—to the largest, of about
68,000 in Kwang-tung, a province with an extensive sea-
coast, as well as’mountaineers within its westerly boundary-
lines.| Taking all the provinces, the average for each is
about 34,500 men and 640 officers from the General to the
Ensign, or about one officer to fifty-two men.{ I beg the
reader to remark the smallness of this force for a territory
as large in extent and population as Great Britain. The
Governor of the province is the Commander in chief. He is
assisted in most provinces by a General-in-chief, in all by a
greater or less number of Lieutenant and Major Generals;
who are distributed throughout the province at stations of
presumed strategical importance. The divisions of each of
such subordinate general officers, are again subdivided into
detachments throughout that portion of the province over
which the command of each extends, in such manner, that
nearly every district city has in it a garrison, large or small.
In fact, of the whole force in the Eighteen provinces of
602,836 privates, 320,927 are called “ garrison infantry,”
while 194,815 are mobile infantry and 87,094 cavalry.
Each Governor, besides commanding in chief the whole force
of his province, has, in and around the provincial capital, his

* T shall have to devote a page farther on to the consideration of the Tartar
garrisons, which Mr. T. T. Wade fitly characterises (in his valuable little work
on the Chinese Army, Canton, 1851) as “ the force of the usurping family.”

+ Of these 68,000 men and officers about one-third in the seaboard provinces
are “water soldiers” or marines, forming a naval force something like the
Russian, in so far as they are cantoned on shore. A small fraction of these in
Kwang tung being cavalry, those fond of a “ Punchy ” joke may say that among
other strange things, China has “ a squadron of horse marines.”

t{ According to the last “ Estimates,” the proportion in the British army
is 1 to 26.
ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY. 13

own special command consisting of a division of two or three
thousand strong under his Adjutant; who is always either a
Colonel or Lieutenant Colonel.

In closing our view of a Chinese province and its executive
administrators, I may request the reader to recall the already
often employed comparison between such province and a
doubled-down Great Britain. Let him picture to himself in
the midst of its seventy to ninety shires or districts (and
nearly centrally situated so far as means of communication
is concerned) a more or less large London, in which resides a
Governor, ruling from thence out over the whole, by means
of the above described, minutely graduated, and carefully
organized services of judicial and fiscal, of educational, and
of military mandarins. This great functionary holds a
business levee every morning at sunrise, which is attended
daily by most of the incumbents of office at the capital; by
a number of the expectant mandarins to whom some special
business has been entrusted ; and by not a few of the officials
from the “outer” departments and districts, who come and
go to forward their more important business by personal
application to him, as well as to the Superintendent of
Finances, and the Criminal Judge. Besides this oral com-
munication, there is an enormous correspondence, private and
official, carried on by means of the government post esta-
blishment; for which there is a separate service in some of
the provinces, but which is often attended to by one of the
others, generally the military. While each of the eighteen
Governors of the provinces is in this incessant communication
with his host of subordinates on the one hand, each is, on
the other hand, in constant correspondence with the Supreme
Government and the Emperor at Peking; which I shall now
proceed to consider.

As in Paris there are a number of Ministéres and Cours,
and as in London there are a number of Secretaries of State
and other Offices and of Boards of Commissioners and
Courts of Law, charged each with a specific department of
14 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

the executive and judicial government of the French and
British empires respectively; so there are in Peking a number
of very large Yamun or Public offices, each similarly charged
with a specific department in the government of the Chinese
Empire. And as we in England have a Privy Council and
a Cabinet Council nearer the Sovereign, and exercising the
general control over the above departmental or sectional
Offices and Boards; so there are over the sectional Yamun
or Public offices at Peking a Nuy ko or Inner Council, and
a Keun ke choo, a “ place of military movements,” or Strate-
gical Office.

The first mentioned, the Inner Council, consists of a large
(but not unlimited) number of members; is methodically
organized; performs important but somewhat routine func-
tions ; has its records; is the oldest; és still the highest in
rank ; and was originally the first in practical power.

The second, the Strategical Office, notwithstanding its some-
what military name, closely parallels our Cabinet, in its
composition out of a few of the most influential mandarins
in the Capital; in the comparativcly informal nature of its
procedure; and in its virtual exercise of the highest legisla-
tive and executive duties, under the immediate eye of the
Sovereign power. As, however, all public business is as
a general rule more methodically and systematically con-
ducted in China than in England, so we find that the Chief
Council in the state has a small building in the Palace for its
meetings; has records, and carries on a correspondence by
means of confidential clerks. I have just said “eye of the
sovereign power.” I make use of the term sovereign power,
instead of sovereign in order to preserve the parallelism insti-
tuted between the British and Chinese governments; for
here we arrive at a point where that parallelism can strictly
speaking no longer be maintained. In England the ministers
carry on the legislation and the administration, directly
controlled with respect to the former, unceasingly watched
and questioned with respect to the latter, by the houses of
ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY. 15

parliament. Nothing analogous to these exists in China;
where the Emperor is the absolute legislator and adminis-
trator, as well as in his own person the highest criminal
court in the Empire. And I shall presently show that the
theory and practice of succession to the throne is such as
often to secure a virtual exercise of these functions; an
exercise limited only by the mental and physical powers of
the man. What the District Magistrate is in the District,
and the Governor in the Province, that and more is the
Emperor in the Empire—more particularly, in so far as he
legislates, which they do not.

I must, however, mention a public office peculiar to China,
which is specially charged with one of the functions per-
formed by our parliament. This is the Too cha yuen, lite-
rally, Court of general Inspection, but commonly called by
foreigners the Censorate. It consists of a large number of
members whose duty is to inspect or watch the proceedings
of all the other mandarins, provincial and metropolitan ; and
to make reports to the Emperor, pointing out their misdeeds
and failures and recommending remedies. The check on
these officers, who are called “ the eyes and ears” of the
Emperor, is curious and efficient. He puts them in the
places of the mandarins who have failed, gives them full
powers, and says; “ Now you succeed or IT may
add that this practice not only acts as a check against mali-
cious attacks, but, where the censor really understands the
business he reports on, Jeads directly to its efficient trans-
action.

 
16 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

CHAPTER II.

THEORY AND PRACTICAL WORKING OF THE NORMAL
CHINESE AUTOCRACY.

I wave above endeavoured to describe summarily the
machinery of government; I shall now try shortly to show
how the several parts come to be where they are, in other
words how the authorities, from the Emperor to the police
inspector, attain their positions.

The reigning Emperor of China is absolute because he is,
in the eyes of his people, the Teen tsze, the Son of Heaven.
By this no physical sonship is meant, but simply, that the
Emperor is the chosen agent and representative on earth of
that supreme ruling power or providence of which the
Chinese, from the most ancient times to the present day,
have always had a more or less lively conception under the
name of Teen, or Heaven.* As such representative of this
supreme Heavenly or Divine power, the authority of the
actual monarch is, by a logical consequence, unlimited
except by divine principles. But the idea of a divine right

* The first Catholic missionaries, in rendering the word God, availed them-
selves of the existence of this early belief, by using the word Teen, giving,
however, a greater personality to the conception by adding to that word, a
second, Choo, or Lord, and thus creating the appellative, “‘ Teen Choo,—Hea-
venly Lord” or “Lord of Heaven.” Some Protestant missionaries have
thought that Teen alone would be the best rendering. The religious insurgents
use as frequently as any other the term “ Teen Foo, Heavenly Father ;” and
in one of their books recording “a descent of God into the world,” they repre-
sent Him as saying, “ Teen she wo,—Heaven ’tis I.” The object is evidently
to say to all Chinese who read the books :— The power which you fear as

Heaven, that very power am I—the founder and watchful protector of the
Tae ping dynasty.”
WORKING OF THE NORMAL AUTOCRACY. 17

to the sovereignity by birth has never been known to the
national mind. The Chinese have an authentic political
history for 4,200 years back —a history never full, but
even in the oldest times in a large measure pragmati-
cal, or descriptive of the causes which have led to dynastic
changes. Now, from the earliest periods of this history, it
has been distinctly taught, both by example and by precept,
that no man whatever had a hereditary divine right to the
throne, not the eldest son, nor even any son, of its last
oceupant.* In spite of the power and influence that at his
decease is in possession of his family which naturally strives
to maintain its position, this principle has always been
able to assert for itself more or less of a practical operation.
And in modern times it is not positively known, during the
reign of any one sovereign, who will be his successor in the
exercise of the Divinely delegated power. Both in theory
and in practice the primary claim to the successorship is .
given by the death-bed or the testamentary nomination of
the reigning sovereign; but it is by good government alone
that the nominee can fully establish his divine right. When
by good government, in accordance with the divine principles,
as laid down in the national Sacred works,{+ he has given
(or preserved) to the people, peace and plenty, and, as a
consequence, established himself in power by his hold on the
national esteem and affection; then only will they consider
him, and (from his similar education) then only will he
consider himself, the veritable ‘Fung teen, the Divinely
appointed,” the Son of Heaven. Natural affection has almost
always led to the nomination of a relative, mostly a son ; but

* Court flatterers and short sighted or weak Emperors have, indeed, attempted
to change or overturn this principle, but they have never been able to obtain
for their views anything but a temporary and very partial currency. There have
at all times been found patriotic and self-sacrificing mandarins to oppose a suc-
cessful resistance by word and deed.

+ Above all, in that known in Europe as the Historical Classic. Were any
oceupant of the throne to hold language avowedly contrary to that book, it
would be equivalent to declaring himself an usurper ; not the Son of Heaven.

C
18 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

e

six out of the seven emperors of the present dynasty * have
not been the eldest sons of their fathers ; while the memorable
fact is ever present to the national mind, and to the mind
of the sovereign as one of the nation, that the two great:
historical musters, the revered ancient monarchs, Yaou and
Shun, passed each over his own son, because accounted
unworthy, and nominated a stranger. The principle that
no man is by birth entitled to reign over them, is better
known to the 360 millions of China, than it is known to the
twenty-seven millions of Great Britain and Ireland that
they are entitled to be tried by their peers.

I have said that the successor to the throne is not
considered by others or by himself the Divinely appointed,+
unless he gives peace and plenty to the empire. So true is
this that the disasters of war, pestilence, and famine—even
earthquakes and storms of extraordinary violence, are but
_ ways by which Heaven declares that the occupant of the
throne is not its chosen representative, or that he has ceased
to be such ;—that it is about to withdraw from him the
“Teen ming, the Divine commission.” All nature animate
or inanimate is based on one principle or law, the “ Teen taou,
or way of Heaven.” So long as the occupant of the throne
rules with the rectitude and; goodness which are the chief
features of this law, both man and nature gladly submit, and
peace and plenty prevail. When he violates this law, the
passions of man and the powers of the elements alike break
loose. A sincere repentance, and prompt return to con-
formity with Heaven’s laws—the only true principles of
government—may yet still the tumult; but, with their con-

* The present family obtained possession of the throne in 1644.

+ The Chinese expression is similar to our occidental one of “ Sovereign by
the Grace of God.” But with the Chinese their term has a living meaning
which the occidental one has ceased to have—in England at least. A Chinaman
will often derive hope in times of adversity and affliction by turning to the
beneficent ruling power the “Jaou teen’ or old Heaven ;” an expression which
is then, in his mouth, very like that of “Je bon diew” in the mouth of the
common Frenchman under similar trials.
WORKING OF THE NORMAL AUTOCRACY. 19

tinued violation, evils and calamities multiply until confusion
and discord reign paramount throughout the universe. It is
not merely insurrections in the inner country, nor the irrup-
tions of “ rebellious” barbarians that signify the displeasure
of Heaven to the Emperor of China. Neither is that dis-
pleasure announced by any enigmatical Mene, Mene, Tekel,
Upharsin on the walls of the imperial banqueting-hall. In
China the rivers rise from their beds, the ground sullenly -
refuses its fruits, the plains tremble, the hills reel, and the
typhoon rages over seas and coasts, all alike uttering a
Numbered, Numbered, Weighed, and Parted, that requires no
interpretation, but is read in anxiety by the people, in dismay
and terror by the Prince. And he humbles himself before
Heaven and his subjects by publishing those self-accusatory
and repentant documents which Europeans peruse with
surprise and ridicule, but which are wrung from his pride
by his fears, and are earnest, trembling efforts to avert the
execution of Divine justice.

I distinctly declare to my readers that they must remain
unable to form a correct estimate—a sound estimate for
practical political purposes—of Chinese rebellions, and of the
present rebellion more than most others, until they. have
habituated themselves to regard the above principles, not as
the theorizing of a few ingenious Chinese of modern times,
or as the lore of historical antiquaries, but as ever-present,
practically operative, ideas in the minds of the whole people.
Take for instance the last enumerated, and most foreign to
our notions. Dearth excepted, which we know may lead to
insurrections of starving people, the disorders and convulsions
of nature have for us no effect on political affairs; but
in China earthquakes, typhoons, even comets and meteoro-
logical fires are real precursors and hasteners of dynastic
changes, simply because the nation, from the prince to the
beggar, believe them to announce such: to the well affected
they are a heavy discouragement, to the dissatisfied and the
rebel a great incitement and support.

c2
20 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Ey

The pure theory of succession is, that the best and wisest
man in the Empire should be nominated. This is so far
modified in practice that the Emperor selects his ablest son,
priority of birth serving neither as qualification nor dis-
qualification.* The present family have in two instances
been remarkably successful, both as to the mental and the
physical qualities of the son nominated. The second Emperor
of their line, Kang he, not only reigned, but actually ruled
with great vigour and intelligence for sixty-one years. It was
he who fairly established the power of his house on a firm
basis. The fourth Emperor, Keen lung,+ ruled with equal
intelligence and great vigour, likewise for sixty-one years;
when he resigned for the very Chinese reason that he wished
to avoid surpassing his grandfather. He completed and pro-
longed the dominion and power of his family; whose decay
may be said to have commenced under his successor.

The principle that good government consists in getting the
services, as officers, of “ heen nang, the worthy and talented,”
the “good and able,” has also been distinctly taught, and
more or less practically enforced from the earliest periods of
Chinese history. It was impossible to ascertain people’s
moral qualities, their sense of justice, their devotion or their
honesty by competitive examinations. There could be no
degrees accorded—no bachelorships, no doctorates—of virtue.
But intellectual qualities could be classed with much approxi-
mative accuracy by means of competitive examinations; and
the Chinese had at a very early period of their existence
recognised the psychological fact, the law of human nature,

* In affairs of succession to landed or territorial property or power the
superior and exclusive rights of primogeniture are so much a matter of course
with us that I must draw the attention of the reader to the fact that, this idea
being unknown to the Chinese, the eldest son, never having believed himself
to have any right of preference, submits to the selection of a younger son, a8

younger sons submit with us. Farther, to dispute the will of a parent is with.
the Chinese a great crime,

+ Kang he was the third of the living sons of his father, selected in prefer-

ence to his two seniors. Keen lung was the eldest living son of his father,
preferred before two juniors,
WORKING OF THE NORMAL AUTOCRACY. 21

that while there is on the one hand an intimate connection
between “ignorance and vice,’ so on the other hand high
intellectual faculties are, as a general rule, (which the ex-
ceptions but prove) associated with moral elevation. Accord-
ingly they resolved to sift out the high intellectual powers,
as well for their own value as because they furnish the
best index to moral superiority at the command of human
beings; who are unable to “search the heart.” Hence the
establishment about one thousand years ago of a system of
examinations, which has been receiving extensions and im-
provements in its organization up to the present time. I have
spoken above, page 10, of the examinations by which the
first or lowest degree (sew tsae), which we may call that of
bachelor, is attained. Every three years the bachelors of
each province are examined, in the provincial capital, by two
examiners who are sent from Peking, assisted by a large staff
of the officials on the spot. From five to ten thousand bachelors
attend these triennial provincial examinations, though only
a very limited number, averaging about seventy for each
province, can pass. These have then the degree of Keu jin,
or Licentiate. The licentiates from all the provinces are at
liberty to attend the triennial metropolitan examinations at
Peking ; where some two or three hundred of them attain the
degree of Tsin sze, or doctor. All these titles may be shortly
described as marking degrees of extent and profundity of
knowledge in the national philosophy, ethics,* principles of
government, history, and statute laws, as well as of powers of
composition. Bachelors have no right to expect office, their
degree merely marking those who have stood the sifting
process of the primary district, and departmental exami-

* The examination in knowledge of ethics or the principles of morality is
one of the nearest approaches that can be made to direct examination of the
moral qualities. A man low by nature and a scoundrel in practice may be
able to hand in very good solutions of purely intellectual, say mathematical,
problems; but he will hardly, if shut up without books, be able to prepare
clear and still less original essays on moral questions. He then travels blindly
in a foreign land.
22 THE CHINESE AND THEIR EEBELIIONS.

nations.” But the degree of licentiate, when China is socially
and politically in a normal state, entitles the possessors to
expect a post, after some years waiting; while that of doctor
ensures him without delay a district magistracy at the
least.

From all this my readers will see that there exists an
enormous difference between the administrative system of the
Chinese and those of certain other oriential nations, Persia and
Turkey for instance. Eastern Asia differs as widely from
Western Asia, as does this latter from Western Europe.
Such a thing is unknown in China as the sudden elevation
by the Emperor of grooms or barbers to the high official
posts. Hard and successful study only, enables a Chinese to
set foot on the lowest step of the official ladder, and a long
and unusually successful career is necessary to enable him to
reach the higher rounds. The Chinese executive system is
at once the most gigantic, and most minutely organized that
the World has ever seen. It and its modes of action are
carefully defined by regulations emanating from the Emperor,
and having, therefore, the same force that any other branch
of the law has. All Chinese law is carefully codified and
divided into chapters, sections and subsections. Some parts
of this law are as old as the Chinese administrative system.
One of the oldest, and by the people most venerated, of the
codes is that which most nearly concerns themselves; the
penal. This, commenced two thousand years ago, has grown
with the nation. Recent reigning families have more or less
modified it; but in substance it is national not dynastic; and,
though some of its enactments viewed from the stand point
of our Christian civilization are harsh or cruel, it has been
said with perfect truth, that the Chinese desire only its
enforcement with strict purity and impartiality.* Complete
copies are sold so cheaply as to be within easy reach of the
humbler tradesmen. This, and all other codes + are frequently

* See Introduction to Staunton’s Translation of the Penal Code.
+The only others which directly affect a large portion of the people are
WORKING OF THE NORMAL AUTOCRACY. 23

being added to or modified in details by Imperial Edicts of
a general legislative character.* But in legislating the
emperor cannot follow the dictates of his own arbitrary will;
he cannot even follow the dictates of temporary expediency—
without palpably weakening his power in consequence of
the universal contempt with which he and his proceedings
would be regarded. His statute legislation must be faith-
fully deduced from general principles well known to the
country; and he and his ministers must, moreover, watch
constantly that the existing law is administered with justice and
impartiality. These have always been imperative conditions
of the stability and prolonged duration of dynasties in China.
Failure, whether wilful or the consequence of a pressure of
unavoidable circumstances,’ entails inevitably, first contempt
and apathy, then positive disaffection, then disorders, riots,
gang robberies, insurrections against local authorities, and
ultimately avowed rebellion aiming at a change of dynasty.
Tf this is successful, then that fact is a palpable, and in China
unquestioned, proof that the Divine Commission had been
withdrawn from the old family; and that the rebellion was not
simply excusable, nor laudable only, but, as an execution of
the will of Heaven, inevitable. The normal Chinese govern-

those of a fiscal nature, regulating the amount and the mode of levying the
revenue. Those regulating the public examinations affect students and gra-
duates. Those which regulate the appointment and promotion of mandarins
affect candidates for office and officials.

* Such edicts are collected and published quarterly in every provincial
capital ; and at the end of the year the four quarterly numbers are bound toge-
ther and sold as one volume. I have now before me twenty such volumes,
being those for 1831 to 1850 inclusive. That for 1842 when the English war
pressed most heavily on the country is by far the thinnest. I may add here
that there are published with the sanction of the Criminal Board, voluminous
collections of precedents (cases selected as elucidative of the precise application
of particular clauses of the Code) ;—and that there exists a well paid and much
respected class of men, called sze yay, who devote their lives to forensic studies,
and of whom two or three are in the private employ of every mandarin, as his
legal advisers. One of the most comprehensive misstatements in M. Huc’s book
is that where he asserts that the Chinese have no “science du droit” “juris-
prudence” “jurisconsultes” or “ministére des avocats.” (Vol. 2. page 302.)
24 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

ment is essentially based on moral force: it is not a des-
potism. A military and police is maintained sufficient to
crush merely factious risings, but totally inadequate, both in
numbers and in nature, to put down a disgusted and indig-
nant people. But though no despotism, this same govern-
ment is in form and machinery a pure autocracy. In his
district the magistrate is absolute; in his province, the
governor; in the empire, the Emperor. The Chinese people
have no right of legislation, they have no right of self-
taxation, they have not the power of voting out their rulers or
of limiting or stopping supplies. They have therefore the right
of rebellion. Rebellion is in China the old, often exercised,
legitimate, and constitutional means of stopping arbitrary
and vicious legislation and administration. To say that an
industrious and cultivated people should have no right what-
ever, in any way, of checking misgovernment and tyranny
which must destroy its cultivation and its industry, and ulti-
mately its very existence as a people, is to maintain a pro-
position so monstrous that I merely state it. Even where,
as in England, there exist the formal means of machinery
for constraint of a peaceful as well as constitutional cha-
racter, the people has in extreme cases a right to appeal to
force.

I may here notice certain conflicting views given of China
and its history by different writers, and sometimes by one
and the same writer. By some we have enforced on our
attention the fondness of the Chinese for the Old, and the
unchangeableness of their institutions. Others dilate on the
contrary on the constant rise and fall of dynasties, and on
the internal conflicts which accompany them, till we are
tempted to think the Chinese the most unstable and revolu-
tionary people in the world. As frequently happens in such
cases of prolonged and apparently interminable assertion of
opposing views, the cause of the variance rests in the confusion
produced by an undistinguishing use of words. The words
are in this case revolution and rebellion, with their respective
WORKING OF THE NORMAL AUTOCRACY. 25

paronyms. These two classes of words have, in writings on
China been constantly interchanged as synonymous, yet
they refer to two essentially different kinds of acts. Revolu-
tion is a change of the form of government and of the prin-
ciples on which it rests: it does not necessarily imply a
change of rulers. Rebellion is a rising against the rulers
which, far from necessarily aiming at a change of govern-
mental principles and forms, often originates in a desire
of preserving them intact. Revolutionary movements are
against principles; rebellions against men. The revolu-
tionary tendencies of Charles the First made his subjects
rebels; and it was only his obstinate and infatuated per-
sistance in attempts to change a (then already) limited
monarchy into a despotism that forced loyal subjects and
true patriots into downright revolution, as well as rebellion.
Bearing the above distinction clearly in mind, great light
may be thrown by one sentence over the 4,000 years of
Chinese history: Of all nations that have attained a certain
degree of civilization, the Chinese are the least revolutionary and
the most rebellious. Speaking generally, there has been but
one great political revolution in China, when the centralized
form of government was substituted for the feudal, about
2,000 years ago.*

* To guard against misapprehension here I must explain that the theory
with reference to the Sovereign has from the first been the same. As the
“ divinely appointed,” “the son of heaven,” he has always had the right (if not
the virtual power) to exercise autocratic authority ; and the question of feu-
dalism or centralization was strictly speaking a question of administration
under him. It was a question long debated; and even now advocates of
feudalism may be found among Chinese well acquainted with the national
history. But a very great authority in China, the statesman and ethicist,
Choo he, who was born a.p. 1130, summed up in favour of centralization ;
which has been practised without interruption during the 700 years that
have since elapsed. By the feudal form of government is here meant sub-
division of the empire into states, under rulers who received investiture from
the emperor as a matter of course in consequence of their birth, and who
concentrated in themselves the unchecked management of military, fiscal and
judicial affairs in their respective territories. By the centralized form is meant
the subdivision of all administrators under the emperor, to a certain extent,
26 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Where I have stated above that successful risings of the
Chinese against their rulers were justifiable, I might perhaps
with greater propriety have used the word insurrection, in-
stead of, rebellion ; to which an offensive sense is attached by
the usage of our language. To say the Chinese had “ the
right to rebel,” was almost a contradiction in terms. But
the words “rebels,” rebellious’? and “rebellion” have
been go freely applied to the present insurgents and. their
insurrectionary acts, that I could only hope to overthrow the
misconception that application causes by a face to face grapple
with it. Hence to “rebel” I opposed “right.” But in
truth the word rebel and its paronyms cannot when used
of Chinese affairs be taken in their old or strictly English
meaning, and the reader, who does not prefer untruth to
truth, must carefully abstain from interpreting these terms,
so used, in a necessarily offensive sense. In England, in our
limited monarchy, in our on the whole admirably balanced
constitution (which secures the people a larger amount of
virtual self-government, and in individuals a greater portion
of true freedom than any that the world has ever yet seen)
the principle that the sovereign can do no wrong, combined

into military, fiscal and judicial services, and in every case their tenure of
power during his pleasure only, together with constant accountability to him
as to its exercise. This latter form, it is evident, admits more completely of
the carrying out of the principle of governing by the most able and talented ;
and hence it is that it and the public service examination system have
acquired strength and development together. The reader will observe that
centralization as here defined is not opposed to local self government. Our
military, fiscal, and even our judicial officers (if convicted of ill conduct) are
removable by the Sovereign, yet we exercise much local self government; and
there is no small amount of this latter in China. The two things are perfectly
compatible, and both are indispensable to a people that wishes to be at once
united and free, powerful against foreign foes and untyrannized over by
internal rulers. Centralization is injurious when it interferes with local affairs
which the central authorities can neither be well acquainted with, nor be much
interested in the right conduct of. Self government is injurious when it
trenches on imperial matters so far as to produce diversities in the empire not
required by any peculiarity in local circumstances. he true problem is to
define the limits of both, and then increase the efficiency of each to the very
utmost within its own limits.
WORKING OF THE NORMAL AUTOCRACY. 27

with the right of primogeniture is the very element of
stability ; an element which thoughtful patriotic Englishmen
have always been slow indeed to touch or tamper with.* In
China with its autocratically ruling sovereign and cen-
tralized administration (under which the nation has flourished
and increased for thousands of years until it has grown to a
homogeneous people of 360 industrious and satisfied millions)
it is precisely the right to rebel that has been a chief element
of a national stability, unparalleled in the world’s history.
Rebellion is there but the storm that clears and invigorates a
political atmosphere which has become sultry and unwhole-
some. We are so accustomed to associate self government with
freedom as almost to consider them interchangeable terms,
and to regard autocracy and despotism as equally synonymous.
Let the reader note the difference. The Russian autocracy
is a despotism, not only because supported by a great physical
force, but what is still more terrible, because the whole
intellectual power is possessed by the rulers. The Chinese
Government is not a despotism maintained by a physical
force, but an autocracy existing in virtue of the cheerful
acquiescence of the people. The latter actually do share
largely in a kind of self government, in consequence of the
mandarins being taken impartially from ai/ classes. Further,
at the triennial examinations in each province only about
"0 of the competing bachelors out of some six or eight
thousand can become licentiates and mandarins. But among
the rejected of these eight thousand, there are probably
700 as able as the selected 70; between whom and the
latter it was a mere “toss up”, with the examiners. All
these rejected remain members of the non-official com-
monality and possess, with hundreds of thousands of can-

* So well have the English understood this that they have only once, in the
course of 800 years, submitted for atime to a serious attempt to oust the
family. The Chinaman when told of the long duration of our dynasty and at
the same time of our freedom from tyranny is as much puzzled as many
English may be about the “ right to rebel” which I here insist on for China.
28 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

didates who never even attain bachelorships, as much intel-
lectual power for practical purposes as the bulk of the
administrators. Many of the more reckless and daring, I may
add, perform the functions of professional demagogic agitators
with us: they, for selfish purposes, bully and check the local
authorities. So much as to self government and a check
on the governors. As to practical freedom, mark the fol-
lowing. The Chinaman can sell and hold landed property
with a facility, certainty and security which is absolute per-
fection compared with the nature of English dealings of the
same kind. He can traverse his country throughout its
2,000 miles of length unquestioned by any official, and in
doing so can follow whatever occupation he pleases. In
open defiance of an obsolete law, he can quit his country
and re-enter it without passport or other hindrance. Lastly,
from the paucity of the military and police establishments
numbers of large villages (towns we may call some) exist in
every district, the inhabitants of which scarcely ever see an
official agent except when the tax gatherers apply for the
annual land tax.*

In some provinces the people are more prompt than in others
to resist every kind of practical tyranny. In all, Chinamen
enjoy an amount of freedom in the disposal of their per-
sons and property, which other European nations than the
Russians may well envy them. I may now quote a passage
from Mill’s Political Economy, having reference there to
the prosperity of the small free states and cities of Europe in
the Middle Ages in spite of their frequent intestine struggles,
but which is equally applicable to the flourishing state of
China and its steady progress, in spite of its devastating,
dynastic, civil wars:—“ Insecurity paralyzes only when it is

* In certain parts of China these personages are so far from attempting to
levy this tax by force that they often get the magistrate to give them a bam-
booing and then repair to the villages with a self imposed cangue round their
necks, point to these penal instruments and to their blue marked persons, and

appeal to the good feeling of the rustics, crying; “ See what we have to suffer
because you delay paying us what we are bound to hand in.”
WORKING OF THE NORMAL AUTOCRACY. 29

such in nature and in degree, that no energy, of which
mankind in general are capable, affords any tolerable means
of self-protection. And this is a main reason why oppres-
sion by the government, whose power is generally irre-
sistible by any efforts that can be made by individuals,
has so much more baneful an effect on the springs of
national prosperity, than almost any degree of lawlessness
and turbulence under free institutions. Nations have ac-
quired some wealth, and made some progress in improve-
ment, in states of social union so imperfect as to border on
anarchy ; but no countries in which the people were exposed
without limit to arbitrary exactions from the officers of
government, ever yet continued to have industry or wealth.
A few generations of such a government never fail to extin-
guish both. Some of the fairest, and once the most prospe-
rous, regions of the earth, have, under the Roman and. after-
wards under the Turkish dominion, been reduced to a desert,
solely by that cause. I say solely, because they would have
recovered with the utmost rapidity, as countries always do
from the devastations of war, or any other temporary
calamities.”
30 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

CHAPTER III.

ACCESSION, ABNORMAL POLICY, AND WEAKNESS OF THE
PRESENT MANCHOO DYNASTY.

Aux that I have said above refers to Chinese institutions
in their normal national state, such as they, for instance,
substantially were (with a little difference in names rather
than in things) during a large portion of the dynastic period
of the Chinese family which was superseded by the present
Manchoo house. This latter, first merely at the head of an
obscure Tartar clan, then over a Manchoo Tartar monarchy,
though it adapted itself in the main to the institutions it
found in China, and was naturally itself conquered by the
Confucian civilization, the only one it had any opportunity
of knowing, did nevertheless introduce some essential modi-
fications, which it is the more necessary to notice as they
were the incipient causes of the trying struggle for existence
in which the dynasty is now engaged.

Going back a little, we find that the Mongols, under the
immediate descendants of Genghis Khan, conquered China
in 1271 and ruled over it till 1368, when after a prolonged
struggle between them and Chinese rebels, the latter suc-
ceeded in establishing a native dynasty, that of the Mings;
which ruled for 276 years. During the last quarter century
of that period its misgovernment had so alienated the affec-
tions of the people that it was constantly engaged with
insurgents and rebels in the interior; in addition to its fights
with the barbarous tribes in the west and north (Manchoos)
which the internal weakness rendered it unable to meet
&

ACCESSION OF THE MANCHOO DYNASTY.. 31

effectually. At length, a native rebel, Le tsze ching, who
had, after eight years’ fighting, established his power
over one third of the country, entered Peking in 1644;
when the last Ming Emperor, deserted and unsupported,
committed suicide. One of his generals, Woo san kwei,
then on the borders keeping off the Manchoos, immediately
made peace with the latter and begged their assistance
against “the usurper.” They readily gave it, were suc-
cessful, and then availed themselves of the opening, thus
afforded by a Chinese, and the aid of his army, to establish
themselves in Peking, and gradually in the sovereignty of the
Empire. This result was not attained, however, until after
a seven years’ bloody struggle, to which another struggle of
like duration, the Prussian seven years’ war, was but a trifle;
and the result would not have been attained at all but for
the disunion among the Chinese together with the great
degree in which the Manchoo monarchs adopted, and the
vigour with which they enforced, the normal Chinese prin-
ciples and practice of government. Still the Manchoos felt
that their military power was the original cause of their
advent to dominion; and hence they naturally endeavoured
to maintain it intact. Besides a very large Tartar garrison,
now about 150,000 strong, at Peking, they established
smaller garrisons in nine of the provincial capitals and ten
other important points in the provinces. These, nineteen
in all, are on the average, as enumerated in the Imperial
books, each about three thousand strong; but as they always
had with them their wives and families—are in fact military
colonies—the natural increase of their numbers in the course
of several generations has been such, that they are now
supposed to average about seven to eight thousand able-bodied
men. The mere sight of these garrisons has been a constant
reminder to the Chinese of their being under the dominion
of an alien, barbarian race; and as the latter have always
borne themselves with much of the insolence of conquerors,
their acts have been a constant excitement to disaffection.
32 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

These garrisons form one deviation from the fundamental
principles of Chinese government, as a partial attempt to
substitute a physically supported despotism for a morally
supported autocracy.

From the first the Manchoo family associated a number of
its compatriots with, or substituted them for, the Chinese
officials, in all the higher government posts, whether in the
central or the provincial administrations. With the increase
of the race in numbers, the necessity of “ providing for” its
members has been a steadily increasing cause for the extension
of this association and substitution. This forms another breach
of the Chinese principles of government. ‘These require that
the nation should be governed by the most worthy and able.
But the Manchoo officials owe their positions to birth. They
are in point of moral qualities certainly not superior, and in
intellectual acquirements markedly inferior to their Chinese
colleagues and subordinates; while their first appointment,
and subsequent more rapid promotion, constantly excludes
and disappoints a number of Chinese of ability and of honour-
able ambitions. These flagrant breaches of fundamental prin-
ciples well-known to the Chinese people induced and justified
general laxity. ence the spread of corruption, which, com-
bined with the inefficiency of so large a proportion of the
officials in the higher and middle ranks, brought on financial
difficulties. Inability to meet these latter in any other way, led
to another species of breach of principle. Government posts
were sold ; and to incompetent Manchoos were added incom-
petent Chinese, whose constant and chief aim was to extort
from the people the money they had spent in purchasing the
power to do so. Hence spread of tyranny, which led at
length to risings, which again had to be extinguished by an
expenditure, that an increasing amount of inefficiency and
corruption in the administration made ever greater and
greater. Such was the downward course which continued
to become more and more apparent during the reigns of
Kea king and his son Taou kwang, up to the English war.
WEAKNESS OF THE MANCHOO DYNASTY. 33

This latter inflicted a dreadful blow on the Manchoos; for
their two provincial garrisons of Cha poo and Chin keang
were defeated and almost destroyed, with an ease that shook
their own confidence in the prowess and destiny of their
race, and completely dispelled its prestige of military power
in the eyes of the subject Chinese. And then the great
costs of the struggle, of which the twenty-seven millions of
dollars paid to the British at its close was but a small
moiety, plunged the government into irremediable financial
difficulties. The sale of government posts was carried on
more extensively, and corruption, tyranny, disaffection,
robbery, piracy,. local insurrectionary risings, misgovernment
in short, and no-government prevailed more than ever up to
1850, when the “ Kwangse rebellion” broke out.
34 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE, CAUSES OF
ITS UNITY AND GENERAL HOMOGENEITY, AND OF CERTAIN
PECULIARITIES IN THE SOUTH-EASTERN CHINESE.

In order to understand aright the circumstances under which
the politico-religious rebellion has come into existence and
the people who originated it, we must devote a little time
to a cursory view of the rise and progress of the Chinese
nation as a whole; and then note some differences that, in
the midst of the general and wonderful homogeneity, do
nevertheless distinguish the South-Eastern Chinese from the
rest of the nation.

The original seat of the Chinese people was the northern
portion of Chih le, the province in which the present capital
Peking happens to be situated.

How the first Chinese, the founders of the nation, came to
be in that locality, is one of those questions connected with
the origin and spread of the human race generally which can
only receive a conjectural solution. All we do or can know
positively is that the first portion of authentic Chinese
history tells us that the Emperor Yaou, who reigned 4,200
years ago, had his capital at the now district city of Tsin
chow, situated about 100 miles only to the south of the present
capital Peking. From this most ancient location the people
spread gradually westward and southward, thus steadily in-
creasing its territory. The usual course of the process was,
first colonization of the newer regions, and displacement from
them of whatever aboriginal inhabitants were found; and
RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE. 35

afterwards political incorporation with the older territory.
At times however the process was reversed, and military
conquest of the aboriginals preceded their displacement by an
industrial occupation of their lands. Lastly I have to draw
special attention to one other mode in which the Chinese
have effected territorial extension, a mode which exemplifies
in a striking manner the peculiarity, and the innate strength of
Chinese civilization. The whole nation with its country, has
been conquered by some adjacent barbarous people; has then,
under cover of the political union thus effected, penetrated
into, and partially colonized the original country of its con-
querors; and ultimately has freed itself by force, and taken
political possession of its new colonies after having previously
effected a mental subjugation of its conquerors by dint of
superior civilization. Something of this kind happened with
the Khitan Tartars who had possession of the north of China
Proper, after that with the Mongols who had the whole
country, and it is well known to be the process in operation
for the 200 years last past under the present rulers, Manchoos,
whom the Chinese colonists are partially superseding in their
own old country, Manchooria.

IT have already noticed the distinction between China Proper
and the Chinese Empire. Let the reader note now that the
territorial distinction marked by these terms has existed in
fact from the earliest periods of Chinese history. China proper
means at all periods that portion of the east of the Asiatic con-
tinent which has been possessed and permanently occupied by
the Chinese people. The Chinese Empire means at all periods
besides China Proper, those large portions of the whole Asiatic
continent occupied by Tartar-Nomads, or other non-Chinese
peoples, but which have from time to time been under the sway
of the Emperor of China, and more or less directly ruled by
Chinese officers and armies. China Proper has at all periods
been characterized by Chinese civilization; that is to say its
population generally besides being physically of the same race,
has always been governed in its domestic, its social, and (with

D2
36 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

the exception of some very short periods) its political, life by
the principles and rules laid down in the Chinese old Sacred
Books. The non-Chinese peoples of the Chinese Empire have,
on the other hand, at all periods either been destitute of any-
thing that could be called civilization, or have been slightly
tinged with Chinese civilization, or have been marked by
some different civilization; as for instance, at present, the in-
habitants of Turkestan by a Mahommedan civilization, the
inhabitants of Tibet by one strictly Budhistic.

The Chinese Empire as thus defined has in the course of
ages varied greatly in extent. It has been more than once
larger than it is even now. It was so, for example, about
2,000 years ago, under the fifth Emperor of the Han dynasty ;
when it embraced the greater portion of inhabited Asia west
of the Caspian sea, and inclusive of Siam, Pegu, Camboya
and Bengal. In the intervals between these great extensions
it has shrunk up to the size of China Proper, and even this
latter has been occasionally subdivided for considerable pe-
riods under two or more ruling families or dynasties, each
acknowledging no superior. But the Chinese people has
continued the same, even when under several rulers, and has
been steadily increasing its territorial possessions by the
processes above described.

Starting, as said, 4,200 years ago from the country north
of the Yellow river we find it spreading to, and establishing
itself in the country north of the Yang tsze about 1,500 years
later, or Bc. 800. In the centuries immediately succeeding
this latter period, it appears* to have acquired permanent
possession of the whole of the great Yang tsze basin. So far
its progress had been comparatively speaking unimpeded by
serious geographical obstructions. But the watershed along
the southern edge of this Yang tsze basin is a high and rugged
mountain chain that long checked its advance. The Chinese
_ Emperor who established himself on the throne, B.c. 221 4

* The accounts of that early period of its history are meagre and somewhat
conflicting,
RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE. 37

conquered the country to the south and thereby made it a
portion of the Chinese Empire. After a temporary inde-
pendence it voluntarily subjected itself to the Emperor who
began to reign B.c. 179; but even then the bulk of the
population was foreign or non-Chinese. It would he difficult
to say exactly when it became a portion of China proper,
the more so as even now the aboriginal population has not
been displaced from certain portions of Kwang se.* We may
however regard it as substantially colonized and possessed
by the Chinese people under the powerful dynasty of Tang,
which began a.p. 618 and ruled for 300 years.t The
people in this very portion of China habitually call them-
selves Tang jin, men of Tang;{ and it was this Tang dynasty
that began that system of public service examinations which
has proved so powerful a bond of union. Some system of
public instruction—some kind of means of at once inculcating

* See above, page 5.

+ This region was consequently settled by the present occupants about 1,000
to 1,200 years ago, a respectable antiquity for us, whose Anglo-Saxon pro-
genitors were about the same period coming into existence as a separate race.
The following shows what the Chinese mean by old ancestry. A mandarin at
Canton, himself a native of Shantung, being unpopular and subjected to what
he deemed disrespectful treatment from the people, talked once to me of them
in very bitter terms. “They are a rough, coarse set of people; and they don’t
know anything about where they come from or who they are.” Here seeing
me stare at him, evidently at a loss how to interpret his words, he added, “ These
Kwang-tung men don’t know who they are; they have got no forefathers.” I again
looked surprised, for besides having in my memory a general notion of their
having been in the country for some thousand years, I recollected having seen
in the neighbourhood family tablets and graves several centuries old. “ Before
the times of Han and Tang,” he continued, ‘this country was quite wild and
waste, and these people have sprung from unconnected, unsettled vagabonds
that wandered here from the north.” This man was born a short distance from
the birth-place of Confucius, and I have no doubt could, by retracing his way
in succession through the genealogical registers of the different branches of his
family, have produced a correct list of ancestors for 2,300 years. I had a man
for some years in my employ who was one of the numerous descendants of the
celebrated moral philosopher and statesman, Mencius (Mangtsze) who lived
Bc. 350. My man was in the seventy-fifth generation.

£ The people of Central China are apt to call themselves Han jin, men of
Han, after a former great dynasty, which ruled the Empire from z,c. 2C6 till
A.D. 220,
“38 THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBELLIONS.

the national principles and sifting out the “ worthy and able”
for administrative purposes—existed from the earliest period.
But it was under the Tang dynasty that the foundations
were laid of that particular system, which, developed under
succeeding rulers, now exists as a carefully elaborated series
of competitive examinations.

In my summary view of China Proper in its present
extension I remarked that its division into eighteen pro-
vinces was purely political and administrative, the people
being “the same in all, the differences in manners and dialects
being no other in kind and scarcely greater in degree than
exist with us between the Glasgow factory man and the
Somersetshire peasant, or the Northumbrian hind and the
Cornish miner.” In this I have now nothing to modify:
the differences in manners and dialects are no other in kind.
That most remarkable political construction of a centralized
autocratic government, based for long centuries on public com-
petitive examinations, a system unparalleled in the world’s
history, has produced effects to which we find no parallel in
the world’s extent. It has induced, not compelled, the
Chinese nation to devote itself to the study of the same
books, and these, observe well, books directly bearing on
domestic and social as well as political life, thus preserving
them one nation, preserving them the same in Janguage and
social manners, above all the same in their community of
fundamental beliefs on man’s highest, man’s nearest and man’s
dearest interests. After living some twelve years among
them, during which I saw, conversed with, and studied men
from every province and nearly every class, this fact, grand
in its duration and gigantic in its extent, was to the last the
cause of a constantly growing admiration. It will be seen
that I call China the best misunderstood country in the world.
People have talked—somebody talked first and others keep
on talking after him—about the Chinese nation being the
same because it has been separated from other nations by
the barriers of physical geography, by mountains and rivers;
' PROGRESS AND UNITY OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE. 39

while the nations of Europe have been kept different by being
separated from each other by similar barriers. Why, China
Proper, a Europe in extent, contains in itself rivers to which
the Rhine is but a burnie, and has in it and crossing it
mountain chains that may vie with the Alps and the Pyrenees
in impassability. How is it then that the people in China
on opposite banks of these rivers, and on opposite sides of
these mountains are the same in language, manners and
institutions, and are united under one government, while in
Europe the mountains and rivers separate people, in all these
very qualities, quite distinct nations? The Chinese are one
in spite of physical barriers—it is mind, O western mate-
rialistic observers! which has yonder produced homogeneity
by overstepping matter, and not matter which has secured
homogeneity by obstructing mind.

The above facts never rose before me more powerfully
than they did once during a short stay I made in Egypt on
my way home from China. It was when I realized a longing
of my youth by seating myself on the summit of the Great
Pyramid. I was seized with a kind of reverie, so apt to
come over us when we find ourselves on an high place,
mountain or pinnacle; all the kingdoms of the world
passed in review before my mind’s eye.—I was occasionally
bored by the beggings of the Arab guides for backshish.
I had also for companion a Maine American. He had been
some years in California as a lawyer, from whence he had
come straight west to China on his way to Europe. He was
travelling all over the world, but was more especially anxious
to do Jerusalem, the Holy Places, and Paris. He was an
excellent fellow, but a thorough member of that peculiarly
American party, the Knoweverythings; and as he kept com-
municating enlightened and very free ideas to our Arabs he
somewhat disturbed the course of my reflections; though, as
an indemnification, the presence of so true a specimen from
the young Giant Republic rather heightened the contrasts
that occurred to my mind. My meditations, which were
40 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

somewhat as follows, I give, merely praying the reader to
pardon the touch of sentiment with which they began:

“Yes! here I am at last! In my youthful days, when I
never hoped to quit the British Isles, two nations had always
a great interest for me: the old-young Chinese and the old-
dead Egyptians. I have since spent the ten best years of
my earthly life with the former, I speak their curious lan-
guage, and the other day, at Nanking, it was my fate
actually to transact a living part in a paragraph of their
national history. Iam now on the most famed monument
of the old Egyptians.

“The Chinese call their country the ‘middle’ one; but if
there is any country in the ‘ middle’ of the world assuredly
it is this—Out there before me, beyond Cairo, lies all Asia,
with its oldest of nations; right away from behind me, over
the ocean, lies America and its young States; on my left lies
Europe with its high civilization; on my right Africa with
all its low barbarisms. And these old stone blocks I am
sitting upon, what different peoples they have looked down
on in this Nile valley below! First their old hewers flourished
and fell. Then came the Persians. Then the Greeks ruled
here and founded Alexandria. After them came the Romans:
their traces are visible in old Cairo there. Egyptians, Greeks
and Romans have all utterly disappeared from the face of
the earth. They have been followed here by the Mahom-
medan Arabs, at first enthusiastic fighters for the name of
the One True God, now mere backshish hunters from these
guides up to their Pashas. They too must vanish; they are
in fact vanishing as a nation before our eyes.

“The Chinese started in the race of national existence
with the oldest of the old Egyptians, long before this huge
mound of stones was piled up. They outlived these their
ancient contemporaries. They outlived the Persians. They
outlived the Greeks. They have outlived the Romans; and
they will outlive these Arabs. For they have as much youth
and vitality in them as the youngest of young nations, the
PROGRESS AND UNITY OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE. 41

countrymen of my friend here. Their country is now ina
state of rebellion. But if fame-hunting, shallow-brained
diplomatists do not manage to bring down on them, when at
a disadvantage, the forces of the superior physical civilization
of the west, if Westerns will only let them alone, they will
in time evolve order out of anarchy, and establish a govern-
ment as strong as any they have yet been ruled by.

“ And they are competing beyond the bounds of their own
country with every race on earth. Partly by fighting, but
more by force of superior moral civilization and industrial
energy, they are gradually ousting the savage Malays from
the Indian Archipelago. There is one barbarous race which
scems to have the capability of continued existence in it, and
does not disappear before civilization, the Negro. With
that race the Chinese are now competing, in the sugar planta-
tions of the West Indies. They are moving in thousands to
compete with the Anglo-Saxons of Europe in the gold plains
of Australia. And, oddest spectacle of all, the young Anglo-
Saxons of America, the most energetic and go-ahead of
nations, are actually afraid and jealous of the enterprise and
industrial energy of the old, ‘immovable, effete’ Chinese,
and have taken to illiberal legislation to keep their thousands
out of the gold regions of California !

*«‘ England and France are now going to fight with Russia
—in a few days I shall see both French and English Soldiers
at Malta. What are they going to fight for? Not to keep
off present danger. They are afraid, both of them, of being
destroyed by Russia some 50 or 100 years hence ; and they
are going to engage in a serious war expressly to prolong their
own duration as nations. Yet here are the Chinese who
have prolonged their existence for 4,000 years and nobody
asks, how? I believe I am the only man living that has
given himself serious trouble to investigate and elucidate
the causes.

«« What narrow viewed observers in some respects Occi-
dentals are! Even Bunsen in his book on Egypt makes some
42 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e
slighting remark on the old Chinese, as compared with the

old Egyptians. Yet the former had to the latter something
of the superiority that mind has to matter. They both of
them tried to preserve and perpetuate themselves. The old
Egyptians tried to do it by working on dead matter. They
mummied their bodies and wasted an enormous amount of
labor in piling up these stone mountains, good for no purpose
of true civilization; and Occidentals look back with respect
on them for doing it. The old Chinese Yaou, Shun and
Kung, at the mere mention of whose names these same
Occidentals break out into grins as broad as those of donkeys
eating thistles—the old Chinese fixed their eyes on certain
ineradicable principles of man’s mind; and working on these,
have founded and built up a monument, the grandest and
most gigantic the world has ever seen, a thoroughly national
nation of 360 millions of rational, industrious and energetic
people !”

To return to our more immediate discussion: the Chinese
in the eighteen provinces are, I repeat, the same, the
differences in manners and dialects being no other in kind
and scarcely greater in degree than between the North-
umbrian hind and the Cornish miner. But though the
differences are none other in kind, the word “scarcely ” in the
above passage has its meaning as to the differences in degree.
These are somewhat greater even in matters chiefly depen-
dent on mental training, as language and manners; while
in matters dependent on climate and on the physical con-
figuration of the various provinces, the differences are yet
more marked. The Northumbrian hind is distant from the
Cornish miner but three or four hundred miles—while the
Chinaman of Chih le or Shan tung is some 1500 to 2000
miles from him of Kwang tung and Kwang se. The south
of Kwang tung is literally within the tropics, and the whole
province is essentially tropical as to climate and productions.
The fruits are oranges, lychees, mangoes and bananas, the
grain—the grain,—is rice, the roots are the ground nut, the
PECULIARITIES OF THE SOUTH EASTERN CHINESE. 43

sweet potatoe and the yam. In the coolest season there is
neither snow nor ice; and during the hottest of the hot
season the English resident is subjected to constant, sensible
perspiration, night and day, for about 120 days. On
the other hand, in Chihi le and the contiguous northern
provinees, the natural productions are wheat, barley, oats,
apples, the hazel nut, and the common potatoe; and in
winter the rivers are yearly unnavigable from ice a foot thick.
This difference of climate has some effect on the habits, and
the physical appearance of the Chinaman. The race being
the same throughout, we find everywhere the same oblique
looking dark eyes, the same black hair, and the same yellow
or tawny skin. But this tawny basis of complexion is
modified by climate. In the northern half of China we find
the children all red-cheeked; and even the old men are often
‘ruddy faced: In the south, red cheeks are never seen; and
the sallowness of the dark complexioned Italian prevails.
But more than the difference of climate produced by
difference of latitude, and influencing indeed that climate
itself, it is a mountain range that has caused the greatest
differences which are to be found among the natives of the
various Chinese regions. I speak of the watershed that
forms the southern edge of the Yang tsze basin. This is a
spur of the Himalayas, which enters the country in the
western province of Yunnan, runs along the north of Kwang
se and Kwang tung, then bends northward by the back of
Fuh keen, and ultimately crosses the province of Che Keang
by the city of Ningpo into the sea. Throughout the whole
of its course, this mountain range throws off smaller spurs
to the south and east, all jutting into the sea; in which their
extreme peaks form a continuous belt of almost innumerable
high, rugged islands, throughout exactly one half of the
Chinese sea board, viz. the southern half. The well known
Chusan Archipelago is the most northerly portion of this belt
of islands. These islands with the promontories facing them
on the mainland, form along a coast of 1200 miles in extent
At THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

a remarkably close series of the safest, land locked harbours;
many of which are at once easy of access and large enough
to contain the whole British navy. Our colonial settlement
of Hong Kong is a member of this belt of islands, and its
bay one of the best of these harbours.

Now a coast which has neither harbours nor islands offers
neither facilities nor inducements to its inhabitants to venture
on the sea; and they may consequently occupy such a coast
for centuries without acquiring the hardy, daring and adven-
turous character of fishermen and mariners. This has been,
and is still the case with the northern half of the Chinese
coast and its population. With the partial exception of the
natives of the mountainous Shantung promontory, the in-
habitants of that coast are about the tamest of the Chinese.
So little are they mariners, that an inland canal—the well
known Grand Canal—has been constructed, beginning
where this very sea coast begins, at the Chusan group, and
running parallel to it throughout its extent, as the medium of
that traffic, which, with a different people, or a different sea
board could have been maritime.

But the South Eastern Chinese, the inhabitants of the
mountainous, well harboured and island studded coast land,
composed of Kwang tung, Fuh keen and the southern
half of Che keang, are of a markedly different character.
Those most inland, where the ridges and peaks are highest,
partake of that energetic and daring disposition, which the
unavoidable struggles with the difficulties and dangers of a
rugged region invariably gives its inhabitants. In those
nearer the coast, the qualities of the mountaineer and of the
mariner are combined. Let me here quote some generaliza-
tions of geographical ethnology, which I translate from
Hegel’s “ Philosophie der Geschichte.”

“The sea gives us the conception of the Undefined, the
Unlimited and Infinite; and as man feels himself in the sphere
of this Infinite, so does he thereby feel encouraged to step
beyond the world of restrictions. The sea invites man to
PECULIARITIES OF THE SOUTH EASTERN CHINESE. 45

conquest, to rapine, but in like manner to profit and acquisi-
tion by trade; the land—the great valleys—attach man to
the soil: he is thereby brought into an infinite number of
states of dependence, but the sea carries him out of these
confined orbits. Those who navigate the sea seek to gain,
to acquire; but their medium is perverted in such manner
that they put their property and even their lives in danger
of loss. The medium is therefore the opposite of that which
is aimed at. It is this precisely which elevates traffic above
itself and makes it something brave and noble. Courage
must now enter into trade; bravery at the same time being
associated with prudence. For bravery opposed to the sea
must at the same time be craft, since it has to deal with the
crafty—with the most uncertain and deceitful element.
This endless plain is absolutely soft, for it resists no pressure
not even a breath: it looks infinitely innocent, yielding, kind
and caressing. And just this yielding is it, which transforms
the sea into the most powerful element. To such deceit
and force man opposes but a simple piece of wood, relies
merely on his courage and presence of mind, and so passes
from the Firm to the Unstable, himself taking with him his
fabricated ground. The ship, this swan of the sea, which
with light and rounded movements traverses the watery plain
or circumnavigates in it, is an instrument whose invention
does the greatest honor as well to man’s boldness, as to his
understanding.

“This issuing forth into the sea from the restrictions of
the land is wanting to the splendid Asiatic state edifices,
even when they border on the sea, as for instance, China. For
them the sea is but the cessation of the land; they have no
positive relation to it. The activity to which the sea invites
is aquite peculiar one; and hence it is that coastlands almost
always separate themselves from the inland regions, and
that, too, even when connected with the latter by a river.
Thus has Holland separated itself from Germany, Portugal
from Spain.”
46 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

I have quoted this because it enables me, in the words of
a great philosopher, to throw light on the origin and nature
of a difference in character that exists between the South
Eastern Chinese and the rest of their countrymen; also
because it is another proof of my statement that the Chinese
are the “best misunderstood people of the world.” Hegel’s
generalizations are sound; and his application of them to the
States of India and Persia may be strictly correct. But,
when he applies them to China he at once errs; though his
generalizations being as such true, they are, when rightly
applied, only substantiated by certain differences of character
among the Chinese. The “issuing forth into the sea” is
wanting to the Chinese of the northern coastland, as I have
just shown ; but it is long since the South Eastern Chinese—
the inhabitants of Kwang tung and Fuh keen, commonly
known as Canton men and Fukeen men,—have so issued
forth. It is they who, after occupying all inhabitable portions
of the belt of islands on their coast, colonized Formosa and
Haenan; proceeded then in their junks, which if neither so
large nor so graceful as our vessels may at least be called
«ducks of the sea,” to Siam, to Manilla, to Borneo, Java,
Singapore and the Indian Archipelago generally; where they
are, sometimes under the eyes of the Europeans, sometimes
in places little visited by us, elbowing out the native Malays
by dint of superior industry and energy as well in the arts
of peace as in those of war.* They are superseding the
aboriginal inhabitants, much as the Anglo-Saxons have super-
seded the Red men of America. These South Eastern Chinese,
these Canton men and Fukeen men, are in short the Anglo-
Saxons of Asia, as sailors, as merchants, as colonists and,

* It is stated that in one of Brooke’s expeditions from Sarawak into the
interior he was accompanied by a body of Chinese auxiliaries, and that they
were ready to go where he and bis Englishmen went on occasions where the
native auxiliaries, “fierce savages,” refused.

+ At page 28, in showing what a large amount of personal freedom is
enjoyed by Chinese, I pointed out, as one of the reasons, the paucity of
military and police establishments; which paucity left, in every district,
CHARACTER OF THE SOUTH EASTERN CHINESE. 47

indeed, as adventurers generally ; for I may add, they are
the Chinese, whose gain-seeking and adventurous spirit is
carrying them in thousands to the gold mines of California
and Australia, the guano islands of Peru and the sugar
plantations of the West Indies.

Hegel, in the passage above quoted, points out how the
different character, engendered in the inhabitants of coast-

numbers of towns and villages uncontrolled by official agents. The natural
consequence is a large amount of local self government, to which no one who
visits China can shut his eyes, and which is an insoluble problem to those who
persist in seeing in the government, « despotism, and in the people, slaves.
This local self government is fiscal, as regards common local objects, and penal
as regards minor offences; such as petty thefts and the less serious assaults.
Chinese hamlets, villages, and even country towns are usually inhabited by people
of one common surname and ancestry, forming a tribe or clan—a state of things
unknown, I believe, in any other equally civilized country. Herein we find a
consistent Chinese reason for the non-interference of the imperial officials; for
the authority of a father or grandfather is, by Chinese principles, paramount
in his own family. But when, in the course of generations, the family has
increased into a clan, we find no one arbitrary “chief,” but a communal govern-
ment exercised by the more energetic of the respectable members of the
community, more especially its “literary gentry,” 7.¢. any literary graduates it
may have produced ; for even in local self government the institution of China
has a marked practical influence. The communal authorities or municipal magis-
trates, so constituted, meet for the transaction of business in some public place,
—often a temple—where all matters of common interest are openly discussed.
Such matters of common interest,—the home reader must mark this—are some-
times nothing less than inter-communal wars. These are conflicts between adja-
cent communities (often about boundary lines) which last for days and weeks.
The foreigners have witnessed some of them. After considerable destruction
of life and property, they are usually ended by formal treaties of peace; and all
this takes place without the least intervention on the part of the Imperial
officials.

I need not point out how much this system of Jocal self government and self
protection tends to engender those very qualities of voluntary respect for
virtual law, and power of combination for common purposes, which distinguish
the Anglo-Saxons among Occidental nations. In these qualities all Chinese
resemble the Anglo-Saxons, for the system exists in different degrees of inde-
pendence of the Imperial authorities all over China. So far as I could see, or
learn, it exists nowhere in more independence than in the south-eastern coast-
land; and when the reader in addition to this bears in mind the character of
its population as fishermen, mercantile mariners, and as colonists, he will
acknowledge the correctness of the name given them of the Anglo-Saxons of
Asia. One of the chief differences is that we are past our buccaneering stage
now.
48 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

lands by their position and natural occupations, is such as
produces a tendency to political separation, as in the case of
Holland from Germany, Portugal from Spain; and that, too,
in spite of such powerful bonds of connection as the Rhine
and the Tagus. That the coastland of south eastern China
should have, in times of political commotion, exhibited a
similar tendency will not surprise the reader, especially when
he is reminded, that far from being connected with the rest of
China by any great navigable river, it is naturally separated
from the inland country to its north and west by a continuous
watershed which rivals the Pyrenees as a bar to frequent and
easy communication; being traversable for military and com-
mercial purposes only by a few steep passes. Of these the
Mei kwan (or Mei pass) which penetrates this watershed
where the latter bears the appellation of the Mei mountains,
is, under the name of the Mei ling pass, best known to us;
having been traversed by both our embassies, and recently by
M. Huc. In the quarto account of Macartney’s Embassy,
the height of the pass, of course one of the Jowest points in
the ridge, is reckoned at 8,000 feet above the sea, or twice
the height of the top of Ben Lomond. Some of the peaks
farther north, in Fuh keen, are known to be 12,000 feet
high,

What is it, then, which has been effectual to counteract
the separative tendency here where it operates under cir-
cumstances so favourably? Simply the public competitive
examinations, one of the avowed objects of which is, in
addition to that of procuring the best materials for an able
executive, to give Chinese, in the remotest corners of the
Empire a direct interest in political union. Express regula-
tions are consequently made for this latter purpose. For
example.—Throughout the Empire, a certain number of
licentiates’ degrees is allotted to each province, but to each
province generally, there being no sub-allotment to its
several departments.* But in the province of Fuh keen,

* T refer the reader here to the remarks on page 21.
CHARACTER OF THE SOUTH EASTERN CHINESE. 49

of which the colony of Formosa is one department, a dis-
tinction is made in favour of the latter: by law a certain
number of the Fuh keen licentiates must come from the
department of Formosa. It is worthy of remark that the
spirit of emulation in the young colonists usually super-
sedes this law; their own ability and acquirements are
generally found to place the requisite number in the van
of the list of candidates passed at the triennial provincial
examination.

Of this south eastern China, that portion formed by
Kwang se does not belong to the coastland, but is, on
the contrary, an essentially inland region. A glance at the
map will show that it is composed of the upper valley of the
large river that falls into the sea at Canton and of the
valleys of its upper affluents. This river, I should remind
the reader in passing, though small when compared in China
with the ‘“ Great River,” or Yang tsze, and the Yellow
River, is about the size of the largest in Europe, the
Danube. Kwang se was the last portion of South Eastern
China up into which the Chinese people found their way as
colonists; and to this day the high mountain ravines, all
around it, remain in the possession of the aboriginal race,
the mountain tribes best known as Meaon tsze, and already
sufficiently noticed at page 5. But there appears to have
been two immigrations of the Chinese people into Kwang se,
or two series of immigrations with an interval of time between
them long enough to give rise to a distinction between old
or “native” Kwang se people (puntes) and the “ strangers,”
kih keas. Though called “strangers,” these latter have
been settled for several generations in the province, and
have numerous towns and villages there, though neither so
large nor so opulent as those of the “ native” Kwang se
men. ‘The “strangers” immigrated originally from the
Kwang-tung sea-board, from which they appear to have
been constantly deriving accessions up to the outbreak of the

E
50 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

e
present rebellions.* From what will appear in the sequel
the reader will perceive how entirely these rebellions, that of
Kwang se, not less than those which have broken out on
the coast-provinces, have proceeded from the energetic and
venturous coastlanders of south-eastern China.

Those of these coastlanders who inhabit the southern half
of Chekeang differ least in character from the other Chinese;
as might be inferred from their greater proximity to the
original seat of the race, and to the great plain of central
China. Still Europeans have noticed a difference in energy,
both for peaceful and for warlike avocations, even between
the natives of the Chusan islands and the Ningpo mountains
on the one hand, and the population of the alluvial flats
about Shanghae on the other; though the localities are only
about 100 miles apart. Of all the coastlanders, those from
the tract about Amoy and Namoa have been for years known
to us, and much longer to their own countrymen, as the
most turbulent, reckless and adventurous of the Chinese.

* It will be seen further on, at page 85, that when Hung sew tseuen went
first to Kwang se, he sought out, and lived for some months with “ a relative ;”

and Mr. Hamberg’s book expressly states that the most of the Godworshippers
were “kih keas” or strangers.
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 51

CHAPTER V.

M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE.

IRELAND was once called the best abused country in the
world. I deliberately and seriously declare China to be the
best misunderstood country in the world. Month after
month we continue to have notices, articles and books about
it, all furnishing proof of the correctness of this assertion.
The last book that has appeared, L’Empire Chinois by
M. Huc, seems to me to demand special notice both on
account of its comprehensive title and of the name of its
author—still more because of its errors.

The work treats of men and things in general in China.
But instead of a methodical arrangement in chapters, accord-
ing to the subjects, M. Huc gives us a diary of his journey
under escort from the borders of Thibet through the central
and southern provinces to Canton; in which diary he inter-
sperses, & propos to anything, many pages of discursive disser-
tation on the philosophy, ethics, language, literature, govern-
ment &c. &c. of the Chinese. On all these subjects M. Huc
quotes or reproduces either from the Jesuit missionaries,
who resided at the court of Peking about 150 years ago, or
from the Parisian sinologues of the last and present genera-
tion, Remusat, Julien and their scholars. M. Huc boasts
much of the superior advantages which his knowledge of the
Chinese language, joined to twelve or fourteen years’ resi-
dence in China, gives him; yet he does little to correct
certain pardonable errors into which some of these latter

E2
52 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

gentlemen, none of whom were ever in China, fall, and
wherever he ventures to depart from his authorities he is apt
to propagate errors himself. As I know that much miscon-
ception exists with respect to the opportunities of Catholic
missionaries of the present day, I believe I shall do a public
service by a special consideration of the subject.

I could, on the authority of a French missionary who had
been very much in the interior of China, state the total num-
ber of native Christians at five hundred thousand; but I will
not dispute M. Huc’s estimate of eight hundred thousand ;
which, as he correctly observes, is a mere nothing in the enor-
mous population of the country. There are 85 counties in
Great Britain. Take one of average population and divide it
into five parts. The population of one of these parts has the
same relation to the inhabitants of Great Britain that the
highest estimate of Chinese catholics has to the inhabitants
of China. These catholic Christians are, however, not col-
lected in one place, but live scattered over all China proper,
in small communities, called by the French chrétientés. There
being, as M. Huc states, scarcely any converts made at the
present day, it follows that the members of these Christianities
are educated and trained as Christians from their infancy;
being either foundlings, or of Christian Chinese parentage.
They are Chinese in the outward and more obvious charac-
teristics of dress and features, but in other respects are more
like Bavarians or Neapolitans than their own countrymen;
from whom they differ in many of those social and domestic
customs and in all those mental peculiarities which constitute
the special nationality of the Chinaman. Not only is it im-
possible to learn among them what the infidel Chinese are,
it can hardly be learned from them; inasmuch as even those
of them who have travelled in the provinces are less able to
understand it, than the intelligent and well-informed European
on the coast; whose habit of considering various nationalities
gives him facility in thinking himself into an intellectual,
moral and religious life, different from his own. The reader
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 53

can now exactly appreciate the manner of life of the catholic
missionaries as described in M. Huc’s own words:

* ls sont proscrits dans toute l’étendue de l’empire; ils y
entrent en secret, avec toutes les precautions que peut sug-
gérer la prudence, et ils sont forcés d’y résider en cachette,
pour se mettre 4 l’abri de la surveillance et des recherches
des magistrats. Ils doivent méme éviter avec soin de se
produire aux yeux des infidéles, de peur d’exciter des soup-
cons, de donner léveil aux autorités et de compromettre
leur ministére, la sécurité des chrétiens et ’avenir des missions.
On comprend que, avec ces entraves rigoureusement imposées
par la prudence, il est impossible au missionnaire d’agir
directement sur les populations et de donner un libre essor 4
son zele. .... Aller d’unechrétienté 4 l’autre, instruire et
exhorter les néophytes, administrer les sacrements, célébrer
en secret les fétes de la sainte Eglise, visiter les écoles, et
encourager le maitre et les éléves, voila le cercle ou il est
forcer de se renfermer.” (T. I. p. 167.)

I know from others, men intimately acquainted with the
life of missionaries in the interior, that this is no overcharged
description of the restrictions they there labour under. Of
himself M. Huc says:

«« Au temps ot nous vivions au milieu de nos chrétientés,
nous étions foreés, par notre position, de nous tenir 4 une
distance plus que respectueuse des mandarins et de leur
dangereux entourage. Notre sécurité, et celle surtout de
nos néophytes, nous en faisait une stricte obligation. Comme
les autres missionnaires, nous n’avions guére de rapport qu’a-
vec les habitans des campagnes et les artisans des villes.”
(T. I. p. 91.)

Again, speaking of China proper:

“ Autrefois, lors de notre premiére entrée dans les missions,
nous l’avions déja parcouru dans toute sa longueur, du sud
au nord, mais furtivement, en cachette, choisissant parfois
les ténebres et les sentiers détournés, voyageant enfin un peu
a la fagon des ballots de contrebande.”
54. THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBEELIONS.

Such, then, were M. Huc’s opportunities up to the period
when he commenced the two or three months’* journey
described in the volumes now under, consideration. He
however dwells much upon the opportunities this latter
afforded him, more especially for being “initiated into the
habits of Chinese high society, in the midst of which we
(M. Hue and colleague) constantly lived from the frontiers
of Thibet to Canton.” (Preface xxii.)

A special search of the two volumes shows that at Tching
tou fou he appeared in court before the Fiscal and Judicial
Commissioners, and stood in their presence while being sub-
jected to an interrogatory. This was one occasion on which
he saw “high” society. At the same place he appeared twice
before the Governor General (vice-roi). That made three
occasions. At Au tchang fou he forced his way into the
presence of the Governor of Hou pe, who accorded him a
short and dry interview. That made four occasions—and I
find no more. All other functionaries whom M. Huc saw
were prefects of department, district magistrates (préfets) or
men of still less rank. Now these are officers whom the French
and British Consuls at Shanghae and Ningpo will not permit
to correspond with them as equals; a fact that may be known
to M. Huc himself. He states indeed that at Tching tou
fou the favorable reception of the viceroy

* Nous mit en relation avec les personnages les plus haut
placés et les plus distingués de la ville, avec les grands
fonctionnaires civil et militaire.”

If M. Hue, by “mit en relation,” means that he received
a present of fruit and cakes sent in the name of the “ grands
fonctionnaires,” I can understand it; for it is part of the
business of the stewards at the head of their enormous esta-
blishments to do these things, with or without special instruc-
tions. But I know very well that Chinese functionaries of
the rank of the Fiscal and Judicial Commissioners, or even

* There is such a paucity of dates in the book that I am unable to ascertain
the exact time. With steady travelling, two months would suffice.
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 55

those placed much lower in the official scale, do not inter-
change visits with “barbarians,” whom they have had led
before them as prisoners. Moreover M. Huc is not the
writer to withhold from us a special notice, in his own lively
style, of any visits of such high personages had they actually
taken place.

‘We see then that M. Huc’s direct connection with the
“high society ” limits itself to a legal examination, two per-
mitted interviews and one intrusion. Nevertheless he,
either in his own words or in those of M. Remusat, a
Parisian sinologue, ridicules (Preface xvii.—xxi.) the oppor-
tunities of the members of the two English embassies ; main-
tains that they travelled like prisoners; and states that
“none of them knew the language of the country.” Iam
literally at a “loss to conceive” how this latter assertion
could be made. With the last embassy (Lord Amherst’s)
were present Sir G. Staunton, who made the well-known
and well-done translation of the Chinese Penal Code; and
Sir John Davis, subsequently author of “ the Chinese,” and
translator of several works, and who was then, as a young
man, chosen to accompany the embassy precisely because he
did know the language. Lastly the interpreter of the
embassy was Dr. Morrison, author of the best Chinese
dictionary in existence; and whose knowledge of the Chinese
language, people, and institutions very much exceeded that
of M. Remusat and M. Hue put together. Both embassies
spent four months in the interior of China; both were af
Peking, and the first resided some time iz that city; both
traversed the whole length of the country, through its most
important provinces; the members of both, in the course
of this traverse, walked about in many of the cities they
passed, and visited points that attracted their attention six to
ten miles out of their route; lastly, during the whole of
the four months that each spent in China, those members
who could speak the language were in daily communication,
and had long familiar conversations with functionaries, such
56 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

as M. Huc saw four times and was then obliged to stand
before. If any man can lay claim to having seen Chinese
“high society ” that man is Sir G. Staunton. During both
embassies, he had frequent opportunities of conversing, not
only with provincial Governors (vice-roys), but even with the
first Cabinet Ministers; while he is the only living European
who has spoken to a Chinese Emperor; and that Emperor,
it so happened, one of the most intelligent and most pro-
sperous monarchs the world has ever seen.

So much for the opportunities of the English embassies.
But I am enabled to assert confidently that M. Huc’s
contemporaries, the gentlemen who, during the twelve years
that have elapsed since the war, have served as official inter-
preters* (French or English) at the Five Open Ports have
had greater opportunities than M. Huc himself. He does
indeed try to “bar” them and others who have resided at these
Ports by declaring the latter to be “a moitié Européennisés.”
This is however but another of M. Huc’s inaccurate allega-
tions; which I should have to expose were it only to prevent
readers from forming a most incorrect notion of the ope-
ration of the Occidental communities (nearly altogether
composed of English and Americans) on the Chinese.

There are in all the Five Ports probably not fifty Chinese
who can read and write English. Most of these are
lads, scholars of Protestant missionaries; and, of the whole
number, the most advanced find expressions to puzzle them
in every page of plain English narrative. Of Chinamen who
can speak (I cannot say more or less, but) less or still less of
broken English, without being able to read or write a word,
there may be about five thousand. These are, without
exception, servants of different kinds, to the foreigners,
tradesmen who deal with them, and “ linguists ” who act
as interpreters and brokers between them and the large
merchants. They are all illiterate as Chinese, while their
vocabulary of English words is so extremely limited, that

* The writer and his colleagues.
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 57

they can barely express themselves about the most concrete
matters and the most direct business transactions. Such
is the extent and nature of the instruments by the incidental
acts of which must have been effected any Europeanization
of the Five Ports; whose aggregate population is reckoned at
two to three millions. The truth is that these, the only
instruments, remain themselves as much Chinamen as any of
their countrymen in the Eighteen Provinces. Let the reader,
if acquainted with retired China merchants, desire them to
say whether the body servants who attended them through-
out their 10 or 15 years’ residence in the country—and
whose fathers and grandfathers were probably similar ser-
vants,—whether these men had by one hair’s breadth de-
parted from the manners, customs, and habits of thought of
their countrymen generally. The Five Ports have been
decidedly less Europeanized than the five British towns
of Glasgow, Whitehaven, Liverpool, Pembroke and Bristol
have been continentalized by the comparatively far greater
proportion of foreign residents. Now will M. Huc maintain
that an educated Frenchman, free to reside at any of these
British ports and to spend all his time with the natives; free
also to buy any and every English book, and to engage the
services of learned Englishmen to aid in their study, would
not be able, after years of residence, to acquaint himself with
the character and institutions of the British people? Sup-
pose that such Frenchmen were not only perfectly free at
these British ports, but while having permanent habitations
there could at four of them go away without hindrance into
the surrounding country and cities to the distance of 20,
30, and even 60 miles on excursions lasting weeks, would
Frenchmen, so situated, be less able to speak about England
than other Frenchmen, whose residence of equal duration
had been in a great measure spent in traversing the interior
of the island like kegs of spirits without permits—“a la
facon des ballots de contrebande,” and associating only with
“peasants” and “artisans,” and these mentally different
538 THE CHINESE AND THEIR HEEELITONS.

from the rest of the natives; for instance (to parallel the
contempt in which Catholic Christians are held in China)
with the followers of Johanna Southcote? Such a position
as I have desired the reader to suppose that of Frenchmen at
four British ports, has been the position of the British and
French official interpreters at four of the open ports in
China.* The seniors have all had frequent occasion to see
officials of equal rank and standing with the highest of those
whom M. Huc saw four times; and they then did not stand
to be examined, but sat and talked for hours. With the
officials of a lesser rank they have, during 12 years main-
tained an intercourse certainly not less familiar than that
which M. Huc had with the same class of mandarins during
the two or three months of his journey.

If we except the intercourse with the officials, the upper
class in China, then the Protestant missionaries at the Five
Ports have had all the opportunities of the government inter-
preters. I may add that several of the protestant mission-
aries have wives who speak Chinese well, a circumstance
that gives them unusual facilities for getting an acquaintance
with the domestic life of the middle and lower classes of the
veritable, unchristianized or “infidel” Chinese. The celi-
bacy of the Catholic missionaries bars them all access to
that domestic life, in a country where the different sexes
cannot hold free communication, unless connected by close
family ties.

I trust I have said enough to dispel the “interior of the
country ” illusion. Since the British war, the balance of
opportunity for learning has been decidedly in favour of
those who have resided at the Five Ports. But occidental
readers would do well to accept no one as an authority
because of his opportunities alone. Each writer should give
proof that he has availed himself of them for the acquisition

* At the fifth, Canton, the ill feeling of the people has acted as a restriction
so far as excursions to the surrounding country is concerned.
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 59

of accurate information. This proof M. Hue fails to give;
as an examination of the present volumes will show.

To commence with the Map; to the correctness of which
he, announcing himself as a corrector of other travellers’
errors, was bound to see. At the mouth of the great river
of China we find “Yang tseu kiang ho on Fl. Bleu.”
Now kiang means river (or stream as applied to large rivers)
ho means river, and Yang tseu is a proper name. “ Yang tseu
kiang ho” is therefore as ridiculous, and, to the mouth of a
Chinaman as impossible, as Der Rheinstrom Fluss would be
to that of a German or Thames-river-river to that of an
Englishman. As for “Bleu,” the name which M. Hue
gives the river throughout his book, because as he says
(T. I. p. 189) “ Europeans so name it,” I suspect M. Huc
would be greatly puzzled to find among the Europeans who
have navigated it, and lived at Shanghae or one of its
affluents for the last twelve years, any one person who ever
saw or heard it so named. In the last few hundred miles of
its course, its waters contain at all seasons so much mud in
suspension as to make it a deep yellow. Its common Chinese
name is Ta keang or Chang keang, Great or Long River.*

The Map does not contain Hongkong at all, and though it
has the names, as Chinese towns, of the Five Ports, it does
not in any way indicate their distinctive character as per-
manent stations of foreigners. This must be considered as
a negative propagation of error in a work entitled “the
Chinese Empire;”’ for all these places have as residences of
foreigners (not been Europeanized certainly, but) been
objects of a special and just solicitude on the part of the
Tmperial government since the War.

In T. I. p. 37, M. Huc speaks of Tching tou fou, capital
of “la petite province” of Sse tchouen. Sse tchouen is
notoriously the largest province in China. It is 60,000
square miles, or two Irelands, larger than the next province

* Great River will be the name used in the remainder of this volume.
60 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

Yunan, and it has actually from twice to four times the
superficial extent of each of the remaining sixteen provinces.

When M. Hue (p. 53) describes Sse tchouen as “la pro-
vince la plus civilisée, peut-étre, du celeste empire,” more
than its full significance must be given to the “ perhaps.”
Apart from the fact that it contains within its boundaries a
great number of barbarous, or even savage, aboriginal tribes,
even its Chinese population cannot be said to equal, much
less to excel, in mental cultivation and in refinement of
manners the inhabitants of the ancient capital, Nanking, of
Hang chow and Soo chow, and of the provinces in which
these cities lie; all famed throughout the land for their luxury
and their literature.

At T.I. p.57, M. Hue describes the personal appearance of
the Pou tching sse (Superintendent of Provincial Finances)
before whom he stood to be examined. Of his dress he
says ‘Son costume était superbe; sur sa poitrine brillait
un large écusson, ot était représenté en broderie d’or et
d’argent un dragon impérial; un globule en corail rouge,
décoration des mandarins de premiére classe, surmontait
son bonnet.”

Now to this I have to object, in the first place, that the
globule of the mandarin hat is not what we understand by a
“décoration” but is a part of the regular uniform (like
epaulets); secondly, that the Pou tching sse does indeed
wear a red one, not however the red one of the first. class,
but of the second, to which by his office he belongs. I pass
this, however, as the Pou tching sse M. Huc saw may have
had first class rank by brevet. But I cannot get over the
‘imperial dragon.” I admit that he is a most excellent
animal with which to astonish an admiring, uninitiated,
European audience. But I contracted my brows the moment
I found him figuring, in M. Huc’s book, in the écusson on the
breast of a Pou tching sse; and must remain incredulous till
M. Huc explains how he got there. For I happen to have more
than once spent some time with Pou tching sses, both when
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 61

these latter were in half dress and in full uniform; and I saw
no dragon on their poo fuh or écusson. Further, the Pou
tching sse is a civilian, and civilians have by regulation each
a bird on their écusson. The military have quadrupeds; but
on referring to a copy of the Chinese Red Book I find no
dragon in any class. As few of my readers may be able to
get. a sight of this useful little book of reference, and fewer
still would be able to read it, I refer them to vol. I. of “the
Middle Kingdom,” where they will find a description of
Chinese uniforms. This work is by Mr. Williams, one of
those protestant missionaries whom M. Huc, in more than
one place, rather superciliously alludes to as “ protestantes
méthodistes,’” and whose knowledge and doings he derides.
I recommend him to read carefully what some of them have
written on China, before he publishes a third edition of his
* Empire Chinois.”

Of the nine classes or orders of Chinese officials M. Huc
says [T. I. p. 100] correctly, “ Chaque ordre est subdivisé
en deux séries:” but immediately adds, what is quite wrong,
«Tune active et officielle, l'autre surnuméraire.” He himself
rightly describes [p.54] the two officers Pou ching sse and
Ngan cha sse as being in each province the most important
under the “vice roi” and as charged with its “administra-
tion générale.” Now the one belongs to the second subdi-
vision of the second class, the other to the first subdivision of
the third class; and the one is at the head of fiscal affairs,
the other at the head of criminal affairs: which then is
‘* active et officielle,” and which merely “ surnuméraire”’?

There are other erroneous statements about the official
system, as, for instance, where he (T. I. p. 99) states that the
titles koung, heou, &c. (corresponding to “ duc, marquis,
&c.”) are not hereditary, not transmissible to descendants.
Many of those who bear these titles, have before the latter
the prefix “she seih, hereditary ” and they are transmitted
accordingly. A man who, speaking Chinese, has passed
twelve years in China without knowing this must, I am
62 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

compelled to say, have had his eyes and ears very much
closed.

At T. Lp. 114 M. Hue says that the officer with whom
he was lodged “ se nommait Pao ngan ou Trésor cachée.”—In
these two words he violates grammar in a way that I should
not pardon in a sinologue of three months’ standing. In
Chinese the adjective invariably precedes the noun, and here
the two Chinese words, if held to be in grammatical con-
nexion at all, must be rendered “ precious or valuable secret.”
But I object altogether to M. Huc’s translating of this and
many other proper names; which the Chinese regard only as
such. Such translating is often very forced; and though
it is amusing—very oriental, and ten-thousand-miles-offy
I admit—still it is so at the certain cost of propagating
misconception, by increasing that grotesque colouring already
too much the light in which Occidentals are habituated to
see the Chinese, and which, therefore, it is the duty of each
successive writer to strive to lessen. A Frenchman would
not be considered to have rendered the views of his country-
men on “ British eccentricity’ more truthful, who, on re-
turning from a visit to England, would say that he had
landed at Mare-de-foié, Chasseur de colombe ou Plier-bouche
instead of Liverpool, Dover or Plymouth; and that he had
travelled from the latter port to London by way of Bain, Lec-
ture et Virginité, instead of Bath, Reading and Maidenhead.

At T.I. p. 405 by way of proving the total incorrectness
of the prevalent idea that the Chinese people “a naturelle-
ment de l’antipathie contre les étrangéres, et qu'il s’est tou-
jours appliqué a les tenir éloignés de ses frontiéres,” he states
“Marco Polo y a été trés bien accueilli 4 deux époques dif-
férentes avec son pére et son oncle. Quoique Vénitiens ils y
ont méme exercé des fonctions publiques et de la plus haute
importance, puisque Marco Polo fut gouverneur d'une pro-
vince. . . . . Tout prouve donc que les Chinois, &c. &.”

Marco Polo himself was only at one “ époque” in China,
and neither he nor his two relatives were ever employed by
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 63

Chinese. They were employed by the Mongul Tartars, whom
they helped to conquer the Chinese; a circumstance from
which we may infer that the latter must have had a special
“‘antipathie” against these three “ étrangers” at all events.

At T. I. p. 453 M. Hue shows us the deck of a British
frigate in action. When, during our war, a Chinese maritime
city was to be destroyed, a frigate quietly took up her
station at any distance she pleased, and then “while the
officers, seated at table on the poop, manceuvred at their
ease with champagne and madeira, the seamen methodically
bombarded the city.” It is, we see, not about China alone
that M. Huc is informing.

In T. II. p. 135 M. Hue speaks of Kien lung as the
‘‘deuxiéme empereur de la dynastie mantchoue.” He was
the fourth.

At T. IL p. 385 M. Huc has: “le Tcheou ly, ouvrage
attribue aux célébre Tcheou kong, qui monta sur la tréne
en 1122 avant J.C.” Tcheou kong is indeed celebrated,—so
much so, that Iam astonished to find M. Huc ignorant of the
fact that he is held never to have “ mounted the throne” at
all. He was at the utmost regent for his nephew; but is best
known as a muster of devoted and able ministers. M. Huc
might as well tell us of the time when “ Joseph mounted the
throne of Egypt,” or “ Samuel the throne of Israel.”

I have noticed the above errors, not because of importance
in themselves, but because they unmistakeably indicate no
little ignorance on M. Huc’s part, of the institutions and
history of the Chinese, as well as much superficiality in his
acquaintance with their language and literature, which, I
warn the reader, must prevent his being accepted as an
authority in matters of the greatest importance on which he
makes sweeping and unqualified assertions. The warning is
here the more necessary, as though I may find space to meet
some of his erroneous assertions with a contradiction, I can-
not. enter into any lengthened and complete refutations.

M. Hue avers again and again with varied phraseology
64 THE CHINESE AND THEIR ——

that the Chinese are “ destitute of religious feelings and
beliefs,” “sceptical and indifferent to everything that con-
cerns the moral side of man,” “having no energy except
for amassing money,” ‘ absorbed in material interests,”
“their whole lives but materialism in action,” “sunk in
temporal interests,” “pursuing only wealth and material
enjoyments with ardour.” In these assertions M. Huc is
supported by other living writers (English and Americans)
who, each pronouncing judgment from a very shallow con-
sideration of what has fallen under his own eyes in China,
describe the whole nation of Chinese as “ short sighted utili-
tarians, industrious and gain seeking.”

All this is baseless calumny of the higher life of a great
portion of the human race. I should therefore in any case
have held it a duty to meet it with unequivocal contradiction
and strong condemnation. I now feel especially called on to
do so; asitis impossible that the present revolutionary move-
ment can be rightly appreciated if a total misconception of
the Chinese intellectual and moral nature is allowed to
prevail.

In the first place, I would ask my English, American and
French readers: What is it that the hundreds of thousands
of our respective countrymen who hurry daily through the
streets of London, New York and Paris are after? Are
they or are they not “pursuing wealth and material enjoy-
ments with ardour”—“ absorbed in material interests”—“ utili-
tarians, industrious and gain-seeking?” Why have the English
been called “ shopkeepers,” the Americans “ dollar-hunters,”
and why do these names stick? Why are there eighty
thousand women in the streets and public places of London,
and why is there an enormous organized prostitution in
Paris? Christianity grafted on the old Teutonic respect for
woman has Jed to strict monogamy among us; and this has
prevented the large prevalence of crimes that undoubtedly
do exist among the Chinese, as among other polygamic
nations. In addition to these, from which, be it observed,
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 65

the monogamic West is not altogether free, the Chinese have
moreover many vices and faults; but these vices and faults
are mostly identical in kind with those existing among
Occidental nations, and are not more prevalent in degree.
And this is my position. I do not simply admit, I assert
myself, as the result of a long independent study and close
observation, that the great mass of the Chinese are most
certainly “sunk in material interests,’ “ pursuing with
ardour only wealth and material enjoyments ;” just as are
the great mass of English, French, and Americans. But as
there exists in the extreme West among this very gain-
seeking majority, a large amount of generosity, of public
spirit, and of ineradicable right feeling, which may be appealed
to with perfect confidence whenever a great cause is im-
perilled; and which then impels them to lavish with un-
sparing self-sacrifice, alike the gains they amass and the very
lives spent in amassing them; so does there exist in the
extreme East among the mass of habitual gainseekers a
similar public spirit, and a like right feeling. And as there
does undoubtedly exist among English, French and Ameri-
cans a minority, higher in nature, actuated by higher
motives, aiming at higher aims—a minority ever silently
working for good, and from time to time working openly
with irresistible power,—so, precisely so, does there exist
a similar minority among the Chinese. My quarrel with
M. Hue and the other writers is that they either deny the
existence of this minority in China altogether, or, what has
practically the same effect, leave it, as well as the latent
public spirit and fundamental right feeling of the majority,
totally out of view in their pictures. In doing so they
portray a people that can have no existence, any more than
a nation of centaurs. Such a people as they depict would
not be human beings, but wnhumans. I, on the other hand,
maintain nothing more extraordinary than that the Chinese
are, as a nation, composed of men and women, exhibiting
all those varieties of character, both in degree and in quality,
F
66 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

that those other collections of men and women called nations,
do exhibit—nothing more and nothing less,

M. Hue asserts that the Chinese are destitute of religious
feelings. If by this he means nothing more than that the
Chinese show no ready aptitude to embrace his form of
Christianity, no alacrity to desert the Confucian tablet or
the Buddhist idol for the images of the Saints and the
Virgin, I fully and thoroughly agree with him. And if
Protestant writers mean, when they “endorse” * such
opinions, that the Chinese display little intellectual or moral
promptitude to adopt their several creeds, which less enforce
the great truths of Christianity, as “peace on earth and
good will towards men” than they plant repulsively before
the unprepared mind of the heathen the bare results of some
centuries of doctrinal disputes, and sectarian bickerings, then,
with them likewise I am fully agreed. In that case we are
quite at one as to the religiosity of the Chinese. But if by
“want of religious feeling” they mean to assert that the
Chinese have no longing for immortality ; no cordial admira-
tion of what is good and great ; no unswerving and unshrink-
ing devotion to those who have been good and great; no
craving, no yearning of the soul, to reverence something
High and Holy, then I differ from them entirely and empha-
tically contradict their assertion. The religious feeling, so
understood, is as natural to man as hearing and sight; and
I never yet heard of a nation or even a small tribe com-
posed wholly of people deaf and blind. M. Huc himself
dilates on the circumstance that China is covered with
temples and monasteries, well or richly endowed; and in
spite of his after statement that they are the result of an
“old habit,” I certainly adhere to the simple and obvious
explanation that they are called into existence by strong
religious feeling, however ill directed. I may, indeed, here
observe that when M. Huc and the other writers, after a

* Are the people who daily extend the application of this word “absorbed”
or not, in the pursuit of gain ?
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 67

positive, sweeping assertion of their psychologically impos-
sible propositions, come to deal with the more palpable facts,
they unavoidably contradict themselves. They are then
found declaring that throughout the long course of Chinese
history, good and great men have abounded, and that heroic
spirits have ever come forward to fight and die for what they
held to be truth and justice.

There is but little outward resemblance between a Scandi-
navian Sea-king and a long nailed, learned Chinese; and an
old graduate of this kind, who came about two years ago
direct from Peking to my service had certainly never heard
the tale of the rover who suddenly refused baptism because
he preferred following his forefathers to hell. Yet in a casual
conversation, he spoke with some feeling of the statements
_ that certain Chinese Christians had recently made to him
about the fate of Confucius, and, by way of fully expressing
his own sentiments on the subject, he wound up, his old lip
quivering and his eyes glistening as he looked fully at me
his interlocutor: “If it is true that so wise and good a man
as our Holy Sage has gone to hell, then I want to go to
hell too.”

Within the last two years I had frequent occasion to
describe the doctrines and progress of the Nanking insur-
gents to Confucianists, and to observe them sink into dejec-
tion as they listened. But in more cases than one the hearer
would suddenly rouse himself and say in a hopeful confident
tone: “ They will never get the empire; they will never get
the empire; seay puh shing ching, falsehood will never over-
come truth.” Whether their ideas of what “ truth ” is were
just or not, [ ask: Do materialists draw practical consolation
from such abstract propositions?

Believe me, reader, both of these men were sincere; and
there is plenty of such confidence in truth, and devotion to
goodness to be found in China.

The following proof of the correctness of my views, will,
for the philosophical linguist go far to be decisive. The

F2
68 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

general reader may not be aware of the fact that nations are
ever in the act of pronouncing unconsciously, judgments on
themselves, by the changes in the meanings and applications
of words which take place in the natural growth of their
languages. No judgments are more true; they are very
slowly formed; and, being unconscious, are absolutely impar-
tial.* Now the Chinese, like all other civilized peoples,
have speculated long and largely on the origin and nature of
the inanimate world and of man. Further, for 700 years
they have had systematized metaphysics, and lastly, their
philosophy, systematized and unsystematized, has penetrated
into popular life, and influenced popular language to an
extent unequalled perhaps in the mental history of any
other people. Like most other peoples who have pushed
metaphysical speculation to the extreme limit of human
thought,t they have rested on two eternally existing, ulti-
mate things, the one a power or cause, the other a some-
thing in which that power operates. The first is in some
systems regarded as intelligent will, in others as unintelligent
law: it is in both cases the ultimate, immaterial element of
the universe. The second is the finest or most ethereal
thinkable shape of matter; out of which all that we see with
our eyes and feel with our hands is made. In some systems
it is co-eternal with the first, in others it is created by, or
evolved out, of it: in both cases it is the ultimate, material
element of the universe. In Chinese the ultimate immaterial
element is called 18; the ultimate material element ke.

* The applications of words may record historical facts too, more reliably £
correctly than the pen of the chronicler. Scott shows this in the opening scene
of his Ivanhoe where the jester illustrates to the swincherd the relative
positions of the Normans and Saxons as conquerors and subjects, by showing
thatso long as animals require care and trouble, they bear Saxon names, as ox,
calf, swine; but that when they become objects of nutrition and enjoyment
they have Norman names, as beef, veal, and pork.

+ We, it must be borne in mind, do not explain the origin of matter when we
refer it to the creative power of God. Toaccount for a thing by referring it
to the act of an Incomprehensible Being is but another way of declaring it
unaccountable and incomprehensible,
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 69

Taking the English language in a general way, i.e. keeping
aloof from the specialities of the philosophical schools, the
ultimate immaterial element is designated by law, mind,
spirit, mental, &c.; the ultimate, material element by matter,
material, &. Hence the Chinese le is equivalent to first
cause, law, mind, mental, &c., the ke, to matter, material, &c.
The Chinese, like the English words, are not used meta-
physically only, but in popular life, and, as I have above
intimated, they are largely so used. To sinologues I need
not say which of the two words le and ke is most largely so
used. To others I have merely to state that le is the word
which in our translations is rendered by “right principles,”’

“ reason,” “ reasonable,” &c., and then all who have read
translations of Chinese books and proclamations may perceive
for themselves how completely the idea of the predominance

of the mental to the material has penetrated into every
corner of Chinese existence. When a Chinaman high or
low, and in political or in the most ordinary affairs, wants to
say that an act is just, right, reasonable, a duty, or necessary,

he says that it is in accordance with, or required by le, i.e.

by the immaterial principle,” by mentality, or spirituality.
On the other hand, “ Twan woo tsze le,—decidedly there is i
no such immaterial principle” or “ mentality”’—is the exact s
Chinese counterpart of our English, ‘It is most unjust, ***
unreasonable, false or absurd.” Again, the same idealistic
feature, the same mindishness, of the lowest Chinese is shown
in the universally attested fact of their settling disputes,
mentally rather than physically, by arguments rather than
by blows.* The word ke is to a certain extent used of
man’s moral side; but then generally in a bad sense, being

cfe

1Z

* Some have thought the Chinese aversion to blows proceeded from cow-
ardice. Such is not the case. It is the disgrace and scandal of fighting that
deters him more than physical timidity. The notion of an innate cowardice in
the Chinese individual is another of our popular fallacies, which a closer expe-
rience is rapidly dispelling. I have not space to expose the fallacy at length.
During the war a handful of British troops would disperse the undisciplined
70 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

applied to his passions rather than to his higher mental
qualities.—“‘Puh yaou sing ke, Don’t bear (or produce)
matter” is the common Chinese expression for “ Don’t get
t into a passion.”
% Our English word godly, derived from the name of the
4’ Being from whom we hold mind and matter to have pro-
“a ceeded, does indeed include the idea of what is right and
just. It is, however, not a synonym of these two words, and
is moreover little applied to the affairs of the world, political
or social. But what do we say in English when we want to
express that a thing or affair is of serious import,—not to be
treated lightly—very important? Why, we say that it is
very “mattery,” that it is “most material.” And to such
an extent have materialistic tendencies and views become
predominant in English life, that very correct writers apply
our names of the ultimate material principle, matter and its
paronyma, in a most incongruous way in the purely intellectual
and moral regions of human being. So foreign to the Chinese
is the identity we have admitted between matter and impor-
tance, that the attempt to indicate in their language that a
thing or affair is “very important” by saying that it is
“very ke” would convey to them no idea at all; while to
Occidentals acquainted with the Chinese language the com-
bination is so ludicrous that I am convinced every sinologue
must smile as he reads what I have just said. In China the
linguists and servants of the foreign merchants render the le
by, reason, or “ leeson” as they mispronounce it. “ No got
leeson, It is unspiritual, unmental” urge they, when their
masters insist on something unjust, harsh or absurd being
done. The very likely reply is: ‘It must be done, it’s most
material.”
I give another proof drawn from language. The Chinese
equivalent to our words affair, occupation, business is sze, ~

and comparatively unarmed crowds of men called Chinese soldiers. So also
a sergeant’s party will in our streets disperse a crowd of comparatively unarmed
rioters. Does this latter fact prove that the common Englishman is a coward !
M. HUC’S OPINION OF THE CHINESE. 71

which is also used as a verb in the sense to do, to be busy
about anything. This word is compounded of the old pic-
torial character for the human hand, and the word “ she
historian,” i.e. etymologically rendered it signifies: things
which the hand of the historian might record, things worthy
of record, recordable things. To this word sze another is
frequently added in conversation, “tsing the passions” or, in
a good sense, “the common feelings of human beings.” As
forming a compound with sze in the signification of affair -
or business, this word tsing resembles our word “ concern,”
that which affects or concerns man’s feelings. Now when
a Chinaman sees a number of people running to one point
or looking toward one spot; or sees a man start suddenly
or get angry; or marks an unusually dejected or a happy
expression in the faces of his acquaintance, he asks: “ Shin
ma sze, What’s the thing worthy of record” or “Shin ma sze
tsing, What is the recordable thing and concern of the
feelings.” The Englishman under the like circumstances
invariably asks: “ What’s the matter?” To his mind it has
become natural to assume that curiosity, fright, anger, grief,
and pleasure must be all caused by matter, the ultimate
material principle.

In addition to the above proofs from that picture of national
mind, national language, I could, did time and space permit,
prove from their ethics that the Chinese are thorough idealists
as compared with the English and French.

As above stated, M. Hue does not stand alone in his mis-
appreciation of the Chinese character in this respect. One
of our official sinologues Mr. T. F. Wade published in 1850
a pamphlet entitled “The Chinese Empire in 1849.” This
is a carefully prepared and informing notice of the palpable
occurrences of the period which it deals with. But it is
utterly misleading where it generalizes on the then political
state of the country, and on the character of the people. It
intimated, I may observe, that there was no “ground for
apprehending that revolution was on foot within the Flowery
72 THE CHINESE AND THEIR ssomcunte

Land;” yet, in the province adjoining that in which those
words were being written, that insurrectionary movement
had been initiated, which speedily assumed dynastic impor-
tance, and which has ever since engaged the whole military
energies of the Imperial government. It is however the
judgments of the pamphlet on the national character that I
feel called on here to notice and oppose. It describes the
Chinese as nothing but “short-sighted utilitarians, industrious
and gain seeking,” and declares that the “ national mind”
has “ become infinitely vicious”; a condemnation of a whole
people rather too strong to obtain credence when once atten-
tion has been directed to its sweeping and exaggerated
nature. As M. Hue speaking of the recorded teachings of
Confucius tells us that they contain “un grand nombre de
banalités sur la morale’; so Mr. Wade tells us that the
Chinese philosophy is “ puerile and unattractive when not
tamely moral.” Is it then wrong to be moral? Must we say
of the Chinese, when they conduct themselves properly in
the relations between man and man, that they are addicted
to morality ?

As both M. Huc and Mr. Wade are acquainted with the
Chinese language, and as each of them has passed about the
same time in China that I have, it will be satisfactory to the
reader to have the recorded testimony of another living
sinologue, who has, I believe, lived longer in the country
than any of us. Speaking of Chinese training, Sir John
Davis says—and many passages of similar purport may be
found in his writings—: “The most commendable feature
of their system is the general diffusion of elementary moral
education among the lower orders. . . . . It isin the
preference of moral to physical instruction that even we
might perhaps wisely take a leaf out of the Chinese book
and do something to reform this most mechanical age of
ours.”

In fact the chief reason why the Chinese have made so
little progress in the physical sciences is not a mental
M. HUC’S OPINIONS OF THE CHINESE. 73

“incapacity,” or “ tenuity of intellect,” of which Mr. Wade
accuses them, but a disregard or even contempt for things
material as opposed to things intellectual or moral. In war,
which is more especially a fight of physical or material
forces, they paid the just penalty of this undue contempt
when they became involved in a contest with the possessors
of the highest material civilization the world has yet seen:
the British people.
74 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELIAONS:

CHAPTER VI.

HUNG SEW TSEUEN, THE ORIGINATOR OF THE REBELLION,
HIS EARLY BIOGRAPHY AND HIS ADOPTION OF CHRIS-
TIANITY.

Havine, as I hope, in the preceding pages thoroughly
cleared the ground, and provided against many misconcep-
tions, which I know to be standing, I trust to be able to
convey, in a comparatively small space, a clear idea of the
hature and progress of recent insurrectionary movements in
China. I do not, however, believe that the occidental reader
will be benefited by any painful enumeration of dates and
multifold narrating of isolated occurrences. Such chronicling
is not effective political knowledge, but merely the prepara-
tion of matter from which such knowledge may be gene-
ralised and elicited. This preparatory operation I have
laboriously performed for myself on all the data at command;
but I shall in the following pages present the reader with
conclusions rather than the materials for original investiga-
tion, and speak authoritatively rather than argumentatively.
I must however give the warning that those who have
“skipped” the preceding will not understand what follows,
though they may fancy they do so.

Hung sew tseuen, the originator and acknowledged chief
of the present religious-political insurrection in China, is
the third and youngest son of a poor peasant proprietor.
He was born in 1813 in a small village of the Hwa district,
about thirty miles north-east of Canton; where his father’s
few fields were situated. Having early exhibited a marked
. HUNG SEW TSEUEN. 75

capacity for study, he was not only sent to school at the age
of seven, but his relatives, as often happens in China when
any one member of a poor family displays unusual aptitude
for learning, so exerted themselves as to keep him there,
notwithstanding their poverty, until his sixteenth year. He
had them to assist for some months in the labours of the
farm, more especially by leading his father’s cattle to graze
on the hills; which are generally commons. From this work,
however, his relatives and friends contrived to relieve him
by establishing him as a schoolmaster in the village; in which
capacity he found time to pursue his literary studies, and
also to attend the public examinations. Kwang chow foo,
or Canton as foreigners call it, the chief city of the province,
being at the same time the chief city of that department to
which the Hwa district belongs, the higher of the examina-
tions for the degree of bachelor were conducted there; and
hence it was several times visited by Hung sew tseuen, after
he had passed the lower examination at the district city with
much credit. He was, however, never successful at the
decisive examination, conducted by the provincial examiner.*
On the occasion of one of his visits to Canton, probably in
1833,+ when he was 20 years of age, he appears to have

* This circumstance must not be taken as necessarily indicative of inferiority
to those who did obtain the degree of bachelor. The examinations are com-
petitive; and the number of candidates, being out of all proportion to the
limited number of bachelorships, it happens that very many are rejected, in
every respect equal to those selected. Where the examiners can see no real
difference, they are necessarily guided by fancy or chance; and thus it is that
every candidate is enabled to say, as the unsuccessful often do in after life, that
they had “bad luck” or “ ill fate”—“‘ puh haou ming.”

+ This date is fixed by the records of the Protestant missionaries whose
convert, Leang a fab, is the only man that could have been met in the manner
described. The date Hung jin gave to Mr. Hamberg was 1836; but he was
narrating in 1852 an occurrence that, by his own account, took place about
16 years before; and was moreover, not an ‘incident in his own life, but in
that of a relative whom he had then not seen for three years. A discrepancy
as to dates was, under such circumstances, to be expected. The books did not
attract the notice of Hung sew tseuen till 1843, when he himself might easily
fail to recollect during which of his visits, some six or eight years before, he
had received them or saw the strangely dressed man who could not speak
Chinese.
76 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

seen a foreign Protestant missionary addressing the Chinese
in the streets, aided by a native as interpreter. In every
case he received, either then or on the following day, from
Leang a fah, a well known Protestant convert and preacher
(who did in that year distribute a great number of books) a
collection of tracts, entitled “ Keuen she leang yen, Good
words for exhorting the age.” These consisted of essays and
sermons by Leang a fah himself, interspersed with Chapters
from the Old and New Testaments, taken from Dr. Morrison’s
translation. Hung sew tseuen took the books home with
him, and after a superficial glance at their contents placed
them in his book-case. In 1837 after another, and again
unsuccessful, competition at Canton, he was seized with ill-
ness and was carried home in a sedan, deeply disappointed
and not less sick in mind than in body. He thought he was
going to die;* and was in fact very unwell for some forty
days. In this period he had a succession of vivid dreams,
and in particular a “vision” during what appears to have
been a trance rather than a sleep:

* He saw a dragon, a tiger, and a cock eritering his room ;
and soon after he observed a great number of men, playing on
musical instruments, approaching with a beautiful sedan chair,
in which, having invited him to be seated, they carried him
away.... They soon arrived at a beautiful and luminous
place, where on both sides were assembled a multitude of fine
men and women, who saluted him with expressions of great
joy. As he left the sedan, an old woman took him down to a
river and said,—‘ Thou dirty man, why hast thou kept com-
pany with yonder people and defiled thyself? I must now
wash thee clean.’ After the washing was performed, Hung
sew tseuen, in company with a great number of aged, virtuous
and venerable men, among whom he remarked many of the
ancient sages, entered a large building where they opened:
his body with a knife, took out his ante and other parts,

* Some candidates die from mental and physical exhaustion and over-
anxiety at every triennial examination, when shut up in the Examination Hall.
HUNG SEW TSEUEN. 77

putting in their places others, new and of ared colour. When
this was done the wound instantly closed, and he could see
no trace of the incision which had been made... . After-
wards they entered another large hall, the beauty and splen-
dour of which were beyond description. .A man, venerable
from his years, with golden beard, and dressed in a black
robe was sitting in an imposing attitude in the highest place.
As soon as he observed Hung sew tseuen, he began to shed
tears, and said—‘ All human beings in the world are pro-
duced and sustained by me; they eat my food and wear my
clothing, but not a single one among them has a heart to
remember and venerate me; what is however still worse,
they take my gifts, and therewith worship demons; they
rebel against me, and arouse my anger. Do thou not imitate
them.’ Thereupon he gave Hung sew tseuen a sword, com-
manding him to exterminate the demons, but to spare his
brothers and sisters; a seal by which he would overcome the
evil spirits; and a yellow fruit, which Hung sew tseuen found
sweet to the taste. When he had received the ensigns of
royalty from the hands of the old man, he instantly began to
exhort those collected in the hall to return to their duties
toward the venerable old man on the high seat. Some re-
plied to his exhortations, saying, ‘ We have indeed forgotten
our duties toward the venerable.’ Others said,—‘ Why
should we venerate him? Let us only be merry, and drink
together with our friends.’ Hung sew tseuen then, because
of the hardness of their hearts, continued his admonitions
with tears. The old man said to him, ‘Take courage, and
do the work, I will assist thee in every difficulty.’ Shortly
after this he turned to the assemblage of the old and vir-
tuous saying, ‘ Hung sew tseuen is competent to this charge ;’
and thereupon he led Hung sew tseuen out, told him to look
-down from above and said, ‘Behold the people upon this
earth! a hundredfold is the perverseness of their hearts.’
Hung sew tseuen looked and saw such a degree of depravity
and vice, that his eyes could not endure the sight nor his
78 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOYS.

mouth express their deeds. . . . . . The sickness and
visions of Hung sew tseuen continued about forty days, and
in these visions he often saw a man of middle age, whom he
called his elder brother, who instructed him how to act,
accompanied him in his wanderings to the uttermost regions
in search of evil spirits, and assisted him in slaying and
exterminating them.”

His conduct and language was such during this sickness
that he was held to be mad by his friends and acquaintances;
and there can be little doubt that he had occasional delirious
fits, if he was not, during the whole period, constantly under
the influence of cerebral over-excitement. In the dreams
and visions themselves there is nothing to surprise us. They
are fully accounted for by the generally prevalent Buddhistic-
Confucian notions and superstitions modified by some recol-
lection of the xxi. chapter of Revelation; which is one
of those contained in Leang a fah’s books, and which we
may therefore assume him to have cursorily perused. As to
the statement of the narrative, that “ He often said he was
duly appointed Emperor of China and was highly gratified
when any one called him by that name,”—I may observe that,
like most of those young Chinese who are well read in the
history of their country, he may have indulged in specula-
tions as to the expulsion of the Manchoos, and, in his day-
dreams, imagined himself a prime agent in the patriotic
work. Add to this, that Hung sew tseuen had just failed in
attaining that degree, through which alone his obviously
aspiring mind could hope for gratification under the existing
order of things. It is stated, that after his recovery “he
became gradually changed in both character and appearance.
He was careful in his conduct, friendly and open in his
demeanour; he increased in height and bulk, his pace became
firm and imposing, his views enlarged and liberal.” Al this,
if literally true, may be accounted for by the physical change
frequently observed in young men after severe sickness; and
still more by the chastening and purifying effect, on the mind
HUNG SEW TSEUEN. 79

and heart, of mental disappointment and bodily affliction. But
after recovery he quietly returned to his former employment,
and I cannot believe that the deportment of a poor young
village schoolmaster attracted particular attention; while
the fact of his again attending the public examinations
shows that his “visions ” were, at this time, as lightly re-
garded by himself as by the acquaintances to whom he,
on being questioned, related them; and who thought them
curious indeed, but of no importance.

So matters continued till 1843. No attention was, during
this period of six years paid to Leang a fah’s books. The
author, a sincere convert and a self-sacrificing preacher, was
at first a workman in a missionary printing house, who,
having had little previous education, formed his style in a
great measure on the unidiomatic biblical translations and
theological tracts of his foreign employers. His writings are
consequently repulsive, as well as somewhat unclear, as to
manner; while the subject matter, Christianity, had only
been heard of by Hung sew tseuen, then still a constant
student and teacher of the Chinese Sacred Books, as one of
the “depraved” or “false” superstitions in vogue among
western barbarians.*

These latter had been known to him previous to 1840 as
expert handicraftsmen, who had a really curious knack of
making fine cotton and woollen cloths, watches and clocks,
and of constructing very large ships. From his visits to
Canton, he knew, too, that a few of them were allowed to
live, part of the year, as traders in some warehouses fitted
up for them in the “Blackwall” of that city; but always
under the restrictions necessary for people to whom all
(Confucian) cultivation, and therefore all principles of self

* Let the English Protestant reflect on the Book of the Mormons, and on
Mormonism, as it is spreading in some places in Great Britain, and he will
obtain a by no means exaggerated notion of the contemptible light in which
our (badly translated) Scriptures, and Christianity in China, are regarded by the
thorough Confucian; viz., as a tissue of absurdities and impious [heaven-
opposing] pretensions, which it would be lost time to examine.
8% THE CHINESE AND THEIR SER

restraint were unknown. He may even have found time
to walk all the way down to that quarter,* and watch them
for a while, as dressed like respectable Chinese in clothes
of a grave mourning color (white) but ridiculously tight,
and with absurdly shaped black cylinders for a head cover-
ing, they obeyed the dictates of their restless natures by an
objectless walking back and forward in an open space before
their dwellings.t

But after 1840 they began to attract some attention in
the vicinity of Canton, by a turbulent opposition to the anti-
opium measures of the imperial government; and in 1841,
and the beginning of 1842, they acquired a totally new
character, as a people possessing not only wonderful fire-
ships and other irresistible engines of war, but, if no other
description of settled government, at least a regular military
organization, which had enabled them to inflict signal de-
feats on the hitherto invincible Manchoos, and to dictate to
the Imperial Government an ignominious peace. This be-
came manifest throughout the native department of Hung
sew tseuen in the summer of 1843; when Ke ying, a prince
of the Imperial house was seen to pay friendly visits to the
foreign leaders; when the trade was resumed at Canton
free from former restrictions; and when the publication of
the Treaty showed that four other great marts had been
thrown open in the northern provinces. It is not, there-
fore, surprising, that precisely at this time, Le, a friend of
Hung sew tseuen, should have been induced to study the
Christian publications he found in Hung’s book case; nor
that the latter should afterwards read them “closely and
carefully.”

“He was greatly astonished to find in these books the
key to his own visions, which he had had during his sickness,

* Asa poor student of the London University may have been able to spare
time to walk down to Blackwall to have a look at the Chinese junk.

+ Our taking exercise, which even now attracts gazers from the inner
districts,
HUNG SEW TSEUEN ADOPTS CHRISTIANITY. 81

six years before; he found their contents to correspond in
a remarkable manner with what he had seen and heard at
that time. He now understood the venerable old man who
sat upon the highest place, and whom all men ought to
worship, to be Ged, the heavenly Father; and the man
of middle age, who had instructed him, and assisted him in
exterminating the demons, to be Jesus, the Saviour of the
world. The demons were the idols, his brothers and sisters
were the people in the world. Hung sew tseuen felt as if
awaking from along dream. He rejoiced to have found in
reality a way to heaven, and sure hope of everlasting life
and happiness.” He and his friend Le were converted;
administered baptism to themselves, as they understood the
rite from the books; and then immediately commenced
preaching to others, in imitation of Leang a tah; an account
of whose conversion and labours they found in the books.

But Hung sew tseuen at once took a much higher stand.
He found the contents of the books “to correspond, in a
striking manner with his former visions; and this remark-
able coincidence convinced him fully of their truth, and of
his being appointed by God to restore the world, that A
China, to the worship of the true God.” ‘These books,’’/~
said he, “are certainly sent purposely by heaven to me to
confirm the truth of my former experiences.” And “under
this conviction he, when preaching the new doctrine to others,
made use of his own visions and the books as reciprocally
evidencing the truth of each other.”

I need scarcely observe that when Hung said “sent from
heaven,” it did not enter into his imagination to ignore the
fact that they were transmitted to him through human agency.
But he had, in the lapse of years, totally forgotten his first
cursory glance at the books; and there is something so
flattering to human feelings in the idea of being selected by
Heaven as its special instrument, that his mind would in-
stinctively shrink from reviving recollections that tended to
dispel an illusion so grateful. The Books showed him that

G
82 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

e

the foreigners (he ceased to call them barbarians) whose
power in war had just humbled the sovereign of China, were
steadfast worshippers of the God of its antiquity, Shang te;
whom the first monarch of the glorious old Chow dynasty
had solemnly, and thankfully, adored on attaining possession
of the throne. He read that this, the only True God, whom
the Chinese had long neglected for false gods, had after
“creating the first man and woman in his own image” more
than once talked to them; had “ walked in the garden in the
cool of the day ;” that he had “made them coats of skins
and clothed them;” and that he had expelled them from
the garden lest they should eat of a certain fruit “and live
for ever,” as they had already eaten of one kind of fruit
and thus become able “to know good and evil.” The awful
conviction now fell on his mind, that his spirit had been
summoned into the presence of this very God, had from Him
in person received a fruit to eat, together with a seal and
a sword with which to exterminate demons in the spiritual
world; and had been, at the same time, charged with the
special mission of reforming the depraved worshippers of
these demons “ among the peoples of this earth.”

This conviction of a divine mission, at once readily accepted
by one of his aspiring character then suffering from disap-
pointed hopes in a different career, was not likely to be
weakened by further study of the books. In estimating the
relative amounts of disinterested, sober reasoning, and of
tacit self deceit that were engaged in leading him to look on
his visions as scenes of real, though spiritual, occurrences, we
must particularly bear in mind that he read in the books, St.
Paul’s account of the incidents, in Acts xxii., attendant on
his conversion, when about noon “a great light shone about”
him, and he “fell to the ground, and heard a voice”? the
voice of “the Lord” who addressed him, and to whom
he replied, while “those that were with” him, “saw the
light indeed,” but “heard not the voice of him that spake.”
Further, an enthusiast for what was good, he found in the
HUNG SEW TSEUEN ADOPTS CHRISTIANITY. 83

Sermon from the Mount the strictest morality and highest
goodness that had ever been inculcated by Confucius; im-
pressionable for what was great, he found, in the chapters
taken from the Psalmists and Prophets, descriptions of the
grandeur and might of a One True God, the sublimity of
which could not be altogether destroyed even by very imper-
fect translation; and of which nothing whatever is found in
the writings of Confucius or his followers. Lastly, as a
Chinese, with that mental tendency towards ultimate unity,
which is a marked characteristic of the nation, his intellectual
nature found satisfaction in the absolute unity of the Hebrew
Jehovah, “the Lord besides whom there is no God,” “the
Holy One,” the “ Mighty One.”
84 THE CHINESE AND THEIR SEEN

CHAPTER VII.

HUNG SEW TSEUEN’S ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW SECT OF
CHRISTIANS IN KWANGSE, AND CAUSES OF HIS SUCCESS,

Hune sew TsEvEN’s first converts were men who like
himself acted as village schoolmasters. The most important
of these for future events was Fung yun san. His next
converts were his own parents and brothers and their wives,
all of whom, with their children, received baptism. “Of
his other relatives several sincerely believed, others were
convinced of the truth, but feared the mockery of the
people. Some said ‘Such mad and foolish things ought
not to be believed;’ others had to suffer rebuke from their
own parents because of their faith.”

The chief mark of true conversion was the renunciation
of idolatry generally, and the withholding of the distinctive
honours paid to the tablet of Confucius. Hung sew tseuen
and Fung yun san having removed this tablet from their
schoolrooms, found themselves in a few months deserted by
their pupils ; and, being very poor, resolved to travel to another
province as preachers, trusting to support themselves on their
journeyings by selling ink and writing brushes. In this they
were influenced by the words “A prophet is not without
honor save in his own country and his own house;” and
by the notices of St. Paul’s travels contained in the xix.
chapter of the Acts, given in Leang a fah’s books. Accord-

vy ingly in the beginning of 1844 they left for Kwang se, and,
after making a few converts at various places on the way,
entered about May the territory of the aboriginal moun-
HUNG SEW TSEUEN’S NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 85

taineers; among whom they had, at starting, proposed to
propagate the new faith. But knowing nothing of their
language (the Gaelic of China) they wandered helplessly
among the hills for four days till they fell in with a Chinese
named Keang settled there as a teacher of his own language.
He entertained them hospitably and professed belief in their
doctrines. Finding it impossible to act directly on the
mountaineers, Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san left a few
tracts with Keang for distribution to such as had learned the
Chinese language and then set out in search of Wang, a
relative of the former, whose house they reached about the
month of June, at “ Valley Home” in the Kwei district, in
the south of the Kwang se province. They remained here
for five months, during which they made upwards of a
’ hundred converts. Fearing to become burthensome on Hung
sew tseuen’s relative, Fung yun san left with the intention
of returning home; but meeting, before he had proceeded
two or three days on his journey, with some workmen he
knew, his desire to propagate his new faith induced him to
accompany them to “ Thistle mount” in the Kwei ping dis-
trict (department of T’sin chow) where he assisted them in
their occupation of carrying earth. Ten of them soon be-
came his converts; and having introduced him to the notice
of their employer, the latter engaged him as a teacher, and
was shortly after himself baptized. Fung yun san was thus
enabled to remain several years in the neighbourhood, preach-
ing with great zeal and such success that whole families of
various surnames and clans were baptized, formed congre-
gations among themselves and became extensively known
under the name of the “ Society of God-worshippers.” It
was this society which subsequently formed the strength of
the religious political rebellion that now shakes the Imperial
Throne; though in its founder, the earth carrier, Fung
yun san, I believe we have at once the most zealous and
most disinterested preacher of the new faith in its soberest
form.
86 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS,

A month after the departure of Fung yun san, Hung sew
tseuen also left for his native district in Kwang tung, on
reaching which he was surprised to find the former had not
returned. Mr. Hamberg’s book says that Hung sew tseuen
was called to account by the mother and wife of the friend
he had taken “on so perilous a journey,” they being “highly
displeased at his return without him and without any know-
ledge of his present circumstances.” This is one of the
many incidental proofs of the truthfulness of Mr. Hamberg’s
informant. The distance from the home of Fung yun san,
in the Hwa district, to the scene of his labours, in the Kwei
ping district, is but 200 miles in a straight line, and probably
not over 300 by road. But to a poor traveller the distance
in time is fully 20 days; while the remoteness, as to means
of communication by writing, is something of which the
English reader can form to himself no conception, even
by going back to the days of our first horse posts, In
China the government posts carry official despatches only.
Private posts (resembling our country parcel carriers)
do exist, but only along great highways or between very
large cities. As for letters from one out of the way village
in an out of the way district, to a similar locality 300 miles
off, they can only be sent when some inhabitant of the one
place happens to go to the other. Accordingly we find that
Fung yun san’s family do not appear to have heard of him
again till he himself returned in 1848, after some four and
a half years’ absence.

In the mean time Hung sew tseuen remained in Kwang
tung, preaching and writing essays, discourses and odes on
religious subjects. During 1845 and 1846 his native district
was the scene of his labours. About the end of 1846 he
learned from a person connected with the establishment of
Mr. Roberts, an American missionary at Canton, that the
latter was preaching there. That foreign missionaries were
preaching in Canton must however have been known to him
before. It is a fact of considerable significance, that he had
HUNG SEW TSEUEN’S NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 87

not previously, nor did still now, attempt to put himself
into communication with them. In April 1847, however, an
event took place that drew the attention of the whole depart-
ment and even the whole province on foreigners. The
British Plenipotentiary Sir John Davis, suddenly left Hong
Kong with a small naval and military force, entered the
river, took all the forts which guard it, and, after spiking
827 pieces of artillery, established himself in military occu-
pation of the foreign settlement at the provincial capital.
One of his objects was to insist on the immediate possession
of land as a site for warehouses to which we were entitled
by treaty, but which we had never received. An erroneous
notion of the nature of this demand getting abroad, the
rural population not only in the immediate neighbourhood
of Canton, but up to the borders of Hung sew tseuen's
district, formed themselves into bands of volunteers to resist
what they held to be a step in the prosecution of a design to
seize their country. This drew general attention as well to
the plans of foreigners, as to the apparent inability of the f
Manchoo Government to resist people entertaining such plans.
Within a month or six weeks afterwards we find Hung sew
tseuen studying the foreign Scriptures at Mr. Roberts's esta-
blishment; and it would appear that from this period the idea
occasionally crossed his mind in a vague way that the patriotic
day dreams of his youth might possibly have a chance of reali-
zation. But he must have been silly to a degree altogether
disproved by his subsequent proceedings and career, had he then i
allowed himself to indulge in a distinct intention of trying to
overturn the existing government. So far from this aa
the case, we find that he, after a two months’ study with Mr. |
Roberts, appears to have inclined to the belief that it was as.
a preacher under the direction of foreigners that he was to. | \,
prosecute his “mission” of religious reformer. He applied
for baptism, and prompted by the insidious advice of a coun-
tryman on the establishment who feared him as a rival, also
for a monthly support. The latter request naturally drew a
88 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELIIONS,

refusal of the former from Mr. Roberts; who had observed
nothing in the applicant to distinguish him from other men
of the class.) Hung sew tseuen then left for Kwang se, and
it is worthy of note, as exemplifying the manner in which
circumstances affecting individuals may influence religious
institutions, that in the religious publications of the rebels
obtained from them at Nanking six years after this, new con-
verts are taught how to baptize themselves.*

On reaching the house of his relative Wang, in the Kwei
district, Hung sew tseuen learned of the society of God-
worshippers established in the Kwei ping district by Fung
yun san, whom he immediately joined at that place. The
congregation soon amounted to upwards of two thousand in the
Kwei ping district ; from whence the new faith rapidly spread
in the neighbouring districts of Ping nan, Woo seuen, Seang,
Kwei, Poh pih, &c., and in the adjoining department of
Woo chow. Graduates of the first and second degree
(bachelors and licentiates) as well as men of influence, either
from their wealth, or their position as acknowledged heads
of families, were among the number of converts.t Though
Fung yun san was the founder of the society of God-
worshippers, Hung sew tseuen’s superiority was acknow-
ledged by all. The belief in his divine mission, now con-
firmed to himself by prospects of success, naturally caused
him to assume a tone of authority which was supported by
1is greater knowledge of the Scriptures, acquired at Canton;

* It is at the same time a proof of the superiority of Hung sew tseuen’s
nature, that he seems to have fully recognised the reasonableness, on Mr.
Roberts’ part, of the really unfounded suspicions with which his pecuniary
demand had been regarded ; and retained in his mind only a grateful sense of
the treatment and instruction received. For at Nanking the most active of the
more military leaders, the northern Prince, who had never seen any foreigner
till I found him there, spoke to me about Mr, Roberts with much interest and
respect merely in consequence of the account which had been given of bim by
the then “ Heavenly Prince,” Hung sew tseuen.

‘+ At this period we find already the names of Yang sew tsing, Seaou chaou
hwuy, Wei ching, and Shih ta kae the men who are now with Hung sew tseuen
and Fung yun san the leaders of the insurgents under the title of “ Princes.”
HUNG SEW TSEUEN’S NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 89

and by the fact that he was the original converter of Fung
yun san himself. Hence he was better able to introduce a
rigid discipline among the variety of people who joined the
congregations. Let us now endeavour to arrive at some idea
of the causes which led to the rapid rise and increase of these.
That religious movements are indebted for their ultimate
success mainly to the mental perception and appreciation, on
the part of conformers, of better beliefs and stricter practice,
need not be insisted on. ‘This is the case whether we speak
of the acceptance of new doctrines—of conversion proper—
or of the substitution of a living, spiritual acceptance and
practice, for a merely intellectual submission or formal obser-
vance ; which is called “a revival” when we speak of com-
munities, and “ getting religious” when an individual is the
subject alluded to. But I think it not uninstructive to bear
in mind here that the origination, if not ultimate triumph of
religious movements, whether conversions or revivals, rests
largely on the merely sympathetic affections. A cheerfully
disposed man steps suddenly into the company of people all
for the moment either sad or grave. They say not a word
to him of the cause; they do not even ¢ed/ him that they are
sad or grave, and the only indication he has of their mental
state is the very imperfect one afforded by the expression of
their faces and their attitudes, by the purely physical positions
of their features and limbs. Nevertheless the spirit of sad- .
ness or of gravity communicates itself to him, and he too
becomes sad or grave. So also when the indication of the
mental state of others, is conveyed by the ear alone; as when
a person hears one or two others in an adjoining room laugh
heartily. He immediately joins without having the least notion
of the original cause of the laughter. Nay more, the sympa-
thetic faculty is brought into operation without any objective
reality as a cause. Let the reader imagine himself in the
position just described, and he will be seized with the spirit
of merriment. Human beings are, in short, prone to be
affected by any emotion which they think they perceive in
90 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

others, which they really do perceive in others, or which they
merely picture to their minds as existing in imaginary per-
sons. This holds, of course, not less of the religious feelings
or affections than of others; which accounts for the temporary
success of even those religious movements that are, both
intellectually and morally, decidedly of a retrograde or down-
ward character, as compared with the state of the general
society in which they appear. It is thus that the existence
of Johanna-Southcotians and Mormons, and of sects still
more intellectually absurd and more morally vicious, be-
come at all explicable to the wondering beholder. It only
requires that a man, sufficiently “ half-cracked,” and grossly
. enough the victim of immoral self-delusion, to preach absurd
and vicious doctrines with the full force of strong, unhesi-
tating conviction, should so preach ; and you immediately have
a sect, whose principles and practice are more or less revolting
to the then and there commonly held idea of what is true and
good. In the course of my official life I have been con-
strained, and in private life have been induced to consider,
one or two rather striking and well developed cases of this
kind ; and the effect of this personal observation on the know-
ledge derived from reading has led to the conclusion that the
number of deliberate impostors—of self-confessed impostors—
is far rarer than we might at first sight be inclined to suppose.
‘We cannot rightly understand past history, or present occur-
rences in the world, unless we assume as a fundamental prin-
ciple that all those who have exercised a marked influence on
their fellow creatures, or done great things in the world, have
fully believed themselves to be mainly, if not altogether, in the
right. The same holds of those who, possessing the power,
have used it to effect certain ends at the cost of an enormous
amount of misery to humanity.

Now if earnest preaching, founded on strong conviction,
acts so powerfully as to propagate systems partially irrational
and immoral, what must be its effect when it inculcates great
truths and strict moral purity, and when man’s religious
HUNG SEW TSEUEN’S NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 91

aspirations are satisfied and his reason and moral sense
powerfully appealed to as well as his sympathetic faculty
acted on? All this was the case in the preaching of Fung
yun san and Hung sew tseuen. Certain living and still
working writers having described the Chinese as altogether
bad—as “infinitely vicious,” I have had to dwell with con-
siderable emphasis on the fact that no small amount of the
higher and better qualities are manifested among that people.
I have indeed deemed it necessary to oppose the erroneous
descriptions of others with so much emphasis that I almost
fear, I may have conveyed to the reader, who has not been
particularly attentive to my words, the impression that the
state of society in China is morally higher than that of
England. I must therefore repeat what I have said above
that “I assert myself as the result of a long independent
study and close observation that the great mass of the
Chinese are most certainly ‘sunk in material interests,’
* pursuing with ardour only wealth and material enjoyments.’ ”
Were I suddenly compelled to trust, where there was no
check, to the courage, honesty, and purity of fifty people,
taken at random from any nation, I certainly would select
Chinese in preference to some Occidental nations I could
name. But I would not hesitate for a moment about pre-
ferring Englishmen to Chinese. The difference is undoubt-
edly not so great as certain unqualified assertions make it ;
and cannot indeed be called great at all. Still the Chinese
are I hold morally lower than ourselves; and the people of
Kwang se would appear to have been considered more ©
vicious than those of other Chinese provinces. A stupid
idolatry prevailed, and this degeneration of the intellectual
faculty, this irrationality was accompanied by that “vice”
which appears to be ever inseparable from ignorance.

There were some important circumstances connected with
the preaching of the new faith in Kwang se which might
not be perceived by the mere English reader. These readers
will however when told, at once perceive that the Acts of
the Apostles and the Epistles of the New Testament, as a
92 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION§.

record of the What was preached, and the how that What was
preached among the idol worshipping subjects of the centrally
ruled Roman empire, must have among the idol worshipping
and centrally ruled subjects of the Chinese Emperor a prac-
tical applicability, a freshness, and a living force of which
Englishmen can form no conception who never saw idols
worshipped in their lives, much less have themselves reve-
renced them; who live under institutions that have a much
less resemblance to those of Imperial Rome; and who have,
besides, in their childhood, over and over and over again read
the Testament, and heard it read, before their intellect or
historical knowledge enabled them to understand it, until
large portions have no more living meaning for them than the
beating of a drum or the tolling of a bell. To illustrate this
latter position, I beg the reader to take from the Creed the
expression “the communion of saints.” How many of the
hundreds of thousands who have repeated, every Sunday
from youth up, that “they believe” in this have anything
but a very vague notion of what a “saint” is? And how
many have a shadow of a notion what the “communion” of
these “saints” may be? Occidental missionaries in China are-
naturally apt to fall, in their preaching, into the mechanical
use of this dead phraseology, to which they have from
earliest youth been accustomed. Not so Milne’s and Mor-
rison’s convert, the Chinese Leang a fah—still less Hung
sew tseuen, who preached for years before having any com-
munication with foreigners. If we examine Leang a fah’s
collection of pamphlets, we find he deals only with subjects
of the highest interest, and above all of living interest. to him-
self and compatriots; the creation of the universe, the great
moral rules of the Sermon on the Mount, and the missionary
proceedings and writings of St. Paul. Take, for instance,
the xix. chapter of Acts.* Where St. Paul, wandered about
preaching in Asia Minor and in Greece he found a pan-
_* “And it came to pass, that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having
passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples

he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed} And
they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy
HUNG SEW TSEUEN’S NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 93

theistic learned class, together with idol worshipping lower
classes given to gross superstitions and immoralities. Now
this is verbally true of what Leang a fah and Hung sew
tseuen found in Kwang tung and Kwang se. Again as

Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they
said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the
baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him
which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, And when Paul had laid
his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with
tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve. And he went
into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing
and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers
were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multi-
tude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the
school of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years; so that
all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and
Greeks. And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that
from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the
diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

«Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over
them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you
by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a
Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and
said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? And the man in whom
the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against
them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was
known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on
them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that
believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which
used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men:
and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of
silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

“ After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had
passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have
been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that
ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia
for a season. And the same time there arose no small stir about that way,
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines
for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen ; whom he called together
with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft
we have our wealth. Moreover ye see and hear, that not only at Ephesus, but
almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much
people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands: so that not
only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple
of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be
destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. And when they heard
94 THE CHINESE AND THEIR unum”

Ephesus had its Diana,* so has every Chinese city and
locality its more highly esteemed and more powerful idol.
There too are to be found exorcists, diviners, and books on cu-
rious arts, all more or less believed in by the multitude, who in
like manner believe also in the “possession” by “evil spirits”
of people actually known tothem. For us these words “ex-

these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of
the Ephesians, And the whole city was filled with confusion ; and having caught
Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel, they
rushed with one accord into the theatre. And when Paul would have entered
in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not. And certain of the chief
of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would
not adventure himself into the theatre. Some therefore cried one thing, and
some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not
wherefore they were come together. And they drew Alexander out of the
multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the
hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they
knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried
out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the town-clerk had appeased
the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not
how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana,
and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things
cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. For
ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor
yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen
which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there
are deputies: let them implead one another. But if ye enquire any thing
concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. For we
are in danger to be called in question for this day’s uproar, there being no
cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. And when he had
thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.”

* In Mr. Gutzlaff’s translation of the New Testament, that used by Mr.
Roberts when Hung sew tseuen studied with him, for the name Diana is sub-
stituted the title of a Chinese goddess “ Teen-how, the Queen of Heaven,”
whom the reader will find described in chapter xiii. of Davis’ Chinese. She
was born in the province of Fuh keen, and was deified in the thirteenth century
under the Sung dynasty. Being considered the Goddess of the Sea, she is the
chief object of veneration of the coastlanders of south-eastern China. Now
nearly all Chinese know, from widely promulgated mandarin proclamations
against Christianity, that Christ was born in the time of the Han dynasty
about 1200 years before the Sung dynasty. How then could Christ’s contem-
poraries worship in the West the Goddess of the Sea a thousand years or 80
before she was born? There are other grave objections to the rendering; and
it forms an instance of those defects in foreign biblical translations which
should in every case make Christians of the orthodox West exercise much
charity in judging of the preachings and doctrines of Hung sew tseuen and his
followers.
HUNG SEW TSEUEN’S NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 95

orcist,” “diviner,” “evil spirit,” and even the words “temple ”
and “idol” have little force or weight, because applied to
things which have for centuries ceased to be seen or believed
in. But in the Chinese translation of this chapter the Chinese
words are necessarily those actually in use of things that
every Chinese has had under his eyes and believed in from
his youth up. So also with respect to the “craftsmen.”
China has in all towns its “hongs” or organized societies
(guilds) of tradesmen and artificers, any of whom might get
up an assemblage and disturbance when their interests were
threatened. This they would moreover very likely do in
the Ching hwang meaou or city temple which exists in
every city; and at one end of the large open court of which
you always find the “theatre” or stage where public per-
formances are given in honor of the gods at the cost of the
* ouilds” or of the officials, or of rich private individuals.
And such a disturbance would very likely be ended by the
district magistrate coming in his sedan, placing himself in
some commanding position and holding precisely such a
speech as the “town clerk’’ of Ephesus held; in particular
by warning his hearers of the ‘danger of being called in
question for the uproar” by the Governor General of the
province or even by the Imperial Government if blood should
be shed.

In the xxii. chapter of Acts St. Paul describes the
vision to which he looked back as the origin of his con-
version; and there can be no doubt that, in natural and
perfectly honest imitation, Hung sew tseuen looked back to
the vision he had had in 1837. Hence he preached, as a
Divine Commissioner, with authority; while his natural dis-
position caused him to preach with stern vehemence and
imperiousness. If friends would not believe he renounced
their friendship. “IZf my own parents, my wife and children
do not believe, I cannot feel united with them, how much
less with other friends.” According as people believed or
not, he preached great happiness or terrible punishments in a
future state. He got angry if he was obstinately argued
96 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

with, reviling and heaping denunciations on his opposers. It
is clear that from the first he did not practise the quaker
doctrines of peace at every cost and of patient endurance of
all attacks. He violently destroyed a generally revered idol
in Kwang se, the Kan wang yay, and he distinctly declared:
“Too much patience and humility do not suit our present
times, for therewith it would be impossible to manage this
perverted generation.” Here again, to prevent a too hasty
and unqualified condemnation and an undervaluing of Hung
sew tseuen’s character, I must remind the reader that in
studying the Scriptures at Mr. Roberts’ establishment he
found recorded in all the four Gospels the forcible expulsion
from the temple of those that “bought and sold,” whose tables
were “overturned,” and who were driven out with a “scourge
of small cords.” Preachers in Christian Europe naturally
dwell most on those acts of their Great Pattern which best
exemplify his main character of a mild and patient sufferer;
but an earnest Chinese enquirer, reading for his own in-
struction, would neglect nothing; and a man of impatient
disposition would not overlook that particular act, four times
recorded, which seemed to justify a resort to practical violence
in a good cause.

The demolition of a number of idols by the God-worship-
pers, after the example given by Hung sew tseuen, incensed
the general population against them, and led to their first
collision with the authorities. A rich graduate named Wang
lodged an accusation against them for these acts at the office
of the district magistrate of Ping nan. He endeavoured to
strengthen his charge, as a Chinese under such circumstances
was almost certain to do, by declaring the association to be
in reality rebellious. But there appears to be no reason to
believe it to have been such at that time. Fung yun san
and another member of the body having been imprisoned,
Hung sew tseuen “remembered that the Governor-General
of Kwang tung and Kwang se, Ke ying, had gained per-
mission from the Emperor for Chinese as well as foreigners
to profess Christianity; and, after further consultation with
HUNG SEW TSEUEN'’S NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 97

the brethren at Thistle mount, he took his departure for
Kwang tung intending to present a petition to the governor
general on behalf of his friends, who suffered imprisonment
because of their religious persuasion.” This intention of
appealing to a high Manchoo official goes rather to prove
that Hung sew tseuen’s practical object was still confined
to religious proselytism; though, in the course of the long
discussions that took place on the subject, he may have said
things that sounded like a presentiment of his after rise
against the government, when recalled to mind subsequent
to that event, such as: “If we, because of the true doctrine,
suffer such persecution, what may be the design of God in
this.” He left Kwang se about the beginning of March,
1848, but on reaching Canton about the 20th of that month
learned from Mr. Roberts’ man, that Ke ying had left for
Peking some ten days before. He therefore set out again
for Kwang se. In the mean time the result of the official
investigations there was, that Fung yun san, after his com-
panion had “ died from the effects of confinement in gaol,”
was put in charge of two policemen to be conveyed to his
native district—a common legal proceeding in China. But
“during the journey Fung yun san, in his usual manner,
spoke with great eloquence and in persuasive language,
about the true doctrine; and they had not walked many
miles before the two policemen were won as converts. They
not only agreed to set him at liberty instantly, but declared
themselves willing to abandon their own station and follow
Fung to the congregation at Thistle-mount where he soon
after introduced them as candidates for baptism.”

Hearing Hung sew tseuen had gone to Kwang tung on
his behalf, Fung yun san followed him. They.crossed each
other on the way; but eventually met again in their native
district, to which Hung sew tseuen returned in November,
1848. They remained at their home till July, 1849, when
they left it for Kwang se, and have not since seen it.

H
98 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS,
*

CHAPTER VIII.

ORIGIN OF THE GROSSER FANATICISMS OF THE NEW SECT
. OF CHRISTIANS.

Ir is not without special cause that I have detailed these
journeyings to and from Kwang se, and have given all the
dates mentioned in Mr. Hamberg’s book or which I have
been enabled otherwise to get at. We learn thereby the
important fact that it was during the temporary absences of
Hung sew tseuen and Fung-yun ‘gan, that the religious move-

ment first began to assume its extremest remest fanatical phase; and
that those alleged descents of ‘God and Christ into the world

and their direct ¢ “addresses_ to. the God-wors shippers be began to
take place, which sound-so—blasphemously to. our_ears, as
narrated, without explanation, in the insu gents’ publications.
These addresses are given in one of the pamphlets obtained
when the Hermes visited Nanking. I quote its commence-
ment from Dr. Medhurst’s translation; merely premising that
while that gentleman has translated the word teen sometimes
by “celestial,” at other times by “ heavenly,” I should trans-
late it either by “heavenly” or by “divine ” as more accu-
rately expressing to the English mind the elevated ideas
attached by the insurgents to the original.
FANATICISMS OF THE NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 99

THE BOOK OF CELESTIAL DECREES AND DECLA-
RATIONS OF THE IMPERIAL WILL,

Published in the Second Year of the T’Hue ping Dynasty, denominated
Fin tsze, or 1852.

The proclamation of the celestial king is to the following
effect :—

“In the third month (April) of the Mow-shin year (1848)
our heavenly Father the great God and supréme Lord
came down into the world and displayed innumerable
miracles and powers, accompanied by evident proofs, which
are contained in the Book of Proclamations. In the ninth
month (October) of the same year, our celestial elder Brother,
the Saviour Jesus came down into the world, and also displayed
innumerable miracles and powers, accompanied by evident
proofs, which are contained in the Book of Proclamations.
Now lest any individual of our whole host, whether great
or small, male or female, soldier or officer, should not have
a perfect knowledge of the holy will and commands of our
heavenly Father, and a perfect knowledge of the holy will
and commands of our celestial elder Brother, and thus un-
wittingly offend against the celestial commands and decrees,
therefore we have especially examined the various proclama-
tions containing the most important of the sacred decrees
and commands of our heavenly Father, and celestial elder
Brother, and having classified them we have published them
in the form of a book, in order that our whole host may
diligently read and remember them and thus avoid offending
against the celestial decrees, and do that which is pleasing to
our heavenly Father and celestial elder Brother. There are
annexed to the same some of our royal proclamations with
the view of making you acquainted with the laws, and
causing you to live in dread of them. Respect this.

H2
100 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS,

“ On the 16th day of the 3d moon (21st of April), of the
Ke-yew year (1849) in the district city of Kwei (in Kwang
se), our heavenly Father, the great God and supreme Lord,
said ‘On the summit of Kaou laou hill, exactly in the form
of a cross, there is a pencil; pray, (and you will get a
response).’ *

“On the 14th day of the 3d moon (19th April), of the
Sin-k’hae year (1851) in the village of Tung heang (in the
district of Woo seuen), the heavenly Father addressed the
multitude saying, Oh my children! do you know your
heavenly Father and your celestial elder Brother? To
which they all replied, We know our heavenly Father
and celestial elder Brother. The heavenly Father then
said, Do you know your lord and truly?+ To which
they all replied, We know our Lord right well. The
heavenly Father said, I have sent your Lord down into
the world to become the celestial king: every word he utters
is a celestial command; you must be obedient; you must
truly assist your lord, and regard your king; you must
not dare to act disorderly, nor to be disrespectful. Ifyou
do not regard your Lord and King every one of you will be
involved in difficulty.

* On the 18th day of the 3d moon (April 23d), of the
Sin-k’hae year (1851) in the village of Tung-heang, (in the
district of Woo-seuen), the celestial elder Brother the Saviour
Jesus addressed the multitude, saying, Oh my younger
brethren! you must keep the celestial commands, and
obey the orders that are given you, and be at peace among
yourselves: if a superior is in the wrong, and an inferior
somewhat in the right; or if an inferior is in the wrong, and a
superior somewhat in the right, do not on account of a single
expression, record the matter ina book, and contract feuds and

* This passage is very difficult of comprehension; it probably refers to a
suspended pencil, balanced by a cross-bar, which agitated by the wind, described
certain characters by means of which the insurrectionists were accustomed to

divine.—See Morrison's Dictionary, Part I. vol. I. p. 40. (Dr. Medhurst.)
+ The “lord” here refers to the chief of the insurrection. (Dr. Medhurst.)
FANATICISM OF THE NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 101

enmities. You ought to cultivate what is good, and purify
your conduct: you should not go into the villages to seize
people’s goods. When you go into the ranks to fight you
must not retreat. When you have money, you must make it
public and not consider it as belonging to one or another. You
must with united heart and strength together conquer the
hills and rivers. You should find out the way to heaven,
and walk in it; although at present the work be toilsome
and distressing, yet by and by you will be promoted to
high offices. If after having been instructed any of you
should still break Heaven’s commands and slight the orders
given yau, or disobey your officers, or retreat when you are
led into battle, do not be surprised if I, your exalted elder
Brother, issue orders to have you put to death.”

From the narrative I have given above it will be seen
that in April, 1848, Hung sew tseuen was probably in
Kwang tung, Fung yun san in prison; and that in October,
1848, Fung yun san was probably in Kwang tung, Hung
sew tseuen, on the way thither. On the 21st of. April, 1849,
the date of the first recorded communication, both of them
were certainly absent in Kwang tung. Now this is the
only cabalistic address partaking, as an unintelligible jargon,
in so far of the nature of the heathen Chinese systems of
divination. The second and third of the addresses, as well
as all others in the book, the whole of which were delivered
after an interval of two years, when Hung sew tseuen and
Fung yun san had not only rejoined their proselytes, but
had for some months headed them in an openly avowed
contest against the Manchoo dynasty, are all couched in
intelligible and simple Chinese, however inappropriate they
may be, as proceeding from the Christian God.

When Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san returned to
Kwangse in the autumn of 1849, “ they learned that during
their absence in Kwang tung, some very remarkable occur-
102 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

°

rences had taken place in the congregation of the God-
worshippers, which had brought disorder and dissension
among the brethren. It sometimes happened that while
they were kneeling down, engaged in prayer, one or other of
those present was seized by a sudden fit, so that he fell down
to the ground, and his whole body was covered with perspi-
ration. In such a state of ecstacy, moved by the spirit,
he uttered words of exhortation, reproof, prophecy, &c.
Often the words were unintelligible and they were generally
delivered in rhythm. The brethren had noted down in a book
the more remarkable of these sayings, and presented them
for inspection to Hung sew tseuen. The latter now judged
the spirits according to the truth of the doctrine, and
declared that the words of those moved were partly true or
partly false. Thus confirming the already expressed opinion
of Yang sew tsing that they were ‘partly from God and
partly from the devil.’

“The most remarkable of the sayings which Hung sew
tseuen acknowledged as true were those of Yang sew tsing
and Seaou chaou hwuy. Yang was originally a very poor
man, ub he yenied thie vongecpetion with much earnestness
and sincerity. Whilst there he suddenly lost his power
of speech, and was dumb for a period of two months, to
the astonishment of the brethren, who considered this to
be an evil omen: but afterwards he recovered the use of his
tongue, and, more frequently than any other, was subject
to fits of ecstacy in which he spoke in the name of God the
Father and in a solemn and awe-inspiring manner reproved
others’ sins, often pointing out individuals, and exposing
their evil actions. He also exhorted to virtue and foretold
future events, or commanded what they ought to do. His
words generally made a deep impression upon the assembly.
Seaou chaou hwuy spoke in the name of Jesus, and his
words were milder than those of Yang. One of the Wang
clan had spoken against the doctrine of Jesus, and led many
astray, but he was excluded from the congregation, and his
FANATICISMS OF THE NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 103

words declared false, being spoken under the influence of
a corrupt spirit.

“It appears, also, that many sick persons had been cured
in a wonderful manner by prayer to God, and Yang was
said to possess the gift of curing sicknesses by intercession for
the sick. From the description it would almost seem as if
Yang had willingly submitted and prayed to have the sick-
ness of the patient transferred to himself, and that he for
a short while had borne his sufferings whereby he redeemed
the disease of the patient, and was afterwards himself
released from the consequences of his own intercession.”

This passage, I may remark in passing, is one of the
strongest proofs of the truthfulness and general accuracy of
the narrative in Mr. Hamberg’s book. The parts therein
assigned to Yang sew tsing and Seaou chaou hwuy, the first
as the medium of communication, the spokesman, of “God (
the Father,” the second as the spokesman “of Jesus,” are
precisely those which the latest authentic ee
from the Nanking insurgents to foreigners gives to both.
In a letter from Yang sew tsing himself as Eastern Prince
to the Commander of H.M.’s war steamer Rattler it is dis-
tinctly stated 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;” and that
“‘ 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 Princes ;’’ who is Seaou chaou
hwuy.

The fact of Hung sew tseuen’s acknowledging these two
men as communicators of the will of God and of Jesus is
also a strong proof of his own perfect sincerity. Had he
been merely a crafty, deliberate impostor, he would, “|
a necessary consequence, have held Yang sew tsing and
Seaou chaou hwuy to be equally impostors; and would,
sooner than any other, have perceived that this assumed
capacity of communicators of the Highest Will virtually gave
104 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

@
them the supreme direction in the affairs of the Godworship-
pers—the power to command himself as well as every other
member of the community. As a sincere believer, on the
other hand, of the reality of his own mission and of the
doctrines and faith he preached, there were many reasons for
his being led to acknowledge and submit to their pretensions.
As St. Paul had been converted by a vision, so he looked
back to a vision as the origin of his conversion. And as St.
Paul had travelled with one or two companions from Pales-
tine to Greece and Asia Minor, and there founded societies of
converts, so had he, accompanied by Fung yun san, travelled
from Kwang tung to Kwang se—to poor men like them a
journey of three weeks or a month—and in like manner
founded societies of converts. But the very book which was the
authority for his mission and his teachings stated that the
converts of St. Paul “ spoke with tongues and prophesied.”
It also said that God wrought special miracles “ by the hand
of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick
handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from
them and the evil spirits went out of them.” The same
book, far from declaring that the spirit will cease to
speak through man, gives, in the words of Paul to one of
the societies he had established, the express command,
* Quench not the spirit, despise not prophesyings, prove all
things, hold fast that which is good.” It enjoins further not
to believe “every” spirit, and teaches how to distinguish
“the false prophets” from “the spirits that are of God.”
The test is: “Every spirit is of God that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.” All this is in the New
Testament, and precisely in those chapters quoted in full in
Leang a fah’s book. When, therefore, Hung sew tseuen
| on returning to Kwang se after a year’s absence, found that
. it had- sometimes happened that while the brethren were
. kneeling in prayer one or other was seized by a fit” and in
' that “state of ecstacy moved by the spirit uttered words of
exhortation, reproof and prophecy,” how could he venture
FANATICISMS OF THE NEW SECT OF CHRISTIANS. 105

in his own mind summarily to condemn all this as “ not of
God?” TI repeat, as a designer, and practical establisher of
a system to serve only his own ambition, he must have seen
in it nothing but the attempts of other impostors to over-
reach him. As a sincere believer, he conscientiously applied
the test, as comprehended by him, “judged the spirits,”
acknowledged Yang sew tsing as the utterer of the words of
God; and thus opened a door to all that is objected to, by
Occidental Christians generally, in the doctrines and practice
of this new sect of Oriental Christians. |

Hung sew tseuen rejoined the Godworshippers about |
August, 1849. For another year the society retained its |
exclusively religious nature; but in the autumn of 1850 it |
was brought into collision with the local authorities, when
the movement almost immediately assumed a political cha-
racter of the highest aims.
106 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

CHAPTER IX.

RETROSPECTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
MANCHOO POWER IN CHINA.

In order to understand the origin and progress of the all-
important modification mentioned at the close of the last
chapter, we must go back a little in time and also devote
some space to the consideration of a very different descrip-
tion of Chinese associations. Their object has been to expel
the present dynasty; and I have, indeed reached a point
where I think it will be a help to the reader if I lay before
him some more of the circumstances that attended the esta-
blishment of the Manchoo power over China Proper. When
I say reader, I mean him who is inspired with a serious desire
to acquaint himself with the actual position of things in
China, with a view to a better valuation of the probabilities
either of the expulsion of the Manchoos, or of their complete
re-establishment in power after purifying hardships and a
bracing struggle.

On pages 30, 31, which I may beg such a reader not
to be too indolent to re-peruse, I have shown that it was a
Chinese rebel, Le tsze ching, not the Manchoo Tartars, who
overthrew, after an eight years’ fight, the last native dynasty,
the Mings. In spite of years of internal troubles the latter
had then still on the borders a general, Woo san kwei, at
the head of an army efficient enough to keep off the Man-
choos. At crises of this kind the question which every
Chinese has to decide for himself is: Has the Divine Com-
mission been withdrawn from the present house? and if so,
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANCHOO POWER. 107

to whom of the various aspirants for the sovereignty has it
been given?* Had Woo san kwei and his army recog-
nised Le tsze ching as the new Divinely Appointed, it is
highly probable that a new native dynasty would have been
firmly established ; and that, instead of the Manchoos con-
quering China, the Chinese would have annexed Manchooria.

But Woo san kwei held it his duty to support the Ming
family ; or at least decided that Le tsze ching was not the
new recipient of “the Teen ming, the Divine Commission,”
but a rebellious usurper. He could not however hope at
once to fight him and also to defend the boundaries against
the Manchoos. In his dilemma, he resorted to the plan of
making peace with the latter, and inviting their co-operation,
in the hope that when he had crushed the native usurper he
should find means of expelling, or bribing out the foreign
barbarians.

This is a fully authenticated instance of that wretched
impolicy which consists in hastily violating well established
general principles, for the sake of an apparent, or even a real,
but temporary expediency. It forms a flagrant and very in-
structive instance, not only to the Chinese who suffered by
it, but also to the Manchoos who profited by it, of the conse~
quence of inviting external interference in internal affairs.
And I direct particular attention to the fact because it has
influenced, and will largely influence the conduct of the his-
torically well informed Chinese, as well as of their scholars
in civilization, the Manchoos, with reference to the interven-
tion of us foreigners in the present struggle. It has made
them, and will make them adopt a tone of what we call igno-
rant, arrogant obstinacy, but which they consider wise and
politic consistency.

It had long been an established principle that the true
policy towards all non-Chinese peoples or “barbarians” was

* I had once occasion to observe a Chinese official of high rank turning this
question over in his own mind, when talking with me about the Tae pings at
Nanking, to the neighbourhood of which place he had just received orders to
proceed,
108 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

to keep them off. A temporary pressure of circumstances
induced Woo san kwei to violate this rule, and the conse-
quence was the subjection of his country to barbarians and
ultimately the extermination, by them, of his own family. He
is consequently looked on historically as a well meaning but
most inconsiderate and unwise statesman. He was however
undoubtedly an able general. With a numerically much in-
ferior force, consisting of his own army and his Manchoo
auxiliaries, he defeated Le tsze ching in several pitched bat-
tles, compelling him to evacuate Peking, and retire to the
south-western provinces.

The stories which the Chinese still tell of the acts of
individual Manchoos, in these and succeeding years, show
that the great body, not only of the common men but of
those of higher station, were little better than what we
should call savages. But a certain portion had, in the
struggle of their nation towards increased dominion during
the two previous generations, added to their original hardy
and active habits of an unsettled race, something of. the
Chinese mental cultivation. In addition to this they had
with them, years before Woo san kwei made his offer, a large
body of tried Chinese adherents, composed either of such
adventurers as I have shown * to have in all times overflowed
the bounds of China Proper or of natives who had joined
them during previous temporary inroads into that territory.
These original Chinese adherents were a great accession to
the physical strength, and a still more important accession to
the mental power of the Manchoos. Several of them were
Generals, when the latter, as auxiliaries of Woo san kwei,
entered Peking. This occurred in 1644; when they almost
immediately declared their young king, Emperor. Woo san

* See page 34.

+ These Chinese adherents were embodied into what is called the Ham kenn,
Chinese force, subject to the same rules and discipline as the Manchoos Proper.
The descendants of these people, whom we call naturalized Manchoos, still form
a considerable portion of the garrisons of Bannermen in Peking and the
provinces,
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANCHOO POWER. 109

kwei had been previously induced to leave for the west in
pursuit of the usurper Le tsze ching. After the death of
this latter rival, the Manchoos had recourse to the old feudal
system of government; and, by creating Woo san kwei a
vassal prince of one or two of the western provinces, ob-
tained from him and the Chinese peoples allotted to his rule a
sullen acquiescence in the domination of a Manchoo suzerain
at Peking. It was only by the same expedient that, at the
end of seven years of bloody fighting with chequered and
doubtful success, that part of the country to which I have
directed particular attention, as South Eastern China, was
reduced to a state of semi-subjugation. Three of the most
powerful of the old Chinese adherents above alluded to were
severally constituted vassal princes of Kwang se, Kwang
tung and Fuh keen; positions which they or their respective
children maintained for some thirty years. Throughout the
same period, the Chinese colonies on the west coast of
Formosa were altogether independent of the Manchoos,
being under the sovereignty of a Fuh keen family which,
far from acknowledging even a nominal subjection to the
Manchoos, maintained an unceasing war with them by means
of a hereditary naval superiority. They were the descendants
of a buccaneering merchant adventurer, who traded and
pirated on the coast of China, amongst the Philippines, and
in the Indian Archipelago; and who elevated himself into
political importance towards the close of the Ming dynasty.
It was his son, known to Europeans as Coxinga, who expelled
the Dutch from Formosa and established his family in power
on that island.

About 1673 Kang he, the second Emperor of the Manchoo
dynasty, attained his twentieth year. He was physically and
mentally a very superior man. While retaining the hardy
and active, hunting and military habits of his progenitors, he
had had the advantage of a careful Chinese education from
his earliest youth. And he was not only intimately ac-
quainted with Chinese philosophy, history, and institutions,
110 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

but voluntarily acquired, through the Jesuits missionaries,
a solid knowledge of mathematics, and of general European
science in its then state, to an extent curiously great in an
Asiatic potentate. Possibly this young and talented ruler
felt that he possessed the abilities, the resources, and the
instruments necessary to bring back all China within the
centralized form of government; and, to that end, began
proceedings against the southern vassals which drove them
into rebellion. Or it may have been that these latter thought
themselves sufficiently established to assert complete inde-
pendence. Certain it is, however, that Woo san kwei who
was still living, and the loved feudal ruler of the present
province of Yunan, formally threw off his allegiance and
marched (1673-1674) a large army northwards against his
suzerain. The three vassal princes of South Eastern China
followed his example, and were joined in the movement by
the independent naval Prince of the Formosan Colonies.
But though acting simultaneously, they did not act together;
some of them even fought with each other; and in the course
of a ten years’ war, the young Emperor Kang-he overcame
them all. Kwang tung and Fuh keen were in about three
years completely conquered, and formally incorporated into
the centralized system. It took about five or six years to
reduce Kwang se, which lay nearest to the territory of
Woo san kwei. This old ex-Ming general* maintained his
military reputation to the last. He carried on the war,
beyond the bounds of his own principality rather than
within it, for five years. He then (1678) died; when with an
army in Hoonan. In the course of the three years following
his demise, the armies of the Manchoo Emperor penetrated
into his state, reduced it to complete subjection, and put

* He was a contemporary of Cromwell. Like Cromwell he exercised a
decisive influence on the fortunes of his country; and though he felt con-
strained to acquiesce in the domination of his self imposed auxiliaries, yet
whenever he did fight, either against or with them, he was like Cromwell suc-

cessful as a warrior. Though almost unheard of in Europe, he was one of the
most remarkable men that the seventeenth century saw in the “ world.”
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANCHOO POWER. 111

every member of his family to death. These contests finished,
the Emperor concentrated his efforts on Formosa, and soon
compelled its prince to give in his submission. He was
removed to Peking, where he thenceforth resided as a
pensioned titulary ; and the Formosan colonies were brought
under the centralized administration as a department of the
Fuh keen province.
112 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
*

CHAPTER X.

FORMATION OF CHINESE POLITICAL SOCIETIES AGAINST THE
MANCHOO DOMINATION, AND ORIGIN OF CHINESE INSURREC-
TIONS AND REBELLIONS GENERALLY.

Tue final subjugation, just narrated, of all South Eastern
China to the Manchoo dynasty did not take place till 1678-9,
that of Formosa not till 1683, up to which latter period the
sea-board population had always a place of refuge in that
independent, though small, Chinese State. For about 40
years, therefore, after the advent of the Manchoo dynasty
was proclaimed at Peking, the mountaineers and coast-
landers of South Eastern China never felt themselves com-
pletely and hopelessly under its sway; and from that date to
the present day—during a period of 170 years—this very
portion of China has been the great seat of a formidable
political society, best known as the San ho hwuy, the Triad
Society, the express object of which has been the expulsion
of the barbarian conquerors of their country.

Few of the details of its internal organization are known
with certainty. Like the members of many other societies,
the first Christians for instance, who have had a common
object so great that in presence of it all were equal, the
Triads call each other “ brethren,” and the chiefs are, irre-
spective of actual age, the senior brethren.

During the remaining 40 years’ rule of the vigorous,
talented, and learned Emperor Kang he; during the 13
years’ reign of his son; and during the 60 years’ reign
of his grandson, his rival in Chinese political learning and
FORMATION OF POLITICAL SOCIETIES. 113

administrative ability, these political societies were only able
to exist by the observance of the strictest secrecy, and the
adoption of peculiar rules of embodiment and mutual support,
which tend to separation of the members from social and
family ties. Under the debasing influence of this secrecy
and this separation, to which they were compelled during the
most brilliant century of the Manchoo domination, the mem-
bers largely degenerated into mere gang-robbers and pirates.
Nevertheless, they have from first to last not ceased to
cherish their original principles and objects, summed up in
their well known pithy manifesto: “Fan tsing fuh ming.
Overthrow the Manchoos, re-establish the Mings.” And
whenever the opportunity has offered, the seemingly mere
bandits and buccaneers have evinced a capability to aspire
after, and to assume a character and functions essentially
political.

This is a kind of change which is not puzzling only to the
British public at home. Many English, French and Ame-
ricans, long residents in China, have shewn a noteworthy lack
of power to comprehend aright, even when it has taken place
under their eyes, a transformation so alien to all their pre-
vious conceptions and historical recollections. This lack of
power, or mental incapacity to master a novel situation (as
we may call it in modern diplomatic language), cannot,
I regret to say, be regarded at this time simply as a note-
worthy fact for the philosophical historian: it is too likely to
prove a lamentable fact in a practical sense at the present
crisis in China, by leading to a radically unsound and wrong-
headed interference, or a confused and vacillating inter-
meddling with Chinese political movements. The follow-
ing remarks will, I trust, set the matter in its true light.

I have already shewn above (page 24) that there does
not exist, in the strictly autocratic organization which the
Chinese government system constitutes, any authorized
peaceable means by which the people can check tyranny on
‘the part of the Emperor himself, or tyrannical proceedings

.
114 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

sanctioned by him. When a district, a departmental, or
even a provincial authority makes tyrannical demands on
those under him, the Chinese can and do, often, oppose a
peaceable opposition in this way: they refuse to yield and
suffer quietly all the oppressions brought to bear on them to
extort compliance. The tyrannical mandarin either shrinks
from carrying his oppressions beyond a certain degree and
extent, or these oppressions themselves ultimately defeat the
object they were intended to effect. This species of purely
passive opposition is often accompanied by one of an active but
still peaceable and quite negative character: the tradesmen
will close their shops, workmen will cease labouring, and
passage boats stop running, i.e. there is a general strike of
the productive and distributive classes. The result is in both
cases the same, the tyrannical mandarin fails in attaining his
aims, and finds himself an object of general abhorrence. But
the people bring about this result only by a fearful amount
of loss and suffering in property and person; and though the
Chinese do possess to a degree in which they are equalled
only by the Anglo Saxon race what may be termed the
communal spirit (that is, the faculty of combining for com-
mon purposes, and of making the cause of individuals the
cause of the community because representing a principle),
nevertheless tyrannical proceedings may be carried to a
most deplorable extent before the people generally of any
locality can resolve to engage in a struggle in which, even if
successful, they unavoidably suffer so much. The right of
appeal to a higher authority exists in the above cases, and is
invariably exercised in conjunction with the passive resistance
offered. But the unfortunate necessity in which pure auto-
cracy is placed of regarding all opposition in the first instance
‘as factious, and of enforcing obedience as the general rule,
rarely to be departed from,—this necessity renders these
appeals for a long time ineffective; while the individuals who
make them in the name of the community seldom escape special
victimization. Still it is by persistance in these appeals, sup-
ORIGIN OF INSURRECTIONS. 115

ported by strikes which interfere with the means of living
and the material prosperity of the people, that the tyrannical
mandarin is checked, and indeed often ruined for life, though
only at the cost of ruin to a certain number of others. I may
remark in passing, that we are here considering in local
politics the operation of a general principle of Chinese
sociology, domestic and social, not less than political. A
member of a family or of a society will commit suicide in
order thereby to involve in ruin some other member of the
family or society as a punishment for injuries not otherwise
to be punished. Ihave not space or time to show why the
injuries are, in the cases referred to, not otherwise to be
redressed, nor how the suicide operates as a punishment.*

* In Huc’s Empire Chinois, Tome II. chap. 7, page 310 the “how” in the
case of two members of a soctety, is sufficiently explained. In the case of two
members of a family (by far the most frequent description of these suicides I
believe) the “how” is somewhat similar. In both cases the Imperial law, sup-
ported by public opinion, acts to punish.

The following perfectly authentic tale which was related to me bya Catholic
Chinese illustrates the text by showing how, not suicide by an individual but
a heavy sacrifice on the part of a family, can check tyranny in a society. It is
at the same time instructive in other points.

It occurred in a locality where Christianity had existed among a portion of
the inhabitants for several generations, and where, consequently, among the
members of the Christian community were to be found, as in Roman Catholic
countries in the west, some who, as the Chinese catholics say, “ puh show kwet
keu—neglected the ordinances,” that is to say men who, Christians by birth, and
openly declaring themselves to be Christians, were not pious or indeed at all
disposed to render obedience to the priest. One of them was a man—we will
call him Chang—noted for his turbulent disposition and for having a large
family of able bodied sons trained in their father’s turbulent habits. Now it
so happened that the Te paou or constable and informing officer of that par-
ticular locality took it into his head to avail himself of the amenability of the
Christians as such, to the penal code, in order to extort money from them ;
taking care, however, not to interfere with Chang or hissons. This proceeding
became at length so vexatious, that at the end of a consultation in the Chapel
the Priest (a western foreigner) was reluctantly compelled to agree to an appli-
cation being made to the turbulent Chang, from whom, as a non-observer of
ordinances he had hitherto kept duly aloof. Chang, though he thought religion
a bother, fired up when he heard that the Christians, he being one, were selected
as victims by the Te paou, and was besides not displeased to make himself
valued by his co-religionists and the priests who had hitherto regarded him
with little esteem. He directed his sons to seize the Te paou on the first con-

12
116 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

e
The fact is so certain that the threat of suicide backed by
an evident intention on the part of the threatener to carry it
out if unheeded, often checks domestic and social tyrannies.
There is a kind of parallel in the duel over a handkerchief
which a man little acquainted with pistols might, in the days
of duelling, offer the dead shot and habitual bully.

The above described is the only peaceable means open to
the Chinese people of checking oppressions of the mandarins.
The reader will perceive that their ultimate efficiency depends
on the existence of an authority superior to the oppressors,
not less than to the oppressed, the Emperor; whose punish-
ments are eventually brought down on all parties. But when
the Emperor himself commits tyrannies, or his chosen advisers
and agents, in his name, and with his unreserved support, then
nothing remains but a resort to force. Tiven these appeals
to force are, however, at first not rebellious movements, but
‘merely local insurrections, having for their ultimate object
the death of certain tyrannical mandarins. Some few men
literally sacrifice ‘their lives—I beg the reader to note this
well—for the good of the community. They head a rising
against the oppressors, continue to oppose whatever force is
moved against them until it is settled by negotiation that no
attempt shall be made to prolong the oppressions, and then,
instead of flying, they in their quality of ringleaders delibe-
venient opportunity, and bring him to their house. As. soon as this was done,
Chang had the doors closed, and after exposing to him the causes of his
seizure ordered his sons to kill him. The Te paou understanding at once the
position of affairs,—seeing that he had carried his annoyances so far that a sacri-
fice would be made to put him out of the way and that he really was going to
be killed—threw himself in terror before Chang, performed the ko tow, and
making abject submission, protested no Christian should in future be annoyed
if he was only spared. Chang according to my informant addressed him much
as follows; “ Well, you shall be let off this time, you’ve had a good fright;
and you know too there was good cause for fright. You will remember when
you think again of oppressing the Christians that I, Chang, am also a teen
choo kiau ti. I don’t care about your promises. You will not oppress them
any more, that J know; for if I hear of your beginning again, I will order one
of my boys there to seek you out and kill you at once. He will have to die

for it, of course, but I have plenty of sons, and you shall be put an end to.”
From that day forth the Te paou never in any way molested a Christian.
ORIGIN OF REBELLIONS. 117

rately surrender, and heroically yield up their lives as that
expiation on which autocracy must insist before it dares to
give up the struggle. There is neither hope nor thought of
overturning the dynasty in these risings; one of which took
place under the eyes of foreigners at Ningpo within the last
few years. They are in the best of times not unfrequent in
China, But when the necessity for them becomes very
frequent, the people are naturally led to think of resistance
by force unaccompanied by the self-sacrifice of nobler minded
individuals. In that case these same men—the very people
who are most likely to be the first in incurring oppression by
being most prompt to refuse compliance with tyrannical
demands—instead of organizing and heading some such local
insurrection as has just been described, take vengeance as far
as they can with their own hands and then become outlaws
—bandits or pirates—having more or less of the sympathy of
the public, upon whom they from the first levy black mail
rather than plunder of all their property, as mere robbers
would. 'This is one way in which prolonged resistance to the
general government takes place, resistance unaccompanied by
any intention of an eventual self-sacrifice, that would indeed
in this case serve no purpose. Another way is as follows.
A man, originally a mere thief, burglar or highwayman,
whose sole object was the indiscriminate plunder of all who
were unable to guard against him, finds it possible, in the state
of general apathy to public order produced by continued
oppression, to connect himself with a few fellow thieves, &c.
and at their head to evade all efforts of the local authorities
to put him down. As his band increases, he openly defies
these authorities, pillages the local custom houses and trea-
suries, levies a tax on passing merchandize and a black mail
from the wealthier residents, but refrains from plundering any
one outright, and while, by exempting the great bulk of the
population from all exactions, he prevents the rise of a general
ill feeling towards him, he as the scourge of the oppressors
gains the latent or conscious sympathy of all classes. Now,
these captains of bandits, whatever their origin, do not, it is
118 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

true, while their followers amount merely to a few hundreds,
choose to make themselves ridiculous or to rouse the general
government to more serious efforts against them, by issuing
dynastic manifestoes or assuming the state of royalty. But
| when they begin to count their followers by thousands, form-
; ing a regularly governed force they declare openly against
\ the hitherto reigning sovereign, whom they denounce as a
beast And from the very first, when merely at the head
of a small band, no Chinese, acquainted with the history of
ahi country, can refuse to see in such a man a possible, if not
‘probable, founder of a dynasty. More than one Chinese
dynasty has been founded by men like this ; the Ming dynasty
which preceded the present was so founded; and—what is
really very important as an historical example—the greatest
, of all native Chinese dynasties, that of Han, was so founded.
' If the reader will refer to Du Halde he will find the
, founder of the Han dynasty described as a “ private soldier”
"who became a “freebooter” and “captain of a troop of Py
/ vagabonds.” aud Wh Sig A Woks # Kowal 4
+ The misconception that exists among forei¢ érs in China
on this subject, and the consequent differences of opinion
manifested by Hong Kong journals and their correspondents,
as to whether the various bodies now in arms against the
government are rebels, or mere robbers and pirates, forms
ariotlies example of the thraldom in which language holds us;
and of the confusion and mischief that may arise from mis-
taking the meaning of a single word. The word in this case
__' is tsih, that applied by the Chinese to the bodies of men
“: just alluded to. Now in the least imperfect of Chinese dic-
tionaries, that of Morrison, this word is explained to mean,
robber or bandit. ‘These English words are, however, but a
portion of the meaning of the Chinese one; which is very
comprehensive, signifying all persons who set the authorities
at defiance by acquisitive acts of violence. And, as the object
which it is sought to acquire may be a bag of money or
may be the empire; it follows that this one word, tsih, is in
fact equivalent to the three words, robber, bandit and rebel.

meena ee
par ees mete
ORIGIN OF REBELLIONS. 119

As it can, like all other Chinese words, be used in every part
of speech, it also means to rob, robbery, &c. to rebel,
rebellion, &c.

Morrison expressly warns those who use his dictionary
that it has many shortcomings. Nevertheless translators
keep on rendering tsih by robber or bandit only; though it
leads them into the glaring absurdity of employing these
terms of men who have assumed the state of sovereigns and
have fought pitched battles at the head of armies that would
be considered large in Europe. About one seventh of the
whole Penal Code of Chinais oceupied by one section treating
of attempts to take possession of the property of others,
from the theft of a small sum of money up to the attempt
to seize the Empire by a person who “assumes a dynastic
designation, enrols troops, and perhaps styles himself a sove-

reign prince.” This whole section is entitled Tsih taou. >~

+

Now ¢aow is the real Chinese term for robbery and theft ;*. -

while tsih refers to the larger class of crimes, the different
degrees of rebellion, treated of in the section. ‘T'sih means
therefore to rebel, rebel and rebellion. Its mistranslation into
“robbers,” “bandits,” has been, and is likely to be the cause
of a mistaken and most mischievous interference in Chinese
internal politics.

From the above the reader will be able to see how it is
that most foreigners in China have fallen into the error of
ridiculing the Chinese authorities for inducing large bodies of
men to lay down their arms by bestowing on the leaders and
older adherents, military and naval commissions, and by dis-
missing the rest with a little money. So long as the ¢tsth
are but leaders of small robber-bands or private captains
of isolated rovers, the Chinese government, like Christian
governments of the Occident, endeavour to put them down
by force. But when these same tsih have become heads of

* The definite and distinctive technical forensic term for robbery is keang
taou, forcible taou; that for theft ¢sce taou, secret taou. I must again remind
the reader that the Chinese Penal Code now in force is strictly national, not

dynastic ; being the latest development of a written statute legislation that bas
been growing for more than 2000 years.
120 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
*

armies and fleets, able to keep the field and the seas year
after year against the government forces, that very palpable
and substantial fact joined to all they are told by their own
history and by their codified legislation of 2000 years’ stand-
ing makes it impossible for the Chinese authorities to see in the
tsih anything but what they really are, political opponents.
And the ignorant ridicule of occidental foreigners would,
even if it reached their ears, have small effect in preventing
them from treating with these political opponents in the
manner dictated at once by expedience and by the principles
of their national civilization.

The reader will perceive from my definition of civilization
that the Chinese civilization has from the earliest ages been
the highest in kind, whatever it may have been in degree, or
in the extent to which it has been practically attained. It is
mental more than material. It has always taught distinctly
in words and in books that man should struggle with man
by moral and intellectual agencies rather than by physical—
should gain him, by subduing his heart and his head rather
than his body. Hence the frequent and liberal use on the
part of all authorities, from the Emperor to the lowest
mandarin of moral and argumentative proclamations; another
of the peculiar features of Chinese political life ridiculed by
occidental ignorance. Even those mandarins who are least
disposed by their individual natures to persuasive and peace-
ful measures are compelled by national opinion to issue
proclamations the text of which is the stereotyped formula:
* Puh jin puh keaou urh choo—I cannot bear to withhold
instruction and yet to destroy!” or “ Destruction without
instruction is insufferable!” In this feature of their mental
,, Civilization the Chinese are practically more Christian than

=

q

‘

fi
‘

oe

i

a

Ss

. the Christians of the west.

4 I Chinese history shows us one other kind of forcible
~ change of dynasty: the pretorian, or such as have been sud-

denly effected by the army, whether for the gratification of

its own wishes, or to check tyrannies against the country

generally. These have, however, not been frequent, and
ORIGIN OF REBELLIONS, 121

cannot operate to effect the expulsion of the Manchoo family,
whose pretorian guard and the germ of whose army consists
of its own countrymen settled in China.

The reader, who has mastered the above, necessarily tedi-
ous, exposition, will I hope now be able to understand the
nature of Chinese rebellions, whether originated directly
by the Triad Society, by robber bands, or by a peligians ;
community. a

JI have indicated above (pp. 32, 33) the downward course
of the Manchoo dynasty before and after the British war.
This downward course had become so apparent to me
within four years after that contest, that in a work I then
(June, 1846) wrote, I did not hesitate to point to the circum-
stance in the following terms :—

“‘ The very unfair proportion of Manchoos employed by the
present dynasty in government posts is a deviation from the
fundamental principle of Chinese polity; and, as might be
expected, it constantly nourishes a feeling of dissatisfaction.
among the Chinese, which, though they are obliged to be
at some pains to conceal it, occasionally escapes them. The
selling of government posts, which has recently been carried
to a great extent, is another deviation from it, dangerous in
the highest degree for the present rulers. Hitherto the dread
of the more warlike Manchoos joined to the partial operation
allowed to this principle has been sufficient to repress or pre-
vent the general rising of a quiet loving people; but if the
practice of selling offices be continued, in the extent to which
it is at present carried, nothing is more likely, now that the
prestige of Manchoo power in war has received a severe
shock in the late encounters with the English, than that a
Chinese Belisarius will arise and extirpate or drive into
Tartary the Manchoo garrisons or bannermen, who, during a
residence in China, twice as long as that of the Vandals in
Africa, have greatly deteriorated in the military virtues;
while they still retain enough of the insolence of conquerors,
to gain themselves the hatred of the Chinese.”

In less than three years after that, I had marked enough to
122 THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBEEDIONS:

convince me that some such event was actually approaching ;
for in a letter of the 25th January, 1849, addressed to a
gentleman who had occupied an eminent position in China,
after telling him of the (then) recent promotion to still higher
office of the well known mandarin Ke ying,* I observed that
“there was indeed great need of able men at the head of
affairs,” adding, that though we had rather scanty data at
command, yet, “ judging from what we do know positively,
we are entering on a period of insurrection and anarchy that
will end sooner or later in the downfall of the Manchoo
dynasty.” I then showed that “for the last five years
robberies by bands of men often numbering hundreds had
become gradually more common, while the sale not of titles
merely, but of offices, together with the financial difficulties,
had been steadily increasing,” and concluded, “ Everything
in short seems hastening to a worse state, and I look in vain
for any active principle of conservation, for anything to stop
the downward career.”

This was, observe, written fully eighteen months before
the outbreak of the religious-political rising, the “ Kwang se
rebellion’’ proper; and nearly a year before the bandit rebels
in Kwang se assumed a distinctly political character; and
commenced that open contest with the existing government,
which was the immediate cause of the far more dangerous
religious political outbreak.

* Reality is said to beat fiction, and the mention of this mandarin reminds
me of the “ Syrian Prince” whom Mr. Titmarsh encountered in his journey from
Cornhill to Cairo as a vendor of pocket-handkerchiefs. The mandarin Ke ying
is a Prince of the Imperial family, the cousin I believe of the last Emperor.
He held more than one of those very important posts of Governor General
which I have described in foregoing pages, and was afterwards one of the two
chief ministers; a man uniting in his own person in China the birth, rank
and official power of the late Duke of Cambridge and Lord Aberdeen in Eng-
land. Judge therefore of our disgust and our astonishment at the ignorance
and gullibility of John Bull when we learned that an illiterate Chinese of low
station, who could not sit in the presence of English gentlemen in China, had
been accompanying ladies of some standing in their Park drives and eventually
figured at the opening of the first Crystal palace as the “celebrated mandarin
Keying,” on which occasion he walked in the procession between the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the “ Duke” !!
CONVERSATIONS OF THE EMPEROR. 123

CHAPTER XI.

CONVERSATIONS OF THE OLD EMPEROR TAOU KWANG WITH A
HIGH MANDARIN RESPECTING BRITISH PROJECTS AND THE
STATE OF SOUTHERN CHINA.

AxouT the time that the transformation of the bandit rebels
into distinctly political rebels took place, viz.—in the last
months of 1849, some conversations took place between the
old Emperor Taou kwang and one of his high officials, which
the reader will, I believe, not blame me for inserting here.

I did not get the manuscript record of these conversations
till two years later, in March 1851, when I handed a trans-
lation of them to my then official superior Dr. (now Sir John)
Bowring, who transmitted them to the Foreign Minister
Lord Palmerston. I appended to my official translation a
note in which I examined the probabilities of the authen-
ticity of the conversations. The substance of that note I
here reproduce with some additions deemed necessary for
the information of the home reader; but which were not
requisite for Dr. Bowring, with whom I was in personal
communication and to whom I was therefore able to give
verbally such further information and explanations as his
unacquaintance with the language and the peculiar insti-
tutions of the Chinese rendered necessary.

There are two official rules in the Chinese administrative
system of special importance, one that no officer shall remain
in one and the same post longer than three years, the other
that on each promotion he shall travel to Peking and appear
at a levee; which latter—the Emperor being the chief admi-
124 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

nistrator—is in China necessarily something more than a court
ceremony. The Chinese government has the practical wisdom
not to be the slave of mere routine ; and hence it interrupts
the operation of these rules whenever exceptional circum-
stances demand it. They are however enforced to an extent
that, viewing the long journeys many of the provincial man-
darins are thereby compelled to perform, seems to occidental
ignorance extremely absurd, comically Chinese. But the
fact is both of these rules are, like most Chinese adminis-
trative forms, based on a profound knowledge of human
nature, and on a long experience of their fitness to the
national government system. They are the means by which
autocratic centralization guards against local tendencies to
feudalism. The frequent changes of posts usually cause
changes of locality; and prevent such intimate personal
regard between the people and the better mandarins, as
would give the latter the power of great vassals; while the
frequent visits of these same mandarins to the court keep
directly alive a feeling of dependence on the autocrat. It is
the rule that the Emperor shall avail himself for administra-
tive purposes of these appearances of his mandarins before
him, by questioning them as to the state of affairs in the
country they have held office in, &c. This rule, it will be
observed, gives him a constant means of exercising a surveil-
lance over the proceedings of the Governors of his eighteen
provinces, the only officials with whom, as stated at page 9,
the system permits him to communicate on paper. Again,
it is evident that precisely on this account the Governors of
the provinces must be anxious to know what passes on such
occasions between their sovereign and their subordinates—
especially those of the latter who are nearest in rank to
themselves—and it is further evident that the promoted
subordinate, must, on his return to his new post, be prepared
with a narrative to give the Governor and any other pro-
vincial superordinates, or expect to draw on himself their
jealousy and enmity. To falsify anything that passed
CONVERSATIONS OF THE EMPEROR. 125

between himself and the Great Ruler, the Son of Heaven,
would be an unpardonable offence ; and as it is one that. would
be liable to detection in the course of subsequent Imperial
audiences of other mandarins, it is extremely unlikely to be
committed. On the other hand, the reflection that he will have
to give a true narrative of what passes to those precisely whose
character and official conduct are usually discussed, must make
the person who has the audience exercise much care in all
he says of them. One of the proofs of the genuineness and
authenticity of the following record is the fact, that it gives
marked evidence of this very care. To officials of lesser rank
than himself, the mandarin is of course not constrained to
give any account of his audiences; but they, and the political
portion of the public generally, must for obvious reasons be
desirous of learning what passed. When a record has been
kept, money is given for copies, which the body servants of
the mandarin must, in the first instance, take by stealth with
the fear on them of being caught in the act. These body
servants are mostly illiterate men; and here we have another
proof of the authenticity of the following record. Where the
Emperor in his conversation, endeavours to illustrate his
views by reference to the ancient national histories, the
hurried unlearned transcriber is unable to take down his
original text correctly ; he does not comprehend what is
before him, copies mechanically and imperfectly characters
unfamiliar to him, omits others, and thus produces an im-
perfect version, which even a learned Chinese is unable to
reconstruct in completeness; the less so as the ancient annals
all are in that very tersest of the then still comparatively
undeveloped Chinese language, in which every character is
absolutely indispensable to the comprehension of the context.
As to the probability of such a conversation being imagined,
and a record of it fabricated in order to get money from
me, I may first state that it was brought to me by a man
who had been eight years in my private employ, and than
whom none knew better that I habitually treated all offers
126 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

*
to furnish for money copies of papers not at command of
the public generally, as barefaced attempts at imposition ;
and that I invariably met such offers, never with anger, but
with what I have found to frighten the Chinese rather more,
a jocular contempt and quizzing ridicule. Having acci-
dentally mentioned it to me after it had been some time in
his possession, he brought it at my request and was some-
what surprised when I, having made official use of it, thought
right to give him a dollar or two as a reward.

When a mandarin has an audience like that detailed here
he presents what is called a leuh le, 7. ¢., a short official auto-
biography. Now the Emperor on this occasion asks several
questions which the autobiography in his hand rendered
unnecessary; which we can nevertheless readily conceive a
weak-sighted septuagenarian to put, but which a fabricator
of an imaginary conversation would hardly have thought of
inditing. As little would such a fabricator have thought of
inventing the imperfections in the copy, as well as some dis-
crepancies as to the dates here given, with those given in
the Canton reprint of the Peking Gazettes.

I was personally acquainted with Pih kwei, having accom-
panied him from Canton to Hong Kong and back when he
went there on official business with Sir John Davis. On
this, and other occasions, I had long conversations with him,
and can perfectly understand his, with his state of know-
ledge or rather ignorance of foreigners, giving such answers
to the Emperor as are here put in his mouth.*

Lastly, there was no political purpose to serve in playing
a record into my hands, about eighteen months after it had

“He is one real member of what M. Huc calls the “high society” of
China with whom I have had anacquaintance. I knew him just before he was
made Criminal Judge ; at the time I made the following translation he had risen
to the Superintendency of Finances; and he is now Governor of the province of
Kwang tung. I may add that in his case, as in the case of still higher mandarins
whom I have talked with for hours, I was not a prisoner, or in any way anxious
about myself, but in every case the cool observer of men, occupied at the time
with affairs on which their future carcer very much depended.
CONVERSATIONS OF THE EMPEROR. 127

taken place, of a conversation then of no significance, and
valuable only as an illustration of manners and character.
From the above I hope that the reader, besides getting
some information on certain interesting rules and customs of
the Chinese, will have concluded: That some conversations
must have been held; that a record of the conversations
would be kept; and that the following is, in exact colloquial
style, a record of the conversations that was kept, imperfect
indeed, but quite genuine and authentic as far as it goes.
With the knowledge of still more arguments in its favour
than I have been able to give above, I venture to put the
following in print as the record of some conversations about
the English that took place in Peking on the 24th, 25th,
26th, and 27th days of October, 1849, between the late
Chinese Emperor Taou kwang and his mandarin Pih kwei,
the then Criminal Judge of the province of Kwang tung.

[TRANSLATION. |

(Colloquia) Record of the Discourse addressed by His Imperial Majesty to
His Excellency, Pih kwei, the present Superintendent of Finances.

29th Year of Taou kwang.— Audience of the 9th day.

Emperor. Where did I place you as Criminal Judge?

Answer. In Kwang tung.

Emperor. Ah, in Kwang tung.

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. From what station had you been promoted up
to that post ?

Answer. From that of district magistrate in Kwang tung.

Emperor. You are a licentiate, or a doctor, are you not?

Answer. I am a licentiate and was promoted to a district
magistracy for my services on a committee (in the capital).

Emperor. How many places have you held office in?
128 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Answer. In the Lung mun, Tsin ming and Tung kwan
districts, from which latter I was promoted on the recom-
mendation of the high provincial officers to the prefecture of
the Nan heung department.

Emperor. Did you never leave the province ?

Answer. In the 26th year (1846) I had the honour to be
appointed by your Majesty’s divine favour, prefect of the
Sew chow department in Sze chuen.

Emperor. ow many years were you in Sze chuen ?

Answer. Your slave was 10 months in Sze chuen, when
by Your Majesty’s divine favour I was appointed Grain
Collector of Kwang tung.

Emperor. Ah! I sent you back again. So, with the
exception of ten months, you have during upwards of ten
years, been the whole time in Kwang tung.

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. Seu kwang tsin* recommended you for em-
ployment in barbarian affairs: did Ke yingt ever employ you
in that way?

Answer. Never, Sire.

Eimperor. Then Seu kwang tsin has never employed
any of the persons employed by Ke ying? These few years
past the barbarian affairs have almost frightened Ke ying to
death. The peopie who have assisted him in their transac-
tion have done nothing but overrate the importance of these
matters, so that Ke ying, constantly getting frightened, and
listening to all their talk, extended the great fame of the
barbarians. He always said that Hwang an tung ¢ was good
at business. This he has not only stated in writing, but
even this year, at an audience said that the barbarian affairs
could only be managed by Hwang an tung. He also said
that the disposition of the people was bad. Now how well

* The then Governor General of Kwangtung and Kwangse.

+ The previous Governor General.

it Hwang an tung was a Shantung Chinese, who held a high post at Nanking

when the Treaty was concluded. He was Ke ying’s right hand man, and the real
negotiator of the Treaty.
CONVERSATIONS OF THE EMPEROR. 129

Seu kwang tsin and his assistants have managed! Without
striking a single blow they, in one month, got on foot an
organized body of upwards of 100,000 men, and got to-
gether some hundred thousands of taels for the expenses.
It is plain, since the people behave so well, there can be
no wonder that these fellows, Hwang an tung and Chaou
chang ling,* were openly and specially declared by them
to be great Chinese traitors. Besides, at that time native
bandits were also disturbing the country. I forget in what
place ?

Answer. In Tsing yuen and Ying tih.

Emperor. Quite right. You [Seu and his party] settled
all these affairs. It appears to me that the barbarians depend
entirely on Kwang tung for gaining their livelihood.

Answer. The people of Kwang tung thoroughly see that
the barbarians cannot do without that province.

Emperor, Exactly so. What others are employed in the
transaction of barbarian affairs ?

Answer. The expectant intendants; Heu tseang kwang
and Woo tsung yaou [Howqua].

Emperor. Are you a Manchoo or Mongolian bannerman ?
What banner do you belong to?

Answer. The Mongolian yellow banner.

Emperor. Who was it that recommended you for promo-
tion in the service ?

Answer. The former Governor General, Ke Kung, [who
retired from office in March 1844.]

Emperor. Have the English barbarians of late been
reduced in power or not?

Answer, They appear to be somewhat reduced.

Emperor. Do the soldiers at Hong Kong amount to three
or four thousand ?

Answer. Not more than two or three thousand, the greater
half of whom are really but nominal. The greater half of
the green clothed soldiers [Ceylon Rifles?] have dispersed

* Another Chinese mandarin and able assistant of Ke ying.
K
130 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

on account of the insufficiency of the funds fSr the troops.
Trade does not flourish at Ningpo, and those ports.

Emperor. I have heard that it is not good at Ningpo and
Amoy, and at Shanghae too. From this we see that pro-
sperity is always followed by decay.

Answer. The English barbarians were in a bad state last
year in their own country, where they were visited by
an epidemic; and in Hong Kong last year upwards of a
thousand people died from the hot exhalations.

Emperor. In all affairs prosperity is followed by decay!
What avails the power of man!

Answer. Your Majesty’s divine fortune is the cause [of
the decay of the English power].

Emperor. You are a bannerman, one born and “brought
up in the capital, and must know the common saying of the
old women: A thousand schemes, ten thousand schemes [of
man] are not worth one scheme of Old Heaven [du bon
dieu].

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. To-morrow present your name for an audience.

Audience of the 10th day.

Emperor. It is hard to get good people. You, as Criminal
Judge, have not yet entered on the duties of your post.* I,
of my own accord, appoint you Superintendent of Finances,
It was my wish to employ you; and so I had you called in,
that I might judge of you. On seeing you yesterday I con-
sidered you a very proper man; and, finding from your
official autobiography that you are not at all young, I thought
you ought at once to be employed without reference to
your seniority. You must be consistent in your conduct,
and not show yourself forgetful of my kindness.

Answer. J shall most certainly never dare to be for-
getful of Your Majesty’s divine favour.

» There is a discrepancy. He had previously been two months in Canton as
Criminal Judge. (This and the following notes were appended to the official
translation.)
CONVERSATIONS OF THE EMPEROR. 131

Emperor. It constantly happens that those who have
behaved well in the first part of their career behave ill in
the last; that those who are not haughty of themselves
become haughty; those who are not extravagant, of them-
selves become extravagant. The historical classic says:
In good government permanency is esteemed. You must
know this. You have been most intimately connected with
the Governor General and the Governor, and it is impossible
that you should be inefficient in the transaction of business.
Now in all business the superiors must not seek merely
to gain the approbation of their subordinates. If they get
all their subordinates to praise them, they will certainly
have left themselves without the power of rousing the
latter to exertions. JI am not wishing you to treat
them harshly. The annals of Tse* say of Tse chan, “ Who
will kill him ; who is there to take his place.” [Here follows
a passage forming apparently some twelve or thirteen sen-
tences, but containing in the copy furnished me so many
false characters and evident omissions that educated and
well read Chinese cannot see their way with sufficient
clearness as to be able confidently to correct the one and
supply the other. It can, however, be made out that the
Emperor was inculcating the advantage of being severe,
though not harsh, in the discharge of official duties, and
that he had illustrated his subject by reference to several
historical personages as the Tse chan above named; Kwan
chung a minister of the Tse earldom in the seventh century
before Christ ; Ling seang joo, an officer of the Chaou princi-
pality, who, about 280 3.c., undertook a dangerous mission
to the sovereign of Tsin, &c.] . . . . Besides, as the

* One of the Five Classics. Tsze chan was a minister of the principality
called Chin (the present province of Honan) who was severe, but strictly just in
his measures. The first year of his administration the people cried, “ Who will
kill Tsze chan, we will join them,” in the third year his measures had borne
such good fruits that they said,—“If Tsze chan dies who is there to take his
place.” To Tsze chan is attributed the rise of the Chin principality to its
most flourishing state.

K 2
132 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

*

expenses of the Government necessitate the opening of a
path [for those who wish to rise by purchase] it is more
difficult than ever to make a distinction between the wise
and the stupid. However, as the Han lin college itself
cannot be quite free from low minded people, so among
officials by purchase there cannot but be some of high
character. Only there is one thing I have to remark—you
are not an officer by purchase, otherwise I should not say it—
among great, rich merchants are some enormously stupid,
ignorant of all kinds of business, who have not even acted as
assistant magistrates; who as the proverb says “ Know only
a saucer full of characters though they may be as big as
lychees,” and who should on no account pass. Your place,
as provincial superintendent of finances,* is a permanent one,
and you must be sure not to pass over their short-coming, as
may have been done hitherto by others. To-morrow present
your name again for an audience.

Audience on the 11th day.

Emperor. Do you think from the appearance of things
in Kwang tung that the English barbarians or any other
people will cause trouble again ?

Answer. No. England itself has got nothing, and when
the English barbarians rebelled in 1841 they depended
entirely on the power of the other nations who, with a view
to open trade, supported them with funds. In the present
year the [Here follow two words which do not make sense
with the context, “ teen te,” literally, “laws and territory ;”
probably ‘subject territories” were the words used] of
England yield her no willing obedience.

Emperor. It is plain from this that these barbarians
always look on trade as their chief occupation; and are
wanting in any high purpose of striving for territorial
acquisitions,

* This officer has considerable influence on the career of the civilians in his
province,
CONVERSATIONS OF THE EMPEROR. 133

Answer. At bottom they belong to the class of brutes;
(dogs and horses;) it is impossible they should have any
high purpose.

Emperor. Hence in their country they have now a
woman, now a man as their prince (wang). It is plain they
are not worth attending to. Have they got like us any
fixed time of service for their soldier’s head, Bonham ?

Answer. Some are changed once in two years, some once
in three years. Although it is the prince of these barbarians
who sends them, they are, in reality, recommended by the
body of their merchants.

Emperor. What goods do the French trade in?

Answer. The wares of the barbarians are only camlets,
woollen cloth, clocks, watches, cottons and the like. All
the countries have got them, good or bad.

Emperor. What country’s goods are dearest ?

Answer. They have all got both dear and cheap. There is
no great difference in their prices [of similar articles]; only,
with respect to the camlets, the French are said to be the
best.

Emperor. China has no want of silk fabrics and cottons,
what necessity is there for using foreign cottons in parti-
cular? For instance, wrappers* can be made of yellow, or
pale yellow [for the palace], and people outside could use
Nankin cloth coloured, or blue ones. This would look
simple and unaffected; but lately foreign flowered cottons
have come into use which look very odd. Others use
foreign cottons for shirts. Now observe me—the highest of
men—my shirts and inner garments are all made of Corean
cottons. I have never used foreign cottons.

Answer. Foreign cotton cloth has no substance [literally
bone], it is not good for clothing.

Emperor. And it does not wash well.

* The handkerchiefs imported into China are not used for the nose, but to
wrap up articles which are too bulky to be carried in the sleeve and which an
Englishman would put in his coat pocket.
134 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. I suppose opium is bought and sold quite
openly in Kwang tung.

Answer. I should not dare to deceive Your Majesty—
people do not dare to buy and sell it openly, but there is no
small.quantity bought and sold secretly.

Emperor. It appears to me that in this matter too, there
must be a flourishing period, and a period of decay. Even
if I were to inflict severe punishments; I might punish to
day, and punish again to-morrow, and all without benefit.
If we wait for two or three years—for five or six years—
it will of course fall into disuse of itself.

Answer. Certainly, Sire.

Emperor. How is it with the levying and payment of the
taxes in Kwang tung? How do matters stand as to defi-
ciencies in the district treasuries ?

Answer. In Kwang tung the fixed regular land tax is
paid up annually; as to the miscellaneous taxes,—I do not
dare to deceive Your Majesty,—there must have been some
appropriated for public purposes.*

Emperor. Can these appropriations not be avoided then?
You will do very well for a superintendent of finances.
To-morrow present your name for an audience.

Audience on the 12th day.

Emperor. In your opinion is opium dearer or cheaper
now than in former years? (Smiling.) You don’t smoke it
—I fear you cannot tell.

Answer. The local gentry and literati of whom I have
inquired, state that opium is very cheap at present.

Emperor. Indeed. Why is it cheap?

Answer. Because its quality is not equal to what it. was
formerly.

Emperor. This, now, is an example of prosperity and

* That is to say for local purposes; and not placed to the credit of the Im-
perial Treasury.
CONVERSATIONS OF THE EMPEROR. 135

decay! How could Heaven and Earth long endure an article
so destructive to human life. So, in the consumption of
tobacco the Kwang tung leaf being strong tasted, the Sing
tsze weak, those who have accustomed themselves to the
strong do not of course like the weak. Do you think that
in future the English barbarians in Hong Kong will go on
quietly or not?

Answer. The English barbarians have gone to great ex-
penses in building houses with the view of permanently
residing there, and living in quiet. Besides the people of
Hong Kong and its neighbourhood, took at an early period
an aversion to these barbarians; and local bandits have long
been waiting, their mouths watering for the place. The bar-
barians are therefore constantly in dread, fearing they may
lose it.

Emperor. So they have added to their troubles by giving
themselves another internal care. However, notwithstanding
this, they have always got their own country for a haunt
[literally nest and den, expressions frequently applied to the
capitals of foreign sovereigns].

Answer. Yes, Sire.

Emperor. Have the Governor General and the Governor
any difference of opinion or not?

Answer, Your slave intreats Your Majesty to set Your
Sacred mind at rest—the Governor General and the Governor
not only transact their business in strict good faith, but in all
cases without disagreement.

Emperor. That is well. What is wanted is agreement;
frequently the Governor General and the Governor in the
same province are at variance.

Answer. Your slave, during the many years he has been
in Kwang tung, has never witnessed so much concord between
the Governor General and the Governor.

Emperor. They are both in their best years, just the time
for exertion; they ought to do their utmost physically and
mentally. It is right too that you and the criminal judge,
136 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
°

their immediate subordinates; when you learn anything of
which you fear they may not be thoroughly. informed, should
tell them all you know. Are you acquainted with the newly
appointed judge Ke shuh tsaou?

Answer. No, Sire.

Emperor. He is a very honest, sincere, and unaffected
man, as you will know after you have passed half a year in
the same place with him. You can make ready for your
departure. How long will you be on the journey ?

Answer. Upwards of two months.

Emperor. I reckon that you will arrive about the end of
the 11th or the beginning of the 12th month. Or allowing
a few days more you will reach Canton about the middle of
the 12th month.

True translation.

(Signed) Tuos, Taytor Mrapows,
22nd March, 1851. Interpreter.
MEASURES OF THE IMPERIAL AUTHORITIES. 137

CHAPTER XII.

MEASURES OF THE IMPERIAL AUTHORITIES AGAINST THE
KWANGSE CHRISTIANS; AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF
THESE INTO RELIGIOUS POLITICAL REBELS.

Tue old Emperor whose honest wish to govern well, I—let
me state in passing—never heard the Chinese question, had
not simply the fortunes of the English on his mind when

he twice emphatically employed the stereotyped phrase of . _

Chinese history, ‘Shing, tsih peik yew duced

”

is necessarily followed by decay.” The fate of his own house »

occupied his thoughts. But it was a true instinct that led ~_

him to make repeated and anxious inquiries as to the position
of the English and the likelihood of their “ giving trouble”
again. We have indeed been the fated instruments of ruin
to the Manchoo family. Even our attempts to help it have
proved baneful. On the very day before the above conversa-
tions commenced in Peking, a British squadron at the other
extremity of the Empire had finally driven some two thousand
pirates, a body of the most hardy and daring coastlanders of
South Eastern China, from their predatory life on the sea to
a similar life on shore; where they, combined with the
bandits already in existence, at once formed a force strong
enough to keep the field as rebels avowedly aiming at
dynastic changes. On the 23rd October, 1849, fifty-eight
vessels of a pirate fleet were destroyed in a bay on the
confines of China and Cochin China by a British naval force.
But the crews escaped mostly on shore, carrying their arms
with them, though the vessels were destroyed, and a few of

an
id

|
roe

|

138 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

the junks even got off. That men accustomed to the life
they had hitherto led would take to any regular civil occupa-
tion was in the last degree improbable; and accordingly we
find from the Peking Gazette that a formidable body of
rebels was waging open war with the forces of the local
government in the southern borders of Kwang se, about a few
days’ march from the spot where the pirate fleet was destroyed,
and in less than a month after that event. From that time to
the present—a period now of five years—avowed rebellion
has continued and spread in China.

Piracy is both a sign and a cause of weakness in the
Chinese Government. But it is not a cause of primary im-
portance ; for it is on the mainland of China only that rebel-
lions leading to dynastic changes can be organized. But
what piracy was not, and could of itself hardly have become,
an immediate cause of the outbreak of a dangerous rebellion,
that it became when the British interfered with it; a circum-
stance peculiarly instructive as to our ability to perceive the
consequences of taking a side in the disputes of the Chinese
among themselves. It is somewhat consolatory to think
that in our interference with the rovers on the Chinese
coasts, we were less moved by a spirit of busy body inter-
meddling, than by legitimate anxieties for the safety of our
merchant vessels, whose valuable cargoes offered tempting
prizes.

The bandit rebels with whom the ex-pirates associated
themselves were nearly all kih keas, “strangers,” or members
of the secondary immigrations of the Chinese people into
Kwang se noticed at page 49. Now it was among these
same kih keas that Hung sew tseuen and Fung yun san
had made the most of their converts; a fact sufficiently
accounted for by the circumstance of similarity of dialect,
the kih kea immigration into Kwang se having proceeded
from Kwang tung. It will be remembered that when Hung
sew tseuen first went to Kwang se, he sought out “a rela-
tive” there, probably some descendant of a member of the
MEASURES OF THE IMPERIAL AUTHORITIES. 139

Hung family that had emigrated to Kwang se in a former
generation. Apart from the fact that the robber bands
throughout the province were composed mainly of kih keas,
a feeling of enmity has always existed between the kih keas
generally and the Puntes or old Kwang se Chinese. A
, dispute about the possession of a girl in marriage led to a
species of civil war between these two parties in the very
district, that of Kwei, in which the society of the Godwor-
shippers had originated.
“ At that time a very rich kih kea had taken as his concu-
bine a girl who had been promised in marriage to a Punte
man; and having agreed to settle the matter with her
parents by paying a large sum of money, he peremptorily
refused to give her up to the Punte claimant. At the office
of the district magistrate numerous petitions and accusations
were daily lodged against the kih kea population so that the
mandarins were unable to settle all their disputes. It seems
even probable that the mandarins wished to escape the
trouble; and if the report be true, they advised the Punte
population themselves to enforce their rights against the kih
keas. The result was, that soon after, between the Puntes
and kih keas of the Kwei district, a civil war commenced, in
which a number of villages gradually became involved. The
fighting began on the 28th of the eighth month (3rd October,
1850), and during the first few days the kih keas had the
advantage, no doubt because they were more accustomed
to warfares, and probably counted robbers by profession
among their number. Gradually, however, the Puntes grew
bolder and more experienced, and as their number was con-
siderably larger than that of their opponents, they defeated
the kih keas, and burnt their houses, so that the latter had
no resting place to which they could resort. In their distress]
they sought refuge among the worshippers of God, who a
that time lived dispersed in several districts, in congrega-
tions counting from 100 to 300 individuals. They willingly
submitted to any form of worship in order to escape from

   

 
140 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

their enemies and receive the necessary supplies of which
they were now destitute.

“ Up to this period, the worshippers of God had not stood
in any connexion whatever with the robbers or outlaws of
the province. The mandarin soldiers, during their excursions
in search of the robbers, never interfered with the members
of the congregations, or suspected the brethren of having
any other but religious motives for assembling together. But
now, when not only from the distressed villages, but also from
the bands of robbers dispersed by the mandarin soldiers,
large flocks of people, old and young, men and women with
their children, and their property, joined the congregations,
matters could no longer go on as before. A rupture and
collision with the mandarins became inevitable.”

On the 25th of the February preceding these occurrences
the old Emperor Taou kwang had died, and was succeeded
by his fourth son, Heen fung, a youth under twenty. In
June or July preceding the same occurrences, very soon
after the news of the Emperor’s death—which was kept
secret for some time—could have reached him, Hung sew
tseuen sent three of the brethren with letters, and summoned
his family and nearer relatives generally to join him; which
_they all did.

“Without attaching too much importance to the literal
ee given in Mr. Hamberg’s book of Hung sew tseuen’s
jutterances at this period, which could only reach Mr. Ham-
| berg’s informant at second or third hand ;—and without feeling
jbanad to give implicit credence to the statement that Hung
sew tseuen’s “ discerning eye had foreseen all” these events
[favouring rebellion, that « his prediction was now fulfilled”
| and that “he had formed his plans,” it is certain that all
ithe circumstances combined lead to the conclusion that he
| must have now begun seriously to revolve in his mind the
‘possibility of effecting a political, as well as religious change,
_and the advisability of taking to arms to effect it.

\ As an educated and patriotic Chinese he could, I must
MEASURES OF THE IMPERIAL AUTHORITIES. 141

repeat, have no doubt whatever of his right to expel the
Manchoos by force of arms, the more especially as their
weakness and misrule had subjected the country around him
to robbery and anarchy. On the question: Ought I, or
ought I not, he would waste no time. He would simply ask
himself: Can I, or can I not? Now, it appears that already
“the worshippers of God had felt the necessity of uniting to-
gether for coramon defence against their enemies; they had
began to convert their property of fields and houses into
money, and to deliver the proceeds thereof into the general
treasury from which all shared alike, every one receiving
his food and clothing from this fund.” Hung sew tseuen saw
himself, therefore, at the head of several thousands of people,
most intimately bound together by community of religious
beliefs and worldly interests. He saw all round him bodies
of bandit-rebels who, though having no such bonds of inti-
mate union among themselves, and therefore being liable to
be destroyed in detail by the forces of the existing govern-
ment, would, nevertheless, when grouped around the moral
and intellectual nucleus formed by him and his co-religionists,
form a great source of physical strength.

Notwithstanding all this, the fact remains, and it was a
fact better appreciable by Hung sew tseuen then, than by us
now, that he could only rely on the assistance of some 10
or 15 thousand men at most, wherewith to commence, in a
remote corner of the vast Chinese Empire, the overthrow of a

ens

 

family which had ruled over it for 200 years; which had in
the course of that period crushed several formidable attempts
to oust it; and which always had for its support some
hundreds of thousands of born and trained soldiers of its
own race. ‘These general considerations joined to certain
circumstances mentioned in Mr. Hamberg’s work, and to the
statements of one of the Imperialist leaders whom I met at |

Nanking, have led me to the confident conclusion that it was | |
qe
by dire necessity alone that Hung sew tseuen was imme- |)

diately constrained to add the character and functions of | j

 
|

142 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS,

e
patriotic insurgent to those of religious reformer. The
' question was: Have I any choice? Must I not?

He perceived in fact about this time that he and his co-
religionists would certainly fall victims to the natural suspi-
cions, and the consequent persecutions of the authorities,
unless they took to arms in self-defence. The first of his
converts in Kwang se, the son of his relative with whom he
had lodged on arriving there, an ardent youth and a some-
what rash and imperious destroyer of idols, was thrown into
the district prison and killed there by neglect and ill treat-
ment caused by the influence of the graduate Wang, the old
enemy of the Godworshippers. Subsequently the authorities
made a direct attempt to seize Hung sew tseuen himself and
Fung yun san, as the originators of a society now “not only
accused of interfering with the religious worship of others,
and destroying the idols, but also of favouring the outlaws
and secretly fostering rebellious designs against the govern-
ment.” Aware of the danger impending over them, they had
left the chief seat of the society at Thistle-mount and retired,
with a few followers, to concealment in the house of a friend
situated in a mountain recess from which there was only one
narrow path to the open country. The mandarins having
got information of their retreat stationed soldiers to watch
the pass; and Hung sew tseuen and his followers would in
all probability have been starved into surrender here, or killed
in an attempt to escape, had not Yang sew tsing, the present
“astern Prince,” got some notice of their critical position.
This man, whom Wé have seen above assuming the character
of communicator of the will of God the Father, and whom all
our subsequent dealings with, and information obtained from,
the rebels at Nanking show to have been throughout what he
now undoubtedly is, the chief leader of the movement in its
political, its military, and its fanatical phases, came Torward
now precisely in that quality. He fell into one of his “ states

be ecstasy, revealed to the brethren of Thistle-mount the
\impending danger of their beloved chiefs, and exhorted them
MEASURES OF THE IMPERIAL AUTHORITIES, 143

to hasten to their rescue. A considerable body of men
belonging to the congregations now drew together, and
marched against the soldiers who watched the pass. The
soldiers were easily beaten, and Hung sew tseuen and Fung
yun san carried in triumph from their place of seclusion.”
The Godworshippers might have, on former occasions, fought
as kih keas with the Puntes in the course of the feuds
between these two parties of ‘new ” and “ old ” Kwangse
men; and they may even in that way have incidentally been
at times in collision with the government troops. But this
was the first occasion in which the Godworshippers, as such,
attacked the Imperial forces as their own special enemies;
and on that first occasion Yang sew tsing characteristically
appears as inspired seer and successful military leader.

Hung sew tseuen was then however virtually what he
still is nominally: the supreme authority and chief. In this
character “he now sent messages to all the congregations in
the different districts to assemble in one place. The cir-
cumstance that they shared all in common greatly added to
their numbers, and made them ready to abandon their homes
at a moment’s warning. That moment had now arrived.
Anxious about their own safety and that of their families
they flocked to the banner of Hung sew tseuen, whom they
believed appointed by heaven to be their chief. Old and
young, rich and poor, men of influence and education, gradu-
ates of the first and second degrees, with their families and
adherents, all gathered around the chiefs. Wei ching alone
brought with him about 1000 individuals of his clan.” *

The exact date of the occurrences and proceedings just
narrated, I cannot discover, either from the rebel publica-
tions, Mr. Hamberg’s book, or the Peking Gazettes; but

* The word “Clan” must be taken in the sense explained in the footnote,
page 47. Wei Ching is the “ Northern Prince” with whom I had a long
conversation at Nanking two and a half years after the events mentioned
in the text. He was then the second chief man in real influence among the
rebels, being one of the most active military leaders, and the right hand man
of the Eastern Prince in the political and fanatical moves of the latter.

I
144 THE CHINESE AND, THEIR REBELLIONS.

a comparison of the data in all three shews that they took
place about the beginning of October, 1850. With October,
1850, commenced, therefore, the religious-political rebellion
which has been struggling for the five years that have since
passed to expel the Manchoo, and establish the new and
native dynasty of Tae ping, or Universal Peace. For dis-
tinction sake I shall henceforth speak of the Tae ping
rebellion or insurrection and of Tae ping adherents, soldiers,
officers, armies, &c. Their opponents, consisting of all those
Chinese who have hitherto supported the existing Manchoo
dynasty, and of all Manchoos without exception, I shall call

\ Imperialists.
. PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 145

CHAPTER XIII.

MILITARY AND POLITICAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING
REBELS FROM THEIR FIRST RISING TILL AFTER THEIR
OCCUPATION OF NANKING.

Previous to the rising of the Godworshippers as Tae pings,
that is to say, so long as the rebels in Kwang se and
Kwang tung were of bandit or Triad Society origination,
the Imperial Government does not appear to have viewed
the state of affairs there with much apprehension. The
Governor General of the two provinces was indeed ordered
from his usual station in Canton to the scene of the rebel-
lious movements; and two experienced generals, the after-
wards famed Heang yung and another, accompanied by
troops, were also ordered there from adjoining provinces ;
but the chief control was still left to the provincial autho-
rities,

So soon, however, as the news reached Peking of a new
and larger body of rebels having banded themselves together,
we mark signs of anxiety on the part of the Imperial Govern-
ment. Lin tsih seu, the functionary known to Occidentals
as the anti-opium Commissioner, Lin, who was then living
in retirement at his native city Foochow, received orders to
proceed to Kwang se with supreme powers as Imperial Com-
missioner. He received. his seal of office on the 1st November,
1850, started on the 5th of that month, but died on the way
on the 21st. On the intelligence reaching Peking, Le sing ’-
yuen, an ex-Governor General was appointed Imperial Com-—

L
146 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS..

missioner in his room; and Chow teen keo, an’ official who
had also been Governor General, was appointed Governor of
Kwang se in the place of the then Governor, who was
degraded for inefficiency. These appointments were made
in December, 1850. Chow teen keo had long been known
among Roman Catholics for having put a foreign missionary
to death, after having had him beaten about the face till his
dress was covered with blood.

The above were the only Imperialist Commanders whom
the Tae pings had opposed to them during the first six months
of their military career. But during these same months they
had established in substance that political and military orga-
nization which was subsequently found among them at Nan-
king. Hung sew tseuen was already the “ Heavenly Prince,”
the other leaders were subordinate “Princes” assisting him in
his divine mission “ to exterminate the idolatrous and usurping
Manchoos ;” and Tae ping edicts and other publications, show-
ing all this, had been forwarded to Peking. These published
aims, and the manner in which they had been supported, at
length effectually aroused the Imperial Government. For the
first time since disturbances had commenced in Kwang se,
a high Manchoo, Woo lan tae, Lieutenant General of the
Manchoo Banner garrison at Canton, was ordered direct
to the scene; and at the same time the Prime Minister of
the Empire, Sae shang ah, also a Manchoo, was ordered off
from Peking as Chief Imperial Commissioner (Le sing yuen
had died,) and Generalissimo, accompanied by a large staff of
Manchoo and Mongol officers of lesser, but still high rank,
and a guard of 200 Manchoo soldiers. These appointments
were made in the end of April, but it was not till the month
of July that Sae shang ah entered Kwang se.

In the mean time the Tae ping army was maintaining
itself at various positions successively occupied in the Kwei
ping, Woo seuen and Seang districts. A district is, the
reader will remember, about the size of a county. After
assembling his co-religionists as already stated, “Hung sew
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 147

tseuen took possession of the opulent market town, where
resided the above-mentioned graduate (the enemy of the
Godworshippers) Wang, whose rich store of provisions and
pawnshops * filled with clothes quite suited the wants of the
distressed kih keas. This town was surrounded by a broad
river protecting it from sudden attacks. Here Hung sew
tseuen encamped, fortifying the place, and before the man-
darin soldiers had arrived his position was already too strong
for them to disturb. The Imperial soldiers pitched their
camp at a respectful distance from the market town, and
both parties carried on hostilities by firing at each other over
the river, which however no one ventured to cross. From
this place Hung sew tseuen again sent to call the remaining
relatives of his own clan and that of Fung yun san to join
him in Kwang se; but before they could reach the spot he
found it necessary, from want of provisions, to remove his
camp to another place. This he did secretly, having crossed
the river and retired in good order, without the knowledge
of the Imperialists, who still supposed him to be in the town.
As soon as they discovered his movements, the Imperialists
sent light troops in his pursuit; but they venturing too
near the rear of Hung sew tseuen’s army, were in their
turn pursued by his men, and a great number of them
slaughtered. The Imperialists now commenced venting their
rage on the deserted market-town, burnt between one and
two thousand shops, and plundered wherever they could
obtain booty.”

I beg the reader’s special attention to the various cir-
cumstances of the preceding extract from Mr. Hamberg’s
book; for these first movements of the Tae ping and the
Imperialist armies are typical of the military proceedings
and strategy of the whole subsequent war. The Tae pings
take up a position and display a great deal of industrial

* Pawnbrokers in China hold a much higher station than in England. In
the smaller country towns they are usually the bankers; and the chief partners
are often landed proprietors, who have taken a public service degree, men such
as this Wang appears to have been,

L2
148 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

| energy in fortifying it, and no little amount re constructive
- ingenuity in availing themselves of the natural facilities, the
materials at hand &c., towards effecting that object. As
. ' they succeed in effecting it, the Imperial forces begin to
approach. At first these latter station themselves in en-
trenched camps of observation, at such distances as render
their presence no very serious inconvenience to the Tae
pings. As their numbers increase with the concentration of
troops from various quarters, they gradually hem in the Tae
pings, with more or less of resistance on the part of the
latter, until an effectual blockade is established. Assaults
and storms on the part of the Imperialists are occasionally
attempted, but always fail; and are productive of so much
loss that they give up the idea of conquering in that way,
and confine their efforts to cutting off all channels of supply.
In this they are eventually successful; and the Tae pings,
straitened by want of provisions, are compelled to break out.
They cut their way through their enemies, inflicting far
greater damage on the latter than they themselves incur, and
move to another position. Such of the Imperialists as dog
them too closely on the way meet with some severe check
from the Tae pings; but the great body of the Imperialists
usually spend some time in plundering the original inha-
bitants of the place of everything the Tae pings did not take
with them, and in slaughtering these unfortunate neutrals as
“rebels.” In the reports of the Imperialist leaders to the
Emperor, as published in the Peking Gazettes, the break-
ing out of the Tae pings is called an “escape;” and the
move to another position a “flight.” But every one of these
“escapes” has been from a position of lesser importance to
one of greater; and every one of these “flights” has been
from a spot more remote from the Imperial Capital, Peking,
to a spot less remote from it; as the reader will perceive
from the sketch and route which accompanies this volume.
The first fortified positions of the Tae pings were villages or
country towns; afterwards they were district cities; then
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 149

departmental cities; the provincial capital of Hoonan was
next occupied by them for a month; and, at length, they
took up, and have ever since held the most important military
position in the Empire: its former capital Nanking, and the
“King kow ” the port of the capital, the city of Chin keang,
which commands at once the Great River and the Grand
Canal. There the military tactics of the Tae pings assumed a
second phase. The first phase of their military career—what
we may call the concentrated and locomotive phase, inasmuch
as during it their whole force formed but one army, and kept
moving from place to place—this first phase occupied two
years and a half; from October 1850 till March 1853.

i
i

I

In the first months of this period the Tae pings, as we, !

learn from Mr. Hamberg’s book (corroborated by facts in’
my official contemporaneous reports made at Canton) took
up positions in inimical villages and towns where they felt
justified in despoiling the inhabitants, or the more wealthy of
them, as their enemies. But soon, when continued success
had strengthened the conviction on their minds of the reality
of the Divine Mission of the Heavenly Prince, Hung sew
tseuen, they took up that attitude towards the Chinese
people, as well as the Manchoos, which they have invariably
and consistently maintained since we met them at Nanking,
and often in defiance and contempt of the dictates of imme-
diate expediency: “Our Heavenly Prince has received the
Divine Commission to exterminate the Manchoos—to exter-
minate them utterly, men, women and children—to exter-
minate all idolaters generally, and to possess the Empire as
its True Sovereign. It and everything in itis his, its moun-
tains and rivers, its broad lands and public treasuries; you,
and all that you have, your family, males and females from
yourself to your youngest child, and your property from
your patrimonial estates to the bracelet on your infant’s
arm. We command the services of all, and we take every-
thing. All who resist us are rebels and idolatrous demons,
and we kill them without sparing ; but whoever acknowledges
150. THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION?

our Heavenly Prince and exerts himself in our service shall
have full reward—due honour and station in the armies and
Court of the Heavenly Dynasty.”

These general views, just given, of the military proceed-
ings and political principles and attitude of the Tae pings,
will, with the route on the accompanying chart, enable the
reader to attain a more clear and correct knowledge of the
progress of the Chinese Insurrection, than any attempt to
furnish a minute detail of battles, sieges, marches and names
of generals and numbers of troops taken from the Peking
Gazette and contemporaneous reports. I must however
subjoin a few extracts from Mr. Hamberg’s book, illustrative
of Hung sew tseuen’s dealings with the bandit and Triad
rebels who kept the field in Kwang se for some months
before and after the rising of the Godworshippers as Tae
pings; and I must also endeavour to give some true glimpses
of the state of the Imperial Armies.

After leaving his first position “he took possession of a
large village called Tae tsun where he pitched his camp,
finding abundant provisions for his numerous followers. The
reason why Hung sew tseuen took this large village was as
follows: A rebel chief named Chin a kwei who for a long
time previously had disturbed the country, finally expressed
himself willing to unite his forces with those of Hung sew
tseuen. However before this juncture was effected, during
the time the latter had possession of the market town men-
tioned above, the former made an excursion to the west,
when he was taken captive by the people of ‘Tae tsun and
delivered to the mandarins who rewarded the deed with a
gilt button. Hung sew tseuen took the village to avenge
the death of Chin a kwei.”

A Peking Gazette of the 28th November, 1850, informs
us that this rebel chief, Chin a kwei, had been defeated with
the loss of “upwards of 1,000 in slain and of 400 prisoners”
in the east of Kwang se; and by a later Gazette that he
had fled from thence with the remnant of his men to his
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 151

native district, Kwei ping (the original seat of the society of
Godworshippers) where he was seized in a mountain ravine
in the spring of 1851.

“ During the time that Hung sew tseuen was encamped
at the above village two female rebel chiefs, of great valour,
named Kew urh and Sze san, each one bringing about
2,000 followers, joined the army of the Godworshippers, and
were received on submitting to the authority of Hung and
the rules of the congregation. He placed these two female
chiefs with their followers at a distance from the main body
of his army, making them serve as outposts, one on each
side. About the same period, eight rebel chiefs belonging
to the Triad Society, intimated to Hung sew tseuen their
wish to join his army with their respective bands. Hung
sew tseuen granted their request, but under condition that
they would conform to the worship of the true God. The
eight chiefs declared themselves willing to do so, and sent
their tribute of oxen, pigs, rice, &c. Hung sew tseuen now
despatched sixteen of the brethren belonging to the congre-
gation, two to each chief, in order to impart to them and
their followers some knowledge of the true religion before
they had taken the definitive step of joining him. When
preparatory instruction had been received, the chiefs dis-
missed their tutors with a liberal sum of money, as a reward
for their trouble, and soon after, they, with all their followers,
joined the army of Hung sew tseuen. Fifteen of the teachers
who had been sent out to the chiefs, now in accordance with
the laws of the congregation gave the money which they
had received into the common treasury; but one of them
kept the money for himself, without saying a word. This
game individual had several times before, by his misconduct,
made himself amenable to punishment, and had been spared
only in consideration of his eloquence in preaching. He
had, in the first instance, not fully abstained from the use of
opium, but to procure the drug had sold some rattan-bucklers
belonging to the army; another time being excited with
152. THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

wine, he had injured some of the brethren. As soon as his
concealment of the money was proved, Hung sew tseuen
and the man’s own relatives, who were present in the army,
desired to have him punished according to the full rigour of
the law, and ordered him to be decapitated as a warning to
all. When the chiefs of the Triad Society saw that one of
those who had just before been despatched as a teacher to
them, was now killed for a comparatively small offence, they
felt very uncomfortable, and said,— ,

«Your laws seem to be rather too strict; we shall perhaps
find it difficult to keep them, and upon any small transgres-
sion you would perhaps kill us also.’

“ Thereupon” seven chiefs “ with their men, departed and
afterwards surrendered to the Imperialists, turning their arms
against the insurgents. Lo ta kang* alone remained with
Hung sew tseuen, because he liked the discipline of his army,
and the doctrine which they had adopted as a rule of their
conduct. It is said that six of the above chiefs of the Triad
Society ultimately fell into the hands of the insurgents while
fighting against them, and were killed. Hung sew tseuen
had formerly expressed his opinion of the Triad Society in
about the following language :—

«Though I never entered the Triad Society I have often
heard it said that their object is to subvert the Tsing and
restore the Ming dynasty. Such an expression was very
proper in the time of Kang he when this Society was at first
formed, but now, after the lapse of two hundred years, we
may still speak of subverting the Tsing, but we cannot
properly speak of restoring the Ming. At all events when
our native mountains and rivers are recovered a new dynasty
must be established. How could we at present arouse the
energies of men by speaking of restoring the Ming dynasty ?

* T had conversations with this man on two separate occasions when he was,
as the Tae ping Commandant of Chin keang, holding that city with a garrison
of only two or three thousand men against an Imperialist besieging force of ten
to fifteen thousand.

ie
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 153

There are several evil practices connected with the Triad
Society, which I detest. If dny new member enter the
Society, he must worship the devil and utter 36 oaths; a
sword is placed upon his neck, and he is forced to contribute
dmoney for the use of the Society. Their real object has
now become very mean and unworthy. If we preach the
true doctrine, and rely upon the powerful help of God, a
few of us will equal a multitude of others. I do not even
think that Sun pin, Woo ke, Kung-ming and others famous
in history for their military skill and tactics, are deserving
much estimation—how much less these bands of the Triad
Society ?’

“ Hung sew tseuen afterwards ordered his followers not to
receive among their number any Triad men but such as were
willing to abandon their former practices and to receive
instruction in the true doctrine.”

At page 146 I have stated that Chow teen tseo was ap-
pointed Governor of Kwang se at the time that Le sing yuen
was Imperial Commissioner, and Heang yung a General there.
The subjoined is a translation of a private letter written, in
the latter half of April, 1851, by Chow teen tseo to the
Governor of the province of Hoo pih, evidently to move the
latter to expedite the despatch of the Hoo pih troops which
this letter says had been officially applied for. The letter
treats of the most important subjects, but is written in a hur-
ried and somewhat disjointed way, just as one might expect
a Commander to write* under the circumstances described.

* A copy was obtained by a Chinese, whom I had sent from Canton to
Peking, on his way north through Woo chang the capital of Hoh pih; and
enclosed to me with a private letter dated at that city the 25th June, 1851.

In the absence in China of “own correspondents” and the newspapers in
which their letters could be published, copies of letters of this kind, ¢.¢. from
men whose position enables them to take a general survey of things, are passed
from hand to hand by the Chinese. What I have said above about the record
of Pih kwei’s audiences with the Emperor Taou kwang will enable the reader
to understand how such letters come into circulation, why the copies are often
imperfect, &c. &. My messenger, a northern Chinese, when at Woo chang
accidentally met with another man from the same province as himself. In such
154. THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

I have striven to give the hasty and disjointed style of the
original; and hence, if the translation runs awkwardly, the
reader must not attribute that altogether to the difficulty of
rendering the Chinese idiomatically :

“T have respectfully* to inform you that after receiving.
my seal of office, I started on the 3rd March} (1851) and
repaired to Lew chow where I had an interview with the
Imperial Commissioner (Le sing yuen) and then proceeded
from Lew chow to Tsin chow, where I learnt that the Tsze
king mountain was destitute of troops. The Commander of
the Forces (Le sing yuen) did not think the place worth at-
tending to. I was most anxious to enlist irregulars and per-
sonally hold that post; for it is the place where Wang yang
ming { established his great camp. It is inconceivable how

cases an acquaintance is soon struck up. The stranger had great skill in the
use of the spear, and had been brought down to Woo chang to instruct the
military in that art, who were going to Kwang se. The connection of this
instructor with the military. officers enabled him to get, and to communicate to
my messenger, a copy of the letter. “Are you going to Kwang se, yourself?”
asked my man in the course of their conversations. “ They want me,” answered
the spear-instructor—“ but I won’t go for any money. They say, you see, some
of these Kwang se rebels are barbarians, and I fought once with the red-bristled
barbarians (the English) at Chin hae. We went against them in great spirits
and thought that they never would be able to stand our spears. But when
the big guns from the steamers began to fire and the red soldiers came
towards us, shooting us with their muskets, it was terrible. I only saved my
life by throwing myself down, pulling two bodies over me, and shamming dead
for a day and a night. As I lay there I said, ‘If I get safe through this, I'll
never fight again.’” Such was about what my messenger narrated to me when
questioning him as to the way in which he got the letter.

* This word is merely a form. The writer was as high in station as the
person he wrote to.

+ “The first of the second month.” I substitute the corresponding English
date at once, to render the translation less strange in sound.

+ Wang yang ming was a great philosophical writer and military commander
of the Ming dynasty. He defeated the aboriginal mountaineers in that quarter
of Kwang se in 4.p, 1529, z.e. about three centuries before the above letter was
written. He is, I believe, one of the three or four hundred worthies whose
names have a place in the Confucian temple; and in every case he has the
honour of a section in the standard work entitled “Deeds and Speeches of
Celebrated Officers,” where his fighting in Kwang se is mentioned. One of the
members of Lord Amherst’s embassy, speaking of Nanking, says that places
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 155

people could, that notwithstanding, give it no attention!
But I had not got a day’s journey on my road toward Woo
seuen, when the rebels at Kin teen burnt their lair, fled out,
and escaped by this very place, through the Ta tang gorge to
Tung heang (Eastern village) in the Woo seuen district.*
I fell back to the market-town San le, about seven miles
from the district city. From this place the road is open to
Seang chow and Lew chow; so that it forms a pass leading
to the provincial capital. Had it been taken, the general
affairs of the whole province would have been totally ruined.
It was analogous to the Tang pass held by Ko shoo han.+
It is one of the most important of important places. By dint
of great efforts I withstood them here, alone, with my single
corps for three days. Had I arrived later by one or two
days—once Woo seuen lost, and Seang chow being abso-
lutely without a single soldier—they could have passed on
through it!

* On the 19th of March and on the 6th April, two battles
were fought, but on both occasions the rebels experienced no
great loss, owing to the cowardice of our troops. On the
11th April, the rebels attempted to seize the Ferry at Kew

in China are uninteresting because having no historical associations. So are
Greece and Rome for those ignorant of Huropean Ancient History, Nanking
has not only associations, but great associations of many centuries. Some were
even in my mind as I rode through its streets-to meet the rebel leaders; and
for a well read Chinese there is scarcely a district in the Empire without its
associations. We see here Chow teen tseo draw on military history for his prac-
tical guidance; as a general who found himself opposed to an enemy in the
neighbourhood of Dunbar might draw on the history of Cromwell for his
practical assistance.

* From this letter and a memorial in the Peking Gazette it appears that
the Tae pings left their camp at Kin teen on the 4th March, 1851.

+ Ko shoo han was an Imperial General under the Tang dynasty, who in a.p,
727 was in the field against the rebel, Gan luh shan. His tactics were to hold
the passes and remain on the defensive, on the ground that it was for the
interest of the rebels, who had marched from a distance, to engage in a pitched
battle at once. He was however compelled by orders to leave his position, and’
attack the rebels. He was defeated; was taken prisoner at the Tung pass
which he then attempted to defend; the rebel, Gan luh shan, advanced on the
capital; and the Emperor was forced to fly.
156 THE CHINESE AND THEIR HAGILLIONE.

heen heu (the old district city market town) with the inten-
tion of proceeding northward with their combined force.
Fortunately the chief commanders of the irregulars, recently
sent hither, fought vigorously. I did not move up one
single man; and the Kwei chow troops looked on from the,
top of the mountains, while the whole valley was filled with
the rebels! However the rebels nevertheless sustainéd a
great defeat, and fled leaving the ground thickly strewed
with the dead and wounded. There were some of them, too,
shattered to pieces* from the fighting—across the river—
being so very close.

“Tae ping and Nan ning (two departments in the south
west of Kwang se) have just sent in word that they are hard
pressed; Yu lin and Po pih (districts in the south) are just
about to fall; and at Ping lo and Ho (districts in the west)
the Major General has been defeated; and it is not known
what is become of him. In other quarters, the whole country
swarms with them (the rebels). Our funds are nearly at an
end, and our troops few; our officers disagree, and the power
is not concentrated. The Commander of the Forces wants to
extinguish a burning waggon load of faggots with a cup full
of water. Further, he keeps up an endless moving and
despatching of the troops, who are wearied with marching
along the roads. Hoo yuen ke, the prefect whom the
Governor General denounced, he (Le sing yuen) exerts him-
self to protect, and glosses over all matters that have to be
examined into. He can think of screening Chin tsoo shin,
but does not think of the injuries inflicted on the state.

“General Heang yung, though he has abilities, is of an
unjust and narrow mind. He keeps other people’s good ser-
vices out of sight, and publishes his own merits. All the
forces from Kwei chow and Yunnan detest him. I fear we

* The Chinese have a peculiar horror of dismemberment; whence hanging is
not so disgraceful a legal punishment as decapitation.

+ Chow teen keo’s (the letter writer's) predecessor:as Governor of Kwang se,
whose conduct was being investigated.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS, 157

shall hereafter have some serious affair—that the great body
will rise against us, and our own people leave us.

“ The chief commander of the Irregulars* is good at fight-
ing on the water (rivers) and exerted himself very much
in protecting the ferries at the five places Kew tseen, Lih ma
‘kwo, Shih tsuy chang, Show chow mei, and Ping chung. But
Heang yung is jealous of him; and having got a Yang laou, t
yet gives ear to secret tales against him. I am now doing all
I can to encourage the chief commander and the nine (lesser)
commanders of the Irregulars, and they maintain their posts
a hundred times better than the officers and soldiers of the
regular army. ‘This is the state of affairs with us.

‘As to these rebels they have five great leaders. Hung
tseuen is the first, Fung yun san is the next, Yang sew tsing
is the next, and Hoo yih seen and Tsang san sew are the
next.

‘“‘ Hung tseuen is not a man of the surname of Hung—he is
a barbarian of some sort.t Fung yun san is a graduate of
the first degree (bachelor). Both are skilled in the use of
troops. Hung tseuen§ is a barbarian, who practises the
ancient military arts. At first he conceals his strength, then

* A great portion of these were from the East of Kwang tung,—that portion
of the coast land which I have stated to produce the most turbulent and daring
of the Chinese. We used to see them, in large numbers, as they passed Canton
on their way up to Kwang se.

+ Yang Jaou was a military man who fought first against the Sungs, but was
afterwards induced to join them, and was much trusted by Tae tsung of that
dynasty, who reigned from a.p. 976 till a.p, 998. Having distinguished
himself greatly in the border wars, the higher officers, out of envy, sent in
secret denunciations against him; but the Emperor merely forwarded them
under cover to Yang laou himself; ze. did noé listen to them. The Chief
Commander of the Irregulars is here likened to Yang laou, and Heang yung to
the Emperor; only Heang yung to his discredit fails in the parallel.

+ From this we must infer that Hung sew tseuen’s origin was unknown to
the best informed Imperialists in April, 1851. His Christianity, and the fact
of his having resided some time with Mr. Roberts, probably gave rise to this
belief concerning him. The reader will see further on that people in the rebel
army held him to be a “ barbarian.”

§ That is to say he is a man of dangerous character, combining the fierceness
of the barbarian, with a knowledge of the best military tactics,
158 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

he puts it forth a little, then in a greater degree, and lastly
comes on in great force. He constantly has two victories for °
one defeat; for he practises the tactics of Sun pin.* The
other day I obtained a rebel book describing the organiza-
tion of one army. It is the Sze ma system of the Chow
dynasty.+ A division has its general of division, a regiment
has its colonel (literally a sze has its sze shwae, a leu has its
leu shwae). An army consists of 13,270 men, being the
strength of an ancient army with the addition of upwards
of a hundred men.t

«Their forces are divided into nine armies in accordance
with the system of nine degrees in the ‘ Tribute’ of Yu.§
In this book is specifically described the first army, that of the
Grand Generalissimo Hung, and it states at the end, that all
the other nine armies are to be arranged and organized in like
manner. This book has been sent to the Cabinet Council.
The rebels increase more and more; our troops the more
they fight the more they fear. The rebels generally are
powerful and fierce; and they cannot by any means be likened
to a disorderly crowd (literally a flock of crows); their regu-
lations and laws being rigorous and clear. Our troops have
not a tincture of discipline; retreating is easy to them,
advancing difficult ; and, though again and again exhorted,
they always remain as weak and as timorous as before.
When personally in command at the above battles, I found
that the troops—and they were from several different quarters

* A famous ancient general, whose greatest campaign took place B.¢. 341.

+ A great dynasty that ended x.o. 256.

+ The copy which Chow teen keo had when he wrote must either have been a
partially erroneous manuscript one ; or we must regard this as a proof that there
were some slight differences between the then construction of the Tae ping
armies and that which we found existing at Nanking two years later, when the
number of men in an army was exactly that of ancient ‘times, viz. 18,125 men
and officers.

§ This is the name of a section or chapter in the ancient book, the Shoo
king or Historical Canon. The “nine degrees” have some analogy with our

naval nonary gradation of main, vice and rear squadrons of the red, white
and blue flags.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 159

(of the country)—were all alike useless. At present there is
no other plan than to bring in levies of good troops from
Kwang tung, as weil as 20,000 regulars and irregulars from
Hoo pih, skilled in the use of the larger description of arms;
and then, with the combined strength of the two provinces,
first to reduce Kwang se to quiet, afterwards Kwang tung.
I and my two associates (Le sing yuen and Heang yung) have
sent in a memorial to the Emperor to this effect. We have
yet to see whether it will be attended to or not. To think
on putting an end to these criminals, is the only pleasant
occupation my mind has. For the rest I cannot exhaust the
subject in writing. All proceeds from the mistakes of the
Imperial Commissioner, who like Lan teen keen employs
himself on nothing but talking.”

From the above and an Imperial Edict it appears that the
Tae pings left their first great position at Kin teen in the
Kwei ping district, and moved to Tung heang in the Woo
seueu district on the 4th March, 1851. Their next move of
importance, viz. from Tung heang into the Seang district,
must have been effected about the 10th of May, according to
the dates given in one of my (contemporaneous) official
reports, that written at Canton on the 11th July; from which
I here extract:

“Three Imperial Edicts have been published here, the first
two dating as issued at Peking on the 1st June. In these
the commanding officers in Kwang se are severely censured
for having allowed a large party of the rebels, previously re-
ported as surrounded in the Woo seuen district, to “ escape”
into the adjoining Seang district. The Emperor comments
angrily on the fact of their memorial to him saying nothing
of their present plans, but merely requesting the punishment
of themselves and their subordinates. He declines complying
with their request, so far as the latter are concerned, on the
ground that the lower officers have been condemned to in-
action by the want of union among their superiors; and he
calls for detailed information as to the projects of the rebels
160 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

at the Seang district, on the possibility of enclosing them
there, and on the measures taken for preventing their ad-
vance on Kwei lin, the capital of the province.”

The following extract from my Canton report of the 21st
August, 1851, furnishes the fullest and most authoritative
corroboration of what is said in Chow teen keo’s letter on
the state of the Imperial army; and of what I have before
said of the effect of the British war:

“During the past month the Peking Gazettes have con-
tinued to give memorials of the high officers in Kwang se,
with the Emperor’s replies on the affairs of that province.
One of the former, by the Lieutenant-general of the Canton
Bannermen Woo lan tae (who went there from Canton
about April) has considerable interest from its giving to
the public, for the first time, the opinions of a Manchoo on
the insurrection.

* He states that the army has never recovered from the dis-

/ organization caused by the want of success in the ‘ barbarian
; iy affairs,’ (the British war) so that the troops do not attend
to orders; regard retreat on the eve of a battle as ‘old
\ custom ;’ and the abandonment of places they should hold
as an ‘ordinary affair.” He had heard of this state of
things without daring to give it full credence; now, how-
ever, haying joined the forces in the field, he has personally
witnessed it, and sees therein cause for deep anxiety. Of
all those faults which an army in the field should dread, he
finds many existing, so much so, that the troops even act
without orders from their superiors. Thus, when General
Heang yung, Lieutenant-general Tae ting san and himself
stopped at New lan tang to make a reconnaissance and ex-
amine the position of the rebels, they had halted but a short
time when a large portion of the troops proceeded on to
Seang chow, into which city all the Irregulars also hurried;
so that they (the generals) could not form the encampment
they projected at the spot. General Heang yung on this
occasion declared that ‘if the troops disregarded orders in
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 161

this way it would be the death of him.’* Though greatly
excited, he had however no means of remedying the matter,
and was subsequently obliged to form his camp at Shih mo.
These circumstances he (Woo lan tae) personally witnessed,
and has moreover heard, that in the battles formerly fought
the ranks of the regulars and irregulars were in a most dis-
orderly state; no common attention was paid to the word of
command; at the first sound of the enemy’s guns the troops
were seized with fear; and if one or two happened to get
wounded, the whole body thought of retreat. On the other
hand the number of robbers and criminal associations in
Kwang tung and Kwang se is very great, and they assemble
without the least hesitation to ‘ create disturbances,’ all
which arises from that class having ‘seen through the cir-
cumstances of the army’ (i.e. detected its impotence) ‘at
the time barbarian affairs were being transacted,’ (the British
War). ‘Formerly they feared the troops as tigers; of late
they look on them as sheep.’ Further, of the several tens
of thousands of armed irregulars who were disbanded at the
settlement of the ‘barbarian business,’ very few returned
to their original occupations: most became robbers.

* These are the causes of the existence of numerous ban-
ditti in Kwang tung and Kwang se; in which he (Woo lan
tae) fears order and tranquillity will never be established if
the state of the army is not improved. He has heard that
the ‘outer barbarians’ constantly declare that ‘China is
amply furnished with literary instruction but its military
arrangements are insufficient.’

«One thousand Kwei chow troops having been placed
under his special command, he proposes remaining for 20
days simply on the defensive, in order that he may infuse
into them some idea of discipline and instruct them in the
use of the arms he brought from Canton, viz., 100 wall
pieces, 200 muskets, and a number of spears, rockets &c.
He closes by praying His Majesty to give him definite powers

* The original expression is colloquial.
M.
162 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

over the forces generally, that he may be the better able to
effect the objects for which he has been sent to Kwang se.
An edict confers the required powers on him, subject how-
ever to the superior authority of the Commander in Chief
Sae shang ah, when the latter reaches the scene of opera-
tions.

“In another memorial, Woo lan tae reports what he saw
of the operations consequent on the move made by the rebels
from the Woo seuen district into the Seang district, (about
the 10th May). It appears from what he says that the
rebels broke through the most strongly guarded of the posts
by which they were surrounded; and, proceeding to the
Seang district, stormed and kept possession of an important
position near its chief city.

« A subsequent edict comments on a ‘great victory’ gained
by Woo lan tae and the others in which ‘ several thousands’
of the rebels are said to have been killed, the battle lasting
eight hours. Other victories, and degradations of officers for
reporting false victories, as also for drawing public money to
pay non-existent irregulars are noticed in others of the docu-
ments.

“* Chow teen tseo, in a memorial, advises the punishment
of certain officers for allowing a Kwang tung man [Fung
yun san?] to get off some years back, whom one of the
literati [the graduate Wang ?] had accused of disseminating
Christian doctrines.”

The following is from my report of the 25th Sept. 1851.
The Edicts mentioned must have been issued in Peking about
three weeks before that date, and referred to reports from
Kwang se of the middle of August.

“In another Edict, just arrived, the Emperor states that
he has received memorials, from whom is not mentioned, to
the effect that the disturbances in Kwang tung and Kwang se
are in a great degree owing to the spread of strange doc-
trines ; for which reason he now gives orders that all the
proper officers take steps for diffusing the knowledge of the
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 163

national ethics among the people. No mention is made of
the Christian religion, but it is evidently included in the
term, strange doctrines. I may add here that a third edict
degrades Seu ke yu, lately Governor of Fuh keen, and known
to foreigners as the author of a very creditable General
Geography, from his previous rank of the second class to a
post of the fifth class in one of the boards at Peking. The
reason given is only that he, during a long period of service
as Governor, ‘did not seriously exert himself in the good
management of the proper affairs of the locality.’ The pas-
sage reads as if he had busied himself with affairs not pro-
perly his; and there can be little doubt that the Geography
has, as was anticipated, caused his degradation.” *

On the 27th August, the Tae pings, having left the Seang
district, moved into that of Yung gan, in the chief city of
which they established themselves. If the reader will refer
to my description of the public officials and the Yamuns or
Offices at a district city, he will understand that this was a
step of some political importance; and the following extract
from my official report of the 27th November, 1851, shows
that it was so regarded by well-informed Chinese at the
time :

“ During the past month we have continued to be almost
without reliable details as to the proceedings in Kwang se,
but enough has transpired to leave no doubt as to the general
fact that the efforts of the Imperialists, to put down the
insurrection, are still unattended with success . . . .
The latest accounts state the rebels to be still in occupation
of the Yung gan district city, the capture of which, and
death of its magistrate, was mentioned in my report of the
25th ultimo. They are said to have raised and strengthened
its walls . . . . Perhaps one of the best confirmations

* Since we have learnt of the threatened Christian revolution, at that time
in progress and which originated in foreign teachings, there can be no doubt
whatever, that the Governor was degraded for publishing a book that showed
foreigners in a much more favourable light, than they had ever before been
known to the great body of the Chinese people.

M 2
164 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

of the little success of the Imperialists lies in the tone of a
large Chinese merchant, closely connected with, and favour-
able to the Government, and whose means of information are
very good. In the spring of this year, he declared everything
to be settled in Kwang tung, and said that everything would
be settled in Kwang se within two or three months, In fact
he then spoke rather slightingly of the rebellion: he is now
very serious on the subject, and says ‘he does not know how
long it will be before it is put down.’

«© The number of the largest party of the rebels he states
at 6000, many of whom are however boys and women. All
the smaller parties together, he does not estimate at more
than 10,000, making a total of about 16,000 people openly
in arms against the Government. The latter has, he says,
about 30,000 men in the field.”

My informant, in the above case, was the son and repre-
sentative in business of the former great tea merchant, whose
business name of How: qua is not unknown in England. I
had had sufficient acquaintance with the ordinary demeanour
and tone of his son and successor, a man of education as well
as intelligence, to be struck with the air of grave concern and
truthfulness, with which he communicated the above infor-
mation; which was fully confirmed two years later by the
statements of the more sincerely religious of the Tae ping
leaders at Nanking, as to their numbers at the time referred
to. The “band of 6,000 including women and children”
were evidently the original Godworshippers, who have always
formed the nucleus and real strength of the Tae ping forces.

As we have seen from Chow teen keo’s letter that the
organization of these forces was the same before their occu-
pation of Yung gan which we found at Nanking, I give
now a summary description of it, as it then appeared to me.*

“ A keun or army is composed of 13,135 men and officers,
under the immediate command of a keun shwae or General,

* Extracted from an article I contributed in May, 1853, to the Shanghae
journal, “The North China Herald.”
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 165

and divided into five ying or divisions, the front, rear, left,
right and centre.

“ A ying or division is composed of 2,625 men and officers
commanded by a Sze shwae or General of Division, and is
divided into five Jeu or regiments, the front, rear, left, right
and centre.

“ A leu or regiment is composed of 525 men and officers
commanded by a Leu shwae or Colonel, and is divided into
five tsuh or companies, the first, second, third, fourth and
fifth.

* A tsuh or company is composed of 104 men and officers,
commanded by a Tsuh chang or Captain. He has under him
four Leang sze ma or Lieutenants, distinguished as the East,
South, West and North, each in command of four Woo chang
or Sergeants and 20 Woo tsuh or privates.

* The relative standing of the Sergeants and privates is not
marked by such terms as first, second &c. front, rear &c. or
east, south &c.; but the Sergeants, by characters signifying
Powerful, Daring, Martial, &c. and the privates by characters
signifying Vanguard-repelling, Enemy-breaking &c. These
words, as well as the section, company, regiment and divi-
sion, are all marked on a square cloth on the breast, larger
for the sergeants than for the privates. The Leang sze ma or
Lieutenants, and all above, have no such cloths; but each has
a banner with his designation inscribed on it, and the size of
which increases with the rank of the officer. On these
banners are also inscribed the names of places, chiefly of
departments and districts in Kwang tung and Kwang se,
which seem to be used analogously to the names of places
attached to some of our regiments.”

About the time the preceding organization was adopted,
Hung sew tseuen had assumed the title of Heavenly or Divine
Prince ; and on the 30th November, 1851, definitively as-
signed to five of the chief leaders, subordinate princely titles,
viz. to Yang sew tsing, that of Eastern Prince; to Seaov.
chaou hwuy that of Western Prince; to Fung yun san, that
oe ese

166 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

of Southern Prince; to Wei ching, that of NortH€rn Prince ;
and to Shih ta kae, that of Assistant Prince.

“ Between the Generals of Keun or Armies and the
Princes, are nine descriptions of officers distinguished by
different titles; who are equivalent to our Ministers, Com-
manders in chief and other high officers in charge of the
civil, judicial, and military departments of state. The above
military organization, and all the titles, are those used in olden
times in China.

“ The Princes wear yellow hoods, shaped like the Chinese
helmet, yellow jackets and long yellow gowns. The officers
next in rank, red hoods with a broad yellow border, yellow
jackets and long red gowns. The third in rank have only the
hood and jacket, and those lower still only the jacket.

“ There was little uniformity of dress among the privates,
even in the cloth round the head; and there was nothing
equivalent to our systematic forming, wheeling and march-
ing in regular bodies; but the strictest discipline is main-
tained in so far as prompt obedience to orders and signals is
concerned. Of guns (cannon) there was abundance, of
matchlocks and muskets but few, the arms being chiefly
spears, halberds and swords. A few bows were noticed.”

The Tae ping publications, especially that entitled “ Tae
ping Army Organization,” showed that at the time of the
taking of Nanking there existed at least five such armies
of 13,135 men pach ; and from what I saw and heard there
of their numbers, I was led to conclude, that they invested
that city with some 60 to 80 thousand men. This was the
result of accessions of strength to their original 10 or 15
thousand, received in the course of their twelve months’ pro-
gress from Yung gan in Kwang se northward to Nanking.

After they had occupied Yung gan for some seven months
they left it on the 7th April, 1852, and marched to Kwei
lin the capital of the province, which they besieged without
success for about a month.

On the 19th May they raised the siege of Kwei lin,
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 167

crossed the great southern watershed into the province of
Hoonan, and took the Taou district city on the 12th June.
A month later, about the 12th and 15th of August, they
took the district city of Kea ho, the departmental city of
wei yang and the district city of Chin. In this position
they remained some three weeks, when they left and marched
straight on Chang sha, the capital of the province of Hoonan;
before which they appeared on or before the 11th September.
They besieged it for 80 days, during which they stormed
several times without success, but with great loss to the
Imperialist garrison and to the Imperialist armies of observa-
tion in the vicinity. One of the contemporary Peking
Gazettes gave a nominal return of 44 Imperialist officers,
from ensigns upwards, inclusive of a major and a lieutenant-
general, all killed in one action.

On the 30th November the Tae ping forces raised the
siege of Chang sha and moved northward. But Chang sha
being situated on the Seang, a large navigable feeder of the
Tung ting Lake, they here began that progress in river
craft which offered specially great advantages to an army,
some of whose best leaders and troops had been sea rovers;
and which formed one of the chief features of their further
advance. On the 13th December they had crossed the Tung
ting Lake and entered the main stream of the Great River at
Yo chang; which city was evacuated by the Imperialists on
their approach.

They advanced on, and took the departmental city of
Han yang, and occupied the contiguous great commercial
town of Han kow on the 23rd December. They then
immediately crossed the river and invested Woo chang, the
capital of Hoo pih; which they took by storm on the 12th
January. At these three cities, which, at a low estimate
must have contained a population of three to four millions,
the Tae pings remained exactly one month, during which
they were occupied in transferring provisions and treasure to
their vessels; of which latter they had by this time seized a
168 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

sufficient number to transport their now large afty with all
its stores.

Their progress from thence to Nanking—a distance, mea-
sured by the sinuosities of the river, of some four to five hun-
dred miles—was leisurely and almost uninterrupted. On the
18th February they took Kew keang, an important city,
situated near the point where the Great River touches the
Po yang lake, and on the 24th Gan king, the capital of
the province of Gan hwuy. From these cities, and many
other places to the distance of one or two days’ journey from
the Great River on both sides, they collected money and
provisions, either directly taken, or paid as ransom.

“On the 8th March they appeared before Nanking,* and,
on the 19th of that month, sprung a mine under the wall
near the northern angle, which effected a breach of about
20 or 30 yards in extent. They immediately stormed by this,
meeting with only a slight resistance from some Shan tung
and Kwei chow (Chinese) troops who attempted to defend
it, and proceeding to the southern quarter, entered the
inner city there situated; which in the time of the Mings
was, and now is again, called the Imperial city, but which
under the Manchoo dynasty has been occupied by the here-
ditary garrison of Tartar Bannermen and their families.
The following was the strength of this force as given in the
Imperial Army Regulations :—

 

Vanguard. 2 ese es ew ee ee
Horse (archers) . . 2... . «we « 1,959
Horse (musqueteers). . . 2. 2...) 750
Cannoneers. . 2... 1... wee 3 61
Footmen. . 2... 1... ee eee OTD
Ariificers 4 6k we ee KR ee we 180

Eleves (or paid expectants of one of the above
higher grades) . . . . 1... « . 1,500
Total . . . ... . . 5,106

 

 

* I here again quote from one of five successive contributions by myself to
the “North China Herald,” written in May, 1853, immediately after my return
from Nanking in H.M. war steamer Hermes. :
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 169

“ This was the paid force, but owing to the gradual
increase of the families originally settled there, it is well
known that the number of able-bodied men could not have
been less than seven or eight thousand, and the total number
of all ages and both sexes from twenty to thirty thousand.
Twenty thousand was the number given by most of the in-
surgents; but it is thought to be a rather low estimate.
These Manchoos had to fight for all that is dear to man, for
the Imperial family which had always treated them well, for
the honor of their nation, for their own lives and for the
lives of their wives and children. This they well knew, the
Heavenly Prince having openly declared the first duty of his
mission to be their extermination. It might have been
expected therefore that they would have made a desperate
fight in self-defence. Yet they did not strike a blow. It
would seem as if the irresistible progress and inveterate
enmity of the insurgents had bereft them of all sense and
strength, and of all manhood; for they merely threw them-
selves on the ground before the Leaders and piteously
implored for mercy with cries of ‘Spare my life, Prince !—
Spare my life, Prince!’ They may have been paralysed by
the thought that their impending fate was the retribution of
Heaven for the indiscriminate slaughter of whole populations
by their ancestors when they conquered the country ; as at
Canton, for instance, where the Chinese still speak revenge-
fully of the extermination of the inhabitants on the forces of
the present dynasty taking that city. Some such explanation
the Insurgents gave when it was represented * to many, who

* Jt was myself who represented this to them. At the very time that Nan-
king was taken, my enquiries at Shanghae had convinced me that the Manchoo
garrison had become most unwarlike; and that they would not prevent that
city from falling into the hands of the advancing rebels. Accordingly in
an official report, afterwards printed with Parliamentary Papers, I felt justi-
fied in stating: “All accounts describe the Manchoo bannermen as being,
though very numerous, thoroughly unwarlike, and quite unable to resist
the first general storm of the Insurgents.” Nevertheless, I could not
readily credit such irrationally abject conduct as that ascribed to them by the
Insurgents, and hence subjected some of these latter to a good deal of crors
170 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

were questioned on this very point, how absuse it was to
maintain that a large body of full grown men with arms in
their hands had submitted to be slain like so many bleating
sheep. The reply was always: ‘They knew heaven was
going to punish them.’ Only about a hundred escaped out
of a population of more than twenty thousand; the rest, men
women and children were all put to the sword. ‘ We killed
them all,’ said the Insurgents with emphasis,—the recollection
bringing back into their faces the dark shade of unsparing
sternness they must have borne when the appalling execution
was going on—‘ We killed them all to the infant in arms:
we left not a root to sprout from. The bodies were thrown
into the Yang tsze.’

“On the Ist April early in the morning, the Insurgent
fleet of river craft sent down from Nanking approached
Chin keang. Only the Macao Lorchas,* despatched up the
river by the Shanghae Intendant, attempted resistance, the
rest of the Imperial fleet flying in dismay at the sight of the
enormous number of vessels moving against them. The
Lorchas were also soon forced to retreat, and were pursued
as far as the Silver Island. From this the Insurgents
returned to Chin Keang, which they occupied unresisted;
the garrison, among them 400 northern Manchoos, having
fled without firing a shot. The families of the resident
Tartars, warned by the fate of their compatriots at Nankingt
all evacuated the place, to the number of 20,000: only a few
hundreds were caught and slain in the surrounding villages.
On the following day, the 2nd April, the Insurgents occupied
questioning on the subject. I was however compelled to come to the conclu-
sions given in the text. It is another well authenticated example of the curious
effects, which the belief in an inevitable destiny,—an irresistible teen ming—
may have on the actions of human beings in certain circumstances.

* These are semi-Chinese semi-European vessels, the property of Macao
Portuguese, and chiefly manned by them.

+ 1 was told that the English War served as a precedent for the inhabitants
of the two places, We stormed Chin keang, hence its inhabitants now left it.

Nanking we menaced, but did not take, and hence both Manchoos and Chinese
fancied themselves safe there from the Tae pings.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 171

Kwa chow and the large city of Yang chow on the northern
bank of the Yang isze; in like manner without resistance.
A long battery of three miles of guns, that lined the river
bank, fell into their hands. Not one had been discharged
against them.” ;

The Hermes was eight days within the Tae ping lines,
during which period their forces were busily engaged,
strengthening themselves in their positions at the above
named four cities.

«The distance from the nearest gate of Chin keang to the
Great River is about three quarters of a mile; and in order
to maintain an open communication with the latter, the
Insurgents have erected a number of stockades and batteries.
Kwa chow, a walled city on the northern bank, somewhat
further up than Chin keang, is much nearer to the Great
River, but here also several stockaded batteries have been
constructed. So long as the Insurgents hold these two places
they have complete command of the great channel of com-
munication between the north and south of China by way
of the Grand Canal, called by the Chinese the Transport-
Grain-Canal, fromitschiefuse. . . . . Yang chow lies
on the Grand Canal about six or eight miles inland north of
Kwa chow. ce

“ The distance from Chin keang to Nanking by the
Great River is 47 British statute miles, a portion of the
river which was wholly in the power of the Insurgents,
numbers of whose vessels were always on the way between
the two cities. The distance from the most northerly angle
of the walls of Nanking to the bank of the Great River is
about half a mile, the free communication being protected
as at Chin keang by ditches and stockaded batteries; at a
new one of which the Insurgents were working like ants
when the Hermes weighed to leave. The distance from the
most northerly angle of the Nanking walls southward to that
portion of the enclosed area occupied by the present city is
not less than four miles, the intervening space consisting of
172 ‘THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

fields and gardens together with a few unculftvated hills,
the outer bases of which are skirted by the walls. . . . .
The Insurgents had been able to build up with stone the
breach by which they themselves entered; to give the walls
throughout, and particularly the parapets, a thorough repair;
and to convey large quantities of rice and other provisions
from their vessels into the city. . . . . Chinese who had
fled from Nanking, and who by no means sympathised with
them, spoke of four, six and eight years’ provisions ; and ridi-
culed the idea of their ever being starved out. Guns had
been planted at distances of 50 to 100 yards throughout all
that portion of the wall (some ten miles) seen by the party

of our countrymen which rode into the city; and others
were being carried up to the hills, mentioned above as
situated within the circuit of the wails, and there planted
with considerable military skill in the most commanding
positions. Every day in short saw the place rendered still
less assailable by an Imperialist besieging army. In the
meantime General Heang yung had established his forces on
the New tow Hill opposite the southern front of the city
(where the Porcelain Tower stands), while his flotilla was
at anchor fully ten miles above it.

“Tt is difficult to make an estimate of the numbers of
the Insurgents having the authority of even approximation,
some accounts being manifestly exaggerations, others as cer-
tainly under-statements. It is however thought that, at the
four cities in their possession there must be from 30 to 40
thousand of devoted adherents to the cause, determined to
stand or fall with it. These are chiefly Kwang tung,
Kwang se and Hoo nan men, all having long hair,* and
several of those from the latter province being officers in

* The present dynasty, on its advent, compelled all Chinese to adopt the
Tartar fashion of shaving the most of the head and wearing a tail. The Tae
pings have reverted to the native fashion again; and hence are called by the
Imperialists, “Chang fa tsih, long haired rebels.” Among the latter, the
common men, who of course attached much weight to externals, were quite
pleased to see that we foreigners had the hair growing all over our heads.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TAE PING REBELS. 173

command of one or two thousand men, (the higher leaders
seemed to be all from Kwang tung and Kwang se.) Of
voluntary and trusty adherents, who joined them in Hoo nan
and Hoo pih, it is supposed there may be about 30 or
40 thousand more, making their total strength when they
invested Nanking from 60 to 80 thousand. Besides these,
there ‘must be taken into account at least 100,000 men,
perhaps double that number, of Nanking, Yang chow, and
Chin keang people, who had not left these cities when they
were occupied, and who are now doing duty as workmen; as
porters, trench-diggers and artificers.”

When the Tae pings occupied the above four cities—two of
which, Chin keang and Kwa chow, constitute together one of
the most commanding military positions in the Empire—they
acted emphatically and remorselessly on the high pretensions
and claims of the Heavenly Prince to the persons and property
of all Chinese. They seized every man, woman and child and
every thing of the slightest value, and placed and stored all—
human beings and things—at Nanking, their great strong-
hold; which was now called the Heavenly Capital, as the
residence of the Heavenly Prince and his Court. Only small
garrisons of the older, and trustworthy adherents of the cause
were left in the other three cities. The able-bodied males of
all four cities were soon after despatched in various directions,
under Tae ping generals and officers, as Tae ping armies.
Their aged parents, their wives, sisters, and children, were
all detained at Nanking; employed there, in so far as they
could be useful; well fed and clothed out of the abundant
common stores; but kept strictly prisoners within the works
of the city, as hostages for the fidelity of their male relatives
in the field. This is the Tae ping method of pressing, or
conscription.*

* his is the place to mention a circumstance which strikingly proves what
J have thought it necessary to dwell on, in order to prevent the Chinese from
being still more misunderstood than they already are, viz.: that the gentlemen,
who in these days devote themselves with great self-sacrifice to the propagation
of Catholicism in China, are much less able than might be supposed to under-
wiih ccaacarearh centering ae

174 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

We have now reached a point in the historpof the Tae
pings, where they ceased to move from place to place in
one united body. Henceforth while occupying permanently
an important position, extending over 50 miles of a large
river in the heart of the country, they sent out from that
position separate armies in different directions. It is the
point where the Tae ping movement, in its military aspect,
changed from what I have called the locomotive and concen~
trated, to what may, by way of contrast, be characterized as
the stationary and distributed phase.

stand rightly social phenomena among the Chinese. In December, 1853, eight
months after our British visit in the Hermes, the French Minister and
diplomatic suite accompanied by his official interpreter, a Macao Portuguese,
and two French gentlemen, Catholic priests, went to Nanking in a war
steamer chiefly, if not altogether for the purpose of collecting information.
The vessel lay a week at anchor before Nanking, and one of the mission-
aries passed two nights in that city. Yet when the whole party had re-
turned to Shanghae, I found that they were quite unable to account for
the ascertained fact that the rebels had an enormous number of females shut
up in Nanking. It was not till my explanation, given in the text, was com-
municated to them that they learnt, it was the Tae ping method of enforcing
conscription. Some Protestants may be inclined to assume that the priests
did know the reason, but withheld their knowledge from their lay countrymen.
Were that the case it would equally prove that the Catholic accounts of China
are not to be relied on. But Ido not see that it is at all necessary to assume
anything so injurious to the character of the two gentlemen. We have M.
Mue’s own authority for the fact that the missionaries in the interior are com-
pelled to live too closely concealed among their co-religionists to learn anything
of heathen z.v. of really Chinese life; and then every man of experience must
admit that a cloister-educated celibatary cannot be expected rightly to compre-
hend much of what he does see in the great world, Even I, however, who had
long known that the opportunities and powers of observation of the Catholic
missionaries of the present day were greatly over-rated, was surprised at their
having been unable to account, when on the spot, for a striking and important
fact, perfectly understood by me, months before they went to Nanking.
LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 175

CHAPTER XIV.

MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS, AFTER THE OCCUPATION
OF NANKING, UP TO THE PRESENT TIME.

Ow or about the 12th May, 1853, an army of Tae pings,
detached from Nanking, effected a landing on the northern
bank of the Great River, where they defeated, and captured
the baggage of a body of Tartars, who had been brought
down from Northern Manchooria, and on whom the Emperor
had placed great reliance. On the 15th May, they defeated
another body of Tartars at Lew ho. On the evening of the
28th May, they took the departmental city, Fung yang, from
whence they advanced by way of Po chow and Kwei tih to
Kae fung, the capital of Honan; where they appeared on the
19th June. On the 22nd they made an unsuccessful attempt
to take Kae fung by storm. They then crossed the Yellow
River and marched to the departmental city of Hwae king,
about 100 miles to the west of Kae fung. They spent about
two months in an unsuccessful siege of Hwae king, they
themselves being, during the second month, subjected to the
attacks of the Imperial forces in the field, which had as-
sembled to prevent their further advance. The Tae ping
camps commanded the Tan river which, flowing eastward,
becomes further on the Wei, under which name it joins the
Grand Canal at Lin tsing, on the northern side of the highest
level of the Canal waters. It constitutes, therefore, the head
of a continuous water communication down-stream to Teen
tsin, the port of Peking. This water communication is not
to be compared, in point of magnitude, with that formed by
the Seang and the Great River, by which the rebels had
176 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

descended about a year before from Kwang segto Nanking;
but it is sufficiently large for the transport of the munitions
of war in the smaller river craft of China; and there can be
little doubt that the prolonged efforts of the Tae pings to
take Hwae king, in itself but a second-rate city, proceeded
from a desire to establish there a basis of operations, and to
facilitate an advance from thence, by the easy route of the
Wei river and the Grand Canal, on Peking. There are two
other circumstances which make Hwae king an important
strategical point: the Sin river, which flows by it in the
south, is an affluent of the Yellow River and epens a com-
munication with the East; and it lies on the great route
which goes west through the province of Shan se to Peking.
But this latter route is entirely a land road and crosses a
mountain ridge.

The fact, therefore, that the Tae pings, when they raised
the siege of Hwae king on the 1st September marched west-
wards by it into Shan se, shows that the Imperial forces
were strong enough to prevent their descent by the Wei
river. The westward movement was, however, so little
guarded against by the Imperialists that the Tae pings took
the district city of Yuen keuh on the 4th September, and on
the 12th September the departmental city of Ping yang;
after taking the district cities of Fung and Keuh wuh on the
way. From thence they proceeded, first in an easterly, then
in a north-easterly direction by way of the district cities of
Hung tung, Tun lew, Lo ching, Le ching, She heen, and
Woo gan—all of which they entered—to the Lin ming pass,
in the ridge between the provinces of Ho nan and Chih
le. They then defeated a Manchoo force, and debouched
into Chih le on the 29th September. On the 30th
September they entered the district city of Sha ho; on
the lst of October, that of Jin heen; and on the 2nd those
of Lung ping and Pih heang. On the 4th October they
took the departmental city of Chaou chow; and on the
6th the district city of Lwan ching. On the same day they
LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 177

took the district city of Kaou ching, situated on the southern
bank of the Hoo to. On the 8th they left that city, crossed
the Hoo to by a floating bridge, which they themselves con-
structed, and took the district city of Tsin chow. On the
9th October they took the departmental city of Shin chow,
where they remained for fourteen days, till the 22nd, when
they proceeded to the district cities of Heen and Keaou ho,
entering the latter on the 25th of October. From thence they
proceeded by the Grand Canal to the district city of Tsing
hae and to Tuh lew, an unwalled town of some little com-
mercial importance a few miles to the north of it. Both of
thesé places, which they occupied about the 28th October,
are situated on the Grand Canal about twenty miles to the
south of Teen tsin and about one hundred miles from Peking.
One of their advanced parties appeared before Teen tsin on
the 30th October, but was repulsed with some loss; and the
whole army was immediately afterwards, ¢.¢. in the first days
of November, 1853, blockaded in its position at Tsing hae
and Tuh lew, by the forces that had been following it from
Hwae king, as well as by those detached from Peking.
These latter were composed chiefly of a portion of the
Manchoo garrison of that city, aided by 4,500 Mongols,
veritable nomads, who had been brought in from beyond the
Great Wall. The want of cavalry, to cope with these born
horsemen, was doubtless one of the causes why the Tae
pings were unable to approach nearer to Peking. The
Imperial Gazettes and a letter despatched to me from Peking
at that period showed that the Court and Capital were
greatly alarmed; but the danger was averted, and they have
not since been so seriously menaced.

The march of this Tae ping army from Nanking to Tsing
hae is one of the most remarkable of which history gives
record. The whole of the above particulars are, I must
observe, taken from the “Peking Gazette,” the Imperialist
organ; the statements in which must be interpreted as we,
if without our own accounts, would interpret those about the

N
178 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
*

Allies in the Russian journals published for the Russian
people. Now the distance which the army marched in its
advance from Nanking to Tsing hae is not less than thirteen
to fourteen hundred miles, and the very day that it left the
northern bank of the Great River opposite Nanking, all
communication with its friends at the latter place was cut
off; with the exception of such correspondence as could be
maintained by disguised messengers. It was immediately
followed by a force of the Imperialists, detached from their
armies of observation near Nanking and Chin keang; apart
from which the local troops always closed in its rear as it
advanced. The spectacle of this army, so isolated, making
its way perseveringly northwards, in spite of constantly
accumulating difficulties in the shape of inclement weather
and more numerous as well as more efficient foes, swerving
first to the west then to the east, but never turning south-
ward during a period of six months,—this spectacle speaks
powerfully for the strength of the Tae ping organization. It
is pretty well established that none of the five subordinate
Tae ping Princes, still less the “ Heavenly Prince” himself,
accompanied it; for the Imperialist accounts of battles fought
on the route, while they make frequent mention of “ false
Ministers,” “ false Army Superintendents ” and “ false Gene-
rals,” as they term the Tae ping officers bearing such titles,
never speak of any “false Prince ” being with them. On the
other hand, when the Tae ping army was engaged in its two
months’ siege of Hwae king, and was in its turn there attacked
by Imperialist armies in the field, the fact of the “ false
Minister, Lin fung tseang” having “ himself” headed 5,000
men in order to stimulate them in an attack, is mentioned by
the Gazette in such manner as leads to the inference that
this man was the known Commander-in-chief. It was, there-
fore, some of their third and fourth rate men whom the Tae
ping leaders could entrust with the execution of this bold
and perilous attempt on the very stronghold of the Manchoo
power. How faithfully the commanders strove to carry. out
LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 179

their instructions, the reader will have perceived from the
above narrative. The Gazettes gave details of a defeat—
pictured as almost ruinous—inflicted on the Tae pings as
they were approaching Kaou ching on the 6th October.
That some severe losses were really sustained by them about
that time, is rendered probable by the circumstance of their
side march to Shin chow, and their stay in that place of
fourteen days’ duration. When they eventually stopped at
Tsing hae and Tuh lew, it could only have been from inabi-
lity to force their way further; for these places do not con-
stitute a station of strategical importance, while Teen tsin,
only twenty miles further on, lies in a commanding situation
and is a very large and populous city.

No indication is given in the Gazettes of the numbers
of the Tae pings at the time of their occupation of Tsing hae ;
except that “seven or eight thousand” are spoken of as
having made a sally from it on the lst November. Whatever
their strength, they resolved to maintain themselves there,
while awaiting relief from their friends at Nanking.

On receipt of the intelligence of the stoppage of their army
at Tsing hae, the Tae ping leaders did immediately make
preparations for despatching a second army to its aid. About
the same time that the first army started for the North,
another was despatched up the Great River to the Po yang
lake. This left a force in occupation of Gan king, the pro-
vincial capital of Gan hwuy; which subsequently became
a basis for operations, directed northward against the central
portion of that province. The district city of Tung ching
was first taken, then on the 29th November, 1853, that of
Shoo ching, and on the 14th January, 1854, the departmental
city of Loo chow; where the Governor of the province had
stationed himself, and was then slain. Previous to this, the Tae
pings had (on the 26th December) withdrawn their garrison
from the large city of Yang chow, situated on the Grand
Canal a little to the north of Kwa chow. The Imperialist
Commanders told me at the time that this had doubtless

N 2 .
180 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONY,

been done in order to have more men available for the field.
Eighteen days later, Loo chow was, as we have seen, taken,
and on the 17th February the district city of Luh gan. From
their position at these two places the Auxiliary Army of the
Tae pings appears to have marched for the north. The Peking
Gazettes did not furnish us with the means of tracing its
route so accurately as that of the first Northern Army; but
it certainly passed by way of the Yin shang and Mung ching
district cities to the Yellow River opposite the Fung district
city. It crossed the river, entered the Fung district city on
the 17th March, and moved straight on the important de-
partmental city of Lin tsing, taking as the Emperor ex-
pressed it, in censuring his officers, “ city after city” on its
way. Marching at the rate of about fifteen miles a day,
from Fung to Lin tsing, it appeared before the latter city on
the 1st April; and the 4th was attacked there by some of
the Imperialist Generals, that had been fighting throughout
the winter with the first Northern Army.

This latter evacuated Tsing hae and Tub lew, on the 5th
February, 1854, just three months after it occupied that po-
sition, and commenced, about nine months after starting from
Nanking, its retrograde march. In the first instance these Tae
pings proceeded only a few days’ march to the south and then
occupied a position, including several villages, a little to the
north of the Heen district city, till the 7th March; when
they again broke up and marched into the last-named place.
From thence they proceeded to the Fow ching district city,
which they occupied on the 10th March. Here they are
shown us, fighting with the Imperialists, in the month of June
following, after which the Gazettes make no more mention
of them. But there is much reason for believing that they
effected a junction about that time with the Auxiliary Army
at Lin tsing, from which Fow ching is only 100 miles
distant.

The Auxiliary Army must have appeared before Lin tsing
in great strength, for they took that city by storm on the
LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 181

12th April in the face of the Imperialist forces in the field ;
whose Manchoo and Mongol cavalry had been constantly
attacking them from the 4th.

On the 3d May a portion of the Tae ping Northern armies
again occupied the Fung district city on the Yellow River,
which that portion then recrossed in its way southward; but
a Jarge portion must have remained, for we find them taking
the district city of Kaou tang—situated about forty miles to
the east of Lin tsing—on the 28th May; and it was not
until the ten months later, viz. in March, 1855, that they
finally evacuated that part of the country, and made their
way to the south again. With what degree of success they
effected this, the Gazettes have not furnished us with any
means of judging. But the Imperialist authorities at Shanghae
maintain, and their assertions appear to be in this instance
reliable, that there are now no rebels in the country north of
the Yellow River.

From what the Tae ping Commandant of Chin keang told
me personally, in July, 1853, I infer that the Princes at Nan-
king, when they despatched the first army to the north, really
did hope that it might be successful in reaching and taking
Peking, and that they might thus achieve the conquest of the
Empire by a bold military coup. In all such hopes they
have been disappointed. If they, however, merely intended
that their Northern Army should engage the chief attention,
and all the best forces of the Imperialists beyond the Yellow
River, while they were extending and consolidating their
power in the valley of the Great River; then their tactics
were attended with great success. For at the very time when
T had the conversation with the Commandant of.Chin keang
just alluded to, I saw a corps of the Imperialists, which had
till then been assisting in the siege of that city, hurried away
from before it—though untaken—in order to pursue the
Northern Tae ping army; intelligence of whose advance to
the Yellow River had just arrived. From that time up to
the most recent dates, the Imperialist Provincial Authorities,

xem
182 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS,

in the middle and south of China, have been abandoned to
their own resources: no aid, whether in men or money, has
been furnished by the Supreme Government. The conse-
quence has been that the Tae pings have had for some two
years an almost complete command of the Great River from
Chin keang on the east to Yo chow on the west, together
with the country on each bank, extending from 50 to 100
miles inland, and further inclusive of the two large lakes,
Tung ting and Po yang, with their shores and navigable
feeders. The colouring on the Map of China Proper will
give the reader a tolerably accurate idea of the extent of
country they have commanded. I say “ commanded,” for
though they appear to have taken every city within the terri-
tory indicated that they tried to take—the important cities
of Nan chang, Chang sha, and King chow excepted—many
of the lesser district cities were scarcely worthy of a visit
under present circumstances ; while only the more important
places could be permanently occupied. The following dates
and details close my narrative of the military proceedings of
the Tae pings.

As already stated, a Tae ping army was despatched soon
after the occupation of Nanking up the course of the Great
River and into the Po yang lake, on the southern shore of
which is situated Nan chang, the capital of Keang se. This
the Tae pings began to besiege about the end of June, 1853,
but, being unsuccessful in their first attacks and the Impe-
rialists having collected a force (a portion of which was drawn
Jrom their army lying in the vicinity of Nanking) which in its
turn assailed them, they raised the siege on the 24th Sep-
tember. But while there, they detached forces westward to
the departmental city of Suy chow and southward to the
district city of Fung ching; both of which they took in the
beginning of August. They soon evacuated these cities, but
only, as the Gazettes admitted, after their object of collecting
provisions had been attained. The Imperialist authorities in
Shanghae told me at the time, that it was plain from the pro-
LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 183

ceedings of this particular Tae ping force, that the main pur-
pose of its irruption into Keang se was the collection of rice
and of whatever money or other thing’ of value it could cap-
ture; and that it had no intention of holding the places it en-
tered. All cities near the shores of the Po yang Lake, or on the
rivers that fall into it, would seem to have been visited in this
manner. Thus about the 16th September the departmental
city of Jaou chow and the district city of Lo ping, both situ-
ated on the east of the Lake, were taken by a squadron, but
evacuated almost immediately. The whole of the north of
Keang se is mentioned as being commanded by the “ rebels ”
in March, 1854, and soit appears to have remained ever since.
Nan chang, the provincial capital, has however not been taken
by the Tae pings.

In the spring of 1854 we find the Tae pings had taken
Yo chow and appeared in force on the Tung ting Lake.
They had penetrated a considerable distance up the Seang,
where they re-entered the district city of Seang yin, one
of the places occupied by them on their way down from
Kwang se about a year before. They even extended their
operations beyond the provincial capital, Chang sha; having
taken the district cities of Seang tan and Le ling, both lying
southwards from that place. Onthe 11th June they took the
departmental city of Chang tih, and on the 13th the district
city of Taou yuen, both situated on the Yuen, an important
south-westerly feeder of the Tung ting Lake. On the Ta
keang, the Great River itself, they attempted the depart-
mental city of King chow, which is of importance as being
situated at a point on the stream which commands access by
it to the west of China Proper. It is therefore held by a
Manchoo garrison. They did not take this city, but they
passed it and took the departmental city of Ei chang situated
about 100 miles further up the river. This was the extreme
western point to which their operations extended.

Their main force in that quarter laid siege to Woo chang,
the capital of Hoo pih, in the end of April, and, after a siege
of eighty days, took it on the 26th June. This provincial
184 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
@

capital, with the two cities of Han yang and Han kow lying
opposite it on the Great River (and which were also taken)
constitutes the most important internal mart in China. Ina
note at page 11, it has been shown that the population of
the three places cannot be taken at less than three to four
millions. The Emperor ordered the immediate decapitation
of the Governor of the Province, who had escaped to Chang
sha, where he was accordingly seized and beheaded. There
had been many Imperial condemnations to death before, but
since the outbreak of the rebellion this was the first occasion
of an officer, so high in rank, actually suffering capital
punishment on account of failure—a circumstance which
proves the great value set on the places lost.

On the 13th and 14th of October the Tae pings withdrew,
after a three months’ occupation, from these cities of Han
yang, Han kow and Woo chang; and about the same period
from a number of the surrounding district cities that had
been in their possession, and retired down the Great River
again, in the direction of Nanking. As nearly all the cities
visited by them on the occasion of this move into Hoo pih
and Hoonan are situated on various affluents of the Great
River, it is probable that their purpose was here also, as in
Keang se, to collect supplies; which could then be conveyed
with much facility down-stream to Nanking. The Im-
perialist Commanders who dogged them out of the province
reported, as is usual with them under such circumstances,
victory after victory, on re-occupying the evacuated cities;
and about the end of 1854 they were enabled to announce
the clearance of the two provinces. But at the very time
that this satisfactory intelligence reached the Emperor, the
Tae pings again moved into Hoo pih in great force ; occupied
Han kow on the 20th February, 1855, and about a month
later took Woo chang for the third time. The Imperial
Governor General fell when the city was stormed. This is
our latest authentic intelligence of the doings of the Tae
pings in the West of China.

With respect to the. centre of their position, they still
LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 185

hold, on the northern front, Loo chow; while on the south
they command the Po yang Lake. On the east they have
attempted no advance since April, 1853, contenting them-
selves with simply holding the very important military
position of Chin keang and Kwa chow, situated on the
Great River where it intersects the Grand Canal. But the
mails which left China in September last have brought a
report of considerable interest, viz.: that the Tae ping
Eastern Prince at the head of an army of 60,000 men was
advancing on the departmental city of Hwuy chow, situated
on the Sin gan, an affluent of the Tseen tang, at the mouth
of which lies the famous and important city of Hang chow,
the provincial capital of Che keang. If the report respecting
this march on the part of the Eastern Prince be correct, the
most obvious inference is that the Tae pings intend to
attempt a descent on Hang chow, for the purpose of open-
ing a communication with the sea without necessarily coming
into collision with Occidental nations. For, as the reader
will see from the ensuing chapters, while the international
representatives of Occidental states have paid a few visits of
enquiry to Nanking, and there announced a strict neutrality
as to the contending parties in China, a number of the pri-
vate ships and subjects of these States were from the first
engaged in obstructing the advance of the Tae pings east-
ward by the Great River, and have since been lending
material assistance to the Imperialist besieging and block-
ading forces at Chin keang and Kwa chow.

In the articles on the Tae pings and their then probable
future which I contributed to the “ North China Herald” in
May, 1853, after our return from our visit of enquiry in the
Hermes, I was obliged to devote a portion of my space to the
refutation of the erroneous notions which were being propa-
gated by some of our party, who, forming their judgments of
the rebels mainly from the irregular dresses worn by the mass
of these campaigners, and their somewhat wild looking long
hair, pronounced the whole body to be “low blackguards,”

5
186 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION.

‘a set of damned ruffians,” &c. &c. Among other things they
maintained that as the Tae pings were, when we left them,
being gradually invested at Nanking and Chin keang by the
gathering forces of the Imperialists, so they would certainly
be there finally shut up and exterminated. After a short
notice of their rise and extraordinary progress, I took occa-
sion to oppose that opinion as follows:

‘Is it in accordance with experience or common sense to
assume that men of courage and noble ambition, such as they
have proved themselves to be, will, after the wondrous
success that has attended their efforts, now fold their hands
and submit to be extinguished—snuffed out as it were—in
the commanding military position their swords have won
them? We have again left ourselves no space to give such
few details as the Hermes could learn of their numbers, present
position, &c. Suffice it to say that when she left they were
diligently employed in strengthening the defences of the
cities they hold. That work finished, they are not likely to
sit down idle.”

At the very time when these words were being written
and published at Shanghae, a large Tae ping naval force had
started for the West to collect supplies; while their Northern
Army was marching from Nanking on its bold and perse-
vering attempt to force its way to the stronghold of its
adversaries.

When describing, in the articles mentioned, the then Tae
ping position at Nanking, Chin keang, Kwa chow, and Yang
chow, I stated:

“Yang chow lies on the Grand Canal about six or eight
miles inland north of Kwa chow. As one of the richest cities
in central China and lying at so short a distance from Kwa
chow, it was of importance to the Insurgents to expel the
Imperialists and possess themselves of it; but the strength
of their position in a simply military point of view would not
seem to be increased by continuing to hold it, since it is
necessary to detach a considerable force for that purpose,
LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 187

while the communication by the Canal would be equally as
much in their power were they to confine themselves to the
occupation of Kwa chow alone.”

Seven months after that passage was written, the Tae pings
(in December, 1853) did execute the very strategical operation
therein indicated as expedient: they withdrew their garrison
from Yang chow, and have since held Kwa chow only on
that side of the river.

While estimating the power of the Manchoo dynasty to
withstand the Tae pings, I wrote:

“As to Tartar Chieftains moving down with their people
at their own cost, as we have seen it somewhere stated certain
of them had offered to do, we can perfectly comprehend why
the Emperor had, as was also stated, declined the offer. It
could only have emanated from some of the hereditary Mongol
Princes of whom no one knows better than the Manchoo
Court that they have never forgotten their descent from
Genghis Khan and his associates, the former rulers, not of
China merely, but of all Asia and the east of Europe. They
have always been objects of apprehension and jealousy to the
reigning dynasty. It is by no means improbable that they
and their followers, bred in the saddle and accustomed to the
hardy life of nomadic herdsmen in sterile regions, would, if
now brought in, be able to hold all that portion of China,
north of the Yellow River, for years against a dynasty esta-
blished in the south: but it is equally probable that they
would hold it for themselves, not for the Manchoo Sovereign.
As to the low, canal-intersected country, south of the Yellow
River, these horsemen, to whom a boat must be somewhat of
a curiosity, would there have small chance of coping with the
Kwang tung leaders and their army, men familiar with in-
ternal navigation from childhood and now inured to the
hardships and dangers of war.”

Subsequent events have proved that in the above sentences,
I very correctly appreciated the difficulties the Tae pings
had to encounter. The jealousy of the Emperor did make
188 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

him guard so carefully against the danger I have indicated,
that, even when the Tae ping Northern Army was making
most alarming progress, he refrained from bringing within the
Great Wall more than two Mongol princes, with 4,500 fol-
lowers. But these, with the still wild Tartars of his own
race, whom the Emperor brought down from old Manchooria,
and from the Amour Valley, were sufficient to contend suc-
cessfully with the Tae pings on the “north of the Yellow
River.” They have, as the narrative has just shown us,
expelled the remnants of two Tae ping armies from “that
portion of China,” after an obstinate struggle of two years’
duration.

The valley of the Great River has now again become the
exclusive scene of the war; and on a much more extensive
scale than when the Tae pings first fought their way through
it to Nanking. The Tartar horsemen will assuredly do as
little there as I, in 1850, anticipated; but the Imperialist
Chinese mandarins, especially those who are natives of the
South Eastern Coastland, have been straining eyery nerve
to bring up semi-piratical bodies of their seafaring com-
patriots against the Tae pings. At the end of a five years’
ceaseless fight, these have still before them the same life and
death struggle. Eighteen hundred and fifty-six will be a
memorable historical year. For in the Far East and in the
Near East it will see hundreds of thousands of men engaged
in deadly strife for the highest earthly prizes.

I must. now crave the indulgence of the reader while
I make, for his sake as well as my own, an explanation of a
somewhat personal nature.

I have in the last three pages and in several other parts
of this volume taken pains to show that I had foreseen and
distinctly foretold grave coming events; or that I had been
the first to recommend measures subsequently recognised as
important and much wanted. Thus I have shown in
Chapter ITI. of the Essay on Civilization that, nine years
LATEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE TAE PINGS. 189

ago, when I wrote my work “ Desultory Notes on China,”
one of its main objects was to insist on the advisability of
establishing in the British Empire a system of Competitive
Examinations for the Public Service, in order to enable it to
withstand coming aggressions of Russia and America. The
war with Russia, the frequently inimical attitude of America,
and public service competitive examinations, are now the
three subjects of deepest interest to England.

Again, I have shown at pages 121, 122, by an extract
from the same book, and by another from a private letter,
that I foresaw the advent of rebellions and dynastic civil
wars in China long before they actually broke out. I did
not write in one part of the book in such style as might seem
to intimate that rebellion was approaching; and in another
part rather to the effect that the existing dynasty was after
all strong and that serious rebellion could not well ensue ; in
order that I might subsequently endeavour to prove myself
a prophet by pointing to that set of oracular speculations
which fitted the event. I announced rebellion only ; in the
book—written four years before the event—I stated causes,
and said “nothing was more likely” to ensue; in the letter
—written a year before the event—I stated that we were
then actually “entering on” the first phase.

I have no intention of attempting to conceal the fact that
it affords me considerable gratification to be able to establish
these and other instances of political foresight by documentary
evidence. I have, as an international agent by profession
for some twelve years, devoted my attention to Chinese
and Anglo-Chinese practical politics and to the correspond-
ing theoretical studies ; and it is naturally very gratifying to
me to find that that special application of my powers, for so
long a period, has not been fruitless. But I should be alto-
gether inexcusable if I had no other object than self-gratu-
lation and glorification in occupying the time of the reader.
The following is my justification for so doing. The erroneous
conclusions arrived at by intellects of the first order has
190 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

proved to me, that the public in the West has not yet the
data necessary to the formation of independent judgments
on Chinese and (therefore) Anglo-Chinese affairs. And
many men of practical sagacity at home must, I think, have
felt the necessity of being guided here, more than in most
cases, by the weight of authority rather than by the force
of detailed arguments, the value of which they have not the
means of estimating. Now the man who distinctly foretells
what things will be, gives the best evidence that he knows
what things are; in other words: Prescience is the strongest
proof of true Science. The reader can now perceive my
object. As an international agent by profession, I cannot
help taking that interest in my business, which is a charac-
teristic of professional men generally. I am influenced by a
strong desire to prevent our following an unsound inter-
national policy in China, and to forward our national inte-
rests by preserving right relations between the British and
Chinese peoples. And hence in pointing in this volume to
instances of political foresight, [am but the political meteor-
ologist who, when anxious to gain attention to his opinions
on the present state of the political atmosphere and the
measures which it demands, points to the fact, that he has
in former cases succeeded in foretelling coming convulsions
of the political elements.
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS, 191

CHAPTER XV.

STATE OF THE SEA-BOARD POPULATIONS AT THE MOUTH
OF THE GREAT RIVER, ON THE APPROACH OF THE TAE
PINGS.

I wave, in the last chapter, shown that I had perceived the
approach of dynastic civil war in China, four years before
it broke out; and that about a year before it did actually
break out as such, I had marked the positive precursory
movements in the provinces to the south of the often-named
great watershed. Neither I, however, nor any other foreigner
—nnissionaries as little as laymen—could have anticipated, or
did anticipate, that it would be a body of Chinese Christians
who would first raise the standard of a dangerous rebellion,
and fight as well for the propagation of their faith as for the
expulsion of the Manchoos. But what none could have
inferred, one missionary learnt from direct positive intelli-
gence. In April, 1852, Hung jin, a relative of Hung sew
tseuen, fled from the search of the mandarins to our British
colony of Hong Kong; was there introduced to Mr. Hamberg;
and gave him some papers respecting Hung sew tseuen, and
the origin of the rebellion in Kwang se, which two years
later formed the basis of Mr. Hamberg’s little book. These
papers Mr. Hamberg showed in October, 1852, to Mr.
Roberts, who sent a summary of their contents to a London
periodical, “The Chinese and General Missionary Gleaner,”
which published it in February, 1853. It was with Mr.
Roberts that Hung sew tseuen himself had studied for two
months in the summer of 1847, as stated at page 87; and
192 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Mr. Roberts in his summary gave by way of corroboration
what he remembered of that circumstance :—

“Some time in 1846, or the year following, two 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 two months
or more, during which time he studied the Scriptures and
received instruction, and maintained a blameless deport-
ment. 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 the book of which _
his friend speaks in his narrative; of his being taken sick,
during which 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 read in the book. And he told 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 exten-
sive knowledge of the Scriptures, He requested to be bap-
tized, but left for Kwang se before we were fully satisfied of
his fitness; but what had become of him I knew not until
now. Description of the man :—He is a man of ordinary
appearance, about five feet four or five inches high; well
built, round faced, regular featured, rather handsome, about
middle age, and gentlemanly in his manners.”—The Chinese
and General Missionary Gleaner. London, February, 1853.

With the exception of this passage, Mr. Roberts’ summary
has, as an account of Hung sew tseuen and his proceedings,
been completely superseded by the fuller information given
in Mr, Hamberg’s book; but its publication in the above-
named number of the “Gleaner” is invaluable, as proving
beyond all question that the narrative of Hung jin was in no
respect a fabrication concocted by him from reports of what we
learnt in April, 1853, by the visit of the Hermes to Nanking.

In December, 1851“some months before the above direct
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 193

positive information respecting the origin and the religious
features of the rebellion were communicated to Mr. Hamberg
at Hong Kong, I had left the south of China for Shanghae.
Before doing so, I had been in the habit of sending
in to Her Majesty’s Plenipotentiary monthly reports of the
military progress of the rebellion in Kwang se. This work
T however gave up on removing to Shanghae, at the mouth of
the Great River, where it was no longer my province to keep
watch over the political movement in Southern China. But
when the rebels crossed, in J une, 1852, the southern watershed
into the valley of the Great River, it again became my duty
to note their progress, and I accordingly commenced my
periodical reports. But my knowledge of the Chinese mind,
joined to the dejected admissions that Protestant missionaries
of many years’ standing occasionally made of the fruitless-
ness of their labours, had convinced me that’ Christianity, as
hardened into our sectarian creeds, could not possibly find
converts among the Chinese, except here and there perhaps
an isolated individual. Consequently when it was once or
twice rumoured that the large body of men who were setting
Imperial armies at defiance “ were Christians,” I refused to
give the rumour credence. It did not occur to me that the Chi-
nese convert, through some tracts of a Chinese convert, might
either fail to see, or (if he saw them) might spontaneously
eliminate the dogmas and congealed forms of merely sectarian
Christianity, and then by preaching simply the great religious
truth of a One God, and the pure morality of Christ’s Sermon
on the Mount, obtain numbers of followers among people
disgusted with the idolatry and the immorality that they and
those around them were engulfed in. As we have seen above,
this was actually the case with Hung sew tseuen. ‘The same
incredulity that I entertained characterised the foreign commu-
nities generally. Viewing the small success—the almost
no-success—of adult proselytism, in spite of the ten yéars’
efforts of the missionaries under their eyes, at and near the
Five Ports, they could not credit the few vague and confused
0
194 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

reports that did reach us to the effect, that the army of
rebels were Christian converts. ‘These few reports appeared
at intervals in the columns of a Hong Kong journal, “The
Friend of China.” They were, as the sequel proved, sub-
stantially correct; and to the editor of that journal belongs
the credit of having first obtained and promulgated them.
But unfortunately he had at his command no one sufficiently
acquainted with the Chinese language, institutions, &c. to be
able rightly to appreciate, and to put into an authoritative
shape the undoubtedly valuable intelligence he succeeded in
obtaining through native agents. Hence the vagueness and
confusion alluded to.

In stating the above particulars, my object has been to lead
the reader to understand and to picture to himself the fact,
that until after the rebels had taken Nanking, the circum-
stance of the movement having been originated and guided
by a sect of native Christians was practically unknown to the
foreigners at the Five Ports. We marked the progress of
the rebels as exhibited in the admissions of the Peking
Gazette, for more than two years; and we saw large bodies
of troops despatched to act against them ; but of that peculiar
feature which has given the movement its deepest interest for
the Occident, we remained ignorant. The mandarins told us
nothing ; they were, of course, only anxious to keep from our
knowledge what they might naturally conclude would have
excited our sympathies,

The Intendant of the Soo sung tae Circuit, whose station
is Shanghae, and who is the Authority with whom the
Foreign Consuls there deal in all international affairs, was
at the time when the Tae pings first descended on Nanking,
a native of Canton, named Woo. He was an example of
that abnormal class of mandarins whom the Imperial
Government, constrained by financial difficulties, had re-
cently admitted in large numbers: he had purchased all the
official steps up to the Intendancy. He had not passed even
the lowest of the Public Service Examinations; had little or
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 195

no acquaintance with the national political literature; and
could not even speak intelligibly the mandarin Chinese, i.e.
the Chinese as pronounced by the higher classes, and which
is in so far equivalent to the English of educated Londoners
or the Parisian French. He had however a special acquire-
ment which put him out of the class of mere commission
buyers: he could speak the broken English which I have
noticed at page 56. And having commenced life and made
his money as one of the class of brokers there mentioned, he
was supposed to be specially fitted to deal with the trading
barbarians. I believe there is no other mandarin in the
Imperial service—there is certainly no other mandarin of the
rank of Intendant—who can converse, however imperfectly,
in an Occidental language.

As the rebels descended the Great River, this Intendant,
Woo, showed a commendable zeal in his Imperial Master’s
behalf, by fitting out at Shanghae and despatching to Nanking
some score of vessels of southern pirate-build and rig, each
well armed with six or eight foreign guns, and manned by
crews of his compatriots, coastlanders of Kwang tung. These,
as low sea-going vessels with flush decks, were much better
fitted for fighting and for manceuvering in the broad stream of
the lower portions of the Great River than the high, clumsily-
decked but smalier merchant craft which the Tae pings had
collected on its upper affluents and were employing to convey
them down-stream. Nevertheless, the numbers of the latter
enabled them to drive the Intendant’s Kwang tung squadron
before them, when they met some days’ sail above Nanking.
When this intelligence reached him, he was at length com-
pelled to apply for the aid of foreigners; but as he could not
commit his Government to the step of inviting the assistance
of a foreign State as an ally, he, in the first instance, proposed
to Mr. Consul Alcock to hire the vessel on the station,
H.M.’s sloop Lily. Having been informed that such a pro-
posal could not even be communicated to her Commander,
the increasing imminency of the danger to Nanking squeezed

02
196 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e
out of him a formal despatch requesting that her services

might be dent to him. Capt. Sanderson declined acceding to
the request. This was a wise course in a political point of
view, though he was careful to base his refusal on the purely
professional ground of the inadequacy of so small a vessel as a
sixteen-gun brig—a sailing vessel—to operate with effect in
the rapid currents of the Great River against the hundreds of
rebel craft which the Intendant spoke of. The Intendant then
begged that letters might be sent to Hong Kong for war
steamers; and in the meantime he, with the mandarins at
Ningpo, succeeded in hiring, and despatched up the Great
River, thirteen Macao Portuguese lorchas, vessels such as
those fitted out by Intendant Woo himself, but larger,
with more of the foreign buildin them, and manned by Macao
Portuguese, to certain of whom they belonged. On the
21st March Sir George Bonham arrived at Shanghae in the
Hermes, which was accompanied by the Salamander, both
war steamers; whereon Intendant Woo renewed his applica-
tions for assistance by word and by letter, and in his own
name as well as on the part of his superior, the Governor of
Keang soo. While this was going on it began to be rumoured
that Nanking had fallen; and at length, on the 5th of April,
I received a letter from an agent that I had despatched up the
country, not only corroborating the rumours as to Nanking,
but giving us the first intelligence of the fall of Chin heang;
from which to Shanghae there is a direct water communica-
tion as well by the Grand Canal as by the Great River—by
the “inner river” and the “outer river.”” The population of
the four large intermediate cities, as also that of Shanghae
now began to fly, carrying with them such of their household
effects as they could remove at a time when every conveyance
was taken up; and the foreign residents began to take steps
for enrolling themselves into a volunteer corps, and for
throwing up field works, batteries, &c., around their
settlements.

The tract of country which was the scene of this panic and
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 197

preparation is one of the most remarkable in the world. From
Hang chow on the north bank of the Tseen tang, and Cha
poo on the northern shore of its estuary, the Hang chow bay,
northward to Hwae gan on the south side of the Yellow
River, the whole country is a vast alluvial flat extending
along the sea for some 300 miles, and inland to the distance
of 100 to 120 miles. Through the length of this alluvial
plain, but nearer its inland than its seaboard edge, runs the
southern portion of the celebrated Grand Canal; while it is
crossed at about its middle by the Great River. It has in
fact been formed in the course of long ages by the deposits
of the Great River—the third in the world—and those of its
sister stream the Yellow River. The yellow waters of both
continue to this day to form a land which is gradually banking
its way into the sea. The large island of Tsung ming,
now a well cultivated and populous district, was originally
nothing but a mud bank; and there is not a stone upon it
which has not been carried thither. Twelve years ago, there
was in the Great River, off the mouth of its Shanghae
affluent, a low bank which the tides then regularly concealed
from the view of the newly-arrived foreign community. It
is now cultivated, and has houses on it, with people con-
stantly living in them. The whole of this alluvial plain,
which has now the extent of the kingdom of Portugal, was
formerly sea, sparingly studded with islands, either standing
isolated like that called Gutzlaff, now at the mouth of the
Great River, or in groups, like the Rugged Islands and
others further south. As the land advanced eastward, what
were formerly islands in the sea became hills in the plain.
The isolated picturesque Kwan shan which stands on the
way from Shanghae to Soo chow, within the walls of the
district city to which it gives its name, was formerly a Gutz-
laff; and “the Hills” which one can discern from the British
church steeple at Shanghae were a group of Ruggeds. But
these hills are few and widely separated, the character of the
whole tract indicated being essentially that of an alluvial
198 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

plain, which is seldom more than two or three yards above
spring tides, and is in many places below them. Besides
being traversed by the Grand Canal and crossed by the
Great River, this alluvial plain is intersected by a thick
network of water communications, which can neither be
called rivers nor canals. They are the channels which, as
the mud flats were reclaimed from the sea in past ages,
were specially kept open to allow the rain water that fell
farther inland a free passage outward, as also for the purposes
of irrigation and easy water communication. As they
approach the sea the rapid tidal currents impart to them the
appearance of rivers, while farther inland their sluggish flow
and artificially maintained banks give them the look of canals.
The alluvial plain is bounded, as said, by the Yellow River
on the north and Hang chow bay on the south; but it belongs
essentially to the Great River, with which the system of
water communication just described is directly and freely
connected at many points. The Yellow River, which lies
higher and hence causes devastating inundations when it
bursts its banks, is separated from this water system by dams
and sluices; while, at its southern extremity, Hang chow
bay is separated from it by a bank that runs from the city of
Hang chow down past Cha poo to the mouth of the Great
River. The rain which falls at Cha poo does not run into
the Bay at hand, but flows by a navigable canal-river west-
ward, past Shanghae, into the estuary of the Great River.
The reader will now understand that a boat may start from
Shanghae and visit the whole of this alluvial plain, in size
equal to Portugal, crossing and recrossing the Grand Canal
from east to west, and the Great River from north to south,
each at many different points, without ever being impeded
by locks or dams, or even without its being absolutely neces-
sary that the crew should land if they have any object in
keeping close to their vessel.*

* See Essay on Civilization, Chapter IIL., for some further description of the
alluvial plain; which in its greatest extent may be said to consist of the whole
province of Keang soo, with the northern angle of Che keang.
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 199

When at Canton, I had an excursion-boat in which I used
to explore the numerous intersecting river passages in the
Delta around that city. Apart from the personal gratification
which it afforded me to see, and know the nature.of the sur-
rounding country, I, as already shewn, felt convinced that
troublous times were coming, when knowledge of the various
river branches would be valuable in a public point of view.
It so happened that I left Canton before the expected
troubles reached the place. But as soon as I had established
myself at Shanghae, I set about the fitting up of a boat,
suitable for the somewhat different inland navigation there.
At Canton the hostility of the people to foreigners—a hos-
tility the fruit of some two centuries of mutual under-estima-
tion, prejudice and rows, recently ripened in their minds by
a conviction that we intended seizing their country,—this
hostility was so great, that I and my brother, who usually
accompanied me, could rarely land except (well armed) at
the foot of some hill, by ascending the ridge of which we
attained our object of seeing the country, while keeping our
boat and the way of retreat to it in view. By this means we
however did manage to see in the course of two or three
years a good deal of the surrounding country.* But the risk

* Only one other foreigner, Dr. Ball, an American Medical Missionary, saw
as much—or perhaps more. He effected his object partly by prescribing for
diseases, but more by purely moral agencies. His “ammunition,” as he called
it, consisted of tracts which many of the rustics were curious to read as exposi-
tions of doctrine, and which nearly all of them were glad to get for the sake of
the comparative Chinese and Foreign Almanack of the current year that Dr.
Ball wisely appended to most. I accompanied him once or twice, and he would
not even permit me to take even a walking-stick—on the contrary I was armed
with some of his ammunition. We were usually mobbed, and that by stalwart,
sun-burnt rustics armed with agricultural implements really formidable as
weapons of offence; but they formed curious and amused mobs whose only
object was to get from us all our “ammunition.” When Dr. Ball visited a new
locality, the following process usually occurred. So soon as he was perceived
approaching a village, the inhabitants would be summoned out and would
approach him with really hostile intentions—sometimes they actually began
pelting him with stones. He immediately discharged at the top of his voice

the pacificatory moral-agency shot that he had merely come to give them good
books, and that if they did not want him to enter their village or walk in their
200 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

was considerable; six of our mercantile countrymen who
landed only a few miles above Canton, without taking the
precautions we always took, had their retreat cut off and
were killed; many others have sustained grave injury; and
though we ourselves did avoid actual collision, we were more
than once on the very point of a most unequal fight; so that
three well-paid crews—fifteen men—left me in succession
rather than expose themselves to the constantly threatening
danger. But at Shanghae and Ningpo, the English have
only been known for twelve years, and from the first known
either as irresistible fighters, or as wealthy merchants, whose
presence was giving a great impetus to production and com-
merce. There we are, if not liked, at least feared; and
until the disturbances of the last two years, the assemblage
of troops, &c., engendered a somewhat different spirit and
brought many bad characters to the neighbourhood, foreigners
could, unarmed, make excursions in any direction with the
most perfect safety so long as they avoided very large cities,
and the somewhat independent fellows from the mountainous
province of Shantung, who lead the migratory life of navi-
gating the Imperial Grain Junks to and from Peking on the
Grand Canal. Let the reader add to this safety—which

fields he would of course go back to his boat again and leave. This mental
shot always told with effect on the reasoning Chinese, and silenced their
physical artillery of stones. They saw a comprehensible object for his coming,
which was not that of spying the land in order to seize it; and his readiness to
yield to “min tsing, the feelings of the people,” operated on their good
nature. So far as I remember he told me that the invariable result of these
encounters was his being invited into their villages and homes. The western
foreigner who hears of the Cantonese murders and murderous assaults—those
in the text not less than others—committed not by robbers but by the country
population, must bear in mind the above; which is literal and sober fact. I have
dwelt much on the ¢urbulent character of the South Eastern Coastlanders.
But it must be remembered that their turbulence is merely relative, as com-
pared with the extremely quiet disposition of the inhabitants of central China.
While they are undoubtedly energetic and persevering, they must not for a
moment be pictured as resembling, in riotous disposition, the uncultivated
Irishman. At bottom they too possess the national character of indisposition
to violence as a means of dealing with other men. For several reasons my
brother and J could not adopt Dr, Ball’s procedure.
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 201

might be called perfect when one thinks of our highway
murders and robberies—the presence of fine pheasants in
abundance in the cotton-fields, and of wild-fowl of many
varieties and in great quantity on the waters, together with
the absence of game and preserve laws; and he will at once
get view of an important feature of foreign life at Ningpo
and Shanghae, and at the same time understand why I on
being stationed in that quarter, immediately set about the
fitting up of an excursion and shooting boat.

While there is a certain generic resemblance in all the
boats that are employed on the river passages of the great
alluvial plain, there are numberless varieties formed by
differences in the deck, cabins, masts and sails. When the
opium trade extended to the north, the inland smugglers
naturally selected the quickest; and J as naturally followed
their example when selecting a craft for an excursion boat ;
the kind chosen being, the reader must remember, still far
more largely used for legitimate than for illicit traffic. With
a view to quicker movement with an equal crew, I de-
termined it should be as small as possible, provided that it
gave sufficient accommodation to myself and servants, with
my traps, dogs, &c. A small boat had the further very im-
portant recommendation that it could pass through compara-
tively narrow and shallow river passages, and under low
bridges — things which my preparatory questioning of old
shooters taught me had often stopped their roomier craft.
All boats throughout that extensive river system are pro-
pelled, the large ones by two or more sculls, the small ones
by one scull. The sculls have very broad blades with pecu-
liarly formed long handles, balanced (by means of a hole
about midway between blade and grip) on a short, round-
headed iron bolt. The men work them standing, stepping
forward with a push and throwing themselves back with a
pull; thus making the blade perform wide sweeps from side
to side in the water, like the broad tail of an enormous fish.
There is a natural beauty in the motion, for, when following
202 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

close after a large boat in clear water, I could sit for minutes
watching the sweeps of the scull blades as one might watch
waves surging regularly over rocks. The rate at which one
such scull, worked by two men only, will propel a heavy
boat would surprise the home-reader. One scull in a boat
gives it a regular but very strong oscillatory motion, render-
ing most kinds of occupations inside impossible. Two sculls
on the other hand, one at each quarter of the little stern
deck, neutralise the oscillating tendency by mutual counter-
action. The opposite scullers keep time, step forward to-
gether till their heads nearly touch, then throw themselves
back till their bodies hang well over the two sides, the boat
is sent forward with great force and perfect steadiness; and
you inside the cabin, if at your dinner can fill your glass to the
rim, or if you have pen in hand can look quietly at the cabin
roof for your idea, or if in bed can fall off to sleep, your
person being in each case quite unshaken, and your mind
rather soothed than otherwise by the regulated thudding
and stamping on the deck behind of the scullers’ bare feet,
whose movements are—to conclude this long sentence with
a little poetic effusion—oft accompanied by the low and wild
but simple chant of the celestial boatmen of the inner
waters, i.e. by a really not unmusical kind of song that
they hum away at in order to keep up the steam for their
rather hard work. I had six men, four of whom sculled
while two rested.

My boat, I describe from memory and cannot therefore
give quite exact dimensions, but the boating and yachting
reader will be able to form a tolerably good idea of her
appearance and accommodations from the following; in
which he must however supply the word about before all the
figures. She was thirty-five feet long, with a moveable deck
(or deck planking) all over at two feet above the water-line.
Where deepest she drew twelve or fifteen inches. In the
transverse section her bottom was flat elliptical. She was
deepest and broadest at twelve feet from the stern, where she
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 203

measured seven and a half feet across at the level of the deck
and six and a half on the bottom. Eight feet further for-
ward, the breadth was reduced to seven feet at deck and six
feet at bottom. This broadest portion of eight feet of the
hold was divided as a separate compartment from the por-
tions forward and aft by two strong hard wood, water-tight
partitions; and had a wooden house built over it. From
deck to the roof of this house (which was, like the boat’s bot-
tom, flat elliptical) the height was four feet; and here when
the boat was in native hands the crew or chance passengers
would sit or lie on their bedding, while opium or other valu-
able cargo was stowed away in the water-tight compartment
underneath them. But I immediately discarded the deck
planking, put in a flooring a few inches above the bottom, and
thus got a cabin eight feet long, about six and a half high, and
averaging six and a quarter in breadth. This, I may tell the
untravelled reader, is much more than a lieutenant of a man-
of-war gets for himself and adi his outfit during his three
years’ commission ; and is a space which a steam-boat com-
pany will mercilessly compel ¢hree first class passengers to
sleep and dress in, during a twelve days’ voyage within the
tropics. I bought a boat nearly new, but still one which
had been some time engaged in the smuggling traffic, which
was the best guarantee of efficiency. I had the moveable
panels of wood, reaching from the fore-deck to the roof of
the cabin and constituting its front entrance, entirely replaced
by small-paned glass sliding panels, which thus formed at
once a spacious window and a nearly air-tight door. This
very occidental-looking window-door I could, as the reader
will hereafter learn, easily conceal from view when I wished,
and as it rendered all side-windows unnecessary I was thus
enabled to seclude the interior arrangements entirely from
persons outside; while I was careful in refitting the boat to
conserve her external appearance of a well-found native craft.
This I did for the express purpose of travelling unnoticed
throughout the alluvial plain I have described. Were I a
204 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELJJONS.

foot shorter in person than I am, I could, by hiding my deep-
set occidental eyes under a pair of the broad-rimmed Chinese
spectacles, travel openly all over China with small risk of
detection. But my length of six feet one inch, which is not
common among ourselves, approaches the gigantic among the
shorter Chinese race ; it immediately attracts general attention,
and then the deep-set eyes, the beard however closely shaven,
and even the short hair on the hands and wrists, are all
marks that unfailingly lead to detection. By adopting the
Chinese tail and dress, and using a boat containing nothing
foreign whatever, not even a penknife, I could, by shamming
sick and keeping a sitting or lying posture when the internal
Customs’ examination were being made, travel through the
country after the fashion of the Catholic priests; but that
mode implies a considerable amount of privation ; and as the
Customs’ examinations are not many, I hoped to be able to
effect my purposes by fitting my boat up internally as com-
fortably as possible for an Englishman, externally as an
ordinary Chinese boat, of the same class.

The fore-deck narrowed from its breadth of seven feet at
front of the cabin to three feet at the bows; which were square
on deck, though the hull underneath was rounded. For four
feet back from the bows to the hole in which the foremast
was stepped when used, there were no bulwarks, and thus a
space was kept perfectly free, from which the anchor could be
thrown, or a man work with a pole, when there was a crowd
of boats or other danger of collision. But immediately behind
the foremast there was a low wooden door across the deck, from
whence ran on both sides a two feet high bulwark back till it
joined the cabin. At two places in the length of the fore-
deck a light wooden arch could be fitted together, spanning
from bulwark to bulwark, and as the top of the little door in
front was also arch-shaped, the whole of the fore-deck (with
the exception of the little working space at the bows) could
be transformed into a house by drawing over it some strong
double mats, each large enough to reach over the arches from
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE-PINGS. 205

bulwark to bulwark. As the first mat overlapped the roof of
the cabin, was itself overlapped by the second, &c., while each
overlapped the bulwarks, and was tied down to them; a long
low cabin was thus formed, tolerably protected from the wind
and altogether impervious to the rain. These large mats when
not thus employed were conveniently spread over the roof of
the cabin. The mainmast was stepped immediately in front
of the cabin, but when the boat was not under sail both it
and the foremast were slung along the outside of the boat a
little below the level of the deck, one on each side, and both
projecting a foot or so beyond the bows. In this position they
protected the boat in a crush as fenders or buffers; and also
served as a road for the boatmen to get from the stern to the
fore deck, though the roof of the cabin was the usual route.
Immediately behind the cabin compartment, was another
smaller one of three feet, separated from the stern deck by a
partition with a sliding door, just as it was itself separated
from the main cabin. The wooden roof extended over both.
On one side of this small cabin a compact cast-iron boat cook-
ing stove (an English thing) was placed, while the rest of the
space was devoted to my cook. The crew had their cooking
apparatus under the stern deck further aft. The stern deck
which measured some nine feet fore and aft with an average
breadth of six feet, was protected from sun and rain by a rec-
tangular mat raised on wooden posts to the height of about
seven feet above it, and three feet higher than the roof of the
cabin, over which the scullers could thus look when propelling
the boat on her course. At night, when at anchor, the sides
of this space were completely enclosed by additional mats;
and there the crew slept—the head boatman only taking his
bedding to the front and sleeping under the mat-roofed house,
which was at night always put up over the fore-deck. The
fore part of the forehold was fitted up as a snug doghouse,
while the larger after portion was divided into compartments
for stowage of my bundle of blankets, changes of shooting
chaussure, liquors, my moveable table, &c. &c. The chief
206 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

cabin which, as said, was eight feet long by six and a half
high and six and a quarter broad, was fitted up in exact
accordance with a minute plan of my own, by which every
half inch of space was utilized. The two water-tight bulk-
heads, extending from the boat’s bottom to the level of the
deck, I did not alter; and as egress in front was achieved by
stepping up over the fore one, so the communication with the
cook’s place behind was maintained by a two feet broad sliding
door fitted between the aft one and the roof, through which
I myself could manage to pass out, and which was therefore
ample in size for the smaller and more supple Chinamen.
From front to back of the cabin there was down the middle
an open passage of three feet in breadth. In the fore part of
this open space, a firm but easily unshipped table was set up
at meal times, or when I wished to write. It was three feet.
broad by four in length, so that, as club-diners know,.two
people could dine at it vith perfect comfort. Measuring from
the front, the first six and a quarter feet of the cabin on each side
of the middle passage, was a well-cushioned long seat that
at night formed a sleeping berth, one much more convenient
than the passenger of a steamer usually gets. Under each of
these seats were shelves for three gun-cases besides a back
locker and drawers, which gave room for an ample stock of
clothing. The next six inches of the length of the cabin was
devoted to two racks, one on each side, and in each of which
two double barrels and a long duck gun could stand ready for
instant use if an alarm either of wild fowl or wild men were
given. I may be an inch or half-an-inch out in the above
dimensions but hardly more, for, as said, I myself planned all
the cabin arrangements and recollect them still very well.-
Now if the reader will calculate, he will see that there still
remained fifteen inches of the length of the boat (just where
she was broadest) on each side of the three feet middle-
passage. These spaces were devoted to safe, sideboard,
cellar, &c. &c. &e., arranged in the best possible manner—
the heavier articles being at the bottom—as two dozen of

~
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 207

wine and beer in the lowest space on one side, and the piles
of double-bottomed hot-water plates and dishes on the other.
In the open space between these arrangements my body ser-
vant stood when I was dining, separated only from my chef
by the sliding door at his back, with everything so much at
hand that I was in fact more rapidly served by one man there
than by two in my house.

In the two parts of this volume I have touched on
no small variety of subjects. Let me here say a word for
the gourmand: I never in my life ate such delicious pan-
cakes as I got in that boat. Every man of the commonest
sense, and possessing that rudimentary knowledge without
which he is placed beyond the pale of humanity by ceasing
to be truthfully definable as a cooking animal — every
such man is aware that scientifically infused caloric is an
essential element of a true pancake. Now my last cook, who
was two years with me but whose name I never knew, and
my last body servant, who was four years with me and who
was called “ Yang chun, Eternally obedient ”—these two
young men seemed to take a special pleasure in serving me
the pancakes under circumstances so calorific that it was as
much as the skin of my fingers was worth to touch the hot-
water plate on which each thin, delicious, smoking—I had
almost said fizzing—morceau was separately served up. And
as Tate, they kept on preparing and serving, till I was fairly
achieved by a repast of which these pancakes were but one
solitary though most admirable trait. Let the sportsman now
suppose me to have had a satisfactory day’s shooting; let the
gourmand imagine me sitting down hungry to a dinner such
as that just hinted at, with the boat anchored head to wind,
and the sliding doors just opened sufficiently to waft all odours
out aft; let the philosopher then conceive me, my bed having
been arranged, lying down in it with a pair of candles behind
my head, my mind tolerably satisfied with things in general,
and an interesting volume of Chinese or German metaphysics
in my hand; let the dormeur then picture me sinking in due
208 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

time gently into forgetfulness, roused but for a moment by
the light reading just mentioned falling on my nose, laying
the volume aside, extinguishing the candles, and then settling
myself comfortably in the bedding and going off into one of
those luscious sleeps, the beginning of which is like biting
slowly into a mellow peach, and which continue in deepest
unconsciousness for eight hours of unbroken repose; let all
picture this to themselves, and then all—sportsman and gour-
mand, philosopher and dormeur—will give me ready credence
when I say that many of the pleasanter hours of my life were
passed during my shooting excursions on the “inner waters”
of China.

To resume the narrative. When the panic and the terror of
the advancing rebels, mentioned at page 19, as having seized
the populations in and around Shanghae were at their height,
I, on the 7th April, went into the city to communicate to the

Vv Intendant the decision of Sir G. Bonham as to the question
of aid. I was received at the gates of his yamun with the
Chinese salute of three guns, but observed as my sedan was
carried through the outer courts, that they had a deserted
look; and that the Intendant himself while going through
the customary civilities of reception, seemed very downcast.
When we were seated, and I had delivered my message, to
the effect that the British would defend their lives and pro-
perty against all attacks, but that no aid would be given him
in the defence of the city, he looked to the ground fora
while, shaking his head in silence; then casting a glance
around the apartment said quietly, “‘ My domestics are leav-
ing me.” He afterwards asked me what I thought he should
do. I advised him, as a Kwang tung man who could speak
English and, as he himself often mentioned, had begun life
as a merchant, to retire with his family and property to
Hong Kong, where he could, among his own compatriots and
English merchants, occupy himself with trade. The then
panic having passed over, he remained at Shanghae; and after
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 209

running great risks and suffering many indignities, was ulti-
mately deprived of the Intendancy and is, if not a pri-
soner at Peking, now assisting in some subordinate capacity,
in the operations against the Tae pings. Yet he did more to
stop the advance of these latter eastward, than any other
Imperial mandarin. About the time I saw him as above
stated, he was purchasing three or four American and English
merchantmen, which he subsequently despatched to Chin
keang after they had been armed, and had been officered and
manned by English and Americans. In the meantime the
Portuguese lorchas sent up had, on the approach of the Tae
pings to Chin keang, played the part described as follows by
several eye-witnesses—in particular by three mandarin fol-
lowers who viewed the proceedings from the top of the hill
that abuts on the Great River on the north-east of the city,
about midway between Golden and Silver Islands :—

The firing commenced at early dawn. When the spectators
got up to the top of the hill mentioned, they found that the
Portuguese lorchas aided by Intendant Woo’s Kwang tung
vessels were, with the help of a south-east wind, repel-
ling the Tae ping fleet. It was misty at this time. The Tae
ping fleet retired some three or four miles above Golden Island.
At about 10 a.m. the wind changed to the north-east, and
the weather cleared. The Tae pings then hoisted sail and bore
down in full force, with a fair wind and tide. The whole face
of the river was covered with their fleet of up-country craft.
A large red flag was hoisted as the signal to advance, and
when a black flag was hoisted the firing began. Nothing was
then heard but the roar of the guns. As the Tae pings
approached the Imperialist vessels, they discharged numbers
of rockets which set fire to their sails. About this time the
temples on Golden Island were seen to be in flames; and
Intendant Woo’s Kwang tung vessels fled. The Portuguese
lorchas also retired, but kept firing back into the pursuing
fleet. They thus all passed under the hill on which the

P
210 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

narrators were standing. At about 12 o’clock the Lorchas
were as far down as Silver Island, when they also ceased
firing and fled. The Tae pings did not pursue them, but
after setting fire to the temples on Silver Island, returned to
Ching keang and prepared to land; seeing which, the narrators
made off as hard as they could in the direction of Tan yang.
They said that the “ barbarians” in-the Portuguese Lorchas
fought really well, and, before their powder was exhausted,
crippled and sank great. numbers of the Tae ping vessels.
This was‘ the first intercourse of the new Chinese Christians
with the Catholic Christians of the West.

The lorchas retired to a point twelve miles below Chin
keang, where they were joined by the above-noticed Occidental
vessels bought by Intendant Woo, and manned by English
and Americans. When the Hermes passed up toward Nanking
three weeks afterwards, the whole squadron took the oppor-
tunity to follow her to Chin keang and Kwa chow, where
they cannonaded the Tae ping positions, and made prizes of
five or six unarmed junks. That was the first intercourse of
the new Chinese Christians with the Protestant Christians of
the West.

Before describing the Hermes’ visit to Nanking, I shall give,
in the ensuing chapter, an account of the circumstances which
led to it, particularly of an attempt made by me to reach the
rebels by way of the Grand Canal, in the course of which I had
opportunities of observing the state of the country in the in-
terior of China, there where it is thought likely to become
the scene of war, and to mark how the Imperial forces moved
from one position to another. On the 7th April, the inhabi-
tants of Shanghae were as stated seeking safety in the country
from the dangers of the expected attack on that city, and even
the Intendant’s domestics, whose means of information were
good, were deserting him from fear of the advancing rebels.
On the 8th, a paper began to be handed about purporting to
be a copy of a proclamation issued by Lo and Hwang, two
STATE OF SEA-BOARD ON APPROACH OF TAE PINGS. 211

rebel leaders, in which threats were held out against the
foreigners at Shanghae. I was at the time strongly inclined
to believe this a fabrication of the Imperialists or others who
wished to get up an inimical feeling between foreigners and
the rebels. And after we had ascertained the Christianity
of the Tae pings, I had no doubt that, whether fabricated or
genuine, it was purposely played into our hands to prevent
friendly communication between us. Throughout the period
of his attempts to obtain our aid, Intendant Woo gave not \
the slightest hint of the peculiar religious feature of the
rebellious movement, though his own mind must have been
full of it, and though he was well aware we should consider
it a circumstance of much weight. We were still, at the
period I speak of, practically ignorant of it. We were, indeed,
totally without reliable data to guide us as to the intentions —
of the rebels toward foreigners. Hence we were adopting ‘
measures to defend the settlement, so as to be prepared for
every contingency. But the aspect of affairs being such, it
seemed to me highly necessary that some direct communica-
tion should be opened with the rebel chiefs. Without
suspecting what information it was that the mandarins were
withholding, I saw clearly that they were under the influence
of an unusually strong spirit of mystification and reticence ;
and that if the rebels were actually advancing on Shanghae,
we ought to have some speech with them while there was at
least a chance of modifying hostile prepossessions. My offer
to go myself was accepted. My wish was rather to have
proceeded by the Great River, which I had formerly ascended
on exploring excursions—once for some fifty or sixty miles—
and on which I knew I could, if necessary, constrain the boat-
men to take me right up to the walls of Chin keang. On the
Grand CanalI had no power to enforce my wishes, inasmuch
as the boatmen could leave me at any time they pleased by
wading or swimming to the bank; and the panic was so great
that I had no hope that money would induce any of them to
take me within a day’s journey of the rebels. But Sir G.
P 2
212 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

Bonham wished me to proceed by the Canal; and there
was this to be said in favour of the latter route, that if
the rebels were really advancing I could wai¢ till they came
up to me, though deserted by the boatmen; while by the
Great River route I should, if they advanced by way of Soo
chow, miss them altogether. Xs.

I accordingly started on the evening of the 9th April for
Soo chow and the Grand Canal, in my own excursion and
shooting boat.

ae te
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 213

CHAPTER XVI.

EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL TO OBTAIN INFORMATION
RESPECTING THE REBELS.

Tue reader will understand from what has been said above
of the internal navigation, of the boats, and of the physical
disability of height, which rendered it nearly impossible for
me to pass myself as a Chinese in broad daylight on shore;
that it was necessary for me to have an agent with me, of
somewhat higher station and greater information than a
servant, to land and do much for me that I could not do for
myself. The best man I knew at that period, I had (page 196)
already despatched in the direction of the rebels. But having
long felt the practical value of the Chinese political maxim
that the requisite for the efficient despatch of business is able
men, I was careful to keep at all times a list of the ablest I
could get knowledge of, and whose circumstances were such
that it would be in my power to command their services.
It was in the then position of affairs not to be expected that
any orderly living individual would be prepared, at short
notice, to start on an expedition which combined several risks ;
but I sent into the city for a fellow—we will call him Fang—
who as a native of Teen tsin spoke excellent mandarin, had
considerable literary ability, great experience of the life of
Yamuns, and, lastly, that reckless indifference to possible
contingencies which is often seen in the confirmed opium
smoker. As I expected, he followed my messenger out.
His packing was easily done: he had only to stand up and
shake himself—his worldly possessions consisting of the
214 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

clothes on his back. My body servant or valet, a native of
Kwang tung, agreed to go at once; and the cook also con-
sented, after some argument and banter on my part. So far
from commanding the services of any, I was careful to
enumerate the various risks they would incur, and then
overcame reluctance by the offer of rewards. On the present
occasion the cooking was a very secondary consideration;
but my cook, besides speaking intelligible mandarin, was as
a native of Keangsoo a master of the local patois; he might
therefore be useful as an agent, and I could not have too
many strings to my bow.

The following incident illustrates a feature of Chinese
character, and may at the same time teach Occidentals by
what procedure they may best get Chinese servants to run
risks in their behalf. A few hours before starting, when in
the bustle of preparation in my sitting-room, my Kwang tung
servant came in, evidently somewhat bashful and at a loss
how to express himself. At length he managed to stammer
through a request that I would give him a note to some one of
my friends, begging that the bundle he held under his arm
(and which contained such valuables as he possessed) might
be forwarded to his father at Canton, in case “our affairs
were unfortunate, and we did not come back.” This is one
of the circumlocutions which the Chinese, who avoid the use
of such words as “death,” employ to express loss of life.
I immediately replied, “I have no time to write a note—you
see how busy I am, and” (with a wave of my hand round a
room littered with books, papers, &c.) “that I am leaving all
my own matters in their usual confusion. But look;” I
added, holding up a sealed letter, “this I leave with a friend
to be sent to my brother at Ningpo in case, as you call it,
‘we do not come back again.’ Now I have told him in such
case to take care to have one hundred dollars paid over to
your father in Canton, in consideration of your going with
me. He will consequently get far more than the value of
your traps. Make the best disposition of them you can
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL, 215

yourself.” This evidence of unasked-for care on my part to
relieve what I knew would be the chief anxiety on his mind,
actually made him forget to do what a Chinaman rarely
neglects: to return thanks. I found out afterwards that all
my people—body servant, cook and my two permanent boat-
men—had been to the Ching hwang meaou, or City Temple,
to offer sacrifices for protection. I had usually only two
boatmen in my employ, the Laou ta or Captain (literally ;
Old great). When I started on an excursion I hired four
others. On the present occasion, these four extra men were
only engaged to take me to Soo chow, to which the way was
still known to be open. I knew it would be in vain to speak
at Shanghae of going farther.

The quotations in what follows are from a journal kept
in the boat; the (rectangular) brackets inclose what I
now add.

“9th April, 1853. I left the Consulate Jetty at about
5 p.m, and proceeded to the Hermes, where I borrowed (and
gave an official receipt for) two boat muskets with a hundred
rounds of ball-cartridge and six pikes, the latter intended
for the use of my Chinese in case they should have the
courage to resist an attack of robbers. I left the Hermes at
about 6 p.m. and proceeded with a fair wind against the ebb
tide nearly as far as the Soo chow bridge, below which I
anchored. It was then nearly dark, and” [here follows a
measure, which was intended to meet the danger of being
waylaid between Soo chow and Shanghae by emissaries of the
Shanghae Authorities] “I accordingly lifted anchor, passed
the Soo chow bridge barrier, just as it was about to be closed»
anchored above it, and dined while waiting for the flood, with
the first of which and a fair southerly wind I started at
about 93 p.m. I had little or no sleep all night, the swaying
of the boat, as the sail was shifted at every turn, and the stir
on board consequent on her grounding from time to time”
[from the narrowness of the stream and the darkness] “ pre-
vented my dropping off for more. than a few minutes at a time.
216 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

“Sunday, 10th April. After breakfast this morning, I
instructed my servant Yung shun in musket-loading, I firing
off about a dozen of the ball-cartridge as he loaded the two
guns.” [We were then still in a part of the country which
foreigners visit openly.] “I then disposed the arms and
ammunition in the best manner for instant use. Besides the
two ships’ muskets and pikes, I have my double-barrelled
fowling-piece, my pistols and cutlass.” [At about noon we
reached the limits of foreigners’ excursions in that direction;
when I had the mat roofing arranged over the fore part of
the boat, which completely concealed my cabin front window-
door from view, and left us thoroughly Chinese on the
outside.] ...... “IT anchored under the walls of Soochow
at about 3 p.m. I immediately sent off my head-boatman to
all the places likely to be visited by ” [This was the
agent whom I had despatched up the country some six or
eight days before, and whom I will here call Chang. I
thought it probable that he might be on his way back to
Shanghae with more definite intelligence about the rebels
than had yet been obtained; for which reason, as well as on
account of the general usefulness of the man, it was expedient
that I should call him in to me. Considering that the city
under the walls of which I was then lying contained some
two millions of inhabitants; that I had to pass through three
other large cities before reaching Chin keang; that the man
had no notion of my following him; and that circumspection
was necessary in my endeavours to communicate, it might
seem a hopeless undertaking to attempt to effect that object.
So futile did it seem to my people, that I was obliged to keep
hounding them on to the work: which did eventually prove
successful.] “TI also sent off Fang to get me some general
news to be despatched to Shanghae this evening. I am now,
34 P.M., awaiting the return of the latter.”

 

“Fang returned at about four o’clock; and a little before
dark I asked the four daily-hired boatmen for their final
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 217

answer to the proposal I made them at noon to-day, to go
on with me as far at least as Chang chow; and on their
declining I gave them their wages and told them at once to
leave the boat. I told all my people that even if all left me,
I should not return, but remain alone. Fang, my body ser-
vant and my cook, all three, agreed to proceed, as also my
two permanent men.” [I had offered the four daily-hired
men a present of ten dollars each, besides good wages; but
the aspect of things at Soo chow was by no means reassuring,
half of the shops being shut up and people still engaged
in moving to the open country. The reader will see from
the above the advantage I had in being in my own boat.]

“ Monday, 11th April, 1853. I went to bed last night
very early and had a long and good sleep. Fang went ashore
before bed-time, and did not return till about noon to-day.
He told me he had engaged four men, and as my own head-
boatman had found one, it was arranged that the father-in-
law of the latter’’ [my second permanent boatman] “ should
return to Shanghae while we proceeded with the new men.
The father-in-law was accordingly despatched at about 5 p.m.
with my letter of this date to Sir George Bonham........
Immediately after starting this man I gave the order to
move out some distance from Soo chow to pass the night, it
being too late to get now to the Seu sze kwan in order to
pass it, before closed for the night. While I write we are
moving off.” [The net-work of river passages converges into
one cord, the Grand Canal, a little beyond Soo chow; and,
like a knot on this cord, stands the great internal Custom-
house, the Seu sze kwan. ‘The cord begins to run through
a net again, some miles beyond the Custom-house, but this
latter must be passed; and had, from the strictness of the
examinations, been an effectual bar to the excursions of
foreigners in that direction since the peace. ]

* Tuesday, 12th April. We stopped last night in a little
canal leading from the Grand Canal, in an unfrequented spot
with a grove on each side, to one of the trees in which the boat’s
218 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

head was made fast. At the distance of a few hundred yards,
but on the Grand Canal, and out of sight, a body of some three
or four hundred soldiers of the command of the Hang chow
Heé [Major-General of Hang chow] were encamped. A gong
was beaten there and some kind of small arm discharged about
every half-hour.

‘“‘T here told my people how I wished them to act in case
an alarm of robbers was given. My head-boatman, body
servant Yung shun, and the cook sleep under the matting on
the deck in front of my main cabin; which latter is occupied
by myself alone, and where are all the arms except the Hermes’
six pikes. In the small after cabin, separated by the sliding
door from the main one and in like manner from the after
deck by another sliding door, sleeps my clerk Fang. At the
back, on the after deck, sleep the five hired men. To these
men, who profess great valour, cocking up their thumbs in
Chinese fashion and saying of the robbers, ‘ Let them dare
to come!’ I have entrusted five pikes; with orders either
to defend the after deck or to fly to the shore and wait the
event there, as they may please; but on no account to come
to the front, as I cannot distinguish people at night, and, as
soon as arrangements are effected there, will fire at every one
who shows himself. These arrangements in the front are
that the head-boatman, a perfect specimen of a Keang soo
coward, shall on the alarm being given instantly throw open
the front door, and then make for the shore or the back
of the boat as he pleases. Yung shun and the cook are to
sit up but to remain in their places till I call them by name;
when they are both to jump down into my cabin and go to the
back of it. The cock is instantly to hold together the two
parts of the sliding door at the back until he has ascertained
that Fang has closed the back doors and is holding them, so
that the back is secured. Fang is then to remain in charge
of the back entrance, attending to nothing else, while the
cook.is to take the sixth pike, placed every night on the floor
of my cabin, and be ready to prevent any one bolting in at
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 219

the front door while I open to fire out at it. Yung shun is
to get out the muskets for me and be ready to load them.
He is to have one of the bayonets and Fang the other.
These arrangements made, I propose opening the front door
and clearing the front deck by firing out of the cabin, and
then seizing an opportunity to jump out (after my shooting
jacket with ammunition in the pockets, and my waist belt
and pistols are put on) to the fore deck. I must load the
double gun at night with No. 5 cartridges alone, both because
there is more chance of hitting and because the loading is
more speedy. When out I can fire either at the back, if I
find my own people are not in possession, or at the robbers’
vessel to drive it off. I must not discharge any of my pistols
unless forced at the first rush to prevent entrance into my
cabin, but keep them to be ready for any sudden rush at me
after I sally out. The firing before that must be done with
the muskets and double barrel. When Yung shun comes in
he must shut the door before doing anything else.”

[I have inserted the above at length because it amuses even
myself now. It reads like a bit of Robinson Crusoe’s artillery
preparations in his castle to keep off the savages. But my
preparations were very serious and very necessary. The
paralyzation of the Authorities had, I knew, given scope to
the “ savages of civilization,’ who abound in the enormous
cities of China as in our own; the Chinese regular military,
who were moving in considerable numbers on and near the
Canal, were by no means indisposed to do a little robbery at
night; and the “ Kaggn ung, Kwang tung braves” or irre-
gulars, of whom numbers were also on the Canal, were most
of them South Eastern pirates by profession. Lastly my five
new boatmen, whom I was only too glad to find willing to take
me on, were members of the great fraternity of Imperial Grain
junkmen, of whom we know from Imperial Statistics that there
are about one hundred and twenty thousand on the entire
length of the Grand Canal, and probably not less than twenty
thousand on that very portion of it which I was about to
220 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

navigate. Now these men, who are either natives of Shan
tung and Chih le or members of families originally from that
part of China, but themselves natives of the migratory Grain
Junks—sons of the Grand Canal, one might say—these men
are of notorious turbulence as well as loose notions respecting
rights of property. It was quite consistent with their habits,
especially in the then position of affairs, to assume the possibi-
lity of their concerting with a dozen or two of their comrades
to make a night attack on me when they saw that the boat,
with her contents, would be no insignificant prize for them.
The best plan to ward off this danger altogether was that
which enabled me to meet the others, viz., to let my crew
know that I was not only resolved but had deliberately pre-
pared to make a serious defence, no matter what they did.
I am sorry to say I was not a novice in such matters. Some
years before, when returning to Canton, not from an excursion,
but from an official visit to Whampoo some twelve miles down
the river, I was attacked, in a very dark night about nine or
ten o’clock while asleep in my cabin, by a river pirate con-
taining some dozen of ruffians. I shot one of them and (as
appeared from the investigations of the Authorities) wounded
another with a brace of pistols, but then could not get my
double rifle which I had not looked to for some weeks to go
off. In the meantime they were firing their peculiar com-
bustibles into my boat, and prodding, by such light as these
gave, at my ribs with their long spears. The result was that
[had to follow the example given by my crew at the earliest
period of the proceedings, by throwing myself into the river
and swimming to the shore. Several people having been
killed who had been taken at a disadvantage in a similar way,
I was fortunate in getting off with a wetting and a slight
spear wound on one hand; but the affair was provoking, to
say the least of it, and I solemnly vowed that under no cir-
cumstances whatever—not even where there was least like-
lihood of attack—would I ever be again unprepared at night.
At present, on the Grand Canal, I had, besides the particular
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL, 221

dangers of the time and of the country, considerable reason
to expect a visit from some of my old Kwang tung
acquaintances. |

“ At daylight this morning we started, sculling, and in
about an hour and a half reached the Seu sze Custom-house.
There are here two stone bridges over the Canal at the dis-
tance of about one-third of a mile apart, between which is the
Custom-house. It was arranged that the boatmen should make
a sudden push after some other vessel as we approached, and
thus get the boat in every case to the north side of the floating
barrier. If we were hailed Fang was to go on shore and
report us as a travelling boat with no goods. If they insisted
on examining I was to ” [here a measure, which was not
employed as it so happened]. * *

as .. All this being arranged, and myself and
Yung shun crouched on the fore deck looking at the place
through the interstices of the matting, which I separated
a little for the purpose, and Fang standing aft ready to go
ashore if necessary; we sculled quietly toward the great
barrier hitherto in the way of foreigners, to say nothing of
foreign goods, getting northward. As we got near, I heard
Fang exclaiming:—‘ What’s the meaning of this? Why
there’s nobody there! Ah! there’s a messenger [chae] on
the wharf. Eh! Eh!’ [the Chinese note to attract attention]
‘May I ask what’s become of all your gentlemen?’ [Yay
mun, the superintending officers] ‘ Have they been frightened
away?’ A short affirmative answer was given. ‘So they
have all been scared into bolting, have they? She chay ma
cho, ta mun too hea paou leaou ma?’ rejoined my man in
the same jaunty tone, and in the excellent Peking mandarin
he speaks. This cool remark, shouted out from the middle of
the Canal, at the dreaded barrier itself, was followed by a loud
burst of laughter from my boatmen, joined in by the hearers
on the shore. The messenger, thinking we belonged to
the troops of whom boatloads were then passing in the same
direction, asked, How many there were of us? Fang, who
222 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

knew nothing of the matter, answered without an instant’s
hesitation * About forty vessels.’ The tears streamed out of
my Kwang tung servant’s eyes in his admiring laughter at
these doings of Fang.”

[Just before we came within hail of the Custom-house, this
servant forgot for an instant the proper demeanour which the
“relation of servant and master” requires. In a boat that
was sculling for a time parallel to ours, he caught sight
of the intent gaze of a soldier fixed on the interstice by which
I was looking out; whereupon he seized me by the body and
jerked me suddenly backward, with the exclamation: “ Keen
leaou laou yay, He has seen your Honour.” If any youth
who has yet to make his way, if not his fortune, in the world
should read this, let him now observe the practical value of
improving his mind by solid historical reading. I had seen
the soldier myself with his eyes fixed right in my direction,
but, remembering, that in the “Last of the Mohicans” the
red man stared from the light into the darkened cavern recess
in which his white foes were sitting without seeing them,
I, instead of withdrawing my head, began closely watching
the face of my yellow foe. I presently saw that there was
no discovery in it—that he was looking, but not seeing; all
which “my honour” explained to my servant to his consider-
able edification. ‘The getting past the barrier in the way
just described, together with the self-possession and adroit-
ness of Fang, and the unembarrassed, free and easy bearing
of my five grain junkmen, made me now begin to hope,
what had seemed hopeless at Shanghae, that I should really
be able to get to the rebels by this ronte.]

“Nothing worthy of notice occurred till we got to Woo
seih, where the questions addressed by Fang and the boatmen
to other boats which we met or passed at this (apparently
very busy) place became rather interesting. It here became
evident that the rebels” [of whom it was rumoured at Soo
chow, that they had all returned to Nanking] “are considered
to be still in possession of Chin keang, as people going to Yang
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 223

chow said they were going by way of Keang yin district
city, or the Mung ho” [two passages by which the Great
River can be crossed about fifty to sixty miles below Chin
keang]. “ Fang landed at Woo seih and the boat took me on
to a place agreed upon, where he and two of the boatmen who
landed with him were to rejoin us. To my no great pleasure,
I found when we threw our anchor on the shore here, that
we were in a row of some two hundred small vessels occu-
pied by troops from Che keang, both Chinese and Manchoos,
some two or three hundred of each; and ‘braves’ or volun-
teers from the sea-borders of Fuh keen and Kwang tung.
I was obliged to leave the fore deck were I was journal-
izing and go inside.” [With the fore part of the boat covered
in, my cabin was too much darkened to admit of my writing
there without candles, which it was not expedient to use
in daytime; but by raising a portion of the fore deck and
sitting on a camp-stool in the shallow hold, I could use the
unraised portions of the deck as writing-table, and get plenty
of light through the interstices between the mats.] “The
Che keang troops, Chinese and Manchoos, are I learn
to remain at that place. The volunteers are to go on. Fang
returned after I had been there about an hour and a half;
during which, as my body servant tells me, there was a con-
stant danger of my being discovered owing to the terrified
whispering and hiding air of my head-boatman. I think of
sending him back from Chang chow to-morrow, with letters,
to prevent his terrors betraying us.”

[He had sent away with his father-in-law from Soo chow
everything he had in the boat, retaining only a suit of
clothes so patched, that they put me in mind of an old
English country-made quilt.. The look of him in this rig was
enough to excite suspicion. Something about us certainly
did. excite the suspicion of a man in one of the contiguous
boats, whose after deck was only a foot or two distant from
ours, as the boats lay parallel. At a time when every one had
gone ashore but my cook, who was deeply engaged in the
224 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
=

preparation of some dish, I observed this individual putting
his head out from behind a mat screen in his own boat, and
then suddenly disappearing, when it seemed that the cook was
about to look in his direction. After a while, I would see
the half of his face and one eye reappear at the edge of the
screen, then the whole head, and at length, in his eager
spying, an outstretched neck also. I sat the whole time,
full-fronting him in the darkened cabin, watching all his
motions; and I do not remember ever seeing a face in which
the villany of treachery was so strongly impressed. There
was an extreme intensity, besides a trait of lurking triumph
in his look, like that of a scoundrel who felt that he was on the
point of discovering a secret which he could turn to great
profit. I should have given much to have been able to take
his portrait. I forget now what put an end to his Jack-in-
the-box proceedings—I think it was the return of some of
the grain junkmen; who had a swagger about them quite
enough to frighten him definitively behind his screen.]

“©The report in Woo seih is that the Acting Governor-
General Yang is at Keang yin, where he has stationed him-
self under the pretence of guarding the inlet there from
the Yang tsze to Woo seih, and so on to Soo chow. The
Educational Examiner of the Province, whose permanent
station is Keang yin, objected very strongly to the Governor-
General’s coming there, saying that he himself—a high officer
—was quite enough. He is of course naturally afraid that
the presence of the Governor-General may attract some
portion of the insurgent forces to the place; which might
otherwise long escape their attention. The other news that
Fang got was that the insurgents have left garrisons, both at
Chin keang and Yang chow........ We left Woo seih
about 6 p.m. and a little after dark I had the bow of the boat
shoved into a little creek in the southern bank; where we
passed the night without adventure.”

_“ Wednesday, 13th April. Started this morning at day-
light, with the mainsail up and a fair wind. I have given
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 225

orders to make no stay whatever at Chang chow, but to
make use of this wind to push on to Tan yang.

“ Two o'clock p.m. On coming near Chang chow the wind
died away, rendering it of less importance to keep moving.
I therefore wrote my letter No. 3 to Sir George, which
has just been despatched to the care of Yung shun’s friend
[t.e. it was enclosed to a Chinese, in a Chinese envelope, so
as to be transmissible by the Chinese posts]. Fang has taken
this letter on shore, and is to get intelligence.”

“ After Fang left, we had a collision with a boat, coming
from the opposite direction. I heard a crash of crockery, and
we were instantly boarded in the bows by an old woman,
who endeavoured to bully us out of some cash as compen-
sation. There was a great row between her and my new
boatmen for some time; but the latter were not to be beaten.
They kept sculling on, told her she need not come into our
boat ‘to make her fortune,’ and that they would take her to
Chin keang, &c. &c. She at last asked to be put ashore.”

[When two Chinese boats meet there is usually an exchange
of the two questions: “ Na le keu, Ne na le keu, Where
are you bound for ? Where are you bound for?” The stand-
ing answer of our boatman was, “To Chin keang,” which
invariably produced broad grins in the crew and passengers
of the other boat. The idea of going to the long-haired
rebels was considered not a bad joke. The joke for us lay
in the fact that we really did intend going there. In
‘ordinary times we should not have got rid of the old
woman so easily, for the Canal passed there through the
suburbs of a large departmental city, and was a crowded
thoroughfare ; and the grievance of the screaming old female
would have been taken up by the public. As it was, the
thoroughfare was over-crowded, and the concentration of an
army then going on at the place, together with the continual
supply of fresh rumours about the “ chang fa tsih, the long-
haired rebels,” left no room for attention to boat collisions.

Q
226 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Nevertheless I was not a little alarmed at the posible even-
tualities of this invasion ; and, after creeping cautiously for-
ward and viewing the dreaded object squatted on the bows,
retreated hastily to the cabin, and proposed to pay at once
what was demanded; which, however, my people decidedly
objected to. I was, of course, careful not to cool in any way
the zeal or ardor of our new people; and after the old woman
left us, was not a little pleased with the manner in which
they pushed through the press of vessels, some of them hand-
some barges containing local civilians, travelling to and fro
on official duty; others large travelling boats containing the
families and valuables of rich residents of Chang chow, some
going off to the country and others returning from it—an
opposite proceeding that showed the conflict of opinion as to
the state of affairs; and, lastly, boats of every size and de-
scription—most of them pressed—containing the troops and
the military officers who were to form the force then con-
centrating there. Instead of sneaking humbly through all
this, my men had the sense and spirit to take the high tone.
They sculled hard, and bawled to every boat to keep to one
side, without the slightest regard to the mandarin flags hang-
ing to the masts of many, or to the followers of the inmates,
who were usually lounging on the fore deck. The boats are
almost always navigated by their owners, and hence in the
greatest crowd and bustle collisions are rare, both parties
being anxious to avoid the consequent damage, and showing
a remarkable adroitness in handling their respective craft.
But my boatmen were little restrained by such considerations,
the boat was not theirs, and they ran without hesitation
into everything that did not choose, or was not able to obey
the summons to clear the way. Before we got to the northern
side of Chang chow, I was well able to give a graphic descrip-
tion of the encounters between Roman and Carthaginian
fleets.]

“ After we had taken up Fang, and started for Tan yang,
we had gone but a short distance when Yung shun rushed
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 227

into the cabin to say that ‘a man was being put to death.’
I found that a decapitated body, with its head, having long
hair, beside it, was lying on the Canal bank surrounded by a
number of people. The blood was still smoking. In Chang
chow proclamations were out, stating that the Lieutenant-
General of Teen tsin, named Le, had been ordered by the
Imperial Commissioner, Heang yung, to take up his quarters
there, with two thousand men from the army at Nanking.
Another was out by the Prefect, stating he had received a
despatch from the Governor of Che keang, announcing the
approach of 10,000 troops from that province; viz. 3,000
regulars, 1,500 marines, 500 Manchoo Bannermen, and 5,000
volunteers from the departments of the Tseen tang valley.
These are the men with whom we have been travelling from
Soo chow; and we are now meeting great numbers of the
others. Some say they are coming from Tan yang, others
say from Nanking. Most are in boats, in bodies of eight or
ten; but many are coming singly or in pairs, seldom three
together, along the tracking-path. A few horsemen with
buttons [mandarins] and their horses well belled have also
come along. There is nothing like an orderly progress in
this; but still they have not the appearance of people flying.
They are, however, all moving away from the insurgents.
One man, who stated he was from Nanking, and was asked
how matters stood there, answered, ‘Chang fa chen leaou—
the long-haired have seized it,’ in a way that set us all
a laughing. From another we learn that the [Imperial]
Generalissimo, Heang yung, was on the 9th at Tsun hwa,
a town situated about thirty-five le [twelve miles] from Nan-
king, on the south-east, on the direct road to Tan yang.

« About dark we entered a small branch on the left hand,
with the view of getting into a quiet place to pass the
night. We found, however, vessels coming out, the second
of which had great difficulty in pushing past us. The people
in it began abusing ours, who thought fit to be very hasty on
the receipt of any observations. A perfect storm of reciprocal

Q2
228 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

abuse arose, to which I was at last obliged to put a stop
myself, by stepping out in front and declaring to all parties
that such a noise was totally beyond my endurance ; that the
boat was now past; that if the people in it wished to fight,
they must at once come back and lay on; but that if they
did not want to fight, the noise must cease. It was already
too dark for the strangers and villagers who had collected to
see that it was a foreigner who was talking, but the authori-
tative tone and, I doubt not, the invitation to immediate
blows had the effect of producing silence. As I learnt from
another boat, that passed soon after, that this narrow branch
was a thoroughfare to many populous places, I saw that it
would necessarily be a most unquiet position to be in. We
therefore moved out and anchored close to the western bank
of the Grand Canal.” [The only portion of the above alter-
cation that imprinted itself on my memory was a string of
vociferations delivered by the youngest of my grain junk-
men—all of whom as natives of Shantung and Chih le speak
very good mandarin. In the exertions made to give the
strangers’ boat room to pass us, he had jumped ashore and
thrown his jacket on the ground. When the villagers col-
lected some one of them must have presumed to make some
remark about it, for my attention was attracted by some-
thing like the following delivered in a loud fierce tone:
“What's the matter with my jacket? Can my jacket not
lie on the bank of the river? Can’t I put off my jacket and
throw it on the ground? Your jackets are all good jackets!
My jacket is a bad jacket! ‘Your river bank is fine ground,
and my jacket stinks! There’s my jacket lying. Who dares
to touch my jacket, &c. &c. &c.” During the whole of this
time he was stamping about at the side of his jacket in his
long tracking boots, looking altogether more like a wild
Irishman than a civilized Chinese. The villagers—quiet
countrymen not prepared to brawl on short notice--made at
first only patient remarks, but at length a middle-aged rustic
got heated by the provocation and began to bawl at the
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 229

top of his voice. In the meantime the other four boatmen
were, aided by occasional ejaculations from Fang and my two
servants, keeping up a fire of bawls with the occupants of the
other boat, which had halted a little beyond us. The reader
may judge what a treat it was altogether on the banks of the
Grand Canal for a solitary Englishman, who wanted to go
quietly to bed.]

“ Thursday 14th April. After a very quiet night (at the
beginning of which I heard the discharge of a gun at no
great distance and the singing of the bullet in the air) we
started at daylight this morning, against a head wind from
the north-west. We are tracking, but making very slow
progress, and will hardly reach Tan yang before dark.” [The
tracking is done by stepping a long stout bamboo in the hole
for the foremast, attaching a long cord to its top and sending
four men ashore, who harness themselves to it by short sticks
across the breast and so drag the boat on her course, one man
at a scull keeping her the while off the shore.] “ Soldiers
in boats, on horseback and on foot, are passing in the same
way as yesterday. Their arms are chiefly spears and swords,
single and double-handled; but they have also got match-
locks, gingalls and small canon, the latter carried each by
four men. I see no sign of defeat or flight in the demeanour
of the men of this detachment, but its marching disorder
seems to extend over a space of some twenty miles; and, if
this is to be taken as a fair specimen of the usual mode of
progression of an Imperial army nearest the enemy, we may
easily understand how such must be routed by an unexpected
movement taking them in the flank. Since we left Soo chow
we have seen very few vessels with goods, but a considerable
number moving private property in different directions. I
now see no vessels at all, except those with the soldiers and
now and then a small one belonging to the country people.
Mine seems to be the only one going ¢o Tan yang.

“TJ heard the boatmen talking among themselves last
night about our farther progress, and on questioning Fang
230 THE CHINESE AND THEIR RERETLIONG.

this morning, I find they are coming the ‘wife and family’
dodge (which is indeed more valid in their mouths than in
those of people that can leave their families in wealth), and
that they are now not willing togo beyond Tan yang. I
suspect they are intimidated by the sight of all these troops
coming in from Heang yung’s army, and of the body and
smoking blood of the long-haired man yesterday—all signs
of our vicinity to the scene of action. I shall not speak to
them myself till we get to Tan yang.”

« As we approached Tan yang, just as we were about to
pass a bridge, Yung shun came into the cabin to say that
Chang was there; and I at the same time heard my cook
and head-boatman shouting out his name. Immediately
afterwards he entered the boat himself. The first thing he
said was that it would be impossible for me to goon.” [I
found that even before the rebels took Chin keang, the
Canal between Tan yang and that place had become impas-
sable from shallowness, except for the smallest fishing-boats
having only one or two men in them, and drawing but a few
inches of water. Between Tan yang and Chin keang the
Grand Canal becomes something like a canal, as we represent
that sort of water communication to ourselves. It there in
fact enters at some points on the higher ground at the back
of the alluvial plain, and is altogether an artificially exca-
vated channel, the periodical clearing of which forms a
standing item in the account of Imperial disbursements of
the local authorities; who, however, disburse as much of the
money as possible into their own pockets. The certainty I
arrived at here that the rebels would not move on Soo chow
and Shanghae for a month to come; the strange and impor-
tant information I did get respecting them; and which it
was advisable to communicate at once to Sir George Bon-
ham; but, more than all of course, the shallowness of the
Canal and the impossibility of proceeding by it even if I
could have procured other boatmen willing to take me on,
made me resolve on returning to Shanghae and proceeding
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 231

from thence, as I had originally proposed, in a sea-going craft
by the Great River right up to Chin keang.

“J had a long conversation with my agent Chang. On his
reaching Tan yang when he first came up the country, he
hired a mule and rode first in the direction of Chin keang
and afterwards in that of Nanking, going till within eight or
ten miles of the former, and fifteen or twenty of the latter,
but what he ascertained from fugitives of the way in which
the rebels were pressing men for soldiers deterred him from
going nearer. He had got as far as Soo chow on his way
back, when one of the letters I had left there came to his
hands, showing him that we had crossed each other. He
instantly turned again in pursuit. He got a great fright
when he was searching for me at Chang chow, and heard that
‘a long-haired man with deep-set eyes’ had been beheaded,
and was only then reassured when further description did
not tally with my appearance. Being on foot and without
baggage, he got to Tan yang before we did with our head
wind and tracking; and was making a second search at the
wharfs there for my boat and people, when they, as stated,
descried him. His story was a very interesting one; and
the reader will not blame me, I think, for quoting the follow-
ing incident from his narrative of proceedings, which I noted
from his mouth at the time. I must first state that this man
was no opium-smoker nor drinker, but a prudent money-
saving fellow, a native of the north of China, who, after having
failed in business there, regarded a permanent connection
with me as his best, if not only, means of re-establishment in
worldly affairs; and who knew from experience that far
more was to be got out of me by telling truths, agreeable
or disagreeable, than by any trickery or humbug, which was
sure to be discovered sooner or later. He had knocked about
a great deal in different provinces of China; and had, indeed,
been twice away in the country for months on my account,
entrusted with sums of money, for him considerable.

“From Chang chow to Tan yang he travelled in a passage-
232 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS,

boat in which was a béggar and his wife, both of whom had
been in the hands of the insurgents some three or four days
at Chin keang. The man had been employed tending their
horses ; and made off after a few days, leaving his wife and
two children. The wife had come out after him, and found
him at Chang chow, and they were then going back to Chin
keang. Chang, after various questions [his business was to
get information], asked the beggar what the insurgents wanted
with his wife. Upon which all the bystanding passengers
said with deprecating smiles: ‘ What questions you ask !’”

[Chang and myself were, at that period, both puzzled by the
proceedings of this couple. How did she, a small-footed
woman, hobble away from a walled and strictly guarded city,
and why were the two going back to Chin keang? What
we learned afterwards of Tae ping conscription solved these
questions. The rebels had sent her out to bring back her
husband, the children being detained as the string which was
to pull both back.]

“ At about nightfall he reached Tan yang. He had been
accompanied all the way from Soo chow by a man calling
himself Wang, who said he was going toward Nanking to
seek his younger brother, a soldier in the Imperial camp.
My agent, under his assumed name of Chang, described
himself as a Shantung clerk to a dealer in fruits and other
Shantung edibles, who had been at Shanghae in the way of
business ; was unable to return by sea, as the pirates were
beating the sea craft back; and was now here to ascertain
the best route for himself and his master and another clerk
homewards. These two, Chang and Wang, went to the same
tea-house [equivalent to our so-called coffee-house] at Tan
yang; where they arranged with the people for passing the
night, neither of them being acquainted with any inn in the
place. The doors had been closed and the two men were
sleeping on the tea-tables, &c. placed together, when they
were roused by a knocking at the door, which being opened
by the tea-house people, a yay mun [mandarin’s follower]
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 233

entered with a posse of volunteers, arnied with three-pronged
spears, pikes, &c.

Yay mun (shouting.) Hoigh! You two! Who are you?

Chang. We are travellers.

Yay mun. Travellers! Where are you going to?

Chang. To Shantung.

Yay mun. Shantung! Don’t you know the passage across
the river is barred?

Chang (assuming the indifferent and careless.) If it is I must
just see about it, that’s all.

Yay mun. What is your name ?

Chang. Chang [as common as our Smith].

Yay mun. And yours?

The other Traveller. Wang [as common as our Brown].

Yay mun. Oh! ah! Quite right! Chang, Wang, Le,
Chaou! [Equivalent to Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson].

Chang (sneering and indifferent). Yes! Chang, Wang, Le,
Chaou. We're all one family.

(Here Chang heard one of the posse saying to the others
that the two should be taken to the Yamun.)

Chang. To the Yamun! J have no fear of going to the
Yamun.

[They then all went off to the Yamun (District Magistracy)
where they were examined preliminarily by the Mun shang
(who is the principal follower of the Magistrate, and next to
him the most influential person in the establishment). He
repeated the questions as to name and business. ]

Chang (with an air of perfect candour, which he sponta-
neously reproduced for my benefit in telling his story). To be
frank, I am an agent of the Shanghae Intendant, sent out
here to collect news.

Mun shang (who knew something of the Intendant and his
establishment). Where does the Intendant come from?

Chang. From Kwang tung.

Mun shang. How long have you been with him ?

Chang. I came from Peking with the former Intendant,
234 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBEGUIONS,

Lin, and was by him recommended to the Intendant,
Woo.

Mun shang. Are there any other northern men there?

Chang. Yes. A Chih le man named Woo, also recom-
mended by the Intendant, Lin.

Mun shang. What business have you charge of at Shanghae?

Chang. I am in the Great Custom-house [that at which
foreign duties are paid.|

Mun shang. Who else is there?

Chang. There is a person named Lew who speaks the
barbarian language.

Mun shang. (Apologetically, being now fully convinced of
Mr. Chang’ s veracity, from knowing himself the people named).
You must not be angry with them [the night watch]. You
know Chin keang is taken, and that it is necessary to keep
strict watch over all strangers. You (addressing the posse
which was beginning to melt away) you see you have made
a mistake. You had better go.

Lin consequence of Chang’s victory, the other man was
merely asked a question or two. |

Mun shang. I am ashamed that you should have been
troubled. But it was their duty to bring you here.

Chang. Our coming here is of itself of no great conse-
quence. But now they’ve brought us here, what are we to
do for a night’s lodging?

(On this cool question being put, the Mun shang told a
policeman to give Messrs. Chang and Wang a room in the
Magistracy for the night ; and after a comfortable sleep they
left unquestioned in the morning).

 

The above was, the reader will remember, narrated to me
at the very city where the arrest and release took place, and
only a week after the event. It struck me as so charac-
teristic an incident of Chinese life that, while I merely made
an abstract of most other parts of Chang’s account of his
mission, [ made -him re-narrate the above conversation and
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 235

took it down literally. The slightest unusual noise on shore,

or bustle on board caused by the other denizens of the boat

coming off, made him stop short and listen breathlessly, with

fixed looks. I myself had to guard against robbers, against

disorderly soldiers, and against emissaries whom it was quite

possible the mandarins might despatch to stop my mission

clandestinely, if they heard of it. But once fairly in open

contact with the established authorities, I knew very well

how to protect myself. I was indeed certain to be prevented

from proceeding, but that was the worst that could then happen

to me; as even the newest and most anti-foreign mandarin

from the interior would hardly have dared to subject me to

personal ill-usage. But if Chang had been discovered in my

boat, it was extremely doubtful that even a fierce fight on

my part and a peremptory use of the British lion would have

kept his head on his shoulders. He had therefore much

cause to listen in alarm at unusual noises. Suddenly a
strange pattering noise on the top of the boat struck his ear

and transformed him again into a listening statue. ‘It’s

only rain,” I explained; ‘ it must be raining heavily outside,

and that is the noise of the drops on the roof.” Chang

immediately spread both hands with a sort of unction on my

table, and looking to the roof with a face expressive of
immense relief exclaimed, “ Haou ah! Haouah! Haou ah!

Good! Good! Very good!” This meant: My countrymen, .
the police and military will most certainly not come out of
their quarters at night in a heavy rain to search boats for

rebel agents or any other persons.

I now quote from my journal again :—

“ Friday, 15th April. We passed the night quietly
enough in front of the Official Post Establishment. The
watchman belonging to it, believing the tale of my people
that we had come from the Shanghae Intendant to get intel-
ligence, took care of us, advised us to move up to some other
boats for mutual protection, &c. &. We made him a
present of twenty cash” [less than a penny at the ordinary
236 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

rate of exchange, but in food value equivalent to threepence
or fourpence in England]. “ At daylight this morning we
started in a heavy rain, and it has been raining ever since till
now, about 34 p.m., when we are entering Chang chow.
Fang is here going ashore to copy the proclamation about
the steamers.

« We left Chang chow at 54 p.m., and proceeded with a
light, puffy but favorable breeze.

“ Saturday, 16th April. Anchored in the Canal last night
about a couple of hours after dark. Heard village guards
beating gongs all night and also the firing at regular intervals
of guns. To-day met great numbers of boats conveying
troops. We passed Woo seih at about 10 a.m., and are
now 54 p.m. near to the Seu sze Custom-house, on this [the
north] side of which I propose remaining to-night.

“Sunday, 17th April. Passed the night on the northern
side of the Seu sze Custom-house. At daybreak we started
again and proceeded as far as the barrier, which was not then
opened. Fang went ashore to report, as was intended when
we passed before. It seems that orders were given by the
Customs’ officers (now returned) to the sub-examiners to see
that there was no cargo, and then to open the barrier and let
us pass. I was sitting as usual in the cabin when one of the
fore deck mats was pulled back. I ordered it to be replaced.
The boatman then said a man had come to examine the hold.
I told them to let him in by the little front door, which they
did. Hecreptin, a young mandarin follower; and one of my
Shantung boatman then opened the fore hold compartments
and showed him them, commencing with the foremost. The
foreign boots do not appear to have attracted his attention—
at least he said nothing about them—the bottles of water
did.” [I carried a stock of filtered drinking-water from
Shanghae, it being difficult to procure wholesome clean
water in these alluvial flats.] “The grain junkman, in
answer to his inquiries, told him that there was opium [the
traffic in which is severely punishable] inside of them; a
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 237

piece of jocularity which the youthful examiner received in
dignified silence. Chang had, on the man’s coming in, passed
to my front window-door and, while standing in the inside,
stuck his head and body out, thereby preventing the ex-
aminer from seeing me; but as I was pretty sure he would
require to see the back part, I now, as he approached the
door, pulled Chang back, put my head out till it was about
eighteen inches from his face, and said, ‘ What do you want ?””’
[He had never seen a barbarian before, had probably heard
nothing but terrible tales about them, while his mind was
doubtless filled with dread of long-haired people generally,
after the doings of the strange long-haired men at Nanking ;
while, besides my whiskers, my face was rendered more
hairy than any Chinaman’s by stub beard and moustachios
of eight days’ growth. A turnpike-keeper going to a car-
riage-window for his pence, and there having a tiger’s face
thrust with a fierce growl into his, may give the reader some
notion of the young man’s state.] “ He was so startled by
the apparition, that he merely stared with widely-opened
eyes and answered mechanically, ‘To examine the hold.’
‘Well,’ I answered, ‘you have seen the fore hold, and here’
(with a wave of my hand inside) ‘don’t you see, there are no
goods. What more examining do you want to do?’ He
crept backward to the door saying, with his eyes still fixed
intently on my face, ‘ Well, I won’t examine.’ At the door
however he began, but apparently quite mechanically, to
speak of the main object of his visit, a present of money.
This was to Fang, who was kneeling at the front. ‘ What
is that?’ I asked, ‘don’t you’ (to the examiner) ‘ understand
that a man of my looks has not come here without important
business to do? Get out and open the barriers, and don’t be
troublesome.’ Fang at once fell into my tone. ‘Go, and
report to your masters,’ he said, ‘ but be quick and open the
barrier.’ In a short time the frightened man had told all his
fellows, and a crowd of them collected to see; but all was
now closed. Three morning guns were then fired, the bar-
238 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

riers opened and we passed with, to my disgust, a loud got-
up, derisive burst of laughter from my boatmen and people,
which I checked immediately.” [Proclamations were out in
the country to reassure the people by the information that
among other measures taken to stop the rebels, the barba-
rians were sending steamers to fight with them, and the
Custom-house officers might very naturally suppose that I
had been by the “ inner waters” to see the Governor-General
about that business.] ‘“ At about noon we reached Soo chow,
going this time into the city, and lying in a canal not far
from the principal yamuns. Sent Chang on shore for his
baggage, which he had left behind at Soo chow, and also to
see if there were any return letters for me at the Shanghae
letter-carrier’s. Fang has gone on shore for information.”

“Chang returned bringing no return letters for me;
but the letter-carrier, learning he was then en route for
Shanghae, and having some previous acquaintance with him,
thought it a good opportunity to send on his mail, and ac-
cordingly entrusted him with three packets; one addressed to
Yaou, the district magistrate of Shanghae, another to some
private person there, and a third which, to Chang’s astonish-
ment, I took possession of and began to open. I saw that it
was the letter, posted at Chang chow, containing my No. 8
to Sir George Bonham, which had only got as far as Soo
chow and has now fallen into my own hands again. Fang
told me that a placard on yellow paper [i. e. an address to
the public from some private people few or many] had been
posted, exhorting the inhabitants, instead of flying from their
homes, to enroll themselves as volunteers and keep the rebels
out of their city, as the people of Canton had kept the bar-
barians out of theirs when they insisted on entering some
time back.” [The ultra Peace party in England are not
aware that they were the cause of an address being issued
to the two millions of Chinese at Soo chow in which the
British were disparaged as people who had been beaten. It
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 239

was the rampancy of their party at home that prevented us
in 1849 from supporting our treaty claim to enter the city of
Canton by force; and the Chinese Government informed the
whole nation that we had been deterred dy force.] “ He
also told me that two officers had left Soo chow the day
before for Shanghae, the one despatched by the Generalissimo
Heang yung, the other by the Governor-General Yung wan
ting. These have doubtless gone to see about steamers.” [I
had myself to tell them at Shanghae, a few days later, that
we could give no aid.] “The yellow placard was torn down
by order of the authorities lest the British barbarians should
hear of it and be angry at the allusion made to them. I
afterwards put on a Chinese dress, stepped into a small chair,
and went through the greater portion of Soo chow, resting
always for some time in front of each of the great Yamuns.
Fang accompanied me on foot, together with a servant and
one of my boatmen. During one of the stoppages the peo-
ple went to get liquor at an adjoining spirit-shop, and the
after bearer nearly took too much. At subsequent stoppages
he bawled out, ‘Let’s go and have a glass (cup),’ and stag-
gered a good deal as he carried me. The front bearer got
very anxious, hurried on our return as much as he could,
and was evidently much relieved when I had stepped into
the boat again without being detected as a foreigner.

“* Monday, 18th April. Started at daylight. I immedi-
ately began looking out, and as soon as we had passed out at
the water gate, near the south-western angle of the city wall,
and there entered the Grand Canal, which forms the moat of
the southern face of the city, I came out in the front alto-
gether, and had the matting removed from the fore deck ;”
[i.e. again began to travel openly as a foreigner,] “to my no
little relief. Great numbers of the grain junks are lying
along the sides of the canal here, and also for some distance
up the western face of the city. About half way up the moat
of the eastern face we turned off at right angles into the
canal leading to Kwan shan, in which direction we are now
progressing by tracking.”
240 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

I closed my journal with the above entry. I was then still
from forty to fifty miles from Shanghae, but already at a point
visited by me in my shooting and exploring excursions, and
as free from constraint—much freer, in fact—than in Eng-
land. Head winds, and the flood tides as we approached
Shanghae, prevented my reaching that place till the evening
of the 19th. I at once wrote out and handed to H.M.’s
Plenipotentiary, a report of the business portion of my doings,
&c., and of the intelligence collected respecting the rebels
from various fugitives from Nanking and Chin keang, i.e.
from persons who had seen what they talked about. They
were most of them illiterate men, and hence their account of
the books of the Tae pings was meagre and partially incorrect;
but in all matters that they could themselves judge of, their
information was very accurate, as will be seen on a comparison
of the following condensed extracts from my Grand Canal
report, with the notices of the same subjects given in the
other parts of this volume.

* The most difficult point to fix, even approximately, is
the number of the insurgents. But it would appear that of
trusted and voluntary adherents, forming the nucleus and
strength of their force, there are not less than thirty or forty
thousand, all of whom have long hair. Of voluntary ad-
herents, who have been too short a time with them to have
long hair, and of pressed men, there seems to be some eighty
or one hundred thousand at least. About the chiefs there is
also much uncertainty. It appears, however, that one person
who bears the title of Tae ping Prince, and is a son or other
relative, of him known as Teen tih,* is the acknowledged

* During the first two years of the rebellion in Kwang se, foreigners, when
they did get any answer to the query of what was the title assumed by the new
aspirant to the throne, were told that it appeared to be Teen tih. Hence we
got into a habit of speaking of the leader under that name. In a Peking
Imperial Gazette of June, 1852, it was stated that Hung ta tseuen, who, under
the title of Teen tih, had been associated with Hung sew tseuen, the self-styled
Tae ping Prince, was taken as the rebels left Yung gan in Kwang se, and put

’ to death at Peking. That a man who had been captured at Yung gan was 80

executed, there can be little doubt; and that he had declared himself to be, as
Teen tih, an associate of the Tae ping Prince is very probable; for, death being
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 241

head. Besides him, there are four others that bear the title
of Prince: the Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern.
These would seem to have no direct military duties, but to
form a State Council. The chief military man is named
Yang sew tsing. The distinguishing mark of a private in
their army is a red cap or turban, composed of a single piece
of cloth; with squares of yellow cloth on breast and back,
with the name of their corps or division in black characters.
I enclose for Your Excellency’s inspection a red head-cloth,
and a back and breast-cloth, which circumstances make me

in any case inevitable, torture and the desire to die as a person of importance
would cause most Chinese, so situated, to make a confession to that effect. But
though the name obtained currency in this way throughout the country, and
has consequently appeared in all European books on China and the insurrec-
tion, that of M. Huc included ; nevertheless, after having questioned many of
the Tae pings at Nanking, inclusive of the Northern Prince, and after having
considered all that has been written on it by Europeans, as well as searched
the Tae ping books for traces of its suppression, I am fully convinced that no
such title, and consequently no person bearing such title, ever had existence
among the Tae pings themselves. The full title adopted by them for the new
State is “Tae ping teen kwoh, Heavenly Kingdom of Universal Peace.” But
while Tae ping (Universal Peace) is an old and greatly esteemed Chinese term
which can well be assumed as the title of a Chinese dynasty; the next words,
teen kwoh, in so far as their position is concerned, read like the title of an
individual monarch of that dynasty, just as we read, in Chinese dates, &c.,
Ta tsing taou kwang, ¢.¢. (the Emperor) Taou kwang of the Ta tsing dynasty.
Now, as Mr. Hamberg shows at page 87 of ‘“‘ The Rebel Chief,’ the Kih keas,
of whom the Society of Godworshippers consisted, pronounce Teen kwoh as
Teen kweh. Further, the title was first formally adopted by them in Yung gan,
of their doings in which city during the seven months they held it, their foes,
the blockading Imperialists, would get only the vaguest information. Under
all these circumstances, the sinologue will readily perceive how the mandarin-
pronouncing Imperialist Officers would fall into the error of substituting Teen
tih for Teen kweh, and consider it the title adopted by the rebel leader; also
how the error would spread from their camps to Canton and Hong Kong,
Every reader, sinologue or not, will perceive that, even if a person bearing
that title did exist, he was according to the “Imperial Gazette” itself, only a
subordinated associate of the “Tae ping Prince,” and was put to death ata
period when the rebellion was comparatively insignificant. But I repeat, there
never was any such person ; and readers who do not wish to confuse their ideas
must think only of Hung sew tseuen and the other individuals mentioned in my
narrative as the originators and sole chiefs of the rebellion. Teen tih is not
even a myth: he is a pure mistake.

R
242 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

believe genuine” [they were genuine]. “The one yellow cloth
bears the inscription ‘ Holy Warrior,’ the other that of ‘ First
front corps of Tae ping.’ A deserter when caught is carried
round the camp on a hand-barrow, and compelled to exhort
all ‘his brethren’ not to follow his example. He is then
decapitated. There is a regular plan of promotion, to which
military talents and administrative ability alone constitute
claims; but about’ the higher leaders none of the informants
could say much, except that their relative rank is marked
chiefly in the cap, and that the highest wore yellow. There
is a complete organization, by which every different kind of
service is attended to by special officials ; and those at Chin
keang have their respective titles written at the gates of the
Yamuns, temples, and large private houses which they occupy.
The strangest, and what will probably prove by far the most
important fact connected with them is, that they have got a
Sacred Book, which the chiefs and the older members of the
army not only peruse and repeat diligently themselves, but
earnestly admonish all new comers to learn.

« From high to low they eat in parties of eight, each party
having one table. Before seating themselves to eat all kneel,
and the chief person at the table devoutly repeats a consider-
able portion of this book. All the fugitives from Nanking,
Chin keang, and Yang chow agreed as to this circumstance of
reverent recitation by the whole army before meals, The insur-
gents declare that the book was sent down from Heaven.
The only passage obtained is, ‘Tsan mei shang te,’ which,
in the absence of context, I should translate, ‘Laud and
glorify God.’ [The translation was correct.] The fugitives
all say: ‘In short they are teen choo keaou teih, followers of
the doctrine of the Lord of Heaven.’ This is the appellative
taken by the Roman Catholics, but in the mouths of Chinese
from the interior, who know nothing of Christian sectarianism,
it means, Christians. Nothing was heard of ‘Teen choo,’
the term by which the Romanists render ‘God;’ and the
circumstance of the Book being said to be a direct revelation,
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 243

militates against the supposition of the insurgents being
Christians of any sect. Another striking fact, equally well
authenticated as that of the recitation before meals, is that
rape and adultery in the cities taken by storm are inexorably
punished by death. The different fugitives conversed with,
though anything but friendly to the insurgents, when ques-
tioned on this point all scouted, in the way one scouts some
outrageous calumny of one’s unfriends, the idea of rape
being permitted by them. On the contrary, all spoke in
terms of wonder, if not of respect, of their chastity. The
Chinese women found in Nanking and Chin keang are all,
young and old, shut up in separate buildings, and divided
into squads of twenty-five, of whom the senior is constituted
overseer, and according to which regular rations are served
out to them. They are employed in preparing ammunition.
No male, not even as father or husband, is allowed to enter
the buildings thus appropriated. Whoever does so is put to
death without further question. But the women were told
by the leaders that their separation from their husbands and
male relatives was only a temporary measure, and that as
soon as affairs were settled all would be re-united. Great
care is taken of all children that come into their possession.
The ragged are at once well clothed; and the boys are bar-
racked under special officials, by whom they are carefully
instructed in the knowledge of the Sacred Book and in the
use of arms. I have now only to add that all informants
declare opium-smoking to be punished by decapitation, and
even tobacco-smoking by bambooing; and Your Excellency
will perceive that there are in the scanty, but tolerably well
authenticated particulars ascertained, striking indications of
this movement being puritanic and religious, if not fanatical,
as well as patriotic and political. I should expect to find the
new faith a spiritualized monotheistic Confucianism, 7. e. the
hitherto existing excellent system of national ethics with the
addition of the two things wanting, a God and an immortal
life; these latter borrowed in reality from Christian missionary
R2

/
ig
244 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONE-

translations and writings, but now taught from the new Koran
of a Chinese prophet. I may add that all the idols at Nan-
king, Chin keang and Yang chow have been destroyed, and
all priests killed who have not made submission and allowed
the hair of their heads to grow, i.e. abjured. But at the
same time that I see indications of a strong religious feeling
or even of fanaticism, a careful consideration of all the various
acts attributed to the insurgents leads to the conclusion that
their laws and rules are the work of sagacious and well-regu-
lated minds; such laws and rules all tending to the gradual
but sure extension of their numbers from a daily increasing
nucleus of tried and devoted adherents, whether originally
volunteers or pressed men.”

The reader will remember that up to the time of this
excursion, though aware of the military progress of the rebels
from Kwang se to Nanking, we knew nothing of the religious
features of the movement. It was while collating, in my boat
on the Grand Canal, the scraps of intelligence procured, that
I caught the first glimpses of the fact; to which the successes
just achieved by the rebels imparted a vast significance. For
I saw, with that mixed feeling of admiration and awe which
fills us as we watch powerful forces working deep convulsions
and grand transformations in animate or inanimate nature,
that the Chinese people was imminently threatened with a
revolution far exceeding in profundity and gravity any change
it had undergone throughout its long duration of four thousand
years.

I immediately began my preparations for proceeding by the
Great River to a nearer examination of this, now more than
ever interesting movement. Apart from the deeper interest
they now excited, our original international reasons for wish-
ing to put ourselves into direct communication with the rebels,
had received additional force from the following proclamation,
a copy which I had brought with me from Chang chow; and
the falsity of which it was necessary to explain to people
whose operations had already produced grave effects on our
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 245

trade, and who had weighty claims to be regarded as an abiding
power in the country:

“CHANG, Prefect of the Department of Chang chow, in
the Province of Keang soo, hereby notifies that he has received
a note from the Prefect of Soo chow, stating :—

*“¢T have received a despatch from the Intendant at
Shanghae to the effect that of the ten and odd steamers
whose services his Excellency the Governor (of Keang soo)
has borrowed, the first division, consisting of five vessels,
having proceeded up the river to the encounter of the rebels,
passed the port of Fuh shan on the 2d instant; and instruct-
ing me to have it notified to the inhabitants along the river
that there is no cause to be alarmed at their appearance.’

«These instructions having reached me, I have to issue a
proclamation accordingly.

«T now, therefore, issue this notification, for the full infor-
mation of the inhabitants :—

“* The ships of the barbarian volunteers (braves) which have
been engaged* are strong, and their guns effective, while they
themselves are filled with a strong feeling of common hatred
to the rebels; in their desire to exterminate whom they pro-
vide themselves with necessaries at their own cost. Within
a definite period they will reach the portion of the river
beyond Chin keang, when there will be no difficulty in
sweeping off this detestable set. You, the people, have no
occasion for entertaining alarm, doubt, or fear. The gentry
and scholars are hereby authorized to point out for prosecu-
tion all persons who may invent false reports, tending to the
insecurity of regular occupations, and to whom no indulgence
will be shown. A special proclamation.” +

Some eight or ten months before the rebels reached

* The term employed implies, usually, that a pecuniary reward or induce-
ment is given, generally what we call a bounty, besides regular wages.”—
7. T. M.

+ This proclamation was printed with the Parliamentary Papers on the
Civil War in China, 1853.
246 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

Nanking, and when all was yet quiet in the sea-board pro-
vinces, I made an excursion to the island and the chief city
of Tsung ming, and from thence about fifty miles up the
Great River to a much-revered temple and pagoda lying on
the northern bank. This I did not perform in my own boat,
which being adapted only for the inner water navigation,
would have been foundered by the waves of the Great
River estuary, even in ordinary weather. I took two sailing-
boats called Kwan kwae, of which the larger description are
sufficiently sea-worthy to serve as pilot-boats. When
passing Woosung, the place where some six or eight large
foreign opium-ships lie in the Shanghae river just where it
falls into the Great River, the chief officer of one, Mr. E. A.
Reynolds, offered to accompany me on my trip. We were
nearly shipwrecked by a high wind driving us on to a lee
shore in our first attempt to enter at night the creek which
forms the port of the Tsung ming city; but were fortunate
enough to get off and enter safely at a second attempt. The
next morning, the weather being very hot, we engaged a
travelling wheelbarrow, a machine composed entirely of
wood, with one large wheel (cased in) in the centre, and a
seat at each side. We each took a side, and with one man
between the handles, and an extra man pulling at a rope,
wheeled off to the district city, a mile or two inland. No
foreigners had ever before visited it, unless some of the
Catholic missionaries did so 150 years ago. Even the shores
of the island had, I believe, not been trod on by any foreigners
since the British War, when some of our people were killed
in a fight with the islanders. The city is the station of a
Chinese vice-admiral, or lieutenant-general of marines, whose
forces are cantoned there. We walked round the ramparts ;
visited the established lions of a Chinese city, viz. the Yamuns,
whose outer courts are open to the public, the Public Service
Examination Hall and the City Temple; and then wheeled
back to our boats. From thence we sailed up the river to
the nearest point to the pagoda above mentioned, which is
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 247

called Lang shan. It lies about five miles inland from the
river, from which it is however a very conspicuous object,
being erected on the top of a conical hill, about three or four
hundred feet high, such as I have described as rising at
intervals out of the alluvial plain, and being itself about one
hundred feet in height. This place had also never been visited
by foreigners, and we in consequence created a great sensation.
As we wheeled along at an unusual pace, each on his own
barrow with two men and relays, the villages and hamlets
emptied themselves of their inhabitants of both sexes to see us.
The hill on which the pagoda stands has many picturesque tem-
ples on its sides, and, being a great resort of pilgrims, there is
no lack of inns and tea-houses atits foot. After having ascended
the pagoda and enjoyed the fine prospect from its top gal-
lery, we took some tea at the bottom of the hill, with only
two or three hundred people watching our every motion (the
houses are open in front in summer), and then returned to our
boats. I got back to Shanghae after an interesting trip of three
or four days; during which I had ample opportunity of seeing
that my shipmate, Mr. Reynolds, was a very good hand at
dealing with Chinese sea-going boats and boatmen. When I
therefore, in my Grand Canal excursion found myself deserted
at Soo chow by my boatmen, I wrote to Mr. Reynolds, then
living at Shanghae, to get a good Kwan kwae ready waiting
‘for me at a specified place in the river, and either be ready to
accompany me himself to Chin keang, or get one or two of his
acquaintances, like himself mates of opium-ships, to volunteer
for the service; my intention then being, if I did not succeed
in getting boatmen to take me on by the Canal, to return to
Shanghae privately, transfer everything from my own boat
to the Kwan kwae, and start by way of the Great River,
without intimation to any one. When I did eventually
return, I found a good boat in readiness and my former
companion glad to join in person in an excursion that
promised no little excitement. I was just busy with the
final preparations when Sir George Bonham resolved himself
248 THE CHINESE AND THEIR see

to ascend the river in the Hermes with my boat in tow. The
following were his reasons for this resolution, as given to the
Earl of Clarendon, after a statement of the substance of the
information that I had collected on the Grand Canal :—

“ The above, my Lord, embraces in a few words the best
and most reliable information it has been in my power to
gather since my arrival here. But as I am by no means
satisfied in regard to the intentions of the insurgents towards
foreigners, and as the former appear to be a more formidable
body than has hitherto been supposed, I am unwilling to rest
until I shall have obtained a declaration of those intentions,
more especially as I have the best evidence that the Shanghae
Intendant has spared no pains in spreading false rumours, and,
in short, in endeavouring, by every means in his power, to
induce the insurgents to believe that we are to take the part
of the Imperialists against them. He has, in his official
despatches to other mandarins, announced that we were
arming and despatching steamers to assist the Emperor's
troops at Nanking and Chin keang. The inclosed trans-
lation [that given above] of a proclamation, issued by the
Prefect of Chang chow will, I think, confirm the above
statements.

“Under these circumstances I have thought it expedient
that I should immediately proceed in Her Majesty’s sloop
Hermes up the Yang tsze keang, where my further pro-
ceedings, as regards reaching Chin keang and Nanking, must
be guided by circumstances. My present object is to explain
clearly to all parties that the British Government are for the
present neutral, and thereby undeceive the insurgents in
regard to the false statements made by the Shanghae Inten-
dant. Perhaps this measure will further have the effect of
inducing the Insurgent Chiefs to declare their intentions
towards foreigners, at all events it will enable me to convey
Mr. Meadows safely close to the scene of action, and prevent
any possibility of his being detained on his way..... ”*

* From the Parliamentary Papers on the Civil War in China.
EXCURSION ON THE GRAND CANAL. 249

Before closing this chapter, I give the following incident,
the account of which was obtained during our Grand Canal
excursion, from the principal actor himself, Tso, a native of
Shan se; a province which gives birth to the most enterprising
and wealthiest merchants engaged in the inland trade of
China. This man saw the Tae ping Western Prince, Seaou,
in Keang se on the Poyang Lake, near its northern extremity,
under the following circumstances :—

“Tso, who was about forty years of age, had three small
craft, each containing 300 peculs [about twenty tons] of
kernels of peach and other fruit-stones. They were sailing
quietly down the lake, bound for Nan chang, when they sud-
denly perceived a squadron of vessels coming toward them,
evidently containing ‘long-haired rebels.’ Two of Tso’s
vessels, in spite of his remonstrances, attempted flight, were
fired at and sunk, with total loss of crew and cargo. The
one in which Tso himself was did not fly. It was soon sur-
rounded, and he himself taken on board of a large passenger
craft of the kind used by officials and wealthy people. At the
end of the cabin, which was lined on both sides by spear and
sword men, sat a man of about forty years of age, of a florid
complexion, and dressed in a yellow jacket with embroidered

‘dragons, and a yellow cap with a white stone or pearl in
front. Tso accordingly gave him the title of Prince; and
afterwards found that his boatmen had learned from the train
of this personage, that he was Seaou, the Western Prince.

“ Tso kotowed several times to the Prince, who enquired
what part of the country he came from, and what he was
doing there. Tso told him that he had had three vessels
laden with fruit-stone kernels, which he was carrying to Nan
chang for sale; that ‘ His Highness had done him the
honor [mung wang yay] to sink two;’ and that he pro-
posed continuing his journey with the third. The Prince
said he must have the third for the public service. Tso
answered that ‘His Highness could not have it.’ His High-
ness raised his eyebrows in surprise, and said sternly:
250 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

‘What! I cannot have it!’ Tso hastened to appease by
explaining that he meant that he (Tso) would be reduced to
beggary if he lost his cargo. His respectful phraseology and
naive tone at last raised in the Prince a friendly feeling for
him. He said, ‘ Well then you had best come with me to
Kew keang and discharge your cargo for sale there.’ Tso
answered that upon His Highness’s honored approach Kew
keang had been deserted by the inhabitants. The Prince
then said: ‘But you don’t mean to assert that you will find
purchasers at Nan chang;’ to which Tso replied that ‘ His
Highness had not honored that place with his presence.’
His Highness then said that he must in any case have the
vessel. Tso replied that it was a very small one, and unfit
for His Highness’s use. His Highness answered that both
large and small were useful, each kind in its way; and the
matter ended by Tso’s goods being landed for him at the
place and his vessel being taken off. Tso then procured two
still-smaller vessels from a hamlet in the immediate vicinity,
and proceeded with them to Nan chang.”
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 251

CHAPTER XVII.

INTERCOURSE OF THE TAE PINGS WITH WESTERN FOREIGNERS.

Tue Hermes started on the 22d April, 1853, with the
Chinese boat under charge of Mr. Reynolds in tow.*

“On the 26th April, the difficulties of the intervening
navigation having been overcome, the Shanghae Intendant’s
fleet, of Macao Portuguese lorchas and Occidental vessels
manned by British and Americans, was passed lying at
anchor about twelve miles below Ching keang. At about
11 a.m. the Hermes anchored off Silver Island, where, ac-
cording to statements of Imperialist mandarins made the
day before, and assurances of fishermen who had just been
spoken to, the Rebels had an outpost. But on landing
in the Chinese boat I found in the temples only a few
priests.”

It was here that, for the second time, a sense of the
immense significance of the rebellious movement fell forcibly
on my mind. As I hurried rapidly through the deserted
courts and halls, I found everywhere on the spots which
are invariably occupied by enormous idols, only heaps of
the clay, that had formed portions of the gods of this famed
temple. Further, the few scared priests who followed my

* Unless otherwise stated, all those portions in this Chapter which are
inclosed in double commas are extracts either from my official reports to
H. M.’s Plenipotentiary, as given in the “ Parliamentary Papers on the Civil
War in China,” or from my contributions to the “ North China Herald,” written
(like the reports) immediately after our return, when the occurrences were
quite fresh in my memory. In the extracts from the “ Herald” I have substi-
tuted I for my name, and made a few similar alterations.
252 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

steps had the hair growing all over their heads, and told
me that the Rebels had prohibited them on pain of death
from practising the monastic rite of shaving. I thus had
direct evidence of that strictly anti-idolatrous spirit which I
had learnt on the Grand Canal to be a leading characteristic
of the rebels. There was, however, no time for musing
on the fate of faiths. “The assurance of the monks that
the rebels had no permanent post on the island but only
visited it occasionally seemed true. They, however, stated
that certain junks, lying opposite the north-eastern heights of
Chin keang about two miles farther up, were manned by
the Rebels. To these vessels I therefore repaired, but found
them unarmed, and occupied only by two or three men in
each, who declared themselves to be the original trading crews
compelled after their capture to lie at that spot. In the
meantime the steamer had weighed anchor and followed
my boat; and a great bustle was observed on shore.
One or two armed boats on the beach began firing guns,
and the Insurgent troops were seen running to man the
stockades both there and on the heights above. The cause
of all this was soon found not to be merely the appearance of
the Hermes, but the approach of the whole of the Intendant’s
fleet, which had weighed anchor and closely followed her;
and which appeared to have been sooner descried from the
heights than had been done from the steamer, owing to a
thick fog on the river which only then began to clear off.
The lorchas had all red flags, that at a little distance were
not to be distinguished from a faded British red-ensign;
and after the false proclamations that had been issued about
steamers, the Rebels naturally took the Hermes for the first
of an attacking squadron. ‘They accordingly opened a fire
on her, and as the fleet was rapidly nearing and a general
action imminent, no course was left but to steam on at once
to Nanking; which was done, after a note explanatory of the
circumstances had been handed to a boatman for delivery to
the Rebel Commanders. The Hermes continued to be fired
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 253

at from junks and stockades on both sides of the river till
she had passed Kwa chow ;* and we are told that the occa-
sional whizzing of round shot close over the awning of the
quarter-deck by no means detracted from the excitement
caused by the singular and highly picturesque scene in her
rear. As she had appeared in very suspicious company, and it
had become still more necessary than before to convince the
Insurgents of our neutrality, she did not even prepare
to return the fire directed against her.

* This portion of the Great River must at all times have
much interest. Out of the wide expanse of channel through
which the turbid waters of the third river in the world roll
rapidly towards the ocean, rise at the distance of three or
four miles from each other two high islands, covered with
temples and wood. Between these, known to foreigners as
Golden and Silver Islands, the north-eastern heights of Chin
keang, a high promontory, likewise capped with temple and
pagoda, overlooks the stream from the southern bank.+ The
islands were not occupied by the Rebels; but the promon-
tory and large portions of the river-banks underneath had
been fortified by stockades. Past Silver Island and up into
this scene the lorchas now advanced and, sailing close in-
shore, opened a vigorous and well-sustained fire on the
stockades and on the armed boats on and near the beach.
There were few guns in the latter, but these the Rebels,
nothing daunted by the sudden attack, coolly manned and
discharged on their advancing enemy. In the meantime
the noise of the cannonade was bringing down numbers
of their comrades from the city, the officers on horseback
and the men running along on foot. Many of these bore
banners, a few had matchlocks, but the great majority were
armed only with swords and spears. Yet they came rapidly

* It was here that I was complimented by the “shot on the Great River”
that the reader will find mentioned in Chapter III. of “ Civilization.”

+ See page 285, for some further description of this important and interest-
ing locality.
254 THE CHINESE AND THEIR EEBELEON):

down and planted themselves on the beach in the face
of the heavy fire with a boldness that excited the admiration
of our countrymen. The groups had a varied and lively
appearance, quite new in bodies of Chinese. Many of the
men had broad red sashes, all had coloured cloths for head-
dress, unless when the whole hair of the head was very long,
and the officers wore yellow or red hoods and jackets. One
of the latter, probably the Commandant of Chin keang, had
stationed himself in the most conspicuous position of the
locality: under a dome at the extremity of the promontory,
on which the iron pagoda stands. He had a number of
guards around and yellow banners planted near; while the
picturesque effect of the group was heightened, from time to
time, by the flash and smoke from a gun a yard or two lower
down.

“The Intendant’s fleet penetrated as far as Kwa chow,
the head of the Grand Canal on the northern bank, where
they were firing on the junks and stockades when the
Hermes, in her progress up the river, steamed beyond the
range of sight.”

I have already stated that this was the first intercourse of
the new Chinese Christians with the Protestant Christians of
the West; and if first impressions are the most durable, we
have no cause to expect them to think of us with any
friendly feeling. But as regards the immediate military
consequences, “ the result of the action, as subsequently
ascertained, was that the fleet retired to their original station,
after expending no small quantity of ammunition, taking
with them the five or six trading vessels anchored in the
midst of the river, but no armed prizes. They did not dare
to attempt a landing. One lorcha got aground at Silver
Island and had to signalize for assistance; whereon one of
her fellows returned, into which her crew after an hour or
two was transferred. The priests of the adjoining temples
said it was then about dark, and that they retired to their
dormitories for the night, but were soon roused by a loud

ae
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 255

report which shook their buildings, and on running out they
found the vessel in flames. This account was corroborated
by the Rebels, who said they had not approached her, and
that she must have been fired by her crew before being
deserted. So far as could be ascertained or perceived by
the Hermes on her return a week after, the attack had had
no other effect on the Rebels than to make them dispose
their grain junks in a position more protected by their
batteries, and to mount more guns in, and make material
additions to, the latter.”

As we were leaving the above fight behind us on the 26th,
we took two men out of one of the unarmed Rebel vessels, of
which several were flying up the river. This one had only
some four or five men on board of her. She was one of the
up-country trading craft that the Rebels had seized on their
way down to Nanking, and the two men we took were
a part of her original crew. They were, therefore, not “long
haired” rebels; but, viewing the cannonading through which
we had just passed, it was deemed expedient to take them to
Nanking, there to be used as the means of allaying any
alarm which our approach might create, and of so rendering
peaceful communication possible. As illiterate boatmen,
who had been but a few weeks with the Rebels, little infor-
mation was to be obtained from them. Of the Tae ping
religion they could tell me no more than I had learnt on the
Grand Canal; but they were able to corroborate the fact
that Yang sew tsing, the Eastern Prince, was the chief
military and political authority. The Heavenly Prince,
they said, was the acknowledged Sovereign, but he was
never seen, and spent his time in “ peen shoo, writing books.”
At first these men took the Hermes for a vessel of the
Imperial fleet; but when IJ had made them comprehend our
object, they were evidently not ill-pleased to get away from
the fighting and become the bearers of a message which, they
presently saw, would be a relief to the Rebels in the batteries
at Nanking. At dark the Hermes anchored about twelve
256 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

miles below that place. “During the night several large
timber-rafts passed her on fire. In the forenoon of the 27th
she anchored off the northern angle of Nanking, below the
first battery planted by the Insurgents to defend the entrance
to two creeks running under the walls, and in which lay
an immense number of large river junks. A great bustle
was observed on shore, and a gun or two in the battery
began firing at the steamer, but ceased when the two people
that had been taken the preceding day landed with a letter
explaining that she had come with no hostile intentions,
Shortly after, some eight or ten of the insurgents came along-
side in a small boat, the first to appear on the deck being a
good-looking young man, an officer, in a close fitting red
Chinese jacket, who from his long hair was evidently a genuine
“rebel” of old standing and who, as the first specimen of
these much discussed people met with, was viewed and ques-
tioned with some interest by our countrymen. Other boats
speedily followed, in one of which Mr. Reynolds took a
passage on shore; where he met with a civil reception from a
leader in charge of the stockaded battery that had just been
firing. In the meantime a reply having been received to
the note despatched on arrival, the Plenipotentiary sent
me on shore to open a communication with some more
influential leader.”

The reply just received, though from the leader who had
charge of the river batteries and the command over some
thousands of men, was illiterate ; but it was curious as show-
ing how thoroughly the theory of right to the sovereignty,
which I have expounded in Chapter II., is known even to
the less informed Chinese. The note sent on shore was in
the name of Capt. Fishbourne, and merely stated the fact of
the arrival of the Plenipotentiary and his wish to put himself
into communication with the persons in chief authority at
Nanking. But the reply entered at once into general ques-
tions, and laid down the “right to rebel.” The writer
stated that the Chinese had long wished to expel “the Tar-
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAK PINGS. 257

tars (Hoo noo or Huns),” but that “the Divine Commission
not having been taken from them,” they (the Chinese) were
constrained to await “ Heaven’s own time.” Now, however,
the Divine Commission had been conferred on the Chinese,”
and hence they were “ bound (puh tih puh) to do their duty
to Heaven by extirpating the demons (Manchoos) and aiding
in the establishment of their own Sovereign.” The reader
will do well to remember that, whatever the immediate
causes may be which induce Chinese to take up arms against
the Imperial Government at the present time, few would
venture to do it but for the existence of this grand old
national doctrine, as a justification.

I landed in one of the Hermes’ boats, and was accompa-
nied on the occasion by her second lieutenant, Mr. Spratt.
Feeling that it would only delay matters to get into talk
with our illiterate correspondent, “I requested to be con-
ducted to the highest authority to whom immediate access
could be obtained. After about half an hour’s walk, led by
one or two volunteer guides, and surrounded by numbers of
the Insurgent troops, we were stopped in front of a house in
the northern suburb. Our attendants here ranged them-
selves in two rows, forming an avenue of ten or fifteen yards
in length from the door of the house to ourselves. Two
persons clothed in yellow silk gowns and hoods then appeared
at the threshold, and the soldiers about called on me to
kneel. This I refused to do, but advanced and, uncovering,
told the two persons that I had been sent by Her Majesty’s
Plenipotentiary to make inquiries and arrangements respect-
ing a meeting between him and the chief authorities at Nan-
king. As they retreated into the house without giving any
reply, while the summons to kneel was being continued, and
Mr. Spratt was called on by words and gestures to lay aside
his sword, I, after recommending that gentleman to disre-
gard the requisition, deemed it advisable to follow the Chiefs
without awaiting invitation. I accordingly entered the house,
and, advancing to the spot where they had seated themselves,

s
258 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

on the only two chairs within sight, again y fonmell them of
the purpose for which I had come. Before I had well finished
I heard scuffling and angry shouting at the door behind me,
and the Chiefs crying out, ‘Ta!’ ‘Beat!’ two or three of
their armed followers commenced beating the man who
had been most prominent in guiding us there. One of the
Chiefs, whom I subsequently ascertained to be known as the
Northern Prince, then asked if I worshipped ‘God the
Heavenly Father?’ I replied that the English had done so
for eight or nine hundred years. On this he exchanged a
glance of consultation with his companion (the Assistant
Prince), and then ordered seats to be brought. After I and
my companion had seated ourselves, a conversation of con-
siderable length ensued between myself and the Northern
Prince, the first in rank of the two; the other, the As-
sistant Prince, listening and observing attentively, but saying
nothing to me directly, and only making a short remark
when looked to or addressed by his superordinate. The con-
versation on my part was turned chiefly on the number and
relative rank of the Insurgent Chiefs, and on the circum-
stances under which they would be prepared to meet Sir
George Bonham; but I also explained, as authorized, the
simple object of his visit, viz., to notify the desire of the
British Government to remain perfectly neutral in the
struggle between them and the Manchoos, and to learn
their feelings towards us and their intentions in the event
of their forces advancing on Shanghae. I explained to him
that we had no concern with the square-rigged vessels,
lorchas, and other craft that had followed the Hermes into
Chin keang; also that the proclamations of the Manchoo
officials, stating that they had engaged the services of a num-
ber of foreign steamers, were false in so far as British vessels
were included; and that though we could not prevent the
sale of English craft, private property, more than the sale of
manufactures generally, such craft, after sale, were not en-
titled to the use of the national colours.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 259

* To all this the Northern Prince listened, but made little
or no rejoinder; the conversation, in so far as directed by
him, consisting mainly of inquiries as to our religious beliefs
and expositions of their own. He stated that as children
and worshippers of one God we were all brethren ; and after
receiving my assurance that such had long been our view
also, inquired if I knew the ‘ Heavenly Rules’ (Teen teaou).
I replied that I was most likely acquainted with them, though
unable to recognise them under that name; and, after a mo-
ment’s thought, asked if they were ten in number. He
answered eagerly in the affirmative. I then began repeating
the substance of the first of the Ten Commandments, but
had not proceeded far before he laid his hand on my shoulder Vv
in a friendly way, and exclaimed, ‘ The same as ourselves!
the same as ourselves!’ while the simply observant expres-
sion on the face of his companion disappeared before one of
satisfaction as the two exchanged glances. He then stated,
with reference to my previous inquiry as to their feelings
and intentions towards the British, that not merely mee
peace exist between us, but that we might be intimate
friends. He added, we might now, at Nanking, land and
walk about where we pleased. He spoke repeatedly of a
foreigner at Canton, whom he named Lo ho sun, as being a
‘good man.’ He described this person as one who cured
the sick without remuneration, and as having been recently
home for a short period.* He recurred again and again,
with an appearance of much gratitude, to the circumstance
that he and his companions in arms had enjoyed the special
protection and aid of God, without which they could never
have been able to do what they had done against superior
numbers and resources; and alluding to our declaration of
neutrality and non-assistance to the Manchoos, said, with a
quiet air of thorough conviction, ‘It would be wrong for you
to help them; and, what is more, it would be ofnouse. Our

Le

* J afterwards ascertained that Lo ho sun was the Chinese name assumed by
Mr. Roberts. There cannot be a doubt that he was the person referred to.

82
260 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Heavenly Father helps us, and no one can fight with
Him.’

“ With respect to the proposed meeting, he pointed to one
of his officers standing near, and said the latter would come
on the following day to guide any who might choose to come
to an interview. I replied that such an arrangement might
do very well for myself and others, but that Sir George Bon-
ham was an officer of high rank in Her Britannic Majesty’s
service, and could certainly not proceed to any meeting un-
less it were previously settled where, by whom, and how he
was to be received. ‘ However high his rank may be,’ was
the reply, “he cannot be so high as the persons in whose
presence you are now sitting.’ And I could obtain nothing
more definite than that the reception would take place in a
yamun in the city, and that we should have no cause to take
objections to the station of the personages met. I said I should
make my report to his Excellency accordingly, but could not
answer for his landing. In reply to my inquiries respecting
the Tae ping Wang, the Prince of Peace, the Northern
Prince explained in writing that he was the ‘True Lord’
or Sovereign; that ‘the Lord of China is the Lord of the
whole world; he is the second Son of God, and all people in
the whole world must obey and follow him.’ As I read this
without remark, he said, looking at me interrogatively, ‘The
True Lord is not merely the Lord of China; he is not only
our Lord, he is your Lord also.’ As I still made no remark,
but merely kept looking at him, he did not think fit to insist
on an answer, and, after a while, turned his head, and began
talking of other matters. His conversation gave great reason
to conclude that though his religious beliefs were derived
from the writings, or it might even be the teachings, of
foreigners, still he was quite ignorant of the relative posi-
tions of foreign countries ; and had probably got most of his
notions of international dealings from the Chinese records of
periods when the territory of the present Empire was divided
into several States.”
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 261

These “Princes” were southern men speaking as their
native tongue a southern dialect, and I observed that it cost
the Northern Prince some effort to pronounce according to
the mandarin pronunciation. When I therefore began in-
quiring about Teen tih, I wrote these words with a pencil on
a sheet of memorandum paper to prevent misunderstanding.
After finishing with Teen tih, I wrote Tee ping, and again
handed the paper to the Northern Prince; upon which he
asked for the pencil also and wrote the words translated in
the text. Fortunately I have chanced to preserve an auto~
graph so curious. Mr. Hamberg and Mr. Roberts had
already heard at Hong Kong of the Rebels being a Christian
sect; but this was the first announcement to any foreigner
of the astounding claims put forward in behalf of the Hea-
venly Prince. The fact of the latter having, at the head of
eighty thousand men, taken Nanking and inexorably put to
death twenty to thirty thousand of those whom he regarded
as the born enemies of his people, made his supernatural
claim no truer indeed in my eyes, but it gave immense
political significance to what I should otherwise have merely
laughed at as the delusion of a fanatic.

We returned to our boat surrounded, as in coming, by
numbers of the armed crowd, but meeting with neither
molestation nor insult.

There would appear to have been some discussion and
division of opinion among the chief counsellors of the new
dynasty as to the precise course to be pursued toward us;
and it was probably the will of the Eastern Prince that de-
cided that the official who was to have acted as guide did not
appear, but, late in the afternoon, two others in his place,
with the following open and unsealed “ mandate: ”

“ A MANDATE.”

«Commands are hereby issued to the brethren from afar
that they may all understand the rules of ceremony.
262 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLLONS.

“« Whereas God the Heavenly Father has sent our Sove-
reign down on earth, as the true Sovereign of all nations
in the world, all people in the world who wish to appear at
his Court must yield obedience to the rules of ceremony.
They must prepare representations, stating who and what
they are, and from whence they come, after previous presen-
tation of which only can audience be accorded them. Obey
these commands.

‘24th day of the 3rd month of the 3rd year of the Hea-
venly State of Tae ping (28th April, 1853).

* Nore.—No seal is affixed because your petition of yes-
terday had none.”

It was manifest from this reassertion on paper of the
notion of universal supremacy enunciated the day before by
the Northern Prince, that we could not too soon begin to
disabuse them of it. I accordingly returned the paper with
a message to the senders, conveying in the plainest possible
terms our own views of full national equality with any and
every State. I may here mention that I was not, in any of
the conversations I had with the Tae pings, cramped by mere
interpreting. Sir George Bonham did not of course intend
seeing any officials of secondary or lesser rank, and did not,
it so happened, see any of the higher men. Hence though
I was the expounder of his views as to neutrality, &c., I was
free to select my own arguments and phraseology, unfettered
by purely English ideas and idioms. On the present occasion,
in order to make those two officers clearly aware of our inde-
pendent position hitherto at Hong Kong and the Five Ports,
I got out my copy in Chinese and English of our treaties
with the Manchoo Government; and, at the request of the
Plenipotentiary, it was eventually sent by their hands to
their superiors in his name.

During the whole of this and the following days, that the
Hermes lay off Nanking, her decks were crowded by a suc-
cession of curious visitors, officers as well as men; while there
was always a party sitting in my Chinese boat talking with
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 263

my clerks, Chang and Fang, my cook and servant. In this
way we had some amusing conversations, and learnt some par-
ticulars that could not be got in the official discussions. The
Great River at Nanking is upwards of a mile in breadth with
an average depth of fifteen fathoms. On the day of her
arrival the Hermes lay pretty close in-shore, on the Nanking
side; but at night, the Imperialists sending down a number of
large fire rafts, she was compelled to anchor fully three quarters
ofa mile off on the opposite side, out of the way of the strength
of the current, and therefore less exposed to such dangerous
visitors. Thither the Rebels came to usin open boats, which
seemed to belong to nobody, and of which there was great
abundance.

On the afternoon of the day after we returned the “ man-
date,” an intimation came on board to the effect that Lae, the
second of the Tae pings beneath those bearing the title of
Prince, had come down to the landing-place and wanted to
communicate. I at once despatched my man Chang to get
him to come on board if possible. Chang succeeded so well
in his mission that we soon saw Lae coming off in a fine up-
country travelling vessel bearing a large flag, and with a band
of music playing on the foredeck.

Lae, whom I may here introduce to the reader as that man
among the Tae ping leaders who showed most desire to esta-
blish friendly relations with the “foreign brethren,” at once
“ apologized for the tone of the mandate of the preceding day,
saying it had been drawn up by persons ignorant of the fact
that ‘Wae heung te, foreign brethren,’ could not be ad-
dressed in the same style as native brethren, I distinctly
explained to him that while the English had, for 900 years,
adored the Great Being whom he called the Heavenly Father,
they on earth acknowledged allegiance to but one Lord, the
Sovereign of the British Empire; and that, under no circum-
stances whatsoever, would they for an instant admit fealty to
any other; though they were quite prepared to recognise as
the Sovereign of the Chinese whomsoever the Chinese them-
264 THE CHINESE AND THEIR poe:

selves might choose or submit to as such. After this had
been fully assented to by Lae, I stated to him, at considerable
length, the circumstances of our desire to preserve neutrality,
of our having no connection with the vessels in the employ of
the Manchoo Government, &c. &c., as had been done to
the Northern and Assistant Princes two days before. After
this it was settled that Lae, or a lesser officer, Leang, who
accompanied him, should be in attendance at the landing-
place on the following day, at 11 a.M., with a sufficient
number of chairs and horses to convey Her Majesty’s Pleni-
potentiary, his suite, and some naval officers to the residences
of the Northern and Eastern Princes.

“On the 30th of April, the two officers, Lae and Leang,
came to the landing-place with chairs and horses as had
been arranged, but his Excellency sent to state, that the tem-
pestuous weather (which rendered it difficult to land dry) and
indisposition prevented his carrying out the intention of yes-
terday, and that I should in an hour or two land as the bearer
of a letter, communicating all that was to have been stated
verbally. I landed accordingly at 1 p.m., Captain Fishbourne
and Messrs. Woodgate and Burton accompanying me. Horses
were furnished at the landing-place, and we were guided into
the city, to a house oceupied as a Yamun, by the four officers
next in rank below those called Princes, Lae being of the
number. We found that the latter had, after leaving the
landing-place, gone to the Northern and Eastern Princes, and
had not yet returned to his residence. As one of the other
occupants was just then engaged in investigating a case of
rape, we found the place crowded with spectators, whose curi-
osity subjected us to some annoyance until the house-steward
procured us seats in an inner apartment. We waited here
about an hour, during which tea and other refreshments were
offered us, and an officer came from Lae to apologize for his
delay in appearing, and to beg us to attribute it to nothing
but to pressing business. Eventually we were received by
the Ching seang, his immediate superordinate, and three
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 265

others. I was explaining the nature of iy errand, and en-
deavouring to get them to take me either to the Northern or
Eastern Prince to deliver the letter, when Lae appeared.
He and the others pressed us very much to dine and sleep
there that night, engaging to take us to the Northern and
Eastern Princes on the following morning; but as we were
quite unprepared for this, I ultimately delivered the letter to
Lae, and we reached the Hermes again just before dark.”
The following was the letter in question :—

« Hermes, off Nanking, April 28, 1853.

“T received yesterday your message conveyed through the
Ministers sent on board for that purpose, to the effect that you
were willing to receive me in the city, in the event of my
being desirous of paying you a visit. It was at first my
intention to see you on shore, but the weather and other cir-
cumstances prevent my doing so, and, therefore, I have to
convey to you in writing the sentiments I should have com-
municated to you verbally had I visited you. Those sentiments
are to the following effect :—

“Our nation, the British, have had commercial dealings
with the Chinese at the port of Canton for upwards of 200
years; and about ten years back a Treaty of Peace and a set
of commercial regulations were agreed on, whereby British
merchants and other British subjects are entitled to erect
houses and dwell with their families at the five ports of
Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghae, and, on
due payment of the tariff duties, to carry on an unrestricted
commerce without let or hindrance. At each of the five
ports, British Consular officers are stationed, specially charged
with the authority over British subjects, and I have had the
honor to receive instructions from my Sovereign, whereby
I am stationed at Hong Kong, with the general control of
British subjects and affairs at the five ports, and it falls
within my province to arrange all international questions that
arise between the two States. This state of things has con-
266 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

tinued without change for more than ten years. Recently,
however, it came to my ears that a contest was going on
between the native Chinese and the Manchoos, and that you,
the Eastern Prince, had taken Nanking. A variety of reports,
connected with the subject, were in circulation, and certain of
the Manchoo authorities had issued a proclamation to the
effect that they had ‘borrowed the services of ten and odd
steamers of Western nations, which would proceed up the
Yang tsze to attack your forces.’ This is altogether false.
It is the established custom of our nation in no wise to inter-
fere with any contests that may take place in the countries
frequented by our subjects for commercial purposes. It is,
therefore, totally out of the question that we should now in
China lend the services of our steamers to give assistance in
the struggle. Of the lorchas hired by the Manchoo authori-
ties and the square-rigged vessels purchased by them I know
nothing ; British merchant vessels are not allowed to let their
services in such contest; but I cannot prevent the sale of
vessels, the private property of British subjects, still less those
of other nations, any more than I can prevent the sale of
cotton manufactures or other merchandise, with which it
stands on the same footing. Vessels once sold are, however;
not permitted to hoist our national colours, and British sub-
jects have no right to continue on board of the same in the
service of the Manchoo authorities, and will, under such cir-
cumstances, receive no protection whatever from our Govern-
ment. In shoft, it is our desire to remain perfectly neutral
in the conflict between you and the Manchoos. But our
nation has a large establishment at Shanghae, of dwelling-
houses, places for public worship, and warehouses, while the
port is frequented by numbers of our vessels. You, on the
other hand, have now reached Nanking, at no great distance
from Shanghae, and we hear it reported that it is the inten-
tion of your forces to proceed to Soochow, Sung keang, and
the neighbouring places. Under these circumstances it be-
comes desirable to know by what spirit you will be actuated
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 267

in your measures having relation to the British, in the event
of your proceeding to Shanghae.

“Tn conclusion I have only to add, that it is my intention
to proceed this afternoon a short distance up this river, and
as to-morrow is Sunday, and a day of rest, no business can
be transacted before Monday, when I shall be again at this
anchorage early in the morning, and ready to receive any
reply that you may have to give to the above communication.
At the same time should you or any one of the four Princes
see fit to come then on board to see the ship, I shall willingly
receive you and promise you a suitable reception and a safe
landing.

(Signed) “SS. G. Bonuam.”

The last paragraph of the above letter gives the chief cause
of our declining to pass the night in the city.

* At daylight on the Ist of May the Hermes got under
weigh and proceeded up the river. When about eight miles
above Nanking, some 15 or 20 river craft of the Canton build
and rig (centipedes) were observed ahead, getting their sails
up and going off asif in flight. They were at once perceived
to be the Imperialist upper flotilla. The rearmost was soon
closed with and called alongside. One of those in advance,
seeing her consort proceeding quietly to the steamer and see-
ing the latter stop, doubtless comprehended there was no
hostile intention, and therefore thought proper to fire a?gun
which sent its shot over the bows of the Hermes. The boat
that had been called alongside was sent on to tell the others
that there was no occasion either to fire or to move, as the
Hermes had come merely to get information as to the state of
affairs. She proceeded on this mission very leisurely, and as
two more shotted guns were fired by vessels she had spoken
to, Captain Fishbourne ordered the ports to be dropped and
the guns prepared. After this there was no more firing.
The vessels which composed the flotilla had been built at the
head of the Hoonan branch of the Great River and had been
268 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

following in the track of the Rebels down. They were found to
be manned altogether by Canton volunteer gunners or ‘cannon
braves,’ many of whom the mandarins have since stated to be
reclaimed pirates. There were no regular forces nor any
mandarins present, and each vessel was stated to be independ-
ent of the others. Several of the headmen or commanders
came on board the Hermes ; but no exact information respect-
ing the position and strength of the Imperial armies could be
obtained from them. One who had all the appearance and
manner of an impudent China-street shopkeeper was however
at pains to explain emphatically, and with an air of much
disgust, that the Rebels were ‘ Christians and robbers, robbers
and Christians.’ The Hermes anchored again off Nanking
about dark.”

Instead of lying, as I had hitherto done, alongside of the
steamer, I went to the Nanking side, where I lay during the
night among the Rebel craft; and before it was quite dark
Mr. Reynolds and myself had a ramble through a part of
their position. In doing so, we entered the office of a Sze
shwae or General of Division, and saw several men being en-
rolled, who had come in from the country to join the Tae
pings. My clerks dined with the officer in charge of that
particular portion of the river front in which our boatlay. He
was, I think, a Leu shwae (or Colonel commanding 525 men).
Both the General of Division and the Colonel had long hair,
but both were Hoonan men, who had joined the Tae pings
since their entrance into the Great River valley. The
Colonel almost complained to my people of the severity of
the discipline maintained. Negligence, not to speak of dis-
obedience, was, he said, punished with immediate decapita-
tion. As we had had several complete sets of the religious,
political and military publications of the Tae pings for some
days in our possession (I had asked the Northern Prince and
Lae to send us copies of all they had issued) we had now a
tolerably good notion of their principles and organization,
and were better able to put further questions.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 269

Early on the morning of the 3rd the following communi-
cation, written on a long piece of yellow silk, was received
on board :

cc OF
THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM OF TAE PING
BY

THE TRUE DIVINE COMMISSION,

WE,
YANG, SEAOU,

_ the Eastern Prince Ho nae the Western Prince,
Master,* Lord Healer of 2 Assistant Minister
Diseases, First Ministerand < and
Commmander of the Chief Second Commander of
Army ; the Chief Army ;

Hereby

issue a decree to the English from afar, who have hitherto
revered Heaven and have now come to give in their alle-
giance to our Sovereign, specially enjoining them to entertain
no doubts but to set their minds at rest.

* The Great God, the Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord
in the beginning created, in six days, heaven and earth, land
and sea, men and things; from that time till this, the whole
world has been one house, and all within the four seas have
been brethren; there can be no difference between man and
man, no distinction between high and low born. But from
the time that evil spirits entered into the hearts of men, they
have not acknowledged the great grace of God, the Heavenly
Father, in giving and sustaining life, neither have they ac-
knowledged the great merit of Jesus, the Heavenly Brother,
in the work of redemption ; and they have caused lumps of

* This title has no meaning in the Chinese language. The second name,

“sew,” of the Eastern Prince is composed of two other characters, ho and nae.
The title probably refers to his powers as a seer.
270 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOQNS.

clay, wood and stone to do strange things in this world.
Hence it was that the Tartars, the demon Huns, succeeded
in thievishly possessing themselves of our Heavenly country.

“ But happily the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother
have from early times displayed divine manifestations among
you English; and you have long revered and worshipped
God, the Heavenly Father, and Jesus, the Heavenly Brother,
so that the true doctrine has been preserved, and the gospel
has had its guardians.

“‘ Happily, now again, the Great God, the Heavenly Father,
the Supreme Lord has manifested His great grace. He sent
angels to take the Heavenly Prince, our Sovereign, up into
Heaven ; and there personally gave him power to sweep away
from the thirty-three heavens the evil spirits, whom he
expelled from thence into this nether world. Again, to our
great bliss, in the third month of the Mow shin year (April,
1848) the Great God, the Heavenly Father manifested His
great grace and compassion by descending on earth, and in
the ninth month (October) the Lord, the Saviour of the
world, the Heavenly Brother also manifested His great grace
and compassion by descending on earth. From that time,
for six years, the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother
have largely directed our affairs and helped us with a mighty
arm, displaying numberless manifestations and evidences,
exterminating a vast number of evil spirits and demons and
aiding our Heavenly Prince in assuming the sovereignty of
the world.

“ Now since you English have not held vast distances too
far, but have come to acknowledge allegiance here, not only
are the armies of our Heavenly Dynasty in great delight and
joy, but in the high heavens even, the Heavenly Father and
Heavenly Brother will also regard with pleasure this evidence
of your loyalty * and sincerity. We therefore issue this
special decree, permitting you the English chief, with the

* The Chinese word is that used to mark the proper feeling of a subject
towards his Sovereign.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 271

brethren under your superintendence, constant ingress and
egress in full accordance with your own inclination and wish,
whether to aid us in the extermination of the demons * or to
pursue as usual your commercial avocations. And it is our
earnest hope that you will, with us, achieve the merit of
diligently serving our Sovereign, and, with us, repay the
goodness of the Father of souls.

“We now bestow upon you English the new Books of
Declarations of the Tae ping dynasty, in order that the whole
world may learn to revere and worship the Heavenly Father
and Heavenly Brother; and also know where the Heavenly
Prince exists, so that all may offer their congratulations
where the true commission (to rule) has fallen.

“A special decree for the information of all men, given
this twenty-sixth day of the third month of the Kwei haou
year (1st May, 1853,) of the Heavenly Kingdom of Tae
ping.”

Lae, the second officer beneath the Princes, followed the
above communication on board of the Hermes. I have little
doubt that the assertion of the universal supremacy of the
Heavenly Prince which it contained was made contrary to
his advice. It was to him that I had, but three days before,
distinctly expounded the international doctrine of the perfect
equality of independent States and their Sovereigns. I had
shown him that in point of rank the Sovereign of even the
smallest Christian State was considered on an equality with
that of the largest; and that the idea of our Sovereign, who
was at the head of one of the most powerful States in the
world, being in any manner or respect beneath any Chinese
Sovereign was not for a moment to be entertained, being in
fact absurd. I had seen that in mind as well as in words he
had assented to this, for him quite novel doctrine; and my
opinion was that he came off to the Hermes after the above
“Decree,” in the wish to soften the effect which its reasser-

» All opposers of Hung sew tseuen’s mission are held to belong to the king-
dom of the devil, and are called ‘ demons.”
272 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
°

tion of supremacy was sure to produce. But it was intimated
to him by order of the Plenipotentiary, that the contents of
the “Decree” were such as to render further discussion
useless; that an answer would be given immediately; and
that we should leave at 4 p.m. He departed, and the answer
followed him soon after by the hands of a young aide-de-camp,
whom he had left to bring it. It was as follows:

* T have received your communication, part of which I am
unable to understand, and especially that portion which
implies that the English are subordinate to your Sovereign.
Owing to its contents, I am now compelled to remind you
that my nation, by Treaty entered into with the Chinese
Government, has obtained the right of trading at the five
ports of Canton, Foochow, Amoy, Ningpo and Shanghae;
and that if you or any other people presume to injure, in
any manner, the persons or property of British subjects,
immediate steps will be taken to resent the injury in the
same manner as similar injuries were resented ten years ago,
resulting in the capture of Chin kiang, Nanking, and the
neighbouring cities, and in the Treaty of Peace, the condi-
tions of which you will have learnt from the copy sent to
you the day before yesterday.

(Signed) «S$. G. Bonnam.”

Shortly after this letter was taken ashore, we saw one of
the yellow-clothed Princes and another leader in a yellow
jacket and red gown ride in great haste down to the
river bank; whither, it presently appeared, they had come
for the purpose of urging on the completion of a ditch and
stockade from the river to the city walls on the western side
of their position. This was the side nearest the Imperial
flotilla, which the Hermes had visited the day before; and
it was plain that that visit, coupled with the tone of our
letter of the succeeding morning, had led them to apprehend
a combined attack. ‘The two leaders ascended the high
stern of one of the vessels which were lying with their heads

 
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 273

touching the bank; and I then with the help of a glass made
them out to be the Northern Prince whom I saw on the day
of our arrival, and the Ching seang, the officer next in rank
to the Princes, whom we had seen in the city. From the
stern of the vessel they could at once see up the river, and
at the same time get the best view of the men laboring at
the trench and stockade where these works abutted on the
bank. There were as many men employed as could get at
the work, several of the officers in their short yellow jackets
with broad scarlet borders laboring with the spade or the
pile-driver to stimulate the others. <A large state umbrella
was held over the head of the Northern Prince, who was
attended by aide-de-camps and body guards in scarlet-
bordered yellow jackets; and this group together with the
men and officers laboring like ants at the trench and stockade
formed a very peculiar and striking sight.

The Hermes started at 4: P.m., on the 2nd May, anchored</
for the night some distance above Kwa chow and Chin keang,
the former of which places we reached early in the forenoon
of the 8rd. Before Lae left us on the preceding day, I had
explained to him that in ascending the river the Hermes,
though fired upon several times, had not returned the fire
because she had appeared under suspicious circumstances ;
but that now all parties having been made fully aware of
the pacific nature of her visit, any future firing at Chin
keang or other places must be returned. “In reply he
stated, that no thought need be taken on that score as
communications had, since the arrival of the vessel, been
exchanged with Chin keang, and that the nature of her
position to the Tae pings was there well known. The com-
munications in question would not appear, however, to have
been acted on with sufficient promptitude by publication to
the forces generally: for on the approach of the Hermes to
the stockaded batteries erected to protect the entrance of
the Grand Canal at Kwa chow she was fired at; and, so
far as could be judged on after inquiry and consideration,

T
274 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBEDLICRS

it was done merely in pursuance of general orders to resist
all attempts of other than their own people to pass their
lines. In every case the attack could not have been pre-
meditated on the part of the higher officers, as many of the
guns in the stockades were not manned. Enough were,
however, in readiness in the first stockade and the adjoining
junks to enable them to discharge five or six shots before
Capt. Fishbourne’s order to load, and run out the guns could
be carried into effect. The Hermes then began to return
the fire, proceeding at the same time slowly down the river,
carried by the current and either steaming easily, or, occa-
sionally, with her engines stopped to permit of a better aim
at some more conspicuous assailant. After passing the
stockades that lined the Kwa chow side of the river, she
had to sustain a similar fire from those on the Chin keang
side, distributing in return some forty or fifty round shot
and a few shell; after which she anchored off Silver Island,
about two miles below the fortified heights. Within an
hour afterward, a letter of a civil and pacific character,
evidently prepared some days before, was brought down by
a messenger to the bank opposite and sent on board by
a fishing boat. While the answer to this was being written,
a group containing several yellow-jacketed leaders was
observed collecting on the bank and making signs of a desire
to communicate. I was accordingly sent on shore, and found
it was the rebel general Lo ta kang, who explained that the
fire had been opened at Kwa chow by mistake by some new
troops, who were not aware of our having been in peaceful
communication with their Princes at Nanking. He stated
that, on hearing the noise of the firing, he had hurried down
from the city of Chin keang to the stockades to stop it.
I told him, as instructed, that Her Majesty’s Plenipotentiary
was still willing to continue neutral, but that all acts of
aggression would be repelled by force, and might compel the
British Government to side with the Manchoos. He asked
why we, who had an old enmity with the Manchoos, and
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 275

were on the other hand brethren of his party, inasmuch as
we acknowledge the same God and Christ, did not rather
aid the latter. I replied that it was an established rule of
the British Government not to interfere with the internal
struggles of foreign states; moreover, that though we had
been at war with the Manchoos, we had concluded a treaty
of peace with them, and could not therefore take arms
against them without breaking our plighted faith. He then
introduced the subject of opium, saying we ought not to sell
it. I replied that it was with the opium as with the vessels
bought by the Manchoo officials, the British Government
took no cognizance of it, but left it to the Chinese authorities
to deal with those found engaged in the traffic as they
thought fit. Iinvited him to accompany me on board, assuring
him of a safe landing whenever he pleased, but he declined.
I then asked for one of their people to come on board, in
order to take back a reply to their letter. Three volunteered
at once, one of whom was found to be a Meaoutsze or inde-
pendent aboriginal mountaineer from Kwei chow. He was
a middlesized young man, of earnest gesture and expression.
He spoke mandarin purely but with some effort, like a
foreigner. He said 3,000 of his people were with the Tae
pings, and spoke with pride of the fact that they had never
submitted to the rule of the Manchoos; in proof whereof he
showed his long hair, not shortened by shaving from his
youth up. When the letter was handed to him, he promised
to bring an answer within an hour, and kept his word by
riding down with it within that period in a heavy rain.”

In the preceding paragraph it is stated, that the first letter
received from the Chin keang commanders had “ evidently
been prepared some days before.” It had been so prepared in
consequence of one of my people having in our Grand Canal
excursion succeeded in discovering two emissaries of the Tae
pings who had been sent from Chin keang with a letter to a
person in Soochow. They were pressed men, i. e. two of
the original residents of Chin keang for whose faithfulness

T2
276 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

in discharging the duty and returning to that city the lives
of their relatives there were to stand security. That my
man should have detected in these two persons emissaries of
the “ long haired rebels,” and should have then, in order to
gain their confidence, been the first to disclose himself as an
agent of the barbarians, and all in a part of the country
filled with Imperial troops, was no slight proof of discern-
ment and courage. These men declined to be the bearers of
any lengthened communication, but they did undertake to
convey to the leaders at Chin keang a short letter stating that
the British intended to observe neutrality in the struggle then
going on, and that though our steamers would probably sooner
or later ascend the Great River to their positions, it would
only be to make inquiries, not to assist the Imperialists. The
letter further pointed out how the rebel commanders could
enter into a correspondence with the British authorities at
Shanghae ; and requested if any communication was sent, that
these two emissaries might, as known people, be its bearers.
It was at the wish of the two men themselves that this
request was made. They were anxious to be sent away
again from Chin keang at atime when they thought it likely
that that place might be attacked and stormed by the
Imperialists. We had therefore no doubt that they would
deliver the letter, but could not even surmise what the result
would be, as we then knew nothing of the rebel leaders,
except what is stated at the close of the preceding chapter.
It would appear that the request at the end of the letter
made the Tae pings regard the whole thing as a ruse on the
part of the two men to get away from the place. But when
a British steamer did afterwards actually pass up without
returning the fire directed on her, their story gained credence ;
and a letter was prepared in three copies, each contained in
a handsome yellow silk envelope carefully sealed, and all of
which were despatched on board the Hermes as soon as it
was perceived that she had anchored off Silver Island.

I subjoin the substance of it only; for, though carefully
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 277

prepared, it is in a literary point of view somewhat deficient ;
so much so that a translation is less likely to be informing
to the English reader than an abstract. Lo ta kang, the
commandant of Chin keang, has been mentioned in page 152
as originally a Triad Society rebel leader, who joined the
Tae pings in Kwangse. Though one of their best generals,
and therefore placed in charge of a position at once so
exposed and so important as Chin keang, his literary attain-
ments were of the scantiest; and there were in consequence
manifest signs of some confusion in the Chin keang secretariat.

His letter commenced with the national justification of the
rebellion. The Divine Commission to rule had been con-
ferred on the Heavenly Prince with the special mission of
destroying the Tartars. When the Will of Heaven was
fixed, it was vain for man to make opposition; and it was
the duty of the loyal and patriotic to, exert themselves in
behalf of the Divinely Appointed. When the affairs of the
Tartars were in a flourishing state, they had, contrary to the
wishes of the Chinese, shown themselves opposed to the
English, who had in consequence levied a rightful war
against them. Nevertheless, these same Tartars were now,
when in straits, mean enough to apply to their former adver-
saries for aid; and were endeavouring to make the British
and Chinese mutual enemies. Mention was then made of
some of the British Commanders during hostilities at Canton,
as if Lo ta kang had there been acquainted with them, but
the phraseology of the letter is in this portion of that formal
complimentary kind which must not be taken literally.
Reference was next made to the letter sent from the Grand
Canal, to which it was stated an answer had been despatched.
When the Hermes appeared, a few days before, it was sup-
posed that it had come with a rejoinder; and hence the fire
directed against her (by the subordinates in the batteries)
had been stopped. But as no rejoinder had been brought, it
was concluded that his (the Commandant’s) reply had not
reached its destination. Hence another (the present) letter
278 THE CHINESE AND THEIR BESEEIAONS

had been prepared for the British Civil and Military Autho-
rities with the view of cultivating friendly relations with
them; so that they might obey the will of the Heavenly
Father, and achieve the (dynastic) merit* of diligently
serving the True Sovereign; who would make no distinc-
tions, but would reward all in like manner. If, however, we
allowed ourselves to be cheated by the demon Huns into
aiding them, then it was hoped that we would give a reply
distinctly announcing such our intentions.

To this an answer was sent by the Meaou tsze, summarily
stating the circumstances under which the Hermes had first
passed up; our notification of neutrality to the Princes at
Nanking ; that we were still disposed to preserve neutrality ;
but that all firing directed against us would be returned.

General Lo ta kang’s rejoinder to this was to the effect
that the current reports about the Tartars having procured
our assistance, and the necessity of being watchful, had led
to some new troops opening fire upon us in misapprehension
of the actual circumstances in our case; but that the true
circumstances having now been made known, nothing of the
kind would again occur.

The tone of all these letters, as well as of the language
and personal bearing of Lo ta kang himself, was perfectly
courteous, without being in the slightest degree mean. He
had, as he himself told me, “ seen us fight” at Canton, but
his knowledge of the British, excepting as formidable adver-
saries, was very limited; and, this considered, his conduct
was that of a brave but sagacious and prudent man who was
anxious to avoid increasing the difficulties of his position.
The following passage, which I translate from Guizot’s
“République d’Angleterre,” seems to me, indeed, to be
exceedingly well applicable to most of the Tae ping leaders,
and to this man in particular:

“Jn the midst of numerous marks of inexperience and

* The Chinese word expresses that kind of merit which consists more
especially in securing the rightful sovereign in possession of the Throne.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 279

some arrogant fancies the conduct of the republican leaders
in their foreign policy showed'as much reserve as pride, an
intelligent prudence, and the desire to be at peace without,
in order not to aggravate the difficulties and burdens of their
government within.”

When the Meaou tsze rode down with the last letter, I
landed to receive it, immediately after which the Hermes
started for Shanghae; and so was closed the first act of
British diplomacy in our relations with the Tae pings.

I am happy to think that, while desirous of going further
even than we did in repelling their notions of universal
supremacy, as not less baneful to themselves than insufferable
by us, I nevertheless succeeded, in so far as I was personally
concerned, in making a favourable impression on those with
whom I came into contact. It was, indeed, with me no
difficult task. Their claim of dynastic supremacy was, in so
far as we were nationally concerned, the only objectionable
feature of their policy, of which it did not moreover appear
to me to be an absolutely essential element. I felt that, if
met by firm and reasoning repudiation on our part, it would
be given up with their increase in geographical and inter-
national knowledge. As to the rest, I knew that the old
Chinese, with their scholars the Manchoos, acted on the
historically formed conviction that the best policy with
respect to powerful barbarians was to pacify them, when
necessary, by granting them material benefits in the way of
trade, &c. &c.; but always to accompany such concessions by
restrictions, and in particular by a cold, reserved dignity of
demeanour intended to keep them ata distance. I have an
authoritative Chinese work in my possession in which this
policy is distinctly enunciated; and I had had, in the course
of a ten years’ constant dealing with mandarins of all ranks,
ample opportunity to observe that it was practically acted on,
with forethought and deliberation. It had long been clear
to me that, in order to obtain from the existing Chinese
government a more extended intercourse and additional com-
280 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

mercial privileges, mere reasoning on the mutual advantages
might prove unavailing for generations, and that, if obtained
at all, it would have to be by foree—by war in one shape or
the other, a method of international action to which the
British public was wisely becoming more and more averse.
But these new Chinese Christians, so far from being likely to
apply to us the historically established national policy towards
“barbarians,” had not only formally ceased to call us by that
name, but were, in the very books in which they asserted
their right to the sovereignty of the country, pointing to us
as the preservers of the highest truths throughout long
centuries, during which the Chinese had been the victims of
blinded religious ignorance. And they were moreover
earnestly inculcating, as one of their fundamental doctrines,
the perfect equality of all human beings as children of the
“ Father of Souls;” and were distinctly deducing from that
doctrine the practical duty, to which it so obviously points,
of liberal dealing and free intercourse among all those nations
who as children and worshippers of the One True God had
become spiritual “brethren.” I saw, therefore, that if these
people succeeded in their difficult enterprise of establishing
themselves in the sovereignty of the country, the few pre-
judices which might cling to the present generation in spite
of themselves must eventually disappear before such deep-
seated principles of assimilation; and that, with their success,
a totally unhoped-for prospect would open to us of obtaining,
by purely amicable means, complete freedom of commercial
action throughout the whole of the Chinese Empire ; provided
always we did not in the meantime give them just ground of
mortal offence when struggling with the dangers of their
early career.

The possibility of establishing durable friendly relations
and a free and mutually advantageous intercourse with China,
through the medium of these new Chinese Christians, had
struck my mind so forcibly before my interview with the
Northern Prince closed, that I spoke to him in a way and witb
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 281

%
an earnestness in which I shall probably never speak to any
person during the remainder of my life—all with the view of
creating a favourable first impression, and of preventing an
opportunity, such as might never again occur, from passing
unused. The official report, given above, of our conversation
contains merely the diplomatic facts. It was originally my
intention to have added all that I remember of what passed ;
but as the rebel “ Prince” may yet be an acknowledged
Imperial Prince of the Chinese Empire I think it best to
preserve silence. He had never spoken with an Occidental
foreigner till he saw me, and it was clear, from his own
language and demeanour, that when I left he was not disposed
to think unfavourably of us. With Lae also I parted good
friends. While it was evident from the manner of several
of his colleagues, that they were desirous of keeping on good
terms with us only out of policy, I am much inclined to
believe that Lae was, as one of the first Kwangse converts
of Fung yun san and a devoted member of the new Christian
community, actuated by a genuine sympathy for his “ foreign
brethren.” It was he whom I particularized at the time in
the following passage,* descriptive of the old Tae pings
generally :—

« Their moral code, the Rebels call the ‘ Heavenly Rules ;’
which on examination proved to be the Ten Commandments.
The observance of these is strictly enforced by the leaders
of the movement, chiefly Kwang tung and Kwang se men,
who are not merely formal professors of a religious system,
but practical and spiritual Christians, deeply influenced by
the belief that God is always with them. The hardships
they have suffered, and the dangers they have incurred, are
punishments and trials of their Heavenly Father; the suc-
cesses they have achieved, are instances of His Grace. In
conversation they ‘bore’ the more worldly minded by con-
stant recurrence to that special attention of the Almighty
of which they believe themselves to be the objects. With

* An extract from my contributions to the “ North China Herald.”
282 THE CHINESE AND THEIR SEP

proud humility and with the glistening eyes of gratitude, they
point back to the fact that at the beginning of their enter-
prise some four years ago, they numbered but one or two
hundred, and that, except for the direct help of their
Heavenly Father, they never could have done what they
have done.

“«They,’ said one, speaking of the Imperialists, ‘ spread
all kinds of lies about us. They say we employ magical
arts: the only kind of magic we have used is prayer to God,
In Kwang se, when we occupied Yung Gan, we were sorely
pressed: there was then only some two or three thousand of
us. We were beset on all sides by much greater numbers;
we had no powder left and our provisions were all done.
But our Heavenly Father came down and showed us the
way to break out. So we put our wives and children in the
middle, and not only forced a passage but completely beat
our enemies.’ After a short pause he added— If it be the
will of God that our Tae ping Prince shall be the Sovereign
of China he will be the Sovereign of China. If not, then
we will die here.’

“The man who used this language of courageous fidelity
to the cause in every extreme, and of confidence in God, was
a shrivelled up, elderly, little individual, who made an odd
figure in his yellow and red hood. But he could think the
thoughts and speak the speech of a hero. He and others
like him have succeeded in infusing their own sentiments of
courage and morality to no slight extent, considering the
materials operated upon, into the minds of their adherents.”

Lae was the first leader of rank who came on board the
Hermes, and the highest who did come on board. The
courage and devotion which this act implied may not be
at once apparent to the English reader. But it must be
remembered that the proclamations of the Imperialists had
announced the approach of foreign steamers to help them;
also that the Tae pings had, in their ignorance of foreigners,
no means whatever of judging that the Hermes was not such
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 283

a steamer, which had come to Nanking under false pretences
in order to entrap their chiefs on board and take them off for
sale to the Imperialists, who would have paid very highly for
some of them. All this must have been on Lae’s mind;
nevertheless he came off to us with no better guarantee of
safety than the assurances of my clerk Chang, which I believe
the latter volunteered, Lae not having himself descended to
enquiries about the matter. Shortly before he left us, after
our receipt of the unfortunate yellow silk ‘‘ Decree,” I
presented him with a telescope. The eagerness with which
he, on getting it, at once broke off the discussion in which we
were engaged, and hastened on deck to acquaint himself with
its uses, Showed the value he set upon the instrument. There
was not another in the possession of the Tae pings, he said ;
and, when the reader bears in mind the important part that
telescopes play in military operations, he will see the great
practical value of my gift apart from its symbolical quality as
an expression of goodwill.

Exactly one month after the above narrated occurrences,
Dr. Taylor, an American medical missionary, ascended the
river in a China boat till within two miles of Chin keang
when, his men refusing to go farther, he landed and walked
up to the position of the Tae pings; by whom he was well
received. He remained with them three days, during which
he was entertained at the residence of the Commandant
Lo ta kang. He took with him some Christian publications
together with a stock of medicines, and treated many of the
garrision medically and surgically. Unfortunately Dr. Taylor
spoke only the Shanghae patois, while Lo ta kang and the
other Kwang tung and Kwang se men speak the dialect of
these two provinces and the mandarin. He was therefore not
able to get so much information as his bold visit and good
offices would otherwise have enabled him to procure. The
following extract from his narrative in the “North China
Herald” contains the most interesting circumstances observed
by him :—
284 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

“We understand our friend was present at their worship,
which he describes as consisting of chaunting hymns and
doxologies in a very solemn manner whilst those engaged in
it remained seated. After that, all kneeled apparently with
much reverence, closing their eyes while one of their number
uttered an audible prayer. Their chaunting was accom-
panied with the usual dissonant instruments employed by
Chinese at their festivals. These acts of worship were
repeated twice or thrice a day, and included in them grace
before meat; and immediately afterwards, they proceeded to
the tables without further ceremony. Doctor Taylor saw no
females, and on enquiry was informed they were all at Nan-
king. He saw tables placed with bowls of various kinds of
food, as offerings to the Supreme Being; among which were
three bowls of tea, one for each person of the Trinity. He
was struck with the calm and earnest enthusiasm that per-
vaded the entire body, and the perfect confidence evinced in
the justice of their cause and its final success.”

During this period the Shanghae Intendant Woo did not
relax his endeavours to maintain a squadron of square rigged
vessels manned by Occidentals, in addition to twelve or fifteen
Macao lorchas, to aid the Imperial Chinese fleet in blockading
Chin keang; and, in consequence of the high wages offered,
seamen deserted from the men-of-war as well as from the
merchantmen lying at Shanghae. As one means of putting
a stop to this evil, Capt. Fishbourne determined to send an
officer with a party of seamen and marines up to the Imperial
fleet in order to search it for certain deserters; and as this
formed an excellent opportunity for getting some direct and
reliable information respecting the state of affairs, my official
chief Mr. Alcock detached me with the party for that purpose.

We started in four boats, in one of which was myself, with
my body servant and cook aft; in another, my two clerks
Chang and Fang ; in the third, a lieutenant, Mr. Spratt, and
a midshipman, Mr. Williams, of the Hermes, with a ship's
boy, Spratt’s servant; and in the fourth, four marine artil-
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 285

lerymen and two seamen. ‘With the details connected with
these latter I had of course nothing to do; but the general
command of the expedition was officially allotted to me.
This circumstance, together with the fact of the boats being
all navigated by Chinese, but by Chinese who had never
been up the Great River, made me virtual Commodore of a
small squadron on the way to Chin keang and back, in addi-
tion to my proper function of international agent in dealing
with the Tae ping and Imperialist commanders in and around
Chin keang. With the exception of one dark night, during
which I was anxious to get to the district city of Keang yin,
and in which by the help of a pocket compass and a chart that
I had taken with me, I did guide our squadron into the
affluent on which it lies, we always anchored at night. In
the day time, my real business being to obtain information,
I always stopped when there was a town or city to visit or
when, as we approached Chin keang, there was a hill com-
manding a good prospect. The expedition lasted in this way
for fourteen days, several of which were spent at and near
Chin keang, chiefly at the temple wharf on the southern
side of the picturesque Silver Island. This was strictly
speaking within the Imperialist lines, for on the northern
side of the island lay the seventy Imperialist vessels one
astern of the other, the Macao lorchas being nearest the Tae
pings; but the river between us and the latter was quite
clear.

Silver Island lies at a point in the Great River where the
latter describes nearly a right angle. Straight westward,
about two miles above Silver Island, lies Chin keang ; straight
southward, about three miles delow Silver Island, lies the town
of Tan too, at a point where the Grand Canal comes so close
to the Great River that a passage of only three quarters of
a mile in length joins the two. From this place the Grand
Canal goes off in a north-westerly direction to Chin keang,
forming with the passage just named an irregular hypothe-
nue, some four miles in length, to the right angle described
286 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

by the River. Across this hypothenuse the Imperialist camps
were established, within long gun shot of Chin keang. They
thus commanded the Grand Canal, as the fleet at Silver
Island commanded the Great River. It was at the' point
where the River was joined by the Tan too passage that the
chief civilian having the general charge of the besieging
operations, and his suite, lay in some half dozen large river
travelling vessels. Whether the Tae pings broke out by
land or by the River, he had in each case ample time to slip
cable and fly down with the rapid stream of the latter. In
the day time he sailed occasionally up to the fleet, but at
night always returned to his safe position. He was a Man-
choo, one of the most polished and cultivated I ever met.
His name was Lin; he was then Superintendent of Finances,
but he had formerly been Intendant at Shanghae, and I
knew him well.

At the time we left Shanghae, a fifth boat, containing an
unattached or expectant Chinese civilian, Hoo, started also
and partly kept company with us. This mandarin, Hoo, had
been deputed by the Intendant to communicate with Super-
intendent Lin, and insure our being allowed to search the
fleet; without which there was likely to be serious trouble
with the British officers at Shanghae. I had not the remotest
hope of finding the missing men; because, if actually with
the fleet, there was nothing to prevent them sitting hidden
among the tall water-reeds on the bank, where they could
laugh in safety at our formal search; but I knew that the
trouble to which that operation would put the mandarins,
joined to their uncertainty as to what odd thing the barba-
rians would neat do, if desertion increased, would form our
best guarantee for their not enticing any men away. The
following narrative of our doings is almost altogether com-
piled from my boat journal and my official report of the
expedition.

At about 4 p.m. on the 29th June, our flotilla moored at
Silver Island quay. The place being now commanded by
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 287

the Imperialists, we found more of the priests here than
when we passed in the Hermes two months before; but none
of the idols had been replaced, and in the interior the temples
had their former desolate look. With one of the priests
I had a good deal of conversation, during our three days’
stay, about Buddhism, the Tae ping Christians, and the state
of the country. He was a very well educated man who,
being tired of the world, had withdrawn from a respectable
position in it, to end his days in quiet in the monastery
here.

On this, the day of our arrival, I did not in passing Tan too
call on Superintendent Lin. I left it to the mandarin Hoo
to settle about the search. At seven o’clock Hoo joined us;
and it was arranged that after our breakfast the next morn-
ing, we should go in our boats to the vessel of Admiral Le,
in the fleet on the other side of the island. Earlier than that,
Hoo said he would not be out of bed. Hoo at first wanted me
to go round and lie astern of the Admiral’s vessel till he was
visible. This I politely declined doing, without stating my
reason, which was that it would have put us, who as strangers
were entitled to immediate reception, in the position of
humble waiters upon a great man before the whole fleet.
This was in reality what Hoo wanted; and the reader sees
here an example of the little plans we have perpetually to
guard against in Anglo-Chinese official life.

On the following morning at daylight, I took my own boat
to the southern bank of the river, landed and followed the
road which leads round the back of the Seang Hill. I passed
through a long village until I came to the ridge of which
that hill is the extreme point. J then ascended by the crest
of this ridge till I reached the conical knoll at the south-west
extremity of the Seang Hill, where I had the Imperialist
camps on my left, the Imperialist fleet on my right—together
with the walls of Chin keang in front of me, all in view.
I remained there about an hour, observing all through my
glass. There was a constant exchange of shots going on
288 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

between some guns that the Tae pings had mounted on the
south-eastern angle of the city walls, and a battery that the
Imperialists had established at an angle of their most advanced
camp. I heard also a good. deal of firing going on at the
south-western side of the city, but only the smoke was visible
from the hill on which I stood. From the same spot, I had
a view of the Tae ping position at Kwa chow about four
miles up the river; and could just make out, over the inter-
vening alluvial land, the yellow banners of the Tae pings
planted along the walls of Yang chow, some eight or. ten
miles to the north. My more immediate object was to see
what difficulties lay in the way of my walking into Chin keang,
in case I was prevented from going up in my boat. The
Imperial battery which was firing on the south-eastern angle
of the city, was on ground as high as that on which the city
walls stood. But from this battery northward to the river,
a distance of about two miles, the ground sank into an
alluvial flat, while the walls, on the contrary, ran along a
ridge of one or two hundred feet high at the back of that flat.
The city wall stopped short on this ridge where the latter sank
suddenly at about three quarters of a mile from the river.
The wall there turned off westward, keeping, in an irregular
manner, parallel to the river at half to three quarters of
a mile from it. But the ridge continued, and (after its
aforenoted depression) with a constantly increasing elevation,
till it abutted on the river as a promontory of some three
hundred feet in height. This is called the Pih koo Hill.
There is a temple, an iron pagoda of forty to fifty feet in
height, and an open pavilion or dome supported by four
granite pillars on this hill, This latter building stands just
over the river. It was here that the three observers stood
who watched the battle described at page 209 between the
Imperialist and Tae ping fleets; it was here that the Tae
ping Commandant Lo ta kang posted himself when the
mercenary Portuguese and Anglo-American Imperialist fleet
followed the Hermes and attacked the rebel position as
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 289

narrated at page 254, and it was at the foot of this promontory
that exactly ten years before the period when I viewed
the whole scene, the column of General Schoedde Janded
unopposed and marched to the north eastern angle of the city,
where it effected an escalade. It was characteristic of the
military strategy of the Manchoos, originally nomadic horse-
men, when they settled a garrison of their own countrymen
at Chin keang, and thus constituted that city one of their
special fortresses, that they should not connect the fortifica-
tions with the river bank, but allow an open space of some
three quarters of a mile to intervene between the northern
front of the wall and the strand.* This space is, immediately
to the west of the narrow Pih koo Hill ridge, low and level.
It was equally characteristic of the Tae ping leaders, as
natives of South Eastern China accustomed from youth to
river or coasting navigation, that they should, as soon as Chin
keang fell into their hands, run a stockade along the ridge
from the north eastern angle of the wall to Pih koo shan
promontory, and constitute the latter one of their chief works
of defence. A similar stockade ran along the low river bank
on the west of the Pih koo shan, to prevent the landing of
a hostile force; and then back to the city wall again. So
energetic were the Tae pings in these works, that when the
Hermes passed up some three weeks after they had occupied
Chin keang they were finished. They used for the purpose the
doors and window-shutters of the houses in the city; which
had been deserted on their approach. Not content with this,

* At each of the four cities garrisoned by Manchoo bannermen which I have
visited, viz. Kwang chow, Chapoo, Chin keang, and Nanking, not only does
there intervene an unwalled space between the water and the city walls, but
the “Tartar city,” or Manchoo citadel, occupies in each case the portion of the
whole walled space which lies farthest from the river and nearest the open dry
country. Something of the same kind I remarked in Egypt, where the present
Cairo, the Cairo of the nomadic Arab Caliphs is a considerable distance (more
than a mile, so far as I recollect) back from the Nile, while the citadel occupies
the most distant point, being in fact within the verge of the sandy desert. The
old Cairo of the Greeks, Romans, and native Egyptians lay immediately on the
banks of the river.

U
290 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
se

so soon as all the more urgently required works of defence
were finished, they commenced replacing the stockade along
the Pih koo Hill ridge by a high and substantial wall, for
which the walls of the deserted dwellings of the city furnished
them with abundance of material. At the very time when
I was taking my view from the Seang Hill, their early
labourers were engaged in completing the top portion of the
new wall.along the face of the promontory; that is to say,
they had just about finished extending the city wall to the
river, in the face of a besieging Imperialist force from four to
five times the strength of their garrison. I could see the
bricklayers on ladders and scaffolds trowelling away on the
outside, and occasionally turning their heads to take a look
at the Imperialist fleet or camps, lazily scratching themselves
while so doing. The above-mentioned alluvial flat lay on the
east of the ridge on which this new wall had been built, and
was commanded by the city guns, by the camps, and by the
fleet. One of the most curious sights in the scene before
me was, consequently, that of some half dozen countrymen
working in the rice fields into which it was divided, as quietly
as if in a land of perfect peace. ‘The top of the artificial
embankment which separated the Great River from this low
ground, formed a good path up to the Pih koo Hill; which
I could observe nothing to prevent my following if it should
be necessary, though the Imperialists might have a scout or
two concealed among the reeds, that rose to the height of
seven feet on both sides of it. Having ascertained this,
I descended the knoll, and was soon surrounded by a number
of the rustics, young and old, from the village I had previously
passed. When I had told them that I was a neutral and had
been in the foreign steamer that ascended the river two
months before, they talked about both of the contending
parties with great frankness. After the Tae pings entered
Chin keang a body of them came to this village and took
away all articles of gold and silver that they could see, but
did not interfere with the women, and destroyed nothing.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 291

Isaw the women sitting at the doors of their houses at work,
as if no war were near. Whether or not the Tae ping
higher officers knew of the gold and silver—chiefly female
ornaments—having been taken away, the villagers could not
say. These latter had not been compelled to let the hair
grow over their heads. The Tae pings of Chin keang,
knowing that they could not hold this village, had not ordered
the inhabitants to do what was certain to compromise them
with the Imperialists. The Buddhist monks were special
priests of the “demons,” and the God-worshippers cared little
whether they were compromised or not; but the above, with
a number of other circumstances ascertained at Nanking,
convince me that it is the policy of the Tae pings to abstain
as much as possible from extending their system of conscrip-
tion, or the usual hardships of war, to the food producing
classes. They command the personal services of all in-
habitants of cities, whether men of wealth or tradesmen, and
seize unhesitatingly the whole of their property, and they
also press the produce carriers, the river boatmen. But,
while they take possession of government corn stores as theirs
by right, and probably do not spare the stores of large corn
merchants in the towns they enter, it is certain that they
purchase from the farmers, and make a point of giving liberal
prices. The consequence is, that whenever the country
people could find an opportunity of slipping unobserved into
Chin keang with corn or vegetables they never failed to do
so. The people of this village told me that the Imperialists
by whom the city was invested subjected them to far more
annoyance than the Tae pings had done; but they spoke in
very high terms of my old acquaintance, the Manchoo Lin, as
a commander who listened courteously to the complaints of
the country people, and endeavoured to prevent excesses
of the soldiery. When I questioned them about the new
religion they made reproaches, in a very serious tone, against
the Tae pings for having “sha, killed,” one particular idol-god
on Silver Island whose name I regret not having entered in
v2
292 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLJONS.

my journal. The destruction of the others was not after all
a matter of great consequence, but their “having sha ta,
killed him,” was a proof of a very bad heart.

After I had rejoined my party at Silver Island, and we had
breakfasted, we set off for the vessel of Admiral Le. AsI ran
along side of it, Supt. Lin stepped into a small boat in order
to return to his own vessel after a visit to the Admiral,
doubtless about our own affair. I sent my Chinese card to
him, upon which, the little boat he was in being too small for
a reception, he at once stepped into mine with all the old
ready courtesy and frankness of manner that had made him,
when he was Intendant at Shanghae, personally so agreeable
to foreigners. On the present occasion he immediately began
inquiring about all those he had known. That over, he
adverted, with a half melancholy smile and shaking his head,
to the extraordinary circumstances under which we had again
met. He then uttered some friendly and regretful reproaches
because we had not helped his party, and had, on the contrary,
entered into amicable relations with his enemies. I seized
the opportunity of explaining our proper position at length
to a Manchoo of high standing who was certain to be in
private, frank correspondence with influential people at Court,
and whom I knew to be a man of more than sufficient in-
telligence and cultivation to comprehend and report exactly
what I stated. I expounded our doctrine of non-intervention
in the internal affairs of foreign states as one which was
constantly acquiring a greater practical acceptance in the
West. I illustrated the doctrine by the attitude of England
towards France, the general facts of which were known to him.
There a dynastic change had taken place similar to those
common to Chinese history. Misgovernment under the old
French dynasty had reduced the people to such misery that
they rebelled and destroyed it. After a period of great
anarchy, one of the sons of a small landed proprietor in a
remote province had made himself Emperor. He had been
unseated, and the old family restored; but this, having been
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 293

done by foreign intervention proved a temporary and futile
measure. The French had driven one sovereign away, and
put in his place another of the same family; and this time
no foreign state interfered. But in 1848 they expelled the
family altogether (at mention of which Lin nodded assent as
to a fact known to him at the time), and tried to govern
themselves as the Americans did, without a sovereign, but
only a sort of Governor General of the whole country, elected
every four years. This was the best way of expressing
‘republican government ” to Lin, who knew about America
from the Americans. But they elected for Governor General
the nephew of him who had been driven away by foreign
interference ; and this nephew, the “feelings of the common
people” being with him, had just made himself sovereign,
and was likely to be the founder of a new dynasty. England
had not in the least intermeddled with these changes, but
had acknowledged whomsoever the French people submitted
to as rulers. As the present sovereign, when the fortunes of
his family were low, had lived in our country, so the old one
had taken refuge in it, and died there. With these latter
facts, Lin said he was acquainted. I then drew, at length,
a parallel between our position in British India and that of
the Manchoos in China. There we were, a small military
foreign body, ruling by title of conquest over natives many
times more numerous than our whole English people. If
the natives rose to expel us, we could not in our hearts
regard them as criminals for doing it, and though all we
English would deem it our duty to fight hard, as the Man-
choos were now fighting in China, to keep possession of the
country, we should not expect the most friendly Occidental
nation to help us. I observed that this analogical argument,
telling against the speaker, and based on facts also known to
Lin, went home to his reason more still than that based on
the somewhat more abstract doctrine of non-intervention.
I was glad to have an opportunity of showing a Manchoo of
rank that our neutrality was dictated by principles of inter-
294 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

national justice; but the conclusions I constrained Lin’s
judgment to accept were naturally not palatable to him,
going, as they did, to cut off all hope of obtaining our aid.
After some general talk he left. When taking leave he said,
« After searching the vessels you will go back?’ I replied
that I should wish to see him again. To this he rejoined,
apologetically, that he had no “ kung kwan, temporary official
dwelling-house,” to receive me in, his charge over the fleet
compelling him to be on the water, but that I should find
him at anchor near Tan too.

I with my naval companions then went to see Vice-
Admiral Le. Ihad met him before when he had the rank
of Rear-Admiral, but did not recognise him till he mentioned
the circumstance. I found with him a Capt. Chang, a stout
healthy-complexioned man, also a former acquaintance, who
had seen a good deal of the English during and after the
war, and spoke of Sir Henry Pottinger and other British
officials. There was also a fat-faced, hoarse-voiced, blue-
buttoned mandarin, a stranger, of the rank of Yew keih or
post-captain. These were all Chinese. Hence when they,
too, introduced the subject of our amicable communications
with the rebels, and our refusal to aid the Imperialists, I
expounded the grounds of our neutral policy in a somewhat
different manner. England had only trading interests in
China; she had made war twelve years before because the
irrational behaviour of Commissioner Lin and others, who
would not even discuss difficulties with our high officers
except by letter, and as superiors, made war the only means
of obtaining a hearing; but I appealed to Chang as witness
of the facts that, though we held military possession of many
important parts of the territory of China, and could have
kept them had we been so disposed, we had given up all
except a small barren island at the extremity of the Empire;
which we wanted merely for the contiguous fine harbour,
and the occupation of which could hardly be called a terri-
torial encroachment. If we now wanted to possess ourselves

*
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 295

of portions of China, then we should interfere in her internal
troubles, but we only wished to extend, as much as possible,
a free trade, which brought great advantages to both nations;
and if it did harm to either (this alluded to opium) such was
the fault of that nation itself, as no one was compelled to
buy what they did not want. Such being our position, why
should we bring ships and troops to shoot down Chinese, in
order to help the present young Manchoo Emperor, who,
so soon as he came to the throne, had degraded, in a very
humiliating way, all those mandarins who had had any share
in making the treaty of peace and commerce; in particular,
Ke ying, the chief negotiator and the friend of Sir Henry
Pottinger. This I said to Capt. Chang. We knew from the
Emperor’s own edicts in the “ Peking Gazettes,” that he
had virtually broken the treaty in his heart, and was con-
sulting with his high officers as to the best means and time
for withdrawing our privileges, when this very rebellion gave
him other matters to think of. But even if the old Emperor
had been alive, and our friends, the members of the con-
ciliatory party, still in power, how could we, strangers, pre-
sume to dictate to the Chinese people who should rule over
them? Ifthe majority wanted the Manchoos, the Manchoos
would remain in power. But if the majority was dissatisfied
with the Manchoo government, what right had we to attempt
to support that government by force? Tartars had ruled
the country before and had been expelled by the Chinese,
under a leader who had been a servant to priests in a monas-
tery. That man was the Divinely Appointed, and founded
the Ming dynasty. How could we, foreigners, presume to
decide that any Chinese who rose against the present Tartars
had not received the Divine Commission to rule, and oppose
Heaven by fighting against him ?

What I had said before about the British war, &c., was
known to be true, and was, therefore, strictly speaking un-
answerable; still the mandarins did take objections. But
these latter arguments silenced them.. They could only
296 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOMS.

repeat, —Ta mun muh yew fung teen ming, ta mun
she tsih: They (the Tae pings) have received no Divine
Commission; they are (usurping) rebels.’ I replied, that in
such case they would be destroyed by the Imperialists with-
out extraneous aid, which would give them (the Imperialists)
much more dignity in the eyes of the people generally than
if they depended on foreign troops for being kept in power.
This fairly ended the discussion; for there was much in the
dlosing argument to which the mandarins were more acutely
‘alive than I could be. None could know, could feel, so well
as themselves that the domination of the originally barbarous
Manchoos would, if maintained by the military support of
Western barbarians, necessarily become a rule of mere force
—well known to Chinese to be the very lowest description
of rule; that, being regarded with rooted aversion and con-
tempt by the whole people, such rule would only be effective
where upheldby troops; and that the country, throughout its

length and breadth, would soon be one scene of misgovern-
ment by violence, alternating with no government and
anarchy.

The reader must not suppose that my arguments were at
bottom really disagreeable to these Chinese mandarins. As
officials, who had attained a considerable rank, they were sel-
fishly interested in the Government under which they held that
rank; but, as Chinese, all that I said was an appeal to their na-
tional sense of right, and to their national pride. In particular,
what I introduced incidentally as it were, but in reality pur-
posely, about our grand object in China being the extension of
our trade only, and our being decidedly averse to the acquisition
of territory, was calculated to dispel that jealousy which is now
the main cause of Chinese exclusiveness. Once convince a large
majority of the industrial and commercial Chinese people that
all we want isto trade, and that we are, besides, capable of
conducting ourselves in a just and orderly manner with respect
to the persons, families, and property of the natives; and we
should find our presence eagerly sought for in every province
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAKE PINGS. 297

of the country. The second part of this task is the most
difficult. It is a fact, that all we want is to trade; and the
historical and geographical works being published by Pro-
testant missionaries to a reading people like the Chinese,
will, in time, bring that fact home to their minds. But it is
equally a fact, that a considerable proportion of the Occi-
dental residents in China are quite incapable of conducting
themselves in a just and orderly manner with respect to the
persons and property of the natives. And the excesses of
one individual of this kind on one occasion in one locality,
is, unfortunately, sufficient to nullify throughout a whole
country side the good effects that may have been produced
by the gentlemanly behaviour of half a dozen others, on a
number of separate occasions, in the same neighbourhood.
I shall have to treat this subject specially before I close; in
the meantime I return to our search of the fleet. We
started in two parties to get through the search more rapidly.
Williams, with the fat, hoarse-voiced post-captain, and a
Chinese (English speaking) linguist, taking one set of vessels;
while Spratt, the Admiral, another English speaking Chinese,
and myself went to visit another set. Spratt and Williams
had each a couple of marines and a blue-jacket with them.
We began with the Portuguese lorchas. After examining
one or two, my curiosity was satisfied; and I left my com-
panion with his men and the linguist to do the searching while
I sat in the boat with the Admiral. His demeanour did
not correspond with British notions of an Admiral in com-
mand of a naval besieging force. He soon closed his eyes
and went off to sleep. Two or three times he was near to
falling on his face, and the slaver streamed out of the corners
of his mouth as he sat nodding there. His body servant, on
one occasion when ‘he sprang forward to hold him up, felt
the scene to be so painfully ridiculous that he explained to
me, transforming his face into a look of grave concern, that
his master was ruining his health in the anxious discharge of
his duties, sitting up late at night writing despatches, &c. &c.
298 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOMS.

But I took an opportunity of questioning the English speak-
ing Chinese in English as to the cause of the Admiral’s
exhaustion ; and was at once told that he spent the greater
part of the night in smoking opium and listening to music
girls. Before we had finished a score of the vessels, the
Admiral declared he could hold out no longer, which was
indeed plain enough, and he went off to his own vessel, the
fat post-captain being transferred to our party, and another
man allotted to Williams. But we had not progressed
much further when Williams came alongside to say that his
mandarin and Chinese linguist had both made off; and I had
to go to the Admiral’s vessel and politely hound out substi-
tutes, with whom I started Williams again. My fat friend
with the blue button maintained his position; but he yawned
dreadfully, and seemed to think that he was undergoing great
fatigues in the service of his sovereign. By the time we had
finished the last of the sixty or seventy vessels, and gone
off in our own boats, I felt that this peculiar method of deter-
ring the mandarins from enticing our men away was likely to
prove effective. We sailed at once for Tan too to open the
second scene of bother by asking Lin to authorize us to
search the camps. He received us with his accustomed
civility, but declined taking any step to forward my wishes
as to the camps. He declared that he could not even take
cognisance of them officially, as the communication from the
Shanghae Intendant had reference to the fleet only. He
stated that the latter was under his command, but that he
had no authority whatever on shore; that the land force was
under the command of General Tang; that he (Lin) had not
seen this officer, and did not know him; that the camps were
filthy, and the troops disorderly; and that he himself had
never been in any of them, not considering it quite safe. I
replied that we had no apprehensions on the score of per-
sonal safety, but could not, of course, go into the camps to
make a search without the sanction of the commanding
officer; and that I should require Hoo, the Intendant’s
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 299

deputy, to put me into communication with him. In reply
to Lin’s argument, that we might on the same grounds ask to
search any military station in the interior, I stated that at
the least some fifty or sixty English had been employed by
the Imperial officials for a month or more in the vicinity of
Chin keang; that some of these were known to have visited
the Imperial camps; and that, if the deserters sought for
were in that quarter, nothing was more likely than that, the
fleet being comparatively idle, they should be employed in
directing the cannonade against the walls of Chin keang.
Lin’s rejoinder was merely that his own authority was
limited to the shipping. I then told him that I had been in-
structed, if the deserters were not found among the Impe-
rialists, to make inquiries of the Tae pings; that I proposed,
in pursuance of these instructions, proceeding to Chin keang ;
and I requested him to give orders to the fleet to offer no
impediment to the passage of our party. He said that if he
could take no cognisance of our wish to search the camps,
still less could he know anything officially of our communi-
cating with the rebels. I replied that as he declared himself
to have no authority over, or influence with the land force, I
should say no more to him about it; but that I must persist
in requesting him, as Commander of the Naval Force, to take
steps to prevent its interfering with the execution of the
duty with which I had been charged; and which did not
prejudice the essential objects of the blockade. He at length
declared, with great earnestness of manner, that he had
indeed command of the ships, but not of the guns on board
of them, which, he said, were at the orders of the Vice-
Admiral, Le. Now an international agent of the “ ener-
getic” class—one of those of whom it is usually said that
“ they know how to break through the wiles of Asiatic
duplicity”—would have told Lin he was lying, and that they
would pass in defiance of him. Not having much faith in
the ultimate efficacy of that easy kind of “ energy,” I merely
told Lin, with an earnestness that must have been a credit-
300 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOYS.

able imitation of his own, that I should not fail to prefer the
same request to Vice-Admiral Le, the officer having autho-
rity over the guns. Lin broke into a smile, and said, eyeing
me in a peculiarly knowing manner, ‘‘ Wo kan chuh ne teih
e sze, wo kan chuh ne teih e sze, I perceive what your inten-
tions are, I perceive what your intentions are.” To this
day I remain unable to guess what it could have been that
occupied his own mind when he said this. If he fancied that
(beyond deserter searching) I had any object, but that of
gaining information, he was wrong; and, viewing the total
want of truthfulness with which the Imperialist authorities
at Shanghae met him, my chief, Mr. Alcock, was fully justi-
fied in despatching me to get, in an unostentatious way, some
reliable intelligence of the position and probable movements
of the Tae pings. For anything we then knew to the con-
trary, an army might have been preparing to force its way to
Soo chow and Shanghae. Soon after the above I took a
friendly leave of Lin; and then applied to the expectant
Hoo to get permission from General Tang for us to search
the camps. His answer was, that if one of the higher civilians,
the Governor General or the Governor, of the province had
been near, he would on his own responsibility have applied
to him on the subject; but that he would risk his head if he,
a civilian of subordinate rank, went, without any authority
from his superiors, into the camp to prefer our request to the
military officers in command. As I had never hoped to find
the missing men, so now I considered that the search annoy-
ance had been sufficiently prolonged; and determined to
employ the remaining hour or two of daylight in walking up
the short passage to Tan too on the Grand Canal. The
expectant Hoo said that he should return to Shanghae by
the inner waters, the voyage by the Great River being
“extremely fatiguing” for him. We found the streets
of Tan too crowded with soldiers from the camps, na-
tives of many different provinces. We got back to the
boats at about dark, and the wind being fair, set sail for
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 301

Silver Island. I first had sent to inform Superintendent
Lin, that after notifying on the following day my inten-
tion to Admiral Le I should go up Chin keang. It was
past nine o’clock before we started for Silver Island, and the
current being very strong we made way but slowly. I there-
fore soon went to bed, after a rather fatiguing day for a man
whose ten years’ residence in China was beginning to tell on
his health, The three to four miles of river which we had
to pass over had been quite clear of blockading vessels since
our arrival in the vicinity, and was so at sunset. I thought,
therefore, that the boatmen would have no difficulty in laying
our squadron alongside of the Temple wharf again. At
about half-past ten I was, however, roused out of my sleep
by an authoritative challenge, and by a man who was in the
bows of my boat returning the answer, “ From Shanghae.”’
I extricated myself from my boat mosquito curtains at once,
and stepped out on to the foredeck, where, to my surprise,
I found that we were,—my own boat in advance of the
others,—sailing into the middle of a squadron at anchor.
“Where have we got to?” inquired I of the boatman.
“We're at the turn not far from Silver Island, and these
are mandarin vessels,” he answered. In the meantime we
were being hailed—“ Where are you going to?” “ From
Shanghae,” I shouted. “ Where are you going to?” was
repeated in a louder tone. ‘“ From Shanghae,” bawled I, at
the top of my voice. ‘“ Stop to be examined,” was the re-
joinder. “To Silver Island,” I now began to answer.
“ Stop to be examined.” “ To Silver Island.” “Drop your
anchor, or we'll fire.” “Fire, and be hanged!” said I in
English to myself, for we were leaving the vessel out of
sight in the gloom. I had, however, immediately to begin
giving the same set of behind-the-time answers to the same
series of questions from the next vessel, which I also kept in
play till we got out of sight. The next was shorter in his
interlocutory, and did fire with a matchlock or gingall; and
so the fourth. But I was then past the whole squadron,
302 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOJS.

close to a boat anchored in shore (one of the unarmed regis-
tered ones which supplied the fleet with provisions); and
could, had I pleased, at once have sailed up to Chin keang
without further interruption. But I now told the boatmen
to stop; for none of our companions were visible while the
bawling and firing from the mandarin vessels had increased.
The headmost vessel of the mandarin squadron was just
visible ; and from the stern of the provision boat a man—or
a voice, for I could see nothing—kept repeating to me with
the hoarseness and monotony of a coffee-mill, “ Laou ta puh
paou maou, fang paou ah! Laou ta, puh paou,” &e. &e. &e.
«* Boatmaster, if you don’t anchor they'll fire at you with
cannon! SBoatmaster, if you don’t, &c. &c.” I gave no
answer to this, being engaged in looking back into the dark-
ness for the boats of my companions. But the indistinct
utterance of the speaker, with the Chinese suppression of
pronouns, led my servant, who was in the cabin, to under-
stand the man as threatening that, if we did not anchor, he
would fire at us with cannon; so getting angry at length
with the coffee-grinding repetition of the threat, he bolted out
past me to the head of our boat, and shouted fiercely, “Ne
yew to ma ta teih paou? What’s the size of your cannon?”
This very Chinese way of squaring up to the foe, and crying,
“Come on, if you dare!” set me a laughing; and I was
accordingly, when a mandarin boat came alongside to make
inquiries, in a somewhat better temper than when first
roused out of my sleep. After some parley with the subor-
dinate naval officer, who, lantern in hand, was standing in the
ship’s boat, and being told by him that this squadron had
come round at dusk from the main fleet by order of Super-
intendent Lin to prevent communication with Chin keang at
night, that they had not recognised us in the dark as the
foreigners, &c. &c., I gave the order to go back to look for
the rest of my flotilla. I found it all higgledy-piggledy ; the
boats’ heads together as they formed acluster; their sails just
as they had fallen when the halyards had been let go on the
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 303

firing commencing ; and my two companions, with their men
on the fore-decks of their respective boats, wondering where
they were, and what was the matter. It was one of the many
instances that have come under my observation of the
immense power that the faculty of speech gives. I could
have run up to Chin keang. Having explained our position
to my companions, I ended the talk of the mandarin people
by declaring that we should not pass their squadron till the
morning, but anchor there for the night; for I was sorely in
want of sleep. I had not, however, slept long when I was again
awakened; and, listening, found it was by the noise of voices
resounding in deep earnest calls from ship to ship and boat
to boat. The tones were alarmed and almost tragic. ‘““ What
on earth is the matter now ?” said I to myself, as I, for the
second time, sprang up from my summer sleeping-mat, and
stepped out at the open fore-door. I saw the rocks and trees
of the western end of Silver Island and the whole of the
river there lighted up by a glare of red light; and presently
distinguished the cry that the “long haired” were breaking
out and sending down fire rafts before them. The windlasses
of the nearest vessels were working as hard as they could,
weighing anchor and hoisting sail; and in a very short time
two or three were making off down the river. As that was
clearly not the time and place to open communications with
the Tae pings, we followed their example. But observing
that the light and the alarm were alike dying away, we
presently anchored again; passed the night without further
interruption ; and at daybreak sailed through the reassembled
squadron up to our old station at Silver Island. We had
seen, however, how the native men of war would meet
rebel sallies. The Tae pings had only sent a single fire raft
down.

On the following day, when Admiral Le had risen, I made
the same request to him that J had made to Superintendent
Lin. He replied he must communicate with Lin who had
the general and chief control of the fleet. I then, in order to
‘
3
é

3804 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

elicit an answer to the point, put the question, whether, if
our boat passed up the river, his fleet would fire at her or
not? He replied that they would not; but at the same time
repeated that he must consult with Lin on the matter.
The remainder of the day we passed at Silver Island;
whither a number of Imperialist soldiers from the camps
came to look at us.

That Admiral Le’s fleet would openly fire on a boat, even
a native craft, which was well known to contain British
officers engaged in official duty was, I knew from the first,
extremely unlikely. But had I started in her without giving
due intimation, as also sufficient time for the various vessels
of the fleet to become acquainted with my intention, it was by
no means improbable that some of them, with their general
orders to stop all communication, and not knowing exacily
who was in the boat, might fire on her. Now, had we, or
any one of us, been killed, under such circumstances, the case
would at once have constituted a nice difficulty. “ Rash
breach of blockade,” and “Wanton massacre of British
officers,” would have been the terms employed by the usual
two parties among ourselves. But the triumph of an inter-
national agent, whether in great or small affairs, consists
in effecting the olject without any fighting, or giving rise to
future troubles. My business, in the present case, was to
give a sufficient quantity of trouble about the deserters;
then to get reliable information as to the state of things both

' with Imperialists and rebels; and afterwards to bring the
' boats back to Shanghae, without rows and without injury to

any one. Hence my distinct applications to Lin and Le;
and, there being no reason for hurrying away, but rather the

_ reverse, hence my allowing some thirty-six hours for the full

operation of the mental agencies employed.

On the morning of the 2nd my two naval companions, with
two of the marines, the two seamen and myself, started in my
boat. The mandarins having conveyed threatening intima-
tions to my clerks and servants and to the boatmen, I left
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 805

them all behind at Silver Island, to their great satisfaction.
For my own people I had no particular use, but I did wish
some of the boatmen to volunteer. I had presently cause to
regret not having taken a couple, whether they liked or not;
for the wind we started with failed us soon, and our English-
men could not work the sculls at all, while at the novel labour
of tracking and poling inshore, they proved very inexpert.
When we had, with great difficulty, got up to within three
quarters of a mile of the high promontory, the Pih koo Hill,
I determined to land and walk the rest of the way. Besides
the wish to save time, we saw a party of the Tae pings
stationing themselves about midway down the nearly perpen-
dicular face of the promontory over the water, where they
were flashing off their matchlocks; and I thought if the
whole boatload of us went up together they might fire, which
they were not likely to do if a single man approached.
Mr. Spratt volunteered to accompany me instead of following
in the boat; which then received orders to remain where it
was, unless a signal was made for it to follow. When we got
near the foot of the Hill, we found our progress impeded by
ditches, and palisades of pointed stakes; in addition to which
the ways of access were stuck all over with short pointed pieces
of split bamboo, which would have formed a serious obstacle
to the advance of Chinese soldiers with their bare ankles
and either no chaussure at all or only straw sandals. A
number of the Tae pings had come out on to the hill side,
and a few descended a zigzag path, reserved on its carefully
scarped face. To the nearest of these I called to aid us
through the labyrinth we had entered, and which looked as
if it contained trous de loup. The man approached, when
we scrambled, under his guidance, up to the foot of the new
wall, crept through an embrasure on a level with the ground,
and so entered the fortifications of Chin keang. The heat
was excessive; and I am convinced that one fifth part of
the exposure and fatigue which I underwent in this expe-
dition would, if endured in some monotonous routine work
x
3806 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

e

for which I had no liking, have certainly killed me in my then
impaired state of health. It was in the same month of July,
exactly ten years before, that the British forces stormed this
city, when, as Sir John Davis states, “the excessive heat
of the weather tended greatly to aggravate the toils of the
day, and the deaths from the effects of the sun were about as
numerous as those from the enemy.” *

Within the exterior wall, we found a few old Kwang se
Tae pings superintending the completion of the works at this
key of their position on the river. They ordered a spearman
to conduct us to the Commandant. With him we descended
the western face of the Pih koo Hill, and crossed the plain be-
tween the river and the walls of the city; which we entered by
the North gate. Nanking, which I had traversed two months
before, had a very desolate appearance; the women and the
children being all quartered in streets through which we were
not led; the male population being nearly all engaged in mili-
tary duties and labours at the exterior fortifications; and no
trade being possible from the fact that the Tae pings had
seized everything. Still the bulk of their forces being there,
and in particular all the higher leaders, the streets did show
signs of life. But those of Chin keang were the most com-
plete picture of desolation I ever beheld. There were no
inhabitants; the few women taken in the place had been re-
moved to Nanking; and it now contained only a garrison of
some three thousand men, nearly all of whom were neces-
sarily located, night and day, at the exterior defences. The
doors and wooden window-shutters of the houses and shops
had been employed in the construction of the river stockades;
and as we passed through street after street without meeting
a soul, we stopped occasionally to inspect the empty dwell-
ings. On the floor of a room in one we noticed a large heap
of good rice. The Tae ping Commandant, Lo ta kang, occu-
pied the fine Yamun, the quarters of the former Imperialist
Commandant, the Lieutenant-General of the Tartar Banner-.

* China, during the War and since the Peace.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 307

man. As we neared these head-quarters signs of life began to
show themselves again. At length we escaped from the glare
of the blazing sun on the stone flagging of the streets into
one of the spacious ante-halls of the Yamun; where I sig-
nalized my advent by drinking three or four cups of tea in
rapid succession. While Lo ta kang was preparing to receive
the unexpected visitors, the old Tae pings not on duty col-
lected in the hall where we were. From the emissaries met
on the Grand Canal, I knew there were not more than three
hundred of them in Chin keang; and I now saw a large pro-
portion of that number before me. They were, without
exception, dressed in the simplest and plainest clothing, viz.,
black Chinese jackets and trousers. Amidst all the variety
of figure and feature, there was invariably the grave and
earnest demeanour and expression naturally to be expected
in men who had for three years been engaged in an unre-
mitting fight for their existence. After a while the fold-
ing-doors at the back of the hall in which we were seated
were thrown open, music struck up, and we were ushered
through one or two more halls into the presence of Com-
mandant Lo, who received us in his full yellow and red
uniform. He at once recognised me as the person who, two
months before, had landed from the Hermes, to speak to him
after we had been firing at each other. He said no foreign
deserters had come within his position, nor had any foreigners
been observed directing the guns fired from the Imperialist
camps against the city. After this formal matter had been
discussed, we had some conversation on other subjects, mili-
tary and religious. I inquired how it was that the Tae
pings did not make greater use of the smaller firearms, mus-
kets and pistols, the former of which I said were, with the
attached bayonet, our chief arms? I was induced to ask this
‘because, while there was a great demand among the Tae
ping.soldiers for swords, they seemed to take little interest
‘in guns. Lo said, that his people did not understand the
use of them, and that they were valueless when the supply
x2
3808 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

of ammunition ran out or the springs went wrong. Swords
and spears, he said, seldom got out of order, were easily
repaired, and he found that his people could always beat the

Imperialists with them. Some “tens” of his men had, he -

said, sallied out the day before to drive off some two or three
hundred of the Imperialists who were advancing too close to
the walls, and had made them run with ease. He said, “I
am beginning to get old now, but give me a good spear, and
Tam still not afraid to meet any ten of them.” There seemed
to be a very intimate relation—almost a filial relation—
between his black-clothed followers and himself. Some fifty
to a hundred of them were standing in the hall opposite to
where I was sitting, and Lo, casting a glance over them,
asked if I thought they looked like men who could ‘conquer
the rivers and the mountains?” I asked him how it was
that both at Chin keang and Nanking they allowed such
large numbers of the Imperialists to encamp in their imme-
diate vicinity ; and why they did not concentrate their forces
and rout them? He replied, that he should merely act on
the defensive till intelligence came of the final success of
the Tae ping army that had marched to the North; when he
would sally out and attack his besiegers in their camps. He
_ volunteered the statement that the Tae pings had not ad-
- vanced on Soo chow and Shanghae, because they wished to
avoid, as much as possible, whatever might cause interruption
to the commercial operations of the season. In saying this
there was no pretence of extreme friendly feeling. It simply
meant, “You see, where we can avoid it, we are willing to
spare your countrymen loss.” He and all his people received
us as persons in no way hostile to him, and with a civility
that appeared to cost them no effort; but he intimated that
it would be better if we refrained from passing to and fro
between the Tae pings and the Imperialists, as he was appre-
hensive the latter might put some of us to death, and then
say his people had done it. He had the delicacy to refrain
from saying, what circumstances would have justified, viz.,
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 309

that some of us might come nominally as friends, in reality
as spies. Lo appeared to be about fifty years of age; he
was middle-sized as to height, and squarely built, without, how-
ever, being remarkably broad. He said he had “seen us
fight ” some twelve years before at Canton; and his manner
implied that we did it well. It had, I know, excited the
admiration of the Cantonese at that time, that the English
soldiers, when they advanced to storm the detached forts at
the back of the city, “came on the faster, the more they were
fired at.”

When we took leave of Lo, horses were furnished us, and
an escort appointed to take us back to the Pih koo Hill. At
my request, a man accompanied us with a large bundle of
Tae ping books. We issued by the same embrasure by
which we had entered, and which was in full view of several
Imperial camps and of the whole Imperial fleet. A number
of the Tae pings issued with us, and spread themselves along
the brow of the hill. From the nearest Imperial camp a
shot was fired at a high elevation. It was intended doubtless
' for the crowd on the hill, though it fell with a flop into the
muddy ground of a rice field which my companion and I
with the man carrying the books were just then passing.
Spratt having noticed the spying face of a man among the
reeds, which, as they considerably overtopped my head on both
sides of the path, might easily contain an Imperialist picket,
I soon shouldered the books myself, and made our isolated
Tae ping return, after rewarding him with my umbrella;
which several of his comrades had anxiously asked me if I
was willing to sell to them. We reached the boat and our
little squadron at Silver Island without adventure.

I there found some of superintendent Lin’s boats. The
mandarins, though their own threats had deterred my people
from accompanying me, would, I knew, now only be too glad
to find out through them what I had seen and done. I
therefore observed absolute silence, and gave orders for our
immediate return to Shanghae.. We reached that place,
810 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS®

after an absence of fourteen days, all in health and safety,
and without other mishap than the breaking of my mainmast,
which gave way in a strong breeze and caused a day’s stop-
page at Keang ying.

Both Mr. Spratt and myself had estimated the total
strength of the Tae ping garrison of Chin keang at not more
than three thousand. This force had to guard and defend
exterior defences of five miles in circuit. The crews of the
Imperialist fleet alone nearly equalled it in numbers, and had
more guns. The Imperiai land force, all inquiries of myself
and people showed to be from ten to fifteen thousand strong,
occupying some six or eight detached fortified camps, placed
on various favourable positions around the besieged city.
Notwithstanding all this, I closed my official report as
follows :—

* T may state that many circumstances, which it requires
too much space to enumerate, render it extremely impro-
bable that Chin keang will be retaken by the Imperial forces
which now beleaguer it. It is much more likely that they
will disband from want of pay.”

The observant reader will have marked several of the
circumstances which led me to affirm, in spite of the great
disparity in numbers and in war material, that Chin keang
was not likely to be retaken. The scarcity of pay on
the side of the Imperialists was a fact of which I had
ample testimony from their own men. A considerable
number did disband shortly afterwards, some hundreds
deserting to the Tae pings in the city. And though the
Imperialists have always managed to maintain a fleet and
army in the vicinity, Chin keang has for the two years that
have since elapsed remained constantly in the possession of
the Tae pings.

From July, 1853, till December of the same year, the Tae

.pings were unvisited by Occidentals. At the latter period,

the French Minister ascended the Great River, in the war-
steamer Cassini, and lay off Nanking for eight days.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 311

Five months later, in the end of May, 1854, the American
Minister visited Nanking, in the war-steamer Susquehannah,
and stayed four days.

About a month afterward, a second visit was paid by the
British, H.M.’s steamers Rattler and Styx went to Nanking,
on behalf of the Plenipotentiary, Sir John Bowring, who
detached with them his Chinese Secretary, Mr. Medhurst, to
obtain information. The two vessels left Shanghae on the
16th of June, and returned on the 7th of July, 1854. Since
then, there has been no communication between the Tae pings
and western foreigners.

On the occasion of each of the above three visits, interviews
took place with Tae ping officers under the rank of those
bearing the title of Prince; and there was also an exchange
of written communications. The details have not been made
known, as in the case of the Hermes’ visit, by the publication
of the official documents, and cannot, therefore, be here given.
But the general nature of what passed on the occasion of the
French and American visits was made known at the time by
authoritative narratives cent to the Shanghae periodical, the
“ North China Herald;” and special information has been
furnished me, which, though I am not at liberty to make it
public, necessarily guides me in the collation of what has
been published elsewhere.

The chief gain, in so far as information was concerned, lay
in the procuring of some additional religious and other works,
published by the Tae pings subsequent to the visit of the
Hermes. These, which prove a gradual development of their
peculiarities, will be considered in a future Chapter. As to
the rest, none of the highest leaders, the “ Princes,” were
seen; but in their communications, and in the language and
demeanour of the secondary men who were seen, there was
the same assumption of the universal supremacy of the Hea-
venly Prince. This supremacy was asserted in more complete
terms at each successive visit; and, on the occasion of the
two visits in the summer of 1854, the Americans and English
312 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION.

were informed that it was their duty to “ts¢n kung,”’ present
the tribute of vassals to their lord. It is clear that, in so far,
the successive visits had had a prejudicial effect. It was
difficult for these Chinese from the interior, most of them
ignorant even of that very little concerning the political
status of foreigners which can be learnt at the Five
Ports; totally ignorant of the community of nations on a
footing of equality that exists in the Occident; and all accus-
tomed, even before they became Tae pings, to think of but
one earthly sovereign, the Emperor of China—it was diffi-
cult for them to comprehend that position of neutrality and
equality which the foreigners assumed. When I got one
intelligent and friendly disposed man, Lae, before me in the
cabin of the Hermes, I was able, by dint of argument and
illustration, to give him an idea of the actual facts. But
when the remembrance of my arguments and illustrations .
began to grow dim in his mind, there would be an inevitable
tendency to revert to the ideas that had ruled there from his

youth up, and which had never been shaken in the minds of
his friends and constant associates; for they heard only of the
bare assertion of equality, unsupported by argument or ex-

planation. To them it must have seemed that, in refusing to

admit their supremacy, we secretly acknowledged that of
their enemies, the Manchoos; or perhaps had views of esta-

blishing our own, by getting possession of the country. There

is, therefore, nothing strange in the circumstance, that with
each successive visit the difficulties in the way of easy and
frank official intercourse with the Tae ping leaders should
be found to have increased. If we did not come to Nanking
to secure our interests by acknowledging their supremacy,
then our visits had no sufficient visible object, and must have
some concealed one, inimical to themselves. Hence their
communications began to evidence a certain amount of irri-
tation and displeasure, one of the most significant marks of
which was the application to their visitors of the term, “¢,
barbarians ;” a term which was not only never once heard
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 313

during the visit of the Hermes, but which we found carefully
avoided in the Tae ping publications which we then procured.
In the same way, at the time the Hermes visited them in
April, 1853, there appeared to be no objections on their part
to unlimited commercial intercourse. Lae said distinctly,
that our merchantmen might come to Nanking. It was only
necessary, he added, that they should send boats ahead to
prevent their being fired on. But on the occasion of the visits
in the summer of 1854, while both English and Americans
were told that it was free, not to their nations only, but to
all nations in the world, to come to them to trade, a restric-
tive spirit began to manifest itself. It was intimated that, in
matters of trade the ordonnances of Heaven must be reve-
rently obeyed; and that traders must stop at Chin keang, and
submit themselves to the arrangements instituted by the
Comnrandant at that city. I lay no stress whatever on a
refusal to sell some coal that was stored at Nanking. The
coals were the property of the Sovereign, and even at ordi-
nary times a Chinese would regard the offer to buy them
much as we regarded the desire expressed by the Shang-
hae Intendant to hire the services of Her Majesty’s sloop
Lily. Further, Nanking was, at the time, simply an immense
citadel, a citadel which had a hostile army before it, and
which might chance to be completely invested. Everything
useful in the place was war material; and it would have been
strange indeed if they, rich in money and so circumstanced,
had consented to sell so useful an article as coal.

With regard to the military and political position of the
Tae pings, little was learned beyond what was ascertained
during the Hermes’ visit, the substance of which has already
been given. In so far, the three subsequent visits of foreigners
were chiefly useful as confirmatory of what had been ascer-
tained at the first visit, and as showing that at different later
periods the power of the Tae pings, as opposed to the Impe-
rialists, was steadily increasing. The Americans did see some-
thing new by ascending the river for about seventy miles
314 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

above Nanking to Woo hoo. In the following extract from
their account we have unquestionable evidence that the Tae
pings had not been constrained to carry out rigorously their
system of pressing men and seizing property at one large city,
at the least, which was entirely in their power. I have
shown above that they had not molested the agricultural
population near Chin keang :—

“Here the most cordial feeling was manifested by the
authorities and people. The visit to this place was of great
interest, as it afforded an opportunity of learning from per-
sonal observation the character of the insurgent rule over the
people in districts which are no longer the seat of war. The
state of things is entirely different from that at Nanking.
The people are engaged in their ordinary avocations; shops
are opened, and trade carried on, as under the old regime,
though the former prosperity of the place is by no means
restored. Here there is no separation of the men and women,
as at Nanking, but the laws prohibiting the use of opium and
tobacco are rigidly enforced. The people stand in great awe
of their new rulers, and are obviously governed with a strong
hand. The city has suffered severely in the war, a large por-
tion of it having been burned, leaving many acres of land
covered with heaps of rubbish and crumbling walls.

‘« Few, if any, of the people had ever seen a foreigner or a
foreign vessel before, and their curiosity and wonder were
very great. The greatest deference was shown, however, to
those who went ashore. In several instances respectable men
[original inhabitants] even fell on their knees in the street
before the foreigners and their guides, to testify their respect.
The place cannot have been more than three or four months
under the undisturbed control of the insurgents, as was shown
by the short hair of the inhabitants, who are not now per-
mitted to shave the head. It was first taken on the 4th of
March, 1853. The inhabitants probably fled at that time,
and have since gradually returned.

‘““Of the many Tae ping officials who here visited the
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 315

steamer, one stated that he was on his way up the river to
attend to the collection of the revenue; another was going
up for charcoal for the use of the Heavenly Prince; and a
third was in charge of a raft of heavy timber, designed for
the erection of palaces at Nanking, for the parents of the Five
Princes. A variety of coal was found at Woo hoo, said to
have come from the province of Hoo pih.”

While there was the old assumption of the universal supre-
macy of their sovereign on the part of the higher men at
Nanking, there was also. the same acknowledgment of the
brotherhood of all true worshippers of the One Heavenly
Father, and the same manifestation of friendly feeling on the
part of the people and subordinate officials; who crowded the
decks of the steamers as they had done those of the Hermes.
Such was the testimony which the members of the French
and American missions themselves severally gave. Both
agreed in attributing the “arrogant pretensions of the chiefs”
to “ignorance and pride;” to “their ignorance respecting the
importance of western nations and the sense of their own
relative power.” “These dispositions,” said the French
narrative, “would probably wear off, should circumstances
bring them into more frequent contact with foreigners; but
that is a question which time alone can decide.’ The Ame-
rican narrative said: “The reception given to foreigners at
Nanking does not prove the existence of a feeling of hostility
on the part of the insurgent chiefs. They are naturally
averse to such visits, because they cannot understand their
object; and it is not strange that they should be suspicious
of those whom they know to be on friendly terms with their
enemies. How are they to know that their visitors are not
spies seeking to gain information for the benefit of the Imperial
generals ?” .

I have italicised the last sentence; and I would now,
speaking as a member of the great human fraternity, beg,
with all due courtesy, the serious attention of French and
American officials in China, and of the respective depart-
316 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONWS.

ments of their Home Governments to the following extracts,
some portions of which I give likewise in italics.

The French narrative of the voyage up the river
states:—

“On approaching Silver Island the Cassini passed a part
of the Imperial fleet, which was anchored along the southern
bank, a schooner brig bearing the Admiral’s flag lay alone in
the middle of the channel, and as the steamer passed she
saluted her. A little beyond Silver Island, near the opposite
shore, was stationed another portion of the Imperial fleet,
amongst which there were also several [Portuguese] lorchas.
The following day the steamer [which had passed the night
with the Imperialist blockading fleet] having got under
weigh, soon arrived opposite the batteries of Chin keang,
which she passed quite closely without any hostile demonstra-
tions on the part of the rebels. Further on she passed in the
same manner the batteries established by them on the other
side of the river a little above Kwa chow.

As the steamer neared Nanking, a shot + was
fea at her from one of the batteries on the faa land, which
is in advance of the city walls. Preparations were imme-
diately made to return the fire in case the nsuLT should have
been repeated, the ‘ Cassini’ continuing to move slowly up to-
wards the spot designed for her anchorage, but no other shot
was fired. As soon as she dropped her anchor, a boat was
sent on shore with an officer and interpreter to ask for ex-
planations, who soon returned bringing satisfactory answers;
and shortly after, an officer from the general commanding the
outposts (General Seu) came on board with ample apologies
for the shot that had been fired, saying that it had been
through the mistake of a subordinate, &c. &c. This first
difficulty having been removed . . . . .”

The American narrative of the movements of the Susque-
hannah states :—

“The ship only running during the day, and when the
weather was favourable, Silver Island, where the Imperial
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 317

fleet is anchored, was not reached until Thursday the 25th,
about nine o’clock, a. M.

* The Imperial Admiral and suite at once came on board:
he had been apprised of the visit, and had a long interview
with His Excellency Mr. McLane, the nature of which is not
known, although it is said to have been perfectly friendly.
As the ship approached the Imperial fleet, salutes were fired
throughout the line, in honour of His Excellency Mr. McLane,
which were promptly returned by the ‘ Susquehannah’ [All
this took place within sight of the Tae pings at Chin keang,
who had no means whatever of knowing that the Imperialists
had not at length succeeded in hiring the help of a foreign
steamer. |

* As Chin keang, the first point on the river in the pos-
session of the Rebel forces, was approached, a shot was
fired across the bows of the Susguehannah. Captain Bu-
chanan immediately stopped directly abreast of the batteries,
and orders were instantly given to clear the ship for action,
her heavy guns were run out, and everything was in readiness,
if any further hostile indications had been shown, to adminis-
ter a proper rebuke: a boat was lowered, and Lieutenant
Duer, and Mr. Lewis Carr of the Legation, accompanied by
Rev. Dr. Bridgman and Rev. Mr. Culbertson as interpreters,
were sent on shore, to communicate with the authorities, and
demand an explanation for the shot. The rain fell in tor-
rents, and it was only after a great difficulty they succeeded
in finding the officer in command of the garrison, whose resi-
dence was distant some two or three miles inside the walls. .

«The General stated that the shot had been fired, be-
cause they found it necessary to stop all vessels ascending the
river ; but now that the friendly character of the ship was
ascertained, proper instructions would be given to the officers
at the batteries to prevent a recurrence of it.

“ Mr. Carr was instructed by His Excellency the Minister
to state, that citizens of the United States, residing in China
under the guarantees of a solemn Treaty, were much exposed,
318 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

both in their persons and property, by the civil strife now
extending itself over the Empire; and that it was the deter-
mination of the Minister to exact, from both parties, a proper
respect to our neutral rights; and, in order that he might
obtain accurate information of their relative positions, he
intended to ascend the river some distance; that he would
stop at Nanking, and might there communicate with the
authorities. Woo replied, that he would much prefer that
the Minister would remain at Chin keang, until he could make
known his intended visit to the Eastern Prince; and that the
visit of His Excellency would be made more satisfactory by
so doing. The interview was somewhat protracted, owing to
the peculiar dialect used, which the interpreters imperfectly
understood. The result of this interview being reported,
Captain Buchanan, on full consultation with Mr. McLane, was
not altogether satisfied, and he then addressed a letter to
General Woo, demanding an immediate apology for the insult
that had been offered to the American Flag, and that, unless it
was full and ample, he would effectually prevent a similar oe-
currence from that battery at least. He also enclosed him a
drawing of the Flag, that it might not again be forgotten.
Lieutenant Duer, accompanied by Mr. E. A. Le Roy, of the
Legation, was directed to deliver the letter. Before it was
received, however, a communication was sent on board, con-
taining a very satisfactory apology, accompanied with a reite-
rated hope that His Excellency the Minister should await some
communication from Nanking. Mr. McLane being unwilling
to suffer such detention, Captain Buchanan apprised General
Woo that he would proceed on the following day at noon,
which he accordingly did: none of the batteries appeared at
all disposed to obstruct the progress of the ship. On ap-
proaching Kwa chow, some distance above Chin keang, a
strongly fortified point at the mouth of the Grand Canal, in
the possession of the Rebels, the officer in command approach-
ing the Susquehannah with a letter, repeating what had pre-
viously been written by Woo, about going on :—it was said to
him in reply, that the object of the Minister was friendly,
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 319

and that he could only have intercourse with the higher
authorities at Nanking. . . . .

**On approaching Nanking, on all the low flat land outside
of the North-east wall of the city, crowds were assembled, and
as it was from this point that the Hermes and Cassini were
fired at, the men were beat to quarters, and every preparation
made to give them a broadside, if any hostile demonstration
had been made; none was, however, and the Susqguehannah
slowly and gracefully moved up to her anchorage just off the
corner of the wall above-mentioned. The day was beautiful,
and the thousands and thousands who gazed at her as she
approached were evidently much impressed with her fine
appearance. Lieutenant Duer and Mr. Carr, with the Rev.
Dr. Bridgman, were again sent on shore with a letter from
Captain Buchanan to the highest officer commanding at Nan-
king, announcing the arrival of a United States ship of war,
with the American Minister on board.”

Now what right had the American Commander, after
haing been engaged in friendly intercourse with a besieging
force to take his ship, in contempt of the usual requisition to
stop in the shape of a shot fired across his bows, right up
to a position commanding the batteries of the besieged force,
without giving the latter the slightest* facility for ascer-
taining the real character of the approaching vessel? Judg-
ing, I will not say by our conventional laws of war, but
by what a little reflection tells every man must be a natu-
ral law of all war, it is plain that we Occidentals, if we
really do intend to be neutral, must acknowledge in our
practice the right of the Tae pings to make certain that
Imperialist auxiliaries do not take up commanding posi-
tions before their defences, under the guise of the govern-
ment vessels of neutral foreign states. The Tae pings, in
their efforts to free their country from the foreign Tartar
domination, have this right, whether we allow it or
not. It was not them, but the Americans, who deserved
“a proper rebuke.” The latter, before “exacting a proper
320 THE CHINESE AND THEIR EE eaLAO SS:

respect to their neutral rights,” were, in common justice,
bound to evince a proper respect for the national and belli-
gerent rights of the Tae pings. It was, in the above cases,
not the French and Americans, but the Tae pings, who were
insulted: they were insulted by a deliberate and open dis-
regard of a rule of war, based on self-evident military neces-
sities. It is, however, impossible for me to believe that the.
commanders of the Cassini and the Susquehannah could take
any pleasure in destroying men, weak, as opposed to them,
and who were then struggling against already heavy odds, in
a gallant attempt to free themselves from a foreign domina-
tion. I am morally convinced that they must have acted
from a total misconception of the circumstances. Their
conduct is to me but another proof of my proposition, that
China is the best misunderstood country in the world. I will,
in the wish to make the real relation of all parties clearer,
suppose what I am personally happy to feel is a national
impossibility. I will suppose the Santal rebels to be in so
far successful in their rising as to maintain themselves in
arms against our English and native Indian royalist troops
for two years; to besiege and take, at the end of that time,
Patna and Benares, exterminating all the born English found
at those places; and to hold the two cities, and command the
river between them for eight or ten months, in defiance of
the hostile efforts of the royal armies. I will further suppose
the Ganges to be navigable for the largest foreign steamers
up beyond Benares. Would the Americans and French, in
such case, feel entitled or inclined to send steamers right up
to both places, without giving the Santal garrisons the least
opportunity of ascertainiug whether they were, or were not,
British royalist steamers that had hoisted French and Ameri-
can flags? Suppose an American vessel so to act at Patna;
suppose the Santal Commandant to have, yielding to force,
respectfully apologised for having exercised his belligerent
right of firing a shot to bring the vessel to ; suppose him then
to argue: After seeing your vessel, I am inclined to believe
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 321

that you are really Americans and not our British oppressors,
but I see on board several native Indians, my countrymen,
who, though in your employ, may be acting as British spies;
please to stop here, therefore, till I communicate with my
superiors at Benares. Suppose the American Captain to
reply: No, I will not stop; my countrymen have got com-
mercial interests at various places along the coast of British
India ; the nearest is Dacca, some two or three hundred miles
off at the mouth of this river, where the exchange and the
import trade of late have been very unfavourable in conse-
quence of your operations; therefore I intend to go up to
Benares to-morrow, and if any of your batteries fire upon
us, I will destroy them. Lastly, suppose the vessel to pro-
ceed to Benares accordingly, and, as she approached that
place, to beat to quarters and prepare to pour a broadside
into the assembled crowds in case one of their leaders chanced
to fire a shot as a requisition to bring to; what, I ask, would
be the opinions of the American public as to the whole pro-
ceeding? Let the French and Americans substitute the
Great River, Chin keang and Nanking for the Ganges,
Patna and Benares; Shanghae for Dacca; Manchoos for
English ; native Chinese imperialist troops, for native Indian
royalist troops; and Tae pings for Santals; and they will
then have an analogy that may give them a more correct
idea, than the Commanders of the Cassini and Susquehannah
appear to have had, of their position in China. But the ana-
logy is imperfect, and that to the prejudice of the Tae pings.
The Santal chiefs are illiterate savages, not to be compared,
either in their social or in their religious aspect, with the
well-educated men who originated and have guided the Tae
ping rebellion; and who are now republishing and sedu-
lously spreading a Protestant translation of the Christian
Scriptures as a moral and religious canon. Further, the
English rule in India not merely as military conquerors, but
as a nation far superior in civilization to the most advanced of
the natives; while, on the other hand, in China the highest
Y
322 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION,

of the Manchoos are entirely indebted for all they have
of civilization to that Chinese people whom certain lucky
coincidences enabled them to subject.

The Hermes, when she ascended the river, suffered herself
to be fired on by the batteries at Chin keang, by armed craft
on the river, and again by the batteries at Kwa chow with-
out even preparing to return fire. On approaching Nan-
king she stopped when fired at until the officers in charge of
the strand batteries had ascertained her pacific character,
when only she steamed up to them. On her return voyage,
she was assured in answer to inquiries, specially made to
obviate difficulties, that she would not be fired on, as the true
nature of her errand was well known. After all this, she was
perfectly justified in returning the fire that was unexpectedly
opened on her when she repassed Kwa chow and Chin keang.
To have then abstained would have led the Tae pings into the
error, mischievous for themselves, of supposing that British
war vessels were unable or afraid to defend themselves.

In how far it may be justifiable or advisable for foreign
vessels of war again to ascend the Great River to the Tae
pings is a point that I shall discuss in the last chapter. But
it must I think be now manifest to every reader that foreign
vessels are on approaching as neutrals any position, whether
of the Tae pings or the Imperialists, bound to stop beyond
gun range; to send a message by an unarmed boat to the
commander of the position in question; and not to approach
nearer without his consent. British, French, and American
men-of-war are perfectly able to violate this rule with small
risk to themselves. But if they do so, there must be no
talk of neutrality, for the act is by its very nature a hostile
one; and it would be so considered by every belligerent force,
revolutionary or Imperialist, in every country of the Occident,
It is however one of those many acts that are committed in
the weak East without ulterior intentions and merely from
an overbearing haughtiness. Occidentals, while loudly
accusing the Chinese of arrogance, are themselves constantly
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 323

guilty of the arrogance of refusing to observe just rules and
submit to reasonuble restrictions, which the Chinese have the
right, but not the power to enforce. Many of these Occi-
dentals even labour under the delusion that they thereby
uphold the honour of their respective countries. Such con-
duct can only be stopped by plain exposure, and by the just
and strong condemnation of all right-minded men through-
out the Civilized West.

I must now more fully explain to those of my readers
who have not hitherto attended to the Chinese and their
opinions, that the notion of the new party, the Tae pings, as
to the universal supremacy of their sovereign, the Heavenly
Prince, is not peculiar to them. It has always been a
nationally unquestioned attribute of the Ruler of China.
There may be, and often has been doubts as to who was
that Ruler, as to who it was that had received the Di-
vine Commission; but that question once settled, there can
be no doubt that he is the Ruler by right, if not de facto,
of the whole world. There can be no two Sovereigns, no
two “sons of Heaven” on earth. It is but a natural conse-
quence of all this, that nothing can exceed the arrogance of the
views and language of the Manchoo Emperors with respect to
foreigners. Before the war, the delegate of the Emperor
Taou kwang, the Commissioner Lin, when he found that his
method of dealing with the opium question threatened to in-
volve him in difficulties, did so far condescend as to address
a letter on a footing of equality * to Queen Victoria, in which
he among other things called upon her to search the hold of
every vessel of her country that left for China, in order to
see that they contained no opium. But he refused to address
the British Plenipotentiary except by “mandates” enjoin-
ing obedience to his “orders;” and would receive no com-

* The relative standing of the writer and the person addressed is un-
mistakeably indicated by the form and phraseology of a Chinese letter. So
much is this the case that one of the difficulties of foreign official interpreters
ig to find perfectly neutral forms and phraseology, such as express neither
superiority, nor inferiority, nor equality.

y2
824 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONSy

munications unless as humbly worded “ petitions.” The
British war showed the Manchoos that we were certainly their
equals in military power, but it left their old conviction of the
rightful supremacy of their Sovereign, because the de facto
Sovereign of China, wholly unchanged. He was a suzerain
who was unable to control a rebellious and too powerful
vassal. In the treaties of peace and commerce, the Emperor
was compelled to admit of a phraseology being employed
which marked a standing for foreign sovereigns equal to his
own; but in the reports of the negotiations which were pub-
lished in the Peking Gazettes, all expressions indicative of
equality were suppressed, and the free nature of the com-
merce conceded was as much as possible concealed. In the
latest editions of the Penal Code, the laws awarding punish-
ments for intercourse and trading with the barbarians remain
unaltered.*

The reader may now still better understand why I, while
condemning all intervention whatever either for or against

J the Tae pings, nevertheless do feel politically desirous for

their success. Their claims of supremacy for their sovereign
are in no wise more exaggerated than those of the Manchoos,
whom they are endeavouring to oust. The present dynasty
continues, notwithstanding the British war and in opposition
to the spirit of the treaties, pertinaciously to act on the old
national policy of “making a distinction between natives
and barbarians,” of “avoiding friendly relations” with the
latter, and of “keeping them off.’ + The Tae pings on the
other hand, apart from the claim to supremacy, have, by the
testimony of all who have visited them, manifested a de-
cidedly friendly feeling. ‘Though the successive visits had

* If the Manchoos succeed in re-establishing themselves in power in China,
Occidental states should, in the revision of their respective treaties, have a clause
inserted binding the Imperial government to abrogate these laws by a decree
published in the Peking Gazette ; and they should take steps to see the clause
faithfully acted on.

+ These were the terms employed in discussing the anti-barbarian policy
about 700 years ago by various writers, who are still indubitable authorities on
the subject.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF TAE PINGS. 325

the effect of modifying this feeling on the part of the leaders
so far as to make them at length begin applying to us
the term “ barbarian,” there still remained the essential cir-
cumstance that they called us “ barbarian brethren,” a con-
junction in which the first word is necessarily much modified
by the second. And, what is of most importance, they are
themselves, in certain of their fundamental religious doc-
trines, sedulously diffusing principles by which that very
claim to supremacy, which they now urge, will be over-
thrown in the minds of their own people, with their future
certain increase in geographical and historical knowledge.
Hence, with the establishment of the Tae pings, foreigners
will be in no respect worse placed as to all legitimate inter-
national. objects than they were before, while a broad and
firm basis will be laid for the assimilation of national funda-
mental beliefs and for a consequent peaceable extension of
free intercourse and commercial privileges. The last fifteen
years’ experience has finally proved that these advantages
can be obtained from the present dynasty only by wars,
bloody and disastrous for the Chinese; wars engendering
long national hatred and tending directly to destroy that very
national industry which alone makes commercial intercourse
valuable.
326 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.@

CHAPTER XVIII.

NOTICE OF THE PHILOSOPHY, MORALITY, AND POLITY OF THE
CHINESE, AND OF THE RELIGION OF THE GOVERNING CLASS.

Tue Chinese have acquired, in the course of their long exist-
ence, more than one different kind of philosophy; that is to
say, there exist in China several radically different. ways of
viewing the nature of the inanimate world and of man. The
principal of these are the Taouist, the Buddhist, and what
may in order to distinguish it from the others be called the
Confucian. The Taouist is, like the Confucian, indigenous.
Laou tsze the founder of Taouism lived in the sixth century
before Christ. Buddhism penetrated into China from India
in the first century after Christ. There was a long struggle
for the mastery among the adherents of these three systems,
a struggle which expressed itself in mutual proscriptions and
persecutions. But the Confucian, which existed in China
long before the others, has, since their rise, always succeeded
in maintaining for itself the greatest ascendancy, except
during some comparatively short periods; and it became defi- -
nitively paramount fully ten centuries ago. From that time
to this it has continued dominant in the country. It has.
been the philosophy and morality of all the great historians
of China, and has formed the basis of her peculiar national
system of legislation and administrative procedure. It
may be described as the assemblage of those fundamental
beliefs which are entertained by all cultivated Chinese on the
phenomena of animate and inanimate nature. The literature
in which it is set forth, and which it has moulded, whether
HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 327

ontological, psychical, ethical, legislative or historical, is that
exclusively, an intimate and extensive acquaintance with
which has, for many centuries, been made indispensable to the
passing of the Public Service Examinations; which are, for
the talent and ambition of China, far more than the hustings,
the avenues to church preferment, and the bar, all combined,
are for the talent and ambition of England. Hence Confu-
cianism is, and has long been in the fullest sense of the terms
the national, orthodox philosophy and morality of the Chinese
people. Taouist and Buddhist temples exist all over China,
and in later centuries Mahommedan mosques have been
erected in many of its cities; but the dominant Confucianism
merely endures Taouism, Buddhism, and Mahommedanism
as erroneous and superstitious systems of beliefs prevalent
among, because most suited to people of uncultivated or weak
minds, whether rich or poor; but which find most acceptance
among the poorer, and therefore unlearned and unenlightened
classes. They have no influence on the national polity. The
people are in nowise prohibited from worshipping in the
Buddhist and Taouist temples, in other words they may
regulate their purely religious life by the tenets of these, or
indeed of any other sect. But where Taouism or Buddhism
would leave the region of Religion and, in the form of phi-
losophy or morality, extend their direct influence into the
domain of the Social Science and Art, there Confucianism
peremptorily and effectually prohibits their action. Not only
are the national legislation and administration founded ex-
clusively on Confucian principles; it is by them also that the
more important acts of the private life of the Chinese are
regulated: as, for instance, marriage. The cause of the pre-
valence of Taouism, Buddhism, and Mahommedanism in
China, in spite of discouragements, lies in the fact that Con-
fucianism says little or nothing of a supernatural world or of
a future existence. Hence it leaves almost unsatisfied those
ineradicable cravings of human nature, the desire to revere
and the longing for immortal life. That it has, notwith-
328 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS. #

standing its want of these holds on the human heart, main-
tained itself, not simply in existence, but as the ruling system,
is a fact that must, so soon as it is perceived, form for every
true thinker a decisive proof of the existence of great and
vital truths in its theories, as well as thorough soundness and
wholesomeness in the practical rules which it dictates.

By Chinese pbilosophy, then, I mean the Confucian phi-
losophy ; and by Chinese morality, the moral principles rooted
in that philosophy. And my object being essentially prac-
tical, I shall take no account of the philosophical doctrines
contained in Buddhism and Taouism in what is to follow;
though I may have again to allude to the actual influence
which these systems exercise as religions.

The Chinese philosophy, much as it has been written
about, has never yet been rightly stated. The picture stood
there in full view of the Jesuits, the first Christians who
gained access to the literature of the Chinese; it was sur-
veyed by them, and has since been surveyed by others; it
has been long looked at and even minutely described ; but it
has never yet been described from the right point of view.
Let the reader remark my allusion to a picture. A series of
‘critical observers might place themselves, note-book in hand,
before a large painting and might prolong their observations
for years, but by placing themselves either on the right or
the left of that true stand-point from which only each picture
is to be rightly seen, they would fail to gain, and be unable™
to give aclear and right idea of what it expressed; and that _
though their descriptions left not an inch of it unnoticed.
Now this is what has happened with the Chinese philosophy
—a position that I must endeavour to establish before closing
the chapter, there being unfortunately a large amount of
error to be cleared away before the work of sound construc-
tion can be fully accomplished.

In order to get a distinct general conception of the Chinese
philosophical literature, two epochs must be specially kept in
mind.
HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 329

The first began with Confucius (Kung tsze), who was
born s.c. 551, and ended with Mencius (Mang tsze), who
died about B.c. 317.

The second began with Chow leen ke or Chow tsze, who
commenced his labours about a.p. 1034; and ended with
Choo ke or Choo tsze, who died in a.p. 1200.

The first lasted for seven generations. It was separated
by an interval of thirteen hundred years from the second;
which lasted for five generations. Both were periods of re-
vival of ancient learning and of further development. Both
embraced several celebrated philosophers* besides those
mentioned ; but in each case it was the originator and closer
of the epoch who became most celebrated. The writers of
the second are often mentioned as the philosophers of the
Sung dynasty; which latter was established in a.p. 960,
about 70 years before Chow tsze’s labors began, and con-
tinued in possession of the sovereignty till a.p. 1271, till
about 70 years after Choo tsze’s labors closed.

Confucius, though his name has in the West become iden-
tified with Chinese learning, was by no means its originator.
Authentic though not full records, embodying ethical and
political doctrines, extend back to B.c. 2357, or to about
eighteen hundred years before Confucius; while the Chinese
philosophy originated with Fuh he, who lived, according to
tradition, some twenty-three generations before, the exact
chronological era; which latter took place B.c. 2637 with the
institution of the national cycle of sixty years. Allowing
thirty years to a generation,+ this would place Fuh he about
B.c. 8327. It was he who substituted writing for the knotted
strings that had previously formed the only means of record ;

* Jt is a curious coincidence that the first was contemporary with an epoch
of philosophical and literary activity equally important for the West; that
which commenced with Pythagoras, a contemporary of Confucius ; embraced
Zeno, Empedocles, Herodotus, Thucydides, Socrates and Plato; and ended with
Aristotle, who died about the same time as Mencius.

+ The long family histories of the descendants of Confucius and Menciugs
now living in China show that the average to a generation is thirty years.
330 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION®.

and it was he who first established marriages, and separate
families. To him are also ascribed some civilizing labors of °
lesser, but still great importance, as for instance the divi-
sion of the day into twelve she shin or watches of two hours
each.* Fuh ke is therefore the founder of Chinese civilization
generally. But he is perhaps best known as the originator
of the national philosophy, and in particular as the author
of the “ Eight Diagrams,” which were drawn by him as
follows: .

S WY

The multiplication of these eight diagrams by themselves
produced sixty-four doubled diagrams such as :—

 

 

 

 

 

 

* This division still maintains itself in legal and official language, though
the practical value of the European clocks and watches, now largely used in
China, is gradually substituting for it the Occidental division of twice twelve
hours.
HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 331

The annotation of Confucius to the ancient work, the Yih
king, states that Fuh he got the idea of the diagrams from
a figure on the back of a “ dragon horse” that issued from
a river. The same annotation states that, before Fuh he
invented the Eight Diagrams, he observed the configurations
and appearances in the heavens and the earth and the marks
on birds and beasts; also that he derived information from
his own person and from things around him. These terse
passages of an ancient author are, when taken literally, apt
to give a ridiculous air to the “ Eight Diagrams.” But
a little examination shows the meaning to be that Fuh he
constructed the Eight Diagrams only after a careful and
extensive survey of nature and its varied phenomena, as
exhibited in the departments which we call astronomy,
meteorology, physical geography and natural history; and
after reflection on his own nature, physical and mental, and
on the nature of men generally as manifested in the events
of the social life around him. The Hight Diagrams formed
in fact an illustrative figure intended to elucidate Fuh he’s
theory of the universe, a theory adopted after careful reflec-
tion on all animate and inanimate nature within his ken.
They are in so far undoubtedly the foundation of Chinese
philosophy; but it must not be assumed that learned Chinese
conceive any occult power to lie in them. Much in the same

way we might say that

 

 

 

 

is the foundation of our astronomy and navigation.
The founder of the Chow dynasty, known as Wan wang,
332 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIORS.

the Literary Prince, having been imprisoned (while he was
still a vassal of the dynasty he overthrew) by his jealous
suzerain, during the years B.c. 1144, 1143, 1142, made in
that seclusion a different arrangement of the Eight Diagrams ;
and he with one of his sons, Chow kung, who labored after
the establishment of the family in the sovereignty, gave
permanency to their joint development of the national phi-
losophy by attaching a few words of explication to each of
the sixty-four doubled diagrams. Fuh he’s diagrams as
rearranged, together with the short explications of the first
monarch of the Chow dynasty and his son, form the basis or
text of the first of the Chinese Sacred Books, the Yih king.

After an interval of six centuries Confucius appeared, and
among his other celebrated literary labors, undertaken in
B.c. 490 and the following years, edited the Yih king and
appended those annotations which have given the work its
subsequent value. What philosophical views may have been
attached to the Yih king of Wan wang and Chow kung by
the cotemporaries of Confucius, we know not. That work,
together with the other three works edited or compiled by
Confucius, viz. the Shoo king, the She king, and the Le ke,*
constitute the whole of the ancient literature of China which
has come down to posterity ; and we have it only as it was
explained, arranged or modified in passing through his hands.
It is well known that he expressly repudiated portions of it,
as containing doctrines adverse to the views which he held
and strove to diffuse. The names only of some celebrated
ancient books, one dating from the times of Fuh he himself,
have been preserved. It is these circumstances which consti-
tute the labors of Confucius, the commencement of a distinct
literary epoch.

Apart from the labors of Confucius himself, the permanent
literary results of this, the first of the two great epochs to

* A fifth work, the Tsun tsew, which with those named in the text forms

he Woo king or Five Canonical Books, is a history which was written by
Confucius himself.
HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 333

which I have directed attention, are contained in the collec-
tion of works called the Four Books, composed by different
members of the school which he founded. The last contains
a record of the ethical and political teachings of Mencius,
who, as already stated, died in B.c. 317 and closed the first
epoch,

The following are a few of the most noteworthy occur-
rences which influenced Chinese literature, in the thirteen
hundred years that elapsed before the commencement of the
second epoch.

About B.c. 221 the prince of Tsin, one of the vassal states
into which the till then feudally governed China had been
divided, made himself sovereign of the Empire under the title
of Che hwang. It was he who took the first steps for the esta-
blishment of centralized administration. But he wished to
establish a despotism, not that morally supported autocracy
which I have shown to be the true Chinese rule. Hence he
ordered all books to be burnt, with the exception of those on
the healing art, on agriculture, and on divination; that is to
say, he spared whatever conduced to merely material prospe-
rity or ministered to superstition, but ordered the destruction
of all literature that inculcated the necessity of governing by
the higher mental agencies rather than by physical force. He
was a great conqueror; and was successful in opposing the
inroads of the northern barbarians, the Heung noo or Huns,
one of his measures to withstand whom was the erection of
the celebrated Great Wall. But, so alien were his principles
of rule to the Chinese mind, that the power of his house
ended with his life; and he is always mentioned with detes-
tation by the orthodox historians and philosophers. After
his death, the books which he attempted to destroy were
recovered in various ways, while the literature which he
patronised died out unattacked. “From this,” says a
Chinese writer of authority, “it is evident that the canons of
the Holy Men and teachings of the Sages will never decay,
while low and heterodox doctrines will perish though spe-
A
334 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

cially cared for. From the first, the continued existence of
either has not depended on the tastes of the actual Sovereigns.”
As the enigmatically terse Yih king, with its mysteriously
looking diagrams, had been made the basis of systems of divi-
nation, it was expressly spared in the general destruction of
the books. It is in consequence held to be the least imperfect,
as well as the most ancient portion of Chinese literature.

In the beginning of the tenth century printing was in-
vented ; and in a.p. 932 that mode of multiplying copies of
books received the Imperial sanction; a printed Imperial
edition of all the sacred works having been then published.*
Chinese writers lay little or no stress on the effect of this
invention on the advancement of literature. But there can
be small doubt that the second great epoch of literary
activity, which began about a century later, after thirteen
hundred years of comparative torpitude, was mainly owing
to the spread of education consequent on the cheapening of
books. The originative capacities of many minds, which
would otherwise have lain dormant in unlettered ignorance,
must have been brought into fruitful action in the fields of
philosophical speculation and historical inquiry.

One such mind was that of Chow tsze, the originator of
the second epoch of philosophical development. To him is
ascribed the merit of having revived that distinct knowledge
of the greatest truths, which had been lost to the world for
the thirteen centuries that had elapsed after the death of
Mencius. And he regained that knowledge by the inde-
‘pendent efforts of his own mind, unaided by any master.
Only two of his works have been preserved, the Tae keih
too shw6 and the Tung shoo. It is not denied by the writers
of the second epoch and subsequent annotators, that the
Sacred Books, bequeathed from the first epoch, were studied
in the long interval which elapsed between the two. But it is

* «The greatest of all the arts” was not invented in Europe till five hundred
years after this. Marco Polo speaks much of the “stamped” paper money of
the Chinese; and he must have seen their printed books.
HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 335

maintained that even the best of students during that inter-
val attached themselves blindly to the letter of the ancient
writings, and never thoroughly penetrated their spirit. The
fact is, however, that though the authors of the first and
second epochs, Confucius himself included, professed to teach
only what was contained in preexisting Sacred Books, and
though they doubtless themselves believed that they did
only teach what was virtually contained in such preexisting
Books; they nevegtheless did in each case originate some
entirely new views and doctrines. In the interval between
the two epochs the national philosophy was, on the other hand,
stationary, or any permanent developments which did take
place proceeded by such minute increments as to have escaped
notice; and have consequently failed to be connected with
their originators by later writers. Further, a certain amount
of creative activity in philosophical speculation was exhibited
during the interval between Mencius and Chow tsze, but it
was repudiated by the school which the latter originated as
perversion, not development, of the philosophy contained in
the old Sacred Books. Some of the heterodox literature
which it produced has, however, come down to our day. One
of the chief examples is formed by the works of Seun tsze,
a philosopher and political teacher of great authority about
B.c. 255; but who, as I shall have occasion to show, main-
tained a psychical theory directly opposed to one of the most
characteristic doctrines of the national orthodox philosophy.
We have now to consider Choo he or Choo tsze, with
whom the second great epoch of philosophical development
closed. This man is the fashioner of Chinese mental life as
it now exists; and is, in virtue of the immense practical
effect of his labors, fairly entitled to be considered one of the
greatest men that history makes known to us. Like most
great Chinese he held office, beginning his career with one
of the lower posts and being gradually promoted to a place
among the leading men of the country. There can be little
doubt that the soundness of the teachings of the celebrated
336 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOJS.

Chinese moralists and politicians is in great measure owing
to the fact, that they all had very ample opportunities of
forming and correcting their theoretical views on the ex~-
perience of practical life. Choo tsze, in one of the first posts
which he held, was placed in command of the north-western
angle of the wall of Tung yang, the chief city of the district
in which Amoy is situated, when it was threatened by an
attack of rebels. In the lesser posts generally which he
held, he had constant opportunities, such as private indi-
viduals never can have, of observing the phenomena of social
life as well as the working of detailed legislation. Lastly,
in his later places, he was personally consulted by the Sove-
reign in matters of Imperial significance, and could watch
the intrigues and vicissitudes of court life and the higher
political career. That a man who lived such a life and who
was gifted with a mind unusually candid, clear, and powerful,
should have written one of the best histories of the nation,
need not surprise us. In his 34th year he completed his
first annotations on a portion of the Four Books; and from
that time till within a month or two of his death, in his
seventieth year, he was unremitting in his literary labors.
In 37 years he published about 25 separate works. Two
of these were historical, the one that general history of the
country which has just been alluded to, the other “The
Sayings and Doings of Celebrated Statesmen.” These
were published in his 43rd year. The most of the others
were commentaries and introductions to the Sacred Books
which had descended from the first literary epoch; annotated
editions of the works of his predecessors in the second
epoch; and sketches of the history of philosophy. He died
in A.D. 1200; and in a.p. 1241 an Imperial rescript ordered
his tablet, with those of four of his immediate predecessors
whose works he had annotated, to be placed in the temple of
Confucius which is to be found in every district city through-
out the Empire. From that time to this, a period of six
hundred years, his views of philosophy, morality, and politics
e
HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 337

have been supreme in China. At this day, his commentaries
on the Yih king and the Four Books are learnt by heart by
millions of Chinese, with the text of these works. The
Public Service Examinations cannot be passed unless this be
done.

Since the close of the second epoch there have been hosts
of writers in China; but if any have put forth original and
divergent views they have not met with acceptance from
the people and the government. Those whose labors have
obtained currency are esteemed merely as able expositors of
the views of Choo tsze. But several works of very great
value even to us, as smoothing the way to a full knowledge
of the outward and inner life of the Chinese people past and
present, have been prepared in the shape of encyclopedias and
dictionaries. Many of these have been prepared under the
direct superintendence of Emperors and the highest officers
of state, assisted by large numbers of lesser officials divided
into committees and sub-committees, to each of which special
portions of the works were assigned. All this is easy in
a country where the most powerful intellects and best stored
minds are sedulously attracted to the service of the State.
Before the Sung family, under whom Choo tsze lived, it had
become an established dynastic procedure in China for each
Imperial house to have a history compiled of the rule of that
which it had ousted ; and to form an Imperial library, by col-
lecting books from all districts of the empire and having new
editions of them published. The facilities afforded by the cen-
tralized form of government for homogeneous action through-
out the length and breadth of the country, together with the
rewards given for valuable new works or rare copies of old
ones, is cause that these Imperial libraries have been very com-
plete. The Yuen dynasty which succeeded the Sungs in a.D.
1271 were Mongols, immediate descendants of Ghenhis Khan;
who adopted Chinese civilization only in a very slight degree,
and were, consequently, soon expelled again. The first
Emperor of the native dynasty, the Mings, which succeeded

Z we
338 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

them in a.p. 1368, though a promoter of literature, was him-
self illiterate, having been a servant in a monastery. But
the third Sovereign of the line, who began to reign 4.p. 1403,
had a splendid library formed and several encyclopediac
works compiled. He published an edition of the Sacred
Books, which is known by the affix to their title of “ ta
tseuen, in full completeness.” By this is meant that all
annotations of any authority, that could be collected, have
been attached to the text. He then had the philosophical
writings of the second epoch, with a large mass of annota-
tion and commentary from subsequent writers, published
A.p. 1413, in a collected form under the title of Sing le ta
tseuen. The meaning of ta tseuen I have just explained.
Sing le, literally nature and the immaterial principle, or (if we
choose to regard the words as in construction) the ground
principles of nature, mean here not the things themselves, but
the formalized knowledge or the science of these things. The
term is a very fair Chinese equivalent of our word philosophy
taken in its wider signification. Sing le ta tseuen means
therefore, Philosophy in full completeness, or more shortly,
but in opposition to Chinese grammar, the Complete Philo-
sophy. This book, of which I have got a very old copy
from the Imperial press, was published in a.p. 1415. It is
in 70 chapters; my copy being bound up in sixteen Chinese
volumes, a translation of which would fill more than that
number of our volumes of a larger octavo size. It was com-
piled by a commission of forty-one officers taken from several
different branches of the executive and of various ranks, at
the head of whom stood the Minister of State, Hoo kwang.
At the beginning of the book stand the two treatises of Chow
tsze, the Tae keih too shwé and the Tung shoo (page 834),
in full. Then follows a treatise, entitled Se ming, by Chang
tsze, another of the great authors of the second literary
epoch. After that come five other complete treatises, making
eight in all. These occupy twenty-five chapters. The
remaining forty-five chapters consist of extracts from the
HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 839

writings or recorded discourses of one hundred and twenty
men of more or less standing, arranged under thirteen heads ;
which, again, are subdivided into upwards of one hundred
and thirty sections. These may be described as various
branches of what we denote by ontology, cosmogony, psycho-
logy and ethics, together with discussions on supernatural
existences, on life and death, on the science and art of educa-
tion, on public service examinations, on the science and art
of government, and on fine literature, as also notices of the
general history of these subjects and of the men who wrote
about them.

In a.p. 1717, in the 56th year of the reign of Kang he,
the second Emperor of the present Manchoo dynasty, a
second edition of the above book was prepared, likewise by
an Imperial commission, which was composed of twenty-five
officials under the Minister Le kwang te. By the orders of
the Emperor himself, this new edition was made a very mate-
rial abridgement of the original work. The compilers of the
latter had, as its title indicates, made completeness and ful-
ness their main objects; and hence they collected from all
previous writers of any note. Considering the abstruse
nature of many of the subjects dealt with, there was certain
to be a considerable number of real, and a still greater number
of verbal discrepancies in the treatises and in the mass of
extracts placed in juxtaposition. Further, the mere quantity
of the matter impaired the usefulness of the book, embracing,
as it did, no small amount of mere repetition in more or less
varied phraseology. Lastly, several of the subjects intro-
duced did not, strictly speaking, fall within the scope of the
work. For these various reasons its size was, in the second
edition, reduced from seventy to twelve chapters, which are
contained in four moderate sized, instead of sixteen large
volumes. The abridgement, being virtually another work,
was entitled Sing le tsing e, literally, Philosophy’s essential
signification, but which I usually render more shortly by, the
Essence of Philosophy. The two works, the Essence of

z2
340 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REPENS:

Philosophy of the present Manchoo dynasty, and the Com-
plete Philosophy of the preceding native dynasty, are of
inestimable value to Occidentals as aids to the right compre-
hension of the Sacred Books; and as facilitating endeavours
to obtain a sound and thorough knowledge of the funda-
mental beliefs and opinions of the Chinese of the present and
last preceding generations—an object of undoubted, practical
importance to all who have to deal with them.

In the Imperial preface and the introduction to the Essence
of Philosophy, it is distinctly stated that the views of Choo
tsze had been taken as the rule in selecting from the Com-
plete Philosophy. And Kang he, ina still earlier period of
his reign, had openly ascribed to Choo tsze the merit of
having, after full consideration of the works of his predeces-
sors, definitively fixed the national—and national because
true—views of philosophy. Hence for the last 150 years
the authority of Choo tsze has been, if possible, more exclu-
sively paramount than before. During that period more than
ever, it has been by his eyes that the Chinese have read
their ancient Sacred Books. ‘To bring this fact home to the
mind of the reader, has been one of my main objects in giving
the above retrospect of the fortunes of Chinese philosophical
literature. The more important ontological, psychical and
ethical of the ancient Sacred Books were carefully annotated
by Choo tsze ; and he wrote a General History, the distinctive
feature of which, as compared with other general histories, is
held to lie in the more philosophical treatment of the subject
matter: “it gives prominence to the grander signification of
events, and facilitates a distinct perception of the relative mo-
rality of actions.” Now even supposing, what is a supposition
of the wildest improbability, that any Occidental could, by
direct study of the ancient Sacred Writers, attain a juster
comprehension of their meaning throughout than Choo tsze,
the result would be valueless except in an antiquarian point of
view. The Chinese nation understands the ancient writings,
which constitute the root of its social life, only as Choo tsze
HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 3841

understood them; and it is evident that, for practical pur-
poses, we must learn what the Chinese of the present and last
preceding generations think and thought, not what their
remotest ancestors may have thought. For these reasons,
Thold translations of the mere text of those works which
have been annotated by Choo tsze, to be comparatively value-
less. His annotations are got by heart by every educated
Chinese ; it is in them that we find an intelligible exposition
of all the most important national beliefs; and though they
by no means supersede the ancient texts—and would as a
matter of course scarcely be intelligible without the latter—
they constitute, as virtually containing further developments
of what they profess merely to expound, a new text in
themselves.

It is the more necessary to direct particular attention to
Choo tsze’s annotations, commentaries, summary views em-
bodied in prefaces, &c. &c. as he never himself published any
systematic general treatise on philosophy, entirely in his own
language. No one, however, who notes the invariable clear-
ness and logical consistency of his remarks, can doubt that he
had a definite system in his own mind; and it is plainly
necessary to the right comprehension of what he did write,
to know what that system was. From the following it will
be seen that we are, fortunately, left in no doubt on a subject
so important.

At page 338 it is stated that of the eight entire treatises
which stand at the head of the Complete Philosophy of
A.D. 1415, the first three are the Tae keih too shwé, the
Tung shoo, and the Se ming. In the Essence of Philosophy
of A.p. 1717, while all else is either excluded or greatly
abridged, these three treatises are given again in full. Now
these treatises are the only works, not classed with the
Sacred Literature, that Choo tsze was at the trouble to anno-
tate. Further, his annotations are given in full again in the
Essence of Philosophy; the Imperial introduction to which
states that the three treatises are works such as had not been
342 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.,

equalled since the days of Confucius and Mencius. It was in
fact these works, particularly the first two by Chow tsze,
which originated the second literary epoch. In them we find
a systematic ontology, cosmogony, and psychology, though in
terms so very terse that they could only have been intended
as text books, to guide their authors in their oral teachings.
A consequence of this terseness is that they would not have
been now intelligible without Choo tsze’s annotations. But
as accompanied by his annotations, we have in them the
general features of that theory of the universe—of that view of
animate and inanimate nature—which ruled Choo tsze’s own
mind in all his other literary labors. He annotated them in
his forty-third and forty-fourth years, at which period his
philosophical views may be fairly assumed to have been fully.
matured; but he did not publish his annotated editions till
his fifty-ninth year.

I now give the leading features of the Chinese philosophy,
as fixed by Choo tsze’sannotations to the above works and to
the Sacred Books, more especially those to the Yih king and
the Chung yung.

All nature, animate and inanimate—the universe in the
widest or proper sense of the word—is based on, and subsists
by an ultimate Entity, the specific or proper name of which
is Tae keih. This term, rendered literally, means the Grand
Extreme; and it is intended to express the extreme point to
which man’s speculations on the nature of existence have
been able to reach. As this Grand Extreme, which I have
just called an Entity, is absolutely immaterial, and as it
operates in the process by which the material universe is
produced in an invariable way, yet without intelligence and
without will, it may be viewed as a Law—as the fixed Order
in which all the multifold and varied phenomena of the
universe take place. Much of the language of Chinese phi-
losophers reads as if they regarded the Grand Extreme sim-
ply as a name for the actual order of succession of appear-
ances and events; and as if their theory of the universe was
EXPOSITION OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 843

in so far identical with that of Occidental positivists. But
there exist at the same time, in the phraseology of orthodox
writings, unmistakeable evidences that the Grand Extreme is
regarded as a something having a separate existence—an
entity—and as being, though always unintelligent and will-
less, possessed of a causative power. The Chinese view of
nature then approaches that of Occidental metaphysicians, as
distinguished from positivists. I do not think that the
Chinese are alive to the difference between these two methods
of viewing the phenomena of the universe. Now as our
word, principle, expresses alike, cause, source and law, its
ambiguity well corresponds with the undistinguishing view
just indicated, as that taken by the Chinese philosophy at its
starting point; and I shall therefore call the Tae keih the
Ultimate Principle.

The Ultimate Principle has operated from all eternity, and
now ceaselessly operates, by a dynamical process in virtue of
which animate and inanimate nature has existed from all
eternity. This process is represented as pulsative, as a suc-
cession of active expansive and passive intensive states;
which succession, as already indicated, never had a beginning.
The Ultimate Principle, in its active expansive operation,
constitutes and produces the Yang or Positive Essence; in
its passive intensive operation it constitutes and produces the
Yin or Negative Essence. When the active expansive phase
of the process has reached its extreme limit, the operation
becomes passive and intensive; and when the passive inten-
sive phase has reached its extreme limit, the operation again
becomes active and expansive: each phase roots in the other
in the course of a sort of subjective vibration or twofold
expansive and intensive action, which is, however, no motion
in space. Not only did all material and mental existences, of
which we are cognisant, originate by the process described—
if we may speak of the origination of that which has ex-
isted from eternity—but all existences do now subsist in
virtue of the same process, operating in ceaseless repetition.
344 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION,

I have chosen the terms Positive and Negative as, on the
whole, those in the English language best adapted to express
at once the opposition, and the general nature of the action
of the Yang and Yin. The following are my reasons for
adding the word, Essence, to each of these terms. Regarded
from one point of view, the Yang and Yin are merely the
two phases of the operation of the immaterial Ultimate
Principle. But the Chinese philosophy distinctly states that
the Ultimate Principle is the way or method which precedes
form, while the Yang and Yin are the instruments which
follow form; in which explication the words, precede and
follow, have relation to time, not to space. Further, the
Yang and Yin are called the Two ke, and ke is defined
as the most ethereal or least material shape of matter that is
conceivable. The most appropriate equivalent for ke in
English seemed to me to be, essence; and hence I call Yang
the Positive Essence, and Yin the Negative Essence. It is
here that Chinese philosophy slips over the much discussed,
hitherto unsolved, and apparently insolvable question of the
existence of matter. Hence it is, that in describing above
the mode of universal origination, I have been obliged to say
“constitutes and produces.” The active- expansive and
passive - intensive pulsatory process constitutes but the
method of operation of immateriality, yet it produces
materiality.

After that stage in the production of the universe which
is marked by the distinct existence of the Positive and Nega-
tive Essences, these two are next represented as working
together in the further development. This is however done
in vaguely general phraseology; and the Chinese writers
themselves give the warning intimation, that all the language
used of these primary evolutionary operations must be taken
in a figurative sense, the subject being in reality too abstruse
for language to lay hold of. The Positive Essence is said to
transform, the Negative to unite. By the action which is
thus indicated, they produce the Five Elements of the mate-
EXPOSITION OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 345

rial world, i.e. water, fire, wood, metal and earth; by which
the reader must not understand the visible palpable things so
named, but five innate essences, one possessed by each, and
constituting it what it is, as distinguished from the others.
This theory is very like that held in the West till within
a surprisingly short period from our own time—till within the
last half of the last century, I believe. Chemistry has grown
so rapidly, and become so widely known that it is somewhat
difficult for us now even to conceive, how such a theory
could be believed in. Lest its acceptance should lead us to
undervalue the Chinese intellect, we should remember that
it dominated in the days of Bacon and reigned unquestioned
in the minds of learned men long after him.

At the same time that the Five Elements are produced,
the Four Seasons come into existence. By the Four Seasons
must be understood not merely four divisions of the time of
a year, but four special though secondary principles, or rather
four specialized forms of the Ultimate Principle, each of
which has a certain predominance in nature during one of
the periods called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

A transcendental union and coagulation now takes place
of the Ultimate Principle, the Two Essences, and the Five
Elements; the Positive Essence becomes the masculine
power, the Negative Essence the feminine power—conceived
in which character the former constitutes the Heavenly Mode
or Principle, the latter the Earthly Mode or Principle; by
a mutual influencing, the two produce all things in the
visible, palpable world; and the double work of evolution
and dissolution goes on without end.

In the course of the process of universal production, man is
constituted of the finer portion of the elements at work, and is
the most intelligent of all things; the unintelligent, zoological
world, being included in the term, things. It is at this stage
that the mental, as different from the material world mani-
fests itself in the form of a distinct existence. As we believe
that mind and matter have the same common origin in the
346 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION§.

incomprehensible workings of the Author of existence; so
the Chinese believe that mind and matter have the same
common origin in the transcendent operations of the Ulti-
mate Principle, the Tae keih. Man’s Sing or Nature, as
allotted to him in the course of these operations, is perfectly
good. Its qualities as exhibited in active relation to the
world are classified under five heads, Jin, E, Le, Che, and
Sin, which are called the Five Tih or Five Virtues; tih
being a word that like our English, virtue, signifies first,
qualities or characteristics generally whether of man or of
things; and then, collectively, the best qualities of man, or
Virtue as opposed to Vice. In accordance with the diction-
aries, Jin is usually rendered by Benevolence (or Charity in
its widest sense); E, by Righteousness; Le, by Propriety ;
Che, by Wisdom; and Sin, by Sincerity. But sinologues
will perceive that as the Five Tih embrace the whole of
what we consider the better side of man’s nature, it is not
certain that these five English words are exhaustive; while
it is quite certain, as a consequence of the independent
growth of Chinese morality and language, that even if ex-
haustive, they could not prove parallel synonyms of the five
Chinese words.* Propriety and Righteousness are, in par-
ticular, very inadequate as synonyms of Le and E. I may
state here that the Chinese have not set up that division of
man’s mental nature into intellectual and moral qualities,
which plays so prominent a part in all discussions of Occi-
dental philosophy. Hence a quality designated, wisdom, is
placed with those called, benevolence and sincerity.

Man’s form having been produced, and consciousness having
ensued, his originally pure nature is influenced by the objective

* For instance, in many cases E. means, Public-spirited, ¢.e. actuated by a
desire for the common good. There are in China E fun, public or free cemeteries;
E heo, public or free schools; and E tsang, public (non-official) granaries; all
which are partly benevolent or charitable institutions, and should therefore
according to our notions rather be called Jin fun, Jin heo, if we take Jin as
meaning Charity. E ping again must be rendered Patriotic soldiers, certainly
not Righteous soldiers, ,
EXPOSITION OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 847

world, good and evil come thereby into separate existence,
and all human affairs arise. As in the region of ontology
and cosmogony the Two Essences and the Five Elements are
the sources of all things; so—man having been constituted
as a separate existence—in the region of psychology and
sociology, the Two Essences and the Five Virtues are the
sources of all-affairs. Mental and material existences, with
all that results from both, originate in the Two Essences and
their one root the Ultimate Principle. In all things and in
all acts the Ultimate Principle operates as the Two Essences.
When man is able to follow the dictates of his pure nature,
and thus to act in accordance with that Principle in its ope-
ration, harmony is the consequence and his actions are good:
when he allows himself to be unduly influenced by the outer
world, and in consequence to act differently from, or con-
trary to it in its operation, a jarring discord ensues and
his actions are evil. Here the Chinese philosophy slips
over the question of the existence of evil, a question which
has been as much argued in the world as that of the exist-
ence of matter.

The Shing jin or Holy Man is one who has an instinctive
apperception of the operation of the Ultimate Principle as
the Two Essences, and who spontaneously obeys all the dic-
tates of the Sing or perfect Nature allotted to him in common
with all other men. Hence all his thoughts are perfectly
good, all his sayings absolutely true, and all his acts thoroughly
right. Fuh he was the first of the Holy Men. After him
came several others, the principal of whom are Yaou and
Shun, who are mentioned at page 18; and Wan wang and
Chow kung who are mentioned at pages 331, 332. Confucius
himself closed the series. He died B.c. 479; and since his
death there has been no Holy Man in China.

The fact that the Holy Men had an instinctive appercep-
tion of the operation of the Ultimate Principle in the animate
and inanimate world, and that their teachings were in conse-
quence absolutely true, gives to the Chinese Shing Shoo,
the Holy or Sacred Books, their infallible authority and their.
348 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

title. These Books have suffered mutilations in the course of
transmission and are avowedly incomplete; but, in so far as
they do contain the teachings of the Holy Men, their autho-
rity is indisputable.

Immediately after the Holy Men, stands another class,
which requires special notice. This consists of the Heen jin,
the wise and worthy men or Sages.* The Sage does not
possess intuitively a full apperception of the working of the
Ultimate Principle in men and things, nor the faculty of
spontaneously yielding complete obedience to the dictates of
his own perfect human nature; but he attains a full apper-
ception and a complete obedience by dint of study and effort.
The Sages stand, therefore, decidedly below the Holy Men:
there are even degrees among the Sages, while the Holy Men,
being from the first all perfectly wise and perfectly good, are
all equal. Still the Sage, who does attain that highest
standard of excellence which is the object of his efforts,
stands as a teacher, almost if not quite, on a level with the
Holy Man. This is the case with Mencius, the greatest of
the Sages; and hence the work which records his teachings
forms one, the latest and closing one, of the Sacred Books.
His chief merit is considered to consist in the fact, that it was
he who first distinctly taught that man’s fundamental nature
is good; though that, with all other doctrines of the national
philosophy, is not the less held to be but a necessary deduc-
tion from, or development of, the principles embodied in the
earlier Sacred Writings.

The above view of the history and character of Chinese

* The first Occidental sinologues, all missionaries, naturally shrunk as pro
fessional theologians from applying the word Holy to any heathens, and hence
rendered Shing by Sage. But in so doing they were guilty of falsification in
their translations, however excusable it may be held on account of the feeling
that led to it. The business of a translator is not to correct the meaning of his
original, but to give again, faithfully and truthfully, what that original means.
Holy, heilig, and saint are the only words in English, German and French that
at all express the perfect moral purity and wisdom which is attributed to the
Shing jin. On the other hand Sage is about the best equivalent in English of
Heen, as implying, not wisdom only, but moral worth also. We speak of a
clever scoundrel, never of a wise scoundrel.
EXPOSITION OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 349

orthodox speculation on the phenomena of the universe,
though summary, appears to be all that is necessary for the
general reader; and it is amply sufficient to make it now
possible to give to students of Chinese the clue to the right
comprehension of the Sacred Books or, in other words, the
key to the expositions, by the Chinese themselves, of their own
system of fundamental beliefs. It might seem that if the
preceding view be true, it ought of itself to prove the key to
that system, as set forth in the Sacred Books, if key be want-
ing. It will presently be seen why this is not the case, and
why the few pages which now follow will prove the standing-
up of Columbus’ egg for sinologues generally.*

The Sacred Books and their annotations, read by the light
afforded by our dictionaries and by hitherto existing Occi-
dental notices of the doctrines which these Books are repre-
sented as inculcating, contain a number of propositions which
appear to be not only extravagant and absurd in themselves,
but to be also mutually inconsistent—totally irreconcilable
the one with the other. As a consequence of this, I am
forced to believe that every one of the existing sinolorues—
‘their number is not great—will be ready to maintain that he
can pick out a dozen important passages, noticing fundamental
powers and principles which have had no place in the pre-
ceding exposition; and that he can pick out a dozen other
passages, containing mutually conflicting and discordant views
as to the origin and nature of the world and of man; and
consequently proving that the Sacred Books with their
nationally adopted, orthodox annotations, teach no one defi-
nite theory on these subjects—least of all any one self-
consistent theory. But I have great hopes that several of
these same sinologues will, after trying the key which IJ shall
now present, speedily admit the correctness of the views
I have given; and I feel quite certain that, in the course
of a few years, our successors of the rising generation will

* See page 364 for a confession of non-comprehension on the part of the
celebrated Parisian sinologue, M. Rémusat.
350 THE CHINESE AND THEIR KEBELLIONS.
e

literally wonder how any other view could ever have been
entertained by people who had studied the writings in the
original language. It is but a question of fact, for the defini-
tive solution of which ample means exist.

The following is a list of words, single and compound,
which occupy prominent positions in the Sacred Books, and
the prevalent misconceptions as to which are the more imme-
diate causes of the hitherto existing misapprehensions. I
give the philosophical and ethical meanings of each, as they
stand in Part II. of Morrison’s Dictionary; which is the
least erroneous, on the whole, that the Occident possesses.
The numbers are those attached to the words in that
dictionary :—

TAE KEIH. 5914. "That which existed previously to the division of Heaven
and earth; or the present system of the universe,

SING. 9475. The nature, principles or properties communicated by heaven ;
innate qualities; what is born with man. The nature or properties of a
thing. The natural constitution, ability, disposition, or temper of man.

SIN. 9453. The heart; the affections; the mind; the intentions; the origin.

TAOU. 9945. A way. A principle. The principle from which heaven,
earth, man and all nature emanates. Le [the next following word] is a
latent principle ; Taou isa principle inaction. Correct virtuous principles
and course of action. Order and good principles in a government and
country. To speak ; to direct. To accord with or go in a course pointed
out.

Taou le, [the le being the next following word] Right principles, a
natural sense of right and fitness; reason; reasonable.

LE. 6942. To rule; the principles in matter, in bodies, in the universe and
in man by which they are regulated ; right principles; reason in man; the
principle of order by which the universe is regulated.

Le, as distinguished from Ke [5311]is an immaterial incorporeal principle.
Keis the more subtle or insensible parts ofmaterial existences, Whatever has
Jigure is founded on Ke; whatever is destitute of shape or figure, belongs
to Le and to Taou. Ke is below Hing, i.e. form or figure; it is the
primary matter. Le is the Taou or principle which is upon or inherent
in material bodies and is considered their root or origin. Nor has it any
place in particular where it is appended to or attached to them.

Le also denotes a kind of principle of organization : the internal and
essential form of Europeans.

Le is sometimes spoken of as a, kind of soul of the universe. The heavens
and earth and all animate and inanimate creatures are but one Le or
principle; and as to human beings every one has an individual and dis-
tinct Ze. The universal Le is compared to the watcr of the ocean out of
EXPOSITION OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 3851

which each person takes a part, some more and some less ; Still all belong
to the water of the ocean which is supreme.

TIH. 10202. Virtue, commonly in a good sense. Power; force. Benevo-
lence. Virtuous instructions.

TE. 9992. The appellation of one who judges the world, or of one who rules
over the nations; celestial virtue. Shang te, the highest Sovereign, the
Supreme Ruler; Heaven or the God of Heaven.

TEEN: 10095. The highest; that which is resident above. To rule and keep
in subjection the creatures below. Heaven; used for the material heavens,
the sky and for a Supreme and Intelligent Power which views human
actions and thoughts, and which rewards and punishes individuals or
nations, but which seems to want personality. There is a great variety of
expression and confusion of idea connected with the word.

Teen le [the le above numbered 6942] heavenly principles ; the moral
sense; Providence.

Teen taou [the taou above numbered 9945] the ways of heaven;
Providence.
MING. 7732. Fate; fatum est quod dii fantur. The destiny of individuals
in this life. The life of human beings. A command.
Teen ming [the teen being the last preceding word] the decree or will
of heaven.
CHING. 1084. Without guile; sincerity; truth.
Ching ning tung wan wuh, Sincerity can influence, move, or excite all
nature.

The key to the right understanding of the Chinese Sacred
Books with their established annotations, as comprehending a
theory of all mental and material existence, lies in the per-
ception of the fact that the above fourteen words or terms
Tae keih, Sing, Sin, Taou, Taou le, Le, Tih, Shang te (or
Te), Teen, Teen le, Teen taou, Ming, Teen ming, and Ching
mean one and the same thing: the Ultimate Principle of my
exposition.

The differences among these various words are purely of a
nominal kind; the words themselves are, all of them, names
for the Ultimate Principle as it is conceived either in
operation at various stages of the evolution of the universe ;
or as more especially forming the root of, and working in
some division or subdivision of the universe; or as considered
with more particular reference to some one feature of its own
action: in no case do they, as philosophical terms, mean
anything distinct from, or less than, or more than the Ulti-
mate Principle.
352 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

°

Tae keih is the name used when the Ultimate Principle is
regarded with reference to its quality as the ultimate or
extreme originating point of the universe. ‘Taou is the term
that marks it as the fixed way or course of the universe;
Le as the rule or fixed order of the universe. Teen is the
name for it when viewed as an overruling force or power,
which visits departure from its order with the failure and
misery in which attempts to oppose the invariable law of
nature necessarily involve men; and which ensures success
and happiness to those who conform to its law or rule. In
the process of universal production, the Ultimate Principle
is often represented as “ flowing forth ” in order to constitute
men and things. In that case it is, as an efflux, called Teen
ming, the decree or will of heaven: as an influx into huma-
nity, Jin sing, the nature of man. The nature of man is
therefore perfectly good, for 7é ts identical with the will of
heaven, that is to say, with the fived course of the one ulti-
mate principle of the universe. Sing being used of the
nature of things, as well as of that of man, it follows that
inanimate nature, is to the Chinese mind, as perfect as it is
considered by us when spoken of as, fresh from its Maker's
hands, &e. Teen le means the rule or regulated order of
heaven; Teen taou, the way of heaven: both are synonyms
of Teen ming as signifying, with it, the fixed order of action
or course of the Ultimate Principle. The name Te or
Shang te expresses still more strongly the ruling, reward-
ing-harmony and punishing-violation characteristic of the
Ultimate Principle. Both Teen and Te, but Te more
especially, may be said to personify the fixed course of
nature. When Teen is used in its sense of sky or visible
blue heaven, then Te is described as its Sin or mind. Man’s
Sin or mind is nothing but his Sing or nature, conceived as it
exists in him, at a somewhat later stage of the evolutionary
process. ‘Tih denotes the Ultimate Principle as an inherent
power or virtue of that universe which, in reality, is pro-
duced by it. Hence when Tih is used to express a quality
EXPOSITION OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 353

of man, it, as identical with the Ultimate Principle inherent
in him, necessarily means perfect goodness or Virtue as
opposed to Vice. Ching is used of the Ultimate Principle
when constituting the sing or sin, the nature or mind, of the
Holy Man. Viewing Ching from the stand point of the
individuality of the Holy Man, it means his instinctive
apperception of, and spontaneous accordance with the Ulti-
mate Principle—his complete embodiment of it.

The above remarks constitute an unfailing pass-key * to
the comprehension of all philosophical passages in the Chi-
nese Sacred Books, as understood by the Chinese themselves.
I may observe, further, that it aids much to the understand-
ing of these Books to keep the well-known fact steadily in
mind, that all terms used of abstract things were first used of
things visible and palpable. They were words taken from
common language and employed figuratively in philosophical
language ; in most cases without ceasing to be used in their
original sense. There is another change constantly going on
which must, in like manner, be kept in mind. Philosophical
terms are constantly popularizing: after being used for a
time of things philosophical they begin, in consequence of
the popularization of philosophy, to be used of things com-
mon, though still in a sense derived from their philosophical
meaning. The word Taou in the Chinese is a marked
example; and the following additional remarks about it, and
some others of the foregoing terms, may not prove unwelcome
to those whose business it will be to arrive at a complete
realization of their virtual identity.

One of the commonest, and probably the original signi-
fication of Taou is, way or path. Then it appears to have

» For the satisfaction of the rising generation of Chinese students, I here
state that such I have found it to be throughout a long course of reading with

Jearned Chinese by my side; and I recommend them—as they would spare
themselves the fatigue and loss of many months, perhaps years, of hopeless
groping in the obscurity and confusion created by our dictionaries and the
hitherto existing expositions—to try this key first. When they have, after full
trial, found my view untrue, then let them seek for other light.

AA
354 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

been employed as our word, way is employed when we speak
of the ways, i.e. of manner of acting, of men, and after-
wards of the way of heaven. It then began to be, and is
now used, in language still more philosophical, to denote the
way of the development of the universe—the manner of
action of the Ultimate Principle in the evolutionary process.
The transition from this to the meaning of truth, 7. e. abso-
lute truth, is easily seen. For absolute truth és nothing but
the all-pervading and fundamental fact or reality of the uni-
verse: the course or way of nature, animate and inanimate.
The connexion between the unchanging fundamental law of
the universe, or absolute truth, and an absolutely right
course in human affairs, or reason, is a necessary one; at
bottom the things are identical. Hence Taou, especially in
conjunction with Le, one of the other names of the Ulti-
mate Principle, as Taou le means, Reason. Perfect con-
formity, in all things, with the fixed course of nature must be
perfect goodness or virtue. And accordingly Tih, virtue, is
defined to be “the complete possession of Taou or absolute
truth by man.” Taou and Tih, truth and virtue, are ex-
plained to be one and the same thing; Tih, virtue, being its
manifestation in man; while Taou, absolute truth, or the
real way of nature, is its existence from all time in the
universe. The transition from truth to the expression of
truth in human language, and its inculcation by precept and
by example, is natural and easy. Hence “to cultivate or
realize Taou or truth in one’s own person is called keaou,”
which latter word in common language means to instruct.
Hence also one of the commonest applications of Taou, in
literary language, is in the signification of true doctrines.
Taou tung, the continuation or connected transmission of
Taou, is the name of a section, common in Chinese encyclo-
pedias; and which is simply a history of true doctrines or a
history of philosophy: not, however, the description of vary-
ing human speculation in the course of ages, but of the
manner in which the only true, the orthodox philosophy, has
EXPOSITION OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 355

been transmitted from the earliest times. Science and philo-
sophy mean the collection of general principles which are con-
nected with a division of nature ; Art means action according
to those principles. Such being the case, it was to be expected
that Taou, which means the ultimate principle underlying all
nature, should come to be used like our, science or philosophy,
as opposed to art. In every case it is so used: che taou
means the science or philosophy of government; while che fa
means the art of government, the two terms being severally
used in encyclopedias as headings of sections which treat of
these two subjects. The step from the expression and incul-
cation of truth in language, to the use of language generally
—from the meaning of teach to the meaning of speak—is not
awide one. At all events, however Taou came to be used
in that sense, it is the fact that, to speak is one of its com-
monest significations.

We have, therefore, Taou meaning way, course, method,
the way of the universe or the law of nature, absolute truth,
true principles, science, virtue, reason, true doctrines, to
speak. It is a striking example of what has been described
as “a number of different words written in the same way.”
One important advantage, attendant on the study and use of
foreign languages, is to keep constantly before the mind the
extensive existence of the fact that certain sounds and signs (i.e.
oral and written words) have each different meanings attached
to them. Minds of the first order, which have not had that
advantage—Grecian philosophers for instance—have been led
into the error of assuming different things to be the same,
because denoted by the same word. Now we may safely
assert, that not one of the Chinese writers of authority knew
any language but his own. It is, therefore, not surprising
that, though perfectly well aware that Taou has different
meanings, some of them should, at times, make a confusing
use of the word, especially in its two less easily distinguished
significations of, absolute truth, and, true doctrines.

We can now consider, more closely, the office which Choo

AA
356 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

tsze performed, when he gave to the national philosophy that
shape which it has ever since retained. We shall, in doing this,
see how it is that the Ultimate Principle comes to have so
many more names than there needs to be, for the construction
and lucid exposition of the system of which it is the basis. I
have endeavoured above to fix the particular aspects of the
Ultimate Principle or those stages of the evolutionary process
which are indicated by its various names; but while we can
see an advantage in having some of the separate designations
for it—as for instance, Ching, in order to denote its complete
embodiment by the very peculiar Shing jin or Holy Man—
other designations are useless. Taou and Le, for example,
are, as names of it, so nearly exact synonyms that the use of
both produces confusion rather than clearness.

The office of Choo tsze was that of a combiner. He com-
bined or assimilated. He studied the ancient Sacred Books
of his country with the firm and reverent conviction, that there
could be no real discrepancies among the views or doctrines
of the succession of Holy men, men who were venerated as
the authors and establishers of those political institutions and
that civilization which made his countrymen so immeasurably
superior to the tribes and hordes of surrounding barbarians.
Differences there certainly seemed at first sight to be, in the
recorded teachings contained in Sacred Writings of different
dates, but these could be only verbal, not real 3 and his business
was to discover the virtual identities which lay hidden under
the nominal distinctions. The work had been commenced by
Chow tsze, his predecessor in the second epoch and its founder,
whose two important treatises, the Tae keih too shwo and
the Tung shoo, consisted largely of quotations from the Sacred
Books, fitted into his exposition of his own system and giving
it its validity. Chow tsze’s two treatises, which the reader
will remember were written about a century before Choo tsze
edited and annotated them, are so terse that without the anno-
tations they would not be intelligible. Whether Choo tsze
rightly understood them or not, there is now no means of
EXPOSITION OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 357

deciding. But he published his annotated edition in his
59th year (after keeping it by him in manuscript for sixteen
years) for the express purpose of superseding other, ill-edited
and falsely annotated versions, which were then obtaining
currency ; and, as his edition has superseded all the others,
it is clear that his contemporaries, at least, judged him to have
rightly construed the original treatises. Choo tsze’s annota-
tions are mainly meant to show the perfect conformity of
Chow tsze’s system with a number of important philosophical
passages from the Sacred Books, in addition to those already
interwoven by Chow tsze himself in his own text. These
additional passages are of a general and fundamental nature
on cosmogony and psychology; which, from the different
nomenclature employed, might easily have become each the
basis of a separate system; but which were definitively assi-
milated by Choo tsze’s annotations to the two treatises above
named, and to the Sacred Books themselves. He referred all
the philosophical passages of the latter to Chow tsze’s system
as he understood it ; and, by ascertaining their individual accor-
dance with it, established their own mutual agreement. He
was very much aided in his labors by two or three propositions
of other philosophers of the second epoch besides Chow tsze ;
as, for instance, Shaou kang tseé and Ching e chuen. Thus
we are told that Shaou kang tseé affirmed the following iden-
tities :—* Taou wei Tae keih, the Way (of the universe) is the
Ultimate Principle ;” and “Sin wei Tae keih, the Mind is
the Ultimate Principle.” We are further told that an in-
quirer, after specially referring to these two propositions,
asked Choo tsze :—‘ Does Taou refer to the spontaneous Order
(Le) of heaven, earth and all things; and does Sin refer to
that Order received by man and constituting the master
(choo) of his body?” To which Choo tsze replied :—* Cer-
tainly. But Tae keih is the Unity which has no Opposite.”
Again we have the following from Choo tsze’s own pen :—
« Nature (sing) is the Order of the universe (le). Since the
times of Confucius, Ching e chuen is the only person who has
358 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

fully asserted this proposition.” It is in this spirit of coales-
cence, and with a full personal faith in a virtual identity of the
teachings of the Sacred Books, that all Choo tsze’s annotations
and commentaries were conceived. This circumstance, which
rendered it unnecessary for his countrymen, in adopting his
views, to discard any part of what they had long so highly
esteemed; together with the fact that his style combined, in
a wonderful degree, simplicity with completeness and lucidity
with eloquence, procured unmistakeable supremacy for his
writings soon after his death; and constituted him the
definitive fashioner of the Chinese mind.

As already intimated, my object in this volume is the prac-
tical one of showing what the Chinese now are, with a view
to the observance by Occidentals of a rational and consistent
policy in dealing with them. My sketches of their philo-
sophical and political history have been made solely with
regard to this object. What the Chinese mind may have
been in the days of Confucius, in those of Mencius, and at
other times, earlier and later, are questions of professed his-
tory, which it would now not be easy to solve. Reasoning,
however, from general analogies, as well as from what we can
understand of the Sacred Books viewed apart from their
received annotations, we may safely conclude that there did
not exist that complete identity of views among the Holy Men
and Sages which Choo tsze has established for his country-
men. And on one point we may venture to differ altogether
from the Chinese orthodox interpretation of the writings
which existed previous to the time of Confucius. The latter,
with an honesty and candor which do him great honor,
refused to speak of the supernatural world, on the ground
that he knew nothing of it. But in the Shoo king, a work
composed of historical documents which he edited, there is
unmistakeable evidence of the existence at a very early period
of a national belief in a chief, if not an only God, variously
designated by the term Shang te and Teen (page 351) and
also by Shang teen and Hwang teen, Supreme Ruler, Heaven,
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 359

and Supreme or Sovereign Heaven, The Shoo king contains
a manifesto issued by Ching tang, who subverted the Hea
dynasty and founded that of Shang in 3.c. 1766. In this
document, he declares that ‘“‘ Heaven had commanded the
destruction of the Heas,” and that, as he “ feared the Supreme
Ruler,” he did not dare to abstain from executing the judg-
ment. In b,c, 1122, when the Shang dynasty was in its turn
finally subverted by that of Chow, Woo wang, who completed
the work of subversion, in like manner issued a manifesto in
which he repeatedly refers to the same Supreme God, under
_ the various designations of Shang te, Teen, Hwang teen and
Shang teen. It is stated that He had in great anger com-
manded the destruction of the last Shang monarch because
the latter had, in tyrannizing over the people, ceased to
reverence Him. It is also stated that He raises up monarchs
in order to assist Himself in protecting and instructing the
people. J may observe here that it is more especially in this
manifesto and its commentaries that the Chinese doctrine of
rightful rebellion is distinctly propounded. “Heaven esta-
blishes sovereigns merely for the sake of the people; whom
the people desire for sovereign, him will Heaven protect ;
whom the people dislike as sovereign, him will Heaven reject.”
‘Hence it is said that the sovereign is * Teen le, the officer of
Heaven ;” that his “real way of serving Heaven is to love
the people;” and that, when “he fails to love the people

Heaven will, for the sake of the people, cast him out.” All
this stands at the present day in fine Imperial editions of the
Sacred Shoo king, which the rules of the Public Service Exa-
minations compel all aspirants for office to get by heart. In
Austria and Russia such doctrines are not taught by order in
the government schools and colleges.

Choo tsze did not publish any complete and formal anno-
tations of the Shoo king, but he left commentaries on many
of its passages; and at first sight it would seem to us, that
he must have been guilty of deliberate dishonesty in under-
standing anything but an intelligent personal Being, the
360 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
°

ruler of the world, by the terms Shang te, Teen, &c. in the
preceding manifestoes, as well as in other sections of that
Book. There are, however, good reasons for believing that
we should wrong him by assuming the existence of any dis-
honesty on his part. He approached the subject under cir-
cumstances very different from ours. We are trained from
infancy to think of the world and ourselves as produced by
the will of a personal God, “our Father in heaven;” and
when we come, in the literature of another people, upon indi-
cations of some kind of Ruler, whose more special residence
is said to be heaven, we are very apt to endow him at once
with all the well-known attributes of the God of the Bible
—in particular with will and personality. Further, our
acquaintance with the beliefs of a large number of very dif-
ferent peoples, great and small, of ancient and modern times
and of every grade of barbarism and civilization, has taught
us that religion is natural to the human mind. In all men is
inherent a faculty of reverence, to gratify which they picture
to themselves gods or a God, whom they endow with the
highest attributes that their mental cultivation enables them
to form a conception of; and to whom they appeal in times of
distress. With this knowledge, we cannot avoid concluding
that the ancient Chinese must, like all other peoples, have had
their gods, probably a chief god, possibly a one only God,
whom it is not easy for us to conceive as other than as a think-
ing and willing Being. Hence the passages of the Shoo king
from which I have quoted have no difficulty for us. Nothing
of this was, however, the case with Choo tsze. Personal deities
were indeed known to him from his infancy, among others
a Shang te. But these were, all of them, idols in the Buddhist
and Taouist temples; and it was impossible for a mind like his
to believe that the wise and able monarchs of ancient times
could have solemnly worshipped such things. Again he, unlike
us, knew few foreign peoples, and these few, very imperfectly.
He could not therefore know that the religious faculties,
being inherent in all men, must have had objects for their
‘

CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 361

satisfaction in the days of Ching tang and Woo wang, as in
his own times. Taken altogether, the circumstances in which
he was placed were likely to lead a man of his great intelli-
gence to suppress the religious tendencies of his own nature ;
and to adopt that theory of the development of the universe
from one unintelligent and will-less principle, which Chow
tsze had based on the sacred Yih king. We know from
experience what a wonderful capacity even the most candid
minded men possess for mis-seeing facts, that conflict with
systems of belief which they have conscientiously adopted,
and which give satisfaction to their intellectual and moral
needs; and we can consequently understand how Choo tsze
could manage to see in Shang te, Teen and Shang teen, as
used in the Shoo king, nothing but some additional appella-
tions of the Ultimate Principle. He was frequently ques-
tioned by his immediate scholars, and by his correspondents
as to the qualities of hearing, seeing, protecting, commanding,
&c. ascribed to Shang te and Teen, and his answers are all
to the effect that such expressions were used figuratively.
His interpretations of the Sacred Books having been adopted
by the intelligence of the country, it follows that, for the edu-
cated Chinese of the present day, these Books, the sole stan-
dard of their beliefs, ignore everything like a God. All
cultivated Chinese are—intellectually at least—strict and
conscientious atheists. But however consistent in their
views, as taken by the bare understanding, it is impossible
for them practically to repress the action of their naturally
inherent religious faculties. Argue with them, and you find
them unmistakeably atheists. Let them talk themselves
about the vicissitudes of human affairs and about their own
lot in life, and you find them influenced by a belief in Teen
as a supreme, intelligent, rewarding and punishing power,
with more or less of will and personality. Theoretically they
are atheists; practically they are pantheists or even deists.
There exists, indeed, a state worship, which has descended
from the earliest times. It consists of an adoration of heaven
362 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

and earth, of the sun and moon, of certain mountains and
rivers and other natural objects. The service, fixed by
Imperial regulation, is performed by the Emperor and his
officials. The people have no share in it; and the Emperor
alone is permitted to worship the highest objects, heaven and
earth. Further, as the state worship is associated with no
theological doctrines, but is a mere ceremonial; and as it
exercises no influence on the national principles of morality
and legislation, it does not fall within the scope of this
volume to furnish details regarding it.*

While remembering that the state ritual-worship concerns
the officials only, and more especially the highest official, the
Emperor, the reader must bear in mind that what is said
above, of theoretical atheism and practical pantheism or deism,
refers mainly to the educated classes of Chinese. The unedu-
cated require something grosser for the satisfaction of their
religious cravings than that the overruling power called
Heaven; of which their uncultivated intellects find it difficult
to form a sufficiently distinct conception. This circumstance
it is, which has obtained for Buddhism and Taouism, with their
idols, a general acceptance among the poorer classes of Chinese
men, and among all Chinese women; the most wealthy of
which latter obtain little mental cultivation. But even
the uneducated Chinese, the habitual idol-worshippers, are
perfectly well aware of the paramounce of the over-ruling
Teen or Heaven. They will, for instance, blurt out into
laughter in the presence of their most honored idol if a
foreigner, with assumed gravity, discourses of him as the
person in virtue of whose “ ming or will” the Emperor
reigns. And here we have the simple explanation of what
seems to us, with our notions of the high attributes of a
“‘ god,” so irrational a proceeding in China, viz. the occa-
sional promotion of a god by an Imperial decree. Not only

* In Chapters XIV. and XV. of Davis’ China, the religions and superstitions

of the Chinese, as distinguished from the national philosophy and morality, are
amply and satisfactorily handled.
‘CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 363

is Teen, Heaven, the paramount power, in virtue of whose
* Will” the “Jin keun, the Sovereign of Men” reigns;
but the latter has, as the “Teen tsze or Teen le, the Son or
Officer of Heaven,” the power to promote all lesser objects of
worship. In short, the devout, uneducated Chinese, man or
woman, habitually adores and supplicates the idol-god in
preference to Heaven, just as we see in Bavaria or Italy the
devout, but mentally unenlightened Romanist habitually
adore and supplicate the images of the saints in preference
to God; both being, the whole time, fully conscious of the
existence of the Supreme Power, Heaven or God.

The two words of my list—to return to the synonyms of
the Ultimate Extreme — which appear to have given the
most trouble to Occidental Sinologues are Taou and Ching.
The real meaning of the latter they have altogether failed to
perceive; while with respect to Taou, they have not per-
ceived, or have not sufficiently realized the fact that, even in
philosophical treatises, it has several distinct meanings. These
two words, Ching and Taou, play a great part in the Chung
yung, one of the Four Books, and the most important of the
Chinese works bearing on psychology. Speaking generally,
the object of the Chung yung is to show, first, the identity
of the Ultimate Principle with Man’s Nature; and secondly,
the high results of the complete, personal realization of the
Ultimate Principle by the Holy Man; who is then held up
as an exemplar for all future ages. Now Ching is the word
used to express the Ultimate Principle as realized in the
Holy Man; a superlative being sometimes added to indicate
unmistakeably its completest realization.

Of the Chung yung, Sir John Davis says that it contains
“ much that is extremely obscure and sometimes almost un-
intelligible... .. . The best translation is that by Abel
* Rémusat, late professor of Chinese at Paris: but his version
has been properly censured for being rather too verbal, and
for too close an adherence to the mere letter of the text in
a work which of all others, in that language, requires to be
364 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

illustrated with some degree of freedom in order to make it
intelligible.”

Rémusat renders Ching by vérité, véritablement parfait,
perfection, perfection morale, perfection de la vertu, &c. But
I may spare myself further comment after informing the reader,
that Rémusat, in the preface to his translation, states :—
“ Les Missionaires [Romanist] ne nous ont donné, sur la méta-
physique Chinoise que des notions imparfaites et fort super-
ficielles:_ mon projet est d’y revenir quelque jour, si je
parviens & en débrouiller le chaos.” Imagine a Frenchman
making a translation of one of the most abstruse of Hegel’s
treatises, without having mastered his system! Yet the
German-French Dictionaries are perfection in comparison
with our best Chinese dictionaries.

Another French translation of the Chung yung has since
been made by M. Panthier. It is a queer production, a sort
of mixture of text and annotation inaccurately rendered; and
is on the whole not equal to the older version by Rémusat.
Nevertheless M. Huc quotes from it by way of giving Occi-
dentals an idea of the original! A word may have several
meanings, but in one place it can only have one. Yet in one
place, M. Panthier renders Ching by no less than three dis-
tinct significations, viz. by ‘“ Le parfait, le vrai, dégagé de
tout mélange ;” in another place he renders it by “la perfec-
tion morale ou la vérité sans mélange;” ina third by “V’état
de perfection ;” and in a fourth by “le parfait ou la perfec-
tion,” as in the following passage :—“ Le parfait est le com-
mencement et la fin de tout les étres; sans le parfait ou la
perfection, les tres ne seraient pas.”

The Chung yung was, with the others of the Four Books,
translated into English in 1828 by Mr. Collie, a Protestant
missionary. In Mr. Williams’ Middle Kingdom published
1848, he quotes from it; and in fact it has not yet been
superseded by any better version. Mr. Collie renders Ching
by Sincerity, giving the following explanation in a foot-note:—
*T am quite sensible that our word sincerity does not by any
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 865

means express fully the sense of the original word, and yet
I cannot find any term which seems to come so near it. The
Commentators define the word to be reality without anything
untrue, or disorderly, and some may be apt from the manner
in which it is used in this work to deem our word perfection
a better rendering than the word sincerity. But still there
are objections to the word perfection, as a correct rendering
of the original word, such as the sign of the superlative
degree being attached to it, &c.”

Had Mr. Collie known the significance of the two words
woo wang, which in the above note he renders “ without
anything disorderly,” he might have found his way out of
the obscurity in which he was involved. Woo wang is the
name of one of the sixty-four Diagrams of the Yih king; in
the Imperial edition of which Book, Choo tsze’s commentary
declares it to designate ‘the spontaneity of the true Le or
Ultimate Principle ;” while that of his predecessor, Ching tsze,
defines it to be “ the (taou or) way of heaven,” i.e. the method
of operation of the Ultimate Principle. Woo wang is in fact
but one of the many names of this latter basis of the Chinese
philosophical system ; and would, as such, have had a place in
my list, were it not so little known to sinologues. Less
technically it means, naturally right, as distinct from being
right by dint of effort. Apart however from the signification
of the term Woo wang as derived from the Yih king, Mr.
Collie had, in the commentary before his eyes, a perfectly
plain and complete definition of Ching; only he would not
see it. It runs “Ching chay, chin shih woo wang che wei,
teen le che pun jen yay. Ching is what is called (or is the
name of) the true, the real, the naturally right: it is the
radical nature of the fixed order of heaven.” On this second
part of the definition of Ching, Mr. Collie shut his eyes ; pro-
bably because his previous misconceptions about the word
prevented his comprehending a sentence which is, in reality,
quite plain. If any sinologue requires further proof that
Ching is but a name for the Tae keih, the Ultimate Principle,
366 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBBLLIONS.

conceived as operating under special circumstances, he will
find it in the Imperial “‘ Essence of Philosophy” where the
treatise called the Tung shoo and Choo tsze’s annotations con-
tain the following definitions:—“‘ Ching is the fundamental
characteristic of the Holy Man.” “Ching is the name of the
perfectly real and naturally right; it is the true, fixed order
(Je) which nature received from heaven. All men get it; and
that which makes the Holy Man holy, is nothing else but
merely his complete personal realization of it..... Ching
is what is called the Tae keih.” ‘Holy is merely Ching.”
* That which makes the Holy Man holy is nothing but his
complete personal realization of the real order of the universe:
it is what is called Tae keih.” ‘“ He who possesses Ching
entirely comprises within himself the spontaneousness of all
true principles: with perfect ease—without thought or effort
—he keeps undeviatingly in the Way of the Universe.”

In one of his foot-notes about Taou Mr. Collie says :—* As
we have already observed, it seems impossible to comprehend
what this Taou is. Here as in many other parts of their
writings, it is said to be omnipresent and to fill and influence
all things. Now the very same is repeatedly said of the
virtue of the superior man and of the sage [Holy Man].”
Again :—“ Their speculations are however so mysterious and
to us contradictory, that it is extremely difficult, if not im-
possible to obtain any distinct idea of their sentiments on
these subjects. How happy they who possess the light of
divine revelation!” With such thorough unclearness in his
mind as to the nature of Taou and Ching, it was very natural
that Mr. Collie should, in his translation of a work mainly
intended to elucidate these two things, bring out such
propositions as the following, some portions of which I
italicise :—

““ Where there is sincerity there must be intelligence;
where intelligence is it must lead to sincerity.” “ The Taou
(or reason) of the supremely sincere enables them to fore-
know things..... When either happiness or misery is
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 367

about to come the sages will foreknow both the good and the
evil, so that the supremely sincere are equal to the gods
A ialles Sincerity is the origin and consummation of things.
Without sincerity there would be nothing..... Hence the
utmost sincerity is interminable..... The law of heaven
and earth may be expressed in one word (i. e. sincerity).

All this is unintelligible or self-contradictory. But if, for
Mr. Collie’s “sincerity,” we substitute one of the real equi-
valents of Ching, for instance ultimate principle, or absolute
truth, according as the context requires, then even the passage
about the prescience of the Holy Men (sages) becomes intelli-
gible and, whether true or false, at least perfectly consistent
with the Chinese theory ; while the other propositions are in
such exact conformity with our own best known principles,
that they may be called philosophical truisms. We, too, believe
that “the law of heaven and earth may be expressed in one
term, absolute truth.” In the last sentence Mr. Collie had
in fact a definition of Ching, at once complete, concise and
clear ;—but he would not see it. He closes his translation
with a foot-note as follows :—“ In this treatise which contains
the leading doctrines of the Confucian philosophy, there are
two grand and fundamental defects. In the first place it
presents us with no accurate account of one self-existent,
Almighty, Omnipresent, and Infinitely Gracious and Holy
Being as the Creator and Fathet of the Universe. From
this as a natural consequence another sad defect arises, viz. :
the perfect absence of a single direction how guilty depraved
man may regain the favor and image of his Creator.” In
a former note he says :— It does not appear that Confucius
wished to publish false unfounded principles, or to impose on
mankind either by abstruse speculations, or by pretensions to
miraculous powers, but that he has through gross ignorance
of that truth of all others the most important to man, de-
ceived millions of immortal beings, must be evident to every
impartial mind which has studied his system.”

In these and similar passages we have the clue to the
368 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REB@LLIONS.

chief cause of the errors of the earlier Protestant missionaries
in dealing with Chinese philosophy and moral principles,
Confucianism was quite independent of Christianity and
had been much praised, with the view of disparaging Chris-
tianity, by the flippant sceptics of the Voltairian school.
The missionaries appear to have felt it necessary, not only
to oppose the exaggerated eulogies of these latter, but to shut
their eyes upon everything that was rational and good in
a system self-avowedly derived from “ the light of nature ;”
lest they should, by seeing profound and widely working
truths in that system, afford support to “the enemies of reve-
lation.” The same feeling induced them, as it induces some
still, to close their eyes on the vast benefits to one third of hu-
manity which have been produced by Confucianism, as also
to exaggerate all that is bad in Chinese social life ;—as if Chris-
tianity needed the help of misrepresentation! But when large
masses of people and long periods are concerned, the truth is
certain to compel recognition. As an inevitable consequence
of a longer and better acquaintance with Chinese principles
and their practical results, we find Protestant missionaries
writing of late in a different, and much better spirit.
Williams’ Middle Kingdom says accordingly :—* It is a re-
markable thing that the writings of Confucius and his dis-
ciples should have been regarded with such reverence; and
we are disposed to look upon their teachings as sustained
and invigorated by the all-wise Governor of nations for his
own gracious designs, more directly perhaps than second
causes would lead us to conclude.” Again, after compar-
ing the “commanding influence” of the Confucian writings
as compared with the weak and transitory effect of those
of Socrates, Plato and Seneca, Mr. Williams adds :— No
answer so satisfactory can be obtained, when seeking an ex-
planation of the influence these ancient works have exerted
over the Chinese, as by considering them to have been
granted from the Source of all wisdom for the end, by his
blessing of producing these effects.” The earlier Romanist
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 369

missionaries were divided into two parties. The one of these
maintained views resembling that expressed in the above
extracts from the Middle Kingdom, but stronger, being to the
effect that the ancient Chinese had been favoured with revela-
tions from God. This the other party denied, and, like Mr.
Collie, were disposed to see as much evil as possible, and to
shut their eyes on all the good in the Sacred Books. No-
thing but disfigurement could result from all this: to under-
stand the Chinese ancient writings aright, they must be con-
sidered altogether apart from the Christian revelation.

To return to my own exposition of the Chinese philosophy,
the reader must observe that I have as yet given no judgment
as to its truth or falsehood—as to the conformity or non-
conformity of its doctrines with the realities of the universe:
I have only been establishing the fact, that the Chinese
philosophical writings are not that mass of absurdities which
erroneous Occidental renderings have made them appear to
be; that, whether absolutely true or not, they are at least
logically true and perfectly self-consistent. The truth is how-
ever, that even those propositions of Chinese philosophy, which
the non-metaphysical reader will be apt to pronounce most
extravagant or incomprehensible, go, in these respects, not a
whit beyond highly accredited European systems of ancient
and modern times. Take, for instance, the chief expositor of
modern philosophy in our own country at this moment:
Mr. Morell. In the region of ontology and on the powers of
the human mind, there are between his views and those of
Choo tsze a striking similarity—at times perfect agreement.
Ching, viewed as constituting the mind of the Holy Man is
exactly Mr. Morell’s intuitional consciousness, and tsze jen
exactly his spontaneity, by which that consciousness obtains
knowledge. In his Philosophy of Religion he says:—‘ Were
our intuitional nature absolutely perfect then indeed its results
would be infallible. If we imagine our minds to be perfectly
harmonized morally, intellectually and religiously with all

truth—if we can imagine them without any discord of the
BB
370 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
=

interior being, to stand in the midst of a universe upon which
God has impressed his own divine ideas, and receive the
truth as it presents itself to the consciousness, just as the
retina receives the images of external things—then indeed
we should comprehend all things as they are; and the mere
manifestation would be its own evidence of their reality. A
mind so harmonized with nature and with God would per-
ceive at a glance the processes and ends of all things.” In
this passage the “ absolutely perfect intuitional nature ” is ex-
actly the “che ching, the highest degree of ching;” and if we
consider Teen, Heaven, as the equivalent-of “ God,” then the
whole forms an exact description of the Holy Man. Again,
when speaking of the method of attaining the knowledge of
truth, he says :—‘ More especially should we look to those
minds whose inward harmony with truth has become per-
fected, and whose power of spiritual vision we account as
being an inspiration from the Almighty.” If for “inspiration
of the Almighty” we substitute the stereotyped phrase “ Teen
so foo, that which Heaven bestows,” then here again we havea
description of the Holy Man; and Mr. Morell’s admonition is
precisely that of Chinese moral philosophers at this day. As to
the possibility of the Chinese Heen jin or Sage—the man who
by dint of study and effort attains to an apperception of the
working of the Ultimate Principle of the Universe—Mr.
Morell has the following, bearing on the subject, in his
History of Philosophy :—* We cannot divest our minds of the
belief, that there is something positive in the glance which the
human soul casts upon the world of eternity and infinity.
Whether we rise to the contemplation of the Absolute
through the medium of the true, the beautiful, or the good,
we cannot imagine that our highest conceptions of these termi-
nate in darkness, in a total negation of all knowledge. So
far from this, there seem to be flashes of light, ineffable it
may be, but still real, which envelope the soul in a lustre all
divine, when it catches glimpses of infinite truth, infinite
beauty, and infinite excellence. . . . . Until we are
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 371

driven from this position by irresistible evidence, we must still
regard the notion of the infinite, the absolute, the eternal, as
forming one of our fundamental notions; and one which opens
to us the highest field, both for our present meditation and
our future prospects.”

With respect to ontology, there are some strong points of
resemblance between the Chinese theory and the views,
which, from the following extracts, Mr. Morell appears to
entertain :—

“To us it appears evident, that the whole tendency of
philosophy, from the time of Leibnitz,* has been to bring
us nearer and nearer to a purely dynamical theory of the
universe ..... even in natural theology the only truly
conceivable notion we can form of the act of creation, is that
of the Divine power and thought going forth to the produc-
tion of form in the wondrous processes of nature and mind.
That the phenomena we term material must ever exist is self-
evident; that they indicate a substratum is equally certain ;
but that the real philosophic analysis of this substratum will
bring us to no other result than that of an action and reaction
of forces, appears to me to amount almost to a demonstration.”
Let the reader compare the above with my exposition at

* Mr. Morell here and at other places intimates that it was Leibnitz who
originated the dynamic theory. I have never seen his works, but judging from
the descriptions of his monadology given by Mr. Morell and by M. Cousin,
there are some remarkable resemblances between that system and the Chinese
theory, especially if some of the annotations of Choo tsze be understocd too lite-
rally and apart from the light thrown on them by others. For, as Choo tsze
shows that Tae keih is the origin of all things, so he states that “each thing
comprises (yih) a Tae keih,” by which “yih, a” however he merely endeavours
to make clearer the universal operation of the one Tae keih. As the Tae keih
spontaneously developes itself, we have here Leibnitz’s monads generally, as
also the absolute monad from which all the rest have their origin. Further in
Leibnitz’s decree or will of God, which harmonized the action of all the mo-
nads, we have the Chinese Teen ming which constituted the original nature
and harmonious order of all things. Leibnitz busied himself with Chinese
studies,—if my memory does not fail me, with Chinese philosophy. Can it be
possible that he therein got the hint to the main features of his system, and
that all German idealism started from the philosophical speculations of the
Chinese !

; BB2
372 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOYS.

pages 342—345, in connexion with the following note of Choo
tsze, and he will perceive the ontological similarities which
I refer to: “The active-expansive and passive-intensive
operation of the Ultimate Principle is the flowing forth of the
Will of Heaven.”

Having, as I hope, sufficiently attained my object in
making these comparisons, ée. shown that the Chinese
mind is not to be hastily undervalued because of the nature
of its philosophical views, I proceed to examine another of
the misrepresentations of those views, arising from bad trans-
lating, in addition to imperfect acquaintance with the subject
generally.

In a.pv. 1713 the Emperor Kang he had a work compiled
which he called “Choo tsze tseuen shoo, the Complete
Works of Choo tsze.” This is not, as might be inferred
from the title, a complete set of all the works prepared by
Choo tsze himself. It embraces in encyclopediac form, ze.
arranged under separate heads, the substance of two works
compiled by his scholars; the one, his Collected (fragmentary)
Writings; the other, his Conversations or Sayings. Kang
he’s compilation collects from these, and places together, all
passages on each particular subject, as for instance Education;
Psychology, the History of Philosophy, or the Science of
Government. Some of these passages consist only of a few.
words, others cover a page or two. Further, the greater
number are portions of answers, given orally, or by letter,
and at wide intervals of time, to questions on special dif-
ficulties connected with the subject which is indicated by the
general heading. It is clear, therefore, that it would be
most unfair to consider the sections of the Tseuen shoo as
treatises, or even as fugitive essays by Choo tsze on the sub-
jects to which they relate. Nevertheless Mr. Williams, in his
Middle Kingdom, calls the section headed Le ke, and which
treats of Ontology and Cosmogony, “a discussion by Choo
tsze;” and gives some “extracts” from it in order to “ show
the way in which he reasons on the primum mobile.’ To
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 373

crown the whole, the translation from which Mr. Williams
extracts, and which was made by Dr. Medhurst, one of the
oldest of the Protestant missionaries, contains inaccuracies
which render some passages utterly unintelligible. The
section opens with passages in which Choo tsze explained
that the word Le meant the immaterial principle ; the word
Ke, the first, finest form of matter ; and that, though the two
things were in reality coeternal, yet if his interlocutors felt it
necessary to conceive the one or the other as existing first,
then the Le, the immaterial principle, must be that one.
The reader is aware that in Choo tsze’s system Le is but
another name for the Ultimate Principle, while Ke is an
equivalent term for Yang and Yin, the Positive and Negative
Essences; which are sometimes called the Two Ke, and in
whose evolution matter makes its first appearance. As the
Tae keih or Ultimate Principle has been ceaselessly operating
in its two phases from all eternity; and as its action in-
stantaneously produces the Two Essences, i. e. matter in its
first shape, it follows, that the two things, under the different
names of Le and Ke, must be in reality coexistent from all
eternity. This premised, I subjoin Dr. Medhurst’s and my
own translations of the first few passages. To make com-
parison in other respects more easy, I retain his terms
“immaterial principle” and “primary matter” for Le and
Ke; and I recommend the reader not to let the merely
verbal differences occupy his attention, but to look only to the
sense. The numbers show what sentences are intended for
translations of the same words of the original :—

Dr. Medhurst’s Version.

1Under the whole heaven there is
no primary matter without the imma-
terial principle, 2and no immaterial
principle apart from the primary

matter. 3Subsequent to the existence
of the immaterial principle is pro-
duced primary matter, ‘which is de-

My own Version.

fi. 1In the whole world there exists no
primary matter devoid of the imma-
terial principle; ?and no immaterial
principle apart from primary matter.

 

8’The immaterial principle existed
previous to the production of primary
matter; ‘which is deducible from,
374

ducible from the axiom that >the one
male and one female principle of na-
ture may be denominated Taou or
Logos, the active principle from which
all things emanate; ®thus nature is
spontaneously possessed of benevo-
lence and righteousness (which are
included in the idea of Taou).

7First of all existed Tecn le (the ce-
lestial principle or soul of the uni-
verse) and then came primary matter;
Sprimary matter accumulated con-
stituted Chih (body, substance or
the accidents and qualities of matter),
®and nature was arranged.

1 Should any ask whether the
immaterial principle or primary
matter existed first, I should say,

Nthat the immaterial principle
on assuming a figure ascended,
“and primary matter on assuming
form descended; 4% when we come
to speak of assuming form and
ascending or descending, how
can we divest ourselves of the idea
of priority and subsequence? '° When
the immaterial principle does not as-
sume a form, '® primary matter then
becomes coarse, and forms a sediment,

THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBELLIONS.

5“ Once a Negative, once a Positive,
is called Taou, the Way (or me-
thod of operation of the Ultimate
Principle).” *

This is like nature possessing
spontancously (the qualities of) bene-
volence and righteousness.

 

7 First of all there existed the hea-
venly principle, then came primary
matter; ®primary matter accumu-
lated and thereby constituted substance
(the name of a grosser form of matter),
Sits naturet being comprised within it.

 

10 Being asked whether the immate-
rial principle or primary matter first
existed he (Choo tsze) said: The im-
material principle has never separated
Srom primary matter ;§ ‘but the
immaterial principle is what is pre-
vious to form, 1? while primary matter
is what is subsequent to form ; 1* and
hence, speaking with reference to ante-
eedence and subsequence to form,
14 there is unquestionably a difference
(between le and ke) as to place in time.
15 The immaterial principle is form-
less ;*® while primary matter is coarser
and forms a sediment.

* This is a sentence from the Yih king, The Taouis the Ultimate Principle,
the operation of which in the active-expansive and passive-intensive process is
here indicated by the names of the results of the process, viz. : the Two Essences.
Now these have often been called, male and female; but in so far as Dr. Med-
hurst’s rendering does not give the idea of a process in actual operation, it is
faulty.

t+ This is an illustrative parallelism, As, in psychology, the root of man's
being, his sing or nature, evidences itself in the less occult forms of benevolence
and righteousness; so, in ontology, the root of all being, Le or the immaterial
principle assumes the less occult form of the Two Ke or primary matter.

{ The Chinese sing never means nature in the sense of the universe, a8
Dr. Medhurst here renders it, but only the innate, fundamental quality of a
thing. The Chinese equivalent for nature in the first sense is Teen te wan
wuh, Heaven, earth and ten thousand things, 7. e. all things.

§ This sentence in italics is altogether omitted in Dr. Medhurst’s version.
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 375

After that last sentence no further comparison can be
necessary. ‘The metaphysical reader, even if no sinologue,
will at once decide in favour of my version. It is intelligible
in itself, and accords exactly with my exposition of the
Chinese philosophy. The other is simply nonsense. Yet it
professes to be a translation of a passage selected from the
writings of a man who was remarkable for his perspicuity,
selected by a commission of the first scholars living in China
in A.D. 1713, and published by the Emperor, Kang he, for
the instruction of his people. Now the Emperor, Kang he,
was known to the Jesuits as an unusually clear-headed man,
who under their tuition made considerable progress in the
exact sciences; and I beg to assure the reader, that the
Chinese are a remarkably sober-minded and acutely-reason-
ing people, who do not admire incoherence and unintelligibi-
lity. The fact is, that Dr. Medhurst has understood words
which denote place in time, to denote motion in space. I
have now only to state that Dr. Medhurst was a Chinese
scholar of more than twenty years standing when his trans-
lation appeared in the Chinese Repository; and that Mr.
Williams had studied Chinese for twelve years when he, in
1848, inserted it in his “ Middle Kingdom; ” and then,
bearing in mind the admission of M. Rémusat at page 364,
it will probably be admitted that there is good ground for my
assertion, that Chinese philosophy has not hitherto been
rightly understood.

Of passages, rendered more or less like the above, the
Middle Kingdom gives nearly three pages in a small type,
the last page being on the Tae keih, the Ultimate Principle.
The closing passage, which describes the construction of the
Eight Diagrams, is made to end as follows:—‘‘ But from the
time of Confucius no one has been able to get hold of this
idea.” To which, Mr. Williams immediately says on his
own part :—* And, it might be added, no one ever will be able
to get hold of it himself.” Here we haye Choo tsze’s disciples
making him declare, that for seventeen hundred years no one
376 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION§,

—himself being by implication included—had been able to
comprehend the very basis of that philosophy, which he spent
a long life in discussing. The fact is that the sentence is
broken off in the middle. It runs thus:—“ But from the
time of Confucius, not a single individual was able to per-
ceive its real significance, until Shaou kang tseé, after which
it became clear.” Shaou kang tseé lived a few generations
before Choo tsze, being one of the founders of the second
literary epoch.

One of the modern works on China and the Chinese,
copies of which are to be found in libraries in all parts of the
civilized world, is “ China Opened,” by the late Dr. Gutzlaff,
a man of European reputation as a “profound” Chinese
scholar. In twenty pages, devoted to Chinese philosophical
writings, the following is ail that he says about one of the
greatest Chinese philosophers :—

“Choo tsze, the celebrated collector of fragments, and
works of every description (a.p. 1420), has embodied all the
notions of the Chinese philosophers in the Sing le ta tseuen
(a complete system of the principles of nature).”

By referring to the preceding pages, the reader will observe
that Choo tsze was not a collector, but a commentator and
original author; that he did not labor in a.p. 1420, having
died exactly two hundred and twenty years before that time;
that the Sing le ta tseuen was not compiled by him, but by a
numerous Imperial Commission; and, lastly, that it was not
compiled in 4.p. 1420, but in a.p. 1415. Probably few men
have excelled Dr. Gutzlaff in the capacity for rapidly inditing
sentences, containing a number of propositions not one of
which should be correct. In fact, all his labors are charac-
terized by a superficiality, a lack of thorough research, and a
profusion of unfounded assertion so extremely un-German,
as forcibly to remind one that his name indicates not a
Teutonic, but a Sclavish descent. In the Transactions of
the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, stands a
paper, furnished by him two or three years before his death,
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 377

on “ The Mines of China.” In this he, speaking of a quite
uncomeatable region in Chinese Tartary, gravely gives the
following piece of information :—* The mountainous surface
of Turfan has many still undiscovered riches, but centuries are
likely to elapse before these can be rendered available for the
use of man.”

I may for the present close with the unsatisfactory, but
absolutely necessary labor of pointing out the errors of
former publications. Translations, some carefully made,
others with culpable haste and slovenliness, but all in a more
or less prejudiced spirit—very many in the conviction that
the things to be translated must be morally bad, or intel-
lectually absurd, or both—these with confidently-uttered
generalizations drawn in China, but from the narrowest ex-
perience, have been the fruitful sources of a vast amount of
erroneous views regarding the Chinese. With such materials
to work upon,* it is no wonder that European authors—some
of them men of unusual mental power—should have erred,
and erred greatly, in writing on the Chinese.t I have sought

* M. Julien, a Parisian sinologue, by which I mean one who has never been
in China, has made a number of translations with remarkable care; but he has
not given forth any version of the philosophical Chung yung ; and the follow-
ing note in his Taou tih king, with some other passages, induce me to believe
that he has not paid special attention to the Chinese system of fundamental
beliefs. Speaking of Seun tsze he says :—“On le regarde en Chine comme le
plus célébre écrivain de l’école de Confucius, et on place son ouvrage immé-
diatement apres les Quatre livres classiques. II traite de Ja politique et de la
morale. On l’estime autant pour la justesse de ses connaissances que pour la
clarté de son style.” The reader will perceive from what is said at pages 335
and 390, that Seun tsze is noted for having propounded a psychical doctrine
diametrically opposed to a very important one of Confucianism.

+ For the first three years of my stay in China, I was myself a victim. During
that period the mere acquisition of the language as it is used by the mandarins in
conversation and correspondence, and of a knowledge of the official and penal
codes gave me full occupation. And as the style of the Sacred Books, which
has all the terseness of very early language, makes it quite unavailabe for busi-
ness purposes, I, trusting in the translators, was of opinion that it would be a
waste of time for any but missionaries to study these writings in the original ;
and that officials and merchants should turn to translations in order to get their
knowledge of the fundamental beliefs of the nation. This opinion I inserted in
my Notes on China in 1846. But that volume had scarcely been published
before an increasing knowledge of the language began to show me that the
existing translations were extremely faulty, so much so as to render the study
378 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

in vain in French, German, and English works for anything
like a correct view of Chinese fundamental beliefs and men-
tal life generally. To instance the German, where, if any-
where, correctness was to be expected, the sections on these
subjects in Hegel’s Geschichte der Philosophie and Philo-
sophie der Geschichte are totally wrong. Again, the first
volume of Windischmann’s Philosophie im Fortgang der
Weltgeschichte is devoted to China. Everything is men-
tioned, but everything is more or less disfigured. The
author, a Roman Catholic professor at Bonn, is particularly
bitter on the philosophers of the second epoch, whom he
calls neologists, and through whom he hits at the neologists
of Germany. The Chinese “neologists’’ approached the
Sacred Books with profound respect. Do we observe, in the
manner German neology deals with the Bible, any analogy
with that characteristic? There can be little doubt that
Choo tsze misunderstood the signification of Shang te and
Teen, but it was his very respect for Confucius (who dis-
countenanced attention to a supernatural world of which
he knew nothing) together with the irrational idolatry by
which he was surrounded, that led him into the mistake.
There are cogent reasons for believing that, in all other
respects, he recognised in the Sacred Books whatever was
good in them; and gave to it greater distinctness and further
development. In his closing paragraph, Windischmann
speaks in high terms of the endeavours to effect moral
regeneration of the people on the part of the “noble Em-
peror, Kang he—an upright Tartar mind.” Now it so hap-
pens that the “neologist” Choo tsze probably never had
a greater admirer than this very Emperor, Kang he. It is his
fine editions of Choo tsze’s commentaries and other works,
of the originals an absolute necessity for all who wished,-to know the people
thoroughly. And by translations I mean those into Manchoo as well as those
into Occidental languages. The former, though made under Imperial superin-
tendence by men who were masters both of Chinese and Manchoo, and though
as a consequence not inaccurate, are so very literal and contain so many invented

words that they are valueless; as I found to my extreme regret, after having
gone to the trouble of learning Manchoo for the purpose of reading them.
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 379

and his decrees respecting them, which have made them, for
the last century and a half the standard of the national
beliefs, more exclusively, if possible, than they were before.

In Die Religion und die Philosophie, by A. Gladisch,
published so recently as 1852, the bases of Chinese mental
life are still more misunderstood than they were by Windisch-
mann. There is in China a school of speculators who may
be called, Numerists, inasmuch as they have adopted a theory
of the universe, which is founded on numbers, taken in con-
nexion with the Hight Diagrams of the Yih king. In their
hands, the Diagrams and numbers become things rather than
the representatives of things; and varied combinations of these
things form the basis of divination. In so far, the theory of
the Numerists has some little influence on the superstitions
of the Chinese, but it has none whatever on their moral and
political life. Gladisch gives it however as the national phi-
losophy of the Chinese; with whom it has, in reality, about
that amount of authority which clairvoyance, table turning
and fortune telling have with us.

There is a peculiar feature of the Chinese language which
deserves mention here, as there is reason to believe that it
originated in the views of the national philosophy. That philo-
sophy represents all existence as resulting from the interac-
tion of two opposites, viz. the positive Yang and the negative
Yin. Further, there are traces of the doctrine, on which however
little stress is laid, that “ tuh peih yew tuy, every individual
thing has its opposite.” The reader has seen that Choo tsze
was at pains to except the Tae keih, as the “unity without
an opposite.” The philological feature to which I refer is the
power of exactly expressing, by the juxta-position of two
words of directly opposite or contradictory meanings, a third
idea which is inexactly expressed by both or is, as it were, in
dispute between them: it may be described as the power of
forming new words by the synthesis of contradictories. For
instance, orally the Chinese will ask how “far” it is to a
certain place, but in the slightly more exact language of
writing he asks about its yuen-kin, far-nearness, i.e. its dis-
380 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

tance. So also to-kwa, much-littleness, means quantity. In
these two cases, and probably in a few others (as weight = the
Chinese king-chung light-heaviness) we happen to have in
English, words which express the synthesis or the disputed
idea. But in a great number of other commonly occurring
cases we are obliged to express it, very clumsily, by employing
one of the contradictories. Hence we are forced to speak of
the breadth of a hair and the height of a chessman ; where the
Chinese speak of the broad-narrowness of the one and the
kaou te, the high-lowness of the other. Our length (of a flea
for instance) is in Chinese long-shortness. Tables have been
formed of the more common of these Chinese opposites, for
they stand out too prominently in the language to be over-
looked; but I am not aware that the most important fact
connected with them has been before noticed, viz. that they
in every case form a new dissyllabic word, expressing the
synthesis of the two. Yet this is the point to which the
student should attend; for the feature pervades the whole
language, and the literal rendering of both the terms is but a
clumsy method of translation, if we have a word in English
that is synonymous with the dissyllable. Here a few more
instances. The Chinese speak of the seen how, the before-
afterness of two occurrences; of the hwan keih the leisure-
hasteness of affairs; of the yew woo, there is—there is not-
ness or the existence * of a thing; and of its che chung, its
beginning-endness. In discussing the qualities of writings,
they speak of their tung e, similar-differentness, and their
tseang leo, copious-conciseness. In fact, the genius of the
language permits in this way the creation of new words;
and the consequent expression of entirely new ideas, so
idiomatically as to render all definition and explanation un-
necessary, by at once conveying them directly and forcibly to
minds for whom the synthetical operation is more a mechanical
habit than a conscious effort.

The Chinese system of fundamental beliefs cannot be called,

* Seyn and N chts = Daseyn.
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 381

philosophy, in the modern restricted sense of that European
word. Of avowedly independent inquiry into the nature of
man’s mind and of the world around man, and of syllogistic
deduction from principles so arrived at, we find little or
nothing. The system is entirely dependent on the Sacred
Writings. And so soon as it has explained, in the general
way indicated in the foregoing pages, the origin and con-
tinued existence of the inanimate world, in such manner as
to satisfy man’s irrepressible desire for a credible theory on
these points, it leaves cosmogony and betakes itself to psy-
chology, morality and politics.

T shall now particularize three of its more important
propositions.

The first is, that a fundamental unity underlies the multitude
of phenomenal variety ; the second, that in the midst of all
change there is an eternal, harmonious order; the third, that
man is endowed at his birth with a nature that is perfectly
good.

These are three constant, unchanging convictions, or funda-
mental beliefs of the Chinese nation; and they are among the
principal of those which have made them one nation: real
nationality being at bottom comprised in the fact of a com-
munity of the deepest and most widely operating convictions.
But they are more particularly the beliefs of the cultivated
portion of the nation; and it is precisely the most intelligent
of the cultivated, who by the operation of the Public Service
Examinations are placed, with the approbation of the others,
in entire possession of all legislative and executive powers—
it is precisely these, who are most thoroughly imbued with
them.

The first, the belief in a unity underlying all phenomenal
variety, is one that may be assumed to be equally present to
the consciousness of all cultivated people in the West, of
whatever school of philosophy or shade of religious opinion.
In China we see it manifesting itself in the centralized insti-
tutions of the country. The Will of the Emperor is the
382 THE CHINESE AND THEIR BEBELEIS

Ultimate Principle of legislation and administration operating
alike at the capital and in the remotest corners of the Empire:
it is the Tae keth of the Political World. And as in the
political institutions, so also in the language, the belief
appears to find expression. ‘There is a term much used both
in writing and speaking, wan yih literally, ten thousand one.
Morrison’s Dictionary gives as its signification, “ One in ten
thousand ;” Medhurst’s renders it, “ Perhaps.” After some
puzzling, the student of Chinese learns, from the context of
passages, that its real meaning is “In the event of, or Sup-
pose that;”’ but how such a compound came to acquire such
a meaning, he is totally unable to conceive. The study of
Chinese philosophy gives me the impression, that it is nothing
but an abbreviated expression of the first of the above fun-
damental beliefs. Wan besides meaning ten thousand, is a
very common equivalent of our, all, every, &c., and wan yih,
which is generally employed when speaking of preparing for
some possible contingency, means: Should it, in the multi-
plicity of affairs that spring from the fundamental unity,
happen that, &. &c.

The fundamental belief in harmonious order finds practical
expression in the great amount of system, of regularity and
method, that pervades all Chinese life, political, public or
private, as also in the decidedly national characteristic of
a love of concord among men. This finds large and frequent
expression in the language, more especially in the, to Occi-
dentals perplexingly frequent employment of the word Ho,
harmony or concord, and which also means peace. Harmony
with what? This is a question they are often obliged to ask
themselves; for this one word is often used alone, as an abbre-
viated form of expressing the desirable harmony of man’s acts
with the fixed order of the universe; which is identical with
man’s radical nature; which is perfectly good. Vice is, with
the Chinese, nothing but an infringement of the harmonious
order of the universe, which, being punished by the operation
of that order, leads to misery. Hence the constant association
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 383

of Shen and Fuh, Gd and Ho, Goodness and Happiness,
Wickedness and Misery. And the belief, on the part.of the
rulers of China, in the fundamental unity as well as the eternal
order of the universe leads to the practical conviction, so
strange to us, that unusual convulsions in inanimate nature,
long dearths, &c. may be caused by bad government. In the
case of a long continued absence of rain, the Emperor will
anxiously examine into, and cause his mandarins throughout
the country to re-investigate the cases of convicted prisoners ;
lest unjust condemnations, i.e. a neglect on the part of the
judges to harmonize their decisions with the dictates of their
radically perfect nature, should, by their jarring effect, have
produced the stoppage in the natural course of meteorological
phenomena. It is the belief in the fixed order which makes
the rulers so thoroughly averse to those prayers for rain, which
the uncultivated Chinese will address to the deities. The
Buddhist and Taouist priests or bonzes are then of course in
full activity, and for a time personages of importance. And,
when a prolonged dearth proves the intercession of the priests
to be unavailing, the people entreat the mandarins to pray for
them, and in great extremity will even compel them to do s0.
But, though an exceptional case does occur now and then of
a weakminded mandarin—a man analogous to our well edu-
cated Protestant of high station who becomes a Romanist—
even taking the initiative in these proceedings, the grand
majority hold to the opinions of Imperial edicts, which have
condemned them as “ waste of time and money.” Here we
see, that educated Chinese have long given practical recog-
nition to a great truth, which is still not accepted by a very
large number of educated English. The progress of physical
science, however, daily obtains for it more adherence. The
very general applause, which greeted Lord Palmerston’s
recent answer to a body of Edinburgh divines, proves that
the nation begins to comprehend, that it is our duty to labour
to adapt ourselves to the laws of the universe; instead of
hoping that vacillating interferences with these laws will take

*
384 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
*

place, in order to suit our always shortsighted views of what
is best.

The Chinese nation, with a written history extending as
far back as that of any other which the world has known, is
the only one that has throughout retained its nationality, and
has never been ousted from the land where it first appeared.
And that it has, between civil wars like the present—wars
necessary for the production of beneficial changes, whether
administerial or dynastic—enjoyed long periods of a safety to
life and property, even now scarcely exceeded in the most
civilized countries in the West, is a truth as well known from
authentic history, as it may be inferred from the fact, that
its numbers now equal one half of the rest of the human
race, while its industrial products penetrate into every region
of the earth. It is surprising what a large number of Occi-
dentals can manage not to see the sufficiently plain inference,
that results, so long enduring and so vast, must be owing to
the social and political life of the Chinese being founded
on great and eternal truths. The enlightened and candid
minded reader cannot know so well as I do, with my dolor-
ous experience of the existing prejudice and stolidity on
the subject, how necessary it is to insist on the above, and
insist on it, and insist on it, and insist on it again. There
is one class of the stolid that requires special mention; as it
has unfortunately some modifying effect on our habits of
thought. The grand characteristic of the man of this class
lies in his greeting everything that he never heard of, or
never saw before, either with solemn brays of reprobation or
broad grins of derision. Many very sensible people stand
in awe alike of his brays and his grins; while the force of
sympathy alone leads others into a thoughtless braying and
grinning with him. It is therefore necessary that I should
warn my readers against his influence when I have to point
out some things hitherto but little if at all heard of, or per-
ceived. Even to the stolid man himself, I may however
make it dimly comprehensible, that in some branches of the
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 3885

social science it is just possible that the Chinese may be in
advance of the West, in spite of their shaving their heads and
wearing tails—aye, and dreadful thought! shoes with white
soles to them. The stolid man has either seen or heard
a good deal of the art of printing and of the mariner’s com-
pass. He has also seen or heard of gunpowder, though he
certainly never would have invented it. Now these things
were known and used by the Chinese, centuries before they
were known in the West. May it not then be possible that
a race, whose intellect enabled it to discover these great in-
struments of civilization long before we did, may also have
been able, long ago, to discover in the region of morality
and politics—a region which it has always preferred to that
of physical science—certain important truths, toward which
we are but beginning to grope our way ?

Let us now proceed to the third of the Chinese funda-
mental beliefs, selected for special consideration. Iam not
aware that Chinese thinkers are fully sensible of the effects
on their practical life of the first two; but they are quite
conscious that the third, that man is endowed at his birth
with a nature which is perfectly good, has great influence on
their whole moral and political system.

Very learned and good men in the West, who have taken
‘the Bible as the standard of their beliefs, have found therein
‘the doctrine that man is by nature vicious; and equally
learned and good men, who have taken the Bible as the
standard of their beliefs, declare that no such doctrine is
therein contained: that it is a sectarian fiction arrived at
by straining of texts, and that man is by nature good. So
far therefore as the authority of those who have long devoted
themselves to the study of the Bible in the original languages
is concerned, we are at liberty to adopt either view. It is
necessary to premise this; for, as the doctrine that man’s
nature is vicious, happens to be that which has been adopted by
the national churches of England and Scotland, many who
read this volume because interested in China, but who are little

cc
386 THE CHINESE AND THEIR. REBELLIONS.
e

acquainted with theological. disputes,—who have never exer-
cised the right of private judgement, but merely accepted the
doctrines which they were taught,—many such will be apt to
jump to the conclusion, that it is, in the Occident, a univer-
sally admitted fact that the Chinese orthodox doctrine is false.

In order to procure a candid consideration for Chinese
morality, it is necessary to give warning against another
source of error. Many, seeing how unscientific and unsound
the Chinese views of physical nature are, fall into the mis-
take of assuming that their views of mental nature must be
equally unsound. They may be unsound; but that must, be
inferred from a low state of physical science. Physics and
morals belong to two independent regions, which the latest
discoveries have not enabled us to connect. Even the philoso-
phers of the positivist school are unable to show the connexion
between non-thinking and thinking life; or, at all events, fail
to show how the study of the latter can commence otherwise
than in perfectly independent observation. Practise in physics
may have taught us better methods of conducting observations
generally ; but that is the sole advantage we have over the
Chinese. In dealing with mind, our most potent chemical
tests, our most delicate weighing machines, and our most
powerful microscopes are of no avail. In the words of Mr.
J. S. Mill, “the successions which obtain among mental phe-_
nomena, do not admit of being deduced from the physio-" ~
logical laws of our nervous organization ; and all real know-
ledge of them must continue for a long time at least, if not
for ever, to be sought in the direct study by observation and
experiment of the mental successions themselves.”

Let us now consider what the common sense of mankind
says to the goodness or vice of man’s nature at his birth. It
is evident at once, what Mencius, the originator of the
Chinese doctrine, himself admitted, that affirmations about
its nature at that earliest period of individual existence are
purely theories, are assumptions adopted to explain what we
observe of man, i.e. of ourselves and others, at later periods,
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 387

The question is, therefore, which of the two theories, Man’s
nature is radically bad, and, Man’s nature is radically good,
best explains what we know and feel to be true of ourselves
and what we believe to be true of others.

If in a contest between two parties in which we are
in nowise interested, we observe that the one is unjust and
overbearing, the other in the right and disposed to be con-
ciliatory, to which do we wish success, which do we feel
inclined to help? Invariably the latter. Here the theory that
man’s nature is radically bad fails to explain the observed
phenomenon. If we were really bad by nature, why should
we wish to help the good side? Again, when a man suffers
injustice at the hands of another and is unable to redress his
wrongs himself, what does he forthwith do? He immediately
appeals to the greatest possible number of other men, even
though he may know them to be, in no degree whatever,
personally interested in helping him. Here again the theory
that man’s nature is radically bad fails to explain a fact of
daily occurrence. Why appeal from one radically bad nature
to a great number of bad natures, from an individual piece of
corruption to a mass of corruption? That would be merely
to see the committed injustice approved of, and probably to
suffer additional wrongs instead of getting help. The common
testimony of men, given in their practical life, is clearly to the
effect that, where a man’s own passions and interests are not
concerned, he almost invariably prefers doing good to doing
evil. I have said “almost,” because we do occasionally see
men who act otherwise. But they are eminently of those
exceptional cases that prove the general rule. What do we
say of a man who likes to do ill, which does not in any way
benefit himself? ‘ That creature,” we will say of such a
man, “is always doing mischief for the mere sake of mis-
chief; he is quite a monkey, he is a perfect ape.” We deny
that his nature is that of a man. The great number of
English and Scotch say that they believe, and perhaps think
that they believe man’s nature to be radically bad, but by

cc2
388 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

all their acts they show that in their hearts they believe
something thevery reverse, viz. that though men, when their
passions and selfish desires are roused by contact with the
world, will do more or less wrong to obtain gratification,
nevertheless their nature is at bottom good; and so much so,
that even the wrongful gratification of passions and desires is
at least partially balanced by the sacrifices some men make
and the risks they incur to do good, where there is no hope
whatever of return. This is precisely the Chinese funda-
mental belief. It is a belief that, like the first two men-
tioned, has expressed itself in their language. For instance,
our words, openly, publicly, and public, justly, just, and
justice could be used as in the following sentence, not with
elegance certainly, but with perfect propriety :—‘“ The mat-
ter was publicly discussed in a public meeting openly con-
vened; and it was very justly decided that public business
should be, as much as possible, transacted by men of just
minds, who would strive earnestly to act in accordance with
the highest justice.” Here all these words fall into one of two
classes of paronyms, of which one has the idea of publicity, the
other that of justice. Now in Chinese, all the members of
both classes are rendered by one and the same word, Kung.
Here, therefore, we have the whole Chinese nation spontane-
ously testifying to the existence of a close, radical connexion
between the two things which we understand by publicity
and justice ;* in other words, that, wherever the natures of
a great number of human beings are brought to bear upon
an affair, the result is justice.

In the annexed Essay I conceive myself to have established
the following propositions :—

* Words of the kind considered in the text are often very instructive, When
expatiating, in a pamphlet I published six years ago, on the expedience, inter-
nationally, of obtaining an accurate knowledge of the Chinese language, I said:—
“TI need hardly dwell on the ease with which disputes arise out of misappre-
hension. The whole English people, by attaching the meaning of quarrel to

the word, misunderstanding, has distinctly affirmed the almost unavoidable
connexion between the two things.”
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 3889

That Civilization is the aggregate introduction by man of
efficient intellectual and moral agencies to the reduction of the
physical, or of moral to the reduction of the intellectual, in his
struggle with animate and inanimate nature.

That the highest kind of civilization is the greatest possible
predominance of the moral agencies only, in man’s struggle with
man ; and that it is identical with the practice of the highest
Christian morality as expressed in the emphatic forms of incul-
cation: Love your enemies ; return good for evil.

That, (as the use of moral agencies only necessarily implies
perfectly voluntary or free action in the persons operated on,
therefore) whatever the form of government may be, that people
is necessarily the freest in which the highest kind of civiliza-
tion has most prevalence.

To these I have now to add :—

That the theory that man’s nature is radically vicious is the
true psychical basis of despotic, or physical force government ;
while the theory that man’s nature is radically good is the
true psychical basis of free, or moral force government.

Referring the reader to the concluding pages of “ Civiliza-
tion,” I have to state, that the Chinese Government explicitly
grounds that large and systematic use of the moral agencies,
which constitute its normal procedure, upon the doctrine that
man’s nature is radically good. In this, @ priori reasoning
completely justifies them. If man’s nature be radically bad,
where is the use of appealing to a sense of right, a gene-
rosity, a charity, or a love of peace which have no existence ?
It is obvious that in such case physical force, whether as
a restraint or as a stimulant, is the only practicable means of
government.* But if man’s nature be radically good, the
easiest means of attaining the ends of government is
evidently to appeal to his higher qualities ; the very exist-

* Hence it is, that the upholders of negro slavery in the United States are
constrained to adopt the theory that the nature of the negro is ower than that
of the white man—a cireumstance which, by the by, shows the intimate con-

nexion between theories and practical life.
890 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLJONS.

ence of which are, on the other hand, certain to make him
indignantly intractable, if physical force is gratuitously
employed.

Looking to the testimony of experience, we find that Chinese
history contains an example, on a grand scale, of the effect
which the temporary acceptance of the doctrine that man’s.
nature is radically vicious has had on government.

On page 335 mention was made of Seun tsze, as a philoso-
pher and politician whose opinions had great authority about
B.c. 255, but who taught a doctrine, at variance with one of
the principal beliefs of Confucianism. That doctrine was, that
man’s nature is vicious. One of the twenty chapters into
which his works are, at the present day, divided is entirely
devoted to its establishment. Now Seun tsze also maintained
the necessity of governing by physical force. It is admitted
by the historians and philosophers of authority, that he was
aman of great ability, and of the best intentions, but it is
added that his “doctrines were low;” that in particular, in
the one doctrine, “ man’s nature is vicious,” the “grand
basis” of morality was missed; and that, though he himself
did not anticipate the calamities to which his views led, they
nevertheless, when carried out to their legitimate consequences
by his scholar Le she, a councillor of Che kwang, proved the
cause of the much execrated burning of the Sacred Books by
that Emperor, and formed the springs of his essentially de-
spotic rule. And, as the power of his house ended with his
own life, while the power of the Han dynasty, which followed
and which lasted for centuries, was established by a rule of
“jin e, benevolence and righteousness ;” the disastrous cha-
racter, alike for people and for prince, of Che kwang’s policy
is pointed to, as a grand historical example of the consequences
of government by physical force, emanating from the doctrine
that man’s nature is vicious.

Passing from Eastern Asia, in the third century before
Christ, to Western Europe in the nineteenth century after
Christ, I ask, who is it that at the present day, in our own
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 391

country, advocate government by physical force; who, go-
vernment by moral force? Is it not among those who most
rigidly uphold the doctrine, “man’s nature is depraved,” that
we find the advocates of enforcement of abstinence and of
sabbatarianism by the aid of the policeman ; and is it not
among those who maintain, or who lean to the doctrine,
“man’s nature is good,” that we find the advocates of moral
force—of education and enlightenment—as the only efficient
means of teaching the people temperance, morality, and true
religion ?

It is on the theory that man’s nature is good, that Chinese
moralists believe the practicability of morality to depend:
“Let people first know this one root and source of morality,
and then they will earnestly endeavour to be good and to
put away vice.” Accordingly Choo tsze teaches, that the
indolence people manifest in self-improvement does not pro-
ceed from a real weakness, but from a dread that the task is
impossible, and that their weak apathy is therefore the result
of habit ; that, though there is a struggle in his heart between
impulses to do good and to do evil, yet ‘ man’s heart is radi-
cally good;”’ that “his first impulse to do a good act is a
primary manifestation of his true heart, but is subsequently
smothered by the influence of the outward world;” and
that, with reference to the practice of morality, “there is no
other method, in the work of self-mastery, than simply that
adopted by a weak army, which, when it finds itself sud-
denly confronted by a powerful enemy, presses forward with
all its strength and regardless of death.” In short, Chinese
moralists stimulate all to manful self-exertion, by telling
all that, the root of their nature being perfectly good, it
entirely depends on themselves whether their conduct and
character throughout life shall be good and honourable or
bad and mean. I may add, as a further proof of the great
importance the Chinese attach to the doctrine which we are
now considering, that in the Book of Three Characters—a
versified enumeration of fundamental beliefs, in lines of
392 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLJQNS.

three characters or words, for the use of children—the first
two lines run, “Jin che tsoo, Sing pun shen, At man’s
beginning, His nature is radically good.”

From all this we see, that the doctrine in question at once
forms the basis of government by moral agency in preference
to that by physical force, and at the same time is held to be
the root of all that is good in the private and public conduct
of the Chinese people.

Utilitarianism, and what is called enlightened selfishness
have no place in Chinese morality; and expediency, as opposed
to right, has no place in their science of government. All
these, which have had, and still have much currency with us,
are decidedly repudiated in China. Hence the present Em-
peror, notwithstanding the extreme distress of the govern-
ment for money, has answered in the negative the recom-
mendations that have been made to legalize and levy a tax
on opium—a certain source of a very large income. The
moral feeling of the country at present decidedly prohibits
such a step; yet it would, as to morality, be neither worse
nor better than what we yearly do in taxing gin and other
ardent spirits.

Bearing in mind the fundamental beliefs: that there is a
harmonious order of the universe; that man’s nature is good ;
and, lastly, that it is but the harmonious order of the universe
operating in man which constitutes the goodness of his nature
—hbearing these beliefs in mind, the reader may perceive,
from the following extracts, what it is that constitutes for
the Chinese the obligation of their morality. The extracts,
some portions of which I italicize, are from the Droit Naturel
of Jouffroy :>*—

* Morell’s History of Philosophy classes Jouffroy, as a metaphysician, with
the philosophers of the Scottish schoo!, Reid, Stewart, &c. As a moralist, it
says, “that there is no writer of the present day who has grappled with the
great problems of moral science, so manfully and successfully—and who has
succeeded in throwing so much fresh light upon a subject which has commanded
the energies of the greatest minds.”
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 393

* Le bien, le bien en soi, le bien absolu, c'est la réalisation
de la fin absolue de la création, c’est Pordre universel.”

* Or, dés que l’idée de l’ordre a été concue par notre raison,
il y a entre notre raison et cette idée une sympathie si profonde,
Si vraie, si immédiate, qu’elle se prosterne devant cette idée,
quelle la reconnait sacrée et obligatoire pour elle, qu'elle
Vhonore et s’y soumet comme a sa loi naturelle et éternelle.
Violer VPordre, c’est une indignité aux yeux de la raison ;
réaliser Vordre autant quil est donné a votre faiblesse, cela
est bien, cela est beau. Un nouveau motif d’agir est apparu,
une nouvelle régle véritablement régle, une nouvelie loi véri-
tablement loi, une loi qui se légitime par elle-méme, qui oblige
immédiatement, quin’a besoin pour se faire respecter et recon-
naitre, d’invoquer rien qui lui soit étranger, rien qui lui soit
antérieur ou supérieur.”

* Tout devoir, tout droit, toute obligation, toute morale
découlent done d’une méme source qui est lidée du bien en
soi, lidée de l’ordre. Supprimer cette idée, il n’y a plus rien
de sacré en soi pour la raison, par conséquent plus de diffé-
rence morale entre les actions que nous pouvons faire; la
création est inintelligible, est toute destinée une énigme.
Rétablisser la, tout devient clair dans l’univers et dans
Vhomme; il y aun ordre sacré que toute créature raisonnable
doit respecter et concourir 4 accomplir en elle et hors d’elle ;
par conséquent des devoirs, par conséquent des droits, par
conséquent une morale, une législation naturelle de la conduite
humaine.”

“© Mais cette idée de l’ordre en elle-méme n’est pas le dernier
terme dela pensée humaine; elle s’éléve jusqu’a Dieu qui a
créé cet ordre universel, et qui a donné & chaque créature qui y
concourt, sa constitution, et par conséquent sa fin et son bien.
Ainsi rattaché 4 sa substance éternelle, ordre sort de son
abstraction métaphysique et devient l’expression de la pensée
divine: dés lors aussi la morale montre son cété religieux.
Mais il n’était pas besoin qu’elle le montrat pour qu’elle fat
obligatoire. Au dela de l’ordre, notre raison n’aurait pas vu
Dieu, que Vordre n’en serait pas moins sacré pour elle. Seule-
394 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

ment, quand Dieu apparait comme la volonté qui l’a établit,
la soumission religieuse s’unit 4 la soumission morale, et par
la encore l’ordre devient respectable.”

“ Le bien, le beau*® et la vrai ne sont que Vordre sous trois
faces différentes, et Vordre n’est autre chose que la volonté, la
manifestation de Dieu.”

In the above extracts, l’ordre universe] is synonymous with
Le; la vrai, with Taou; and le bien, as realized in man, with the
Chinese shen, or that goodness which constitutes his: radical
nature. And, bearing in mind that educated Chinese, though
theoretically atheists are practically deists, then practically
Teen is synonymous with Dieu; Teen ming, with la volonté de
Dieu; and Sing, man’s nature, is sa constitution which Dieu
a donné a chaque créature. The large amount of public and
private morality (taking the word of coursein its wider sense)
that has existed in China during past ages, forms a complete
substantiation, from experience, of Jouffroy’s proposition that
the idea of order is obligatory.

On the detailed, positive rules of Chinese morality, it is
not necessary to dwell in this volume. Speaking generally,
they accord very nearly with those of the ten command-
ments which show the nature of man’s duty to man; for
the Confucianist, like the Christian, sums them up in the
injunction: Do to others as you would be done by. As to the
extent to which their rules of morality are obeyed, in other
words, as to the amount of practical virtue and vice existing
in China, I refer the reader to pages 64—73 and page 91.

As to the extent to which the doctrine of government by
moral agency is carried out in practice ; as to the identity of
that description of government with virtual freedom; and as
to the particular shape under which it operates in China:

* The idea of the beautiful plays no such prominent part in Chinese philo-
sophical discussions as in those of the Occident. With respect to the fine arts,
painting and sculpture are not patronised by Confucianism. Poetry and music
are, on the-contrary, highly esteemed by it, especially ancient poetry and
music, One of the Sacred Books is poetical ; and a great writer states :—“ In
ancient times music was employed to civilize man: in modern times it is em-
ployed to excite his passions.”
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 395

I refer to page 120, to the footnote at pages 46 and 47, and to
the whole of Chapter II. The chief exceptions are slavery
and the institution of secondary wives; which latter, though
we have called them “ wives,” have in Chinese a different
name from that of the real wife, and are acquired property—
are, in fact, nothing but female slaves who have been called
to the bed of their owner. These institutions—some of the
evil effects of which are noticed in the Essay on Civilization
—are the great and very serious exceptions to the operation
of government by moral agency ; and they are, I believe, the
main causes of whatever misery and vice is peculiar to China,
as compared with England.

One of the morally lesser evils, which must be regarded as
a consequence of polygamy, is that lack of physical refinement,
evidenced in frequent and noisy expectoration, non-use of
pocket-handkerchief, &c. which is at times really a very sore
trial for our senses and temper. That jealous separation of
the sexes, which is an inevitable attendant on polygamy, pre-
vents the frequent intercourse which has undoubtedly a
mutually refining effect. Besides the wish to stand well
with the opposite sex generally, people must, in our mono-
gamic and free country, be careful not to become personally
disagreeable, if they would hope to get a desirable mate.
But the sale of women, which necessarily accompanies poly-
gamy or concubinage, makes it possible for the man of the
most offensive habits to procure the most beautiful females,
if he only be wealthy.

In the matters of slavery and concubinage, the morality of
Christianity, as now understood by Teutonic nations, is as much
superior to Confucianism, as the latter has proved itself gene-
rally superior toall the other systems. The idea of a nation with-
out slavery and without concubinage cannot be saidto be known
to the Chinese mind, and hence the ruling body can hardly
be expected to think of engaging in the work of abolishing
these institutions. Indeed the very exaggerated, unnatural
and therefore, as it appears to me, in several respects morally
unwholesome weight that is laid in China on the doctrine of

¢
396 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLJONS.

filial piety, in particular on the duties of sons, is among other
things, likely always to prove a bar to the abolition of concu-
binage. If, after years of marriage, the wife proper has no
sons, it is held to be her duty to insist on her husband taking
a concubine; and if she fails to discharge this duty she begins
to be looked upon as a person of unworthy character. Let
the reader make the necessary allowances’ for the differences
between a nomadic and an old settled state, and then the
story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar will serve him as an
illustration of the relative positions of husbands, wives, and
concubines in China.

Though the ruling body there is not likely to attempt the
abolition of slavery and concubinage, it at least exerts itself
earnestly to alleviate the hardships and check the vices which
they engender. To give one instance: the law prescribes
corporeal punishment for masters who do not effect marriages
for the female slaves of their household and thereby condemn
them to a life of “lonely isolation.” Again, the very cause
which ina Mahommedan state makes out of barber-boys the
Pachas who nullify the defence of a Kars, prevents in Con-
fucian China not only barbers, but their children even, from
being admitted to the Public Service Examinations: for the
support of morality, an originally right feeling is made the
basis of wrongful severity to the innocent.

No people, whether of ancient or modern times, has possessed
a Sacred Literature so completely exempt as the Chinese from
licentious descriptions, and from every offensive expression.
There is not a single sentence in the whole of the Sacred Books *
and their annotations that may not, when translated word for
word, be read aloud in any family circle in England. Again,
in every other non-Christian country, idolatry has been asso-
ciated with human sacrifices and with the deification of vice,
accompanied by licentious rites and orgies. Nota sign of all
this exists in China. Idolatry is endured by Confucianism as
a superstition; but immoral ceremonies are prohibited, and
not a single indecent idol is exposed in any of the numerous
temples in the country. Mr. Williams points to this as one
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 397

of the probable causes of the long duration of the Chinese
people; and no doubt it is a helping cause, for all morality
tends to preservation:—“ One pagan nation has come down
from ancient times and this alone is distinguished for its
absence from religious slaughter of innocent blood, and the
unsanctified license of unblushing lust.’’*

In closing this subject, I must once more warn the reader
against believing the ridiculously exaggerated descriptions
given forth by some writers of every bad feature that they
could detect in Chinese life. Civil war has of late years let
loose passions, which are in happier times restrained by the
national morality; and the Manchoo government is exciting
in the West a feeling of astonishment and horror by its
indiscriminate executions of thousands of rebel prisoners.
But this is done in flagrant violation of the principles of
Chinese polity. And I venture to say, that even now the
Chinese are nowhere what they are represented as having
been a few years ago in M. Huc’s Chinese Empire. For
instance, M. Huc broadly asserts that the birth of a daughter
“is in general regarded as a humiliation and dishonor for the
family; it is a manifest proof of a curse of heaven.” Can
any English fathers and mothers believe that? I have seen
hundreds of fathers walking about with such little dishonors
and curses in their arms, handsomely dressed and prattling
away to the pleased and proud papas. M. Huc has however
himself fortunately furnished the home reader with the means
of estimating the value of his views of Chinese life. In that

* region, he could allow his fancy a liberty very convenient for
the creation of a circulating library book; for few could con-
tradict him, and of these few none might like to perform the
duty. But in one place he cannot resist the temptation of
making an amusing paragraph out of a British frigate also;
and there hundreds of thousands of English, and of French
too, know well what can and what cannot be done. Referring,
therefore, to page 63, I recommend to the home reader the

* « Middle Kingdom.” Religion of the Chinese.
398 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

following rule of proportion:—As M. Huc’s description of
naval officers sitting, and drinking champagne on the quarter
deck of a British man of war in action, is to the reality; so
are M. Huc’s descriptions of the strange, the ridiculous, and
the bad in Chinese life to the corresponding realities.

As we occasionally see it stated by writers of the first rank
who have occasion to allude to China—for instance Compte in
his Philosophie Positive—that the institution of caste exists
there, it may be well to mention that this is altogether a
mistake. Only the sons of barbers, players, and of people
following one or two similar occupations, 7. e. a very limited
number of Chinese, are excluded by their birth from an
equal competition for all the dignities of the State; and even
that limited number can engage in any private business they
please. No Chinese is compelled to follow the occupation of
his father. It is an ancient classification of the inhabitants
of a country into Scholars, Agriculturalists, Artificers, and
Traders, which has given rise to the mistake. There are one
or two points worth noting connected with this classification;
which, it will be observed gives the Scholars or Learned Men
the highest rank, and places the Traders last. The Positive
Philosophy of Europe shows that the tendency of social pro-
gress is to assign to the various workers of a community, rank
and power in proportion to the generality and artificiality of
the subjects with which they deal. Thus the Agriculturist, who
deals with industrial produce in its most natural form, stands
lowest; the Artificer, who shapes and manufactures it, stands
next; the Merchant, who merely transmits it from place to’
place, stands next; the Banker, who exchanges it in its general
form as represented by money, stands next; while the specula-
tive or Learned class, which deals with abstract representations,
and which rules the body through the mind, stands highest.
There seems to be sufficient reason for holding the extent to
which this spontaneous gradation has obtained virtual exist-
ence in any country, to bea fair test of progress in civilization.
And as the gradation is that which it appears certain will
exist in the highest state of civilization, when the professionally
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 399

destructive, as opposed to the productive class, viz. the mili-
tary, will have altogether disappeared, so the military have no
place in it. Now it is worthy of note that, in the old Chinese
classification, the military have no place; while the learned
have already their proper position, at the head of the hier-
archy. Mencius, who two thousand years ago preached free
trade, also insisted on the necessity of sub-division of labor,
and in particular declared that “those who laboured with
the mind were the rulers, those who laboured with the body,
the ruled.” It never was disgraceful in China to be able to
read and write. We occasionally have proof that that opi-
nion is not altogether extinct in this country. A military or
naval man will now and then be at pains to state, not from a
laudable modesty, but as if it were something to be proud of,
that he is “more accustomed to wield the sword than the
pen;” forgetting that it is more creditable to do both,—
after the example of Julius Cesar. The relative position of
the other three classes, in the old times of China, is that
natural to an early stage of civilization. It is a proof of the
soundness of the positivist theory, that their standing is, in
these more advanced times, virtually reversed in that
country. The most influential men in China, next to the
learned class, is at the present day composed of the bankers
and large merchants; next to them in social position stand
the manufacturers or artificers; while the actual tillers of
the soil, farmers and farm labourers, stand lowest. Of course
the learned men are often, the bankers perhaps are always,
possessors of land; but, in so far as they themselves are
labourers, the first deal with ideas, the second with money.
Fathers in China have the power of life and death over
their children. So long as the latter are children, this power
cannot be said practically to militate against the Chinese
doctrine of government by moral force; for parents may be
presumed not to use physical force till it is absolutely neces-
sary. But when the children have become men and women,
the power is discivilising. Those who maintain that the long
400 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
Cd

duration of the Chinese people is owing to the peculiar rela-
tion, upheld by its education and laws, between father and
son, must in consistency deny this. But it will not bear
denial. Chinese training and law gives the husband virtual
power of life and death over his wife. No one will maintain
that that is civilizing ; yet the relation between husband and
wife is by Chinese moralists pointed to as the first—that from
which all the others take their rise—which it undoubtedly is;
and it has been perhaps quite as much written about as the
other. The power possessed by Chinese fathers to sell their
children—a power often exercised in cases of want—is one of
the chief aids to the prolongation of slavery and concubinage.

It is the promise which appears to be attached to the fifth
of our Ten Commandments, together with the fact that all the
earlier sinologues were professional theologians, that accounts
for the parental institution having been taken by Occidentals
‘as the cause of the unequalled duration of the Chinese. But
apart from the fact that Hebrew scholars doubt that long
national existence is meant by the words of the fifth com-
mandment; the theory that the patriarchal features in the
‘Chinese Government system are the cause of the long du-
ration of the nation as such, will not bear close examination.
Only a belief in a special miracle can procure for it accept-
ance. No support is afforded it by psychical reasoning on the
possibility of the deep love which, as the general rule, exists
in the heart of the father being engendered by any teaching
in the heart of the Sovereign; or on the possibility of the
affection which is borne by sons to the father of the family being
directed in any operative degree to the head of the State.
History discountenances it. All those peoples in which every
member was a descendant from one and the same stock, as for
instance the Jews, had at the first a government veritably patri-
archal; but all soon became merely patriarchal in form. So long
as the virtual government remained despotic or autocratic,
there was no necessity for changing the old names connected
with that form. But the governments are then no more really
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 401

patriarchal, than is the government of a British man of war.
The long existence of the patriarchal form and its nomen-
clature in China—where, by the by, the nomenclature is
very far from being so much used as Occidental accounts
would make it appear to be—is not a cause: it is in reality
a consequence. From the oldest times to the present, the
Chinese people has, from other causes, endured as a nation ;
and was therefore able to bring down with it, from the earliest
times to the present, a patriarchal nomenclature sufficiently
appropriate to that autocratic form of the government which
actually existed, to render its application unforced. In truth,
the analogy between the family and the State does not hold
good on Chinese views themselves. In China, sons never
have the right to resist the cruelties of the most tyrannical
father: by one of the oldest and most deeply rooted of the
national doctrines, the people have the distinct right to
depose and put to death a tyrannical Emperor. And this
very departure from the strict patriarchality is one of the
causes of the stability of the nation: it is thereby permitted
to free itself from tyrannical government, which, if prolonged,
would cause its destruction.

The real causes of the unequalled duration and constant
increase of the Chinese people, as one and the same nation,
have been sufficiently dilated on, in various parts of this
volume; but it may be well to place them, once more, suc-
cinctly before the reader. They consist of three doctrines,
together with an institution by means of which the efficient
performance of the work prescribed by two of these doc-
trines is attained, and by which a living practical belief in
all three is maintained in the mind of the nation. The
doctrines are :—

I. That the nation must be governed by moral agency in
preference to physical force.

II. That the services of the wisest and ablest men in the
nation are indispensable to its good government.

III. That the people have the right to depose a sovereign

DD
402 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
°
who, either from active wickedness or vicious indolence, gives

cause to oppressive and tyrannical rule.

The institution is :—

The system of public service competitive examinations.

The three doctrines are laid down, with the greatest dis-
tinctness, in a variety of places in the Shoo king, or Historical
Canon, which, next to the Yih king, is the oldest of the Sacred
Books. They are also all dwelt on in the Sacred Works
called the Sze shoo or Four Books, the literary result of the
first epoch of revival of learning ; and they are still more expa-
tiated on in the literature of the second epoch, as exhibited
in the two Imperial compilations, the Complete Philosophy
and the Essence of Philosophy ; in which they are expounded
under the heads of Instruction, Public Schools, Examina-
tions, Dynasties, the Philosophy of Government,* &c. The
minds of the people are to be improved by the “ diffusion of
instruction,” and thus rendered amenable to that government
of “ benevolence and righteousness ”’ which the true sovereign
observes—such are the general terms in which the govern-
ment by moral agency is inculeated. And it is the duty of
the sovereign to improve his own mind first. To use the
language of the subjoined Essay on Civilization,—general
self-cultivation is to prepare the way for the efficient operation
of the highest civilized process. There is evidence, considered
credible by almost everyone who has studied Chinese records in
the original, that government schools existed under the Empe-
rors Yaou and Shun upwards of four thousand years ago, and,
notwithstanding periods of perversion and neglect, the system
of Public Service Examinations based on general instruction
has been gradually perfecting itself up to the latest times.+

* One fifth part of the Essence of Philosophy is composed of the Section
headed Philosophy of Government, in which, to the best of my belief, the duty
of filial piety is not referred to more than half a dozen times, and then only
incidentally.

+ M. Edouard Biot, a Parisian sinologue, has performed a substantial and im-
portant service, by collecting all the information on the subject contained in
Chinese books of the Biblioth@que Impériale, and arranging it chronologically
in his “Instruction Publique en Chine.”
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 403

Public libraries, and schools, and salaried government officials
called Keaou kwan, Instructing Officers exist now; but
education is, in fact, altogether gained in private schools or
from family tutors, and the Keaou kwan are merely Public
Examiners. Given the stimulus, in the shape of the wealth
and rank of official station, and the practical result in China
appears to be, that the people find they can educate themselves
better than the government can educate them. In every case
the institution of Public Service Examinations (which have
long been strictly competitive) is the cause of the continued
duration of the Chinese nation: it is that which preserves
the other causes and gives efficacy to their operation. By it
all parents throughout the country, who can compass the
means, are induced to impart to their sons an intimate know-
ledge of the literature which contains the three doctrines
above cited, together with many others conducive to a high
mental cultivation. By it all the ability of the country is
enlisted on the side of that Government which takes care to
preserve it in purity. By it, with its impartiality, the poorest
man in the country is constrained to say, that if his lot in life is
a low one it is so in virtue of the “ will of Heaven,” and that
no unjust barriers created by his fellow men prevent him from
elevating himself. In consequence of its neglect or corruption,
if prolonged, the able men of the country are spurred by their
natural and honorable ambition to the overthrow of the, in their
eyes and in the eyes of the nation, guilty rulers; a new dynasty
is then established, which consolidates its power by restoring
the institution in integrity and purity ; and all the legislative
and executive powers are again placed in the hands of the
Heen ning, the Wise and Able, who—the ablest men being
always the best—rule the country, not only with great
soundness of judgment, but with much of that “ righteous-
ness and benevolence ” which is dictated as well by their own
moral nature as by the old and venerated rules of national
polity. Then follows one of those long periods, which are
marked in Chinese history by the reign of justice, peace,
DpD2
404 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e
content, cheerful industry, and general prosperity; and a

glorious succession of which has made the Chinese people not
only the oldest but so vastly the largest of all the nations.
On pages 10, 20, 21, 22, 37 and 38, is given some
description of the Public Service Examinations. As it
may be satisfactory to the reader to know what other resi-
dents in China at the present time think of them, I extract,
from the Shanghae Almanack, the following notice of the
examinations for the degree of Licentiate held at Nanking in
185]. I do not happen to know who the writer was, but
know enough of the residents at Shanghae to affirm that it
could have been none other than a Protestant missionary.
Without remembering anything of the particular examination
discussed, I am able to warrant the general correctness of the
paper:
“ The examination for the degree of Keu jin,* or Licen-
tiate, takes place at the principal city of each province once
in three years, commencing on the eighth day of the eighth
month. Extraordinary examinations are granted by the
Emperor, on his ascending the throne, as in the present
instance. These are called Gan kaou, examinations by special
grace. Keang nan+ has sixteen departments—and the
degree of Sew tsae or Bachelor being conferred in each of
them annually, the number of candidates at the higher
examination held at Nanking is large. The average number
is twenty thousand. Of these on the average only two

 

* IT makea few merely verbal alterations and some unimportant omissions,
with the object of bringing the paper into conformity as to orthography, &c.
with other parts of this volume, and thus sparing explanatory footnotes.

+ The two present provinces of Keang soo and Gan hwny (see map) formed,
about a century ago, one province, named Keang nan, the capital of which was
Nan king. Till the Tae pings seized that city it was (as it still is in the eyes
of the Imperialists) the seat of the Governor General of the two modern pro-
vinees, and there a good deal of the administrative business of both was still
transacted. The two rank in population, and in the comparative abundance of
literary ability possessed by that population, with the first provinces in the Em-
pire. Hence the enormous number of Bachelors—twenty thousand—there shut
up in the Examination Hall in order to compete for the degrce of Licentiate.
“Se

CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 405

hundred are successful [a limit being set to the number of
degrees which the Examiners can give.] In the report of
the examination for 1851, we observe that there are 144
names of first-class candidates. A second class is appended
of twenty-two candidates inferior in merit, but allowed, for
reasons satisfactory to the Examiners, to take the degree.
In the first class, there are thirteen upwards of forty years of
age, and in the second class five. The youngest is fourteen
years of age, and stands eighty-ninth in order. The next
youngest is fifteen, and there are six more under twenty all
in the first class.* ;

“The Mandarins, named as being engaged either in
examining or other duties are sixty-five in number. In
addition to them there are many subordinate official people.
The two Chief Examiners are specially sent from Peking.
When the candidates enter the examination hall, they are
searched for books + or scraps of writiny, that might assist
them in writing their essays; and the strictest precautions
are taken to prevent any communication between them while
in the examination-hall. Three sets of themes are given,
each occupying two days and a night, and until that time is

* All these lads must have had the whole of the Sacred Books with their
authorized annotations by heart, besides being well read in history. But this
is less astonishing when we remember that they were among the choicest capa-
cities produced in two or three years by an extensively educated population of
seventy millions. Keang soo, that great alluvial plain which I have described,
isthe most densely peopled province in the Empire and contains not less than
thirty-eight millions ; while Gan hwuy contains thirty-four millions. Care is
taken that the Examiners should know nothing of the writers of the essays ;_
hence young lads are never passed because they know so much for their age.

+ Little books, such as may be slipped into a hole in the thick sole of the
Chinese shoe, are specially printed in a very small type from copper plates.
On opening a volume of one, now on my table, I find the first five pages con-
tain a condensed history of the old feudal institutions of China. We shall have
analogous books in England in due time. Many other plans have been invented
for enabling mediocre people to pass; plans which it would require a small
volume to describe. The government is perfectly well aware of their existence,
and in normal times great pains are taken to counteract them. Persons dis-
covered engaged in attempts at imposition are ruined for life, and that with the
approbation of the public.
406 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

expired no one is allowed to leave his allotted apartment,
[which is barely large enough to sleep in at night.] What
they need for food and rest they take with them. When the
essays are written, they are scrutinised by officers appointed
for that duty, to know if they conform to the regulations.
They must not exceed 700 characters, nor must there be any
character written over the ruled red lines [of the examination
paper which all have to use.] No erasure or correction of
any kind is allowed. Essays of former examinations must
not be repeated; and any obvious fault in composition ob-
served by the officers who superintend this department would
prevent the essay from being placed in the hands of the
higher examiners. These latter then select the best essays to
the number of two or three hundred and subject them to
the judgment of the two Chief Examiners, who finally
decide which are the best and arrange them in the order of
merit. In granting offices the Emperor follows the order of
names in this and the higher examinations.*

“ On the first two days, the themes are taken from the Four
Books, with a line of poetry. On the next, from the five
older, pre-Confucian Sacred Books, one from each. And
lastly, five papers of miscellaneous questions are given. To
answer these questions if the papers before us be taken as an
average example, a most extensive reading in general lite-
rature must be expected from the candidates in addition
to their study of the Sacred Books.

“The first of these papers on miscellaneous subjects takes
for its range the commentators on the Sacred Books, e.g.
‘ Choo tsze in commenting on the Shoo king + made use of
four authors, who sometimes say too much, at other times too
little—sometimes their explanations are forced, at other

* When young lads are found to be among those that attain the degree of
Tsin sze or Doctor at Peking, they are usually employed as Chief Examiners in
the provinces, For these offices their great knowledge eminently fits them;
while they cannot be supposed to have either the cool judgment or the experi-
ence of life requisite for magisterial business.

+ Sce page 359.
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 407

times too ornamental. What have you to observe on them?’
—‘In the Han dynasty, there were three commentators on
the Yih king, whose explanations and divisions into chapters
and sentences were all different. Can you give any account
of them?’ The paper concludes with saying :—‘ Under
our present, sacred dynasty, literature and learning are in a
most flourishing state. You, candidates, have been study-
ing for several years. Let each of you make use of what he
knows, and reply to these questions.’

“The second paper has for its subject Histories, inviting a
criticism from the candidate on the historical works of each
dynasty in succession, from Sze ma, ‘the Herodotus of China,’
downwards to the Ming emperors. It is obvious that the
examination can be no child’s play, when such comprehensive
questions as these form a part of it. We again select an
example or two. ‘Sze ma, in making his history, took the
Sacred Books and ancient records and arranged the facts
they detailed. Some have accused him of unduly exalting
Taouists and thinking too highly of wealth and power. Pan
koo a writer of the Han dynasty is clear and comprehensive,
but on Astronomy and the Five Elements he has written
more than enough. Can you give examples and proofs of
these statements?’ ‘Chin show had admirable abilities for
historical writing. In his Three Kingdoms he has depre-
ciated Choo ko leang and made very light of EZ and E, two
other celebrated characters. What is it that he says of
them ?’

“« The third paper questions the candidates on the ancient
and modern divisions of the Empire. They are required to
state the authorities who record the earliest division into nine
provinces, the changes that followed, and the discrepancies
between different authors in their accounts of them. Then
the changes that occurred under more recent dynasties in the
number, designations, and mode of government of the pro-
vinces are asked for. It is then added, that the size of the
Empire having increased much beyond what it was in former
times, diligent study ought to be bestowed on Geography,
408 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

and the candidates are invited accordingly not to conceal
their knowledge, but state all they can.

“The next paper is on books. The candidates are re-
quested to relate where the existing accounts of certain lost
books of high antiquity are found, and what emperors have
made efforts to preserve books and form libraries. It is
asked :—‘ The Suy dynasty * collected books to the number
of 370,000; these were reduced by selection to 37,000;
where was the library in which they were kept, and who
performed the work of selection?’ Questions are also asked
on what catalogues of books have been made, and the methods
of classifying them that have been employed. It is then plea-
santly added :—‘ Keang nan has always been eminent for its
nen of learning and refinement; will you not vindicate your
claim to the same character by giving a full answer to these
questions ?”

‘« The last paper is on the history of the water-courses and
flood-gates in the eastern parts of this province. It begins
with the emperor Ta yu’s hydraulic achievements, and asks
for an account of the early names of this reign. It then
inquires how it is that the Woo sung river is so beneficial to
the neighbouring departments by affording an outlet to the
waters of the Great Lake at Soo chow. At the close it is
added:—‘ Our Emperor is always seeking to promote the
people’s good. You, who are inhabitants of this province,
ought to be fully informed on the subject of its water com-
munications. Now show your knowledge that there may be
proof of your fitness to be presented to the Emperor.’

“The answers to these miscellaneous questions are of
course not written in the regular essay form in which the
compositions founded on themes from the Sacred Books are
written, their subjects being unsuited to it. On the earlier
days of this examination eight essays are written, all in exact
conformity with the established plan of such compositions in
length and arrangement.

* a.v. 581—617,
CHINESE MORALITY AND POLITY. 409

“ The existence of these examinations is alone enough to
make good the claim of China to a place among civilized and
literary nations ; and, while they remain, the spirit of study
and the love of books cannot die away. The oddities of the
country, so prominent to a foreign eye, must not allow us to
forget the circumstances that call for our sympathy and
admiration. Multitudes of the people spend their early years
in the study of a rich and extensive literature, and thus pass
through a training in some respects similar to that which the
classical languages supply to Europeans. By it they learn to
express their thoughts in a highly elaborate and finished
style, which European students of it say they. admire, in pro-
portion to their acquaintance with it. The reputation prized
most highly among them is that which is acquired by a long
and laborious course of application to books. This ought
surely to prevent us from despising them, and from repre-
senting them as a people devoted exclusively to a gross and
sordid life.”’
410 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOJS.

CHAPTER XIX.

CHRISTIANITY AND PROSPECTS OF THE TAE PINGS.

Our means of ascertaining the religious and moral tenets of
the Tae pings consist almost altogether in the examination
of their own publications, all of which are of pamphlet size;
and of one or two short official documents addressed to the
western foreigners who visited them at Nanking.

Their publications are divisible into three classes :—

I. Those emanating from Hung sew tseuen himself, as-
sisted probably by some of the earliest and most devout of
the Godworshippers. One or two of the books of this class
were certainly published before the movement became poli-
tical, and they all of them, the latest included, say little or
nothing of the political objects of the Tae pings. They may
be called Hung sew tseuen’s propagandist or missionary
publications; and if we except allusions to the visions which
he had in his twenty-fourth year, and which subsequently
formed the authority for his mission, they contain nothing
whatever of a new revelation. They are founded on the earlier
Protestant translations of the Old and New Testaments, as
understood by him. The translation of the two Testaments
which the Tae pings are now printing unaltered in Nanking
falls within this class of their publications.

II. Those publications which dwell on the new alleged reve-
lations from God or Christ ; and which record Their alleged
descents into the world. All these necessarily emanate from
Yang sew tsing and Seaou chaou hwuy, the Eastern and
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 411

Western Princes; and several run in the names of these two
personages. The purpose of this class is evidently to further
the political and military objects of the Tae pings, by working
on man’s religious feelings. The documents addressed to
Occidentals who visited Nanking belong to it, as emanating
from the Eastern Prince or his party.

III. Those publications which are altogether political, as
army and court regulations, &. &c.

The third class is unmistakeably constituted a distinct class
by the contents alone of the publications which it comprises.
The information which they convey has been sufficiently em-
ployed in the compilation of former Chapters, and they need
not, therefore, be dwelt on here.

A careful consideration of the contents of the first two
classes gives great reason to conclude, that that gradual with-
drawal on the part of Hung sew tseuen, the Heavenly Prince,
from the guidance of the temporal affairs of the Tae pings,
which we found completed when we first met them at Nan-
king, must have been caused by his dissatisfaction with the
turn affairs took in consequence of the ecstatical revelations
of the Eastern and Western Princes—more especially those
of the former. From the day on which the Godworshippers
rose in arms, about the end of 1850, the Eastern Prince
played a prominent part in their military affairs ; and about
the middle or end of 1852, Hung sew tseuen appears to have
resigned them entirely to his guidance, occupying himself
since that time exclusively with the propagation of his reli-
gious views. From the publications of the second class we
observe, on the other hand, that the pretensions of the Eastern
Prince have been gradually increasing. On the occasion of
the latest Occidental visits in the summer of 1854, Hung sew
tseuen was still spoken of, in all writings proceeding from the
Eastern Prince, with the greatest respect; but there are good
grounds for believing that the latter is only deterred from
making himself the nominal, as he undoubtedly is the virtual
head, by the certainty first, that such a step would engage
412 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

him in a physical fight with an earnest section of the earlier
Godworshippers who under the present arrangement still lend
him their aid ; and secondly, that the deposal of the * second
son of God” could not fail to destroy, in the minds of the
people generally, the mental basis of the whole movement.

Some such question as the following has very frequently
been put to me: “ How is it about the religion of these
rebels? Are they or are they not Christians?” And I have
found that I could most speedily put the matter in the right
light by rejoining with another question: “ What kind of
Christians do youmean ? Do you mean Romanist Christians,
or Lutheran Christians, or Nestorian Christians, or Calvinist
Christians, or Armenian Christians, or Abysinnian Christians,
or Coptic Christians, or Greek Christians ?”

That in one nation, which at one period had only one way
of viewing Christianity, widely different sects will certainly
arise in the course of time is a, or rather is the great fact
proved by the history of Christian churches. And, as we have
seen that Christianity certainly has, in the past 1,800 years
of its existence, been invariably much modified by the different
pre-existing systems of fundamental beliefs entertained by the
different nations which have accepted it hitherto; so we ought
to infer that it will continue to be modified by the pre-existing
beliefs of the nations which accept it in future. Even illite-
rate tribes, with their few and vague convictions, will, while
accepting the whole of the phraseology of that kind of Chris-
tianity which is preached to them, attach to that phraseology
a meaning somewhat different from the sense which it has
for the preachers. That a number of adult converts of a
nation like the Chinese, which has so long entertained, and is
so thoroughly imbued with, a peculiar set of fundamental
beliefs, would, with or without express intention, considerably
modify the Christianity which had attracted them was not
simply probable,—it was, humanly speaking, a certainty.

The Christianity of Hung sew tseuen and the better edu-
cated of the Godworshippers, as exhibited in what I have called
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 413

the publications of the first class, is the product of an unas-
sisted consideration of more or less inaccurate translations of
the Old and New Testaments, by men who had, up to the
age of full manhood, devoted themselves to the study of
the Chinese Sacred Books, and who more or less firmly
believed that those. fundamental views, which have been
expounded in my last Chapter, truly pictured the origin and
nature of the universe, and constituted the bases of the only
true psychology. and morality.

Hung sew tseuen was thirty years of age, when he began to
study those Christian missionary tracts which he had cursorily
looked at some few years before; and from his childhood he
had been a professional student of orthodox Confucianism.
‘When he embraced Christianity, he did so without reserve ;
but it is next to certain, that neither he nor Fung yun shan
would have been morally and intellectually able to. embrace
it at all, if they could have supposed that it required them to
repudiate, as something either irrational or immoral, several
of the more important tenets of Confucianism,—tenets that
had hitherto constituted their deepest mental life. Mr. Ham-
berg’s book, together with those of the Tae ping publications
which professedly emanate from the pen of the Heavenly
Prince himself, place it beyond a doubt, that Hung sew tseuen
is a man of strong religious feelings,—a man who must, at all
times, have strongly felt the craving of humanity to reverence
a higher Being, and its longing for an immortal existence.
As such, he could have little natural sympathy for the athe-
istical interpretation of Shang te, the Supreme Ruler, and
Teen, Heaven, which the good faith and unrivalled genius
of Choo tsze had imposed on the nation; and hence he
must be placed with those whom I have described as in-
clining to the most deistical interpretation of the Sacred
Books, that orthodoxy permitted. The words, Te and
Teen, formed the hinge on which he turned from Con-
fucianism to Christianity. He had always reverenced the
Being indicated by these terms, as the Supreme Ruler of
414 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
*

the world; and from Leang afah’s missionary tracts, he learnt
that, in the most ancient and most venerated Books of the
western foreigners, that very Being was not simply mentioned
a few times, as in the Chinese Sacred Books, but formed
their chief subject, as the Creator and Rulér of the Universe,
with the attribute of distinct personality. And, when he got
these books himself, he found that, while Shang te was in-
deed every where referred to under that very name as the
One Almighty Ruler, a greater personality was therein given
to his other name, Teen, by the addition of Foo, father; which
latter word, it will be remembered, awakens peculiarly reve-
rent feelings in the mind of a Chinese. Hence in taking, as
he distinctly has done, the Old and New Testaments, as the
highest standard of truth, he has not been constrained to dis-
card the Chinese Sacred Books, but merely to view those pas-
sages which refer to Shang te and Teen, by the light which is
thrown on them by the attributes and acts ascribed, in the
foreign Sacred Books, to the Being so named. For the rest,
the morality, taught by precept and example in the Chinese
Sacred Books, corresponded so completely with that taught by
precept and example in the foreign Sacred Books, that in this
respect also the acceptance of the latter, as the highest stan-
dard, led to no condemnation of the former: on the contrary
the two mutually confirmed each other. _

The most important of the Tae ping publications, for our
present purpose, is that entitled “Tae ping Chaou shoo,
the Tae ping Book of Declarations or Instructions;” first,
because it is avowedly the work of Hung sew tseuen himself;
and secondly, because it, being a vindication, addressed to the
educated of his countrymen, of the system which he preaches,
—a vindication supported by numerous references’ to the
Chinese sacred and historical literature—really shows us
what it was that (in addition to the mental aberration which
he manifestly himself believed to have been a real ascent of
“his soul” into heaven) produced his own conversion. I may
take this opportunity of stating, that this one book completely
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 415

disproves what some people have said about the lack of lite-
rary ability on the part of the Tae pings. It shows that
their chief himself is a man well versed in the very extensive
literature of his country, the more philosophical portion of it
included. And his style has that clearness and simplicity
which an earnest man, more anxious to plant conviction in
the minds of his readers, than to excite admiration of himself,
is sure to adopt if really an able writer. I recommend
Hung sew tseuen’s “critics” to attend to the following :—
“ Men frequently admire as eloquent, and sometimes admire
the most, what they do not at all, or do not fully, comprehend,
if elevated and high-sounding words be arranged in graceful
and sonorous periods. Those of uncultivated, or ill-cultivated,
minds, especially, are apt to think meanly of anything that is
brought down perfectly to the low level of their capacity ;
though to do this with respect to valuable truths which are
not trite, is one of the most admirable feats of genius. They
admire the profundity of one who is mystical and obscure ;
mistaking the muddiness of water for depth; and magni-
fying in their imaginations what is viewed through a fog.”*
Hung sew tseuen’s Book of Declarations not being intended
for men of “ uncultivated or ill-cultivated minds,” is written
as plainly as possible.

Its first sentence forms a substantiation of all that I have just
said respecting it. The translation published at Shanghaet
commences :—

“The great origin of virtue is from Heaven :
Let us now reverently allude to Heaven’s
ways, in order to arouse you worthies.
The way of Heaven is to punish the abandoned
and bless the good.”

But the first line is a quotation, forming the text, as it

were, to the first section of the Book, which is in verse. The
word rendered “virtue” is the Taou, which has been

* Archbishop Whately.
+ All the Tae ping publications have been translated by Dr. Medhurst and
were published in the “ North China Herald,” as also separately.
416 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

@
explained at length in the last Chapter; and the whole line

runs :-—

“Taou che ta yuen chuh yu Teen.”
Trath’s grand origination proceeded-from Heaven.

Or, “Heaven is the grand origin of Truth.” It was first
used by Tung chung shoo, a philosopher who lived in the
third century before Christ, and one of whose chief merits
was the addition of the proposition which it enunciates, to the
national body of doctrines. Choo tsze gave it his sanction;
and it stands, as a text, at the head of several of the best
essays on the national philosophy, that the orthodox school
has produced,—essays written from five to six centuries ago.
Taou is, as I have shown, at times synonymous with our
* virtue ;” but the authoritative essays, just mentioned, prove
that, in this time-honoured sentence, it conveys to Chinese the
meaning of Truth, as identical with the Teen ming, the Will
of Heaven, and with Teen taou, the Way (or frue course) of
Heaven. By the use which the founder of the Tae ping
Christianity makes of this and of several similar, stereotyped
sentences of the national philosophy, he addresses a powerful
appeal to the educated of his countrymen: ‘“ You know,” say
these sentences in his mouth, “that Teen has always been
considered by us to be the same as Shang te; consequently
that the Will and Way of Teen are the Will and Way of
Shang te; and you know well how much trouble it cost
Choo tsze to establish the doctrine that Shang te was merely
the personified Ultimate Principle. The fact is, that Shang
te is the intelligent, Supreme Ruler, the originator of all
things; and our ‘ ultimate principle’ is nothing but His Will
or Way in operation, as the all-originating and all-sustaining
power. The foreigners’ Sacred Books, from beginning to
end, represent Him and His Will and His Way in no other
light; and the foreigners have, from the most ancient times
up to the present day, devoutly worshipped him. Does this
not explain the circumstance, that one small nation of these
foreigners, when they sent a few thousands of troops from
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 417

a great distance to fight the Manchoo rulers of our vast
China, were conquerors in every battle? Was that not
because they have always worshipped the Shang te, whom
Ching tang adored and obeyed when he overthrew the Hea
dynasty; whose commands Woo wang executed when he
overthrew the Shang dynasty; and whom the foreigners’
Sacred Books show to have often commanded the destruction
of the idolatrous and the vicious, such as are our Manchoo
rulers, and such as are now the whole people of China?”
Hung sew tseuen nowhere alludes to the fact of the
foreigners having beaten the Manchoos; but the great influ-
ence that the success of British military operations had in his
conversion is, I conceive, fully established by the singular
coincidences noted at pages 80 and 87. All the other views
expressed in the above suppositional address are either enun-
ciated in plain terms in different parts of his writings, or are
unmistakeably implied. by the passages which he quotes or
embodies. For instance, the third of the above lines runs :—

Teen taou ho yin wei fuh shen.
Heaven’s Way inflicts on but gives to the
misery the happiness virtuous.

vicious

Now this is, with an immaterial transposition and the
addition of the conjunction, buf, a quotation from a justifi-
catory manifesto of Ching tang,* given in the Sacred Shoo
king: Teen taou fuh shen, ho yin; keang tsae yu Hea, &c.,
Heaven’s Way gives happiness to the virtuous, inflicts misery
on the vicious; it has sent down calamities on the Hea
dynasty,” &c. In the minds of the millions in China who have
that passage by heart, its use, by Hung sew tseuen, recalls
the old narrative of the expulsion of the Hea family at the
command of Shang te.

Having shown generally how the new Chinese Chris-
tianity is connected with, and modified by, pre-existing beliefs,
I proceed to an exposition of its tenets; in the course of

~ He ascended the throne B.0. 1783.
EE
418 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBEMIAOES:

which some further proofs of the modification and connexion:
will be given.

Hung sew tseuen undoubtedly conceives Shang te, the
Teen foo, as existing at times under a human form, with
human attributes, i.e. his conception is anthropomorphic.
His “ vision’’ does not account to us for this, for we know that
that could be nothing but a subjective product of his waking,
sober thoughts. I have indicated at page 82, that it was
probably the first and third chapters of Genesis, understood
literally, which led to it. I know that not only Romanists,
who paint in their churches God the Father as a venerable
old man, conceive him habitually under the human form, but
that many members of the two national churches in this
island are «lso practically anthropomorphists, though theo-
retically declaring that God is a spirit; the chief cause being
the expression “created man in his own image.” A further
reason may be adduced for Hung sew tseuen’s anthropo-
morphic conception. His new faith was a reaction against
pantheism not less than against idolatry ; and as the unity of
the One Shang te opposed the multiplicity of idols in the
religion of the ignorant, so the distinct human-like per-
sonality of Shang te opposed the belief in a non-personal
ultimate principle of the educated. Having noted this ten-
dency of Hung sew tseuen’s views to anthropomorphism,
I need say little more on his conception of God the Father,
for in all other respects that conception is identical with that
of Protestant Christendom. He accepts entirely the cos-
mogony of Genesis as it is understood by orthodox Episco-
palians; and for him God the Father is the Almighty,
Allwise Creator, and the Omnipresent Sustainer of the
Universe.

Hung sew tseuen gives his views of the nature of man,
where he proves the brotherhood of the human race. Their
bodies they derive from their parents; but as all families
proceeded from one family, and that one family from one
original ancestor, therefore, viewed with respect to their
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 419

physical nature, they are all brethren. Their souls, é.e. the
souls of all men now born, he, guided by the second chapter
of Genesis, states to be (sang) produced by, or to (chuh)
proceed from, “ the breath of Shang te.” In support of this
doctrine of a common origin, he quotes the aphorism which
the national philosophy applies to the Ultimate Principle:
‘‘ The one root spread out into multifold branches ; the multi-
fold branches all appertain to one root.” He also quotes two
passages from the pre-Confucian Sacred Books to the effect
that man is produced by Heaven. Lastly, what is of great
importance, he quotes the opening sentence of the psycho-
logical Chung yung, where Confucius says, ‘“‘ Teen ming che
wei Sing, the will (or decree) of Heaven is called Nature.”
Here we have the human soul of the new Christianity
declared to be the same in constitution as the Jin Sing,
Man’s nature, of orthodox Confucianism; and here we, in
consequence, see Hung sew tseuen declaring quite naturally,
and in unconsciousness of any necessity to dwell on the pro-
position, that each man’s soul, as (sang) an immediate creation
of, or (chuh) direct emanation from, God, is perfectly good ;
a doctrine which he, in another place, explicitly enunciates
by saying, “ Righteousness is man’s inborn original nature.”
As orthodox Confucianism says nothing of a future life, it
furnished no word by which man’s immortal soul could be
expressed. The Buddhist and Taouist superstitions of the
uncultivated classes furnished the word hwan; but this being
(etymologically) composed of two others, the one meaning
vapour, the other miserable or evil spirit, or demon, its latter
component rendered it objectionable, as a designation of that
immortal part of the human being which more especially con-
stituted him a child of God. Therefore Hung sew tseuen has
adopted a new word, formed by discarding the demon portion
of hw4n, and substituting the character man as the component.
In the Tae ping books the soul is, consequently, designated by a
new composite word, whereof the constituents are vapour and
man ; forming, I may observe, a by no means inappropriate
EE2
420 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOMS.

designation of that which is, in reality, the man proper. The
reader must understand that Hung sew Tseuen, in pro-
pounding the doctrine of the original righteousness of each
man’s soul, does not set the Chinese Sacred Books in oppo-
sition to the Western Sacred Books, and then décide in
favour of the former: he has,-in his study of the latter, found
nothing that impugned the doctrine which he had learnt from
the former. As far as I can perceive, wherever Hung sew
tseuen detects a clashing between the Woo king and Sze
shoo on the one hand, and the Old and New Testaments on
the other, he either by a re-interpretation makes the former
conform to the latter, or declares them in so far wrong. He
appears to have, once for all, taken the Bible as the highest
standard of truth, and to have accepted everything new that
he therein finds. Hence it is, that he refers the evil in the
world mainly, if not altogether, to the constantly operating
deceits of the “serpent devil;” a doctrine entirely derived
from the Bible, since the Chinese literature, whether Confu-
cian or superstitious, attaches nothing peculiarly demoniacal
to the form of the snake, while good spirits are occasionally
represented under it. This “serpent devil ” is identified by
Hung sew tseuen with the Yen lo wang, the Pluto or King of
Hades of popular superstition; and the intense hatred borne
to him, as the great devil, with others of the evil spirits as his
followers and agents, by all classes of the Tae pings, is a strik-
ing practical feature of their Christianity. To the educated,
the idols are but the visible representatives of these devils; but
to the uncultivated the idols are the devils themselves. And
the Tae ping soldiers spoke of having “killed” these former
objects of their worship, with a fierce exultation that was to me
(who, of course, regarded them only as things to be laughed
at), at first, quite inexplicable. I soon found, however, that
it was the result of a mental reaction. From childhood up,
they had been in the habit of humbly propitiating the idols
as the dread authors of ill fortune and calamity, and their
present hatred and exultation was proportionate to their
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 421

former humility and fear. The intensity of the feeling they
exhibited, and which manifests itself in the long and earnest
denunciations of the Book of Declarations, shed a new light
for me on the records of the earlier Mahommedans, and indeed
of every community which has deserted idolatry for mono-
theism.

With respect to those good men of Chinese history whose
images are worshipped in the temples, Hung sew tseuen
merely reprobates the absurdity of adoring the representa-
tions of those who “ have long since ascended into Heaven.”
As in his vision he saw the holy men in heaven, so in his
writings he always assumes them to be there; in one place he
mentions by name Wan, the originator of the Chow dynasty,
and Confucius, saying that their souls are in the presence of
God, because they were righteous; and then immediately
adds that his “own soul had ascended to heaven,” and that
his * words are true.” His view is that Chinese history proves
the nation generally to have been followers of Shang te—
Godworshippers—in the period of highest antiquity, and that
though “false gods” had begun gradually to creep in, still
both Prince and people continued to worship God as of old,
until the advent of the Che hwang Emperor; whom Hung
sew tseuen reprobates as much for his superstitious pro-
pensities, as all educated Chinese execrate him for his book-
burning and his government by violence. From that period
idolatry and superstition increased; Buddhism was formally
introduced from India; and at length an Emperor of the
Sung dynasty (before the commencement of the second lite-
rary epoch) committed the irreverence of setting up an image
of Shang te, and prefixing the epithet of Yuh, gemlike or
precious, to His honourable name. It is not, therefore, to be
wondered at, adds Hung sew tseuen, that since then, for the
last six or seven hundred years, the knowledge and fear of
God should have been almost lost. This remark is almost all
that he says against the philosophers of the Sung dynasty,
whom he does not even mention as such. Though the atheistical
or pantheistical interpreters of the Sacred Books, they were,

|

‘
422 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOMS.

at least, not idolaters; and it is idolatry above all, which
excites Hung sew tseuen’s scorn and abhorrence.

In one or two places, he uses the term, holy, of the ancient
men hitherto so designated; but it will presently be seen
that there is good ground for believing that he, in so doing,
merely yields to a philological necessity, (there being no other
collective name for them,) and that he does not attribute to
them any intuitive consciousness of, and spontaneous con-
formity with the order of the universe; which latter is with
him the Will of a personal, living God.’

It is, perhaps, in the attributes of Jesus that we find the
greatest difference between the Tae ping Christianity and
that of the two British churches. The Book of Declarations
states that Hwang shang Te, the August Supreme God, is
Te; it reprobates the Sovereigns or Lords (choo) of earthly
kingdoms for assuming the title of Te or God (as is done by
the present Emperors of China), and lays it down that they
should be called only Wang or Princes. It then adds the

~ following to give force to the injunction :—

“ Even the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who is the eldest son
of Hwang shang te, the August Supreme God, is only styled
Choo, Lord. Now in heaven above, in earth beneath, and
among men, there is none greater than Jesus: if even Jesus
cannot be called Te, God, who is it that dares presumptuously
to call himself Te?”

This is only one of a number of proofs that Jesus is not
considered equal with the Heavenly Father. And the fact
that a co-eternity of the Son with the Father is nowhere
asserted in the Tae ping publications, together with the
following circumstances, leads me to the conclusion that the
former is considered to be a created or produced Being.

In the Confucian ontology, the word séng is used to express
the production of all men and things by the operation of the
Ultimate Principle; and it is the word used in common lan-
guage to express the production of children by their father.
It is used in the translations of the New Testament, in con-
nexion with the birth of Jesus, to render the word begotten ;
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. ~>-.,.. 423

of Tae

and we have seen that it is used by Hung sew tseuen to
signify the production of the souls of men by God. Jesus
was, therefore, equally with man, sang, i.e. begotten or pro-
duced by God. This, together with the first chapter of the
Epistle to the Hebrews, which speaks of Jesus as the “ first-
begotten,” and of his having been begotten “this day,”
makes him, for the Tae pings, at once a created being™and
the elder brother of all men as the sons of God. From all

this, it has followed that God is mostly spoken of as Teen *

foo, the Heavenly Father; and Jesus, his first produced or
eldest son, as Teen heung, the Heavenly Elder Brother. Of
all the other sons of God, the greatest—he who has been
most honored—is Hung sew tseuen; who was summoned in
spirit up into heaven; and saw the Heavenly Father face to
face. He, therefore, being next to the Elder Brother, is the
second son of the Ileavenly Father: but as he has been
commissioned to rule over the world, he is (for the sake of
euphony) commonly called Teen wang, the Heavenly Prince,
—sometimes Chin choo, the True Sovereign. The reader
will now perceive that, for the Tae pings, with their par-
ticular conceptions, there is by no means, in the name and
quality of “Second Son of God,” that astounding degree of
blasphemous assumption which, at first hearing, the desig-
nation conveys to us. The following extracts from an edict
issued by Hung sew tseuen, as the Heavenly Prince at Yung
gan in the end of 1851, throws further light on the subject :—

« The Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord, Hwang shang
te is the only true God: * no other is God save the Heavenly
Father, the Supreme Lord, Hwang shang te.

* Shin in the original. It is the general term for objects of worship, and is
in so far used as the old Saxons probably used “god.” As Christianity has in
England adopted that word, with a capital G, to designate the only’ real God,
so many of the missionaries in China have adopted Shin. They should, in
accordance with the custom of the language, always raise it to the highest place
in the page; a proceeding very much more emphatic and distinctive than our
capitalizing. The objection to it is, that it is used also of things not objects of

worship ; which is quite true. But the Tae pings, who are not involved in philo-
logical disputes and are only anxious to propagate their new faith, above all to
424 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONY,

“ The Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord, Hwang shang
te, is Omniscient, Almighty and Omnipresent: He is in all
things Supreme (shang.) There is not a single man who
is not produced and supported by Him; He only is Supreme;
He only is Te. To the Heavenly Father and Supreme Lord
alone is due the title of Supreme, the title of Te. From
this time forth, let the troops address Us as Lord* simply,
they must not entitle Us Supreme, thereby offending against
the Heavenly Father.

*“ The Heavenly Father is the Holy (shing) Father in
Heaven; the Heavenly Elder Brother is the Holy Lord,
the Saviour of the world: only the Heavenly Father and
the Heavenly Elder Brother are Holy. From this time
forth, let the troops address Us as Lord simply, they must
not entitle Us, Holy, thereby offending against the Heavenly
Father and Heavenly Elder Brother.

“ The Heavenly Father and Supreme Lord, Hwang shang
te is the father (yay) of spirits, the father of souls. Some
time back, We ordered that the first and second ministers,
with the commanders of the front and rear armies, should be
addressed as Princely Father (wang yay). This was a tem-
porary compliance with the false rules of the world and,
judged by true doctrines, has in it somewhat of an offence
against the Heavenly Father: He only is Father (yay).”

The edict then confers the titles of Tung wang, Se wang,
&c. Eastern Prince, Northern Prince, &c. upon the five chief
men; who are consequently never called yay. This word,
yay, until about a.p. 900, was employed to signify father
only. It then began to be used as a title of respect; and is

have God honoured, use it very frequently with the prefix, true. Those mis-
sionaries, however, who hold that the Te (with or without the adjectives hwang
and shang) of the Chinese Sacred Books denoted an only Creator and Ruler of
the Universe, do well toemploy Te. I have shown how much it facilitated the
conversion of Hung sew tseuen ; who, as the text here proves, restricts it to God
the Father.

* Choo in the original. It means Sovereign when used of Kings and
Emperors.
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 425

now widely employed by all Chinese—not Tae pings—some-
what like the German Herr, lord, master, Mr. (your or his)
Honor &. Hung sew tseuen’s purism, with respect to it, is
in consequence rather embarrassing to his adult followers ;
but it is an additional proof of the strictness of his mono-
theism. All the other words, Shin, Te, Shang and Shing
have been long applied by the Emperors to themselves.
Among the Tae pings, the first three are to be restricted to
the Heavenly Father only, the last one, to the Heavenly
Father with the Heavenly Elder Brother. Jesus may there-
fore be called Holy, but not God, or Supreme. With the
epithet holy, especially as here restricted, he is endowed in
the eyes of educated Chinese with that perfect goodness and
intuitive perception of the truth in all matters that come
under his cognizance, which were the characteristics of the
Holy Men;* but the very wording of the above edict gives
cause to doubt that omnipotence or omnipresence are ascribed
to Him. In that edict, and throughout the Tae ping publi-
cations, the name of Jesus, the Heavenly Elder Brother,
stands one place below the name of the Heavenly Father,—
an expression of subordination than which the Chinese lan-
guage can furnish nothing more distinct.

The Tae ping moral code, and their as yet very simple
ritual is given in their “Book of Heavenly Rules,” the
Heavenly Rules being the Ten Commandments, which thus
give the book its name. The Rules are not the Command-
ments, as the latter stand in the translations of the Bible.
Those which admit of it are shortened, probably with a view
to easier remembrance. Thus the long second command-
ment in which Moses, who had just led the Israelites from
a land where nearly every “living thing in the heaven above,
in the earth beneath, and in the water under the earth ” was
worshipped, felt obliged to be explicit in the prohibition of

* The express restriction of Shing, Holy, decreed here, is my reason for be-
lieving the occasional application of shing to the ancient worthies of the Sacred

Books to be the result of a philological necessity.
426 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

such worship; but that is not necessary in China, where
only human images are the objects of worship. Hence the
second Heavenly Rule runs :—

“ Thou shalt not worship false Gods.”

Then follows an explanatory note :—

“Hwang shang te said: ‘Thou shalt have none other gods (shin) but me,
Therefore all beside Hswang hang te are false gods, deceivers and destroyers of
mankind, which must on no account be worshipped : whoever worships any false
gods is a violator of the Heavenly Rules.”

Here we see, that what constitutes the first Command-
ment is brought in as an explanation of the second Rule.
The first Rule runs “ Thou shalt honor and worship Hwang
shang te.” The spirit of the Commandments is, on the whole,
fairly and sufficiently given in the Rules; the latter are,
where they do differ, made more comprehensive, as where
“ Thou shalt not bear false witness,” i.e. tell one kind of lies,
is changed to “ Thou shalt not utter falsehoods,” i.e. tell any
kind of lies. The fourth Rule is an exception. It runs,
“Qn the seventh day, the day of worship, thou shalt praise
Hwang shang te for his goodness.” This and its note enjoins
more ceremonial worship than on other days, but says nothing
of resting. In their present situation, military labors must
be executed on all days.

The Book of Heavenly Rules describes the mode of
formal acceptance of the new faith. All men, it says, have
violated the Heavenly Rules, and hitherto the manner of
deliverance from the consequences has been unknown. But
“hereafter whoever makes repentance of his guilt before
Hwang shang te, and abstains from idolatry, depravity and
breach of the Heavenly Rules, will be permitted to ascend
into Heaven and enjoy happiness to all eternity.” Those who
do not, will be cast into hell and suffer misery to all eternity.
Those who repent should “kneel before Heaven and pray
Hwang shang te to forgive their guilt; in doing which, they
may if they please use a written form.” They are then to
“wash the body with water from a basin or, what is still
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 427

better, to bathe in a river,” i.e. they are to baptize them-
selves. From that time forth, they are “to worship Hwang
shang te, morning and evening; to beseech Him for protec-
tion, and for the gift of His Holy Spirit to reform their
hearts; to thank Him before meals; on the seventh day, the
day of worship, to praise Him for His goodness ; at all times to
obey the ten Heavenly Rules; and on no account to worship
any of the false gods of the world, nor to practise any of the
depravities of the world. Thus they will become sons and
daughters of Hwang shang te; in life they will enjoy His
protection; after death their souls will ascend to heaven, and
there enjoy happiness for ever. Let all the people in the
world, whether Chinese or foreigners, men or women, but do
this, and they will be enabled to ascend into heaven.”

These then are, in the words of its founders, the essentials
of the Tae ping Christianity.

In opposition to a regulation of the existing Chinese state
worship, which permits the emperor only to adore Shang te,
the Book of Heavenly Rules maintains the equal right of
every one to worship Him; and we find accordingly no sign
of a priesthood, as mediators between God and man. A few
forms of thanksgiving and prayer are given to be used before
meat, at morning and evening, and on the ordinary occasions
of domestic sorrow and rejoicing, as deaths, birth-days, mar-
riages, &c.". Some of these are to be accompanied by offerings
(not sacrifices) of animals, and of vegetable food. Music is
used in worship, a custom which is incidentally justified by
a quotation from the Yih hing, showing that it was used in
the ancient worship of Shang te. Nothing is said of cele-
bration of a Lord’s Supper. One of the forms which are
given, consists of the following verses, intended for repetition
on Sundays :—

We praise and glorify Shang te as the Heavenly Holy Father,

We praise and glorify Jesus as the Saviour of the world the Holy Lord,
We praise and glorify the Holy Spirit as the Holy Intelligence,

We praise and glorify the three persons as the united true God:
428 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

The true doctrines assuredly differ from worldly doctrines ;
They save man’s soul and lead to his enjoyment of happiness without end.
The wise joyfully receive them as a means of happiness ;
The foolish, when awakened, have by them the road to heaven opened,
The Heavenly Father, in his vast goodness, great and without limit,
Spared not his eldest son but sent him down into the world,
Who gave up his life to redeem our iniquities :
If men will repent and reform, their souls will be enabled to ascend

into Heaven.*

In the first lines of these verses, we have an obscure and
partial statement of the doctrine of the Trinity—obscure and
partial were it but from the impossibility of propounding, in so
few words, a conception so mysterious; and in the last lines,
we have what looks like a statement of the doctrine of
redemption. I say “looks like,” for I have given above
positive evidence of the existence of the doctrine of original
purity, one which directly conflicts with that of imputed sin;
and I have also translated a passage of this very book, which
traces the course of a true convert from his conversion till his
ascent into heaven, without alluding to any adsolute neces-
sity for the redemption, by the act of a third person, of self-
committed sins. With reference to the doctrine of the
Trinity, the reader has already had positive proof that the
Tae pings entertain views on the nature of Jesus that militate
against it; and further difficulties will appear. After all

* Dr. Medhurst renders the last lines :—

“To give up his life for the redemption of all our transgressions,

The knowledge of which, coupled with repentance, saves the souls of men.”
But the words which I have italicized have no representatives in the original :
they are supplied, I am aware that che, to know, knowledge, has no such
meaning as, will, given to it by the dictionaries, But it does very frequently
occur in that sense, before verbs denoting human acts; and so it reads to me
here. The context might possibly admit of the word, therefore, before if ; but
most sinologues will agree in considering “ which” and “coupled with” to be
additions not admissible in the most paraphrastic rendering. The following is
from a later translation in the Shanghae Journal; by whom furnished, is not
stated :—

“He gave his life to redeem
Us from ail iniquity ;
If men did but know how to repent;
Their souls would ascend to heaven.”
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 429

this, however, it cannot be denied by those who are anxious
to disparage the new Christianty, in the eyes of Western
orthodoxy, that the Tae pings have some knowledge of both
doctrines. As to the doctrine of redemption in particular,
many of their writings—for instance the letter given at
page 269—prove that they habitually preserve a consciousness,
that for their hope of eternal happiness they are indebted to
the labours and sufferings of Jesus Christ. The paucity of
naterials to judge from—a paucity owing to the fact that the
Tae ping publications deal more with directly practical rules
than with metaphysical theology—makes further discussion
of these questions, for the present, futile.

In Chapter VIII. has been described, the first appearance
of the fanatical element among the Godworshippers; and
how it was enabled to procure for itself that acceptance and
authority, which has made its chief organ the virtual ruler of
the Tae pings. From their publications—those which I have
grouped under the second class—we learn that Yang sew
tsing, the Eastern Prince, falls at times into a state of un-
consciousness resembling sleep, but in which he utters com-
mands and exhortations; summons other leaders to his
presence, orders men, whom he declares to be traitors, to be
brought before him; convicts them out of their own testimony,
elicited by cross-examination ; and condemns them to im-
mediate decapitation. In all this he speaks as the Heavenly
Father; and it is these, his fits or trances, which constitute
what are called the descents or coming down of God into the
world. When the trances, which appear to be really accom-
panied by an excitement followed by considerable exhaustion,
are over, the Eastern Prince alleges complete unconscious-
ness of what has passed; and only learns the words which his
own mouth have uttered from the notes taken of them by
those who surrounded him: his soul is, in short, nullified for
the time, and it is the Heavenly Father who possesses his
body and makes use of it to communicate His will. In this
way the Heavenly Father gives orders, at times, that certain
430 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLION.

information or commands shall be communicated to the
Eastern Prince ; and when the trance is past—which is called
the return of the Father into heaven—communications are
made to him accordingly. These he then receives with sur-
prise, delight, indignation with exposed offenders, &c.'&c., as
their nature may severally require: they being, all the while,
communications from himself to himself.

In the same way Seaou chaou hwuy, the Western Prince,
utters commands and exhortations, as the words of the
Heavenly Elder Brother. But the Tae ping books only
record three of such communications; the longest of which
given on pages 100 and 101. The others are of a similar
nature. Their subordinate authority, as compared with those
of the Heavenly Father, may account for their cessation or
their rarer occurrence.

The first intelligible address of the Heavenly Father,
which is recorded, is that given at page 100, and dated 19th
April, 1851. This states: ‘“ I have sent your Lord down into
the world to become the Teen wang, the Heavenly Prince.”
Here, I believe, we have the origin of this latter title.

On the 18th August, 1851, the Heavenly Father uttered
an address in verse, the fifth line of which runs: “TI, the
Heavenly Father, have produced Tseuen to be your Sove-
reign.” Here Hung sew tseuen* seems to have been, as“ it
were, specially produced; and this line, together with the
circumstances noted at page 423, accounts to me for the
“second son-ship ” of God ascribed to him. In every case,
the position of affairs at later periods is only intelligible on
the theory, that it was some utterance of the Eastern Prince,
in the name of the Heavenly Father, which made Hung sew
tseuen consent to the use of that designation.

The manifest object of all the first utterances is political.

* Fathers and superiors address, and speak of, their sons and inferiors by
their individual names—equivalent to our names of Baptism; hence Tseuen
alone is here used. Dr. Medhurst did not perceive that!Tseuen was a name,

and hence has misrendered the line :—“ I your Heavenly Father, will be your
Lord all your lives long.”
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 431

Dignity is given to the cause by the elevation of its chief;
and to those who fight courageously for it and for him, are
promised worldly honours and immortal happiness. But on
the 25th December, 1853, there took place at Nanking,
about ten days after the visit of the French Minister, some
extraordinary proceedings; which certainly could not elevate
the chief; and of which it is difficult to see how their publi-
cation could advantage the cause. The following is an
abstract of the published record :—

The Eastern Prince, shortly after having dismissed the
Northern Prince and other officers from a consultation on
official affairs, which had been held at his palace, fell into a
trance, in the presence of the females of his family only. He
then, as the Heavenly Father, commanded the females to
summon the Northern Prince; and while this was being
done, gave them some lengthy instructions to be communi-
cated to (himself as) the Eastern Prince. The instructions
were, that the Eastern Prince should go “to Court” and
reprove the Heavenly Prince for violence and harshness,
chiefly, it would appear, to the females about Court; and for
over-indulgence of his son, the heir apparent of the sove~
reignty. Four ladies, mentioned by name, were to be
excused from further attendance. The Heavenly Father
had returned to heaven before the arrival of the Northern
Prince; who, however, supposing Him to be still in the
palace of the Eastern Prince knelt, with the Marquis Ting
teen and other officers, at its outer gate. They were invited
to rise and enter and were informed of the nature of His in-
structions. To carry these out, the whole party had seated
themselves in their sedans, in order to be conveyed to the
palace of the Heavenly Prince, when the Heavenly Father
again came down, i.e. the Eastern Prince fell into a trance
in his sedan. The Heavenly Father issued commands to the
Northern Prince, who got out of his sedan and knelt in the
street to receive them, that He should be conveyed to the
hall of audience which is situated at the outer gate of the Court
432 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

in the Heavenly Prince’s palace. Arrived there, the Heavenly
Prince is summoned, comes out hastily, and, with the Northern
Prince and the others, kneels before the Heavenly Father, to
hear his commands. The Heavenly Father, i.e. the Eastern
Prince, (speaking apparently from his sedan,) reproves the
Heavenly Prince angrily and declares that the punishment
of forty blows must be inflicted on him. The Northern
Prince and the other officers throw themselves on the ground;
with tears entreat for the remission of their master’s punish-
ment; and offer to receive the blows themselves. The Hea-
venly Prince rebukes them, saying that he deserves the blows;
and, as the Heavenly Father does not allow Himself to be
moved by the intercessions, but continues to insist on the
infliction of the blows, he prostrates himself to receive them.
The Heavenly Father then, in consideration of his prompt
submission, remits the punishment; orders him to permit the
retirement of the four ladies; informs him that the Eastern
Prince will communicate instructions to him on some other
matters; and then returns to heaven. The Northern Prince
and the others then respectfully escort the Heavenly Prince
back into the interior of his palace ; during which the Eastern
Prince appears to have been occupied in recovering himself,
and becoming the Eastern Prince again. The Northern
Prince then reports to him the second descent of the Hea-
venly Father, as the females of his family had reported to
him the first descent.

The Eastern Prince then proceeds to communicate the in-
structions conveyed in the first descent. The Heavenly Prince
receives them with much humble contrition, and praises the
wisdom manifested by the Eastern Prince, in certain sugges-
tions which the latter appends. The Eastern Prince observes
the most respectful language in communicating the some-
what lengthy instructions; and disclaims all personal merit
as to the suggestions: they are the effect of the influence
of the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Elder Brother on his
mind. The first instruction is that more care should be taken
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 433

with the education of the successor to the throne (a matter
on which Confucianists lay great stress) and that he should
not be allowed to expose himself too much to the weather.
The second has reference to the labour of women, the pre-
sence of which, in such great numbers, was evidently being
made use of to effect public works. The Heavenly Prince
is told not to treat them with the hasty severity which he
appears to have been guilty of. The third is that he must
not put offenders, whether male or female, who have com-
mitted capital crimes, hastily to death, as there may be extenu-
ating circumstances; and the Eastern Prince begs that all
such cases may be handed to him for careful investigation
before final judgment is passed; to which the Heavenly Prince
agrees.

The Heavenly Prince then declares, that it is his duty still
to have the forty blows inflicted upon himself. The Eastern
Prince again inquires of the Northern Prince what the Hea-
venly Father, i.e. himself in his trance, had ordered; and,
on hearing the report, desires the Heavenly Prince to set his
mind at rest, assuring him that it is not necessary that he
should actually receive the blows. The Heavenly Prince
then refers to a circumstance that took place during his
ascent into heaven (the vision of 1837). A demon had
presumptuously appeared there, but the Heavenly Father
tolerated him, and commanded him (the Heavenly Prince) to
spare him if he made submission ; from which he (the Hea-
venly Prince) argues that a comparatively trifling error, such
as he had himself committed in the case of the females, may
also be pardoned. The Eastern Prince again assures him that
he may set his mind at ease. The audience then breaks up,
the Eastern and Northern Princes, together with the officers
assembled, first kneeling and exclaiming, “ May the Prince
live for ever!”

The other officers then conduct the Eastern Prince to his
residence. Before they leave him, he formally asks if he has
done right in communicating the instructions of the Heavenly

FF
434 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

Father; which question being answered in the affirmative,
he exhorts all subordinates to admonish their superiors when
wrong,—himself, for instance, when he commits errors.

On the 27th December, two days after the above events,
the Eastern Prince (as such) sends for the Northern Prince
and the Marquis Ting teen, to whom he intimates that, on
reflection, it appears to him that the reproof administered by
the Heavenly Father to the Heavenly Prince, by implication
affected all of them; that they should therefore repair to
Court and comfort the Heavenly Prince by representing the
affair in that light; and that, as the younger brothers in a
family express their sympathy for the elder brother, when
reproved or beaten by their common father, so now it was
their duty to beg the Heavenly Prince to set his mind at rest,
They accordingly repair to Court, and are there invited to a
banquet ; which is described as an act of grace to the Eastern
and Northern Princes, and as an extremely high honour for
the Marquis Ting teen, the only other person admitted to it.
Before and during this repast, the Eastern Prince addresses
the Heavenly Prince at considerable length. After endea-
vouring, as it appears, to mitigate the disquiet or humiliation
in the mind of the Heavenly Prince produced by the scene of
two days before, he repeats his advice and suggestions about
the heir apparent and the treatment of females, and touches also
on some other topics. One is the nature of the old imperial
dragon, which holds a place in China analogous to that of the
royal lion and unicorn in England, with this difference that
many consider it to be a spirit. The Eastern Prince says that
the Heavenly Prince formerly held all dragons to be fiends;
but that he (the Eastern Prince) considers the national
emblem should be excepted. The Heavenly Prince replies,
that in one of the descents of the Heavenly Elder Brother
into the world (a trance of the Western Prince) he, the Hea-
venly Prince, had inquired if the dragon was a fiend or not,
and was told that he was not; further, when he himself
ascended into Heaven (the vision) he saw a golden dragon
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 435

there ; and lastly, a year ago, when their army passed Han
yang, he dreamt that a golden dragon had come to pay its
court to him. For all these reasons, he orders that the dragon
continue to be the emblem of the sovereign power. At the
close of the audience, the Heavenly Prince, after referring to
the promise given by the Heavenly Elder Brother Jesus in
the land of Judea, that at some future day the Comforter
should come into the world, declares that, considering what
the Eastern Prince had said and done, he must be that Com-
forter. The record then finishes with an account of the
Eastern Prince having been escorted to his residence and
there addressing the others, much as had been done two
days before.

Even for him who has long been in the habit of talking to
heathens about religion and the supernatural world, and who
is accustomed to hear odd jumbles of the sacred and the mean,
—even for such a man an effort is necessary, before he can
read the above narrative with any other feeling than that of
wondering ridicule; and before he can bring his mind to bear
seriously on the consideration of the cause and meaning of a
scene in which fanatical presumption on the one hand, and
the queerest nazveté on the other, are mingled with absurdity,
triviality, good sense and sound morality. I must, therefore,
before going on, beg the reader to look at the Map and to
sober himself down, as it were, by the reflection, that the
three chief actors are, the one, the spiritual originator; the
second, the actual general director ; and the third, the ablest
military leader of a religious-political party which commands
hundreds of miles of country in the very heart of China;
which has probably two or three hundred thousand men under
arms; and whose possible success will change for ever the
destiny of one-third of the human race.

Two facts appear to be indubitably established by the nar-
rative. The first is, that no collusion exists between the
Heavenly Prince and the Eastern Prince in the matter of the
descents of God into the world; for if there did, the former

FF2
—

436 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

would never have agreed to the publication of a narrative in
which he is made to play a part so humiliating. The second
fact is, that the political power was still not so completely in
the hands of the Eastern Prince as to permit of his openly
acting at pleasure; for the objects which he wished to attain,
appear to have been justifiable—nay even very laudable; yet
he was compelled to have recourse to an authority which
must be always liable, if overstrained, to have its reality
disputed; and the denial of which would be certain ruin to
his power.

If we picture to ourselves fully the circumstances in which
Hung sew tseuen was placed, it is not so difficult, as at first
thought it may appear, to comprehend how he could, in
perfect good faith, play the part assigned him by the narra-
tive. He was well-versed in the history of his own country,
which contains numberless instances of statesmen reproving
their sovereigns, though in respectful terms; and the sove-
reigns, who in such cases have accepted and rewarded the just
reproofs, share in some degree in the high admiration with
which the nation regards the faithful ministers. Now the
language of the Eastern Prince, as such, had been perfectly
becoming. As to the supernatural part of the transaction,
it has been shown (pages 103—105) how it was that Hung
sew tseuén first came to recognise the possessions of Yang sew
tsing by the Spirit of God. The Old and New Testaments
contain numerous passages in which God speaks to man,
issuing commands, and answering objections; and in which
not only individuals, but numbers of people have His Spirit
poured out upon them—in which they are filled with the Holy
Ghost—in which their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost—
in which they speak as moved by the Holy Ghost. And while
the reader will have no difficulty in finding such passages, he
will have difficulty in finding passages declaring distinctly that
all this is to cease. How then was a Chinese, with imperfect
translations before him, to arrive at the conclusion, (which
Protestant Christianity seems to have at least practically

4
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. A37

come to,) that God will never again speak to man through the
lips of man? I repeat, if we regard Hung sew tseuen as an
impostor, his recorded acts and speeches—those ascribed to
him by that last narrative more than others—become quite
unintelligible. But if we suppose him to be a man by nature
always of deep religious feeling, and now an earnest believer
in the authority of the Bible, then the history of David alone
would account for nearly all that he has done, and especially
for his demeanour in these last extraordinary transactions.
For every new convert, the words of the Bible have a fresh-
ness—a living reality—of which great numbers of routine
readers and church-goers have never had an idea,—which
they cannot even conceive to themselves. But for what con-
vert could these words have so much force as for Hung sew
tseuen, who could, established in Sovereign state at Nanking,
look back on a career more marvellous than that of any
potentate now living, for he commenced life with no other ad-
vantages than the Chinese lads who, like him, attended cattle
on the hills. David, “who kept the sheep,” was anointed by
Samuel at the verbal order of God. And he lay with his
outlawed followers in the mountains and forests, before he
found a refuge in the city of Achish. Much in the same way,
Hung sew tseuen had camped among the hills of Kwang se,
before he found a Ziglag in Yung gan. At the outset of his
political-military career, when he was compassed round about
in a sort of Adullam, he had been rescued from his extreme
danger by this very Eastern Prince; who had been warned
thereto by one of these very descents of the Heavenly Father.
What, in truth, was more likely than that Hung sew tseuen,
long a student of the Bible in circumstances so specially
adapted to make him wish for, and pray for, and believe, that
he had obtained the aid granted to the chosen of God—a
reader of the Bible in the midst of great perils and arduous
difficulties, followed by marvellous successes and high honours
—what was more likely than that he should look on himself as
a David, with an Eastern Nathan to reprove him in the name

€

, er
SpE
r A TH CENTRE ASTD COIGELE HMI AQNA,

of God, and a Northern donb to serve hin esas and thwart
‘his inelinntiona?

fi the sbove narrative of proccedings in Decomber (4h,
lung sew trcuen alludes repeatedly bo his nacent into heaven,
which took place in 14375 bat in all the Tae ping books we
find no pretension to any subsequent converse with God on
hisown part. Now, that ascont wae purely spuitiaals for in
the Book of Declurations be saya, “ My soul aseended into
heaven,” using for soul the new word noticed at page 41%.

Hence, 60 far as Hing sew taenen and his strict followers
are concerned, the latest publications and the fullest con.
adoration, far from invalidating, decidedly strengthen the
opinions which Fexpressed in the following paragraph, after
returning from Nanking +”

“Those who are plowed to detect evil in the new sect will
doubtless pass n summary judgment of Cipostare and blade
phemy.’ To those who wish rather to recognine the poor
that is in them, history it may be yen the history of their
own parishes in ther own youth will farnish many examples
of taen, of irrepronchable lives and adioitted wood wense in all
ordinary matters, who believed themselves the recipients of
direct revelations. Wo have an eminent tustanes of un-
deniable authenticity in Swedenbory, @ man of science, of
great intellectual power and of undoubted moral purity, who
aaw visions Of angele, conceived himeclt at tinnes Lranaporled
oul of the body, and believed that. he had direct, commuanicn
tions with God. A sental error that. clings to many of ws
throughout life, and which ia the shundant source of mis
understandings, mutual dislikes and quarrels, ia the notion that
what we feel and think, with respect to Gorkain wtilyjoeta under
certain circumstances, i aloo thought and felt by all others on
the aame subjects and under similar ciroamatinces, The man
who persists in viewing the actions of hin fellow-creatures
from this stand point, passes bis days in a foy of smiseon
ceptions and delusions, than which no self deceit of fanaticism

* Krenn the North Chins Herald of ath May, 198,

 
TAN PING CILRISTIANITY. 439

oan woll be greater. Most of all does he orr when he dogma-
tically passes his analogical judgments on the communing of
othor mon with thoir God.”

That individual who is proud to think himself a “ shrowd
man of the world,” and believes that appellation to imply the
height of sagacity, will, of course, continue to hold lung sew
tscucn to be a knavish impostor, But he who knows that,
in dealing with men, tho highest practical ability consists, not
in assuming all to be rogues, but in truly discriminating
betwoon the good and the bad, and in the right adaptation of
conduct to each, —he will, especially if he has had experience of
human nature in its stranger divagations, be inclined to give,
even to the Eastern Prince, the bonofit of the tacts and views
stated in the preceding paragraph. If true shrewdness con-
sists in judging of men’s motives, not by what we are, but by
what they are; and if it is a fact that x man like Swedenborg,
the carefully educated son of a Protestant bishop, did honestly
believe that * the Lord manifested himself to him in a per-
sonal appearance,” that he had been transported out of the
body, and that he was the honoured reveuler of a new dispen-
sation ;* why should not tho Asiatic, Yang sow tsing, when
introduced to the new world of the Bible, come at length
honestly to believe that his soul at times lay dormant, while

* Uf L wore required to give an ides of Tae ping Christianity by a reference
to some known European sect, L should doseriby it as a Chinese Swedenborgian
Christianity. Both Tac-pingism and Swedeuborgianism acknowledge the au-
thority of tho Christian Scriptures, both understand them ditferently from
other Christians, and both add a now dispensation, The Swodenborgians, who
now number twelve thousand in Great Britain, deny the doctrine of viearious
saovition, of justitioation by faith alone, and of the resurreetion of the material
body. They hold that salvation is not obtainable without repentance and living
a lite of charity and faith aecording te the Commandments ; and that man after
death rises in a spiritual body in which he lives to eternity, cither in heaven or
hell avverding to his past lite. In all this there is much similarity with the
doctrines of the Tae pings But while Swedonborgianism is Protestant Chris-
tianity moditiod by au exteusive Kuowledge of physical seionce ; 'Tae-pingism
is Vrotestant Christianity meoditiod by Confucian philosophy, The political
virounstances af Taepingism, aud its connexion with war, cause of course still
turthor dittovences; and make it, in truth, impossible to give a correct idea of
it by any analogy.
440 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

his body was “filled by the Spirit” of that God whose fre-
quent communications with man he found therein narrated?
T think it will be prudent at least to suspend our judgments
on the honesty or dishonesty of the man’s fanaticism, till after
we have had some face to face experience of him; for if the
Tae pings succeed, with him as their political leader, the view
we take, may affect our material interests by the influence it
will exercise on negotiations.

The morality adopted by the Tae ping religion has hitherto
been strict, and is not likely to degenerate: Confucianism and
Christianity combine to prevent that. Further, by a few
sentences in the introduction to the Tae ping calendar, it
sweeps away the whole system of divination, fortune-telling,
and “lucky days,” which many of us have cause to know is
a practical trammel on the otherwise free action, as to days
and times, of the unchristianised Chinese. But its views of
the supernatural world are manifestly degenerating in the
hands of the fanatical party. In their conception of the
Deity they seem to be exaggerating more and more the
originally anthropomorphic leaning of Hung sew tseuen, and
to be transforming the spiritual and catholic paternity,
ascribed to God in the Book of Declarations, into a corporeal
and limited fatherhood. Without having as yet published
anything to that effect, they, in their official communications
with foreigners, show at least a tendency to ascribe to God
the Father a human body, with human feelings and occu-
pations ; to regard him as wearing man’s clothing; to look on
the Virgin Mary as his wife in heaven; to establish an identity
between her and the Heavenly Mother of the Chinese Pan-
theon ; and to consider her the mother, not of Jesus only, but
of several other sons. In like manner, they appear inclined
to give to Jesus a wife from among the goddesses of the un-
cultivated Chinese; and consider him as having a family of
sons and daughters, the grandchildren of God the Father.
It is in fact plain, that the Eastern Prince and his followers
are the representatives of a Buddhistic or Taouistic element,
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 441

that is struggling with the Confucian element to assert for
itself a place in the new religion.

The Eastern Prince has availed himself of the expression,
ascribed to Hung sew tseuen on the 27th December, 1853,
(viz. that he must be the Comforter whose advent is pro-
mised in the New Testament) in order to assume that desig-
nation; and he now formally enters “ the Holy Ghost, the
Comforter,” into his array of titles. The Doxology on pages
427,428 has been modified, by leaving out the two lines
which praise the Holy Spirit and the Three Persons, and sub-
stituting others, in which the Five Princes are successively

_ praised,—the Eastern Prince coming first, as the Holy Ghost.
No mention whatever is made of Hung sew tseuen, the
Heavenly Prince; an omission not less satisfactory to us than
it must be remarkable among the Tae pings. It is only to
be accounted for on the supposition—one which agrees well
with the tone of the edict at page 424—+that he has in this
instance been firm, and has positively prohibited anything
like adoration of himself.

The last of the Tae ping authenticated publications—one
obtained on the occasion of the second British visit to Nan-
king—is a modified republication of the first of two small
volumes on the nature of God, which were published by Dr.
Medhurst at Shanghae some ten years ago; and a copy of
which appears to have fallen into the hands of Hung sew
tseuen, at Nanking. It consists of eight sections on the
existence, the unity, the name, the spirituality, the eternity,
the immutability, the omnipresence and the omnipotence of
God; each of which features is handled with an amplitude
quite sufficient to convey to all Chinese who can read, the
best ideas entertained regarding it in Western Christendom.

Our perceptive faculties are limited: we are unable to see
both sides of the shield at once. Hence it is, that when we
fix our attention on the spirituality and invisible omnipre-
sence of God throughout the universe, we are unable at the
same time to grasp the ideas of his personality and will, and
442 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

our conception tends to pantheism. On the other hand,
when we fix our eyes on his will and distinct personality, we
are unable at the same time to retain the idea of his spiritual
diffusion throughout all nature, ahd our conception tends to
anthropomorphism. I have pointed out that Hung sew
tseuen’s anthropomorphism may fairly be held a reaction to
the pantheism of the Confucian philosophy ; and that in his
visions—the reflex of his waking thoughts—he consequently
saw God in a human form. Now the omissions and addi-
tions’ of his republication of Dr. Medhurst’s treatise, show
that he still holds to his original conception. He retains
a sentence which states that “in ancient times Moses ob-
tained a glance of the Divine Majesty;” but omits such
sentences of the original as:—‘ No man has seen God;”
“we can neither observe his form nor hear his voice.” So
also, sentences declaring, in general terms, the immateriality of
God are retained, possibly because not understood in their
original sense; but such as deny him a human form are
omitted. With regard to these points, Hung sew tseuen,
evidently prefers to take, as they stand, those passages of the
Scriptures which speak of God’s “ hand,” “arm” and “feet,”
and of His “hearing,” “ seeing,” “ walking” and “ talking ;”
expressions which doubtless aided in the formation of his
system. Some of the additions mark the characteristic hatred
of the Tae pings to the false gods, of which the idols are the
representatives. And on the whole, their republication of
this treatise is a very satisfactory sign, because proving that
at the latest period of communication they were still engaged
in laying the basis of a closer approximation of views between
themselves and us.

Of slavery, no mention appears to be made in the publica-
tions of the Tae ping; but if they succeed they would make
little difficulty about accepting our views on that subject, and
would abolish an institution which industrial progress alone
has already done much to restrict, and which is directly con-
trary to the spirit of Christ’s second great commandment.
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 448

Attempts have been made to fix a charge of licentious-
ness on Hung sew tseuen on the ground that he is a poly-
gamist. There can be no doubt that the older Tae pings,
stationed in Nanking, practise polygamy in that form which
has hitherto existed in the country; and we see nothing in
their publications to make us believe that they think of
abolishing it. But why should they think of abolishing it ?
“ Christianity requires its abolition, and if their Christianity
were not a pretence they would have abolished it long ago ;”
will be the answer of many. I reply that they have learnt
their Christianity from the Bible, and that, while polygamy
is authorized again and again in the Old Testament by the
highest examples, it is nowhere prohibited in the New Testa-
ment. The third chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy
recommends bishops and deacons to have one wife only, but
it does not declare it to be a positive sin on their part to
have more than one; while it does imply that other men—
not bishops or deacons—may have more than one wife, and
yet be received as members of the Christian community.
Further, in the Chinese translation, the word wife is rendered
by ése, the name of the wife proper (the Sarah) in China, of
whom Confucian Chinese can only have one. Of the tseé,
the concubines (or Hagars,) nothing is said in the injunction
referred to. What amount of insight into our interpreta-
tions of the Bible and into our views of domestic or conjugal
morality, Hung sew tseuen may have received during his
two months stay with Mr. Roberts, we know not. He did
not attract Mr. Roberts’ particular attention. But we do
know that he must often have been told that the Bible is the
highest standard of religion and morality,— that it was
wholly the word of God. This being the case, the history
of David, the chosen of God, with seven tse or wives and
ten tseé or concubines, was of itself enough to refute in his
mind, anything that he may have heard against polygamy or
concubinage from the Europeans of the present day. And
in this particular, the Chinese Sacred Records of that period
444. THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

when Shang te was still worshipped in China, corroborated
the Sacred Books of the West. For as in the East, the
revered ancient monarch, Yaou, gave his two daughters as
wives to his chosen successor, the equally revered ancient
monarch, Shun; so in the West, Laban had given his two
daughters to Jacob, the progenitor of David and of Jesus,

Even if the translations of the Bible were accompanied by
doctrinal annotations, even in that case learned Chinese, who
accept the Book as their standard of life, are not likely to
follow such annotations implicitly; they will say: “You,
the foreign annotators are not inspired, you may have erred;
and we must study for ourselves a book so important.” But
the translations have not only no doctrinal annotations, they
have not even the notices of geography, history, and customs
which are absolutely necessary to make some passages intel-
ligible; and with which, I may add, the Chinese Sacred
Literature is so carefully provided. I have spoken to mis-
sionaries in China about this and, since my return to England,
to the Secretary of a large Missionary Society. I now tell
those generally, who interest themselves in missionary labours,
that while un-annotated copies of the Bible may answer well
enough among illiterate Polynesians or Africans, who must
read it under the guidance of a teacher; such copies, spread-
ing among millions of reading Chinese, who may never see
a foreigner, cannot fail to give rise to much greater diver-
sities of opinion than exist in Western Christendom. We
have seen, for instance, that the Tae pings baptize them-
selves; but baptism, even in that shape, would appear to be
to them an unessential form ; for, on being asked, on the occa~
sion of the last visit to Nanking, what method of baptism
they observed, they replied that the worship of God con-
sisted not in sprinkling or dipping the body but in cleansing
the heart.

There are undoubtedly doctrines in the New Testament
which, followed out to their consequences, lead to monogamy :
such as that of the equality of the soul of woman to that of
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 445

man, and the command, Do unto others as you would be
done by. But there is no special positive rule laid down on
the subject, and St. Paul, who recommended one wife only
for bishops, also declared that it was better to abstain alto-
gether from marriage, to which opinion, the foreigners,—
missionaries included,—paid little attention; as Hung sew
tseuen could not help perceiving. Monogamy is, in fact, one
of those things which revelation has left to be established by
increasing enlightenment, aided by deduction from the above
cited doctrines. How absolutely necessary I think it to the
progress of civilization, several portions of this volume show ;
but to blame Hung sew tseuen for having failed hitherto to
prescribe it, is not less ridiculous than it would be to blame
the King of Timbuctoo for not teaching his heir apparent the
first book of Euclid; which is certainly necessary to the pro-
gress of material civilization. Next to his reprobation of
false gods and their worship, there is no other crime, which
the Heavenly Prince visits with so much earnest condemna-
tion, as that of irregular intercourse between the sexes. And
if the Tae pings succeed in establishing themselves in the
sovereignty of the country, I have little doubt that his reli-
gious views will, in time, triumph over those of the fanatical
section, His opinions are far more calculated to gain the
adherence of the learned class. These have always been
accustomed ‘to look with contempt on that plurality of deities,
which the grosser fanaticism of the movement appears in-
clined to introduce; but their whole previous training and
habits will incline them to turn to the study of venerated
ancient books; books, too, which show them the Shang te
of China’s antiquity as a living God, the constantly adored
protector of the now so powerful western foreigners. With
them, in short, all the causes will operate which produced
the conversion of Hung sew tseuen himself; and, in addition
to these causes, there will be the worldly advantages at-
tendant on a zealous conformity with the faith of the sove-
reign. That faith accords with Confucianism in the region of
446 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

morality, and scarcely interferes with it in the region of politics.
The essential principles and forms of government may always
remain—for a long time must remain—what they have been
hitherto; for those who will establish and organize the
government, know no other. In every case, that grand
institution which makes the intelligence of the Chinese
nation, entirely and directly, what it everywhere is par-
tially because indirectly ; the ruling power,—that institution
will exist and operate from the first. Tue Hasrern Prince
HAS STATED, IN WRITING, THAT UNDER THE RULE OF THE
Tart Pines, THE BIBLE WILL BE SUBSTITUTED FOR THE
Sacrep Booxs or ConructanisM as THE TExtT Boox mn
THE Pustic Service ExaminarTions.

In spite of my capitals, and in spite of my having dwelt so
often, and with so much emphasis on the influence of these
Examinations, as the free avenue to the thousands of posts in
the Empire from district magistracies to premierships; and
notwithstanding that I now remind the reader of the stirring
effect, that the opening to competition of but 40 places a
year in the exile of tropical India, has already had on every
higher educational establishment of the British Isles ;—in
spite of, and notwithstanding all this, I fairly despair of
imparting an adequate idea of the importance of that re-
solve of the Tae pings, nor of the immense significance
which it gives to the piece of yellow shading in the
middle of the accompanying map of China. Upon the
gradual extension or diminution of that piece of shading,
during the next ensuing years, it depends whether or not, in
@ prosperous population of 360 millions of heathens, all the
males who have the means, and are not too old to learn—all
the males from boyhood to 25 or 30 years of age who can
devote their time to study—will be assiduously engaged in
getting the Bible off by heart, from beginning to end. Should
the thing take place, it will form a revolution as unparalleled
in the world for rapidity, completeness, and extent as is the
Chinese people itself for its antiquity, unity and numbers.

~
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. A447

“ But,” it may be objected, “ you have yourself stated that
the study of unannotated copies of the Bible will inevitably
lead to diversities, and you have also stated that the trans-
lation at present being diffused is a very imperfect one.”
My answer is, that it will be entirely the fault of the Protest-
ant missionaries if one or two, much less imperfect transla-
tions are not put before them; and,—what is of greater
importance—translations rendered intelligible by philological,
geographical, and historical notes, following each paragraph
of the text, together with a free paraphrase of each, in a style
approaching that of conversation, and embodying more or
less of doctrinal views.* The Secretary of the Society above
alluded to assured me that it would be quite impossible to
get the various denominations of Protestant Christians to
agree on any one paraphrastic version, or on any one set of
notes. In that case, the next best thing is for each denomi-
nation to publish its own annotated and paraphrased version
of the Bible; each making it a point of conscience to dwell as
little on special differences and as much on catholic agree-
ments as possible: that the conquest of heathenism may not
be retarded by the battles of sectarianism. Each should com-
mence with a sketch of the history of the Scriptures, expressly
intended to bring it home to the minds of the Chinese, that,
however the translations may vary, the Hebrew and Greek
originals are substantially the same. Ad/ this will impart
a candour, a reasonableness, and a truthfulness, to the form in
which Christianity is presented, that cannot fail to be of itself
attractive to the Chinese; who are, moreover, accustomed to
similar historical sketches prefixed to each of their own
Sacred Books (in addition to the annotations), and among
whom exists, in matters of literature, a large amount of acute
criticism and love of antiquarian research. This leads to the
most important part of my reply to the objection supposed

* The edition of the post-Confucian Sacred Books which is called Sze shoo

teih choo forms a good example of the manner in which this should be done,
—of course with necessary and obvious differences.
SOT

448 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

to have been raised. The resolve of the Tae pings to make
the Bible the text book at their Public Service Examinations,
will cause a number of intelligent Chinese—private gentle-
men, as well as officials, and all of them masters of their own
language—to devote themselves to the study of the Hebrew
and Greek, in order to read the Book in the original lan-
guages. And as, in order to do this, they will in the first
place Jearn the English, the common language of the two
great peoples with whom they have most intercourse,
numbers of channels will thus be opened through which will
pour into China, constant streams of Anglo-Saxon literature
and Anglo-Saxon ideas, mingling at the very fountain head
with the flow of Chinese mental life. A prospect is hereby
disclosed of a rapid assimilation of fundamental beliefs; and
a consequent peaceful and mutually beneficent extension of
free intercourse and free trade; which, I repeat, it is in vain
to hope for in any other way. My conviction is, that the
Tae ping government would, once fairly in secure possession
of the sovereign power, itself be foremost in encouraging the
study and translation of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures,
and that it would appoint a commission for that purpose.
But to prevent the chance of its irrevocably fixing on its
present imperfect version as the true one, I recommend to
Missionary Societies the following step; which, like the above
mentioned preparation of paraphrastic and annotated edi-
tions of the Bible, cannot, be it observed, fail to be advanta-
geous to the propagation of Christianity, whether the Tae
pings succeed or not. Let them, namely, publish interlinear
Hebrew-English-Chinese and Greek-English-Chinese edi-
tions, prefixing historical sketches, such as those above indi-
cated. As this would be merely printer’s work, it could be
done with comparatively little labour and expense; and would
prove the best safeguard against serious permanent divergen-
cies, by making known the original common standard. For
those who hold the opinion that Christianity is destined to
spread over the whole earth, the work would have a permanent
TAE PING CHRISTIANITY. 449

value, inasmuch as it cannot be supposed that any nation of
educated Christians will content itself long with translations.
It now often serves as a field for rhetorical expansion that
Christians—all sects counted—are outnumbered, some four
to five times, by Mahommedans and Buddhists, and nearly,
equalled by the followers of Brahmaism. If the Tae pings
succeed, then 480 millions of human beings, out of the 900 *
millions that inhabit the earth, will profess Christianity, and ;
take the Bible as the standard of their beliefs; and these
480 millions will comprise precisely the most energetic and
most civilized half of the human race. i

Those, therefore, who believe that the extension of com- ic
merce, the progress of civilization, the diffusion of religion, —
and the gradual approach toward universal and lasting peace,
are indissolubly connected—that they must together be for-
warded, or together retarded—will do their best to see that
the present strage let in China is not interfered with. Can
the reader now eonipteherd me, and will he not now freely
pardon me, if I have in one or two places been unable to
repress a somewhat bitter expression of the feelings, which
I entertain for all attempts to urge, or entrap, or endrift
(for there is always some one who slips the cable, and that
danger is the greatest), the maritime powers of the Occident
into a coarse physical repression of the Tae ping rebellion ?
I am aware that some gentlemen now engaged in business in
China may urge :—* All that you have said of advantages is
but speculation as to the future; we have facts now: these
Tae pings are an actual and palpable oppression to trade,
and their destruction would be an immediate relief to it.” I
have little doubt that it would. When the runner, who has
been running a hard match, throws off his clothing and seats
himself in a draft of cold air, he, too, has immediate relief
from the heat that oppresses him ; and shortly after is relieved
of his life. We must adopt measures of permanency, not the
shifts of immediate expediency.

It is long since the conviction began to fix itself on my

GG
450 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

mind that the interference of Western States with the
internal affairs of the Chinese people would certainly end in
its ruin,—that such interference would unfailingly stop the
operation of the best principles in its polity, quench its
national spirit, and destroy that “cheerful industry ” which
is the cause at once of its own prosperity and of its com-
mercial value to us. And the conviction has only become
stronger, with larger experience and greater knowledge.
I have, in consequence, striven to avert an interference so
fatal, and to oppose its advocates, whenever that has appeared
necessary since the outbreak of this rebellion; I have done
so in whatever way seemed most likely to be effective; and
the present volume owes its existence in a large measure to
the desire to perform a duty, which appeared to call for per-
formance at my hands. I have now reached a point where
I feel that I have fairly answered the call, and that I have
discharged the duty—weakly, indeed, in comparison with
what I wished, but still to the best of my ability. I may
now observe Western policy or impolicy in China, and the
consequent beneficial results or fatal calamities with a com-
paratively quiet mind. For the present I must hurry to
a close. In the desire to secure accuracy, and (so far as the
space permitted) completeness, to this and the last preceding
Chapter, I have made references and researches in the ori-
ginal literature, which have materially retarded the restora-
tion of my previously impaired health. The special con-
sideration of the prospects of the Tae pings, and of the best
policy for Occidental States at the present conjuncture,
cannot therefore be carried into details; and many points,
which it might have been interesting, if not useful, to touch
on, must be altogether passed over.

One aid to the success of the Tae pings lies in numerous
rebellious movements and insurrections in which they have
no hand, but which proceed either from secret political
societies, or are brought on by the general discontent with
the existing rule. Perhaps the most serious of these, are
TAE PING PROSPECTS. 451

the three which have taken place at Amoy, Shanghae, and
Canton, under the eyes of the foreign residents. They
proceeded altogether from members of the political society
mentioned at pages 112 and 113. A body of these seized
Amoy on the 18th May 1853, and held it against a besieging
force, that the Imperial provincial authorities gradually
assembled, until the 11th of November, when they evacuated
it and made off by sea. The besiegers decapitated many
hundreds of the men whom they found in the place, but who,
though they might have been assisting in its defence, had
little or nothing to do with the rising, and who, when seized
and killed, were making not even a show of resistance.
Another body of some twelve or fifteen hundred members
of the same Triad Society, who had been quietly assembling
at Shanghae, seized that place on the 7th September, 1853,
and held it until the 17th February, 1855; when it was
retaken, and nearly all those still remaining in it killed.
A certain portion had, however, left in the first months,
while the investment of the Imperialists was still not very
close; and a young Fuh keen man, who had been the chief
fighting leader throughout, escaped at the last moment. The
members of the political society, who first seized the place,
were almost all natives of the South-Eastern Coastland; but
they enrolled some thousands of the young men of Shanghae,
to aid them in the defence of the walls; and it was very in-
structive to observe how rapidly these, a portion of the most
unwarlike of the Chinese people, got accustomed to fighting,
and fighting that was at times very serious. During the
first months of the siege, I was resident at Shanghae and had
ample opportunities of observing the proceedings; which
I regret that I cannot now describe. Some of them were at
once very strange and very characteristic. Towards the end
of the eighteen months investment, the French (whose ground
is in the immediate vicinity of the city walls on the north
and whose co-religionists and countrymen, the Romanist
missionaries, have a settlement and a cathedral on the south)
Ga2
452 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIOYS.

got implicated in hostilities with the rebels. The boats from
their men of war surprised an outwork on the river, where
they spiked the guns and killed such of the rebels as they
found. ‘Their vessels of war afterwards breached a portion
of the wall, and marched in a storming party of one or two
hundred seamen and marines, with whom a thousand or two
of the Imperialists associated themselves. To the surprise of
everyone, they were driven out again with serious loss to the
French; who attributed their repulse to the unmilitary con-
duct of their Imperialist associates; upon whom, it is re-
ported, they were even obliged to fire. The hostility of the
French, however, hastened the capture of the place; for the
investment became by their aid stricter than ever; and the
failure of provisions produced at length such dissensions and
laxity, that the Imperialists eventually entered by a surprise,
and repossessed themselves of the city almost without fight-
ing. Here, as at Amoy, the foreign community witnessed
the undiscriminating execution of many hundreds of the
unresisting men found in the city, many of whom, to my
own certain knowledge, were merely detained there by the
presence of their mothers and wives, none of whom the Triads
would allow to leave.* The leaders had hoisted Tae ping flags
as well as those of the Triad Society; and they attempted to
put themselves into communication with the Heavenly Prince
at Nanking as his “ unappointed officers.” But as two of
the Tae ping emissaries succeeded in reaching Shanghae,
where they found the gods all standing in the temples and
opium smoking, together with the usual vices of a large city,
as prevalent as ever, there can be no doubt that their report
made the Nanking Princes reject all overtures.

* At my request, the Fuh keen leader, Chin (he who in the end escaped) got
the consent of the others to my bringing out with mea Shantung family—
friends of one of my clerks—consisting of an old woman, her daughter-in-law,
with two girls and a boy, her grand-children. But this was a quite exceptional
business ; Chin had to strain his influence not a little to get it done; and it
would perhaps not have been done at all, if the females had had any near male
relatives in the vicinity.
TAE PING PROSPECTS. 453

In June, 1854, the rising took place in the vicinity of
Canton. The Triads first possessed themselves of the popu-
lous manufacturing and trading city of Fuh shan, situated on
one of the numerous river branches about twelve miles above
Canton. They soon succeeded in getting the command of
all these river branches and of the open country around
Canton; the Imperialist garrison, in which, composed of eight
or ten thousand able-bodied Manchoos in addition to the
purely Chinese troops, was for some months more or less closely
shut up. But as the vicinity of the foreign community to the
city of Shanghae enabled the besieged rebels to get supplies
there, so the presence of the foreign community at Canton
enabled the blockaded Imperialists to get supplies there. And
though the rebels had near this latter city some twenty or thirty
thousand men under arms, it seems that they had no leader
among them of commanding influence. The result was, that
the distress caused by the interruption and the dearness,
though not total absence, of food enabled the Imperialist
authorities to raise among the inhabitants a large body of
volunteers, by whose aid they dispersed, or drove to a dis-
tance, all the blockading forces, whether on land or on the
rivers. This happened about the beginning of February,
1855. But this rising is of a far more serious character than
those which occurred at Amoy and Shanghae. At each of
these latter places, the rebels were almost iramediately enclosed
within the walls of a single city; on the recapture of which
the rising was completely extinguished. At Canton, on the
other hand, the insurgents were, from the first, in far greater
numbers; they maintained themselves in the open country
as well as in several adjacent cities; and since their dispersion,
a portion has retreated in the direction of Kwang se, another
toward the east of Kwang tung; in both of which quarters
they were, by the latest accounts, still waging an open war
with the existing government. It appears, indeed, as well
from the Peking Gazettes as from the reports that have
reached Hong-kong directly from the scene of operations,
454 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

that nearly the whole of Kwang se and the southern portion
of Hoonan is as much in the possession of rebels as of Impe-
rialists. The latter have always held the provincial capital,
Kwei-lin—a place memorable in history for its resistance to
besiegers—but the rebels have taken many of the depart-
mental and district cities ; and there is every reason to believe
that some bodies of them have joined the Tae pings on the
Tung ting lake; by the leaders of whom they will, as fellow-
provincials, be gladly welcomed on profession of the new
faith, In the meantime, the city of Canton has been the
scene of a series of executions, among the most horrible
for extent and manner, of which the world has any authentic
records. The Imperial authorities have, on the one hand,
held out rewards for the seizure of ex-rebels; and on the
other, held out threats to the resident gentry and men of
substance in the villages and country towns, if they fail to
furnish a quota. The consequence is that thousands upon
thousands of men have been brought into Canton and there
indiscriminately decapitated in squads of one or two hun-
dreds according as they come in. It has been computed
that about 70,000 men have been thus put to death since
the blockade was raised, most of them on the Canton execu-
tion ground.* ‘The greatest foreign friends of the Manchoo
cause naturally speak of these deliberate massacres in terms
of reprobation. Many, however, hold them to be proofs of
strength on the part of the Imperial government. No event
that has occurred since I left China, so clearly proves to me
its weakness. These slaughters are in flagrant violation of

* Appendix C is an account furnished to the Royal Asiatic Society of an
execution that I witnessed at Canton in 1851. It will give the reader an idea
of the place and the manner in which executions occur. It appears that some
of the pottery shops have bcen cleared away to accommodate the much larger
squads who are now slaughtered there. As to the ¢ofal number that have
been there executed within the last year, I must guard myself by stating that
the accounts are conflicting. But if we for seventy, substitute only seven
thousand—and that must be much below the actual total—all holds good that

I say in the text of such slaughtering, and of the effect on the Chinese of its
being committed by the government.
TAE PING PROSPECTS. 455

the most highly valued, and widely honoured principles of
moral rule: they are but the result of hysterical ferocity. A
deep and lasting disgust will be created by them in the
higher order of minds; while the mere fear of falling
victims to them will send no small number of peaceable men
to join the rebels. The Tae pings answered the Imperial
edicts commanding their “extermination,” by proclaiming
their own intention to exterminate the Manchoos wherever
they found them; and we know how inexorably they acted
on their resolve at Nanking. But we know that the Tae
pings are students of the Jewish history in the Old Testa-
ment under circumstances of peculiar mental excitement ;
and we know that they are not the first religious warriors
who have held themselves commanded “ utterly to destroy
the men, women and children ” of their idolatrous enemies.
But looking to the effect, on the Chinese people, of the slaugh-
ters of the Imperialists and Tae pings, apart from the inhu-
manity of both in our eyes, the Tae pings have this in their
favour, that it is the common foreign oppressors whom they
exterminate—it is the “ Tartars,”? whom all Chinese believe
must one day be destroyed or expelled from the country.
Towards their own countrymen, who after having been their
political opponents throw down their arms and submit, the
Tae pings are not more severe than the ruling powers of
Europe. The Imperialist officers, on the other hand—those at
Canton especially—are either guided by some ferocious Tartar
traditions, or are influenced by the phrensied cruelty of a
scared cowardice. How entirely they are violating Chinese
principles of government, is proved by the fact that the very
Emperor in whose name they act, issued, a year or two ago,
an edict in which the well known rule was enunciated that
only the ringleaders of the rebels were to be executed and
the mass of their “deluded” followers pardoned. Now, they
are executing people in thousands, very many of whom were
probably never rebels at all, were it but in name. A change
would appear to have come over the policy of the Impe-
456 THE CHINESE AND THEIR SEBUM

rial government. At first it showed a decided disposition
to make the greatest possible use of the mental agencies.
Thus when it became known, in the end of 1850, that the
new rebels, who had appeared in Kwang se, were diffusing
Christian publications, Luh keen ying, Governor General at
Nanking,* addressed the Emperor, recommending the distri-
bution of a new edition of the Essence of Philosophy, on the
ground that the most effectual means of checking the spread of
error was to diffuse a knowledge of the truth. In an edict of
the 13th January, 1851, the Emperor ordered the recommen-
dation to be acted on, and that candidates at the Public
Service Examinations should be questioned on their know-
ledge of the book.t From this we may conclude, that the
Imperialists, if ultimately successful in putting down rebel-
lion, will cultivate Confucianism, as depicted in my last Chap-
ter, more sedulously than ever.

The Christianity first preached by Hung sew tseuen, with
nothing of a new revelation about it, apart from the ascent of
his soul into heaven, was by no means ill-calculated to gain
adherents among the more religiously inclined of the educated
Chinese; as the adhesion of several such men in Kwang se
proved. But the Tae ping Christianity, as now disfigured by
a “second sonship” of Shang te and by His descents into the
body of the Eastern Prince, rouses the opposition of the learned
class, —an opposition which is one of the greatest difficulties in
the way of the political success of the new aspirants to the
sovereignty. Could any party, which was Confucianist as well
as native, attain but that amount of military power which the
Tae pings had when they took Nanking, such native party
would speedily have the intelligence of the country at its
back to aid in the expulsion of. the strangers.

* At the taking of that place some two years afterward he was killed by the
Tae pings. —

+ I have now on my table the new Imperial edition which was published in
consequence, It commences with a preface of the Emperor, stating the circum-

stances under which it has been prepared. In other respects it is word for word
like that of Kang he.
TAE PING PROSPECTS. 457

The bulk of the wealthy and well-to-do classes are in China,
as in most countries, averse to the extension of civil contests,
which however patriotic or necessary to put an end to general
oppressions are yery apt to cause the destruction or forcible
re-distribution of special property. Now the Tae pings show,
in matters of property, marks of an intention to adopt insti-
tutions of equality and communism; and though it is not a
modern communism, but a compound of the communisms of
primitive Christianity and of ancient China, and therefore
stamped with the sanctions of religion and of antiquity, still it
sets the property-holding classes, as a body, whether learned
or unlearned, altogether on the side of the Imperialists.

But the very causes indicated in the last two preceding
paragraphs, as making the educated and the well-to-do classes
the enemies of the Tae pings, are those precisely which gain
for them the adhesion of the uneducated classes, who derive
a precarious livelihood from the labour of their bodies. For
them, Tae-pingism, as a religion, is at least purer and more
rational than the superstitions of Buddhism, while it is far
more definite and attractive in its promises as to the life to
come,—so often the only life to which the poor man can look
forward with hope. For the poor day labourer, the institu-
tion of equality of property, or at least of a sufficiency for
every man, which is promised by the Tae ping leaders, is of
course peculiarly attractive; however well we may know that
such an institution is, even for a very short period, impracti-
cable except in name. Among the uneducated labourers,
therefore, the Tae pings will gain, as they have already
gained, numbers of perfectly voluntary adherents ; and herein
lies a great element of success. or war is essentially a con-
test of physical forces, and the Tae pings are certain of con-
stant accessions of the best sinew and muscle of the country.
Neither does that proportion of cultivated intelligence which
is also necessary in war, fail them. As their acts have proved,
and as I had myself opportunity of observing, there were
among the original Godworshippers plenty of men—in whose
458 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

demeanour I certainly missed the (conventionally) high air
-mandarinique and the ready politeness which characterizes
the trained Imperialist official of every grade, and in place of
which there was a haughty stiffness, but—who had all the
natural sagacity and all the acquired knowledge that was
requisite to the organization of a potent government system,
And then there are causes which make a small, but important
portion of the learned class join them still—a portion, com-
posed of the men who have been able to get an education but
are now at once poor, ambitious and friendless; of the men,
once wealthy as well as learned, but who have been ruined
by mandarin oppressions; and of the men who have education,
and friendsanda competence, but who have inherited a revenge.
I had at Chin keang some conversation with a man of this
latter, and to Occidentals least comprehensible class. He was
a handsome, able-bodied man of six or eight and twenty years
of age, whose demeanour, tinged with the air mandarinique,
joined to his untanned complexion, showed that he was not a
manual labourer either out of doors or indoors, but what we
would call a gentleman. I questioned him accordingly, and
found he was an example of the way in which the doctrine of
filial duty works at times. He said that when the Manchoos
first possessed themselves of Hoonan, his ancestors had been
made to suffer in a peculiar degree ; and that, in consequence,
no considerable rising against the Manchoo dynasty had since
taken place, without some members of his family joining in it.
The belief, undoubtedly entertained by the Tae pings, that
they are executing the will of God, and that, so long as they do
that earnestly, they enjoy His special protection, is a powerful
element of success. The history of Mahommedanism and
of the English Puritans proves how easily a religious party;
that is compelled to take up arms in self- defence becomes
thoroughly imbued with this belief. Some of the phrase-
ology used by the Puritans throws light both on the feelings
and on the language of the Tae pings, as known to us
through direct observation and through their books. Thus
TAE PING PROSPECTS. 459

Colonel Hutchinson “would often say, the Lord had not
thus eminently preserved him for nothing, but that he was
yet kept for some eminent service or suffering in this cause.

. . » » He said this was the place where God had set him,
and protected him hitherto, and it would be in him an un-
grateful distrust in God to forsake it.” A contemporary
writer, speaking of the defeat by Pym of an attempt to set
the city against the parliament says:—“ So that in the
managing of this day’s work, God was so pleased to manifest
himself, &c. &c.”’ Major General Allen, in his account of the
meeting of the Puritan officers at Windsor Castle,—a meet-
ing spent in consultation on the bad aspect of affairs, and in
praying,—states that Major Goffe “ made use of that good
word” (which the reader must remember the Tae pings too
have got, though they never heard of the English Puritans,)
* Turn you at my reproof: behold I will pour out my Spirit
unto you, I will make known my words unto you.” The
result, says the Major General, was that, “ He did direct our
steps; and presently we were led and helped to a clear
agreement among ourselves, That it was the duty of our
day, with the forces we had, to go out and fight against those
potent enemies, which that year in all places appeared against
us. With an humble confidence in the name of the Lord
only that we should destroy them.” Cromwell was present at
that meeting; and it is in his letters and speeches as the
utterings of a sagacious politician but also a man of fervent
religious feelings and a constant Bible reader, whose spirit
was sorely tried and whose life was often perilled in the
struggles of warfare and the dangers of battle,—it is in his
words that we find the greatest similarities. Thus after the
taking of Bristol he writes:—* All this is none other than
the work of God. He must be a very atheist that doth not
acknowledge it..... God hath put the sword in the
Parliament’s hands,—for the terror of evil doers and the
praise of them that do well.” * Again after the capitulation

* Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches, by Thomas Carlyle.
460 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

of Winchester :—‘ You see God is not weary in doing you
good: I confess, Sir, his favour to you is as visible, when
He*® comes by His power upon the hearts of your enemies,
making them quit places of strength to you, as when He
gives courage to your soldiers to attempt hard things.”
After describing the destruction at Preston of Hamilton and
the Scottish “malignants”’ he says:—‘* Only give me leave to
add one word, showing the disparity of forces on both sides;
that so you may see and all the world acknowledge, the
great hand of God in this business.” And, in addressing
afterwards the Presbyterian rulers of Scotland on the same
event, he states “ God did, by a most mighty and strong
hand, and that in a wonderful manner destroy their designs.”
The ‘following™ passages I put together from his letters
when shut up at, Dunbar, and after the victory which
relieved him from the great danger he was there in. Thus
when shut up :—‘‘ We are here upon an engagement very
difficult. The enemy hath blocked up our way; and our
lying here daily consumeth our men who fall sick beyond
imagination. Wherefore, whatever becomes of us, it will be
well for you to get what forces you can together. The only
wise God knows what is best. Our spirits are comfortable,
praised be the Lord,—though our present condition be as it
is.” And after the victory :—“< The enemy lying in the
posture before mentioned, having those advantages; we lay
very near him, having some weakness of the flesh, but yet
consolation and support from the Lord himself to our poor
weak faith, wherein I believe not a few among us stand:
That because of their numbers, because of their advantages,
because of our weakness, because of our strait, we were in
the Mount, and in the Mount the Lord would be seen; and
that He would find out a way of deliverance and salvation
for us... .. The best of the enemies’ horse being broken
through in less than an hour’s dispute, their whole army
being put into confusion, it became a total rout; our men
having the chase and execution of them near eight miles.
TAE PING PROSPECTS. 46]

..... Thus you have the prospect of one of the most
signal mercies God hath done for England and His people
this war. It would do you good to see and hear our poor
foot to go up and down making their boast of God.” In his
first speech, made after the war was over, and in which he
reviews the course of the whole struggle, we find these pas-
sages :—‘* Those very great appearances of God, in crossing
and thwarting the purposes of men, that He might raise up
a poor and contemptible company of men, neither versed in
military affairs nor having much natural propensity to them,
into wonderful success. . . . . So many insurrections, inva-
sions, secret designs, open and public attempts, all quashed
in so short a time, and this by the very signal appearance of
God himself . . . . . It were worth the time to speak of the
carriage of some in places of trust, in most eminent places
of trust, which was such as, had God not miraculously
appeared, would have frustrated us of the hopes of all our
undertakings ,.... What God wrought in Ireland and Scot-
land you likewise know; until He had finished these troubles,
by His marvellous salvation wrought at Worcester.”

At Nanking, we learnt from one of those who had joined
the Tae pings in Hoo nan, that when they were fighting, in
the neighbourhood of Changsha, with an Imperialist force in
the field, some three thousand of the old Godworshippers
knelt down in a body and prayed, then rose and charged the
enemy ; and that that charge decided the battle.*

* At the commencement of this Chapter, I had to show how the conversion of
Hung sew tseuen, and the educated Godworshippers hinged on their rediscovery,
in the foreign Sacred Books, of tenets and views, long entertained, and highly
esteemedin China. I may now state, that they have from the first been encou-
raged in their hazardous political enterprise by the prophetic use, made in
certain Scripture texts; of the terms “Teen kwo, Heavenly Kingdom or King-
dom of Heaven,” and “Tae ping, Universal peace.” Teen, Heavenly (or as
Occidentals often render it, Celestial) when used of worldly affairs, is exclusively
associated in the mind of the Chinese people, with the Sovereign who rules over
them, and with the Kwo, State or Kingdom, of which he is the Head: he is

Teen tsze, the Heavenly Son; his Court is Teen chaou, the Heavenly Court ;
and his empire is territorially co-extensive with Teen hea, all under Heaven,
462 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

But I must warn the reader not to carry the analogy
between the Tae pings and Puritans, still less between them
and the Mohammedans further than the belief in the guid-
ance, and in the special help of God. In other religious points,
and still more in political position, the differences are so great
that analogies only mislead. Mahommed preached and fought
in a desert country, inhabited by illiterate nomadic tribes, who
had no common government. Hung sew tseuen preaches and
fights in a fruitful, long-settled and cultivated country; and
has to contend with well-educated people, directed by a sys-
tematic and highly centralized government. Further, the chief
foes of Hung sew tseuen are foreign conquerors, whom he is
trying to expel,—a circumstance with which there is nothing
to correspond in the struggles of Mahommed and the Puri-
tans. The Puritans did not fight to make proselytes, but for
political liberty as a means to complete liberty of conscience;
in which respect Hung sew tseuen differs from them and
resembles Mahommed. Like Mahommed, too, he finds
slavery and polygamy and does not abolish either; but
unlike Mahommed, he has adopted the Christian Scriptures
and Christian principles of morality, a step which cannot fail
to end in time both slavery and polygamy.

z.e. the world. When, therefore, the Godworshippers found, in the third chapter
of Matthew, the words, “ Z'een kwo e lae, urh tang hwuy tsuy e, the Heavenly
Kingdom will shortly come,—repent ye of your crimes;” it would have been
difficult for them, as Chinese, to conceive the Heavenly Kingdom, if something
that was to exist in the world, as noé¢ existing in China; and hence they were easily
led by their wishes to apply it to their state ; the establishment of which without
Divine aid, might well seem to them a desperate undertaking. So also with
“Tae ping, Universal Peace ;” a term always in great esteem in China, because
expressing the completest and widest realization of the national principles of
government by moral agency. It is used in the translation of the Testament to
render the “‘ peace on earth” which the heavenly host sang on the birth of Jesus;
and the Godworshippers have regarded it as there referring to the universal
peace which is to exist under their “ true Sovereign.” Hence all their officers call
themselves, in their titles, servants of “Tae ping Teen Kwo, the Heavenly
Kingdom of Universal Peace.” A double designation is, however, unusual
and awkward; hence they say only Tae ping teaou le, the regulations of

Universal Peace; Tae ping chaou shoo, the Book of Declarations of Universal
Peace, &c. &c.
TAE PING PROSPECTS. 463

At present the Tae pings have the bulk of the learned
class against them ; but continued success would have, with
the latter, its usual effect on man. If the Tae pings
continue to progress, the learned will go over to them and
profess Tae-pingism, in constantly increasing numbers; and
then that struggle will commence between the Confucian or
rational, and the Buddhistic or fanatical elements of the Tae
ping Christianity, which I have pointed to as most likely to
end in the triumph of the former ; and in the definitive esta-
blishment of a sect, which will make the Bible alone the
standard of belief and will discredit all new revelations. But,
in the mean time, the Manchoo dynasty has on its side all the
troops composed of its own nation, together with as many
Mongol auxiliaries as it may deem safe to bring in, both
backed by the intelligence and wealth of the bulk of the edu-
cated and well-to-do Chinese; which intelligence and wealth is
employed in raising and supporting Imperialist armies, com-
posed of their poorer countrymen. All this may enable the
present dynasty to put down the Tae pings, and every other
rebel body. Hence, though I have thought it might be
satisfactory to the reader to enumerate the chief elements of
success on each side, I must after all repeat, as to the ultimate
result, what I had occasion to say in the Times some months
ago, viz., that the best informed of us cannot possibly form
a vellabla conclusion, but that the struggle, end as it may,
will certainly be hard; and that I do not believe, that either
of the contending parties themselves even, can feel assured
of ultimate success, whatever their language and their hopes
may be.
464 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

CHAPTER XX.
THE BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES TOWARDS CHINA.

In the foregoing portion of this Volume, it has been shown by
reasoning starting from the nature of the Chinese govern-
ment system; and by conclusions drawn from the long
experience of Chinese history, that periodical dynastic rebel-
lions are absolutely necessary to the continued well being of
the nation: that only they are the storms that can clear the
political atmosphere when it has become sultry and oppres-
sive. It has also been shown, by extracts from the most
widely known and most venerated Chinese works, that the
nation itself is perfectly well aware of the political function
of its rebellions; and that it respects successful rebellions,
as executions of the Will of Heaven, operating for its preser-
vation in peace, order, security, and prosperity. Whether
that political system, which renders such crises from time to
time indispensable, is the best that could be devised, or is
one of average goodness or is a very bad one, cannot be made
the question. The system is there. It exists, and exists
deeply rooted in the mental nature of a large and homogene-
ous people. When we have by moral agencies changed that
mental nature, then we may begin to speak of forcibly inter-
fering with that system for the benefit of that people. We
may then begin to argue the question ; for even then, it would
be by no means certain that we had attained any right to
interfere, i. e. that we should, by forcible interference, do the
Chinese any good,—the only thing that can ever give us the
right to interfere by force. Such disinterested interference
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 465

of one nation with another has never yet taken place, I
believe, in the world. But there has often been a pretence
of disinterestedness in such proceedings; and we are, at this
moment, being loudly summoned to interference with the
Chinese in the cause of humanity and of civilization; hence
the necessity of arguing against it too.

That interference, by force, with the internal affairs of
another state could, if unsuccessful, only produce a prolong-
ation of the state of anarchy, or of civil war, is a proposition
that requires but to be stated. Yet so true is it that all in-
terference is bad, that unsuccessful interference is, after all,
the least bad: when put an end to, by the final success of the
party which it opposed, an internally very strong govern-
ment is the certain result. On the other hand, if the armed
interference is successful, the certain result is an internally
weak government; and an internally weak government is
identical with a cowardly government, a vicious government,
and a cruel government. External aid and support imply
external dictation in internal affairs. But so far as the
internal affairs of a state are concerned, the rulers, to be
good, must only rule, and never be ruled. It would be easy
to show in detail, that, in all this, psychological deduction
and historical induction fully concur. But I must content
myself by pointing to Oude; to the externally supported,
and therefore base and ferocious government of which, we
have just put an end.

The propositions of the last preceding paragraph hold of
all nations. That they nowhere can have greater force than
when applied to China, with ‘its peculiar nationality and
institutions, is a truth that all my readers must by this time
be ready to admit. I must beg them to rest assured that a
man who knows the scene and the people practically, could
trace out the very ways in which the results indicated would
be produced.

But if interference with the internal affairs of the Chinese
in the cause of humanity and civilization,—if a well inten-

WOW
466 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
«

tioned and perfectly disinterested interference is inadmis-
sible, because it would defeat its own objects; does not the
right nevertheless remain to us of interfering by force in the
justifiable protection of our general commercial interests,
even though the Chinese nationality should be thereby
destroyed? Most certainly not;—and after the question
has been thus nakedly put, without its usual accompaniments
of circumlocutory disguises and palliatives, it can hardly be
necessary to prove at length why no such right remains
to us. Whether, on shipwreck on the wide ocean, a strong
man, who clings at the same moment with a weak man
to a plank, insufficient to support both, has the right or not,
in the cause of self-preservation, to thrust off his fellow-man
to certain death, is a question that ethicists have much dis-
puted on. But here there is no such nice question to be
decided. British preservation does not absolutely depend on
Chinese trade. Hence, if the protection of our commercial
interests be (what is really not the case) at variance with the
cause of humanity and civilization in that country, most
assuredly our commercial interests must go unprotected;
unless we prefer to engage openly in a war with humanity and
civilization. We have no right to say to the Chinese or to
any people, large or small: “ Submit to bad government,
to bodily misery and mental depression, that we may trade
with you.” The Chinese rebellions have not been got up to
attack our trade; and wherever they injure it in the interior
of the country, the injury is incidental. So long as that
remains the case, we have no right to interfere by force,
however great the injury may be. It is only when the power
in China, by whomsoever wielded, turns from internal to
external affairs, and attacks our commerce directly as such;
or when any of the contending parties endangers, incidentally
or wilfully, our persons and property at the Five Open Ports,
that we are entitled, not indeed to interfere between other
parties, but to protect and defend our own persons and rights
by force.
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 467

Let us here place distinctly before ourselves what it is that
constitutes non-interference. The doctrine of non-inter-
ference is: That no nation has the right to aid, by actual
force or by intimidation, one of the contending parties in any
other nation, unless it is to counterbalance the aid given to
an. opposite party by a third nation. This latter, the only
justifiable description of armed interference, is analogous to
the one justifiable case in which a poisonous dose may be
administered to a man, viz. as an antidote to another poisonous
dose. If the poisons exactly nullify each other, and are then
pumped out or ejected, the man lives, though his system
sustains a severe shock. If the armed forces exactly nullify
each other’s action in the body of the nation interfered with,
and are then withdrawn or forced out, the nation lives,
though it too, suffers heavily. The first interferer is an
international poisoner ; the second interferer is the doctor ;—
who best shows his ability by administering no more of the
deadly interference than is just necessary.

There is reason to hope that the doctrine of non-inter-
ference, so understood, will in time have the authority of an
international axiom in the world. ‘Then, possibly, wherever
there is a poisoner there will be found one or more doctors.
Let us apply the doctrine by way of illustration to one or
two existing states. The republican Swiss hire themselves,
in large numbers, with the avowed or tacit consent of their
government, to aid the king of Naples in maintaining a
despotic rule,—a despotism by all accounts atrocious,—over
the inhabitants of south Italy and Sicily. Here the repub-
lican Americans would be perfectly justified in fitting out an
expedition to aid the people; and the American government
is in nowise required to prevent citizens of the States from
engaging in such an enterprise, but rather the reverse. So
long however as the Piedmontese — to instance another
Italian people—settle their internal affairs among themselves,
any nation in the world that would interfere by force, whether
on the pretext of “order” or of “ freedom,” would commit

HH2
468 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

an outrage on the Piedmontese nation and a grave offence
against humanity.

The four most powerful nations in the world are interested
in China. England and America have large and increasing
commercial interests; and influential parties in both countries
interest themselves in the labors of the Protestant mission-
aries. France has small, but gradually extending com-
mercial interests; and has hitherto greatly interested herself
in the labors of the Romanist missionaries,—a large number
of whom are French. Russia has considerable commercial
interests; and necessarily interests herself in the condition of
an empire which has a common boundary line with herself
for thousands of miles,—and whose territories she has, more-
over, shown herself determined to encroach upon.

With respect to the external affairs of States, or inter-
nationul relations, when we look back on the past 4,000
years of history, there is every ground for hoping that if
some one country (Russia is in spite of her present check
still the most likly one) does not, through the foolish disunion
of the others, succeed in subjecting them all, there will be
established in the course of time a Universal Congress, com-
posed of deputies from every Soverign State in the world, large
or small, to which will be referred the decision of the disputes
between any two of them. The Congress will be based on the
two principles that, happen what may, there shall be no terri-
torial encroachments, and that, if any one of two disputing
States should demur to its decision, then the aggrieved nation
shall itself never take other than a pecuniary or at most a defen-
sive part in the war of enforcement; which will be conducted by
two or more, as may be necessary, of those nations which are
least interested in the subject of dispute; or, if the refractory
state is very powerful, by all the others (the aggrieved one
excepted),—all expenses, together with a heavy pecuniary
penalty for widows and orphan’s pensions, &c., being in the
end invariably and strictly exacted from the common offender.
Were this system once fairly in effective operation, wars
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 469

would cease; the certainty of defeat with all the costs would
prevent aggressions; and there would be a general reduction,
on economical grounds, of all armed force, not required for
the maintenance of the internal order of each State ;—with
which the Congress would have nothing whatever to do.

Notwithstanding the vast extension, and the wonderful in-
crease in frequency and rapidity of the communications among
nations,—circumstances which cannot fail greatly to accele-
rate the slow movement of past ages towards congressional
union, and which might bring us unexpectedly to it in the
course of another generation,—still it may be one or two
hundred years, or even a longer period, before that union is
attained. In the meantime, we must adopt the best methods
now practicable and available.

In the present state of civilization and practice of inter-
national morality, nations are obliged, like individuals where
there is no virtual law, to redress their own grievances. If,
therefore, any one of the nations connected with China is
directly attacked in its legitimate interests by the Chinese,
then full liberty must be accorded it to obtain redress by
force. Under such circumstances, the others have no right
to interfere, directly or indirectly, unless it were to advise or
to constrain the Chinese to listen to the just demands made
on them. But if any one such nation begins a contest with
the Chinese on an obviously mere pretext, and prolongs it
plainly with the object of effecting territorial encroachment ;
or attacks one Chinese party, with the manifest intention of
affording help to some other Chinese party, for selfish pur-
poses; then any other of such nations acquires thereby the
distinct right to counteract such proceedings by force. And
‘what is more to the purpose, the other three nations together
have the right, as they would certainly have the power, to
enforce an interdict to the mischievous proceedings of the
one meddler. The three nations would have this right of
combined prevention, each in protection of its own special
commercial interests. But their right rests on broader,
470 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

though less immediately tangible grounds. The peace and free-
dom of the world require the existence of Chinaas a separate
State, and of the Chinese people in self-supported nationality.
The British war shook the power of the Manchoo dynasty, but
it in no wise impaired the strength or vitality of the Chinese
people. The latter are as yet internally uninterfered with;
and it does seem that (in the absence of the Universal Con-
gress above foreshadowed) the three states America, France
and England might now unite to apply the principles of such
a Congress to China at least. This they could do by formally
engaging, first, not to make themselves, nor to allow others to
make, any further encroachments on the present territory of
the Chinese empire; and, secondly, not to interfere with the
purely internal contests going on within the boundaries of
that empire, even though they should result in its temporary
division into separate States.

Commercially, the interests of the three nations cannot be
separated ; for the moment the one gains a privilege, the other
two are by treaty entitled to the same privilege. No one can
better itself by separate political action; while the weight of
all three, acting together, may obtain for them collectively,
legitimate privileges which, disunited, they might strive after
in vain.

In matters of religion also, they may MBB act together in so
far as protecting to the same extent the missionaries of their
respective countries is concerned. But there should be no
protection of Chinese Christians against their own government,
whether local or Imperial. To do so amounts to setting up a
state within the State; for Chinese then become Christians in
order to rob and oppress their neighbours and to set at defiance
with impunity the just operation of the laws of their own
country. When pursued for their crimes, they take refuge with
the representative of the foreign State whose religious system
they have professed, and pretend that they are persecuted
for their religion. It might, at first thought, be supposed
that it would be sufficient to require, that the foreign repre-
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 471

sentatives should examine into the circumstances before
definitively according their protection. On maturer reflec-
tion, however, several reasons will suggest themselves to
intelligent home residents of the three countries, why that
should not be sufficient. There are other reasons, con-
nected with the state of things in China, which may not
occur to them, but which make it certain, that the power
granted to foreign representatives of standing between
Chinese subjects and Chinese government officers, on the
ground of the former being members of some foreign religious
sect, will inevitably form a potent element of destruction to
the Chinese State; while it can only spread religion through
the instrumentality of men who, having committed crimes
against their fellow-countrymen, become hypocrites before
God in order to defy the just laws of their Sovereign. If
Chinese proselytes of foreign missionaries should be driven,
like the Tae pings, to defend themselves, we may sympathize
with them; and if such banded proselytes should be defeated,
there would be no harm in facilitating their escape to foreign
regions,—to the Polynesian Islands, to California, to Aus-
tralia, or to Europe. But we should not be justified in
using force or intimidation to aid that escape; while to
insist on their being allowed to remain in the country, and
there set its laws at defiance, would be nothing less than the
propagation of Christianity by the sword. I am unable at
present to dwell on details, but the governments and peoples
of the three countries may rest assured that that attitude
towards the religious question which has just been indicated,
is the only one in which they can unite in China. And they
must xow make their choice either to trust to moral agencies
and to the truth of Christianity for its propagation in China,
limiting their armed support to the protection of their mis-
sionaries, strictly and honestly according to the terms of the
Treaties, which put all on the same footing; or to sap the
nationality of the Chinese, and thus place them at the mercy
of Russia.
472 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

Russia is the only power that can seriously speculate on
acquiring China for itself. None of the other three can
hope to acquire China if they wished it; but they can, by
isolated and inevitably jarring operations in matters of com-
merce and religion, raise quarrels among themselves; and
at the same time check and thwart the spontaneous political
action of the Chinese, in that work of self-government which
is indispensable to national health and strength, and to the
spontaneous wholesome adoption of'military science. The
Chinese will then, not simply remain externally as defence-
less as they now are, but will really become, internally,
what many now imagine them to be, z.e. unenergetic, effete,
hopeless and helpless. ‘They would then be unable to resist
those future aggressions which the severe check she has
incurred in her present contest will not prevent Russia
from attempting; so soon as her commercial and military
communications by a telegraph line, by road, by river, and
by railway are rendered sufficiently easy throughout the
productive regions of southern Siberia up to her forts on the
Amoor;—and for which future aggressions she is doubtless
already preparing, by the less open methods of attack known
to be habitual to her foreign policy. When writing some
months back in opposition to one of the advocates of inter-
ference with Chinese affairs, who, among oths things,
ridiculed our “guarding against imaginary Russian dangers
in China,” I stated:—“ The greatest, though not nearest
danger of a weak China lies precisely in those territorial
aggressions of Russia which she began to attempt two cen-
turies ago, one of which she has successfully carried out at
the Amoor within the last three years; and which if allowed
to go on, will speedily give her a large and populous terri-
tory, faced with Sweaborgs and Sebastopols, on the Sea-
board of Eastern Asia. Turkey, by the by, forms at this
moment a grave example of the consequences of former
intermeddling. We went on knocking the ‘man’ down
with one hand and lifting him up with the other till he got
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 473

‘sick;’ and then, when he is unable to stand up alone to
another great strong man, who knocks him down and kicks
him when down, we are compelled to strip and fight the big
bully ourselves. To support the ‘sick man’ in the near
East is an arduous and costly affair; let England, France,
and America too, beware how they create a sick giant in the
far East; for they may rest assured that if ‘ Turkey is a
European necessity,’ China is a world necessity.”

From Chapter III. of “ Civilization,” the reader will see
that, six years ago, I penned the following sentence :—“ China
will not be conquered by any Western power until she becomes
the Persia of some future Alexander the Great of Russia,
the Macedon of Free Europe.” I am therefore not now
writing under the influence of the war excitement. What is
more, I am not—not in the least—maintaining the Russians
to be more hateful, as aggressors and conquerors, than other
peoples. The best of the others, if in the same position,
would, so far as conquest is concerned, be precisely the same:
England, Burmah, France, Algiers, United States, Mexico
—these six names spare me further illustration.

But this does not make it the less our duty to oppose
Russia in China, with all our intelligence, our wealth, and
military force. The cause of civilization alone would justify
it; for the Chinese are freer and happier, even under the
Manchoo government, than they would eventually find them-
selves under that of Russia. But, as above indicated, the
important fact is, that not only England and France but
America too, will, if they are wise, wage, severally or col-
lectively, a war of exhaustion with Russia, rather than allow
her to conquer China: for when she has done that she
will truly be the Mistress of the World. Those Americans
who have manifested a disposition to aid Russia in her present
war, are politically most short sighted. Were Russia by any
chance—such a chance as American assistance for example—
to come out of the war in victorious possession of Turkey, or
even of the Danubian provinces, nothing is more probable
474 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIQNS.

than that she would immediately seize the opportunity of her
proven strength, and of the existing troubles in China, to
grasp, as the Manchoos did before her, the sovereignty of
that country, with its immense natural resources ;—with its
timber forests, its iron mines, its coal mines, its great rivers,
its numerous splendid harbours, and its 360 intelligent,
industrious, and expert millions already accustomed to centra-
lized rule, and of whom some two or three millions of able
bodied coastlanders have all the habits and qualities neces-
sary to form excellent sailors. Probably more than five hun-
dred thousand of them are, at this time, either seamen, or
fishermen. Russia would then have ail the means of throw-
ing, into the old States of America, an army of half a
million of intelligent and enterprising men, such as are
now contending for gold with the Californians, but drilled
like the defenders of Sebastopol, and commanded by Gort-
schakoffs and Todtlebens. And if that army were there
checked, she could send out a second to its aid without seri-
ous effort; while with serious effort, but still without leaving
her own coasts defenceless, she could send forth a third and
a fourth,—so great is the wealth, and so enormous the popu-
lation of China. But what would be the effect of two such
armies being landed—say in the slave States, and there accom-
panied by the able and educated coloured men whom the
Czar would not fail previously to attract to his standard?
That the danger I point to is chimerical, none can believe
who have seriously reflected on the history of the world, par-
ticulary on the history of Russia and China since a.p. 1640;
but many may suppose it to be too remote to be a practical
subject for the present generation. It is this precisely which
makes me so dwell upon it. The subject is most practical at
this very time; for as the English, Americans, and French,
now—in the next few years—deal with China and with her
relations to Russia, so the event will be. Were it certain
that the danger is one of a hundred years hence, it would
still deserve the serious consideration of every patriotic states-
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 475

man, and of every one who can exercise an influence, great
or small, on the policy and destinies of his country. For
those to whom, It will last our time, is a word of practical
wisdom and sufficient consolation, this volume is not written.
That nation is no longer safe, even for one generation, when
the majority of its manhood—to abuse the word—is composed
of such people.

But the danger is at hand, for all except the ostrich poli-
tician, who manages not to see a threatening calamity by run-
ning to some national or international bush and sticking his
head into it.

The Commanders of the Russian settlements, north of the
Amoor valley, began to make hostile exploring excursions
into the latter about a.p. 1643 ; the time when the Manchoos
were engaged with the war which ultimately made them
masters of China, and when the latter country was torn by
rebellions. In a.p. 1649 Chaborow made an incursion. In
A.D. 1654 Stepanow descended the river, and followed up
his incursion in a.p. 1655; but in a.p. 1658 the Manchoo-
Chinese forces,—then well inured to fighting by the war in
China,—met and beat the numerically weaker forces of the
Russians. Nevertheless, desultory hostilities were kept up
for the possession of the Amoor valley till August, a.p. 1689,
i.e, till the lapse of some years after the final subjugation of
China Proper, by the conquest of Formosa in 1683,* enabled
the young Emperor, Kang he, to bring his veteran forces to
bear on the struggle; and thus to procure terms which placed
the whole of the valley of the Amoor Proper in his hands,
and only gave to Russia one bank of a portion of the Argun,
an upper affluent of the Amoor. In June, 1728, another
Treaty was concluded; which, leaving the eastern boundary
line between the two Empires as it was, settled that which
lies westward from the Argun. The chief gain to the Rus-
sians was the permanent establishment of a mission at Peking,
from whence they have since been able to observe all that

* See pages 109—112.
476 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELIgONS.

occurs in the country, and thus to abide the best opportunities
for further encroachments.

In consequence of these two treaties, the Hing gan moun-
tains—the northern watershed of the Amoor valley—have
formed the eastern boundary between the Russian and
Chinese empires ; and to the latter has belonged the whole of
the valley from the mouth of the river back westward through-
out the first 1,200 or 1,500 miles of its course. Then begins
the valley of the upper affluent, the Argun, of which, for about
300 miles, the Russians had the left side, the Chinese the
right ; after which the whole valley, up to its bead, lay alto-
gether within the Chinese boundaries.

So things appear to have remained up to the years 1852-
1853; when the Peking Gazette gave one or two indications
that Russia had seized the opportunity of the serious rebellion
in China, to extort some further concessions,—probably with
little trouble to herself beyond that of threatening. To my
official report on the Chinese rebellion of the 12th December,
1853, I added the following paragraph :—“ An edict directs
one officer to be promoted, and another to receive the decora-
tion of the peacock’s feather for ‘ their efficient services in the
transaction of the Russian commercial affairs.’ As grave
political affairs are frequently called commercial in the Peking
Gazettes, when ‘ barbarian’ peoples are concerned, the above
circumstance may have some significance at the present
time.”

Even in China, and for a person speaking the Chinese
language, it is almost impossible to get at the details of such
jealously concealed transactions in a remote quarter, unless
funds and ample time are expressly allowed for the purpose.
But what we did learn, together with what the Allied squad-
rons have since observed, shows that at that period the Rus-
sians must have acquired the right of free navigation (from
their semi-portion of the Argun valley) of the Amoor down
to its mouth, together with some territory at its mouth;
if she has not, indeed, actually gained the whole of the
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. ATT

northern half of the valley. The right of navigation of the
Amoor enables her to double, or to turn the flank of the
Gobi desert—hitherto the great barrier to material encroach-
ments on China. She can now quietly make, in her new
settlements, some such a collection of war material as Sebas-
topol has given us a notion of; and then, by the aid of a squad-
ron of small river-steamers,—which the Chinese empire as yet
furnishes no means of resisting,—transport it, and a large army
up the Songari affluent, till within such a distance of Monkden,
the capital of Manchooria, as would form but a comparatively
short march through a well watered and fertile, if not a culti-
vated region.* From thence to Peking, a Russian army would
meet with no serious natural obstacles. But it is more likely
that she quietly would collect a sufficient fleet at and near the
Amoor, and then, availing herself of the ice-free summer
months, transport an army by sea up into the Peiho river.
She might, in this way, be mistress of Peking and the sur-
rounding country actually before the three maritime powers
heard of her invasion; and, after that, have not only esta-
blished a permanent unassailable internal communication with
the Songari, but have seized and securely occupied Chih le
Shan tung and the whole of the Yellow River valley, by the
time that England, France and America could bring up forces
to retard her further progress. This would be the case, even
if these three powers had previously arranged for instant action
in the common cause. What would happen if there was no pre-
vious agreement, I may leave the reader to picture to himself,

But it may be asked, would the Chinese empire itself not
furnish the means of resistance to invasion, till two or more of
the maritime powers came to its aid? I must answer that, in
so far as the period is concerned during which the present
rebellion lasts,—and it may last some years,—the Chinese

* We have no European accounts of this region later than those of the
Jesuit. surveyors who visited it 150 years ago; but what I could glean from
Chinese, led me to believe that large portions of it have been brought under
cultivation by immigrants and convicts from China.
478 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

empire could of itself make scarcely any resistance. Russia
would, in the first instance, accord complete religious freedom
to all natives, and, guided by those of her officials who under-
stand the Chinese language and institutions (#. e. the succes-
sive members of her Peking mission) would so far adopt the
Confucian principles of rule, as to conciliate the educated
classes. She would, therefore, gain rapid and large accessions
of all those Chinese whom I have shown to be averse to the
Tae pings; and to whom the change would at first appear to
be merely a substitution of rulers,—of Russians for Man-
choos. Russia would, in short, have the whole population
of that portion of China Proper which I have indicated—a
population of 120 millions—working or fighting for her more
intelligently than the bulk of her own sixty millions, and as
steadily, if not so cordially, as her Muscovites, before the three
maritime powers could bring 100,000 men to bear upon her
new territories. Now she would probably collect near the
Agun, at Petropaulovski, &c,, an army of at least that
strength to make her first invasion with; and then keep
moving in after it, as many troops as she could spare from
the bare defence of her western boundaries.

If the anarchy in China should be past and an internally
strong government established there, before Russia can suffi-
ciently recover from her western effort and her present check,
to organize such an invasion in eastern Asia, there are many
reasons for fearing that the result would nevertheless be the
same. If for instance the Manchoos by their own strength
put down all rebellions, then the government of the Chinese
empire would be internally strong; but for many years the
Manchoo rulers would have to keep their veteran forces inthe
central and southern provinces of China, the scene of the sub-
dued risings; and would be ill able to meet external aggressions
in the north. If, on the other hand, the Tae pings should suc-
ceed in making themselves masters of the country, they will
(unless prevented by a quarrel with one of the maritime States)
doubtless be able to move their best forces to its northern
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 479

boundaries. But then they would have against them the
whole of the Manchoos, the people who hold that very region
through which Russia, if once fairly in fortified possession of the
mouth of the Amoor, could invade China in defiance of the hos-
tility of the maritime powers. And we may be assured that
under the circumstances supposed, she, in pursuit of “the policy
of Peter the Great and Catherine,”’ would avail herself of the
Manchoos in order, either in their name or in her own, to sub-
vert the Tae ping power. If there is any one extra-Russian
political revolution that would be more distasteful than all
others to the successors of Peter and Catherine and their Mus-
covite-Greek subjects, it would probably be the establishment
in her contiguity of a state of 360 millions of Bible-studying
Christians; whom the study of the Bible would unfailingly lead
to the study of the sciences and arts of other Bible reading
peoples; and who would oppose to fanaticism another fanati-
cism, supported by strong nationality, by great numbers, by
great wealth, and by an increasing proficiency in all branches
of the military art. If the Tae pings succeed, let the three
maritime powers, on the one hand, keep Russia off, and, on
the other hand, overcome the absurd Tae ping pretensions to
universal supremacy or their other obstructive notions, by a
due use of conciliatory reasoning, of forbearance, of firmness,
and if necessary of military force vigorously applied ;—let
this but be done till Tae-pingism is fairly established for a
generation, and then the rest of the world may confidently
trust to the Chinese forming one of the most insuperable of
the barriers to the Peter-Catherine policy of aggression, and
to Russian aims at universal dominion.

That France and England will unite to prevent a Russian
conquest of China, is guaranteed by the manner in which
they have united to stop her attempts on Turkey. So far as
they are concerned, I write only to induce them to follow,
advisedly and strictly, the best method of procedure in-
stead of unadvisedly exerting themselves in the furtherance
of their opponent’s schemes. But what will the free demo-
480 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
°

eracy of civilized America do? A suicidal party there has
actually contemplated attacking England in the back, as she
bravely fronted despotism and barbarism, with little previous
preparation for the arduous enterprize. Possibly this party
thinks,—if it indeed reflects on anything but the objects of the
day,—that Russia would, even after a present humiliation of
England and France, be unable to effect the complete subju-
gation of western Europe, till the United States’ territories
were covered with a population more than adequate to enable
the New World to resist the Old. How far such a calcula-
tion would be well founded, as applied to western Europe, I
leave English and American home readers to judge for them-
selves. As applied to eastern Asia, it would be extremely
ill-founded. J cannot dwell longer on the subject ; and I must
therefore beg the indulgence of my American readers if I, for
shortness sake, speak dogmatically. In considering the whole
matter, I have kept in view the settling of the valley of the
Mississipi and of the whole of North America by an enter-
prising and hardworking population ; I have kept in view the
time which it will require before that is done; the chances of
union and disunion among present and future States; the really
small likelihood of Russia’s “ crumbling to pieces ;” and the
certain though slow. advance of Russia in material prosperity;
together with all, and probably more of the possibilities, pro-
babilities and difficulties than are likely to occur to the minds
of American home-readers, with reference to the conquest of
China by Russia. After having kept in view, and duly con-
sidered all this, I hold the conviction that only the interven-
tion of the maritime powers can prevent that conquest; that.
if there is no such intervention, the conquest may take place
within the next eight, twelve or fifteen years,—in short when-
ever Russia has completed her preparations for it; and that,
that conquest once achieved, Russia with her 420 millions—
all from Petersburg and Simpheropol to Peking and Canton,
closely enough allied in race to amalgamate speedily into one
homogeneous people—will assuredly, within ten or fifteen
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 481

years afterwards, commence her subjugation of the 40 or 50
millions of more or less disunited Anglo-Saxons, Germans,
Celts and Negroes, who will, by that time, inhabit the con-
tinent of North America. With a wide tract of unoccupied
land then still intervening between the Atlantic and the
Pacific States, it would cost the Russian Emperor of China
but little trouble to overwhelm the latter and so possess
himself of the Californian gold mines in the first instance.

Now, so certain as this will ensue if the maritime powers
do not intervene to keep Russia off China, so certain will it
not ensue if they at once do so intervene. Let them, in the
interests of human freedom and progress, feel themselves
fully possessed of the right of navigating the Amoor, equally
with Russia, as far as the old Russian boundary at the Argun ;
and let them immediately set about exercising that right,
whether granted or ungranted. That is the first and most
necessary step. By this means they will, (apart from open-
ing some new branches of trade,) get sufficient notice of any
projected attempt on the integrity of China to thwart it
effectually, if they are only united among themselves as to what
is to be done by each and all. To begin at once the naviga-
tion of the Amoor would be no interference with the internal
affairs of the Chinese Empire, least of all with the course of
events in China Proper. On the other hand, it would most
probably prove an interference with events in China Proper,
if the three maritime powers were now to insist on having
each a mission and trading facilities at Peking such as the
Russians have there; and it should not be done unless it be-
comes plain that Russia is using her peculiar privileges to
take a side in the civil wars. But so soon as these civil wars
are over, they should insist on having at the capital, wherever
that may be, equal privileges and facilities with Russia.

The following are some of the leading articles of the
Compact that should be concluded among the three maritime
powers; if they should otherwise be able to agree on joint
action in China :—

II
482 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.
e

I. An attack of Russia on China to place in abeyance any
serious discussions that might then be carried on among the
three powers themselves, the matters in discussion to remain
as they then happen to be; and such an attack to have the
effect of an armistice, leading to peace by arbitration, in the
case of the existence of war among them.

II. An attack of Russia on China to constitute a declara-
tion of war against the three maritime powers; the active
operations of the war to begin in a pre-arranged manner, and
to be prosecuted by them, in the Hast and West, until Russia
agreed to pay all the costs.

III. The action of the three powers, in their intercourse
with China, to be in all respects regulated by agreement
among themselves ; force not to be used against China by the
subjects or agents of any single one of the three powers,
except in individual or local cases of mere self-defence; and
in the event of China refusing redress, in a case which the
three powers considered a grievance to any one of them,
then the redress to be obtained by hostile operations of the
other two;—the aggrieved power remaining passive, and the
costs being required from the Chinese.

IV. No concession in addition to those made by treaty, to be
demanded from China, except after agreement among the three
powers, and always in the shape of a joint requisition; and no
concession to be demanded until the fullest inquiry and consi-
deration had shown that it was not likely to impair the strength
for good of the Chinese government, and also that the latter pos- -
sessed the virtual, as well as the nominal power of granting it.

V. The three powers themselves to make no encroach-
ments on the present territories of the Chinese empire.

VI. The three powers neither to interfere themselves, nor
to allow any other power, large or small, to interfere,—not
even in the character of mediators,—with the disputes or civil
wars of the present Chinese empire, whether among the
Chinese themselves, or among them and the other peoples
which are contained within the limits of the Empire.
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 483

VII. Special care to be taken that the rulers and peoples
of the Chinese empire, wherever foreigners come into contact
with them, be constantly furnished with translations of the
present Compact, and of the detailed rules based upon it;
together with a carefully prepared and full exposition of its
object and meaning,—the exposition to be accompanied by
maps, and to be specially adapted to the geographical and
historical knowledge of those whom it is meant to enlighten.

In enumerating some of the chief benefits of the above
Compact, I beg the reader to bear in mind the cost in life and
money of our Russian war to uphold Turkey, and the nature
of the proceedings remote and near, on the part of the great
powers, which had helped to weaken Turkey, as also those
which were the immediate causes of the Russian war.

1. The Chinese would know, once for all, that encroach-
ments on their territories had become a human impossibility,
and one great cause of their exclusiveness would be effectu-
ally removed.

2. The Chinese would know that they ran no risks of
having any of their cities bombarded or vessels destroyed, or
of any violence whatever being directed against them, if they
refused to yield to wrong-headed or unjust demands of any
one subordinate international agent or of the Minister of any
single State. 4

3. The Chinese—the central government, the local
mandarins, and the people—would all know that if they
refused to yield to the reasonable demands of any one inter-
national agent or State,—the said demands being grounded on
a fair interpretation of the treaties,—they would inevitably
suffer the humiliation of yielding to the menaces, and if
necessary, the forces of the other two; and they would know
that the individuals who first raised the dispute, would be
certain to incur great damage in credit, if they did not suffer
in person.

112
484 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELIJONS.

4, One of the causes of troubles between States, especially
between weak and powerful States, lies in the temptation,
to which the vain and fame seeking among the international
agents of the latter are exposed, of raising striking diffi-
culties in order that they may make a prominent figure in
the settlement of them. Art. ITI. would effectually remove
this temptation; for by it the moment the difficulty raised by
an international agent gets somewhat serious, his individual
action is superseded or disappears in the collective action of
the chief representatives of the three states; while if it
should be determined to enforce the demand against the
Chinese, he, with all the officials, civil, naval, and military,
of his country, would be set in complete abeyance and never
be heard of till the quiet routine commenced again.

5. At present, if one Occidental nation succeeds in ex-
torting some privilege, the others ask for it and probably for
more; both national feeling and personal pride urge their
agents to strive 1o outdo each other in gaining concessions;
and if these concessions are found on experience to be in-
compatible with vital Chinese institutions, it is, with the
existing isolated action, scarcely possible to give up the right
to them. Art. IV. would stop all rivalry and make noxious
concessions unlikely, while if want of information did lead ‘to
such concessions being insisted on, the three powers could
collectively give them up without reserve ; and could notify
the same to the Chinese without loss of dignity,—the more so
as the joint action would have had the effect of preventing
intemperance in demanding them.

6. The Chinese rulers, being as hopeless of assistance from
without, as they would be fearless of interference, would be
compelled to govern well—neither tyrannically nor laxly—
in order to retain the goodwill and respect of the people;
and the people, being equally hopeless of aid and fearless of
interference, would neither be encouraged in factious rebel-
lion nor discouraged from rightful opposition: there would
actually be more chances of good government and pros-
»

BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 485

perity in China, than at any previous period of its national
history. :

7. As on the one hand the impossibility of territorial
encroachment would remove suspicions from the minds of the
Chinese people and government, which now act asa counter-
poise to the desire of the latter to trade, and thus tend to
prolong exclusion; so, on the other hand, the government
would be prevented from resisting non-injurious demands of
the three powers (out of mere pride, petulance, &c.), by the
certainty that hostilities would in such case ensue, which
would shake its power, while no help would subsequently be
given to it against native factions. ©

Such a Compact as the above, if fairly concluded by the
three maritime powers would practically put- an end in
Eastern Asia to the inherited polity of the Czars; and might
have the effect of finally convincing Russia that that policy
must once for all be given up. She could in any case be
invited to join the union for the preservation of China, with
equal rights and privileges to all parties. In the event of her
doing so, only some slight verbal changes in the Compact
would be required.

As to the concessions to be demanded from China, their
general nature is obviously to ensure the extension of free com-
merce and free intercourse. It would be useless entering into
details till after the present troubles are over. In the meantime
the soundest policy of foreign states is, to preserve a rigid and
true neutrality; to define their existing rights distinctly and
maintain them, by reasoning if possible, by force if neces-
sary, but in every case without vacillation; and to abstain
from negotiation until the country is at peace again whether
as two or three states, or, what is most likely, either alto-
gether Manchoo or altogether Tae ping.

Whatever party may succeed in possessing itself of the
sovereignty, I see no necessity for hostilities with it, nor
even a probability of them, if the proper methods be
pursued. -Sound argument and conciliatory expressions, if
486 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

addressed by a weak State to a powerful one, are apt to be
overruled and treated with haughty indifference; but when
they are employed by a strong power to a weaker one, they
produce conviction and amity. Now the Manchoos have
already felt our power, and are not very likely, if rightly dealt
with, to provoke its exercise again by retrenching privileges;
which they could not, moreover, deprive other nations of, with-
out drawing down attacks from them also. As to the Tae pings,
even their fanaticism does not appear to me to be by any means
a certain cause of war between them and. us. When they
come into contact with the western foreigners at Shanghae,
they will speedily perceive, that to attempt to cram down the
throats of Occidentals a second sonship of God, or the uni-
versal supremacy of the Heavenly Prince, would be to declare
war with three nations, one of whom has beaten with ease
all the Manchoo Chinese forces that could be brought to
meet it. It is morally certain, therefore, that, if pains are
taken to enlighten the Tae pings and their leaders, the
Eastern Prince will fall into an ecstasy, and issue a reve-
lation, making peaceable relations possible. All his previous
revelations have had political objects; and he would, as
regards the difficulties of foreign relations, brood over them,
and over the manner of solution, till his feelings were
wrought up to a pitch of intensity sufficient to produce
extreme nervous excitement; when he would, in a semi-
epileptic state, give an announcement prétisely fitted to
solve the difficulties. If he be altogether a deliberately cal-
culating impostor, then the solution would come all the
quicker. If the movement is by that time in the hands of
Hung sew tseuen or his party, I do not think that the
admission of supremacy or even of the reality of his vision,
still less of the son-ship will be requisite to the enjoyment of
existing privileges. The opium question would probably
give the most cause for argument and negotiation. The strong
objection that the Tae pings have hitherto taken to opium-
smoking, as a breach of morality, is a perfectly disinterested,
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 487

and therefore very respectable feature of their policy in our
own eyes not less than in the eyes of the Chinese people
generally. The foreign opium merchants discountenance
opium-smoking in the people around them, and I never heard
Chinese opium-smokers themselves justify the practice.

As to the morality of the opium question, I am fortu-
nately able to give the home reader, by analogy, and in few
words, as exact an idea of it as I have got myself. Smoking
a little opium daily is like taking a pint or two of ale, or a
few glasses of wine daily ; smoking more opium is like taking
brandy as well as beer or wine, and a large allowance of
these latter; smoking very much opium is like excessive
brandy and gin drinking, leading to delirium tremens and
premature death. After frequent consideration of the sub-
ject, during thirteen years, the last two spent at home, I can
only say that though the substances are different I can, as to
the morality of producing, selling and consuming them, see
no difference at all; while the only difference I can observe
in the consequences of consumption is that the opium-smoker
is not so violent, so maudlin, or so disgusting as the drunk-
ard. The clothes and breath of the confirmed and constant
smoker are more or less marked by the peculiar, penetrating
odour of opium; and he gets careless in time of washing
from his hands the stains received from the pipe. But all
this is not more disagreeable than the beery, vinous, or ginny
odour, and the want of cleanliness, that characterise the
confirmed drunkard. In all other respects, the contrast is to
the disadvantage of the drunkard. The Times of the 9th
January last devotes an article to the support of a con-
demnation of Sir R. Carden, from the bench, of street alms-
giving,—more especially of the giving of alms to small
starving children, who are mere money collectors for drunken
parents or “proprietors.” “I am confident,” said Sir
Robert Carden, “that many of the low ginshops would be
obliged to shut up if they were not fed by the money pro-
cured by these children for their unnatural parents.” The
488 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

Times, after an endeavour to describe “the misery, the in-
describable ” misery of the children, adds :—

“Benevolent persons who are inclined to encourage the
system should not shrink from the contemplation of its
results. Let them go about eleven o'clock at night to the
gin-palaces frequented by the speculators in starving chil-
dren. There let them see what it is they have encouraged.
In a corner on the damp floor lies one wretch in a state
of bestial unconsciousness, his rags reeking with the filthy
odours of the last dram, which he could not carry to his
cracked lips. Near the counter a strong blear-eyed fellow is
holding on, and hiccoughing out a desire for another quartern,
while the partner of his joys and sorrows, in a shift and the
draggled remains of a gown, is endeavouring to tear him
away. She had better leave him alone; this night in their
nuptial bower, he will kick her out of bed, knock her down
half a dozen times, and she may esteem herself fortunate it
the policeman arrives before she is eased out of the window of
the three-pair back. There are two or three damp cabmen
drinking gin—a heap of fellows in flannel jackets, roaring
and bellowing at the top of their voices and drinking gin;
female impostors rubbing out their fictitious sores and drink-
ing gin; stunted pickpockets, boys in stature, but adults in
crime, with the true wandering eye of the Old Bailey dock,
drinking gin ; finally, the fathers, mothers, and proprietors or
the starving children drinking more gin than any of the
others. They have easier minds than the rest of that foul
rabble, more certain incomes and more sustained thirst—for
gin.”

Nothing worse than all that can take place from opium
smoking in China; and my conviction is that nothing quite
so bad does take place. If there-is a weakness in the analogy
which I have instituted, for the information of the reader,
between the opium question and the intoxicating liquors
question, it is that it rather tells too much against the opium.
It is necessary to be explicit on this subject as highly immoral
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. 489

attempts have been made to liken opium trading to slave
dealing,—the offering of what is in itself a most useful medi-
cine to people, who are absolutely free to use it or misuse as
they please, with the forcible subjugation of free men to
bodily suffering and mental degradation for life !

The opium-smokers, then, are like the alcohol-drinkers,
whether these latter drink the alcohol in beer or wine, or in
brandy, gin, or rum; the opium smoking houses are like
beer-houses and gin-palaces; the opium-merchants like wine
merchants, and brandy, gin and rum importers; and the
opium producers like vine and hop growers, maltsters, brewers
and distillers.

This leads us to what I consider the chief difficulty with
the opium question, between the British and Chinese: the
British Government or that branch of it which governs
India derives a revenue from the} production™of opium
for consumption in China,—a circumstance quite well known
to the Chinese. If the Canadian Government—not private
Canadians, observe—were to establish distilleries, and to
derive a revenue by selling it to merchants who introduced it
to the State of Maine, then the position of the Canadian
Government to the State of Maine would be somewhat like
that of the Indian Government to China. And if we suppose
the Maine liquor law to fall into desuetude, and the officials
charged with its execution to levy illegal but well-known
taxes on the alcoholic liquors, then the parallel would be
more complete. But however much the opium laws in China
have fallen into desuetude, there still remains a large party
in that country who (in their ignorance of what laws for the
preservation of morals, in matters of meats and drinks, can do
and can not do) would still put down opium smoking by
force; and who regard the British with dislike, in so far
as they are the chief producers and importers of the article.
To this party the Tae pings belong. For my own part, the
opinion I published nine years ago has been fully confirmed
by inquiries made in the time that has since elapsed, viz. that
490 THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBELLIONS.

mental agencies alone can put a stop to opium smoking, and
that it can only cease as drunkenness has ceased in classes of
English, with whom that vice was, but two generations back, a
daily habit. And if the Chinese were, as many now are andas
all eventually will be, fully convinced of this, I should cer-
tainly not advocate any limitation of the opium production
in India. The proper way to ascertain how to stop any
widely prevalent practice, is first to ascertain how each indi-
vidual begins it. Now all my inquiries on this point prove
that people in China begin opium smoking because it is
thought rather a fine thing to do,—because it is fashionable
among wealthy people; and that, consequently, one of the
most essential parts of any plan to stop opium smoking is to
cheapen the article, and thus gradually vulgarize the practice.
If I therefore hint at such a thing as the East India Com-
pany producing from its own lands sugar or other innoxious
articles* instead of opium, it is solely on political, not on
moral grounds; as I am thoroughly convinced that the cause
of true morality in China would not be in the least bene-
fited by such a step. That step would, however, undoubt-
edly place us in a much more favourable position for nego-
tiating on other subjects with the rulers of China, whether
the present Manchoos or the Tae pings. Practically, there-
fore, the subject is reducible to three questions. Is the
more favourable ‘position in international dealings with the
Chinese worth purchasing by the loss of revenue which the
East India Company would sustain by substituting the sugar
cane, &c. for the poppy? If worth purchasing, can the Company
carry on the government of India with the reduced revenue?
If the Company cannot, is the English people willing to
keep on the income tax, to make up the deficit ?

As it seems certain that the last two questions can at pre-

* By this I mean articles that may be taken in considerable quantities with-
out perceptibly injuring the health. Opium in small quantities is an in-
valuable medicine ; and sugar habitually taken in large quantities would un-
dermine the health. It is not the articles themselves, but our use, misuse, or
abuse of them that makes them innoxious or noxious.
BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES. A491

sent only receive negative answers, it would be waste of time
to attempt now the solution of the first. I therefore close
my remarks on the subject of opium, with the following
opinions as to our negotiations with the Chinese. I hold
that though we may use all those perfectly sound arguments
which prove that coercive measures directed against opium
smokers, must continue as ineffectual as they have hitherto
proved, still that we have no right whatever to prevent, by
intimidation, any Chinese rulers from trying such measures
against the smokers, their own subjects, if they so please.
On the other hand, I hold it quite possible to strike into a
line of reasoning —perfectly truthful and therefore certain,
after sufficient time, to produce conviction—in which a
determination not to put down the opium trade by any
physical coercion on our own part, would be completely
justified to all educated Chinese; and I hold it possible, in
arguing with men who are acquainted with State difficulties,
at the least to excuse, politically, our Indian government in
continuing the production of opium till we see our way to a
different means of raising the revenue which it produces.
Consequently, I believe that, though the opium question
may prove matter for much explanation and argument, it is
not by any means an inevitable necessity that it should prove
a cause of quarrel, whether with a new native dynasty, or
with the Manchoo rulers, re-established in full power.
ON CIVILIZATION.

CHAPTER I.
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION.

Suortiy after commencing the study of the Chinese lan-
guage under Dr. Neumann at the Munich University, I was
led to ask the professor, from the class, if the Chinese were
a civilized people? He answered, “ Yes; certainly, (jawohi);”
and I remember that, in spite of this distinct answer, I was
not a whit more enlightened about the Chinese than before.
It was some years afterwards, before I discovered that the
question I wanted to put was: What is civilization? I had
mentally anticipated the professor’s answer; but what I
wanted to know was, why the Chinese, differing so much
from Occidentals, should yet be a civilized people, as well as
the civilized English and Germans.

The question that I had put to my professor was, after
I had resided among the Chinese a few years, often put to
me by newer arrivals from Europe: “ Are the Chinese,
now, a civilized people?’’ To which the inevitable reply at
length became: “If you will explain what you understand
by civilization I shall be able to answer you.”

In process of time, I happened to get hold of Guizot’s
494 ON CIVILIZATION.

“History of Civilization in Europe;” and examined it

eagerly in the confident expectation that I should there find
the much wanted definition. But I found that M. Guizot
gave none. The following is what he says on the subject :*—

“For a long time past, and in many countries, the word

civilization has been in use; ideas more or less clear and of .

wider or more contracted signification have been attached to
it; still it has been constantly employed and generally under-
stood. Now itis the popular common signification of this word
that we must investigate. In the usual general acceptation of
terms there will always be found more truth than in the
seemingly more precise and rigorous definitions of science.
It is common sense which gives to words their popular signi-
fication, and common sense is the genius of humanity. The
popular signification of a word is formed by degrees, and
while the facts it represents are themselves present. As

‘ ~.often as a fact comes before us which seems to answer to the

signification of a known term, this term is naturally applied
to it, its signification gradually extending and enlarging
itself, so that at last the various facts and ideas which, from
the nature of things, ought to be brought together and
embodied in this term, will be found collected and embodied
in it. When on the contrary the signification of a word is
determined by science, it is naturally done by one or a few
individuals, who at the time are under the influence of some
particular fact which has taken possession of their imagina-
tion. Thus it is that scientific definitions are much narrower,
and on that very account much less correct than the popular
significations given to words. So in the investigation of the
meanings of the word civilization as a fact,—by seeking out
all the ideas it comprises, according to the common sense of
mankind, we shall arrive much nearer to the knowledge of
the fact itself than by attempting to give our own scientific
definition of it, though this might at first sight appear more
clear and precise.”’

* I quote from the English translation published by Talboys in 1838.

=
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 495

As it is my intention to propose a definition of civilization
both as a “fact,” or thing, and as the word elected by
popular suffrage to represent that thing in various languages,
I must not leave the above unimpeached, otherwise I should
submit to a pre-condemnation of my proceeding in express
terms by an eminent writer. The reader must bear in mind
the great intrinsic difference that exists between the defi-
nitions of true science, and the definitions of arbitrary sys-
tematizing. It is the latter, and not truly scientific defini-
tions, that M. Guizot refers to in the above passage. That
I attach the greatest importance to the spontaneous inductive
generalizations embodied in the terms of popular language,
the reader will perceive from the frequent appeals I have
made to such, in confirmation of my views on China and
the Chinese. They are often highly useful, because showing
a nationally felt consciousness of a real connection between
things that might be regarded as having little or no relation
to each other. But, so far as the progress of humanity is
considered, these words are only useful when they represent
true generalizations, and therefore are capable of receiving
an explanation at once accurate and definite, in other words,
a truly scientific definition; which, while it is on the one
hand so expansive as to embrace all the facts that ought to
be taken in, is, on the other hand, so precise as at once to
reject all the facts that ought not to be taken in.

M. Guizot’s attempt to arrive at the knowledge of the
fact, civilization, is virtually an endeavour, though, as appears
to me, an unsuccessful one, to get at a really scientific defi-
nition. He concludes that civilization consists of two
elements: 1st, the progress of society, the amelioration of
the social state, the carrying to higher perfection the rela-
tions between man and man; and, 2ndly, the development
of individual life, the development of the human mind and
its faculties, the development of man himself.

This description of civilization, when I read it before
having myself arrived at a definition, threw no light on the
496 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

subject. And a close examination of all that M. Guizot
writes upon it leaves the same impression of unclearness
and vagueness.

He states, for instance, that Christianity has promoted
civilization because it has changed the interior condition of.
man, not because it affected the relation of man to man.
He says, with much emphasis and varied phraseology, that
“it in no way interfered with the social relations of man,”
“attacked none of the gross injustices of the then social
system.” Now I think I shall prove, to the complete satis-
faction of the reader, that Christianity has been civilizing
precisely because it lays down repeatedly, with striking
Oriental figures, and typical exaggeration, the highest civi-
lizing rule, viz. :—‘“ Love your enemies; do good to them
that hate you; resist not evil; unto him that smiteth thee
on the one cheek, offer also the other; him that taketh away
thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also; and as ye would
that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

M. Guizot devotes about six pages to the consideration of
the question whether his two elements of civilization are, or
are not ‘so intimately connected, that sooner or later, one
uniformly produces the other.”

I mention the number of pages, because the fact that
a gentleman of M. Guizot’s high standing as a philosophic
historian and statesman could devote so much space to the
consideration of such a question, and arrive at the conclusion
he arrives at, is a strong proof of the want of a strictly
scientific definition of civilization. M. Guizot does indeed
conclude that the two elements which he particularizes are
intimately connected, reciprocally producing each other;
which no one will dispute. But he also concludes that they
may exist independently, and that for “long intervals” of
time—* that ages may interpose between them;” an as-
sertion that strictly speaking has no meaning, is a self-con-
tradiction, and was only possible to M. Guizot because he
had committed the very error he commenced by decrying:
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 497

separating things by a scientific definition, which in nature
have no separate existence. The two elements cannot exist
apart; the one is a necessary and therefore invariable con-
stituent of the other.

He considers each, in turn, as existing apart from the
other; the state of the individual apart from the social state,
and the social state apart from the state of the individual. In
the latter case he says:

«A revolution is made in the condition of society. Rights
and property are more equitably distributed among indi-
viduals: this is as much as to say, the appearance of the
world is purer—is more beautiful. The state of things, both
as respects governments and as respects men in their relations
with each other, is improved. And can there be a question
whether the sight of this goodly spectacle, whether the ame-
lioration of this external condition of man, will have a corre-
sponding influence upon his moral, his individual character—
upon humanity?”

There cannot, indeed be any such question, but there can
be another, viz. How is what you start with to take place
at all, unless what you end with takes place at the same
time? How is any revolution to be made in the condition of
society except by a revolution in individuals? What is
society but an aggregation of individuals?

Where M. Guizot speaks of the state of individuals—of
all individuals—he would seem to have on his mind the state
of those individuals only who originate general changes, 7.¢.
the civilizers, always a small number. These few, the civi-
lizers, do indeed, often live and labor a long time, it may
be ages, before the complete triumph of the civilization they
initiate; and they usually get very ill-treated in conse-
quence. Some, whose direct operation is on merely material
civilization, such as Galileo and Newton, are ridiculed, put
in prison or tortured, but are not killed. Those who deal
with the highest mental civilization, as Socrates and the
Founder of Christianity, are laughed at so long as the power

KK
498 ON CIVILIZATION. oe

of their teachings is not fully perceived; afterwards they
are reviled as radicals and low reformers; then howled at as
infidels and blasphemers; and eventually put to death by
poisoning or crucifixion. We seem in the West to be now
so far advanced in civilization that a man who points out a
step in material progress receives credit, if not profit, for
so doing. But as to the mental region, the political or
higher social, let any one disclose a new means of advance
in that and he may truly thank his stars if he is allowed to
escape with the peculiar reward which is said to be virtue’s
own.

The subjoined extracts, from an English writer of autho-
rity,* support the above criticisms on M. Guizot. They
besides expose, in express terms, the lack of a sound defi-
nition of civilization, and show also the aid such definition
noust form in the progression of humanity.

“Tn order that we may possess a language perfectly suit-
able for the investigation and expression of general truths,
there are two principal, and several minor, requisites. The
first is, that every general name should have a meaning
steadily fixed, and precisely determined. When, by the
fulfilment of this condition, such names as we possess are
fitted for the due performance of their functions, the next
requisite is that we should possess a name wherever one is
needed; wherever there is anything to be designated by it
which it is of importance to express... . . But the vulgar
(including in that term all who have not accurate habits of
thought) seldom know exactly what assertion they intend to
make, what common property they mean to express, when
they apply the same name toa number of different things.
All which the name expresses with them, when they predicate
it of an object, is a confused feeling of resemblance between
that object and some of the other things which they have
been accustomed to denote by the name.”

* Logic, by J. 8. Mill. Book iv. chap. 4.
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION, 499

Mr. Mill then shows how in time “general assertions are
made concerning the whole of the things which are denoted
by the name,” and thus “ make up in a loose way a sort of
connotation for the class name.” He then goes on :—“ Let
us take, for instance, the word Civilized. How few could
be found, even among the most educated persons, who could
undertake to say exactly what the term Civilized connotes.
Yet there is a feeling in the minds of all who use it, that
they are using it with a meaning; and this meaning is made
up, in a confused manner, of everything which they have
heard or read that civilized men, or civilized communities,
are, or should be.”

After showing how from the concrete name, as Civilized,
the abstract name, as Civilization, is formed, and how vaguely
this is necessarily done in common language, Mr. Mill says :—
“Hence the word (as Civilization for example) conveys
scarcely to any two minds the same idea. No two persons
agree in the things they predicate of it; and when it is itself
predicated of anything, no other person knows, nor does the
speaker himself know with precision, what he means to
assert. Many other words which could be named, as the
word honour, or the word gentleman, exemplify this un-
certainty still more strikingly.”

Mr. Mill next shows that “it is imperative to determine
exactly the attributes which a name is to express, if it is to
be used as an instrument of thinking or as a means of com-
wmunicating the result of thought;” but that in performing
this necessary operation we are not at liberty to deal arbi-
trarily. ‘In the first place, it is obviously desirable to avail
ourselves, as far as possible, of the associations already con-
nected with the name..... A philosopher would have
little chance of having his example followed, if he were to
give such a meaning to his terms as should require us to call
the North American Indians a civilized people, or the higher
classes in France or England savages. ... . The endeavour
should be that all generally received propositions into which

KK 2
500 ON CIVILIZATION.

the term enters should be at least as true after its meaning is
fixed as they were before.”

The reader will observe that Mr. Mill, in the last sentence,
uses the words “endeavour” and “generally received.” It
would be neither possible, nor useful, to follow every in-
accurate writer and speaker. Defining, like everything else

nf which is human, is relative. It is capable of use and abuse,
/ ‘Properly used, it is at once a firm grasping of existing know-
ledge, and a means or starting-point for further progress.

The only approach to a definition of Civilization made by
Mr. Mill himself is in the following:—* A volume devoted
to explaining what civilization is and is not, does not raise
so vivid a conception of it as the single expression that Civili-
zation is a different thing from Cultivation.” He, in his work,
merely refers to the word in illustration of his views on
definition. He appears to have felt no call to furnish a defi-
nition of that particular term, otherwise I should have
probably been spared my present labours.

But I had, as already stated, experienced the want of such
a definition before leaving Europe; and, in Asia, the marked
contrast afforded by specimens of different nationalities, often
made me feel the want most:acutely. Let me here place two
examples before the reader.

The one is a young countryman, but recently arrived from
England. He is clothed in shining boots, glossy hat, and the
finest broad cloth; and is provided with a first-rate watch
and many other conveniences of the civilized Occident, with
the use of which he is well acquainted. On the other hand
the extent of his knowledge can be best characterized by
saying that he possesses “the three R’s,” with a very limited
personal experience of human life; and he is in consequence
apt to admire, as able in substance and excellent in manner,
everything written that contains long words and involved
sentences.

The second specimen is a Chinese clerk, under me in the
Consulate, whose tendency to liberal expectoration I have

 
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 501

corrected, but whose pay is so low that I have not the heart
to insist on English cleanliness in clothing. When he first
came to me a double-bladed penknife was a curious engine to
him; and he is still almost unable to let himself out of my
office by turning the handle of that mysterious machine, the
English door lock. But he is a shrewd observer of character ;
and is well acquainted with some thousand years of history,
and many sound principles of sociology. It has been my,
and his dolorous fate, as translator and copyist, to labour
together over a long correspondence, which on the one side
(it would be a betrayal of official secrets to hint what side)
commenced in fierce bluster and now ends in purest weakness.
As he finishes copying the last epistle of the series, he points
to it with his Chinese writing-brush, and gives demure utter-
ance to seven syllables, “ Hoo tow, shay wei; chay she wei,
Tiger’s head, snake’s tail; this is the tail.”

Now to both of these very different men, I could not do
otherwise than apply the term civilized; yet traits of bar-
barism were palpable in both. Which was really the most
civilized ?

Further, the Chinese generally held the English to be
“barbarians,” and themselves the only civilized people; the
English generally called the Chinese semi-barbarians, and
themselves one of the most civilized of peoples. The English
were manifestly nearer the truth, but why exactly? and in
how far?

It was evident, that only a thoroughly scientific definition
of civilization could help me to form distinct satisfactory
judgments of the relative standing of different nations; and
this was a matter of practical interest to a government agent
abroad. I ultimately fixed on the following :—

Civilization is the aggregate substitution, by man, of efficient
moral and intellectual agencies for the physical in his struggle
with animate and inanimate nature.*

* See page 509 for another form of the definition.
502 ON CIVILIZATION. @

Civilization may be taken either to mean a state arrived
at, or an act in operation ; and I can at present see no advan-
tage in depriving it of the faculty it possesses of being taken
in either of these significations. But, for the sake of clear-
ness, the distinction pointed out should be kept in mind; as
also that the word substitution in the definition may, accord-
ingly, be held to mean either a state or an act.

All philosophers, whether positivists or metaphysicians,
sensationalists or idealists, when they come to the considera-
tion of men in themselves and in their relations to each other,
appear to agree in holding their faculties to be naturally
divisible into three classes: the physical, the intellectual and
the moral. The common sense of the less reflective portion
of mankind, that is to say, of the great bulk of human beings,
dictates the same classification; and it is indicated, in the
popular language of the English, by the alliterative triplicate,
hand, head and heart. In this, the hand indicates the physical
faculties; the head, the intellectual; and the heart, the moral.
Civilization may, therefore, be defined in familiar popular
language to be, the more extensive and advantageous em-
ployment by men of the qualities of their heads and hearts,
instead of their bare hands or mere bodily strength, in all
the affairs of life, whether in dealing with each other, with
animals or with things.

By the moral faculties are meant man’s higher feelings or
emotions only, not his baser passions or merely animal im-
pulses; which latter must, for the purposes of my definition,
be considered as included in the physical faculties. We are
better able to comprehend this distinction, if we employ
another common classification of man’s faculties, that which
divides them into faculties of the mind and faculties of the
body.

By adopting this latter classification, and by substituting
for “animate and inanimate nature,” what amounts to the
same thing, “the world around man;” the definition might
be made to run;—
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 503

Civilization is the aggregate substitution, by man, of efficient
mental agencies for the bodily in his struggles with the world
around him.

More shortly we might say :—

Civilization is the domination of mind over matter.

But this latter definition, though perfectly correct, is so
terse as to be very vague. It is, therefore, at once liable to
misinterpretation, and useless as a practical test.

The same holds, though to a lesser extent, of the preceding
definition, in which the mental and the bodily faculties are
contrasted ; and it will presently be seen that the natural
subdivision of men’s mental faculties into the moral and the
intellectual ; together with the equally natural subdivision of
the exterior world around man into animate and inanimate
nature, may, both of them, be usefully employed—must in
fact be employed—in the full elucidation of the civilized and
civilizing processes.

My readers are aware that there is, in reality, no absolute
point where the line of demarcation can be drawn between
animate and inanimate nature—no real division between the
mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms—but that
scientific classifiers may draw the line at the place which the
purpose of their classification points out. In my definition,
the line must be considered as drawn not lower than at the
foot of the zoological scale. Animate nature must be under-
stood to include man, and such animals only, as have the
power of locomotion and sensation; together with the germs,
at least, of what is called instinct in the zoological: world and
reason in man. Lower than that, the line of demarcation
cannot be drawn; the plant animals, with the whole of the
vegetable kingdom, being included in the term inanimate
nature; while, for practical purposes, the “ animate nature ”
of the definition includes only those animals in which exist
distinct intellectual and moral qualities to work on: such as
the reasoning power, the memory, the gratitude and the
devotion which we observe in the elephant and the dog. In
504 ON CIVILIZATION. e

“inanimate nature” is of course comprised, all insensate
and inorganic matter; as the mineral kingdom, water, air,
and gases and fluids generally. “Thinking and unthinking”
nature would, in some respects, best indicate the character
of my classification.

Man’s dealings with the world around him can be truth-
fully represented as a “ struggle” for the preservation of his
individual life, and for the continuance of his species. If the
-oxygen gas which he inhales, finds in him no carbon, prepared
from food, with which to combine itself, then it preys on his
organism, and he dies of hunger. In the tropics, self-
preservation compels him to guard against the destructive
ageressions of heat; and in the arctics, it is still more neces-
sary to guard against those of cold. Numerous animals, from
the mosquito and flea to the crocodile and lion, seck to prey
on him; while with other animals—birds and quadrupeds—
he has to coutend for the fruits and grains which serve as a
means of self-preservation, alike to him and to them. Among
savages, man has to struggle with other men who seek to
devour him; and still more with those who seek to kill him, in
order to remain conquerors in that struggle, which is carried
on between them, for the animals and the natural productions
that constitute a means of existence common to both.

The reader can now exactly understand the substitution
which my definition declares to constitute civilization. The
more savage tribes, or families, maintain their struggle with
animate and inanimate nature’chiefly by the direct use of the
physical faculties, with which they are born: they take the
wild fruits from the trees and the fish from the waters,
directly with their hands. But the most savage have made
some steps in civilization. When the lowest savage, instead
of wandering all over a forest to pluck with his hands such
fruits as are within his reach, discovers that, by taking the
branch torn from the tree by a storm, and with it knocking
down the more remote fruits on one and the same tree, he
can appease his hunger with little locomotion and search;
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 505

or when he finds that he can knock shell-fish rapidly off rocks
with a stone, instead of seeking out those which he is able to
detach with his bare hands alone; and when he, from that
time forth, purposely employs the stick and the stone to save
himself a considerable amount of physical exertion, he sub-
stitutes efficient intellectual for merely physical agency, and
achieves a step in civilization. From that point to the best
description of elaborate fishing apparatus, and to the sowing,
reaping, thrashing and corn-grinding machines of the most
improved agriculture, the additional civilization is nothing
but a saving of physical labour or agency by an aggregation
of successive substitutions of intellectual labour or agency.

Again, to protect himself from the inclemency of the
weather, the savage retreats into a natural cave. This is, in
time, found too small for his family, as the latter increases;
and another cave is found, but with its entrance barred by a
stone, which the united strength of all that can at one time
lay hold of it is unable to move. One member, however,
of the family, in poking about the obstacle with a stick,
happens to lean on the one end with his whole weight, while
the other is touching the stone, with a natural fulcrum under
it; he observes the stone move, and thus accidentally dis-
covers the use that may be made of the stick asa lever. He
turns out the stone without assistance; and, from that moment,
the lever is deliberately resorted to by the family in order to
save direct physical labor.

A savage, in search of food, takes the unshaped log of wood
to support him in crossing the broad river or creek; after-
wards he finds how to hollow it out by fire, and sit im it; and
more and more intellectual labour is substituted for the
direct physical, until we find civilized commercial peoples
using steamers of 3,000 tons burthen to cross the ocean in
pursuit of wealth. So the low hut of mud and unshaped
stones is transformed, in time, into the palace.

The savage sees another savage struck dead by lightning;
and spends inefficient physical agency in preparing sacrifices
506 ON CIVILIZATION. e

to operate on the supposed mental nature of the Deity of
Heaven-Fire. The members of civilized society find that,
after a long course of substitution of efficient intellectual
agencies for physical agencies, the aggregate of the substi-
tutions at length enables them to struggle with the “ Heaven-
Fire” by means of lightning-conductors ; and, ultimately, to
employ its real natural energies in talking instantaneously
with their fellow-men, thousands of miles off.

Whatever saves time in man’s struggle with the world is
part of the work of civilization. Mere waiting—unoccu-
pied existence for a specific purpose—is an employment of
physical agency; hence whenever means is discovered for
shortening the waiting, intellectual agency reduces physical
agency.

The members of a savage tribe have to travel over track-
less plains and through dense forests, to get to and from good
hunting grounds. They find it saves much time, formerly
spent in wandering astray, if they mark the best routes by
breaking a branch off a tree, or piling up some stones, here
and there. Here, again, physical exertion is spared by the
introduction of an intellectual agency; and it is nothing but
an aggregation of intellectual agencies, brought to bear on
the means of communication, that brings us, from this in-
dicating of a materially unformed road, up to the entirely
artificial railway which pierces through mountains and runs
over deep valleys.

If we had the means of calculating the amount of physical
labour which was requisite for an ancient Briton to convey
himself from the Thames to the Tyne; if we, taking the
labour expended on the Roman roads into account, could
ascertain the exact amount, which should be added to the
personal physical labour done by the legionary in march-
ing from London to Newcastle; and if we could reduce
to one passenger, out of the hundreds of thousands that
have travelled the same distance on existing railways, all the
physical labour spent on the formation of the latter, on the
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 507

construction of the locomotives, &c.; then we should have
before us a striking example of the fact, that civilization is
the reduction of physical labour in the attainment of an end,
by the aggregate substitution of efficient intellectual dis-
coveries and inventions, 4. e. of intellectual agencies.

The ancient Briton, even if unopposed by man, would lose
himself in trackless forests; would have to force his way
through tangled brushwood ; to lower himself down into, and
climb up out of deep ravines; to go days’ journeys out of the
actually known way, in order to find practicable fords
through swollen streams. For him the journey would pro-
bably be a fatiguing daily labour of three or four months’
duration.

If we suppose the most direct Roman roads, which brought
the places into connection, to have been 3800 miles long,
the legionary would have had a steady march of some
twenty days’ duration; to which would have to be added a
few days of physical labour, as his share of what was origi-
nally spent in the formation of the roads, of the tools used
in making the roads, &c.

In the case of the passenger of the present day, the
tremendous complexity of the elements is such, as to render
the calculation of his share of the physical labour the wildest
of impossibilities. If, for instance, fish oil is used for the
locomotives, then is individual share of the labour spent
by the whale fishers in catching the whale; of the miner’s
labour who dug out the iron ore to make the harpoons; of
the forester’s labour who cut the trees wherewith the whole
ship is built, &c. &c. would have to be reckoned up. Most
readers will, however, be inclined to agree with me when I
suppose that, if the aggregate amount of all the physical
labour, remote and immediate, spent in the formation of the
present means of transit, were divided by the number repre-
senting the aggregate of passengers who have used, and
will use them, the result would not be more than a few
days’, perhaps only a few hours,’ physical exertion for each
508 ON CIVILIZATION. @

passenger, in addition to his own physical exertion of sitting
ten hours in a carriage.

A portion of man’s struggle with animate nature consists
in fighting with wild animals, and with other men, who, in
their struggle against hunger, want to eat him. In this
struggle, he begins the civilizing substitution, by bringing his
mind to bear on the pointing, and, as he discovers, hardening
also, of the end of a long stick; finding that he can more
easily and safely kill his enemy, by thrusting that into his
soft body, than by going near and hammering on his hard
scull with a short club. The steel-pointed weapon of the
lancer, and the infantry-man’s bayonet, can be thrust into
the human body easier than the pointed stick; and the intel-
lectual labour which produced them, after the transition stage
of the bone-headed spear, saves physical exertion. In the
same way, the stone thrown by the unaided manual exertion
of the savage fighter, becomes,—after the transition stage of
the sling and the catapult,—the rifle-bullet and cannon-shot
of the civilized soldier; while the burning brands which the
“warriors of the tribe” throw into the camps of their foes,
become the enormous bombs propelled by the artillerists of
France and England, through miles of air, and which, with
infused intellect, reserve their destructive force until they
pitch into the fortified cities of the Russians.

Savage warriors at first make use of the bodies of their
captives, to resist the attacks of oxygen, by eating them. At
length some one, bringing his intellect to bear on the subject,
discovers that he will get more food by making the live body
of his captive gather it for him, than by eating his dead body.
He who does this is a civilizer; for he substitutes slavery
for cannibalism.

In the latter case, it is clear that the intellect of the captive
tells him that, in his struggle with animate nature (his captor),
a partial success is attained by consenting to labour; whereas
refusal is death.

This brings us to the distinction of the four kinds of
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 509

civilization, corresponding to four divisions of nature; in
dealing with which the civilizing substitution or operation
can take place. When it takes place in dealing with inani-
mate nature, the result is material civilization; when, in
dealing with the physical nature or faculties of the higher
animals and man, the result is what I would call physical civi-
lization; and when, in dealing with the intellectual and moral
natures or faculties of man (and the higher animals), the result
of the civilizing operation is what may, in like manner, be
called intellectual civilization and moral civilization. The
reader must not overlook the circumstance, that in intel-
lectual and moral civilization a certain amount of physical
agency can never be dispensed with: mind cannot speak to
mind directly, and hence some intermediate physical means
of expression—vocal language chiefly—must be employed, to
enable the intellectual and moral agencies to work on intel-
lectual and moral nature. This leads me to give the follow-
ing form of the definition of civilization, as being often more
conveniently applicable than that given at page 501:

Civilization is the aggregate introduction, by man, of efficient
intellectual and moral agencies to the reduction of the physical,
or of moral to the reduction of intellectual, in his struggle with
animate and inanimate nature.

That the operation (substitution in place of,” or “intro-
duction to the reduction of”), when it takes place in dealing
with inanimate nature, produces purely material civilization,
is evident. But as in animate nature the purely physical
qualities are closely connected with the intellectual and
moral, it is not so easy to fix the boundaries of physical civi-
lization with exactness. It so happens, however, that, while
it is of considerable practical importance to distinguish be-
tween the four kinds of civilization in those cases where they
differ widely, it does not seem to be of much importance, in
those cases which lie near the lines of demarcation. A few
illustrations will form the best elucidation.

The strait-waistcoat applied to a raging lunatic must be
510 ON CIVILIZATION.

considered as an instrument of physical civilization; for it is
a product of intellectual labour, and is used to spare the
physical exertions of keepers or relatives, where there is, for
the time, no trace of moral or intellectual faculty left to deal
with.

The fattening of animals for food is an operation of
physical civilization ; and its adoption, in a rudimental form,
constitutes an important step in the history of man’s progress:
that by which savage hunters become nomadic herdsmen.

If savages, so little advanced in material civilization, as to
be unfurnished with instruments and methods whereby to kill
a lion in their vicinity, should, knowing that when they them-
selves have eaten enough they will not undergo any physical
labour to get more food, place the carcases of animals at
night at the disposal of their enemy, the act is one of physical
civilization, for it deals only with the purely physical cravings
of the lion. But when they, in their struggle with this
danger from the animate world, light fires to keep the lion
off, and thus spare themselves the greater labour of collecting
food for him, the act is one of intellectual civilization, being
a dealing rather with the intellectual or thinking faculties of
the lion than with his purely physical appetite.

But it is, I repeat, in man’s dealings with man, and espe-
cially in cases where the three kinds of faculties, the physical,
intellectual and moral are each markedly developed, that the
distinction is at once clear and important.

If we consider three different methods by which employers
may, and do, deal with labourers, we shall get an illustration
of this fact.

If it occurs that an employer gives his field labourers un-
usually strong feeding, not in the hope of gaining their good-
will and more cordial cooperation, but merely that their bodies
may be stronger for some work which is speciully difficult
under certain temporary circumstances; then, since he would
appeal neither to their intellect nor to their moral feelings, but
merely use his intellect to bring food to bear advantageously
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 511

on the physical force of the human body and thus get it to
do more work, it is clear that the operation is one of physical
civilization.

But we may suppose the employer to be a shrewd and
experienced man, who knows that if he merely dealt with
(fed) the bodies of his labourers, without working on their
intellects, they would consume the additional food, and then
advisedly refrain from doing more work than they had been
in the habit of doing before. In such case, he would promise
his labourers an additional remuneration, to be paid if he
found that they worked so as to meet the exigence; and he
would state the promised remuneration at a rate so high, as
would not only enable the men to buy the food necessary to
support their bodies in greater strength, but would leave
them a considerable balance as an inducement to overcome
man’s animal aversion to laborious exertion. This would be
an employment of a method of intellectual civilization.

Lastly, we may suppose the employer to be a man who not
only pays his labourers punctually and well, but manifests a
practical interest in their welfare, apart from his own appa-
rent advantage ; spending money in mitigating the misfor-
tunes, and increasing the enjoyments, of the labourers and
their families. Such an employer would get, on an emer-
gency, from the gratitude of his labourers an amount of
additional exertion which it would be in vain to expect the
above method of intellectual civilization or of physical
civilization to elicit. This would be a method of moral
civilization.

Moral civilization is the substitution of moral agencies,
either for physical or for intellectual.

The reader will observe that the moral is the highest
description of civilization. And so far are the most advanced
nations of the earth from having yet attained it, in any great
degree, that the examples of the successful operation of its
merits between employers and labourers are rare indeed.

Civilization presupposes Cultivation. Cultivation, as distin-
512 ON CIVILIZATION.

guished from Civilization, is the development and improvement
in individuals of the physical, intellectual and moral faculties,
Until they are developed the corresponding kinds of civili-
zation are not possible. This laid down, I may draw the
attention of the reader to the weight of the word efficient, in
my definition of civilization. A man may try to substitute
a moral for an intellectual, or for a physical agency, and fail,
because the field on which he hopes to operate, either does
not exist at all, or does not exist in a sufficiently perfected
degree to enable his agency to effect the object in view, i.e.
to be efficient. The attempt is in that case not civilized: it is
a misdirection of the agencies of civilization,—time and labour
thrown away—and may justly be regarded as a species of
barbarism or discivilization.

With the light now obtained, we can understand exactly
what amount of truth there is in the common saying: “It’s
all very true in theory, but it won’t do in practice!” This
is often used by people of uncultivated minds to bar the
proper use of agencies, the working of which they are unable
to comprehend. But it is properly employed, and often with
good effect, with reference to the description of cases just
indicated; where people are attempting to exercise the art
of civilization, without due regard to a low moral and intel-
lectual state of the field in which they wish to operate.
Such people are usually quite right in the matter of abstract
principles ; but, being very irrational in attempting to apply
them where radically inapplicable, the common sense of the
public justly derides them as “unpractical,” “mere theo-
rizers,” &c. &c. “It’s all very true in theory, but it won't
do in practice,” may be justly applied to the visit of the
peace deputation to St. Petersburg, and the appeal to the
moral faculties of the Emperor Nicholas to stop war. Hither
these faculties were not sufficiently developed in his case, to
admit of moral agencies overpowering the intellectual
agencies, which told his reason that he was able to extend
his territories at the expense of Turkey; or the moral
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 513

agencies, were really, as Russian manifestoes maintained,
overborne by the operation of the religious faculties; which
latter I have yet to notice. The peace doctrines of the
quakers, and the efforts of the peace party in British politics,
all proceed from a lack of power to see, that the most civilized
nations are still very far from being sufficiently cultivated in
their moral faculties, to admit of the efficient substitution of
moral for intellectual or physical agencies in man’s struggles
with man.

Certain English employers — genuine philanthropists —
commit the same error, when they endeavour to substitute
moral for intellectual agencies in dealing with the labouring
classes ; whose moral nature is soured by reflecting on their
miseries, which they believe are, and which often really are,
caused by vicious legislative and social regulations. But
intellectually, these classes are so far developed that the
second method of dealing pointed out above, the intellectual,
can be, and is, largely employed. All piece-work is an
exemplification of it.

The labouring orders of Chinese are so far advanced that
the method of intellectual civilization is, in like manner, in
effective operation between employers and employed; but it
cannot be used advantageously with many other Asiatics, and
other peoples, whom we call semi-barbarous or barbarians.
Englishmen, unaccustomed to deal with such, have often to
learn from disagreeable experience that “it’s all very well in
theory, but it won’t do in practice.’ The first method is the
only one applicavie to them. Strengthening and stimulating
food applied to the body may produce a muscular vigour and
a flow of animal spirits, resulting in an increase of voluntary
physical exertion; but the intellectual faculties cannot be
appealed to with success. The improvident savage cannot
force himself to labour, with the view of laying up for a
rainy day. With the savage, and morally moody negro
slave, the still grosser agency of the whip is the only
effective one.

LL
514 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

Communion in goods, and in the industrial production of
them, could only be possible where an equal, and also a high,
development of the moral faculties existed in the members of
the community.

In armies and navies, the use of the dram as a stimulant to
exertion is a method of physical civilization, if such it may
be called. The judicious bestowal of promotion and of other
rewards, pecuniary and honorary, together with the with-
holding of the same as a penalty, is a method of intellectual
civilization. An effective appeal to an adequately strong
sense of patriotic duty, or a previously created feeling of
grateful devotion to a kind leader, is a method of moral civi-
lization. The historically recorded deeds of armies, animated
by devotion to their leaders and duty to their countries,
abundantly show which of the methods is the highest.

From the preceding, we can at once draw several practical
conclusions. We are led to see plainly the great advantage
to be derived from the fullest development of our individual
faculties, physical, intellectual, and moral, z.e. from the highest
self-cultivation, The man who cultivates his faculties to the
utmost, is best able, in every society of every nation with
which he may have to do, to see what description of civilized
agency is likely to be most effective; to find out soonest when
he is employing a wrong agency; and to employ the right
one with the most chance of success.

We can, for instance, fancy, as we must hope for, a future
state of civilization in England, in which the intellectually
shrewd, hard-hearted, morally unfeeling “ man of the world”
may, instead of laughing as he now justly can, at the failures
of premature, though genuine, philanthropists, see these latter
deriving worldly advantages from the judicious indulgence
of their higher moral faculties, in the treatment of their
labourers. And he may then waste money, and render him-
self ridiculous, by attempts to imitate these philanthropists,—
attempts which are sure to be inefficient, because detected
by the labourers as proceeding from intellectually calculating
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 515

selfishness, not from moral goodness; and consequently met
by them in a kindred spirit.

A man who is ignorant as well as vicious can never exercise
much weight in societies at all civilized, by means of physical
force, however great. Such an individual might indeed be a
great man among mere savages; but he who, with equal
physical powers, possessed high intellectual and moral culti-
vation, would be to them a demi-god.

What is, in common language, called “accommodating
oneself to the prejudices” of individuals; ‘“ or showing a
prudent respect” for strange customs and peculiar habits of
thought or for moral characteristics of nations, is nothing but,
1st, a just appreciation of the intellectual and moral develop-
ment of the individuals or nations; and 2ndly, the right
employment, in each case, of precisely those agencies of
civilization which are fitted to be most effective.

It often happens that, in considering civilization, we may,
with convenience, divide it into the material and the mental ;
divisions which correspond with the two regions of nature
that bear the same names, or with thinking and unthinking
nature. So viewed, material civilization would include what
I have called the physical; while mental civilization would
correspond with what I have called the intellectual and the
moral.

In the three kinds of civilization, the physical, the intel- :

lectual and the moral—it is, strictly speaking, the ruling
power in man, his will, that is operated on through his phy-
sical, intellectual and moral faculties, and by the same ficul-
ties respectively of those who operate.

In the employment of the physical, intellectual and moral
agencies, it is necessary to bear in mind that, speaking gene-
rally, the physical require least time to operate, are least
enduring in their effects and produce adverse reaction; that
the moral require most time to operate, are most enduring in
their effects, and produce favorable reaction ; while the intel-
lectual hold a middle place between the two in these respects.

LL 2

~
516 ON CIVILIZATION.

In dealing with inanimate nature, if a man can move a
stone by a direct physical lift with his hands, he will so per-
form the act quicker than by employing a lever, which
instrument and its use embody an intellectual substitution.
But though there is here, strictly speaking, no adverse
reaction, there is the well-known greater expenditure of
physical force.

In dealing with animate nature, if moral agency can effect
a given object (i.e. if the moral faculties to be wrought on
exist in sufficient development) it is decidedly the best plan
to induce men to meet your wishes by the persuasion of a

-just, kindly, patient, forbearing and even forgiving demeanour
and language. But it manifestly requires time before these
agencies can operate.

The next best, and a more expeditious plan is to apply
argument to their intellectual faculties. .A man who may be
bound to you by no ties of gratitude, and who may not know
whether he can or can not trust in your probity, may be
speedily induced to act by an effective appeal to his reasoning
powers, showing that his doing so will, directly or indirectly,
benefit himself,-7.e. aid him in his struggle with the world.

The method of effecting your object, which requires the
least expenditure of time—the reader will observe that, for
the purpose of comparison, I am assuming all three kinds of
agencies to be efficient—is undoubtedly to compel men by
physical force, acting on their sense of corporeal pain and fear
of danger to life.

But the latter method, whether employed by governments
or by individuals, requires an expenditure of physical force;
and, what is most important to observe, invariably calls into
existence an addition to your struggles with animate nature.
The men you have compelled by force will retaliate if they
can; and, if you are not actually required to expend force in
coping with this newly evoked danger, its existence constrains
you, physically to reserve force, and intellectually to be on
your watch. The second and third methods, the intellectual
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 517

and moral, rouse no physical reaction. But they do re-
spectively call forth an intellectual and a moral reaction.
The men whom you coldly argue into any course to your
advantage, will always be inclined to apply cold argument to
you for theirs. In the same way, men whom, they being
morally sufficiently cultivated, you have moved by justice,
kindness, patience, and a charitable forbearing and forgiving
spirit, to the accomplishment of your objects, will be inclined
to apply the same agencies to you, before having recourse to
others in order to attain their ends. There is great wisdom
in the rule of doing to others as you would have them do to
you; for others will do to you, as you do to them. And this
brings us precisely to the working of the highest description
of civilization. Moral agencies do indeed, not less than the
physical, produce reaction ; but it is a reaction which directly
aids us in our struggle with animate nature. What more can
we, each of us, wish for than that animate nature around us
should bring only justice, kindness, patience and a forbearing
forgiving spirit to bear upon us?

What holds of men, holds of the higher animals. Take the
dog, for instance, which seems to possess one kind of moral
faculty, devoted friendship, in a degree unsurpassed by man;
—a faculty which may be called into operation by a very
scanty amount of food and friendly companionship, allotted
to him. Meet a strange dog with blows, with physical
agencies, and you create two feelings: fear and a desire to
fly at your throat. Act on his nature with moral agencies,
and he becomes, in every case your attached and faithful
companion, often your devoted and self-sacrificing defender.

In England the law has rendered impossible the application
of the physical agencies in the dealings of individuals, or at
least of male adults, with each other (it has not yet succeeded
in putting down wife-beating); but, in the East, there often
exists no really operative law for the dealings between
Occidentals out there and the Oriental natives; and indi-
viduals not only do employ the physical agencies, but must
518 ON CIVILIZATION.

do so occasionally, or leave their legitimate objects un-
attained. In one nation of Orientals, the Chinese, the moral
and intellectual faculties are, however, largely and systemati-
cally developed; and hence the mental agencies may, with
time at command, be brought to operate very potently on
that people, by those who have acquired the chief means of
expression, their language.

The practical substituting of the already existing material
instruments and mental methods, used in a state of civilization,
is the act or working of civilization or the civilized process;
and the people engaged in the act or process are the civilized,

The discovery of the material instruments and mental
methods is the act of civilizing, or the civilizing process; and
the people who effect the discoveries are the civilizers.

It will be at times convenient to consider these instruments
and methods * apart from the people who discover, and those
who employ them; and, for this purpose, I propose to call
them, as a whole, by the name of funded civilization.

The morally and intellectually most neglected member of
a civilized community invariably —inevitably —acquires a
considerable share of its funded civilization. Thus the pocket-
knife, and the buttons on the coat, of the most ignorant, born
and bred thief of London with his knowledge of their uses,
are instruments and methods of the civilized process, 7. ¢. are
funded civilization. It is the possession of funded civilization
which makes the illiterate, and morally wild American
hunter of the prairies more powerful in fight than the red
man;—the savage of civilization more terrible than the
savage of barbarism.t+

The man who employs, in his struggle with animate and
inanimate nature, the most of the material instruments and
mental methods in that substitution which constitutes the

* Sustained mental and physical exertion, in the pursuits of an object, or
Perseverance, is one important method.

} It is the funded civilization that they possess which alone makes les
classes dangereuses, really dangerous.
DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION. 519

civilized process, is the most civilized; the man who employs
a smaller number, is less civilized.

We call semi-barbarous those peoples which know and
employ few of those instruments and methods; those who
employ fewer still, we call barbarous; those who employ
fewest, savage.

The most savage savages, that explorers have discovered,
practically employ some of the instruments and methods in
material, physical, intellectual and even in moral civilization.

The terms savage, barbarous, semi-barbarous and civilized
are, and may be, usefully employed, as roughly indicating
different degrees of aggregation of the civilized processes,—
different “stages” of civilization. But, as there exist in
nature no real lines of demarcation between any different
degrees of the aggregation, the terms are arbitrary. At
present they are not only arbitrary, but vague; and they
must always remain vague ; unless some one should consider it
worth the trouble to fix on, describe, and assign to each such
term, a certain aggregation of the civilized processes in each
of the four kinds of civilization, material, physical, intellectual
and moral; in which case the terms would have a technical
precision. Until that is (if ever) done, the reader must bear
in mind that in no work on man, (the present essay included, )
have the terms civilized, barbarous and savage (semi-civilized,
&c.) any precise meaning, as used in relation to each other.
Without offending against established usage, we may say of
the most savage savages, that they are the “least civilized ”
people known. It would not be in accordance with the esta-
blished usage of the English, French or Chinese languages
to say of the civilized peoples of the extreme Occident and
extreme Orient, that they are the “least barbarous” known;
for we are all of us, Anglo-Saxons, French and Chinese, still in
the bonds of those truly barbarous and barbarizing or discivi-
lizing habits, over-estimation, and its expression, over-boast-
ing. But when we reflect how very far we are practically
from the highest point of mental civilization, i. e. the uni-
520 ON CIVILIZATION. >

versal predominance of the moral kind; and that the progress
of the industrial sciences and arts, in the struggle with in-
animate nature, points to probable future achievements to
which our past victories in material civilization will appear
childishness; then we begin to perceive that we are, at best,
but the “least barbarous” of the nations of the world; and
that future ages will find it a mental impossibility, to regard
us in any other light.

If a man has little time to spend in a country, and wishes to
arrive, as speedily as possible, at some opinion of the degree
of civilization, material and mental, possessed by the people
inhabiting it, I know at present of no better method than
the following. Let him note the extent and quality of their
artificial means of communication, and the size and value of
their private (unfortified) dwellings. Good roads, railways,
carriages, hotels, canals, passenger vessels, and postal esta-
blishments, together with’ large expensive private dwellings
(observe that fortresses, such as the baronial castles of the
middle ages, are excepted), are not themselves civilization.
But these particular, palpable and visible things imply civili-
zation, more perhaps than any other things, equally easily
detected and examined during the course of a short resi-
dence: they are the most palpable and striking expression of
material and mental civilization in any country.

What of the churches, temples and monasteries? These
result from human faculties altogether distinct from the in-
tellectual and moral, whose operation I have shown to con-
stitute civilization. Religious buildings are the product of
the religious faculties or feelings.
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 521

CHAPTER II.

RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART.

Tue reader will understand that there is not the least
pretension in these chapters to propound, or even to give
support to any particular psychical system. My wish is to
establish a theory of civilization, based on a comprehensive
but plain definition. That definition, however, though new
in itself, has been adopted, only because it is held to accord
with the hitherto generally received notions on the subject.
And as my object is essentially practical, I am striving,
while elucidating the real method of human progress, to make
what I say perfectly comprehensible to those even, who have
not had the advantage of much education. Hence a fulness
of illustration, which would be totally misplaced in a treatise
addressed exclusively to people accustomed to definite think-
ing and accurate expression; and hence it is that in enu-
merating, in the preceding chapter, those groups of human
faculties, which are unavoidably brought into play in man’s
dealings with man, I have adhered to the most obvious and
most widely accepted classification, without myself attempt-
ing to prove its greater accuracy. In now touching on man’s
religious faculties,—on the faculties which operate in man’s
dealings with the superhuman world,—TI shall, in the same
spirit, avoid anything like elaborate investigation. My wish
is merely to indicate clearly the actual difference which exists
between Religion and Civilization; believing as I do that
every disregard of that difference in practical life, tends to
debase the former, and to retard the progress of the latter.

The -religious faculties of man consist of an inherent
522 ON CIVILIZATION.

craving for something to venerate and a longing for a better
and enduring existence—for a happy immortality.

These faculties or tendencies of his nature cause him to
wish for, and believe in, the existence of (Beings, or) a Being,
(Gods, or) a God, worthy of his veneration, and able to give
him the longed-for immortality. His belief in the existence
of this Being, God, and in his own immortality, is further
strengthened by the spontaneous exercise of his reasoning
powers or intellectual faculties on the phenomena of the
animate and inanimate world around him. Man’s belief in
this God, the giver of a blessed immortality ; the veneration
of Him; and prayer to Him for present and future happiness,
constitute the whole of Religion as distinguished from Civi-
lization. By the whole of religion is meant, the essence or
basis of all religious systems and forms—Religion as distin-
guished from a religion.

Wherever there is addressed to a supernatural being, heart-
felt adoration or praise, which is the expression of the first
faculty, and earnest prayer, which is the expression of the
second, there is Religion. It has been, and is still, found
in Fetichism, Polytheism, Buddhism and Mahommedanism,
as well as in all the numerous sects of Christianity.

Nearly all, if not all, religious systems (i.e. all religions,
as distinguished from essential religion) have comprised a
Morality or a system of doctrines regarding man’s rightful
dealings with man; and they have usually employed the
religious faculties to enforce that morality. This is pre-
eminently the case with Christianity.

The Founder of Christianity answered on two separate
occasions the question, proceeding from man’s longing for
immortality: What shall I do to inherit eternal life? The
circumstances are narrated by the first three Evangelists.

In the one case, Christ’s answer was given to a believing
inquirer, one who, in doubt himself, wished for information;
and toward whom He is stated to have felt lovingly.* In

* Matthew xix. 16—19; Mark x. 1722; Luke xviii. 18—23.
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 523

the other case the answer was given to a critical inquirer,—
one who believed that he himself knew the proper answer to
his question, but wished to test the knowledge of Christ;
who is stated to have spoken approvingly of him.*

Generalizing and condensing from the six passages in the
three Evangelists, we find the answer to be comprised in
two separate commands:

1. Reveret God.

2. Love your neighbour as yourself.

That the words, revere and love, must be taken in their
strongest, or most intense, signification is plainly expressed.
And when Christ was asked, what “neighbour” meant, he
had recourse, as was his custom when enforcing his doctrines
or commands, to an extreme type. He pictured a solitary,
destitute and wounded traveller—a sufferer sinking in his
human struggle with inanimate and animate nature—and
said: “Look around you, Woon you see such a man, he
is your neighbour.”

When I first adopted my definition of Civilization, it was
as an hypothesis the truth of which was yet to be established
—it was at first but a rough, and somewhat uncertain general-
ization from all those facts, on my mind at the moment,
which are usually regarded as parts of civilization. I had
then no idea that the gradual elaboration of the definition
into a consistent theory, would lead to a complete explanation

* Matthew xxii. 3440; Mark xii. 28—34; Luke x. 25—37.

+ I here avoid the word “love,” that used in our English translation,
because liable from its various, and essentially different, acceptations to pro-
duce confusion. The love of sweethearts springs in considerable degree from
desire. The “love” we bear to relatives and intimate friends is the affection
produced by long and pleasant association ; and which we entertain in a lesser
degree to the localities and houses where we have lived pleasantly, to ships,
guns, &c. &c. The “love” or philanthropy which a man of experience may
entertain to humanity generally, is largely mingled with pity. The love, com-
posed of respect and gratitude, which a less gifted son may entertain for a kind,
but grave and strict father, whom he feels to be intellectually and morally his
superior, most nearly approaches that reverence or veneration which is meant
by “love” to God.
524 ON CIVILIZATION. ‘i

of what had previously remained for me an unaccountable
fact,—that it would show me why Christianity had been so
civilizing. A perfectly independent course of thought led me
to the conclusion, that the highest civilization was the greatest
predominance of the moral agencies in man’s struggle with
animate nature; and then I saw, that it was precisely this
which was inculcated 1,800 years ago by Christ’s second great
command in its most emphatic form of inculcation: “ Love
your enemies, return good for evil.”

When the highest civilized process shall have been effected
to the greatest extent that human nature, which és physical
and intellectual as well as moral, will permit, then mankind
will have attained their highest possible civilization; and
then men will, in so far as their relations to each other are
concerned, be enabled to call themselves practical Christians,
without an abuse of the word. At present, the most advanced
communities of Europe and America are, in this respect, but
distant aspirants to Christianity.

If we exclude confessedly abnormal and exceptional cases,
properly distinguished as mental or physical monstrosities,
there is a certain correspondence of degree in the original
power of the physical, intellectual, moral and religious facul-
ties of individual men. The human organism, for instance,
may vary physically in size, within certain limits; but unless
there is, in each case, a harmony or due proportion in its
parts, constituting what is called a tolerably well-shaped and
at least ordinarily good-looking man or woman; then an
average original amount of the intellectual faculty will not,
as a general rule, be present. And what holds of the degree
of their original constitution, holds also of the degree of the
development—of the strengthening, training, education, or
cultivation—of the four kinds of faculties.

A scientific analysis undoubtedly leads to the recognition
of four distinct kinds of faculties in man; which, being thus
distinct, may be cultivated separately up to a certain point.
But while science divides and classifies, nature remains a
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 525

whole; and hence it is, that in individuals and in communi-
ties, an inferior physical condition, a weak intellectual state,
a low morality, and a degraded religion, will as the general
rule, be found associated. And as it is for the interests of
Civilization that the religious faculties should be carefully
cultivated, so it is for the interests of Religion that the civi-
lizing faculties, the intellectual and moral, should have true
development. An ennobling religion will never exist, where
the moral faculties are perverted and the intellectual stultified.

This leads us to the civilizing principle of Christianity as
a religion: we have already seen why it is civilizing as
embodying a system of morality.

The first of Christ’s great Commands comprises the purest,
most ennobling, and at the same time, most catholic of
religions. It supplies a perfect and most universally effective
satisfaction for man’s inherent craving to venerate, and
depend on, a superhuman being. It consists of a simple
assertion, there is a God; and a simple command, revere Him.

In the religion thus taught, the conception of the Deity is
encumbered by no definition, and hence it is compatible with
every stage of development of the intellectual and moral
faculties. The most unintelligent and uninformed votary is
simply told, to revere to the utmost degree—with all his
strength—the highest conception of God that his head and
heart enable him to picture; and the greatest master of the
truest science and the best morality, who is a votary of the
same religion, has the same injunction laid on him. This
religion fears no advance of science. All the discoveries of
our Newtons, Herschels and Lyells serve but to realize to
our minds the vast distances of astronomical space, and the
enormous periods of geological time: they serve but to elevate
our conception of the Filler of All Space, the Endurer of
All Time.

It is of the utmost importance to the interests of true
religion, and of the highest civilization as influenced by
religion, to keep constantly before our minds the enduring
526 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

fact that God, the Author and Filler of Boundless Space and
Boundless Time, is and ever must be, the Great Incompre-
hensible. As it is, men repeat the words and turn their
backs on the fact. This circumstance has been productive
of the greatest individual and social evils the world has seen;
to all the degrading and disgusting austerities and rites, the
cruel persecutions, and the rancorous and bloody wars that
man has perpetrated in the name of God.

Man is commanded by the purest religion—by religion in
its most comprehensive and least sectarian form—to revere
God; and he should therefore always endeavour so to do.
But it is for the true interests of Christianity, both as a
religion and as a morality, that man should ever cherish the
humbling reflection that in his best attempts to revere God,
he succeeds but in dishonouring him. As it is, after achiev-
ing a species of violation of Christ’s first command, man,
with an atrocious and ridiculous arrogance, proceeds deli-
berately and self-approvingly to violate the second, by doing
to his neighbour as he would not be done by: he attempts to
force on his neighbour, often at sword’s point, his own mise-
rable notions about the Great Incomprehensible God. This
is the origin of all religious persecutions and wars. Speaking
relatively, speaking of men only, the conception and notions
of the one may be, and often are much higher and truer than
those of the other; but it is manifest that the utmost we are
justified in attempting, even when we firmly believe our ideas
of God’s nature and God’s ways to be much superior to
those of our neighbour, is to try by the methods of moral
civilization only,—by kindly persuasion and courteous argu-
ment,—to get him to accept them. In such a work, all force
and all coercion, whether legislative, social or domestic, is at
once a direct violation of Christ’s second command and of the
dictates of true civilization.

In all that regards the relations of man to man, and to in-
animate nature,—in matters of civilization and of morality as
included in the highest civilization,—we are within the region
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 527

of the relatively ascertainable. We may therefore hope for
a gradual approach to ultimate universal agreement; and in
the mean time we have right to coerce those who violate the
rule of doing to others as they would be done by. But in
all that regards the relations of man to God,—in matters of
religion as distinguished from matters of practical morality,—
we are within the region of the absolutely incomprehensible.
It seems therefore irrational to look for universal agreement,
while it is certain that men will always resent and resist
coercion ; and hence it will be in vain to hope for the reign
of “ peace on earth,” until the doctrine of the most complete
non-interference becomes paramount.

At present, in spite of the talk about the right of private
judgment in Protestant Britain, it is a fact that the man who
ventures honestly to exercise that right, does so at the peril,
not only of his worldly interests, which many can disregard,
but of his social friendships, and family affections, which few
have the courage to sacrifice. The practical result is a vast
amount of degrading and discivilizing hypocrisy. =

~ True religion is a necessary adjunct of higher civilization.
Though we may, with a view to systematic or scientific con-
sideration, classify the human faculties into four groups; yet
we must never forget that it is merely the limited nature of
our knowing faculties that renders this scientific division in-
dispensable. The man in himself is a whole, as all nature in

itself is a whole; and there exists ever an inseparable con-

‘nection and interaction of all his faculties. Where the
physical and intellectual faculties are neglected, the moral
faculties cannot be high; and a high morality requires eleva-
tion of the religious faculties, But for general elevation
of the human faculties, freedom of individual action is
indispensable; and in matters of religion all coercion is im-
moral and barbarizing. It convinces no one; it has always
led, and always will lead to persecutions and martyrdoms
and to the bitterest and bloodiest wars.

Coercion, directed against religious freedom, does not always
528 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

secure temporary success. History shows that in the long
run it never succeeds, and may even prove ruinous to the
special cause for which it is called into action. We have
seen above that every kind of human agency calls forth a
reaction of the same kind, and this is as true of it when
employed in behalf of sectarian systems as elsewhere.

If ever there was a case in which coercion, in favour of a
special religious form, might have been pronounced at the
time to have had complete success, it was in the case of
Romanist coercion in France, after the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes. The bigoted Romanists of the Gallican
Church, with their bigoted sovereign Louis XIV., more
persecuting in their bigotry than Rome itself then was, had
a complete triumph. Jansenism was put down, France was
cleared of Protestants, and, about 1690, the Romanists had
the whole country to themselves, throughout its length and
breadth. But the French, not being allowed freedom of
thought in one direction, took to free-thinking in another ;
and about 1790, just a century after the great achievements
of coercion, the Deists and Atheists of the Republic had
despoiled the Romish Church of its property throughout the
whole country, and were hanging its clergy to the lamp-
posts. At this day, there are again about a million of Pro-
testants in France, and, what is not Protestant is as much,
if not more, Deist, or Indifferentist, or Atheist than it is
Romanist. Such is the result of one of the most triumphant
coercions of Sectarian Christianity—of one of the grossest
violations, on a grand scale, of Christian Christianity.

Having now, as J hope, sufficiently distinguished between
Religion and Civilization, as well as indicated their in-
fluence on each other; I proceed to ascertain the position of
Science and Art to Civilization. At present such words as ~
religion, cultivation, civilization, philosophy, science, art,
knowledge, &c. &c., are often jumbled together or used
interchangeably in a hopelessly confusing way, even by
very good writers—a state of confusion manifestly arising
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 529

from the admitted vagueness connected with the word
civilization.

After perusal of all that has preceded, the reader may be
disposed to conclude that civilization, as defined by me,
more especially physical and material civilization, is no-
thing but the totality of the sciences, and their applica-
tions—all science and all art. If we add the word, sound,
this might be correct. Civilization may he described as all
sound Science and all sound Art. But one great advantage
that my definition appears to afford, is that it furnishes us
with a help to the ascertaining of what is sound science and,
more especially, of what deserves to be called sound art.
Whatever systematized knowledge, and whatever art, man
can and does, efficaciously avail himself of, in what has been
described as the civilized process, that is sound science and
sound art. But much of systematized knowledge and its appli-
cation does not aid man in the struggle wherein the civilized
process or substitution takes place; and all that must be
condemned as unsound, frivolous or vicious science and art,

As already said, while science divides and classifies, nature
isa whole. Man has no absolute cause to be proud of his
science, for it is but an attempt to bring nature down within
the range of his limited faculties, and not the elevation of his
faculties to nature. I say an “attempt” because man cannot
really bring down nature to himself. Hence all human
science is radically false, however relatively true and practi-
cally useful to man.

When I went out to China, it was in a sailing ship round
the Cape. After sighting the Peak of Teneriffe, a bluish
cone in the distance, we had for some six or eight weeks
nothing but sky and sea in view. During that time we had
all varieties of weather, dead calms and storms, and winds
from every quarter. Sometimes our ship roared through the
water straight on her true course, at other times she beat
against head winds and seas, making wide stretches to right
and left, through long dark nights and hazy days. At the

MM
5380 ON CIVILIZATION.

end of 40 or 50 days and nights of this work,—during which
we had been heaved up and down by the billows of the
ocean and swept along by its currents, without other thing
than it, and the ever-moving heavens to gaze at,—the captain
said: ‘ To-morrow at day-break you will see a speck of land
on the port bow.” And sure enough, “ to morrow at day-
break,” there was a speck of land on the port bow: the little
island of Amsterdam between Capeland and Australia. The
captain was enabled to take us there, and to know so exactly
that we had got there, because some old Greek had, some
thousands of years before, thought fit to assume that a point
could have no extension in space, and lines exist without
either breadth or depth. That is false enough, yet that is the
foundation of geometry, than which no human science can
approach nearer truth. By the help of geometry, the science
of astronomy was erected, and from astronomy was produced
the art of navigation; by the aid of which Capt. Stilton
guided “the Lyre,” on a fixed course through a moving
nature, from the Isle of Teneriffe to that of Amsterdam.

All knowledge consists in marking differences between
things ; and science separates and classifies things to enable
man to mark these differences. But our investigations tend
to show that classes, deemed at first sight positively divided,
really merge into each other. What is called instinct merges
into reason ; the mineral and vegetable worlds each merge
into the animal ; and nature in all its varied phenomena and
aspects is one whole. But our limited faculties cannot view it
as a whole, we can only study it bit by bit, and the best
science, the (relatively) truest science, is that which sets the
bits apart in such manner as to show them most distinctly,
and with the least possible distortion of the totality.

The difference between the man of science and the man of
philosophic genius is that the latter requires less of the
dividing: he can see and comprehend a portion of nature as
a whole, which the man of science must divide in order to
examine piece by piece. As this operation requires time,
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 531

which is not necessary to the man of philosophic genius, the
latter is before his age; and therefore usually the civilizer, as
the detecter of instruments and methods of the civilized
process previously unknown.

Art is the practical application of the principles of sciences ;
but it is only sound or pure art when it really aids man in
his struggle with animate and inanimate nature.

As has been said above,* that is a struggle for the preser-
vation of his individual life and for the continuance of his
species.

The immediate impellants to this struggle, in so far as the
preservation of the individual is concerned, are the appetite
for food or nutritional appetite, and the aversion to pain:
and, in so far as the continuance of the species is concerned,
the sexual appetite and parental, more particularly, maternal
affection.

If we choose to regard it as the practical solution of a
problem, we may say that Civilization is the employment of
the best ascertainable means for the most perfect satisfaction
of the two appetites, the aversion and the affection.

We must at once distinguish between most perfect satisfac-
tion and over-gratification. In considering Civilization under
this aspect, we shall see how important to the progress, not
less than to the happiness of humanity, is the injunction to
be moderate in all things. Our really barbarous state will
also be made somewhat evident to our eyes; which are at
present too much blinded to the fact by the constant flashing
before them of such phrases as, “the most civilized nation in
the world,” &c.

The reader will readily see how over-indulgence in
PARENTAL AFFECTION, as in “sparing the rod” and many
other ways, in the end produces either sickly or dis-
obedient children, and thus ultimately prevents the most
perfect satisfaction, both as to kind and to quantity, of the
very affection itself. Extreme lenity towards children, alter-
nating with passionate and violent direction of physical force

* Page 504.

ae ae O
532 ON CIVILIZATION. e

against them, is a characteristic of savage life; as also of the
parental conduct of uncultivated people in civilized societies.
All the knowledge, all the sciences and arts, which teach
how to promote the physical, intellectual and moral well-
being of infants and children of both sexes, so as to produce
physically and mentally healthy and attached sons and
daughters, help directly to the more perfect satisfaction of
this affection, i.e., to the work of civilization, and are conse-
quently sound sciences and arts. As regards this, it is plain,
that we are far yet from the means which we can conceive
as being at the command of parents in some future and more
advanced state of systematized knowledge.

Over-indulgence in THE AVERSION TO PAIN, whether
physical or mental, in like manner ultimately prevents the
most perfect satisfaction of the aversion itself. This is
readily perceived, when we bear toil in mind as a species
of pain. On the other hand, subjection to much pain shortens
individual life more or less, or kills instantaneously, accord-
ing to the degree of the pain. And this holds equally
of mental as of physical: pain. We know that extreme
mental agony in the matter of the affections kills: a widow
bereaved of her only child, and a miser bereaved of his
darling treasure will alike die of grief. And I have no
doubt that extremely painful sights, even where the objects
have no concern with ourselves, also tend though inappre-
ciably to shorten the life of the spectator. We know as
a fact that civilized communities do shrink from the sight
of human sufferings which less,"advanced communities revel
in. And this takes place in cases where the moral and
intellectual faculties cannot be said to be in play in their
ordinary direction to produce the shrinking; as, for instance,
in the matter of inflicting death by torture on murderers who
have put their victims to death by the agency of the most
revolting cruelties. We know historically that the higher
the civilization, the greater the instinctive indisposition to
inflict equivalent retaliatory suffering.

All the physical and mental practices and exercises which
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 5338

‘are found really to strengthen the body and the mind, and
thus to fit both the one and the other to do and to bear
without hardship or suffering, are evidently means to ward
off, or meet effectually, whatever causes pain, i.e. are means
to the more perfect satisfaction of the natural aversion to
pain, and therefore true aids to civilization. In so far as
these really strengthening exercises are regulated applica-
tions of systematised principles, they are true arts, and the
principles they rest on are true sciences.

One of the means of averting pain (shivering, &c.) is cloth-
ing. Over-indulgence in this, in the shape of finery in dress,
is characteristic of savages; of uncultivated individuals in
civilized communities (over-dressing dandies); and of those
barbarizing or decaying civilizations in which a general over-
dressing is observable, as a thing nationally esteemed.

The aversion to pain guides to the more perfect satis-
faction of the two appetites; for insufficiency, or excess with
respect to these produces pain, in addition to other injurious
results. Pain in some shape is, in fact, the general indicator
that a wrong course has been taken. ‘The consideration of
healing science as the means of alleviating, or removing,
already existing pains falls within this branch of the problem
of civilization. Our great amount of open and well-supported
quackery, (false science and vicious art), as well as of ad-
mitted ignorance, on the part of the earnest members of the
healing art, of so much that is necessary to it, are among
the many proofs existing among us of our still low state
of civilization.

We have now to consider the appetite for food or THE
NUTRITIONAL APPETITE, the most direct impellant to that
portion of the struggle of civilization which tends to the
preservation of the individual. Over-gratification of this appe-
tite,—gluttony and drunkenness,—is well known ultimately
to prevent the most perfect satisfaction of the appetite itself,
by weakening the digestive organs. But the theory of civi-
lization requires the most perfect satisfaction of the appetite ;
534 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

and hence pronounces gluttony and drunkenness to be barba-
rous. Now from history and present observation we know
that savage peoples are addicted to gluttony and drunken-
ness; and we know further, what it more imports us to
remember, that nations, at the time apparently in the most
flourishing condition, but among whom gluttony and drunk-
enness (like excess in ornamental dress) were things rather
admired than condemned, were then already in a decaying
state,—as their subsequent rapid political downfall proved.
They were examples of civilization in the retrograde, dis-
civilizing or barbarizing condition. Why gluttony and
drunkenness are barbarous and discivilizing is apparent in
another way. They impair not only the physical, but stultify
the intellectual and moral faculties. They, both of them,
weaken, and sottish drunkenness temporarily destroys, at once
the agencies of the civilized process and the field, man’s mind,
in which the process of the highest civilization takes place.

It is pretty well established that the largest amount of
the most perfect satisfaction of the nutritional appetite,
which any individual can have in the course of his life,
is to be obtained by the regular consumption of just that
kind and that quantity of nourishing substances, which
appeases healthy hunger with the most wholesome food, and
thus preserves the body in the greatest degree of physical
vigour. This is precisely what is enjoined by the theory of
civilization here propounded.

Agriculture in its most comprehensive sense, and cookery in
a much higher sense than that in which it is as yet generally
understood, must both of them make great advances before we
can fairly consider ourselves civilized as regards this matter.
Healthy hunger cannot be created by artificial stimulants
acting internally on the digestive organs, and these stimu-
lants are not, in themselves, wholesome, nourishing food;
hence all cookery that provides such stimulants, and the
foods to pamper the morbid appetite they create, is vicious
and barbarizing art. Chemistry, anatomy and physiology,—
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 585

all those branches of systematized knowledge in short, that
bear on vegetable and animal life and on the production,
preparation, and consumption of food,—have yet to make
great advances and to be efficiently applied. At present,
people are fearfully at sea as to what and how to eat, and
what to abstain from. Individuals with “the best advice ”
often go on for years painfully observing some regimen
which they, in the end, find to be directly prejudicial. We
have a general daily consumption of a large quantity of
alcoholic drinks; and we have also extreme temperance
movements. One of our best known physiologists, Carpenter,
maintains that all alcohol does harm—even the smallest
quantity a little harm; and his position is ably attacked by
scientific articles in our best Reviews

But it is in those established and authoritative rules,
whether legislative enactments or imperative customs of
society, which prescribe the relations of man to man that we
chiefly fail—are most, and -very barbarous. That wealth is
the produce of labour, is an assertion as well established as
that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right
angles. Yet hundreds of thousands of the hardest workers,
both mental and physical, in this country fail “in the struggle
with the world around them”; and in the midst of the
abundance which their own labour helps to produce, die
either of slow or of rapid starvation. Great numbers are,
too, as little able to procure perfect satisfaction to their
parental affection as to their nutritional appetite ; far from it,
in spite of self-murderous exertions, their hearts are wrung
by the wails of their starving children. And all this takes
place by the side of a great waste of the articles of food to
pamper gluttony generally, and, to a large extent, the glut-
tony of those who never labour at all.

My theory of civilization not only does not demand, but
distinctly repudiates, every forcible spoliation of those who
amass wealth or even of those who are born to wealth. Men
are as little to be blamed, or misused, for being born to
536 ON CIVILIZATION.

wealth or high rank as for being born to low poverty; and
robbery in any shape can never aid the true process of
civilization. Neither does true civilization call for a partial
spoliation of well-to-do people generally, in the shape of
heavy rates to nourish a discivilizing indolence in the indigent
classes, by providing them with over-comfortable poor-houses.
But the horrible state of things just referred to, is fully
proven not to be a necessary condition of human societies,
but to proceed from defective or injurions legislative and
social laws. These, the more enlightened theoretical and
practical legislators (political economists and members of
parliament) are endeavouring to remedy. And the theory
of true civilization declares all those, who oppose this ten-
dency of our more enlightened legislation, to be barbarians.
They are barbarians, it so happens, in the sense of people
who inflict extreme cruelties on their fellows; for what
cruelty, inflicted by savages, can exceed the slow starvation
they endeavour to prolong among us? But I wish chiefly to
draw attention to the point that they are essentially barba-
rians, in so far as their efforts have a distinctly anti-civilizing
effect ; because putting or retaining difficulties in the way of
the extreme exertions of large numbers of their countrymen
to obtain satisfaction, even in an insufficient degree, to that
nutritional appetite, and that affection for their children,
to which, in a true civilization, labour will accord complete
satisfaction in return for a wholesome amount of exertion.
It is only by a long succession of modifying efforts on the
part of the enlightened legislation to which I have alluded,
that the amelioration will be effected which will enable every
human being, man or woman, that chooses to work, to attain
the perfect satisfaction of the nutritional appetite ; and which
will possibly debar those from attaining that satisfaction, who
being able, do not choose to work, either with head or hand.
No sudden adoption of any “cut and dry” socialistic or com-
nunistic or organization-of-labour systems, such as have been
propounded, will effect that desired amelioration. For the
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 537

effectuation of such an amelioration is a step in the civilizing
process, as distinguished from the civilized; and every such
practical step supposes a previous advance of the majority in
intellectual. and moral cultivation, an advance which cannot
possibly take place suddenly. Hence these systems have the
defect of being unfitted for the field in which they are meant
to flourish. We may say of them, as of the principles of the
peace men who went to convert the Emperor Nicholas: It’s
all very true in theory, but it won’t do in practice.

I must leave to the reader the nearer and complete con-
sideration of the chief impellant to the continuance of the
species, THE SEXUAL APPETITE. Some points J may, however,
draw attention to.

We know from the narratives of travellers that savage and
semi-barbarous peoples are addicted to over-indulgence of
this appetite, and that one of the consequences is a slow
increase of population. We know also, from history, that
generally prevalent and admired sexual excess has been a
characteristic of once flourishing and powerful nations, pre-
vious to their downfall and disappearance. Universal and
uncondemned sexual excess is, like approved extravagance in
dress, like gluttony and drunkenness, one certain sign, as it is
an active constituent, of a discivilizing state of society. And
as sottish drunkenness produces temporary destruction of the
agencies and the field of civilization; so, here, over-indul-
gence produces moral deadness and intellectual imbecility.

As the purpose of the appetite is the continuance of the
species, it must necessarily be considered in connection with
the most perfect satisfaction of the parental, more especially
the maternal aspirations and affection. It can easily be seen
how we might thence arrive at the proposition, that all the
natural cravings of this side of human nature will be most
completely satisfied when the species is propagated in greatest
perfection, i.e. by the production of the finest children. This
position, if thoroughly established, would give to physiology
the problem of ascertaining the conditions most favourable to
538 ON CIVILIZATION.
°

the propagation required; and the solution of the problem
would be a part of the civilizing process. But the most
advanced European societies are yet in a state of great igno-
rance with respect to this branch of the work of civilization:
physiologically the best-informed know little.

We do however possess some positive knowledge of im-
portance. A law that statistics have placed beyond question,
and which is undoubtedly natural, is that male and female
children are born in, practically speaking, equal numbers.*

That the higher animals of the zoological world, those
that in other peculiarities most resemble man, manifest a
tendency to associate in pairs, as well for the satisfaction of
the sexual appetite as for that of parental affection, is one of
the most obvious of facts; and (apart from direct observation
of man’s own more or less artificialized habits) we are justified
in assuming it to be a natural law that human beings have
this tendency, as they have the other peculiarities alluded to,
in a much greater degree.

Now we may assume, with little fear of error, that human
beings will be least able to approximate to the highest
civilization in proportion as they violate or neglect the laws
and unmistakeable dictates of human nature. This allowed,
communistic sexual intercourse, advocated by some religions
as part of their moral code, is condemned as anti-civilized,
because counteracting the natural tendency to pair; and we
have here also one condemnation of prostitution.

Polygamy is also condemned. By it, one maleshas several
of the females who are born, devoted exclusively to him,
which inevitably prevents an equal number of the males born,
from associating themselves, each with one female, in a natural
pair. The necessary consequence is at once a more aggra-

*In England during seven recent years the proportion has been 105 males to
100 females ; in France 106 males to 100 females. Physiology throws no light
whatever on the conditions under which this very striking and important law
of equality comes into operation. No one, for instance, can at present give a

reason why nothing but boys or nothing but girls should not be born during a
course of years; or boys only in one country, and girls only in another.
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 539

vated prostitution than is likely to find place in monogamic
societies, and unnatural crime. And, what at first sight
appears paradoxical, this latter arises chiefly with those mem-
bers of the community who are the polygamists; that is to
say, precisely among the wife-purchasing, wealthier indi-
viduals who give the tone to society. These are the conse-
quences of polygamy in China, and I believe in Turkey, and
every other country where polygamy is nationally permitted.

The old Teutonic respect for woman, together with Chris-
tianity, has prescribed monogamy to civilized Europe and its
colonies. The polygamy which is certainly a marked feature,
and which is probably the virtual basis, of Mormonism, ap-
pears to be the open appearance of the corresponding ulcer
or counterpart to prostitution in old settled countries. Its
existence has only been possible, because the existence of the
“oreat evil of great cities” leads te a number of virtuous
females being doomed to celibacy and to hopelessness as to
one of woman’s strongest and best aspirations, the maternal.
Hence only, has a habit of thought and sentiment been
engendered, which has made it possible for women to be
found, in societies so far advanced as ours, willing to share
with others in one man. So long as the Mormons are
enabled to procure a sufficient supply of surplus females from
without, polygamy among them will be exempt from one spe-
cific cause of unnatural crime. But there are many reasons
for assuming that Europe and the older States of America
will cease to be the Georgia of these Teutono-celtic Turks.
In the meantime, there exists from the first, what inquiries
in China led me to hold the chief cause. The moral and
social opinions, in which the adult adherents of Mormonism
have been trained, may, for a time, be strong enough to
counteract this cause; as an extraneous supply of females
counteracts.the other. But there is not the slightest ground
for hoping that Polygamy will not speedily produce among
Mormons, what it has produced among every other com-
munity of polygamists.
540 ON CIVILIZATION.

We see, therefore, the inevitable nature of the society
which is rapidly growing into the power of numbers and
wealth in the midst of the Atlantic and Pacific Americans
and Canadians. And it is, let it be well noted, a society
which, while cherishing a demoralizing and discivilizing insti-
tution, does not the less inherit and borrow all the instru-
ments and methods of the material and intellectual civilization
which monogamic Christianity has produced, and will not fail
to go on producing, with a generally improving social state.
“Funded civilization,” it has already been shown, is that
inheritance which makes “the savage of civilization more
terrible than the savage of barbarism.” If the Mormons are
allowed to go on increasing, till a numerous generation of
born and bred polygamists—firm believers in Smith like born
and bred believers in Christ—have grown up to manhood
and to the political rights of a State, they will prove a
difficult case to deal with; and polygamy will perhaps form
another “ the institution” for Americans. It will be a curious
spectacle for futurity, if the youngest of great nations, after
inheriting a slavery more barbarous than any which existed
among the ancients, should next be permanently saddled with
some more barbarizing form of polygamy than the world has
yet seen. While the Mormons have ‘evinced an admirable
energy in the labours of material civilization, they have also
manifested a considerable share of intellectual world-wisdom
in their dealings with men. Is it not possible that they
may succeed in prolonging their immunity from civilized
interference by siding first with one, then with another, of
the contending parties in the Federated States?

I have used the words “ civilized interference” advisedly ;
for the theory of civilization not only permits, but enjoins
the suppression of a discivilizing institution by the use of
physical agency, where the moral and the intellectual are
inefficient. It separates Religion as distinctly from Civi-
lization, as the fundamental connexity of human faculties
will permit. It then, backed by the testimony of history,
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 541

maintains that coercion and unwished-for interference in the
relations of man to God are deteriorating to humanity in all
respects. Civilization sanctions and enjoins recourse to the
most violent and deadly means of resistance to all such
coercion, if other means of resistance fail. It is a mere
question of convenience and expedience with those subjected
to the coercion when, and in how far, they shall have recourse
to such means.

But the case is totally altered in all that concerns the
relations of man to man. The theory of civilization declares,
that every society has the right to call upon its individual
members, to act on the principle of doing as they would be
done by; and if necessary, to compel them so to act. The
society of nations may, in like manner, compel any individual
nation to act on that principle. A greater or less knowledge
of animate and inanimate nature enables man to apply this
general principle, or deduce detailed rules from it, with
greater or less correctness; but wherever the increase of
knowledge distinctly establishes a practical rule as inevitably
following from it, there civilization tells man to carry that
rule out, under penalty of social discivilization and conse-
quent political decadence. And it tells him to carry it out
by the employment of physical agencies, if the moral and intel-
lectual are inefficient. Now the increase of the knowledge,
derived from history and present observation, has established
marriage with one wife as a rule strictly deducible from the
principle; and as forming an essential part of morality, i.e.
of the highest civilization,—altogether apart from the moral
injunctions of any system founded on the religious faculties,
that is to say any “religion.” The Americans are fully
entitled, in the interests of civilization and of their national
welfare, to decree monogamy as a Federal institution, to be
enforced by a Federal registration of marriages and by penal
jurisdiction of the Federal Courts. Since experience has
shown the possibility of a State coming into existence,
capable of countenancing and encouraging polygamy, the

\
542 ON CIVILIZATION. |

other States must, through the agency of the Federal
Government, take steps to prohibit the introduction of such
a fundamentally and extensively working element of discivi-
lization and national decadence.

The doctrine of non-interference in matters of religion has
partially established itself under the name of tolerance,
a term by-the-bye, which has been justly denounced as
insulting in itself. But there is a danger, in the existing
indistinctness of ideas as to what is matter of religion and
what matter of civilization, that the earnest and righteous
advocates of complete religious freedom may be induced to
suffer, however uneasily, the introduction of barbarizing
elements, when presented as a constituent part of some
religious system. No majority of Americans has the right
to prevent the smallest minority from acknowledging Joe
Smith as the prophet of God, or even from deifying and
revering him, if they should so find satisfaction for their
religious aspirations. And the Know-nothings, while they
have the undoubted right to resort, as I have above expressed
it, to the most violent and deadly means of resistance to
Romanism in so far as it is coercionist ; have no right what-
ever to interfere with Romanism in so far as it merely gives
a direction to the purely religious faculties of its votaries, and
tells them to revere the Virgin Mary or to pray to the images
of her and the saints, in order to secure immortality. When,
therefore, the Know-nothings coercively prescribe ‘Christi-
anity as a system, the limits or bases of which they themselves
define, they simply ignore the historical lessons of long cen-
turies of religious persecution, and deliberately found their
policy on a principle of barbarization. On the other hand,
America has till now had the high honour of being that
particular country in which virtual religious freedom has
most flourished, and in which positive legislation and social
customs have prescribed a fair dealing, and respect towards
woman, hitherto unseen in the civilized world. If, therefore,
Romanism cannot subsist except by the aid of religious
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 543

coercion, then Romanism must be attacked with its indis-
pensable coercion ; and its fall becomes necessary to civiliza-
tion. And, in like manner, if Joe Smithism or Mormonism
cannot exist without a discivilizing degradation of civilized
women, then Mormonism must be extinguished, and if neces-
sary by force. Religion lies in the realm of the Infinite,
for man the absolutely Incomprehensible: Civilization lies
in the realm of the Finite, for man the relatively Ascertain-
able. Religion is the region of Belief: Civilization is the
region of Knowledge. I preach no Crusades against pre-
sumed Irreligions: but I do distinctly preach a Civilizade
against an ascertained Barbarization.

What has been maintained of the right to interfere with
polygamy, holds of interference with sexual communism and
polyandry. If Agapemones, &c. &c. can be put down by
argument, exhortation or ridicule, Civilization requires the
use of these moral and intellectual agencies; but if these are
inefficient, it equally requires the use of the organized public
physical agency, —the magistrate and the police, —for the
suppression of what are discivilizing institutions.

In all that I have said against sects that countenance
polygamy, polyandry or sexual communism,—in short against
all open and systematic violations of the great natural law
which commands human beings to associate in exclusive
pairs of opposite sexes,—I shall have the feelings or moral
instincts of civilized societies entirely with me. But it is of
the greatest importance that their reason or intellectual
conclusions should, in this matter, be in perfect accord with
the moral side of their nature. Wherever either individuals
or societies have recourse to physical agencies, urged by a
mental nature at conflict with itself, the strife between the
moral and intellectual faculties is certain to find expression
in a barbarous and irrational violence of the proceedings. If,
for instance, the Americans of the older States proceed to
employ physical agency against the Mormons, under the
impression that they are not only asserting the national
544 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

principle of respect for woman, but at the same time vio-
lating the national principle of absolute religious freedom,
we shall not fail to hear of extreme cruelties and even
atrocities having been perpetrated. Since writing the last
preceding paragraphs I have seen, in the Times, news from
America to the effect that the Mormons have constrained
their non-Mormon Governor to leave them, and also that the
Government of the United States was marching troops to
their district, “ ostensibly for the purpose of watching the
Indians.” This seems to betray a latent intention of “ picking.
a quarrel” with the Mormons, in order to seize the occasion
of the nominally unprovoked fight to destroy the polygamy,
without laying themselves too broadly open to the charge of
veligious persecution. The proper civilized procedure would
be first to make, as above pointed out, monogamy a national
federal institution; then to make efforts to enlighten the
general body of the Mormons as to the real grounds of
action, and give them ample time for consideration; and,
after that only, to menace, calmly and unequivocally, not Joe
Smithism, but polygamy, with such a force of the States
generally as will convince these shrewd polygamists, that the
virtual choice left them is whether to live with one wife or
die in a vain attempt to retain several.

“You preach,” it may here be said to me, “a Civilizade
against the polygamy of the Mormons; why not against the
polygamy of Turks or Chinese?” My answer is, that by
Civilizade is implied the employment of physical force on a
large or national scale, which my theory itself declares should
only be resorted to, when other means for the preservation of
our Civilization prove manifestly inefficient. Against long
standing barbarous institutions, which do not menace our
Civilization, we may philanthropically direct moral and
intellectual agencies, but on no account the physical. We
are bound to distinguish between a barbarous, and a discivi-
lizing polygamy; the former existing among peoples who
have never yet elevated themselves to the civilization of
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 545

monogamy; the latter, a monstrosity engendered by some
peculiar deficiencies of our comparatively advanced social
state. Such monstrosities, when they attain a certain exten-
sion, are destructive; and must be put down by a Civilizade
if necessary. I may add that England, France and Piedmont
are now engaged in a justifiable and honourable Civilizade
against the barbarous and barbarizing aggressions of Russia;
but until the polygamy of the Mahommedans and Chinese
begins to buy the women of the civilized Occident for its
uses, we may not employ force against it.

As our remoteness from highest civilization is evidenced
in matters of clothing, by the existence of unwholesome
over-dressing and extravagant dandyism by the side of shiver-
ing nakedness; in matters of food, by the existence of idle,
wasteful gluttony and drunkenness, by the side of hard-
working abstinence and starvation; so in the matter of this
appetite there are flagrant evidences of a low standing.
Such evidences, we have in the shape of excess and abstinence
and their manifold consequences, as the production of men-
tally and physically imperfect children; the existence of great
numbers of both sexes who reluctantly pass their lives in a
single or unpaired state, which does not admit of a wholesome
complete development of man’s various faculties; wedlock
without children on which to exercise natural parental affec-
tions; children out of wedlock who grow up without knowing
what parental love and cares are; and lastly, that flagrant
physical and moral evil and social difficulty, prostitution.

The remedy dictated by my theory of civilization for these
and other evils is: Marriage of every individual, naturally
disposed, at that age, in each sex, which physiology may show
to favour the production of the most perfect children.

I am of course perfectly well aware that this dictate of my
theory conflicts with a dictate of the most advanced political
economists ; which not only prescribes restraint in marriage,
but also late marriages, and even total abstinence from
marriage. But Political Economy deals almost exclusively

NN
546 ON CIVILIZATION. @

with that portion of the civilized struggle which consists in
the procuring of food and shelter for the members of both
sexes as individuals. Things to eat and drink, clothing and
houses, with all the various means of making and procuring
these, are the special subjects of Political Economy. It does
not profess to deal with any other. It must, however, never
be forgotten that all sciences are only relatively true, only
true on certain false assumptions or within certain arbitrary
limits. They divide nature into sections in order that our
limited faculties may be enabled to master, piece by piece,
what they cannot grasp as a whole. But conclusions which
may be abstractly irrefragable, or relatively true within the

sphere of one section, are often found false when nature asserts .

her practical totality. It is the non-perception, or non-reali-
zation in practice, of this truth that has led political econo-
mists (who have not less than other men of science had to
deal with a section of nature) into maintaining positions at
open conflict with some of the more direct requirements of
humanity. A thinker such as J. S. Mill was not likely
however to overlook it; and accordingly, we find him stating
in his Preface :—

‘For practical purposes political economy is, inseparably
intertwined with many other branches of social philosophy.
Except on matters of mere detail, there are perhaps no prac-
tical questions, even among those which approach nearest to
the character of purely economical questions, which admit
of being decided on economical premises alone. And it is
because Adam Smith never loses sight of this truth; because
in his applications of Political Economy, he perpetually
appeals to other and often far larger considerations than pure
Political Economy affords—that he gives that well-grounded
feeling of command over the principles of the subject for pur-
poses of practice, owing to which the ‘ Wealth of Nations,
alone among treatises on Political Economy has not only been
popular with general readers, but has impressed itself strongly
on the minds of men of the world and of legislators.”
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 547

It is because Mr. Mill’s own work keeps, as he intended,
the truth here expatiated on so much in view, that that work
now so largely influences British legislation on most questions
of social and commercial importance,—that it forms, in fact, a
sort of ‘majority in the House.” Nevertheless I have been
compelled to come to the conclusion that, in nearly all which
it says about restraining population, certain of the larger
considerations, alluded to in the above extract, have been
overlooked in a too exclusive attention to the special difficul-
ties of Political Economy. Even Mr. Mill’s Political Economy
appears to treat of mutual desire rather as an unfortunately
inevitable evil of humanity, than as a thing the perfect satis-
faction of which leads to the establishment and development
of the most humanizing domestic relations and affections ; and
without which the parental functions could not have that
exercise which appears necessary to the physical and mental
well-being of woman at least. For is the woman not partly
under the influence of an express desire for the children
which her peculiar organism, as woman, specially fits her to
feed in their infancy ?

The theory of Civilization shows man to be engaged in a
perpetual struggle with animate and inanimate nature for his
individual preservation and the preservation of his species ;
and it points to the fact that he is endowed with certain
instinctive cravings which directly impel him to maintain
that struggle. The elaboration of the theory leads to the
conclusion, that all the natural and ineradicable faculties and
tendencies of normally constituted men and women must,
in a civilized state, have proper cultivation and exercise;
and, further, that the increase of civilization consists precisely
in the more proper cultivation and more efficient exercise of
those faculties and tendencies. Their suppression, abnega-
tion, or undue restraint must inevitably retard civilization
among barbarous peoples, and among the civilized, produce
discivilization and national decadence.

All this holds of love of the sexes and maternal aspi-

NN2
548 ON CIVILIZATION.

rations,—qualities which every one feels and sees to be as
invariably and as ineradicably human as the nutritional
appetite. Civilization prescribes moderation ; but it prescribes
only that amount of moderation which tends to the most
complete attainment of both of the ends to which the appetites
are respectively impellants; the preservation and continuance
of the human species in greatest physical, intellectual and
moral perfection. This position seems to me well esta-
blished. Physiology in its present state indicates, I believe,
an incompatibility between the perfect development of the
individual and the multiplication of the species. But a faith,
justified by much which we already do know, in the funda-
mental harmony of nature, gives me a strong impression that
though this may be true in so far as the multiplication of
the species in greatest number is concerned, it will not be
found to hold of multiplication in greatest perfection; and
that the physiology and psychology of a more civilized state
will prove, that the greatest amount of most perfect satisfac-
‘tion of both appetites will be procured under conditions
resulting in completest individual development and most per-
fect bodily and mental reproduction. While, therefore, civili-
zation enjoins moderation of an appetite, for purposes within
the sphere of that appetite, it forbids the unwholesome
restraint or the abnegation of the one appetite, merely for
the sake of the assumed more perfect satisfaction of the other.

T have, in the preceding paragraphs, presumed the reader
to be aware of the fact that political economists prescribe late
marriages, and even life-long celibacy, in order to prevent
the increase of mouths in countries, where the quantity of
food produced is barely sufficient to feed the already existing
number. The penalty of not keeping down population in
this way is shown to be, periodical famines with their usual
accompaniments, plagues, whenever an unproductive season
occurs. And Mr. Mill argues that human beings need not
breed “like rabbits or swine,” being gifted with reason by
which to control their animal appetites. But this very
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 549

quality, reason, enables man by the increased substitution of
efficient mental agencies for the physical, in the region of
material civilization, to produce an increased amount of food.
Reason also enables man to build ships and remove himself,
with his funded civilization, to unoccupied but habitable
regions. It is in the direction of facilitated emigration and
improved agriculture,—both of which directly extend civi-
lization,—that man must seek means for the most perfect
satisfaction of the nutritional appetite. Add to these methods,
the proper distribution of products in the best proportion to
the amount and kind of labour which produces them; then
the gradual restriction of agriculture to those kinds of pro-
ducts which afford the most nourishment from the least.
amount of labour, and smallest quantity of land; and, lastly,
the elevation of cookery to the preparation of food in the
most nourishing form, instead of its being caused to minister,,
as at present, to gluttony ;—and we see that there are many
ways in which reason may exercise itself in the civilizing
process of bringing the nourishment into existence which
mouths require, instead of the unhumanizing effort of pre-.
venting the existence of mouths which require nourishment.
Should the time ever come, when the whole habitable por-.
tion of our earth shall be filled, and the utmost possible
amount of nourishment extracted from it; we have numerous.
grounds for believing that some now latent law of nature
will come into activity, by according with which, not by
violating which, Civilization may continue to progress.
Political economy does not profess to deal with prosti-
tution; while the attempt to obey practically the dictates of
that science, in the matter of restraining population, would
obviously_risk great extension of that worst of social evils.
To the French is due the credit of having attempted to
mitigate the evil in certain respects. And a very able article
published some years back in “the Westminster Review,”
appeared, after full discussion of the subject, to point to the
introduction of the French system into this country. To
550 ON CIVILIZATION.

me, however, it seems certain that the matter is not so to
be dealt with. That system may possibly mitigate the more
palpable, physical horrors, but only at the certain cost of
increasing the mental debasement which is assuredly already
a too prominent feature.* Organization is here in short a
failure, a well-intended mistake.

I do not feel required to go into the details of the subject
in an essay bearing the general title which I have chosen for
these chapters. But the evil happens to be one of the most
difficult that Civilization has to deal with; and it is an evil
which it must sooner or later deal with effectually, or itself
cease to progress. I must, therefore, devote some space to
the consideration of remedial measures.

The remedy dictated by my theory is: The universal pre-
valence of marriage at the ages productive of the most
perfect children.

In taking a general view of the state of civilization of any
community, i.e. in estimating the amount and value of its
funded civilization, it is indispensable to bear in mind that
discivilizing elements, peculiar to that community, may be
partially or wholly counterbalanced by civilized processes,
also peculiar to that community; and that, if the former were
to exist in a community which did not possess the latter,
rapid discivilization, and ultimate dissolution of the com-
munity, as such, would be the consequence. Thus in China,
wives are, by law and custom, in the power of their husbands

* Since writing the above the work of M. Parent Duchatel, which formed,
if I recollect aright, the basis of the article in the Westminster, has been put
into my hands. It is impossible to read it without feeling it to be the produc-
tion of a clear-headed and high-minded philanthropist. But in more places
than one he gives evidence of having lost himself in his subject, a fault which
we are all so liable to commit, He himself pronounces, without perceiving it,
the proper condemnation of the very system which it was the object of his book
to support and perfect. Bearing in mind the title of the chapter in which
they occur, its condemnation is included in these words :—

“ Chargé de reprimer tout ce qui serait contraire & Ja morale et ala santé
publique, administration doit, suivant moi, plus de soins 3 la morale qu’s la
santé; et s'il lui fallait nécessairement négliger l’une au détriment de l’autre,
je lui conseillerais d’abandonner celle-ci, pour ne s’occuper de la premiere.”
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 551

to an extent that should produce deplorable effects; which
however do not ensue, because in China the operation of the
discivilizing subjection is largely nullified, by the almost
unlimited power which law and opinion give mothers over
their sons of every rank and age.* So also in China, the
essentially barbarizing institution of polygamy, or the legal
right to have any number of “second” or “small” wives, in
addition to the wife proper, is largely counterbalanced by the
desire of all the men to marry early, in order to secure
a progeny of sons as soon as possible. We see no reason to
assume, that the same law of equality of birth which obtains
in England and France does not obtain in China, This
being the case, it is plain that the desire of every man to
have a wife must tend to a prevalence of monogamy, only
checked from becoming general by the wealth of a minority
of wife-buying individuals. There exist no positive statistics,
but inquiries and observation go to prove, that monogamy
does exist to a great extent; while it is certain that early
marriage is considered by Chinese ethical and political writers
—and their views are not to be lightly contemned—one of
the chief preservatives of national well-being.

I have adduced these circumstances in this place, because
it appears to me they afford evidence, that the experience
and induction of a large nation support my theory, that, the
association of all normally constituted individuals of both
sexes in natural pairs, is a requisite of the highest state of
civilization.

In a recent work, “Companions of my Solitude,” the
writer, speaking of what he has called the “great sin of great
cities,” points out that it produces “ degradation of race,” and
argues: “Thousands upon thousands of beautiful women are
by it condemned to sterility. As a nation we should look
with exceeding jealousy and alarm at any occupation which

* M. Hue by neglecting this, as well as by generalizing from particular
instances, has formed and propagated a very exaggerated notion of the low
position of woman in China.
552 ON CIVILIZATION.

claimed our tallest men and left them tows offspring.
And surely it is no light matter in a national point of view
that any sin should claim the right of consuming, some-
times as rapidly as if they were a slave population, a
considerable number of the best-looking persons in the
community.”

My. Helps’ notion of national advantage here coincides with
my theory of civilizatioa. It discards celibacy, and requires
the propagation of the species in greatest perfection.

That my remedy, when carried into full operation, must be,
practically speaking, complete is evident from the fact that,
the number of females born being rather under the number-
of males, when all the latter were paired there would be no
females left to support the evil. Iam well aware that the
remedy proposed is so difficult to bring into action that it
may itself be considered as an extremely distant end rather
than a means, so far as remoteness of effectuation is con-
cerned. {But much is gained when we know where our
remedies lie,t-in what direction we are to struggle. If
authoritative political economists are leading us in a wrong
track, it is highly important that we should open our eyes
to the fact, before we get legislatively engaged into a dis-
civilizing conflict with natural laws. The science of Political
Economy appears to enjoin a legislative obstructing of mar-
riages; my theory of human progress distinctly demands
legislative facilitating of marriages.

By marriage, I do not of course mean marriage under any
particular forms or marriage ceremonies. Marriage, like every
other right act, will be better performed if done with the
distinct perception that it is in accordance with the will of
God, as exhibited in His great natural laws; and specific forms
of union may be useful, in certain stages of cultivation, as
impressing the fact more strongly on the minds of the couple
married. But the polygamic and communistic vagaries of
Mormonism and other sects show the necessity of allotting
marriage distinctly to that region of human life to which it
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 553

belongs; and that is the Civilized, not the Religious.
Marriage is simply the avowed and exclusive union of a man
and woman with the distinct knowledge and sanction of the
community to which they belong. Among partially advanced
peoples, marriages are solemnized with feasts and ceremonies,
protracted for days; the numerous guests, which are thereby
enabled to assemble, and formally see the bride and bride-
groom, constituting the witnesses in societies where writing
is little known and records are unsafe. Our marriage break-
fasts appear to be “relics of barbarism,” from such a
state of society in our land; and it would be no mark of
discivilization if they were altogether omitted, now that
there exist carefully preserved government registers, and
widely circulating newspapers to record and herald the fact
of marriage.

For the promotion of enduring, happy marriages among
us, our legislation and social habits must be ameliorated in
two different directions. Increased facilities must be afforded
for the unmarried of both sexes to get thoroughly acquainted
with each other’s character before marriage; and, after
marriage, divorce must be rendered quick and inexpensive at
the will of either party, and on no other ground than a
formally and deliberately expressed wish to separate.

The tendency of our legislation is already clearly towards
facilitating dissolution of marriages; and the necessity of
doing so was very forcibly shown in a recent article of “ the
North British Review.” The character of that Review will
help to remove the scruples of those who object to divorce
on the ground of its being irreligious ;—a fallacy which is with
many derived in no slight degree from the expression “ holy
matrimony.” If anything can be termed “ unholy,” it is’
surely a forced association of two people in marriage who
regard each other, or where the one regards the other, with
aversion, not to use a stronger expression.

The “love” of sweethearts is a thing that is hardly ever
mentioned except with smiles, jokes, knowing nods, inuendos
554 ON CIVILIZATION.

e

and ridicule—in short with anything but seriousness. Yet
assuredly as many tragedies as comedies proceed from it;
and perhaps if we made it less a subject of comedy, it would
be less a cause of tragedy. To say that it is one of the most
potent of agents in human affairs is to utter one of the most
truistic of truisms ;—yet we do little but make merry over it.
Who has not laughed at the “ illusions of love,” and the “ dis-
enchantments of marriage ;” but how many have wept—wept
bitterly for long years, over both?

It is an imperative condition of the steady progress of
civilization among us, that the number of ill-assorted mar-
riages be reduced; and one of the most obvious social steps
to be taken for this purpose is to facilitate frequent associa-
tion and full acquaintance of the sexes before marriage;
thereby affording more chances of the right man mating with
the right woman.

It might be urged that “love” has nothing to do with a
mutual appreciation of character; that people fall violently
in love at first sight; that by far the most of young couples
do now marry for love; and that its illusions always have
existed, always must exist, and always will be followed by
disenchantment produced by familiarity after marriage.

But this has been proved an untrue as well as unneces-
sarily low view of the subject. Numbers of men have existed
who, after having experienced hot fits of love at first sight,
and having lived long enough to learn that the opposite sex
was not angelic at all, did nevertheless show themselves capa-
ble of falling in love with woman, her manifest imperfections
notwithstanding, and of loving her with an enduring attach-
ment stronger after marriage than before. The same may be
said of women; but such cases absolutely require great har-
mony of character. Now the more the unmarried associate
with each other, the less will they “ fall in love,” except
where this harmony of character is morally felt (rather than
intellectually perceived) to exist.

In “love”’—the love of sweethearts—we have a faculty in
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 555

which the physical and the highest moral qualities of human
nature are combined and fused. The intellectual qualities
do not seem to enter into it; or to have much control over
it. It is a historically established fact, that men of the
greatest intellectual ability have been as apt to “make fools
of themselves,” as average people in the matter of attachment
to the other sex. And as intellectual power is precisely that
quality in which woman is inferior to man; it is a natural
consequence that love should play a somewhat more prominent
part in her life than in that of man Love, whether in man
or woman, is a faculty as irrepressible as the merely physical
faculty of the nutritional appetite or the faculty of that higher
love, called reverence, which makes man seek an object of ado-
ration in the superhuman world. The faculty of love produces
a subjective ideal; and craves for a corresponding objective
reality. And the longer the absence of the objective reality,
the higher the ideal becomes; as in the mind of the hungry
man, ideal foods get more and more exquisite. Further, as
extreme hunger devours with delight the first objective
reality it finds, however coarse in itself; so that faculty of
love, which has long had no opportunity of exercising itself,
will at once fasten upon the first objective reality—an indi-
vidual of the other sex—that it happens to encounter; and
will invest it with all the high qualities of the subjective
ideal, though the reality may be very low. Here we have an
explanation at once of “ love at first sight,” and of the “illu-
sions of love.” The familiarity of marriage discloses the
“object” as it is; and then we have the “disenchantments.””
It was, in fact, always the subjective ideal, not the objective
reality, that the lover was in love with. Goldsmith in his
Natural History remarks (I am quoting a remembrance of
long standing and may err somewhat) on certain entries in
the journals of half-starved travellers as: “ Caught an old
wolf—very good eating.” Now the travellers, if they had
had plenty of old wolf daily, would not have thought it very
good eating; and would probably have fasted voluntarily for
556 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

a long time, if they had been assured there was great likelihood

of their finding a flock of nice lambs.
It is the men to whom woman’s society is almost unknown

that are most apt to fall violently in love at first sight: the
starved cravings of love devour the first object. So certainly
is this the effect of complete unfamiliarity, that violent love
at first sight is a general characteristic of nations where the
sexes have no intercourse before marriage. The sudden way
in which the heroes and heroines fall instantaneously in love
with each other in the Arabian Nights is well known to the
English reader; but seems very improbable to him. The
same phenomenon is however common enough in Chinese
life, and, I may add, in Chinese stories.

A Chinese who had experienced bitter disenchantments in
marriage and suffered grievously through women in many
other ways,—and who, in consequence, considered them
simply as unmitigated sources of trouble and mischief,—
retired with his infant son to the peaks of a mountain range
in Kwei chow to a spot quite inaccessible for little-footed
Chinese women; through whom he was resolved that his son
should never experience similar miseries. He trained up the
youth to worship the gods and stand in awe and abhorrence
of devils; but he never mentioned woman to him; and always
descended the mountains alone to buy food. The infirmities
of age, however, at length compelled him to take the young
man with him, to carry the heavy bag of rice. But he very
reasonably argued: “I shall always accompany my son and
take care that if he does see a woman by chance, he shall
never speak to one; he is very obedient; he has never
heard of women; he does not know what they are; and as
he has lived in that way for 20 years already he is, of course,
now pretty safe.”

As they were, on the first occasion, leaving the market
town together, the son suddenly stopped short and, pointing
to three approaching objects, inquired: ‘‘ Father, what are
these things? Look! look! what are they?” The father
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 557

hastily answered with the peremptory order: ‘Turn away
your head. ‘They are devils.” The son, in some alarm,
instantly turned away from things so bad; and which were
gazing at his motions with surprise from under their fans.
He walked to the mountain top in silence, ate no supper, and
from that day lost his appetite and was afflicted with melan-
choly. For some time, his anxious and puzzled parent could
get no satisfactory answer to his inquiries, but at length the
poor young man burst out, almost crying from an inexpli-
cable pain: ‘Oh, father, that tallest devil! that tallest devil,
father !”

He had idealized the first objective reality he met with,
and had ‘‘ fallen deeply in love at first sight.”

The above story, like all other commonly circulating tales
about the relations of the sexes, is certain to raise a smile ;
but Political Economy may learn from it, as a popular tale,
that the common sense of the largest and oldest nation in the
world has like that of most other nations made the induction
that the “love of sweethearts” is inseparable from human
nature, and utterly irrepressible.

The great social mischiefs that have ensued from the ex-
tensive establishment of monasteries and nunueries in the
West are notorious. I will not assert that partial benefits
may not have accrued from them. The polygamic Mor-
monists may have incidentally done something to the spread
of civilization—of material civilization for instance—in the
continent of North America. ' But celibacy is a more obvious
violation of the laws of nature than even polygamy ;! and
hence I hold organized celibacy to be a social monstrosity,
more even than organized polygamy. Both having based
themselves on religious Systems, it is necessary to the pro-
gress of humanity that Civilization should claim them as
appertaining, though in the quality of excrescences, to its
own sphere; and itself decide on their treatment. My
theory condemns, as being in so far, discivilized, that state of
society pointed out approvingly by writers on _ political
558 ON CIVILIZATION.

economy as existing in various parts of the continent, in
which several brothers devote themselves to a sort of lay-
monkery on merely economical grounds; leaving it to one
alone to propagate the family.

It is by no means improbable that the principles I have
enunciated may, under the dictates of a more advanced phy-
siology, lead to later marriages; or to a greater amount of
voluntary control in marriage than is now exercised, and thus
to the material limitation of population; but it will only be,
as above explained, with the view of propagating the human
race in more perfect shape. In this way, those potent human
faculties, love of the sexes and maternal affection, will both
have full satisfaction, with the least possible alloy. The only
persons who ought to abstain are those who labour under
the terrible infliction of hereditary disease, whether physical
or mental, whether consumption or constitutional insanity.
Society is clearly not yet prepared to interfere with the free
action of these unfortunates. The evil of disease of this
kind is not sufficiently proximate, and the certainty and
course of its transmission not sufficiently ascertained, to
justify us in stopping it by coercive restraint. But it is highly
probable that those persons of whom it is certain that they
would propagate family disease will, in a more civilized state,
be the only celibates; and celibates from legislative coercion,
where the opinions of society and their own mental cultiva-
tion are insufficient restraints.

We see leprosy in considerable extent and of loathsome
quality in China; a land in which polygamy exists conjointly
with Buddhist and Taouist monasteries and nunneries. In
Britain, it has totally disappeared; and if the national intel-
lect is systematically directed to the ascertainment of the best
means for carrying out, in practice, the principles here laid
down; there is great reason to hope that much prevalent
deformity, and constitutional sickliness, together with idiocy
and constitutional insanity, will in like manner cease to exist
among us.
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 559

As in that branch of the struggle of civilization which
relates to the most perfect satisfaction of the nutritional
appetite ; so, in this, the desired amelioration can only be
accomplished by a succession of changes in our social habits
and legislative enactments; which can only be very slowly
effected, because requiring at every step a previous progress
in intellectual and moral cultivation on the part of the
majority.

But there is one most important legislative measure for
which society now appears to feel itself prepared; which is
loudly demanded by political economists; and which would
have the most beneficial effect in facilitating that true marriage
to which my theory of civilization points. That measure is
the establishment by law, of the complete independence of
woman, both before and after marriage, as regards the control
of her own property, whether derived from inheritance, from
gift, or from labour. This one measure would do much to
remove some of the grossest evils connected with the re-
lations of the sexes. I follow Compte in maintaining perfect
equality of social functions between woman and man to be
neither possible nor desirable; because contrary to natural
laws, which allot to woman a special and subordinate part in
the social organism. But this natural, and therefore whole-
some and pleasant, subordination should not be factitiously
increased to a most unwholesome and oppressive degree by
defective laws. And it should be left perfectly free to every
individual woman to decide herself on the man to whom she
subordinates herself; as also to release herself, with all her
property, by divorce, when she finds that she has erred. One
of the most crying necessities of a progressive civilization is
now felt to be that wives should have the power of freeing
themselves, simply on the ground of their own wish, from the
tyrannies of husbands, whom I do not call “ brutes,” because
I think it is not fair to calumniate the dumb animals.’ Every
one, who has observed the decent hen-pecked bearing of a
family lion in the Zoological Gardens, must feel that, in the
better temper of a free wild state, he would never bully his
560 ON CIVILIZATION.

lioness. And who that has kept dogs about him has seen the
adult males worry the females? Man is physically stronger
than woman, and possesses in a higher degree than she, the
intellectual or reasoning power ;—of which latter Goethe
says :—

“Er nennts Vernunft und braucht es nur um thierischer
als jedes Thier zu sein.”

Now I distinctly object to the word thierischer, and even
to Thier, as untruthful allusions to zoological nature. It
ought to have been “ mehr entmenscht als jeder Mann,” or
something of that kind; the word Mann being of course, in
England, taken in its signification of husband. We should
then have :—

“« He calls it reason and uses it only to be more dishuman-
ized than every husband.”

After having secured to woman the absolute control over
her own property for her own use (as to the way, or the right
at all, of bequeathing it to children, independently of their
father’s wishes, we can at present hardly decide) which could
be effected by a single act of parliament; our next pressing
requirement is to enable her to acquire property by her labour.
This appears, however, to be mainly a matter of social, not
of legislative action. If married women held property in
their own right, and could in consequence exercise directly
the power of dictation which the possession of wealth gives,
the ameliorative action would doubtless go on very rapidly.
Even as it is, the required action being as said, social not
legislative, ladies have it in their power to do an immense
amount of good, and in England they can, at this moment,
display sisterly feeling to the poorer of their own sex by the
following step: Let them systematically give a decided and
wherever possible rigidly exclusive preference to those retail
shops of every kind (the few excepted where great muscular
strength is required) in which women chiefly are employed
behind the counters. This measure is, be it observed, large
and practical, yet requires little more than a resolve to its
accomplishment. And mark the result. Thousands, perhaps
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 561

tens of thousands, of good girls of the rising generation, who
are without means and without prospects, will be enabled to
get places and to earn a decent honest livelihood.

The above measure, which has been more or less distinctly
indicated by many writers in books and journals, can be car-
ried into effect at once: the will only is wanted. Many other
beneficial changes, tending to the more wholesome division of
labour between man and woman, have been pointed out; and
most such have, of course, been opposed, with a greater or
less share of grave argument, and of ridicule. This has been
the case with the proposal that ladies should be educated as
physicians, and in all branches of surgery ; in order to attend
to their own sex. Now there is nothing irrational in the
supposition that women would make as able physicians and
surgeons as men. I am speaking, it will be observed, of the
medical art, rather than of the science. The more powerful
intellect of man would not need to be excluded from the con-
sideration of the higher questions of medical science bearing
on females. Besides, though, as the general rule, man may
have the intellectual faculty stronger than woman, who does
not know, among his own acquaintance, women far beyond
many of the men in original reasoning powers? ‘The expe-
rience of hospitals has, I believe, shewn that women may be
found as much free from want of surgical nerve as men; and
that women are, in so far, as capable of performing critical
operations as men; while in point of delicacy of touch they
will hardly be deemed inferior. To me the only objection,
but that is a very serious one, lies in the consideration that a
medical life necessarily takes the practitioner from home and
family ; while Civilization requires a state of society in which
every woman, at the proper age, would have a suitable hus-
band and be, as to business, occupied with the duties of a wife
and mother. In the case of the unskilled counter labour of
shops, I have supposed the females employed to be young
women engaged in it for a few years previous to marriage.
A skilled profession admits of no such rapid change of

: 00
562 ON CIVILIZATION.
°
practitioners.* Present social arrangements err, however, so

fearfully on the side of unjust exclusion of woman from
remunerative labour, that the immediate establishment of an
amply endowed Queen’s College for Medical Women would
not be the most unwise undertaking that the benevolent
wealthy of Britain have engaged in.

Still, though we may with good ultimate effect, run risks
of getting into the opposite extreme and sending women to
occupations that might not prove compatible with their social
functions in some future, higher stage of civilization; it will
nevertheless be well always to bear in mind the downright
facts, that unless the human world is to come to an end, new
human beings must be born; and that, when born, it is
clearly the office of woman to nourish, tend, and educate
them, in infancy and earlier youth. We here perceive that
the idea of perfect equality of the social functions between
man and woman implies radical disorganization.

One of the educational necessities of the actual time
is that women should be systematically taught, what it
would greatly help them as mothers to know, and of which
they now I believe learn nothing, viz. human physiology and
psychology. I need not dwell on the advantage of the
physiological knowledge to the physical well-being of the
infants and children of” both sexes: the result would be
material benefits, and these are always readily appreciated.
But the benefits that would ensue from mothers being
thoroughly grounded in the most advanced, and best esta-
blished psychological views would certainly be still greater.
The original nature of the mental constitution of each in-
dividual is as fixed for him as his original physical nature.
That original mental nature cannot be altered, but like the
physical, it can be fostered and developed, or neglected
and stunted. Further, as you may require from the phy-

* For this reason, and others sufficiently obvious, the notion of introducing

women as clerks into government offices would appear to be a complete
unistake.
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 563

sical nature what it can, and what it cannot, do; so you
may in like manner, require the possible or impossible from
each mental idiosynerasy. Now in the very important
matter of fitting a boy (or girl) for a career in life, and in

the selection of that career, some little, though a very in-

adequate, attention is paid to his original physical powers;
*but his mental, are scarcely ever adverted to. Hence it is
that in unpolitical, as well as in public life there are so
many square men in round holes; and that so many lives are
literally wasted, because thoroughly misapplied throughout.
The mental idiosyncrasies develop themselves at a very early
age, and the greatest use might be made of the circumstance
by mothers, in order to secure the future well-being of their
sons and daughters, if they themselves were sedulously and
thoroughly instructed in the science of the human mind. At
present do not most young women, even of those who have

had “every advantage” enter upon the duties of a mother.

provided only with a stock of music, drawing, French,
&c. &c. &.? They may be more or less fitted by their

acquirements to instruct their children, but not in the least to

educate them ;/ which latter is a far more important part of
‘a. mothé’s business./ As said, the peculiar mental charac-
teristics develop themselves at very early age; the mother
is, of course more than any other, enabled by her situation to
note what these characteristics are; and in a more civilized
state of society than we are now in, she would be regularly
provided with all that systematised knowledge which would
enable her to detect them unfailingly, to foster the good
tendencies, to keep down the bad, and ultimately to name
the career in life most suited to the person.

The exclusive care and training of infants and children,
that is, of young human beings, at the time when their bodies
and minds are in the stage of greatest plasticity is, and
always must be the special province of woman. It follows
so manifestly, that a thorough knowledge on her part of the
science of body and the science of mind would be of incaleu-

002
564 ON CIVILIZATION,

lable advantage to the perfecting of the human race, that the
fact of her total neglect of physiology and psychology forms
a strong support of my assertion that we are really, in spite
of our boasting, still in a very low stage of civilization. It
is natural, and quite right, that women should be dealt with
in the manner that will make them most attractive as mates.

It is equally true, that what is required in women to attract.
men marks the civilized position of the latter. Certain

African peoples require that the bodies of their mistresses

should be as fat as possible; and the girls are in consequence

systematically fattened. This operation is the chief part of
their education; which is, therefore, chiefly physical and pas-

sive. We have got a little farther, and in requiring some

practical knowledge of music, drawing, &c., require some

cultivation of the moral and the active mechanical faculties

of the individual. While not neglecting these accomplish-

ments, where there is a natural disposition for them, we shall

in a higher state learn to admire woman for knowledge that

at once fits her for exercising her peculiar social functions

as a mother, and at the same time directly fits her to be an

attractive and agreeable companion to educated. man. It

is clear that while the science of the body would enable a

woman to make herself physically more attractive; the

science of the mind would directly fit her for interesting

mental communion.

Modern languages, particularly French and German which
contain a valuable and progressive literature, should form,
more even than now, a part of woman’s acquirements. Study
of dead languages, whether Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, though
undoubtedly better than no exercise of the mind, would be
a total misdirection of her energies. The civilizing and the
civilized processes require an increasing subdivision of labour ;
as a consequence of which, the dead languages must, in a
society whose civilization is augmenting, become the special
study of a section of male philologists; the historical and
more important philological results only of their investiza-
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART, 565

tions being, as constituents of cultivation, mastered by other
males and by the females, when presented in the best modern
languages. In like manner, woman should Jearn the more
important general conclusions of political economy; but the
thorough study, and the advance, of that science falls plainly
within men’s social functions. Mathematics are also evi-
dently the business of the man, though woman might with
advantage study the first portion of plane geometry, which
requires very little time and is an excellent exercise of the
intellectual faculty. In general, it should be kept well in
view that woman’s chief function in the work of civilization
consists in the preparatory business of cultivation of the in-
dividual; and cultivation precisely at the period when the
plant is youngest, tenderest, and most susceptible as well to
judicious, as to unwholesome treatment.

Civilization and its progress requiring the greatest know-
ledge of, and most perfect harmony with the laws of nature ;
and woman’s natural sphere of action being home and family,
where her situation and duties effectually debar her from
engaging in many remunerative occupations open to man, it
becomes a question how she is, as a constant, though domestic
worker, to obtain and retain as her own the remuneration
which civilization requires that each worker should obtain
and retain. My opinion is that, while the necessary domestic
outlays will be furnished from the husband’s gains, her re-
warding pay or profit will be given her in advance. It
is highly probable that, in a more civilized state, in which
she will have the uncontrolled command of her own property,
she will owe her pecuniary independence, in single and mar-
ried life, to the bequests and gifts of her blood relations,
rather than to her own direct earnings. Fathers and brothers,
in every class of society, would make pecuniary sacrifices
and efforts for their daughters and sisters, which they do
not now choose to make for the husbands of their daughters
and sisters; and then it would be to daughters exclusively
that mothers would give and bequeath. The amassed wealth
of one generation would pass mainly into the hands of the
566 | ON CIVILIZATION. S

women of the next; the chief, and only honourable, excep-
tion being the monies left to the young men who had fairly
devoted themselves to those political, scientific and literary
labours which, though in the highest degree beneficial, are
peculiarly non-remunerative.

However their property might be acquired, the immediate
effect of women keeping their own banker’s and tradesman’s
accounts, as well after as before marriage, would be a great
reduction of our demoralizing fortune-hunting, and conse-
quently of our unholy matrimony. The seeking of a woman
as a wife, solely for the sake of her money, where there
is no inclination or possibly an aversion to herself—a thing
in every respect inexcusable, low, and discivilizing—would
be thereby nearly put an end to. To meet the by no means
unlikely case of wealthy young wives being weak enough to
give their money to their husbands, and the latter being
mean enough to accept it, the law could enact that in the
case of divorce (obtainable at the simple registered request
of either party) each should take away her or his proportion
of the aggregate property left at the period of divorce, with-
out reference to mutual gifts that had taken place. The
result of detailed legislation in this spirit (children would
necessitate modifications) would be to render the most, suc-
cessful fortune-hunting but the attainment of material luxu-
ries under the onerous condition of a life-long association
with a person, for whom there was no inclination; whose
perception of (the best concealed) disinclination would not
fail to make her exacting; and to offend whom would lead
to divorce, and to a consequent refunding of whatever wealth
had been obtained from her.

The pecuniary independence of woman after marriage and
the consequent gradual disappearance of fortune-hunting,
whether on the part of individuals or of their parents for
them, would not fail to lead to a greater frequency and |
freedom of intercourse between the youth of both sexes in
every class, and to a greater intercourse between classes now
separated by wealth, though not by any personal qualities
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 567

or habits. And that more extensive and more intimate
acquaintance between the sexes would do much toward stop-
ping unsuitable marriages, with all the domestic and social
evils they produce; while it would lead on the other hand to
the contraction at the proper ages of that true marriage, the
\general prevalence of which is required by the theory of
civilization.

This is perhaps the fittest place to speak of the position of
the Fine Arts with reference to Civilization. The industrial
arts are, without exception I believe, civilized processes
either of material or of purely physical civilization. The fine
arts, on the other hand, operate on the emotional side of
man’s nature, which comprises his (higher) moral faculties
and his (baser) passions; and they belong to the region of
Cultivation rather than that of Civilization. The fine arts
smooth the way of civilization when they cultivate the moral
faculties, when they arouse men to an admiring sense of the
good, the true and the lovely; and thusat once increase the
vigour of the moral agencies and improve the field in which
these agencies operate. The fine arts promote discivilization
when they develop the passions, when they produce in men
an admiration of the bad, the false and the hideous, whether
in the mental or the material world; and thus nullify the
moral agencies and the field they operate in.

All poetry, eloquent descriptive prose, works of fiction,
music, painting, and statuary, which cause men to sympa-
thize with good, truthful and lovely deeds, and to admire
those who perform them, and which awaken his love of the
pure, help the advance of civilization. “All art of the dif-
ferent kinds just enumerated, but which makes heroes of
villains and stimulates to gluttony, drunkenness, or immora-
lity, by presenting those things under loveable and exciting
aspects, is barbarizing.

All art that creates innocent amusement or mirth, as repre<
568. ON CIVILIZATION.

sentations of funny scenes, whether in painting, sculpture, on
the stage or by automatic machinery, &c. &c. promotes moral
cultivation; and therefore aids the highest description of
civilization. The good humour which it produces in man
makes him more willing to do kindly acts— readier as well to
employ, as to be influenced by, moral agencies. Wilkie’s
funny home scenes, and Landseer’s humorous animal pictures
are therefore specimens of really high art in conception,
not less than in execution ;—excellence in which latter, the
bulk of people know little or nothing of. And it is the
faculty of furnishing so much morally beneficial amusement
that entitles Doyle to high rank as a true artist. The series of
plates called “ Ye English in 1849” are (those of a sectarian
polemical tendency excepted) national benefits in this respect.

True refinement is undoubtedly an agent of mental civiliza-
tion, because morally attractive, while indelicacy and coarse-
ness are repulsive. I have said “true,” because there is a
conventional refinement, which forms no necessary part of
the true, and may even be in opposition to it. The same
holds of its opposite, coarseness, as also of what is indicated
by such words as vulgar, gentlemanly, honour, &c. which
terms have very different, and at times directly opposite,
significations in the minds and mouths of different peoples,
different societies, and even different individuals in the
same society.

I here close the formal view of Civilization, considered as
a struggle to which man is impelled by the aversion to pain,
the nutritional appetite, the sexual appetite, and parental
affection. In the course of this view I have endeavoured to
show the relation of Science and Art to Civilization. I have
also endeavoured to point out some of those sciences and arts,
the extension and application of which is more immediately
required by our present social deficiencies ; but I need hardly
tell my readers that, in a fieldso wide, I could do little more,
in the compass of a few pages, than merely throw out some
general indications; while the purpose of the essay did not
require further pursuit of the progressive future.
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART. 569

I have left it mainly for the reader to see for himself how
the legislative and social ameliorations that are recommended,
harmonize with the definition of Civilization given in the first
chapter. He will, on consideration, perceive that they con-
sist, directly or indirectly, of the introduction of efficient
moral and intellectual agencies to the reduction of the merely
physical in the struggle of human life.

For instance, one important part of that struggle consists
in getting a suitable individual of the opposite sex with whom
to form a natural pair. Among mere savages, the strong man
literally employs physical force and seizes the woman he
fancies without reference to her inclinations, or even being
withheld by the circumstance of her forming the female
member of an already constituted pair. An attempt was
made in Ireland the other day to revive this procedure, but
the “savage” was not strong enough, and his attempt was
not sanctioned by society or law: the grand majority have got
beyond that primitive stage to which the attempt belongs.
It is with us no longer possible even to buy a wife in defiance
of a persistent and declared disinclination on the part of the
woman; nor to make at all an avowed and open purchase of
one. } But wives, with their own real or apparent consent, are
largely bought under indirect forms ; pnd the material agency
of money, operating on the baser emotional nature of men
and women,-——parents as well as principals,—has much to do
with the formation of very many pairs among us. By secur-
ing to woman complete independence throughout life, as to
property once her own, we shall reduce the operation of this
low agency and introduce in place of it the higher agency of
the personal qualities; ensuring thereby that mutual fitness
or harmony which civilization requires for true marriage.

I may be here allowed to remind the reader, with reference
to this essay, that when dealing in few words with such wide
subjects as Civilization embraces, brevity must inevitably
lead to misunderstanding, in few or more places, between a
greater or less number of the readers and the writer. I shall;

‘have to state my conviction of the extreme imperfection of '
570 ON CIVILIZATION. »

‘the best languages ;!and of the difficulties the best writers
must experience in using them as a means of communication.:
Ihave in the meantime to beg the reader to interpret my
words as candidly and as charitably as possible.

The definition of Civilization is perfectly new; and the
rigorous restriction of Religion within those higher limits
which I maintain to be proper to it, is not, to the best of my
knowledge, merely an unconscious revival of a dormant recol-
lection from previous reading, but the result of independent
thought on the imperative necessity, if Civilization is to
progress,'of the most absolute freedom for individuals in their
relations to the future, and the superhuman worlds.! In
everything else that is touched on, my object has naturally
been to show how my theory of Civilization harmonizes with
generally received opinions as to human good and human pro-
gress; not to give decisions on disputed questions. Purposely,
I have advanced conclusions only against what appeared to
be plainly discivilizing. Where opposed, on marriage, to
certain of the political economists, the difference lies, I sus-
pect, chiefly in the estimate of the result to which certain
means will lead; assuredly not in the appreciation of ends to
be attained. And, then, I make little doubt that the feeling
of the public generally will be rather with me in opinions,
which do nothing but require due accord with direct tenden-
cies and fundamental laws of human nature.

In the following chapter, I shall endeavour at once to
illustrate my theory of civilization, and to throw some light
on the relative standing of extreme Occidentals and extreme
Orientals,—of the Anglo-Saxons and the Chinese. But I
cannot, I regret to find, give that systematic view of the
relative position of the two peoples, in point of civilization,
which was originally contemplated ; and must beg the reader
to get what amount of clear insight he can, from the uncon-
nected illustrations and applications of the theory that will
here follow.
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 571

CHAPTER III.

MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM CHRISTIAN AND CON-
FUCIAN CIVILIZATIONS.

Wuenever anything is mentioned, or proposed, as an act of
the civilized, or of the civilizing process—as a state of, or
advance in Civilization—the first question to be asked by the
testor is: Does it serve man in his struggle with the world
around him? Does it tend to any “useful” purpose? Does
it immediately or mediately help to avert pain of any kind,
or subserve the more perfect satisfaction of the nutritional
appetite, the love of the sexes, or parental affection? This
being answered in the affirmative, the next question is:
Does the thing (act, method or instrument) involve a reduc-
tion of physical labour by the introduction of mental agen-
cies; or, there being no reduction of physical labour of any
description, does it involve the substitution of moral for
merely intellectual agencies?

Clocks which, at the period of striking, send out figures,
cocks to crow, &c. &c., are, in their distinctive peculiarities,
not useful ;—do not, in so far, reduce man’s physical labour
in his struggle with the world around him. We could now
make such instruments much better than they were made in
the Middle Ages; but our more advanced Civilization justly
rejects them as toys. They may slightly promote Cultiva-
tion, as I have shewn pictures to do, which excite innocent
amusement, but any help they may give in this way is in no
proportion to the labour expended on them. Punch and
Judy do vastly more; and their invention is, therefore, in no
572 ON CIVILIZATION. .

respect an instance of the civilizing process. On the other
hand, every discovery of a means for making the dial of a
clock more distinctly visible, or its bell more distinctly
audible, is an act of the civilizing process; as it helps to
save time and labour spent in ascertaining what o’clock it is.
Hence our really progressive state speedily avails itself of
such discoveries.

Machines have frequently been invented, the intention of
which was unmistakeably (as in the case of machines for
agricultural purposes) to aid man in his struggle with nature;
which on being tried were found to perform well the par-
ticular act they were meant to perform; and which were
nevertheless not adopted. The explanation is that, in such
cases, there was no real reduction of physical agency; that
the total amount of labour spent in the formation, repair and
manipulation of such machines, was greater than would
have been required to do an equal amount of work with
the bare hands, or with the formerly used, less complicated
instruments.

When two machines effect the purpose for which they are
used equally well, civilization gives up the more complicated,
and retains that which embodies the smallest quantity of
physical agency. Every part of a machine implies the use
of a long succession of physical agencies, from the procuring
of the raw material to its final adaptation. Hence the
gradual simplification of machinery, in proportion to the
multiplication of discoveries and inventions, is the result of
the substitution of intellectual for physical agencies.

The inventor, in the ordinary sense of the word, and the
philosophic genius play different parts as Civilizers. The
inventor changes the forms of matter and makes new arrange-
ments of it, in order to construct useful instruments or
machines. The philosophic genius simply looks around on
things as they are, and, where no useful connection ever oc-
curred to others, perceives a certainty of hitherto undreamt-of
combinations productive of grand results. It is to him chiefly
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 573

that we owe the methods, as distinguished from the instru-
ments, of civilization. Columbus did not make our globe,
nor invent ships; but he saw that ships might be employed
on the globe, to get east by going west. As a Civilizer of
warfare, the inventor constructs some better description of
gun; the philosophic genius takes men and things as they
are, but designs some new combination and cooperation of
them, and becomes a great strategist.

Those men who are famed for having ascertained, either
by experiment or observation, properties in natural bodies or
harmonies in nature, aided civilization by furnishing addi-
tional means for the civilizing process. If they, besides
working purely as discoverers, pointed out uses that could be
made of the properties and harmonies they discovered, then
they were in so far direct Civilizers. Newton when he dis-
covered gravitation, and Copernicus when he decided that
the earth revolved round the sun, not the sun round the
earth, furnished additional means for increasing civilization ;
those who were guided by the laws of gravitation and astro-
nomy in introducing new operations into practical mechanics
and navigation were direct Civilizers. Franklin, when he
ascertained the identity between electricity and lightning,
prepared the way of the civilizing process; the inventor of
the electric telegraph is, as a reducer of physical agency by the
saving of time, one of the most extensively operating Civi-
lizers that ever existed. Harmonies are discovered in the world
of human life and thought, as well as in inanimate nature ;
sociology is the result of such discoveries; and Compte is a
Civilizer chiefly as the establisher of that science.

The history of nations shows us that a great trade, a
flourishing internal condition, and much external military
power are among the most frequent of national coincidences.
At this moment the two greatest trading nations are England
and America; and there exists none internally more flou-
rishing and externally more powerful in war. On the other
hand, the English have been ridiculed as “ shopkeepers,” by
574 ON CIVILIZATION. |

a great external warrior, Napoleon I.; and the Americans
have been censured as mere “ dollar-hunters” by our most
eminent writer on political economy,—a subject intimately
connected with trade. Further, the proposition that “ trade
‘is debasing” is among those which are most widely accepted.
Again, for a long course of years, we kept congratulating
ourselves on the blessings of the peace we were enjoying, and
on the “consequent progress of civilization.” Now, our poet-
laureate, our national bard, writes a long “ poem,” apparently
for the purpose of denouncing vulgarizing, debasing peace,
and of glorifying, ennobling and elevating war. One is some-
how made to feel, on reading the last verses, as if it was
rather a vulgar and debased trait, that one has no desire
whatever to rush out into the street, and hit the first man
one meets a knock on the head, in order to have with him
a mutually ennobling and improving set-to.

The reader will observe that in the above paragraph there
are stated a number of apparently discrepant facts and con-
flicting notions. Do our conclusions as to civilization remove
the appearance of discrepancy and help us to detect the false
notions?

Commerce is a portion of the struggle that is mainly main-
tained for the object of satisfying the nutritional appetite and
the aversion to pain. Trade, in so far as it subserves its main
object, bas nothing debasing about it. It is on the contrary
an indispensable requisite of civilization. If the whole of a;
man’s attention is devoted so completely to one occupation ..
as to exclude all general cultivation, the life of that man :
becomes anti-civilizing. It might be right to say of a man
who pursued trade in that fashion, that his manner of life |
was debasing; but not that trade is debasing. ' Of course,
by trade, I mean commerce in nourishing, sheltering, pro-
tecting and curing substances and instruments; and not such
traffic as panders directly to vice; which is not what is
referred to, when it is said that ‘trade is debasing.” Lying,
in any shape, whether by words or looks, or even by deceptive
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 575

| silence in those cases where usage requites speech, is debasing,
in whatever occupation it is manifested, ‘whether in pallens a
great sa a in selling matches. A man is perfectly
justified in asking what pre he pleases for his own property :
—no one is compelled to purchase it. But he has no right
to tell lies about it,—no right, by active lying, to conceal
defects, nor to keep silence (passive lying) about such as
exist, when there is the slightest reason for presuming that
the purchaser assumes their non-existence. Now it is too
true that in the wholesale, not less than the retail trade
there is a vast amount of this and other kinds of lying
practised. Indeed the practice is so well known to be very
prevalent that individuals justify it on the ground that
“everybody does it.” But I deny that trade, as trade, is
debasing. Political life has never been considered in itself
debasing ; yet is there not almost as much direct and indirect
Viying in politics as in trade? | Traders are found to sell
" oxidized mercury for cayenne, and chicory. for coffee; and
the British public is indignantly taking measures to check
the deceits../But there is another kind of adulteration that,’
nationally speaking, it is of far more importance to check. :
If the British Empire is to flourish, the British public must
manifest some practical indignation at the large quantities of
red-oxide religion and chicory patriotism which are unscrupu-

lously manufactured and unblushingly retailed by its political
traders. It may be doubted if the lying and swindling which
exist in ‘commercial life are nationally so discivilizing as the
‘lying and swindling in political life.} Deceit must be put
down, both in trade and in politics, by an improved moral
tone—a higher cultivation of the moral faculties—and by a
practical, effective reprobation on the part of society of all
ascertained lying; or in spite of multifold promising appear-
ances,(England must cease to prosper.} I have shewn that
civilization may be described as all sound science and true
art. But sound science and true art are simply the discovery
of facts, called natural laws in the animate and inanimate
576 ON CIVILIZATION.
@

world, and the acting in accordance with these facts for
improving and useful purposes. Civilization may, accordingly,
be described as Man’s ascertaining of truths in the animate
and inanimate world and harmonizing with them in order to
preserve himself and species in greatest perfection. Now,
wherever a lie is told, looked or acted, there is dis-harmony |
and dis-accord; and hence all lies are discivilizing. ° More |
directly, our theory declares lying discivilizing, as one of the
/most decided abnegations of the moral agencies. | Again, the
‘saving of time is a process of civilization. Hence whatever
wastes time is a process of discivilization. Now let the
reader reflect what a fearfully large portion of our time is
actively occupied merely in guarding against falsity of some
sort, further, how much is wasted in sheer inactivity because
we cannot trust each other, and he will see what a powerful
element of discivilization, lying necessarily is. As to the
proof of experience, have not explorers ever found savages
the greatest of liars as well as great thieves? And was not
universal deceit most dominant among the Greeks at the
period when, as we know, their national decadence had
already commenced ?

I may as well say now the little I shall be able to say in
‘this essay on the subject of Government. I mean govern-
ment in general, for I may have occasion to allude to the
military department of our government in speaking of war.

I have as yet said nothing on the subject. Though govern-
ments are a necessary result of the subdivision of labour
which inevitably takes place with the advancing substitution
of moral and intellectual, for physical agencies, z.e. are 4
necessary result of Civilization, it does not appear that any

. one of the forms of government hitherto discovered is abso-
lutely necessary to the constant operation of the civilizing
process. Some known to us are manifestly more favourable
to that constant operation than others; ‘but we have not yet

_ seen the Civilizing and Civilized Government. |

Governments are not a result simply of that subdivision of

yD
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 577

labour to which man is ultimately conducted by the influence
of the four chief natural impellants, so often named. They
spring in a great degree from other two human impellants,
‘which come into operation immediately after the first four
have received moderate satisfaction ; viz. man’s desire to rule
or regulate; and his craving for the admiration of his fellows.
Mung tsze or Mencius, himself the second great political
teacher of the Chinese, said whether in regretful self-censure
or not, we do not learn: “Jin che hwan, tsae haou wei jin
she, (Man’s chief disease (or craving) consists in his desire to
be a teacher of his fellows,’’ About 2,200 years later, Arnold,
« much respected teacher of British youth, called “ the desire
of taking an active share in the great work of government,
the highest earthly desire of the ripened mind.”* Both
sayings point to what I call man’s desire to rule or regulate.
As to man’s craving for admiration, it operates more or less
in almost every act of his life, which is not strictly personal.
The manifestation of these two cravings constitutes overt
ambition; and they, more than the wish for pay (as a means of
satisfying his other desires) impel men in every country to
strive for place in the ruling body. I have not hitherto
noticed them, because they did not seem to me to lead
specially to social results, which are generally felt to be
embraced by the term Civilization.

But considering their unmistakeable universality and great
strength, our view of Civilization, as a problem in practical
solution, is not complete unless it includes their most perfect

- satisfaction. For Civilization requires that no craving, which
forms an essential part of normal human nature, shall be
ignored or absolutely repressed. | It only requires that the
indulgence of these cravings shall be limited by, or sub-
ordinated to, its own highest rule of doing to others as we
would be done by. Any form of government, therefore, :
which steadily ignores or suppresses, in a large portion of |
society, man’s desire to rule and his craving for admiration,
* Quoted from Creasy’s Rise and Progress of the Constitution.
PP
578 ON CIVILIZATION. ¢

is in so far discivilizing. Unless this discivilizing tendency is
sufficiently counterbalanced by some other, potently working
aids to civilization, such a government must inevitably pro-
duce national decay. The real cause of the Chinese being
the only people that has, in spite of occasional checks and
stoppages, progressed from the earliest times to the present,
as one and the same strictly national nation, while so many
others have risen to great power, and then utterly disap-
peared, is, that the Chinese, alone of all nations, have by one
and the same measure systematically satisfied these two
cravings, besides making them serve in the extension of
mental cultivation and the conscious use of moral agencies
rather than the physical, in man’s dealings with man. It is
their Public Service Competitive Examinations, and their
fundamental maxim,—nationally inculcated by means of these
Examinations,—that men must be ruled by conquering their:
hearts, which has made the Chinese by thousands of years
the oldest, and by hundreds of millions the largest of nations
that the world has seen.

I now return to the discrepancies and conflicting notions
enumerated on pages 573, 574. Mr. Mill’s censure of the
Americans, as mere dollar-hunters, occurs in the chapter
** On the Stationary State.”

Time prevents my condensing largely from it; and I must
therefore assume, in making a few remarks, that those who
read an Essay on Civilization, will take the trouble to refer
to the book itself.

Mr. Mill points out, as a desirable state of society one in
which each coming generation will be restrained by prudence
and public opinion within the numbers necessary for replacing
the actually existing onc; the object of thus permanently
arresting population at a certain amount, being to render the
progress of wealth and of the productive arts unnecessary;
and so get rid of the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and
treading on each other’s heels, which form the existing type
of social life. We should then, Mr. Mill says, have a state
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 579

of society in which a much larger body of persons than at
present would not only be exempt from the coarser toils, but
would have sufficient leisure, both physical and mental, to
cultivate freely the graces of life. Though capital and popu-
lation would be stationary, there would, Mr. Mill observes,
be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental culture and
moral and social progress. And he objects to the cultivation
of every rood of land which is capable of growing food for
human beings; to every flowery waste and natural pasture
being ploughed up, nothing left to the spontaneous activity
of nature, and the world deprived of that solitude in the
presence of natural beauty and grandeur, which is the cradle
of thoughts and aspirations good for the individual and for
society.

Few or none will venture to deny the extreme desirability
of the objects Mr. Mill points out: a beautiful inanimate
nature, and an animate nature (man), in which the graces
of life are freely cultivated. But the reader is already
aware that I consider his great measure for ensuring the
desired state to be radically ineffective, even if its institution
were practicable,—which may fairly be doubted. If we, for
the sake of argument, suppose the first great: practical diffi-
culty overcome, and every nation of the world to have recog-
nised the advisability of taking care that the number of
births should be equal to the number of deaths, how is the
thing to be done? If in speculating on the different positive
regulations by which the end might at first seem attainable,
the reader does not come immediately on manifest impracti-
cabilities, he will be much more ingenious and successful than
Ihave been. One may suppose all males and females to be
married, and each married couple to have only two children ;
but would the existing law of sexual equality of birth still
operate under a system so constrained, supposing the great
natural difficulties in the way of the maintenance of that
system overcome? Again, we may suppose married life to be
as it now is, but each actually existing generation to fix

PP2
580 ON CIVILIZATION. »

through its Government (and by the help of a Registrar's
office become one of the chief branches of the administration)
the number of marriages for the next; and the equality of
generations to be then preserved by a greatly extended,
directly coercive celibacy. But if ever there was a “dan-
gerous class,” it is clear that the forced celibates would form;
such a class; and both for that and for other reasons, it is,
obvious that such a society is precisely one in which the
graces of life would not “be freely cultivated.” In it, large’
numbers of human beings would be coerced into abjuration of
the indulgence of one of the most interesting, beautiful and
humanizing of human tendencies, the love of the sexes; the
present greatest evil of large communities would inevitably
extend; and social horrors would probably come into exist-
ence, of which we have now no conception, as the result of
an unnatural struggle with one of the strongest of man’s
natural impulses.

When we go into details, it appears that Mr. Mill’s equali-
zation of successive generations is not practicable; and,
allowing it to be practicable, it would not seem likely to
produce a state of society morally and intellectually higher
than that which now exists.

Mr. Mill advises the equalization solely to put a stop to
the sordid debasing rivalries in the race of worldly prosperity,
and tv prevent a disfiguring change in the aspect of inanimate
nature.

There is, however, every reason for believing that the
sordid and debasing of our present rivalries must, with the
advance of the civilizing process, give place, ‘surely though
slowly, to the more generous and elevating;: as an unfailing
consequence of the greater use of the moral agencies, because
gradually found by men to be most advantageous.

And it appears to me certain, that that civilizing process,—
operating as extension and improvement of agriculture and
commerce in inanimate nature for the more perfect satisfac-
tion of the nutritional appetite,—will not diminish either her
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 581

beauties or her sublimities, or reduce the total amount of
wholesome solitary contemplation of each by man. In order
to test this let the reader, leaving generalities, call to remem-
brance the particular occasions on which he was most struck
by prospects of nature; and endeavour to ascertain, by
analysis, how much agriculture and trade had contributed to
the production of those features by which he was more
powerfully affected.

I describe some of the prospects that have impressed
themselves most upon my memory.

The first was one which I viewed, I think, at about the
age of twelve. I was seated on a lower part of the black
rocks that line the north-eastern coast of England, having a
belt of sandy hillocks covered with bent grass, (the links) up
behind me. It was blowing very hard from the north—
almost a strong gale—and the sea was whitened with the
foam on the crests of the breaking waves. Man himself was
nowhere visible, and the land in sight showed no sign of his
existence even; but, about two miles out at sea, a solitary vessel
marked his presence. It was a steamer, large for those days,
‘—upwards of twenty years ago. She had the sea to herself;
for both the strength and the direction of the gale, rendering
that part of the coast very dangerous, had driven into shelter
the sailing ships and fishing-boats usually moving there.
She, however, was going steadily north right in the very
teeth of wind and waves; which latter were breaking con-
tinually over her bows. | A strong elation I felt, impressed
the sight indelibly on my mind. } I do not mean to assert,
that I then fully, or even much, understood what it was
that affected me. Had I attempted to give utterance to
my sensations I should probably have said in my northern
dialect “Ay, man, that’s fine!” It was some years before
I knew why I had been so much impressed. No man, be it
observed, was visible, and on shore there reigned the solitude
Mr. Mill speaks of, in the most absolute sense of the word ;
while if there was no beauty, there was the sublimity that
582 ON CIVILIZATION. es

never fails the ocean, and the grandeur to eye and ear of a
rugged coast heavily beaten by foaming and sounding seas.
_ But for me the grandest sight of all was man’s domination
over nature, evidenced in the power of the steamer: the
elevating poetry enacted by debasing trade. I was moved
by the nobility of material Civilization; though I then little
dreamed of ever writing an essay to prove that that Civili-
zation is the domination of mind over matter.

The next scene, I witnessed about six or seven years later.
After spending some days in moving about among the Harz
Mountains, under their huge pines and high precipices, I
ascended the most elevated peak, the Brocken, rendered
classic by the witch doings in Goethe’s Faust. At the end
of some hours’ most monotonous waiting, the grey mist,
which had enveloped the summit, suddenly broke and dis-
played a splendid prospect of cultivated undulating land—
a portion of the Brunswick Duchy I believe—stretching, as
far as the eye could reach, northwards; while on turning to
the south, I could view, from above, the pine forests and
ravines among which I had been wandering for some days
before. On the one side was the “spontaneous activity of
nature,” in stern, savage sublimity ; on the other was “ nearly
every rood of land brought into cultivation.” The latter
sight, the result of agricultural progress, was much the more
beautiful; and it was, moreover, elevating, cheering, and
humanizing.

Ten years later, I ascended the highest of a little chain of
hills that line some eight miles of the northern coast of the
Bay of Hang chow, immediately to the east of the city of
Chapoo. The highest summit of these hills cannot, I should
say, be more than 2,000 feet, and is perhaps not more than
1,400 or 1,500 feet, above the level of the sea. But the pro-
spect from them is nevertheless extensive; and it is unique.
For at the foot of the hills, on their northern side, commences
one of the largest alluvial flats on the face of the earth, that
formed, in geological ages, by the deposits of the Great River
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 583

aided by those of its sister stream, the Yellow River. This
alluvial flat has a superficial area equal to that of the whole
kingdom of Portugal. Hills such as those at Chapoo—
generally cones like huge molehills, more or less steep—rise
abruptly out of this flat, at intervals of 20 or 30 miles; but
they are mere islets in the ocean of plain, which, from foot to
foot of these hills, is but in few places more than a yard or
two above the sea, and is in many places rather under than
over its level.* The whole of this would have been one vast
extent of hideous swamp, but for the labours of man in his
endeavours to satisfy the nutritional appetite. Here, there-
fore, the xsthetic not only harmonises with the economic,
but is literally produced by it. Every European resident at
Shanghae must, even though oppressed by the monotonous
effect of the dead level, feel that but for agriculture and trade
the whole country around would be not only monotonous but
dismal,—would be a wide expanse of mud-bank and marsh,
more or less covered with a rank unsightly vegetation of
reeds and water grasses. As it is now, a Dutchman or a
native of the low country near Hull must, I should think,
regard it as in all respects most beautiful. Viewed from
above, as I viewed its southern extremity from the Chapoo
hills, one sees numberless farm-houses and hamlets thickly
studding a plain every inch of which, not occupied by the
network of canals and foot-paths, is under careful cultiva-
tion. On the face of the earth, there is no tract of equal
extent so very densely populated; yet (even if we leave
the change from aboriginal mud and swamp out of consider-
ation) the effect of the agriculture is the reverse of dis-
figuring. One of the most economically living peoples in
the world appears there to find it practically advantage-
ous to have a few trees round their dwellings; for the

* By ascending the roofs of the foreign houses at Shanghae, a little group of
such hills, the highest point of which I estimate, from memory, at not more
than five to seven hundred feet above the sea, can be perceived with a tele-

seope. They are naturally called “the Hills” by the foreign residents, all else
within ken being unmitigated flat.
584 ON CIVILIZATION. .

difficulty is to detect houses without some such accom-
paniment. Then there are whole plantations of mulberry
trees for the silk-worms; and orchards of peach-trees;
than which latter, when in full bloom, floral nature pre-
sents nothing more beautiful.* The hills I stood on, which
form a fair type of all the hills I have mentioned, are
extremely barren. Msthetically, they are much improved
by the Chinese terrace-cultivation where that is possible;
as, for instance, on the sides of a ravine, the streamlet in
which affords facilities for the indispensable irrigation. A
portion of the steeper, uncultivatable hill-sides is devoted to
burial-grounds, and these are, without doubt, esthetically
improving; even where wnaccompanied by a not unfrequent,
dark evergreen, which the botanical reader must pardon my
utter ignorance for naming a weeping cypress. Pine planta-
tions, from which firewood is drawn, seem to be the most
profitable use to which other portions of the hills can be put
where they will consent to grow anything ; and the effect of
these, again, is, to say the least, as beautifying as the spon-
taneous productions of wild nature could well be on the same
spots.

The fourth aspect of nature, of which a special recollec-
tion remains with me, is one which I had about three years
ago in the truly charming little island principality of Loo
choo; of which the reader probably knows something from
Captain Basil Hall’s record of his visit. I had been sent
there by H. M.’s Plenipotentiary in “the Nile” war
steamer, as well to assist her commander, Capt. Loiyer,t in
a mission to the Government of the little State, as to report
on the position and doings of the one European resident—a
missionary. From the latter, from the notices of previous
Occidental visitors, but more still from a copy I possessed of

* On pages 197 and 198, have been described some other features of this
alluvial plain.

+ The reader may save himself the trouble of looking in the Navy List for
these names.
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 585

a curious historical and descriptive work compiled by a Chinese
Commissioner who visited the Principality about 1720, I had
obtained some general knowledge of its political and social
state. The people are a half Japanese, half Chinese race,
among whom the Confucian civilization flourishes in a re-
markable degree. They have preserved themselves in virtual
independence, as regards internal administration, of the
neighbouring empires of Japan and China, by rendering
homage to both. With the Court of the latter they have
maintained a regular ceremonial intercourse since the days of
our Richard II. They have always endeavoured to keep off
Occidentals, by the passive means of absolute non-intercourse
on the part of the people; the displeasing effect.of which is,
however, obliterated in the minds of all visitors by the mild,
submissive, and in other respects, cheerful bearing which ac-
companies it. Our visit in the Néle will be ever memorable as
the era of a change in their international politics. For by
putting on the international screw, in ways that routine diplo-
macy in Europe has no notion of, we succeeded in making
them, without a word of threat on our part, open for the first
time the gates of the Royal Citadel to Occidentals. We were
received by the venerable old Regent; for the young Prince
was a boy and was understood to be weeping with his Royal
Mother in her private rooms during our visit, in dismay at that
grave political event. But both on that, and on other occasions
on which I saw the Regent, I earnestly impressed on him the
necessity of giving up, once for all, their system of furnishing
Occidental vessels* with supplies, and refusing remuneration,
—a system which I shewed them must prove ruinous to their
limited resources, now that their country was certain, do
what they might, to be visited every year more and more.
The Nile paid for everything she got; and an officer of

* The reader can here see the reason why I make frequent use of “ Occi-
dental” rather than “ European.” In speaking of affairs in the extreme East
a collective term is necessary which includes Americans as well as Europeans.
I may speak of Christian nations and Christian Civilization, but there would
be an objectionable incongruity in such a term as Christian vessels.
586 ON CIVILIZATION,
e

the American Japanese Expedition told me, that, on their
squadron touching there (at a later period) Commodore
Perry was received with little hesitation or alarm within the
Royal Citadel; also that remuneration was readily taken for
the provisions supplied.

The main island of Loo choo (there are some 35 lesser ones
under the sway of the Prince) consists, so far as we could see,
of nothing but a long coral reef, that has been geologically
raised from the ocean. It is about the size of an English
county; and is beautifully undulating, with occasional preci-
pices of coral; but there are no mountains. The Royal Ci-
tadel, which is seated on the most elevated point in the island,
can hardly be more than five or six hundred feet above the
seas The high ring wall of this citadel, and the palatial halls
and dwellings within its circuit, are all built of coral; while,
on the south side, the wall skirts the edge of a coral precipice
of 60 to 100 feet deep. A jagged portion of the edge of this
precipice struck me as having, in miniature size, something
of the irregular turreted configuration of a baronial castle ;
and it was seated on the top of a little * donjon keep” in solid
coral, that I took my contemplative view of the most polished
gem that adorns the bosom of the blue Pacific.

The experienced reader and writer will have perceived
that, after dealing with the drier questions of civilization,
I have seized an opportunity to do a little easy descriptive
writing. But I may explain, that they would hardly appre-
ciate the feelings, with which I regarded the prospect before
me, did they know nothing of the associations of past history
and the then present politics that toned my mind. The
royal minor, who it was very likely indeed, was then with his
mamma, peeping down at me from a palace window, was
literally “the descendant of a long line of princes.” I had
been the cause of what I knew was to them and theirs, a
portentous change in the national policy. I thought it likely
that they regarded me as an enemy; though, as is often the
case under such circumstances, I had acted as their best
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 587

friend. For I clearly saw that they would sooner or later be
compelled to open the palace gates,—possibly by some dignity-
hurt representative ; and my general experience of Occidental
proceedings in the weak Orient told me that, in such case,
it was very unlikely the bullying would be done so gently as
by Captain Loiyer and myself; while the necessity of the
Loo chooans taking money for supplies, might not chance to
be quite as strenuously and solemnly insisted upon by every
passing whaler.*

It was with such thoughts about the people of the locality
that I viewed the prospect. I was seated on the verge of
the old world, where its contrast with the new was greatest.
On my right lay China with its. oldest of old Asiatic civili-
zations; on my left lay California with its newest of new
American institutions. Ethnologically, Loo choo belonged
to the old world, geologically it rather belonged to the new;
for while on the coast of China nothing was seen but gray
granite, here all was coral. The undulated surface of the
island was cultivated throughout by artificial terracing, with
the exception of some of the higher portions which were
reserved for pine woods; the effect of the whole, viewed
from my position, being that of extremely varied and beautiful
garden and park scenery. Let the reader picture to himself
this garden fringed around by a belt of white breakers and
white coral reefs, all glistening under a bright sun, that made
the azure sky overhead look more azure and the deep blue
Pacific, more blue and peaceful; and, if he succeed but par-
tially in reproducing the scene, he will not fail to thank me
for furnishing him with its chief features.t

* | had afterwards reason for believing that the authorities did rightly
interpret my motives in trying to make them see what they could, and could
not, do with safety and advantage, in dealing with different classes of people
from the West.

+ When we had our formal interview with the Regent in the palace, we were
accompanied by a guard of honour composed of some 30 or 40 seamen and
marines, who marched by our sedans from the landing-place at the port of
Napoo up to the gates of the Citadel, a distance of about three miles; and
were well feasted by the authorities, while an entertainment was given to us.

On
588 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

Now what had the hand of man, what had agriculture and
trade, done to disfigure this? Nothing whatever. On the
contrary, had the island been left to the spontaneous activity
of nature it could not, as a semi-tropical jungle, resembling
those islands we see in the Indian Archipelago, have been
the lovely place it was. I never before so felt the force of
the word, charming, as applied to landscape.

The last prospect I shall notice, was that, which I had from
the top of the great Pyramid. But that has probably been
oftener witnessed and described, by reading and writing
English, than even that of the gale and solitary steamer on
the north coast of England. It was, moreover, chiefly the
historical associations awakened by the scene that occupied
me onthe Pyramid.* I will therefore only remind the reader,
that the Nile valley owes whatever of beauty it possesses
entirely to man. Where he stays his hand in the labour of
irrigation, there begins immediately the barren waste of the
desert; and were he to cease his labours altogether, what is
not dreary desert would be ugly swamp.

To sum up, the habitable surface of the globe may be
divided into sea ; swamps or marsh flats; dry plains, more or
less undulated; and precipitous mountains.

Where the dry undulated country is left to uncontrolled
nature, it is usually covered with a dense forest, always
monotonous and often impassable from its tangled brushwood.
When changed by controlled nature (agriculture) and traffic,
is not the sole effect to make it more beautiful and to make
its beauties more accessible?

We know positively that the whole effect of economical
progress on marshy flats is beautifying.

Lastly, it is difficult to conceive any description or degree
On our return, curious to know what the men thought of the whole affair, the
Captain called his coxswain aft to enquire. It was a pleasing rebuke to both
of us when the man instead of bringing out the expected laughable Jackism,
endeavoured to express the strong sense felt, he said, by the men generally of

the great beauty of the scenery.
* See page 40,
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 589

of agriculture or trade that could deprive the mountain pre-
cipices, the coast cliffs, and the sea of their rugged beauties
and sublimities.

In so far, therefore, agriculture and trade have no debasing
effect: they are either passive as to the cultivation of man’s
sense of the beautiful and the sublime, or their effect is posi-
tively improving. But even allowing (what does not seem
to be the case) that some of the less striking beauties of
spontaneous nature disappear before their progress, is not
that disadvantage a hundredfold outweighed by the fact, that
trade makes the more striking beauties and grandeurs of
nature easily accessible to millions, who but for it would never
once see them? Were it not for our excursion trains, in
every way the produce of “ debasing trade,” there are literally
millions, even in this our sea-girt isle, who would pass their
lives without once listening to the grand music of the ocean
and gazing at its sublime expanse. And the same excursion
trains carry thousands of our townspeople—who without them
would have had much difficulty in getting an occasional sight
of the tamer scenery in the plains—right up to the Lake
District, to Loch Lomond and to the Trosachs; the charac-
teristic beauties and grandeurs of which cannot, I repeat, be
regarded as doomed to obliteration by any economical pro-
gress conceivable.

Which state of Greece was it, let me ask, that gave birth
to the great philosophers, orators and artists whose works
have contributed so much to the present intellectual, moral,
and esthetic cultivation of Europe? Was it Sparta, which
devoted herself almost exclusively to the “loud war” that
our poet laureate bepraises, or was it industrial and commer-
cial Athens? Nay more, which of these two states was it—
Sparta who kept always drilling her youth ‘for war, or
Athens who eagerly pursued debasing trade—that produced
the most talented leaders in war? Sparta could send out
“Kings” that fought stubbornly and died heroically, but did
she produce better generals and admirals than Miltiades and
590 ON CIVILIZATION. i

Themistocles, or Alcibiades and Xenophon? While Sparta
and Athens opposed each other singly, trading Athens was
the conqueror; and Sparta only subdued her by committing
the Hellenic treachery of calling in the aid of the fleets and
wealth of Persia. There is a difference between thinking
much of fighting and being good fighters,—between aggres-
sive and warlike.

The Chinese are by habits and education not fond of fight-
ing; but when Sir James Brooke made one of his expeditions
against certain tribes in the interior of Borneo, it is observed
that a body of Chinese auxiliaries were always ready to support
him and his Europeans in his moves, while his fierce, head
hunting allies frequently hung back. There is now being
raised an outcry against the debasing effects of peace; but,
in the name of common sense, will any forty years of war
enable us to place in the field thirty thousand men, stronger
in body and braver in spirit than forty years of peace enabled
us to march to the foot of the Alma heights?

It has recently been maintained, as an absolute principle
in human affairs, that war, or the physical fighting of human
beings with each other, is necessary to progress; and that,
therefore, the nation which ceases to conquer necessarily
begins to decay.* It is important at present that this
fallacy should not obtain currency ; for it is one essentially
discivilizing. Without war, it is maintained, man’s energies
dwindle and disappear. It is forgotten that we can war with
inanimate nature as well as with the animate; and that in
the first kind of war the energies necessary to progress can
be even more completely nourished than in the second. It
is this, not less than the wealth produced by their conflicts

* Cousin, the celebrated French metaphysical writer, who has by the aid of
an eloquent style powerfully illustrated many great truths, and done much to
promote mental cultivation, goes widely astray on this subject. He has shouted
with the largest party in martially inclined France, and, in a necessarily
obscure and vague, because sophistical manner, has attempted to prove that
war is good in itself, is essentially necessary to the progress of humanity and
must always exist. In his “ Cours de Philosophie, Deuxidme Série,” the ninth
and tenth chapters of volume first are direct contributions to barbarism.
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 591

with inanimate nature on land and sea, that has, in all ages,
enabled industrial and commercial communities, large and
small, to fight with so much success ;—which enabled mer-
cantile Venice and Genoa to cope with the warring Turks;
the free towns of Germany and Belgium, communities
holding circumscribed territory, to cope with the fighting
barons and princes, rulers of wide domains; the industrial
Hollanders, with the military Spaniards; the parliamentary
train bands of London, with the Royalist cavaliers; and
the trading Chinaman with the savage Malay of the Indian
Archipelago. -

I have spoken of the instruments and methods of the
civilized process. One of the most effective of these methods
is that sustained mental and physical exertion in the pursuit
of any object denoted by the word Perseverance. It is a
marked feature of societies that have been, by common con-
sent, called civilized. Savages are, indeed, found to manifest
this quality in a considerable degree but only in a few direc-
tions, and these unnecessary to more advanced communities ;
for instance, in hunting—in watching for and pursuing their
prey. But hunting is one of the first shapes of the struggle of
man with the world around him. In all other respects, savages
are “fan fuh puh ting” as the Chinese call them—‘‘hither and
thither not fixed.” They are unstable and unpersevering.
As population increases, increasing tribes begin to dispute
about the means of sustenance, as hunting grounds, &c. ; man
begins to struggle with man; and perseverance is nourished
in war. Ifa nation, which has flourished in consequence of
its wars and conquests, ceases from some cause to make
war, without nourishing perseverance in industrial or com-
mercial avocations, it proves, after a period of really slothful
peace, to be wanting in a civilized method important for
success; and then falls a prey to other peoples. We have
here one of the causes of Roman decay. England in the
whole course of her history never possessed more of the
elements of success in war than she does at this time, after
592 ON CIVILIZATION.

forty years’ assiduous devotion to trading and agricultural
pursuits. And she, with her good ally France, will
“ persevere,” both at Sebastopol and Sweaborg, till both are
taken.*

Lying in a trading bargain is debasing and discivilizing,
just as lying in a political speech, or lying in a military de-
spatch is debasing-and discivilizing ; but trade, in itself, is
no more debasing than politics or war.

War is the name of the struggle of larger communities of
men with each other by means of physical agencies; in civil
war, the contending bodies being severally constituted “ com-
munities” by some interests and opinions common to the
members in each body. Wars for the mere purpose of
extending territorial limits are eminently barbarous in their
origin, being a voluntary breach of the civilizing rule that
requires the greatest possible use of the moral agencies only.
Self-defence is the only civilized basis of war; and that war
is -most civilized in its origin which is not resorted to, till the
moral and intellectual agencies have been employed to the
utmost in the struggle with the aggressive nation. Among
the more advanced nations, the division of labour has produced
a special organism to perform this function of the social body :
the diplomatic service and, in so far as it operates between its
own countrymen and the nation where it is placed, the
consular. These two departments may be called the Inier-
national Service of a state ; and, other things alike, that nation
is most civilized, whose International Service is kept most
efficient.

Among the more savage peoples the germ even of an
International Service does not exist. The persons of simple

* This was in type five months ago. What has passed during that time
strengthens the text. Though we did not shine in the taking of Sebastopol,
and though there has been no fighting since to prove greater efficiency on our
part, it is now notorious that the mere, but most unmistakeable determination
of the British people to persevere, has altered the tone of continental nations
about us. They have at length discovered that after all “ England is a very

formidable power.” Figs is ready—would rather like—to go in for the fourth
- time, and make play with his left.

2
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 593

messengers between the hostile tribes would not be safe;
none are therefore sent; and a state of absolute hostility
exists from generation to generation, till one tribe is exter-
minated, or till the progress of both in civilization makes
some little negotiation possible. Among semi-barbarous
peoples, the mental agencies are frequently employed; but
are nevertheless not invariably tried, before it is known that
physical agencies are the only efficient ones under the cir-
cumstances. Such peoples merely send envoys on special
missions; while the more civilized nations have their func-
tionaries,—the members of the international service,—always
on the scene where their labours come into operation.

In this matter, China, which sends no envoys to the West
and sends them but rarely to the semi-barbarous peoples in
its vicinity, stands low; while Russia is placed very high
by the admittedly great ability of her international agents.

From all that the public has learnt of the international
communications previous to, and for some time after, the
commencement of the war, it appears certain that Turkey,
England, and France did the utmost their diplomatic officials
were able to do with mental agencies, in order to avert a
physical conflict with Russia. Further, every man moderately
acquainted with ancient and modern history, and with the
present political geography of the Old World, and whose
understanding is unwarped, must perceive that the existence
. of England and France was mediately threatened by Russian
territorial ‘aggression and progress. Hence their war with
Russia is essentially civilized in its origin, because mediately
self-defensive and only resorted to after earnest negotiative
efforts to prevent it.

Let us now consider the conduct of wars, and what it
is exactly that should be called civilized, what barbarous
warfare.

Civilization being the introduction of efficient mental
agencies to the reduction of the physical, and the object of
war, when once begun, being to overcome the inimical nation.

QQ
594 ON CIVILIZATION.

e

by the destruction of the greatest possible number of its
fighting men; it follows that the invention of destructive
engines of war, is essentially civilizing to war, and that the
more destructive they prove, the more civilizing must they
be. This conclusion appears, at first sight, extremely para-
doxical;—so horrible and thoroughly barbarous does the
infliction of sudden and disfiguring death on numbers of
human beings seem. But the testimony of historical expe-
rience, as to the practical result, fully confirms the conclusion
from the theory; that result being, that, with the same number
of combatants, the more destructive the engines of death, the
less the ultimate total destruction of life. The merely phy-
sical death-struggle with a number of individual specimens of
animate nature, is on the one hand transformed into an
active industrial struggle with inanimate nature in the manu-
facture of the instruments of destruction in which the con-
tending nations labour to surpass each other; and on the other
hand it is directly intellectualized by the discovery and
conscious employment of methods of strategy.

When a general marks, in his enemy, a great superiority in
artillery and in the strategical position taken up, he seeks to
withdraw his troops from a hopeless contest. Where there
are no such signs to judge by, the two armies can only engage
in a murderous butchery, hand to hand, with cold steel ; which
species of struggle must be prolonged to the extent of enor-
mous slaughter before a conquering superiority can possibly
become manifest. And what holds of the generals at the
head of armies, holds of the governments at the head of
nations. When they plainly perceive themselves to be out-
stripped in the intellectual invention and industrial accumu-
lation of the instruments of destruction; in the intellectual
use (by good generals) of these instruments and of the soldiers;
as also in the moral cultivation of the soldiers and mental
power of the generals to work advantageously on the spirit of
their troops by moral agencies; then they seek to end the
struggle by a peace.
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 595

Many pious officers have had conscientious scruples about
their right to employ newly invented instruments of destruc-
tion; but theory, supported by practice, shows that their
employment is a civilized process, as their invention is a
civilizing process. Their inventors are true civilizers—real
benefactors of humanity. Their ultimate effect is to prevent
destruction of life; to transform man’s struggle with man
from a physical to an intellectual one ; and to make both sides
readier, than they would be without them, to fall back on the
use of efficient mental agencies only, in order to attain the
objects of the struggle.

I have already, in Chapter I., explained that where these
latter agencies are noé efficient, it would be a barbarism to
have recourse to them.

Slaughter of the wounded and of prisoners is discivilizing
among advanced communities who have the means of guarding
prisoners; because it revolts the moral feelings, and has, if
retaliation is resorted to, a tendency to make the struggle of
nations with nations purely physical. Tenderness to the
wounded and kindness to the prisoners has a most powerful
tendency to the increased introduction of the moral agencies
between nation and nation. After making ample deductions
for the partiality of our own accounts, it appears certain
that the allied forces in the field have admirably observed
the civilized procedure in this matter; while many of the
Russians,—men, officers and generals,—have given abundant
proof of a lower moral cultivation. On the other hand, the
Russian treatment of prisoners in Russia, both by people and
by Government (some rapacious subordinates excepted) has
been, by the general testimony of our own countrymen,
thoroughly civilized.*

With respect to the use of red-hot shot against ships, and
the bombardment of towns containing women and children,
the theory of civilization lays down no absolute rule. Re-
ference must be had to the different stages of moral cultiva-

* This has since been nobly manifested by General Mouravieff at Kars.

aq2
596 ON CIVILIZATION, ‘

tion of the contending peoples, and everything avoided, as
much as possible, that revolts the moral feelings.

Among savage tribes, where war means mutual extermina-
tion, the use of poisoned arrows, or whatever else most cer-
tainly destroys the life of adversaries, cannot but be regarded
as a natural and proper means of fighting. And if a civilized
European were to be, by some mischance, left bare-handed
among them, and to attempt to argue the tribe that entertained
him out of the use of poisoned weapons, without laying before
them some equally or more efficient agency for maintaining
their struggle with their foes, he would commit an error of
the same description that the peace party are committing
among ourselves. The savages would be entitled to argue:
“Our enemies will go on using these weapons whether we
use them or not; persuade them to cease using them, and we
will also refrain from their use; the struggle between us is
one of life and death (this expression would have nothing of
the dramatic in their mouths, but would be a simple state-
ment of an every-day inter-tribual fact), and our manifest
duty is to put to death as many individuals as possible,—
an object which may at times be achieved by a scratch from
a poisoned arrow, when otherwise unattainable.” Murder
among civilized peoples, by the treacherous introduction
of poison into food, is a crime so base and so hideous
that it has naturally attached an odious signification to the
words, poison and its patronyms. But arsenic, though an
abominable poison, is also an inestimable medicine; and we
must not let the hideous uses made of poisons by some foes
in our.communities, blind us to the fact that the introduction
of poisoned weapons among savages has probably been, in
every case, an instance of the civilizing process operating in
warfare. The civilizing of warfare consists, as I have shown,
in its being transformed from a merely physical struggle to an
industrial one, in the preparation of the munitions of war, and
an intellectual one, in the improvement of tactical strategy.
The collection of the materials for poisons, their manipulation
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS.” 597

into the poisonous substances, and the manufacture of the
sharp arrows and dart heads, without which they cannot be
brought to act on enemies, are all industrial operations much
more civilized—because requiring much more intellectual
agency and perseverance—than the formation of rude clubs
wherewith to beat out brains in hand-to-hand fight. And
as civilized generals are deterred from battle by their enemies’
material superiority in field pieces and ammunition, so doubt-
less savage leaders are deterred from exterminating fights
by an ascertained superabundance in the hands of their foes
of poisoned arrows, with which their own warriors are ill
provided. As to treachery, the savage, who dodges from tree
to rock, is as open a fighter as the rifleman who does pre-
cisely the same thing; while, as to cruelty, death from a
poisoned arrow cannot be more horrible than that caused by
the rifle bullet which, say, smashes your jaw so as to render
eating impossible, but leaves you to linger for days.

Sir Howard Douglass, in his able work on Naval Gunnery,
speaks with a sort of half-reprobation of the inventors of
extremely destructive missiles; of which the Moorsom shell is
believed to be one of the most effective. But paradoxical as it
at first enunciation may sound, the reader will, I trust, perceive
that these missiles, and also red-hot shot used against ships
or batteries filled with fighting people, are really civilized
agencies; and that they are more civilized precisely in pro-
portion as they are more destructive. If Moorsom’s shell is
really the most destructive missile hitherto discovered, then
Moorsom is one of the civilizers of humanity ; and those who
hesitate to employ it merely hesitate to avail themselves of
a valuable piece of funded civilization.

Our commanders appear invariably to give notice, and
sufficient time for women, children, &c. to quit a place before
they bombard it. That done, there seems to be no alterna-
tive, since we are at war, but to make unhesitating and
vigorous use of all the engines of devastation at our command,
in order to destroy those Russian towns at least, which are
598 ON CIVILIZATION. @

known to furnish material assistance to any fortress or army;
though we are certain that by our so doing, thousands of
women and children are rendered houseless and penniless.
It is when we come to the practical consideration of such
questions, that we see how essentially barbarous war is. Yet
our national poet asks us why we “ prate of the blessings of
peace,” in which “the poor are hovelled and hustled together
like swine;’’ when “ vitriol” is sold in alcoholic drinks, and
“alum and plaster” in bread; when druggists sell falsified
drugs and robbers work with “ centre-bits?” Now we
know very well that all these things have existed during the
peace; but can the poet show us what essential connection
Peace, as Peace, has with them? And will he just show us,
en passant, how War, now that we have got it, is going to
remove them? We have already had two years of it, yet
our murders, at least seem to be as common, and are certainly
as revolting as they ever were.

“Ts it peace or war? better war! loud war by land and by sea,

War with a thousand battles, and shaking a hundred thrones,
* # * * * *

No more shall commerce be all in all, and Peace

Pipe on her pastoral hillock a languid note

And watch her harvest ripen, her herd increase,

Nor the cannon bullet rust on a slothful shore.
* * * * * *

For the long long canker of peace is over and done,
And now by the side of the Black and the Baltic deep
And deathful grinning mouths of the fortress, flames
The blood-red blossom of war with a heart of fire.”

Mr. Tennyson cannot have seen either the “blood” or the
“flames” of war, or he could not have published such sheer
whoopery.

War has been forced upon us in spite of all our efforts ;
and Civilization absolutely requires that a stern and heavy
punishment shall be dealt out to the wilful aggressor, in order
to deter others from breaking that Public Peace which is
invaluable to the progress of humanity. But while Civiliza-
tion requires us to turn our backs on the irrationalities of the
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 599

peace party preaching, it equally calls on us to discountenance
the savagery of frantic war-whooping. We will put forth our
whole national strength in this war; but we will do it coolly,
as well as energetically and courageously, like civilized men
and gentlemen. It is not necessary for Englishmen to yell
themselves into doing their duty to their country.

Our true war poet has been Mr. Russell. Some of his de-
scriptive passages are admirably fitted to awaken a martial
spirit at once civilized, devoted, and chivalrous. Such is, for
instance, that bit in his letter on the Battle of Inkerman,
where,—when our countrymen were nearly worn out in their
brave struggle,—he tells us of the Zouaves advancing to their
assistance at the pas de charge, “ the light of battle gleaming
on their faces.” But you may search through all his letters
in the Zimes, and you will no where find him praising “ war.”
He cannot gloat over its delights, for he has seen it, and knows
how barbarous it is.

The mention of war-whooping brings us to war-dancing.
From all accounts this appears to be a way in which savages
work up their lower emotional nature, their ‘ passions,”
(which at page 5021 have classed with the physical faculties)
and thus get up the fighting steam. War-dancing is accom-
panied by declamation, consisting of exaggerated statement
of the prowess of the tribe—often of the individual dancer—
and of virulent abuse of its foes, accompanied usually by
gestures expressive of contempt for them.

The Chinese are in the conduct of war (apart from its
origin) much below ourselves as a civilized people. In the
instruments of destruction, in tactics, and in their treatment
of captives they are notoriously less civilized than Occi-
dentals. I may add that, though they have not, like savages,
formal war-dancing as a part of the serious preparations for
hostilities ; yet individuals among them, when in the face of
- the foe, “get up the steam” by indulging in something of
the sort. Their language was of course quite unintelligible
to our men during the Anglo-Chinese war ; but their gestures
600 ON CIVILIZATION.

occasionally excited the astonishment, not less the merriment
of the Britons.

Recently, during the long siege of Shanghae, I had several
opportunities of seeing both rebels and Imperialists perform-
ing pas de guerre. One day in particular, I was not a little
amused by them. <A good deal of firing having warned me
that the rebels were making a sally, I hastened to the scene;
and found the contending forces skirmishing among the
graves of the extensive burial-grounds on the north of the
city. The graves were large mounds of earth, behind each
of which two or three men could stand, sheltered from the
fire of large as well as small arms; and the skirmishers used
frequently to drive each other alternately in and out of the
more advanced positions; the Rebel guns from the walls and
the Imperialists’ artillery from their batteries taking occasional
share in the struggle. These proceedings, with the long
duration of the siege, used at the time to draw forth many
contemptuous remarks from the English and French spec-
tators; but there was always a number of casualties among
fighters, and the whole affair was, after all, but typical of
Sebastopol with its mamelons and its rifle pits. The artillery
of both parties was without exception occidental, the ammu-
nition chiefly occidental, and there was a considerable stock
of occidental small arms on both sides. The rebels, in par-
ticular, had not only a number of muskets and fowling-pieces
but even many revolvers.

On the occasion I refer to, I advanced through the
Imperialist ground up one of the roads leading in the direc-
tion of the city; but just as I was passing between two rows
of low Chinese houses, forming a short detached suburban
street, a couple of round shots which came humming and
whizzing along from the city in rapid succession, caught some
of the gables, and sent a shower of broken tiles down about
my ears. At the same moment, I saw a body of Imperialists
retreating from a canal bridge a little in advance, firing
backward the while. I perceived that I was walking into
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS, 601

a position somewhat too hot for a mere looker on. Hence,
after exchanging a few commiserative shakes of the head
with one or two of the poor denizens of the cottages, who
appeared at their doors and expressed by their looks their
dissatisfaction and hopelessness, (some cases occurred of
women and children being killed in similar houses by round
shot that penetrated the thin brick walls) I held to the left;
and eventually stationed myself on the extreme wing of the
Imperialist skirmishers, who were there facing a body of the
rebels that, like themselves, had the neutral foreign ground
on one hand. Here I found a countryman, a merchant,
together with some half a dozen long-gowned natives,
specimens of the great number of Chinese of respectable
station that had been fortunate enough to find a refuge in
the foreign location; and who had likewise come so far to
look at the fighting. I planted myself with my country-
man on the top of one grave mound; the Chinese spectators
took possession of an adjacent one about five yards distant.
We were about a quarter of a mile from the city wall,
between which and us lay a stretch of ground covered with
graves, wherein the rival skirmishers were contending. At
first we had merely a few stray musket shots singing through
the air above us; but the Imperialists presently extended an
advanced post of three or four men up a path that crossed
immediately in front of our station, in order to prevent the
Rebels descending a suburban street that commenced there,
and which led off to the left by a circuit to the north gate.
One man of this small detachment was armed with a match-
lock, which he kept firing as fast as he could, up the street
at a small party of the Rebels; who were returning the
fire from the first bend. While loading he kept up, with
inflamed countenance and generally indignant air, a fire of
abuse at his opponents in which the terms robbers, thieves,
&e. were personally the least uncomplimentary. He usually
discharged a heavy shot of this kind at them, just before
firing his matchlock. Another man, who was armed with
602 ON CIVILIZATION. is

a sword and rattan buckler, without being so manifestly
angry, was much louder and more voluble in his abuse. He
accompanied it with a selection of those curious pranks that
the Chinese sword-and-buckler man executes in the course
of his parade exercise,—such as springing with his equipments
into the air and performing a sword cut and a loud yell when
up there; then suddenly squatting down under the shelter
of his buckler—in an attitude that a stiff-jointed and tight-
breeched European would in vain attempt to imitate—and
doing a severe cut from underneath it at the legs of an
imaginary foe; then again, placing the buckler, still attached
to his arm, on the ground, putting his head on the centre
and tumbling over, and with it in the direction of his
(still) imaginary antagonist ; upon whom he thus made an
approach, at once stern-foremost and upside down. In the
midst of all this, and perhaps immediately after uttering
a fearful yell, he would stop and exchange a broad significant
grin with me on the mound. A third man, armed with a long
spear only, was equally, perhaps more Chinese, but in a
totally different way. He evidently would have preferred
the use of the moral, to the physical agencies in his struggle
with the world around him. He took no share in the exer-
tions, muscular and vocal, of his companions; and on my
politely asking him to charge up the street and fight the
fellows round the corner, he smiled the urbane smile of
the pacific reasoning Chinaman and said,—scratching his
opposite end the while: “Ta mun lae chay le wo ta, puh
lae wo puh ta, If they come here I'll fight, if they don’t, I
won't.” He then leant his spear against the end wall of
the first house, squatted down within reach of it, but
out of reach of the street musquetry, and placidly observed
the proceedings of his more demonstrative comrades. The
doings of the latter, the group of Chinese spectators on
the grave next to ours, and, I believe, the glittering of the
brass tubes of my telescope drew upon us the special atten-
tion of the rebels between us and the wall, and of those
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 603

on the latter. The consequence was that a direct fire from
some small arms began to take the place of the former
stray bullets, and a gun or two on the walls devoted them-
selves to us. Our Imperialist friends retired; and if I did
not at once follow their example, it was out of curiosity to
see what the long-gowned and long-nailed group on the
adjoining mound would do. They continued standing there,
screening their faces from the horizontal rays of the declining
sun with their fans, and exchanging remarks in a quiet,
jocular manner. I give this as one of the many instances
Ihave witnessed, completely disproving a stock notion in the
Occident about extreme innate cowardice in the Chinese.
These were men from the least belligerent parts of China,
who knew perfectly well what the danger was to which their
curiosity was exposing them, inasmuch as several spectators
were well known to have been wounded or killed already in
the course of the siege. One of the round shot at length
grazed the side of their mound throwing the earth over to us,
but passing within a few feet only of them. I then said that
if they liked to stay there and get their heads knocked off
they might, but that I was off; when only they departed.
The natives of the Shanghae alluvial plains were perhaps the
tamest of Chinese, yet a few months only after the city
had been occupied by the original rebels—men nearly all
from the turbulent south—their chief told me that great
numbers of his Shanghae recruits had become just as in-
different to danger, and as good fighters, as his own people.
Some months before the above-described events, when there
was as yet no rebellion on the sea-board, but the serious insur-
rectionary movement in the interior had progressed as far as
Nanking and Chin keang, both of which places were taken
and occupied by the insurgents, it became necessary for the
British Plenipotentiary to ascertain what they were, and
what their disposition was towards ourselves. or this
purpose he ascended the Great River to Nanking, in H. M.’s
steamer Hermes, taking me with him. The first position
604 ON CIVILIZATION. ¢

of the rebels was Chin keang, whither the Imperial fleet
seized the opportunity of our passing to follow, and make an
attack. The consequence of this was, that the batteries and
the few armed vessels of the rebels fired on us as we passed
up,—naturally taking us for the leader of a squadron, about
the hostility of which there could be no doubt, since it im-
mediately opened a vigorous and well-sustained fire on their
position. The Hermes did not even prepare to return the
shots directed at her. We made, on the contrary, several
attempts to enter into friendly communication with the
rebels’ vessels. Seeing, as we steamed up, a low craft armed
with a single gun,—a twelve or nine pounder,—about a couple
of hundred yards off, also going upwards, and one of whose crew
seemed from his dress to be a subordinate officer, I ascended
the paddle-box, and by waving and shouting endeavoured to
get them to approach. The distance was too great to allow
of words being distinguished, but I could observe that I had
attracted attention; for besides the somewhat suspicious
motions of a portion of the crew who trained the gun in the
direction of the Hermes, the presumed officer waved a small
flag attached to a pole, and shouted loudly, what I could not
make out, but evidently something in reply. I therefore
suggested to Capt. Fishbourne, who was on the bridge, that
if we stopped a little, possibly we might get this particular
vessel to come within earshot. He immediately gave the
word to ‘Ease her,” which in the rapid current was equi-
valent to “Stop her.” I recommenced my waving and
shouting. ‘“ Ah,” said I to myself, “there goes the fellow
with his flag. But Ican make nothing of his shoutings. Why
does he not—”> flash,—whizz,—bang! Judging of our
procedures by their own, they had taken my waving and
shouting for a war-dance with its defiant abuse. While the
officer replied in kind, the men had trained the nine pounder
on me as I stood there, a conspicuous object with the sky for
a background, and taken a deliberate shot at me within
point blank range. Fortunately they aim mostly by the line
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 605

of metal; hence though I stood high, their shot went still
higher, over my head and through the rigging; though
apparently in very good line.

The reader may feel inclined to look contemptuously on
the Chinese for not having yet got altogether beyond the
stage of war-dancing. But before doing so, I would beg him
to ask himself if we are ourselves altogether past it? If we
consider the song and the whoop to be an essential, as they are
a marked feature of the performance called a ‘“ war-dance ;”’
then it appears to me that no small amount of war-dancing
has been done among us, since the beginning of hostilities
with Russia; though the vocal element may have greatly
exceeded the gesticulative. I do not refer much, or in-
deed at all, to our fleets and army. But certain of our
“ Sachems” in the Upper House and “ Big chiefs’ in the
Lower, have undoubtedly treated us and Europe to great
performances in that way. The forms of procedure in our
“Great Council” do not permit the recitating warrior to
prance round the old chief on the woolsack; but several of
our great Sachems have, from their places, tomahawked
Russia; brandished the club of intimidation in the face of
hesitating Austria and neutral Prussia; and yelled out an
amount of abuse at all three, that must have drawn tears of
admiration from the most virulent squaws of the great British
tribe. And how often was our big enemy Nicholas tied up
to the stake! How many triumphant scalpings did we not
inflict on him; and what numbers of burning splints we stuck
into his flesh!

I must be careful that the exact bearing of these remarks
is not missed. I have no right to blame any reader who may
withhold full credence from what I am now going to state;
but a certain number of those who have followed me so far,
will believe what I say whenever there is no chance of my
deceiving myself. To them I state, that about six years ago,
when some mutual jealousy was at times evinced among
English, French and Americans as to the doings and projects
606 ON CIVILIZATION.

of each in China, and when the probability of the one or
the other conquering or annexing that country was dis-
cussed, I said to myself, ‘‘ China’s great danger lies with
none of them;” and I then wrote the following, intending it
for insertion in the first book I should publish :—

“ China will not be conquered by any western power until
she becomes the Persia of some future Alexander the Great
of Russia, the Macedon of Free Europe.”

I had then arrived at the distinct conclusion that the chief
danger to the independent existence of the extreme oriental,
and extreme occidental nations of the old world lay in the
growing power of that enormous State which is contiguous
to both. A portion of the English press had long pointed out
this danger to the free peoples of Europe—the “ Examiner”
newspaper had to my certain knowledge been preaching on
the topic for years—and to me, in the East, it had become
quite evident that in the growth of Russia, in population and
material wealth, lay also the great danger of the Mongols,
Chinese and Japanese. I may state here that Russia is the
only State to which I have heard Chinese mandarins, volun-
tarily and unaffectedly, apply the adjective “ta, great.”
Some years after I formalized my views in the above quoted”
sentence, Russia, presuming on the revolutionary commotion
in continental Europe, and on the supposed existence of
peace-irrationality in the British nation, attempted an
encroachment on Turkey; further, she took advantage of
the rebellion in China to effect some encroachments at the
Amoor river ; urged by the fact of the Americans’ despatching
an expedition to Japan, she sent one there first; and now
she is making approaches, through Kokan, on Turkestan,
which may, in some respects, be considered the Wallachia
and Moldavia of China, because forming its most remote
possession, and being inhabited by a people of alien race
and religion.

But I am able to give irrefragable proof that I have long
distinctly perceived in Russia one of England’s greatest dan-
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 607

gers. Nine years ago, I prepared a small work, which was
published under the title of “ Desultory Notes on China.”
There are few or no copies left for sale now; but there must
be some four or five hundred scattered about the country.
If the reader can get one of these, he will perceive that I
therein distinctly recommend impartial public service com-
petitive examinations “for all British subjects,” as a means
of “cementing a close union between England and her
colonies,” of “securing to the Crown a body of intelligent
and able servants,” and thus enabling us to cope with Russia
and America. This recommendation was no merely inci-
dental suggestion. One of the main objects of the book was
to enforce it. I spoke of it as “a grand national measure
from which vast benefits must infallibly result ;” and where I
feared that the language at my command was not sufficiently
emphatic, I endeavoured to give it more force by the mecha-
nical aid of italics and capitals. In the last “ Note,” one
expressly devoted to the subject, I said :—

“England will certainly lose every colony she possesses
unless she adopts some system of impartial elevation of
colonists to the posts and honours at the disposal of the
crown; and she will then become a secondary power in com-
parison with states of larger territory and greater resources,
as the United States of North America, as Russia, and as
the larger of her present colonies, when the one and the other
shall have increased in population and wealth: she will sink
to a secondary power before these, just as Holland has sunk
before her, notwithstanding the industry and enterprise, the
patriotic bravery, and the unparalleled exertions of the
Dutch nation, as well as its unexampled wealth and maritime
greatness, at the time the struggle commenced.”

This passage was written in China nine years ago. Since
that time our larger colonies, Canada, Capeland and Australia,
have been each once, if not oftener, on the very brink of
open rebellion; and they have only been maintained in
any political connection at all with the mother country by
608 ON CIVILIZATION.
e

making that connection but nominal. Since that we have
been involved in several serious disputes with America; and
while the conduct of our successive administrations in avoid-
ing war has been approved by the great bulk of sound-think-
ing men, the British public has nevertheless an uneasy feeling
that it is we who gave way in these disputes, when the absolute
right would have justified us in making a stand.* Seven years
after that, a British ministry which was described, and as a calm
judgment must still say, justly described, as combining the
then highest ascertained administrative ability in the country,
introduced a plan for civil service examinations into parlia-
ment ;—my book and the example of China which it points
out, being mentioned in the first debate. At length we had
the Crimean disasters in the course of an actual war with
Russia; as a result of which, and next to which, administra-
tive reform and public service examinations now constitute
the great topics of political discussion.

The most perverse reader will hardly be able to call that
man a “friend of Russia,” who years ago, as a subordinate
government official some ten thousand miles off, earnestly
urged the adoption of Public Service Competitive Examina-
tions, as being necessary to enable England to withstand
Russia; at atime when men of high political standing at home
were talking of the latter country, either respectfully as a sure
friend, or contemptuously as a powerless enemy. My cen-
sures in this volume are directed merely against a barbarizing
Russophobia.

That over-estimation and over-boasting of which we have
lately had a great deal among ourselves is no good sign. As
one species of falsity, and as having a direct tendency to stop
the civilizing process, it is one element of national deca-
dence; and situated as England is, between states of such
enormous territorial extent and latent material resources
as Russia and America, we cannot in any matter, or in

* Tn type five months ago, before the present difficulty with the States was
spoken of.
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 609

any direction, afford to deceive ourselves. The Greek and
Roman nations, when actually far into the state of decadence
would probably have ridiculed any one who would have told
them that such was the case. Was there any old Greek
song in the style of “ Athens rules the seas?” I have had
occasion, more than once, to look down with shame as I
have heard countrymen singing “Britannia rules the
waves” in the presence of Yankees, who must have
been saying to themselves: “Britannia dare not, for the
very soul of her, interfere with the dirtiest rag of stars
and stripes that flaps over any waves on the face of the
globe.” Let us use the most strenuous exertions to put our-
selves, and keep ourselves, in a position to do this, and similar
things, if it should ever be required of us; but in the mean-
time let us talk little about it. Such screeching out of our
assumed superiorities is not civilized—it is at best a semi-
barbarous way of getting up the martial steam by a sort of
war-dancing. Now I do not think this necessary with the
British people. It is, on the whole, their grumbling cha-
racteristic to look their difficulties full in the face, and then
to set to work perseveringly and with little noise to over-
come them. Both these characteristics should be nourished
and properly directed, for they are decidedly civilized, as
opposed to the abusive depreciation of his foe, and the
vaunting of self-prowess, that distinguish the painted warrior.
Britannia does not rule the waves; but after having watched
crews of British war ships both when under fire, and when
all hands were labouring to clear away the boats because we
expected momentarily to go down, I hold the general opinion
that there is no naval service superior to ours; though I could
point out many faults in it. Now in no navy is silence, at
periods of hard work, so much a natural feature of the men,
and so strictly enforced by the officers.

The mental intoxication of war-dancing is, in short, like
the physical intoxication of alchohol drinking, barbarous;
the nervous excitement it produces is, both in individuals

RR
610 ON CIVILIZATION.

e
and in communities, followed by reactionary weakness, ren-
dering impossible that clear-headed strong perseverance in
the pursuit of an object, which I have shown to be one of
the most important methods of the civilized process.

The war music of the military bands—the deep reverbera-
tions of the drum, the clear pipe of the fife, and the loud
clang of the trumpet blending in inspiriting accord—appears,
on the contrary, to be a truly civilized element of modern
warfare. It is an appeal to man’s higher emotional nature;
and, being produced by a special member of the army
organism, is an example of functional division of labour.

I will here make a last reference to the Laureate’s pro-war
and anti-trade “Maud.” He desires war because he hopes,
if the enemy’s fleet attacks our shores, (! !)

“That the smooth-faced snub-nosed rogue would leap from his counter and till,
And strike if he could, were it but with his cheating yard-wand, home.”

The use of the word “snub-nosed” in these lines is
founded on a widely prevailing impression that snub noses
are a sign of low, aquiline, of high qualities. Is this true,
or is it a mere false notion produced by the visible fact that
snub noses are themselves physically “low,” aquiline noses
physically “high?” Now that our national poet has brought
the matter prominently before us, it really becomes of national
importance to attain clearness in it. If the noses of a
thousand members of our most ancient higher aristocracy
were compared, by thorough anatomists, with those of a
thousand counter-men taken from Cheapside and Cornhill,
we should be better able to say whether there are really more
aquilines among the high-born than among the low-born,—a
circumstance that has, I suspect, been heretofore rather
assumed, than proved. If, in addition to this, the Registrar-
General would issue circular orders for special attention to
be paid to noses, we could not fail to get some valuable
statistical data. One of the objections to public service com-
petitive examinations is, that they constitute no test of the
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 611

moral faculties. But if high noses are really a mark of high
character, then we have a criterion literally palpable, for
the fingers can take hold of it—nay, the higher the quality
the more palpable the criterion. If it is not true, the
sooner a mere nose fallacy is exploded the better: if it be
true, it is evidently of vital national import to institute at
once an impartial public competitive examination in noses.
Let us neglect it, and Albion’s glory may depart, her white
cliffs grow brown, and the tail of the British lion get ridicu-
lously weak !

Without prejudging so weighty a question, I may state,
that so far as fighting is concerned, if I were placed under
the unavoidable necessity of being guided by a criterion of
yet unascertained value, and had to select my warriors by
their noses, I should unhesitatingly prefer the snubs; these
being, somehow, indissolubly associated in my mind with that
stubborn, enduring, Anglo-Saxon pluck by which Britain’s
armies and fleets have established her martial fame. I feel,
however, that this association of mine may be merely a
fallacious impression produced by seeing bull-dogs fight.
By-the-by, comparative physiology, brought to bear on
bull-dogs and eagles, may decide the question. Let phy-
siologists attend to this, in the name of everything patriotic!

It is now pretty generally agreed that in matters of dress,
we are still in a low stage of civilization. This is evidenced
by the frequency with which the word, barbarous, is applied
to our fashions. So far as civil life is concerned, we may,
without very serious consequences, afford to treat the subject
with half-irritated jocularity. The great bulk of British males
will put themselves for considerable periods into clothing so
tight, that they are literally unable to make full use of their
physical powers. There is then no substitution of efficient
intellectual for physical agencies; but intellectual agency

RRQ
612 ON CIVILIZATION.
*
(the tailor’s thought) is employed to render existing physical

agencies less efficient: which is purest barbarization. Our
black hats may, in so far as they merely cause premature
baldness, be a subject of laughter. In windy weather, a
portion of our physical agencies is occupied in struggling
with a difficulty not essential to animate and inanimate
nature, but one which we ourselves create: we are obliged
to hold our hats on our heads with one or both hands. And
occasionally we have to chase the black, barbarous instru-
ment of self-torture down a street or two. Muchas we may
smile at all this, it is certainly no mark of husbanding the
national resources; for a little reflection will teach the reader
that a really valuable portion of the time and the active
physical agencies of the nation, is thus wilfully wasted. A
still more serious reflection is it, that a large proportion of
our “bad colds,”—ending in death from influenza or consump-'
tion,—are caused by our hats. A barbarous custom compels
us to wear these particular things in walking, till our heads
get into a state of perspiration, and then other customs
compel us to take them off in cold rooms, churches, at
funerals, &c.; which is well known to have often occasioned
death sicknesses.

The serious evils of women’s stays have often been exposed.

All this however takes place in civil life, where no positive
regulation is the constraint, but fashion only; which a man
or woman of independent mind may brave, if he or she
pleases. It is in military life, where individuals have no
choice, that our thorough barbarism most evidences itself.

Including under the term dress, the grease, paint and
feathers of the savage, as well as the silks and artificial
flowers of male and female dandyism in materially civilized
communities, we may state its objects to be protection and
ornament. Dress, as a protection, is a result of our aversion
to pain; in this case, the pain produced by heat or cold of
the weather. Dress, as an ornament, is a result of our desire
for the admiration of our fellows. As a protection, it is
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 613

obviously a necessity; as an ornament, it is a legitimate
result of the civilizing process; for as already stated on
page 577, the craving for admiration is a universal and
- ineradicable quality of human nature, and civilization as a
problem demands the most perfect satisfaction of all such
cravings or qualities. Dress, as a protection, is a portion of
the struggle with inanimate nature; as an ornament, it is a
part of the struggle with animate nature. Savages, and
uncultivated individuals in civilized communities, endeavour
to terrify or overawe their foes and rivals by paint, feathers,
heard, &c. The really civilized man will always pay a fitting
attention to dress as an ornament, in order to make a favour-
able impression on the mental faculties of those he is brought
into contact with—on their sense of fitness, of refinement,
and of beauty. We see, therefore, that dress is one of the
material means of expression by which the moral agencies
are enabled to operate in the civilized process; and what
was said in Chapter I. of adapting oneself to prejudices,
shows us why the most civilized man may have to dress more
or less barbarously, in order to operate with success on people
whose intellectual and moral perceptions are more or less
uncultivated in that particular. Hence it is, that many of
us, who are disgusted with the inconvenience and inefficiency
of our fashionable modes of dressing as a struggle with
inanimate nature, nevertheless follow them, rather than pro-
duce an unfavourable effect on the mentally less cultivated
people around us. But the sort of necessity we are thus
placed under of dressing all alike is a real, though possibly
not very deeply operating obstruction to the civilizing process.

I may here make the general remark that the civilized
process, being merely the use of the existing instruments
and methods of funded civilization, does not imperatively
require independence ; while to the civilizing process, on the
other hand, originality of thought and unfettered, individual
action are obviously essentials.

The requirements of true refinement once satisfied, the
614 ON CIVILIZATION. @

quality and quantity of his dress, like the quality and quan-
tity of his food, are matters which, in strictness, concern the
individual only. And as in matters of food, a man is now
little constrained by fashion to partake of particular dishes,*
and is no longer compelled to drink till he falls under the
table; so the tendency of our progress is to give individuality
more scope in matters of dress. An able article in a recent
* Westminster Review,” after full consideration of the ques-
tion, concludes, that we can only escape from the thraldom
of barbarous fashions by allowing full liberty to individual
ingenuity and taste; the result of which could not fail to be
zsthetic progress in dressing. In other words, dress, as an
ornament, would be more ornamental than it now is.

When we bear in mind that shaving is an active expen-
diture of physical agency; that saving of time is, in itself, a
reduction of one (passive) kind of physical labour; and that,
to cap the whole, human life is short; we find that civiliza-
tion would gain, in an unexpected degree, if we could settle
on some more summary plan of managing the hair on our faces
than that of spending a quarter of an hour daily on the prin-
cipal and auxiliary operations attendant on scraping it to
a level with the skin. One quarter of an hour daily makes
ninety-one hours annually; hours which are taken precisely
from the portions of the day when our heads ure clearest and
our bodies strongest. In ninety hours of vigorous, mental
and physical existence—say two hours a day for six weeks—
aman of average ability can make considerable progress in
acquiring a useful reading knowledge of some modern lan-
guage. Think then of the folly of a man’s spending,

* We are however still slaves, to an extent not ordinarily perceived. Phy-
siologically, there is, I believe, no reason why we should not eat mustard with
baked mutton; but he would be a bold Briton who would venture to do it.
Again, eating fish with a bit of bread is a piece of discivilization imposed
on us by fashion. The bread is an inconvenient instrument in the business
of separation, and when saturated with sauce is offensive to the eye of genuine
refinement. The most civilized-way of eating fish is with a fork and dessert

spoon, The latter instrument is, in fact, the great requisite of the civilized
eater; and ought to be furnished him as often as a clean knife and fork.
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 615

between his twenty-fifth and forty-fifth years, one thousand
eight hundred and twenty of the best working hours of his
existence in the quite gratuitous operation of scraping a part
of his face with a piece of steel! Six working hours a day
for three hundred days wasted in a short life!

The soldier has, as said, no choice in dress; and military
dress is at this moment a matter of national importance in a
degree of which the reader can form no adequate idea who
has never crossed a tract of country with arms and ammuni-
tion upon him. Now as the question of the best dress for the
sportsman, explorer or soldier, is one to which I have devoted
much thought and practical trial both in the tropical heats of
Canton and in the very piercing sort of cold which winter
brings with it at Shanghae and Ningpo, I have felt called on
to state in an Appendix (A) the conclusions arrived at,

I have left myself little time to apply my test of civiliza-
tion to our treatment of that section of animate nature which
is composed of the higher zoological world. In dealing with
this, the Chinese are beyond all doubt in a considerably
higher stage of civilization than Anglo-Saxons. The great
difference between the Confucian, and the Christian civiliza-
tions, as carried out practically, lies in the deliberate preference
widely given in the former to the mental agencies in dealing
with men and animals. During the last few centuries, we
have far outstripped the Orient in contending with inanimate
nature; but previous to that time the agriculture, manufac-
tures and commerce of the Chinese—their grains, their tea
and fruits—their silks, cottons and their pottery—their use of.
gunpowder and the compass—their river and sea craft—their
canals and their bridges made them, in the material not less than
in the mental domain, the most civilized people in the world.

We call the people who fit our young horses for riding not
horse teachers or horse trainers, but horse breakers. The
word is well suited to the barbarism of our method of
dealing with the animal. Richardson, one of our recent
writers on Horsemanship, after two paragraphs, the purport
616 ON CIVILIZATION.

of which is that the horse being endowed with a moral and
intellectual nature, is susceptible of being wrought on by
moral and intellectual agencies, says :—

“The fact is, we are greatly wanting in our endeavours to
cultivate his intellectual powers. We are profuse in our
attempts to overcome the inequalities of his disposition by
physical means; but in brute force he is our superior; and
when this secret once becomes palpable to his senses, it is a
most difficult and arduous undertaking to disabuse him of the
knowledge and to cure him of the propensity for vice and
wickedness.”

In some countries the shepherds lead the sheep. We
always drive them, and we hunt them in with dogs; which
dogs, again, the collies, we fit for our uses more by beating
than by kind training.

In the southern half of China, horses are rarely seen; but
we have ample opportunity of observing how, in dealing with. ,
other animals, the Chinese succeed by training rather than
by violence. On the rivers and canals, individual men will
be seen, each rearing a flock of ducks numbering thousands;
which at his call return and walk up the plank into the large
barge that forms their home. All my readers have heard of
the fishing cormorants. At no great distances from Shanghae
and Ningpo, we meet the men who use them, each paddling
along in a little low boat with half-a-dozen of these curious
birds sitting gravely in a row on each gunnel, from whence
they descend to hunt the fish under the water, at the pleasure
of their master. There are few fences in China, yet oxen
and buffaloes, when out feeding, are controlled by very small
children, who may often be seen sitting on the back of the
buffalo while the latter is grazing. The domestic animals
generally, not being beaten or chased by the children, look
on them rather as their friends. At Ningpo, the brother of
the writer once saw a goose, which was feeding in the fields,
making vain attempts to waddle up an incline of a foot or
two of earth, in order to get at a desirable morsel of food
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 617

‘which it had descried on the higher level. The little China
boy who was “herding the geese,” as soon as he observed
what this one was after, ran up to it, applied a hand to each
side and lifted it nicely up to the top of the low bank;
whereupon the goose, without even turning its head, ran
forward to the desired food,—just as a child might hurry
eagerly off when aided in similar circumstances by its mother.
The following is equally characteristic of the Chinese pro-
cedure. Our poultry in Shanghae consists of the big long-
legged fowls many of which have in recent years been sent
home, where ‘* Punch” hasimmortalized them as ‘‘ Cochins.”’
I can testify to their not being good eating at Shanghae,
unless they are carefully fed for some time ; for which purpose
Thad a coop in a yard at the back of my house. When on
the point, one day, of letting my dogs into this yard for their
daily meal, I observed a fowl feeding at large; and called on
my servants to put it into the coop. My body servant, a
native of the south of China, with my cook and coolie, natives
of a central province,—three men varying in age from twenty-
two to thirty,—set to work, not to hunt the fowl or to drive
it in by violence, but gently to urge or train it into the coop.
Without any previous consultation, they took up stations at
short distances from each other, and then, with extended
arms, advanced slowly on the young hen. Every one of her
motions was closely and seriously watched by the men; and
if one of these remarked that a too hasty advance of his leg,
or motion of his hand, had produced a slight symptom of
alarm in her, he immediately checked himself. When the
business began, she was not more than six yards distant from
the coop. It took about a minute gradually to surround her
into it. She was not terrified in: she was constrained to
come to the conclusion that on the whole it was most
expedient to walk in. I have no doubt that after two or
three lessons of this kind, one man made her at once return
to the coop by merely motioning her toward it; and conse-
quently that, without devoting the yard to the feeding of
618 ON CIVILIZATION.

fowls, the utmost possible advantage was taken of it for
such purpose, and with an ultimate saving of time to man,
We know how three Englishmen would have acted under
the circumstances above described. They would have scared
the fowl at the beginning by the violence of their first
attempts to drive her into the coop; and then, when she
began fluttering and screaming about the yard, they would
have commenced making abrupt rushes to seize her, in which,
—the yard being surrounded by high walls—they would have
succeeded, after a good deal of bouncing against each other
and tumbling over the bird. But when put into the coop,
she would probably have thinned from the fright; and it
would, in every case, have been useless to let her out to feed
again in a place where every motion of the persons passing
and repassing, would have terrified her.

Such experience as I have had of dogs has led me to the
conclusion, not merely that we do not in England make suf-
ficient use of the moral agencies in our dealings with animals
—which is now pretty generally admitted—but that in par-
ticular we do not attend sufficiently, or rather do not attend
at all, to the native vocal languages of animals. We make
use of a language of signs, and we teach them to understand
our human language to a certain extent, but we do not study
systematically to understand their own language, though it is
their chief means of making their feelings known to us.

My observations have not been sufficiently close and
extensive to permit me to regard it as an established fact,
that animals—dogs for instance—do not understand conso-
nants, but there are grounds for believing that to be the
case. The nearest approaches that the dog himself makes
to consonants, are in the growl by which he expresses the
combative, threatening or warning-off feeling; where we hear
something like the r; and in the word, if I may so term it,
by which he expresses surprise or awakened attention, viz.,
wuh! in which we hear something of those very weak con-
sonants wand h. My impression is that in those sentences
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 619

which gamekeepers, shepherds, &c. address to their dogs, the
latter are guided by the vowel sounds only, the articulations
being lost upon them. Were it a matter of importance to
me, I should construct a vocabulary for speaking to dogs
composed mainly of the three extreme vowel sounds of the
human organs of speech, viz. the extreme throat vowel of e,
as in meet; the extreme tongue vowel of a, as in father;
and the extreme lip vowel of 00, as in mood, or say u, in
bull. To the nonlinguistical reader I may say, that all other
simple vowel sounds, in every language, lie between these ;
the o in lord, for instance, lying between the a@ in father,
and the uw (00) in bull; the @ in fate between the a@ in
father and the e in feet, &c. If these two intermediate
vowels just instanced, together with the three extreme
vowels, and, (to make the pronunciation for man more easy)
the weak consonants h, w, m, and J, were systematically com-
bined by people who had carefully studied the language of
dogs themselves, I am convinced that a vocabulary might be
constructed which, from its distinctness and shortness, would
enable the masters to get their work much more quickly,
because intelligently performed, and save the poor animals
many a beating now inflicted on them. An obedient, good-
dispositioned dog, who would be only puzzled by a “ Come in
here, you brute,” or a “ Lie down there, you beast,” might,
I know from experience, be taught to run rapidly to his
master’s heels, or drop on the spot where addressed, by a
distinct prolonged ah» or ee; while a great deal of irritated
gesticulation and useless English injunction might be spared
by training him to attach definite ideas to dissyllables, vocally
so distinct, as woomah, eeloo, &c. As to dogs’ own language,
I hawe found that it is possible not only to understand, but
to learn to employ it to a certain extent, even with the very
slight attention I have been able to devote to it. Apart from
the wuh! of surprise, I have found that I can awaken the
attention of the most sagacious and oldest dog (who is not
getting superannuated) by the distinctive introductory whin-
620 ON CIVILIZATION.

ing which dogs use when they first meet. It is evidently at
once questioning and explanatory, and is followed accordingly
either by friendship, by indifference or by a fight. In the
same way I have often been able to set dogs—some of which
are markedly more sympathetic than others—a howling by
imitating the melancholy howl of the animal when suffering
from lonely confinement ; which again differs widely from the
supplicative whine by which a dog at large begs admittance
to his master’s room and hearthrug. I may observe that the
language of the pricked-eared black-palated little China dog
seems to be the same as that of the English bull-dog. Do
comparative physiologists gain any light for their science
from attention to the language of animals?

The best languages—I now speak of human languages—
are extremely imperfect as a means of expressing thought or
feeling.

Grimm the great philologist, who is at present engaged on
the best dictionary of the German language, has declared the
English to be the best language that has ever existed in the
world; i. e. the best medium that has ever existed for com-
municating thought clearly and exactly. J. 8. Mill and one
or two others of our first logicians—Englishmen—seem in-
clined, on the other hand, to give the palm to the German
language. Neither English nor Germans hold the French
language to be the best, but many Frenchmen do. Now for
seventeen years past I have been continually reading, think-
ing and writing in and about these languages; and also in
and about the Chinese, the most peculiar, the most ancient
and at this moment the most spoken of living languages.
I have also studied a little developed, semi-barbarous lan-
guage, the Manchoo. What is the chief conclusion I have
arrived at as to language generally? It is that when people
say that human language is an “ imperfect’? medium of com-
munication, not one in a thousand at all realizes to himself
how extremely imperfect it is. I doubt if any man can, in any
language, exactly express-his thoughts, especially when he
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 621

departs from concrete subjects. And when the most accurate
speaker (or writer) has done his best to express his thoughts,
or say any one proposition, exactly, then the listeners (or
readers), far from getting perfectly at the proposition as it
existed in the mind of the speaker (or writer), are certain to
give, each of them, a different shade of interpretation to the
words actually uttered; while if the subject be at all abstract,
a proportion of the listeners will understand the very reverse
of what was intended to be expressed.

This imperfection of language necessarily limits the opera-
tion of the mental faculties. As to the intellectual for
instance, I regard prolonged disputes in words about certain
abstruse points as a splitting of hairs with hatchets. ‘There!
Tve done it,” cries out, every now and then a manipulator,
after staring and trying, and trying and staring, till his sight
gets mazed, and he sees double. “I’ve split it—and that’s
the hatchet,” adds he, planting before his alarmed interlo-
cutor some system of terribly uncouth nomenclature. “Oh!
that’s the hatchet,” answers the other, eyeing it shyly,
“But do you know—excuse me—but so far as I can see, the
hair is not split at all!”

I need hardly, I hope, protect myself against inculpation of
the folly of deriding philosophical speciation and discussion
in general. Civilization could not have established itself, and
cannot progress without it. But reasoning,—I mean purely
mental reasoning considered apart from its expression in
audible or visible words,—may be compared to a “chain” of
which the links are joined by rivets; the conclusions in the
“chain of reasoning” being the links, and the arguments which
lead from the one to the other, the rivets. It is clear that the
longer the chain, the more chances of weakness from bad
rivets or bad use of the rivets; and hence that, other things
alike, chains of the fewest links form the most reliable means
of connection. We see that the best purely mental opera-
tions of individual men are, if prolonged, not too successful
and not to be absolutely trusted to. How can they hope.
6 22 ON CIVILIZATION,

e
that any attempts to expose these operations, in such fearfully
imperfect means of expression as the best languages constitute,
can be accepted as authoritative, in those cases where the con-
clusions directly conflict with the immediate primary convic-
tions of human consciousness,—with the strongest beliefs of
common sense, arrived at by the shortest chains?

But imperfect though /anguage undoubtedly be, the fact
nevertheless remains that it is supereminently the means by
which the efficient action of the moral and intellectual agencies
is extended and maintained in animate and inanimate nature :
it is the chief instrument of the civilizing and civilized pro-
cesses, — the most important piece of funded civilization.
Other things alike, that nation is undoubtedly the most civi-
lized which possesses the best, i.e. most expressive language;
and in that nation, again, those men are most civilized who,
other things being equal, have the greatest command of telling
forcible language, whether persuasive or argumentative, and
who make the greatest use of it in their struggle with their
countrymen. Here the theory of civilization shows why the
nation which has the freest and most honourably conducted
press, with the greatest number of powerful and high-minded
orators and writers, inevitably takes the lead in the onward
march of humanity.

There is at this moment going on in Western Europe, and
in the communities founded by Western Europeans in the
new and old continents, an assimilation not only of manners,
but of language. In other words, that universal language
which some independent thinkers, ignorant of the fact that
language is an organic growth, endeavoured to invent, is now
actually growing in our mouths and ears. The English,—the
present English,—will not be universally adopted, but it, and
not the French, German, Spanish or Italian, will form the
basis and chief element of the future universal language of
Western Europe, America, Africa, Australia and Polynesia.
What will happen with language in North Eastern Europe
and in Asia it is as yet impossible even to guess.
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 623

The English language will take the position I have assigned
to it, first, because it is politically destined to become, almost
in its present shape, the language of the whole continent of
North America, of South Africa, of Australia, and of Poly-
nesia; secondly, because its political literature is studied and
its political language partially adopted wherever, through-
out Europe, the peoples are adopting or longing for freer
institutions; thirdly, because the many distinguished natural
philosophers of English race are maintaining for it an equal
place in the language of science ; and lastly, because its light
literature, unrivalled in the history of the world, is introduc-
ing, by translations as well as by originals, its constructions
and its words to the youth of every reading home, from
Palermo to Stockholm and from the Tagus to the Vistula.
During the time this process has been going on, the English
has on the other hand been borrowing, as it always has done,
words from the French; while, of late years, German poetry,
still more, German philosophy and history, have been modi-
fying the English, both as to terms and as to construction.

In what has been hitherto generally regarded as truly pro-
gressive civilization, we observe a tendency to substitute
simple forms of address for the more ceremonious. This is,
the reader will perceive, in full accord with our theory.
When the intellectual and moral cultivation of peoples is
comparatively low, it is necessary, if the intellectual and moral
agencies are to act at all, to employ the more laboured and
cumbersome forms of address. Offence is given, and of course
the object unattained, if they are neglected. But in propor-
tion as real politeness distinguishes itself from ceremony,
simpler, time-saving forms are found to serve the same pur-
pose. In this respect we English seem to stand before
continental nations. Few will deny that the true English
gentleman is to the full as ready as the true continental
gentleman, to do what is obliging, that is, to be really polite;
but in doing it, he expends less physical action—fewer move-
ments of his organs of speech and fewer gestures of his body.
624 ON CIVILIZATION.

Are not the Americans more civilized than ourselves in this
respect, though the prevalence of the discharging operation of
spitting undoubtedly places them behind us in personal
refinement? Every calmly observant traveller has admitted
that in essentials, in the desire to oblige and in obliging acts,
they are, as a people, fully on an equality with the English
—to ladies they are said to be nationally more obliging—but
we ridicule a frequent curtness and abruptness, resulting
from their go-ahead manner-of-life. In judging of this, we
must, however, bear in mind that the semi-barbarous nations
of Asia talk with ridicule and disgust of the way in which
Europeans cut short or break through their forms, even when
it is done with obliging intentions. The ceremonious are
always apt to call the unceremonious, coarse and vulgar;
not perceiving, or realizing, the distinction between real and
conventional coarseness and vulgarity. The tendency of
true civilization is to correct the former without an over-
scrupulous fear of being accused of the latter; and we may
lay it down as one of the special marks of the stage of civiliza-
tion that, other things alike, that community is most civilized
in which the moral agencies, in social intercourse, operate
effectively with the least amount of physical expression; or,
in other words, in which people are most obliging with least
talk and show.

We seem to have arrived at that stage of progress when
we may, with pure gain, get rid of a piece of barbarism to
which I adverted in my “ Desultory Notes.” I mean those
extravagant expressions at the end of our official letters such
as: “I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient humble
servant.” ‘These are no longer efficient instruments of moral
agency,—except that they are at times efficient in the wrong
direction. There are nice gradations, an acquaintance with
which forms part of the useful knowledge of the routine
clerk, in the respect, submission or servitude expressible by
the use or omission of the words “honour,” “most,” and
“humble”; and while the greenest or most pompous receiver
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 625

of a letter could hardly derive any gratification from the
employment of the formula in its completest shape, it is
certain that offence may be, and is, at times given by its
partial curtailment. The time taken to write it, in the fair
copy of a despatch, is from about one third to half a minute ;
the working time of the officials who do the fair copying of
letters in which it is contained, is about six hours a day for
(Sundays and leave being considered) not more than 300 days
in the year; and the average pay of these officials cannot,
I should think, be taken at less than one to two hundred
pounds a year. The data have not probably as yet been col-
lected which would show the total expense to the country of
this formulary ; but when to the money value of the tran-
scribers’ time is added the cost of the ink, pens, and more
particularly of the paper, with which, and on which, it is written,
I suspect that accurate returns from all the government
offices would show that some four or five thousand pounds at
least is expended yearly in this work ;*—work which either
has no result at all, or causes ill feeling connected with views
of relative official dignity. Some fifty thousand pounds of
the national money has probably been thus wasted during
the ten years last past, and unless the form is abolished,
some five thousand pounds will thus be wasted in the course
of the ensuing year. Here we see our way to a piece of
practical administrative reform, which it requires nothing but
five minutes’ discussion of a Cabinet Council to put into
execution, The reader will find it in detail in Appendix B;
where he will also find suggested an improved method of
addressing letters for the Post Office.

Referring again to the fact that the efficient simplification
of forms of address is real progress in civilization, I would
draw the attention to the House of Commons and to a

* Of course I do not mean to assert that if the useless formula were abo-
lished, that a number of clerks whose aggregate salaries amounted to 5,000/.
could be dismissed. But the reader will see for himself that much pay for
extra copying would be at once saved, and that in two or three years there

would ensue the virtual saving of the full sum now wasted.
88
626 ON CIVILIZATION. e

simplification by members of their method of alluding to
each other in debate; their adoption of which would save
an appreciable amount of that time which it is notorious
the country. can least afford to have wasted: the working
time of the national legislature. During a few debates that
I heard from the Speaker’s gallery, I was greatly struck by
the fact that much time is expended in the forms, “the
honourable member for so and so,” “the noble Lord the
member for the city of London,” “ the right honourable gen-
tleman the member for so and so,” “the honourable and
learned member for so and so,” &c. &c. The constant post-
ponement of useful’ measures proves the time of the House
to be nationally invaluable, if anything can be so called.
Yet there is time spent in the enunciation of these phrases,
of which people who merely read the reports of speeches in
the papers can form no conception. They all contain far
more syllables than the personal designations of the members
alluded to. And then, as the speakers cannot always, or
indeed often, recall the name of the place which the member
represents, or whether he is honourable, right honourable,
learned or gallant, there is a serious amount of hesitation,
repetition, correction, &c. &c. For instance, a speaker will
. say, “the honourable member for Bath;” then after proceeding
for half a sentence, correct himself and say, “the honourable
member for Sheffield; ” and then, fearing to be accused of
wilful discourtesy begin again, and say “ the honourable and
learned member for Sheffield.” Now Mr. Roebuck remains
always Mr. Roebuck whether he represents Bath or Sheffield,
and not only every member of parliament, but every reader
of English newspapers can recall his name easily. Why not
say simply Mr. Roebuck, as also Lord Palmerston, Lord
John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, &c. &c.? I am
aware that the object of avoiding names and adhering to
the above allusory phrases, is to guard against offensive per-
sonality. But do not the words “noble,” “right honourable”
and “honourable,” open a door to sarcastic and offensive
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS, 627

emphasis which the most expert elocutionist could not impart
to the bare titles and names, Lord John Russell, Mr. Layard,
&e. &e.? None of the gentlemen I have mentioned would,
I should think, object to being called by their own names in
the House, while the youngest members can hardly feel
gratification at being styled “ honourable” there only.

Over the doors of the Parliamentary Committee Rooms, are
placed the names of the Committees to which they are, for the
time, allotted. The object of this is to guide members and the
public; but, by a piece of senseless barbarism, these names
are written in old English so excessively crooked as to be
almost illegible. Every one who seeks for a particular room
unavoidably loses time in staring at the things; and strangers
who after staring “ give them up,” harass the officers of the
House by attempting to walk into rooms open to members
only. If it be argued that the architecture and consistency
require the old lettering, then I say: If consistency must be
attained, even though it produce obscurity, be consistent in
your consistency, and, instead of using the present admirable
gas arrangements, let members debate by the torchlight of
the good old Gothic times.

What I have said of the lettering of the Parliamentary
Committee Rooms, .refers equally to that of the new florins...
These, in so far as their inscriptions are concerned, are speci-
mens of voluntary barbarization. What an amount of time
is lost throughout the country in the attempt to read them,
and in returning them when they have been handed over by
mistake for half crowns! The best way to manage is to look
at the coin: “Read it—it’s a half-crown. Can’t read it—it’s
a florin.”” Some vague artistic notion doubtless caused the
adoption of the old lettering ; but there is nothing to be seen
about it either of the beautiful or the sublime, unless it be
that its adoption at this time of day is sublimely ridiculous.
It is moreover objectionable as tending to throw discredit on
the decimal system of coinage ;—a real step in the civiliz-
ing process, which the dull-part of the British nation will

ss2
628 ON CIVILIZATION.

doubtless submit to be benefited by, after a few years more of
obstructive discussion.

It was from boyhood an immense delight to me, to wander
among the ruins of our old castles and ruminate on the asso-
ciations they awakened. And now after twelve years absence
in Asia, I find that I greatly enjoy the quiet contemplation
of our ancient cathedrals, for the sake of their architectural
beauties. But I cannot somehow get up the steam for modern
antiquities ; and, above all, I like to dive and see others living
in houses of the year 1854, duly watered, gased and venti-
lated from garret to cellar. There is true civilization in the
recommendation of the “Times” with reference to some pro-
jected official buildings, viz. To build them as much like a
house and as little like a cathedral as possible.

It has often been seen that the works of great writers have
had, in consequence of misinterpretation, a demoralizing or
barbarizing tendency, which was no part of their legitimate
effect. Thus it is that Scott’s novels have produced countless
imitations of ancient times. Yet all his heroes, from Ivanhoe
to Lovel, are represented as progressive men, belonging by
ideas, still more than by years, to a later generation than
nearly every other personage with whom they deal. It is
because Morton marches with advancing civilization that the
“bulk of the readers of Old Mortality sympathize with, and
admire him more than the equally young and truly heroic Lord
Evandale,—the too faithful adherent of a retrograde cause.

It is easy to see how our theory of civilization condemns
slavery. That institution is so essentially barbarous that
when its barbarism is removed, it virtually ceases to exist,
though its name be retained. In countries where slavery
exists, one portion of the inhabitants is compelled, by merely
physical force, to submit to the will of the other. The slave
obeys the master’s orders or is compelled to do so by corporal
punishment; which commences with a blow and extends to
the cruellest torture. The relation of slavery may either
come to an end by the death of the slave under torture, or it
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 629

may be gradually transformed into the relation of freedom by
the employment, on the part of the master, of the mental,
instead of the merely physical agencies. The word “ compel ”
then gradually disappears before the word “induce.” The
intellectual agencies induce free action by operating on the
head, the moral by operating on the heart: in both cases, the
action is free. Therefore where masters begin to do what is
called “treating their slaves well,’ they begin to change
slavery into freedom. But the intellectual and moral agencies
require time to operate; and it is not in individual human
nature to deny itself the quick returns, whether in business
or in pleasures, obtainable by physical agency where its
employment is permitted by collective human nature—by
national positive legislation. Hence, even in those countries
where social opinion condemns bad treatment of slaves, the
most atrocious cruelties are nevertheless every now and then
practised.

The States of Ancient Greece were essentially barbarous as
containing a large slave population. Sparta was less civilized
than Athens. The ruling body in Sparta, the masters, made
it their pride to cultivate themselves for the -merely physical
struggle of nation with nation; and hence we find that they
very consistently set their young gentlemen to hunt the,
Helots by way of learning practically how to kill men. The
civilized Anglo-Saxon race has not yet been so much dis-
civilized as it can be by the existence of slavery in the
Southern States of America; and I now remark on the slave-
holders there in no spirit of hate, for I always bear in mind
that they have inherited, not themselves made, their unfortu-
nate position. But for the masters, slavery is necessarily
barbarizing ; and unless steps are taken for its gradual aboli-
tion, the southern slaveholders must expect rapid disciviliza-
tion as their inevitable fate. Some great American politicians
have pointed to Greece as a proof that the division of the
inhabitants of a country into masters and slaves is necessary
to national prosperity and power. But they did not see,
630 ON CIVILIZATION.
@

or did not choose to remember, that Greece was more pro-
sperous and powerful than surrounding countries precisely
because, in it, a larger proportion of the inhabitants were
absolutely free men, men who knew no control but the will
of their own majority ; and who, consequently, operated on
each other by the mental agencies of argument and persua-
sion exercised in oratory.* There was in Greece a constant

* Since the text was in type I have come upon the following passage in
Grote’s History of Greece. Those whose beliefs are derived from authority
rather than formed by independent judgments will be finally convinced, by
this passage, of the soundness of my theory of human progress. For Mr. Grote
is an authority ; and it will be seen from those of his words which I italicize
that his “ political advance and education”—his “valuable change ”—is com-
prised within my civilized and civilizing processes, of which I have at page
622 stated language to be the chief instrument :—

“ A remark made by Aristotle deserves special notice here, as illustrating
the political advance and education of the Grecian communities. He draws
a marked distinction between the early demagogue of the seventh and sixth
centuries, and the later demagogue, such as he himself and the generations
immediately preceding had witnessed: the former was a military chief, daring
and full of resource, who took arms at the head of a body of popular insurgents,
put down the government by force, and made himself the master both of those
whom he deposed and of those by whose aid he deposed them ; while the latter
was a speaker possessed of all the talents necessary for moving an audience,
but neither inclined to nor qualified for, armed attack—accomplishing all his
purposes by pacific constitutional methods. This valuable change—substitut-
ing discussion [t.e. mental agency] and the vote of an assembly in place of an
appeal to arms [i.e. physical agency] and procuring for the pronounced deci-
sion of the assembly such an influence over men’s minds as to render it final
and respected [i.e. efficient] even by dissentients—arose from the continued
practical working of democratical institutions. ...... The demagogue was
esséntially a leader of opposition, who gained his influence by denouncing the
men in real ascendency, and in actual executive functions. Now under the
early oligarchies his opposition could be shown only by armed insurrection,
and it conducted him either to personal sovereignty or to destruction; but the
growth of democratical institutions ensured both to him and to his political
opponents full liberty of speech, and w paramount assembly to determine
between them; whilst it both limited the range of his ambition and set aside
the appeal to armed force. The railing demagogue of Athens at the time of
the Peloponnesian war (even if we accept literally the representations of his
worst enemies) was thus a far less mischievous and dangerous person, than the
fighting demagogue of the earlier centuries; and ‘the growth of the habits of
public speaking’ (to use Aristotle’s expression) was the cause of the difference :
the opposition of the tongue was a beneficial substitute for the opposition of the
sword.” —History of Greece, Vol. III. page 29.
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 631

struggle between the barbarizing effect of slave life and the
civilizing effect of the existing amount of free life. Aided by
the consequences of the physical struggles, or wars, by which
barbarous means free Greece persisted in operating on other
countries, (as Sicily and Persia) the barbarization of slave
life prevailed over the civilization of free life; and disciviliza-
tion and political decadence ensued. The American politi-
cians, I speak of, should bear in mind that in their own Free
States, and in British America, there being no slaves or
Helots, ai/ the male inhabitants are as free as were the freest
natives of Attica and Laconia.

We must not let the circumstance of the great progress
made by Athens in the fine arts, blind us to the fact that in
truly elevating civilization, as I have endeavoured to describe
it, she stood much beneath republican Rome, in which the
proportion of free men to slaves was greater; in which slaves
were better treated (were less slaves),; and which, after over-
coming other states in the merely physical struggle of war,
always endeavoured to connect them with herself by the sys-
tematic use of mental agencies. Both Athens and Rome were
far beneath those Anglo-Saxon States where every male is a
free man, politically and socially. In Athens the productions
of fine art did not result simply from an irrepressible sense of
the beautiful: the religious faculties were the main impellants
to their creation. And after all, it must be borne in mind,
that painting and statuary play but a subordinate part in the
ennobling and elevating work of civilization. Material civi-
lization produces wealth, the idle inheritor of wealth—I speak
now of modern times, and am nof alluding to the genuine
lover of art, rich or poor—finds that he can gain credit for
refinement and cultivation by merely spending a portion of
that wealth on works of art, without subjecting himself to
those hard intellectual studies and moral self-sacrifices, which
are; and ever must be, the only paths to real cultivation and
true personal nobility. But the wealthy set the fashions;
and hence a vast amount of art cant, with an undue pre-
632 ON CIVILIZATION.
°

dominance given to the fine arts in discussions on the relative
civilization of nations. Ihave at page 567 endeavoured to
show the actual value of the fine arts generally ; but so far as
sculpture and painting are concerned, what statues or pic-
tures, I would ask, can employ the sense of the beautiful so
much as the fine human beings living in this one city of
London and the beautiful prospects of nature that a few
shillings’ worth of railway travelling places us in front of.
As to the comic, the touching, and the horrible, represen-
tative art can never produce any thing equal to what a single
individual may witness in actual life. Again as to the
sublime, what painting—nay, what architecture and music
even, what grand Gothic cathedral and solemn organ peal,
is capable of awakening feelings equal in power to those
called up in a storm by mighty seas and the roaring of the
elements? A great merit of pictorial art is, however, that of
multiplication. It so far does most valuable work that would
otherwise be left undone. Vast numbers see sights at second
band which, without pictorial art, they would remain alto-
gether unacquainted with. But in this faculty, the modern
art of engraving, especially as it exists in commercial Britain,
is superior to painting. Had the Greeks engravings any
more than they had printed books? Lastly, at the risk of
being declared void of all artistic perception, I must candidly
confess that the painting and statuary of our modern artists
please me better than the paintings of the old masters, and
the old Greek statues, beautiful as all must feel these
latter to be.

Ihave above used the limiting adjective “ male” in speaking
of freedom in Anglo-Saxon States. The disgraceful fact is,
that the females are in many respects slaves. Were it not
for the fortunate necessity that they are, (or are destined to
be) the loved mothers of free males, they would be altogether
slaves. Slaves have no power to modify, by the exercise of
the suffrage, the laws under which they live, neither have
English women. Slaves cannot hold property, neither can
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 633

English wives, excepting among the wealthier classes and
indirectly. Lastly, slaves are compelled to submit to de-
grading indignities, and killing cruelties at the hand of their
masters; and so must English wives at the hands of their
husbands. Having already spoken at length on the neces-
sity, if civilization is to progress, of giving women complete
independence as to property, and as to separation from their
husbands by divorce, I will merely remind the reader that
many of our so-called “follies and faults of women” are
not necessarily the follies and faults of female nature, but
a result of the slavery of their position; and that when
English women become altogether free, their conduct and
character will not fail greatly to increase the share, which
respect and admiration now already have in the love
that is borne them. The Americans of the United
States are so much in advance of us in this most im-
portant particular, that, in spite of some barbarisms from
which we are exempt, if the free States were to effect a quiet
political separation from the slave States, the former would
have great claim to the title of the most civilized country in
the world. As it is they too run much danger of discivi-
lization and political decadence from the slavery of the
Negroes.

In pointing to disunion as a last resort in order to preserve
existing civilization and secure further national progress in
the United States, I must explain that it is only because of
the very exceptional circumstances in which the citizens
of the States have been placed by the inheritance of an indus-
trial slavery ; and that the slavery of a race, thorough social
amalgamation with which is rendered most difficult, if not im-
possible, by great physical differences. As the general rule,
civilization and its increase imperatively require association and
cooperation. Jor the civilized process consists in the substi-
tution of mental instruments and methods for the physical ;
and the civilizing process consists in the increase of these in-
struments and methods. Both processes require special and
634 ON CIVILIZATION.

prolonged attention to particular acts and subjects, that is to
say, they require a division and subdivision of the labours of
life, which are only possible where men form large and intimate
cooperative associations; and which can be carried to the
greatest extent where the associations are largest and most
intimate. It is matter of history that nothing deserving
the name of civilization has existed, until after the tribe has
grown into the nation. In Europe, civilization requires the
political union of communities—the voluntary junction of the
smaller States to the larger—or if that be impossible, then
the gradual establishment of a permanent European Congress
which shall settle all disputes by purely mental agencies,
and thus eventually put a stop to the barbarism of war
within this quarter of the world at least. The increasing
functional activity, and practical influence of International
Services, during recent centuries, indicate a gradual approach
towards political union under some one supreme congressional
body ; which, commencing with the settlement of disputes,
may gradually proceed to general European legislation and
administration.

Woman is still more the slave of man among the Chinese
than among Anglo-Saxons. The quality of her slavery is,
however, much tempered by the great veneration which
Confucian principles require sons to pay both parents.
The Imperial Government dare not refuse leave of absence
to a mandarin if he, as an only son, requires it in order to
tend his widowed mother during her declining years; even
though the government may know that the real cause of his
asking for leave, is to escape from some impending official
difficulty. On the other hand, a mandarin dare not (as we
may do) ask for leave in order to tend a suffering wife, or
to visit one from whom official duties have long separated
him. Nothing surprises and amuses mandarins more than
the frequent reference which foreign functionaries will make
to their conjugal relations as affecting, in one way or the
other, their official avocations and duties. A Chinese will
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 635

rarely introduce his most intimate male acquaintance to his
wife. It is hardly considered a compliment. Introductions
to mothers are, on the other hand, not unfrequent. The
friend introduced then performs the kow tow to the lady,
i.e. he kneels before her and touches the ground repeatedly
with his forehead. The son does not prevent him, but he
returns the salute by kneeling and kow towing to his friend.
Thus two men, and often, of course, grey bearded men of
high station, will in China be found knocking their heads
against the floor in honour of a woman of their own class in
society. Add to this that if a mother accuses her son before
the magistrate, the latter will punish him as a black slave is
punished in an American flogging-house, #. e. without inquiry
into the specific offence. The reader will conclude that this
great social and legal authority of mothers in China must
operate to raise the position of females generally ; and this
it does in fact; though in the contraction of their own
marriages each is but a passive instrument.

Male slavery has a legal existence in China; and large
establishments of male slaves.are kept in the extensive
residences of wealthy families; the life in which has then
considerable analogy with that which found place in the
residences of wealthy Romans during the Empire. But
slavery has disappeared from Chinese life taken generally,
as serfdom disappeared in England: with the advance of
civilization it has been found that in trade and agriculture
hired free labour is cheaper than slave labour, 7. e. mentally
induced labour better than physically forced labour. In the
most extensive retail establishments in Peking, slaves are
never found behind the counters. What have those who talk
of “debasing trade” to say to this result of its operation?
Has any nation that made war its business, been known to
extinguish a slavery existing in it?

In this country, the law against duelling is so severe, and
its strict enforcement is now at length so entirely supported
by public opinion, that ruin has become the certain fate of a
636 ON CIVILIZATION. =

surviving principal. From this time forth, therefore, we are
justified in assuming the sending of a challenge to be, in
Great Britain at least, little else than a piece of cheap
bravado or mock tragedy, since no sane man can be expected
to accept one; while we have ample proofs that Englishmen
are just as ready as ever to risk their lives in a right cause.
Duelling was a means of carrying on the struggle with
animate nature by physical agency ; which exercise of phy-
sical agency has been reduced in consequence of the com-
munity having undertaken to repress aggressions by legis-
lative punishment and social reprobation. If care is taken
that these are efficient, then the extinction of duelling in
England will be a real step in the civilizing process. But
otherwise it will be discivilization. Formerly, for the man
who was determined to live quietly or not at all, duelling
was an effective though barbarous means of carrying out
his determination: he could repress bullying and ensure
an unmolested life by risking the discontinuance of life.
The community must now be on the watch to put down
bullying by effective legal or social punishments; further,
where people accuse each other of calumnious lying, it must
not evade the trouble of ascertaining who is the liar, nor
shrink from the duty of thenceforth excluding him from social
honours and privileges.

In closing, I have to beg particular attention for the fol-
lowing important conclusion respecting government, to which
my theory of civilization leads :— Whatever the form of go-
vernment may be, that people is necessarily the freest in which
the highest civilized process has most operation.

The highest civilized process is the greatest possible use,
in man’s dealings with man, of the moral agencies only; and
these as I have shown imply as their effect, voluntary action
in the person operated on. The more, therefore, the moral
agencies are employed in a community, the more does every
individual do with his person and property what he himself
pleases, in other words, the more freedom does every indi-
MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS, 637

vidual enjoy. The taking a share in the collective govern-
ment, and the possession of freedom are two different things.
They ‘are often associated and constitute what is usually
called, liberty ; but the former is, for many people, not an
end, but only the means of obtaining the latter. The theory
of civilization gives here a simple and complete explanation
of whatever appears to be anomalous or paradoxical in the cir-
cumstance that the Chinese, under a “despotic” government,
have in the affairs of life much personal freedom. Special
instances of the exercise of this freedom have been pointed
out by Sir John Davis; who calls them practical anomalies,
and classes them with exceptions to the theories of govern-
ments. As said, our theory of moral civilization explains
their existence thoroughly. While the form of the Chinese
government is that of unlimited autocracy, its modes of ad-
ministrative procedure embody a conscious and systematic
use of the moral agencies to a degree altogether unparalleled
in the history of Occidental states. Hence the large amount
of freedom enjoyed by the Chinese, and, as a result of free-
dom, that “cheerful industry” of which Sir John Davis so
justly makes great account, as a certain proof of practically
good government. The chief exceptions to the use of the
moral agencies in China are to be found in polygamy; in a
legal slavery, though a slavery limited in extent and miti-
gated in degree; and in the political disability of certain
classes, as for instance players and their children. These
latter are excluded from the Public Service Examinations ;
and hence in China the son of a public performer cannot
become an Imperial officer of even the lowest rank.

So far as the forms of government are concerned, (apart
from principles of rule,) some such mixture of the autocratic
and democratic as we actually possess seems most suited to
the limited character of human faculties. Men, as indi-
viduals, are so relative in all things that neither absolute
autocracy nor absolute democracy seems likely to prove most
effective for their good government as communities. In
638 ON CIVILIZATION.

democratic America, party majorities, and in autocratic China,
individual authorities commit oppressions and follies which
find no place with us. We have no American Lynch-lawing
nor sanctioned bowie-knifing and duelling; and we have no
Chinese judicial tortures nor official extortions. While we
may therefore borrow extension of the suffrage with greater
freedom for woman from the extreme West ; and public-
service competitive examinations, with principles of moral
rule from the extreme East, we will for the rest do wisely to
adhere to the essential features of the often laughed at, but
much envied and truly glorious British Constitution.
APPENDIX.

Appenpix A.—P. 615.

ON MILITARY DRESS.

In treating of military dress I will consider armour of every
kind, as altogether obsolete in actual warfare. The irresistible
force of offensive missiles renders it almost useless; while its
weight makes it a serious obstruction to the strategical moves
which form a main feature of civilized war.

The terrifying or overawing capacity of military dress, I will
also consider as no longer to be attended to; though the fierce
looking bear-skins of our Guards make it doubtful whether we
really are fairly beyond the stage of savagery in that respect.

Some dresses might have a valuable terrifying effect, not from
their merely physical appearance, but from the military associations
they awaken. So long as the red coat, introduced by Cromwell,
conveyed the idea of irresistible power in battle that was attached,
both at home and abroad, to the Puritan forces, which brought the
kingdoms of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland for the first
time thoroughly under the sway of one man,—so long the red coat
had a valuable moral effect on the antagonists of British armies.
And the deeds of British soldiers, at later periods, may have pre-
served that effect. But no associations connected with Cromwell’s
or Marlborough’s troops can be awakened in the mind of the
Russian serf, who never heard of them ; and the Russian officer is,
as an officer, too highly civilized to allow historical associations
connected with the colour of a coat to affect him.

The kilt was wisely admitted into our army when we thereby
got a number of excellent fighters unaccustomed to other dress ;
640 APPENDIX.

and when that garment awakened clannish devotion and emulation.
But, apart from the fact, that a corporal told me a year ago at
Stirling Castle that “the most of the Highlanders there were Irish-
men,” I have been informed by Highland gentlemen that the
clannish spirit has ceased to have appreciable influence, even with
the veritable clansmen. As to the kilt itself, it is a piece of
barbarism, which the civilized Highlander rejects; except where
lowland sentimentality (awakened by Scott’s novels), backed by
lowland money, induce him to wear it, when acting as a game-
keeper, &c. One of the first steps in dress is to wrap a covering
round the middle; and the kilt, like the Ceylonese wrapper, is but
a development of that primary article of clothing. The next step
is to cut the short gown so formed partially up the front and back,
and then, by sewing, to make the two legs of'a pair of wide breeches.
This latter garment is, all over the world, a mark of civilized pro-
gress ; and it is rightly so considered, for it combines the greatest
amount of protection with the most freedom for the limbs, that the
like quantity of stuff can give. Officers in our Highland regiments
tell how hot the kilt is about the loins in warm weather ; while we
know, that in the cold of the last Crimean winter “ Highlanders,”
guilty of offences, had to wear it as a punishment.

The ornamental capacity of dress is very much affected by asso-
ciation. Not only is it true that we should think pretty women
just as pretty if “dressed only in sacks :” we should begin to
think the sacks themselves pretty. No one doubts that powder,
patches, and pigtails, were thought just as becoming by our great-
grandparents, as most of us think our present dresses. From this
my conclusion is, that, in devising the best military dress, we can
entirely disregard the ornamental capacity, as a means of making
the men like their profession, and of assisting the recruiting ser-
geant ; for whatever dress we put on a number of well-formed,
active, young fellows, we may be certain that that dress will pre-
sently begin to look handsome in our, and their eyes. Further,
fitness is one of the elements of beauty, and we shall therefore not
in reality be neglecting the ornamental features of dress, if we
simply look to the fittest kind for combining the two qualities of
protection against inanimate nature and allowing the greatest
possible freedom of athletic action; altogether discarding the idea
of making dress serve either as a defence against weapons, or as a
means of rousing clannish or provincial emulation.
APPENDIX. 641

The principle to be followed in deciding on the quantity of cloth-
ing stuff and its disposal, is to have so much and no more over the
outside or on the convenity of every joint as to admit of the latter being
bent to the utmost, without any strain on the stuff; and to have as
little as possible on the inside or concavity of joints, so as to avoid
unnecessary compressing of clothing stuff. In the seat of the trowsers
and over the knee-cap there must be. amplitude of stuff; in the
groin, and behind the knee it should lie flat and close when the man
is standing erect. The same holds of the jacket sleeve, on the
outside and inside of the elbow. Further, the buttoned-up jacket
should be just so wide that when the arms are crossed till the
hands grasp the opposite shoulders, the stuff at the back should
lie closely, but have no strain on it. And when the arms are
thrown back till the backs of the hands touch, the stuff over the
breast should, in like manner, lie flatly without strain. The jacket
should have a narrow, and not stiff, stand-up collar (buttoning in
the front without any strain) ; and the garment should be so long
as just to cover the seat when the wearer is standing, but not to
be under it when he is sitting. In front it should be a little
shorter ; and should button from top to bottom with flat, con-
cealed buttons. There should be no slit and no buttons at the
back ; the latter serving no purpose, but to catch brushwood and
make ammunition belts uncomfortable. The sleeves should nar-
row at the wrist, and not project over the hand. The trowsers,
or vather long breeches, should terminate just above the ancle ;
where they should sit quite closely to the leg, passage being
allowed the foot when dressing by a short slit up the back, but-
toning closely by two or three small buttons. These, being at the
back, would not catch grasses, dc. when the wearer was forcing
his way through rough ground. The chaussure should be shoes,
strong and broad-soled for hot as well as cold climates, and
connected with the breeches by short gaiters, slipping on from
behind like the present shooting-gaiters. Our soldiers’ present
trowsers, in their length and width at the bottom, are very faulty ;
they collect a great quantity of mud on wet ground ; in cold
climates they admit the wintry air; and in hot, they give free
access to those very serious—often disabling torments, the mos-
quitoes. I have found by long experience that thick shoes with short
gaiters (which latter may vary in thickness with the climate) are
in no wise oppressive in the hottest weather ; and, while they keep
out alike cold and mosquitoes, they collect the least mud on wet

TT
642 APPENDIX,

ground. Further, after a march over dirty ground, comfort
can be attained simply by changing the shoes and gaiters, where
it is necessary either to change the ordinary wide-bottomed
trowsers, or remain unwholesomely dirty and wet. Warmth round
the waist is also not oppressive in hot countries ; the natives of
which often wear heavy sashes on that part of the body, with very
light shirts and breeches. To people exposed to a hot sun during
the day and chilly weather at night in the same clothes, a widish,
flannel belt, round the small of the waist, is a great preservative
of health. While the jacket and shirt sleeves should be narrowed
at the wrist till they merely allow of the easy passage of the hand,
they should not be tightened there by buttons ; and they should
be very easy at the neck, Tightness at the wrist and neck, with
closeness and pressure on the head, form, in hot climates, an
infliction varying in degree from a worrying and irritating annoy-
ance to a maddening and disabling torture. The infliction is, be
it well observed, quite gratuitous—absolutely nothing is gained by
suffering it—yet it is the usual lot of British troops. The conse-
quence is, that men are found to drop down as if shot after standing
in the ranks for some time; while, on a short march, they fall out
in scores in such a state of mind that the threat, or the positive
prospect, of death is utterly disregarded. To this must be added
the fact, that their coats and trowsers are always more or less
tight on the outsides of joints and bends, and often unnecessarily
ample in the insides ; so that we have a large portion of the physical
force of owr armies expended in uselessly distending and compressing
woollen cloth. When we bear in mind that actual warfare is
radically and practically a struggle of men by means of physical
force, we see that this result is not less serious than it is undoubtedly
ludicrous,—one of those things about which “one does not know
whether to laugh or cry.” The subject has, since the war began,
been well handled, jocularly and solemnly, in letters addressed to
the press; but unfortunately these writings have not yet had the
power of inducing the authorities to change our military dresses,
the original designers of which do not seem to have ever designed
on any distinct principle; but to have been guided merely by
some vague, and, it would appear, usually incorrect, notions that
this “might suit,” or that “might be good.”

On the whole, our military head dress is one of the greatest pieces
of irrationality which exist in military clothing. Some fifteen or
sixteen years ago, when I was at Hanover, the foot guards had bear-
APPENDIX. 643

skins, and the shortest men had to wear the tallest of them. I once
stood for half a minute watching a rather short guardsman,—whose
hat appeared to form more than a quarter of the whole length ot
man and dress,—trying to get round a corner on a windy day. He
laid hold of the bear-skin with both hands and threw himself
manfully against the blast ; but was always borne back. Whether
he eventually got round by taking the bear-skin off or not, I
cannot tell, as I left him struggling. This man was assumed to be
clothed for fighting.*

At Hong Kong about ten years ago, I saw a score of artillery-
men engaged in firing a salute in honour of the French Envoy
M. Lagrenée ; and was much struck by the fact, that the men who
had to run a few steps to the rear for ammunition, were obliged,
when so doing, to lay hold of their shakos with one hand. Here
were fine, tall, broad shouldered fellows half employed in holding
their hats on their heads. The shako was narrow at the bottom,
and broad at the top; it left the back of the head nicely exposed
to the sun, and was top heavy. The much abused Albert hat,
about that time introduced, was in reality a vast improvement
—a true step of the civilizing process—for it was broadest
at the bottom, and covered the head more completely than the
shako, JI have now in my room an Art-Union engraving for
1844, entitled the Castle of Ischia, representing that place on
a windy day, and in which are some fully equipped soldiers on
duty, each with a hand employed in holding his hat on. Few
things, on my return to England after a long absence, appeared to
me so absurd as our guardsmen’s bear-skins. The reader will re-
member that I had just come from a warm latitude, and also that
I knew that some thousands of fine strong countrymen were then
being crippled and sickened by these torturing machines in the hot
plains of Bulgaria, when the whole of their physical force was
wanted for the service of the country. I believe the men still
have to wear them in the Crimea, as they do at home. In the
name of common sense, why is this to continue? The miserable
palliation that the defenders of the bearskin offer is :—“ Oh,
it is not so heavy as it looks.” But why, I ask, should any por-

* Since writing the above, I have asked the opinion of an intelligent-looking
young sergeant as to his bear-skin. After mentioning its extreme heat, he dwelt
with much emphasis on the great hold the wind takes of it. “ Sometimes we

can hardly advance,” he said, “though it is now three inches shorter than it
was,”

TT 2
644 APPENDIX.

e
tion of a soldier’s strength be used in carrying one single ounce, or

one tenth of an ounce, of weight that brings no benefit? And
why should he carry it in the most oppressive way? And why in
a shape that catches the wind, so much as to make it a very
appreciable hindrance to his marching to windward? Is it possible
that the persons who contend for their retention hope the big hairy
things will terrify the flat capped Russians ?

In the south of China there is a very good description of head
covering known to foreigners as the “fighting hat.” It is a low
cone, composed of split bamboos, with a short cylinder of basket
work inside, into which the head fits, and it is farther retained on
the head by double side strings so firmly that a heavy horizontal
blow, whether from side, back or front, cannot knock it off. It is
a complete ventilator; no amount of sun-heat, or rain-wet, can
penetrate it; and I believe a very heavy blow with a cavalry
sabre would not cut into it. Yet its weight is only 163 ounces,
In a hot climate and opposed to people whose fighting consists
a good deal in sword blows, it can hardly be excelled. The reader
will perhaps best comprehend its practical value when I tell him
that it is worn by pirates, and by the firemen whom we see
directing the hose of the engines,* so coolly and judiciously, in
great fires at Canton. It is, therefore, selected by the people who
engage in struggles with animate and inanimate nature of the most
serious and fiercest description. But though immeasurably superior to
the nearly, if not quite, as heavy bear-skin, and really more martial
in appearance ; it would, in its quality of head armour, be of no
value where the chief danger came in a.horizontal direction from
bayonets, bullets and round shot. For British troops there is,
taking all climates and all times, probably no head covering so suit-
able as the broad-brimmed, seven ounce heavy, wide-awake of pliable
felt, when attached to the head with narrow, but stout bands, tying
under the chin. The brim can be slouched down on that side on which
rain or the sun rays are beating ; it can be rolled up in front so as
not to impede the aim in firing ; and the wearer can lay his head
on the ground and sleep in it, with comfort to himself and no
injury to it. Being retained on the head by the strings, not by
clasping closely round by the brows, it is a tolerably good venti-
lator ; and in very hot climates it can be made more efficient as

» The fire-engine (which the Chinese call a “‘ water engine”) is an instance
of the readiness of the people to adopt useful European inventions, Their use
is rapidly extending.
APPENDIX. 645

against the sun, by a cover of light and soft but thick blanket
stuff.

In addition to the wide-awake each man should have a woollen
cap of the shape of the so called Glengarry bonnet, but of grey or
brown colour, and provided with a front shade of the same material
to be thrown up against the front of the bonnet, or pulled down
horizontally, at pleasure. In cold dry weather this could serve as
head-dress on duty; and as a warm cap at night.

The inner body clothing should be all woollen, the shirts being
uniform in shape and colour, so that in very hot weather the jacket
could be rolled up with the great-coat, and duty done in the shirt
only, as full dress upper clothing. In hot countries, the soldier
should have the breeches of stout cotton stuff, should dispense
altogether with drawers, and should wear no neckcloth. In colder
countries he should have a soft woollen or silk neckcloth, and
drawers under woollen brecches ; and the colder the climate, the
thicker should the cloth of the outer clothing be. At present
I believe a British regiment, sent to Ceylon, gets exactly the same
elothing as one sent to Canada.

As to hair, on the one hand there should be no shaving, which
occupies much time, and, what is worse, necessitates the carrying of
razor, brush, &c.; and on the other hand, there should be no long
moustache to dip into food, or long head hair and beard, rendering
the carriage of comb and brush necessary to the preservation of
cleanliness. The hair and the beard, too, should be kept en brosse
" —at the shoe-brush length—-and the moustache still shorter. A
pair of small scissors, to clip once or twice a-week with, is then the
only requisite for hair-dressing ;—the same soap and towel used for
the rest of the body serving to attain the completest cleanliness of
the head also. One advantage connected with having woollen
shirts only—is that the soldier requires no starch ; can be his own
laundress, wherever he finds a small quantity of fresh water; and
is, therefore, more likely to keep himself cleanly, than when he has
to deal with cotton or linen,

In the colour of our soldiers’ clothing an important and sweep-
ing change has become an urgent necessity in consequence of the
improvement in the efficiency of fire-arms. In the time of Crom-
well, who adopted the red that we have inherited, fire-arms might
be said to be deadly only at distances, at which a man is plainly
visible in clothing of every or any colour. But the modern rifle is
deadly, as regards both the straightness and the force with which
646 APPENDIX.

it throws its bullet, at distances at which a man in red or white
forms a plain mark, while a man in a colour resembling that of his
background is quite invisible. What holds of individual men for
rifles, holds of groups of men for artillery. Every practised rifle
shooter will admit the great importance of this matter. Its
importance at this moment is so very great, that any one who con-
ceives he can say anything useful about it, is not only justified in
doing so, but bound thereto. In further justification of my own
dwelling at length on the subject, I must explain that during
eleven years in China, when not engaged in official duties and the
cognate studies, my time was almost exclusively occupied in phea-
sant and wild-fowl shooting and in rifle-gun and pistol practice.
The necessity of healthful exercise, after somewhat arduous seden-
tary labours, and, more still perhaps, my exploring tastes were
cause that, my indoor occupations over, I used at once to send my
traps and servants down to my excursion boat and be off, whether
for a day or for a week or two, to a good practising ground or good
sporting district. I also had a machine constructed, with a move-
ment in the horizontal and in the perpendicular planes, into which
rifle and pistol barrels could be immoveably fixed ; and in which I
tested the shooting accuracy of different kinds of rifling and barrels.

The reader will understand therefore that it is not what English-
men so much object to, a mere theorizer, who here speaks on this
subject. Now my targets were constituted of what are, I believe,
the usual colours ; white and black. But these were always placed
in the positions most favourable to distinct perception. Judg-
ing from free, miscellaneous practice, as at rocks, trees, objects
floating on water, &c. &c. T much doubt whether any target could
be constituted so perfectly adapted for grey dawn, full day, or
starlight night; for a misty or a clear atmosphere; for sandy
deserts, or rocky mountains ; for sea-beach, green plains, or dark
forests—in short for all seasons, weathers and localities—as the
British guardsman forms with his dark legs, his high, broad, and
deep black hat, his bright white belts and, last and chiefest, his
brilliant scarlet coat. The arrangement, too, of the colours, seems
to be for the purposes of a target, about the best that could be
made. The black above and below gives good relief to the scarlet
of the coat, while that again is an excellent ground for the white
of the broad belts. With such a combination to aim at, the enemy’s
marksman, in almost every position and light, will be able to do
what is technically called “ getting a bead,” i. e..to bring the bead-
APPENDIX. 647

like muzzle-sight of his rifle distinctly between his eye and the
object to be hit. Speaking in full sobriety, therefore, I must
declare that if the experience of our greatest hunters and sports-
men, the inventive faculty of our most ingenious artizans, and the
knowledge of our most scientific opticians were brought to bear
on the varied resources of our material civilization, it is my
strong impression, they would after all be unable to devise
a more perfect practical rifle target for universal use than the fully
equipt British guardsman. In times of peace, we may enjoy a good
laugh at a result so comically absurd. But with war the matter
becomes pecuniarily and politically serious ; and when the follow-
ing painful conviction is forced upon us, all jocularity vanishes and
gives place to very different feelings in the minds of those even
who, like myself, have no dearly loved relative in the field :—If
this war continues a few years longer and we persist in an irrational
adherence to the present dress, thousands of fine fellows who would
otherwise come home full of life and health to their friends will
either be knocked over dead, like so many deer, by the Russian
rifles, or come home miserably crippled and maimed for the rest of
their existence.

Experienced sportsmen have decided (and the special observa-
tions of my sporting acquaintances confirm their decision) that,
taking all probable backgrounds in different kinds of country,
the colour which will in most cases be found least conspicuous is
a brown paper, or dun fustian, colour. A mist-grey colour is also
good. White, black, and even the very dark green of our rifle corps,
are bad. Of all colours, scarlet seems to be the worst : the difficulty
is to imagine a background in nature at all resembling it.

The clothing above described, inclusive of the shirt, neckcloth,
hat, and hat cover, should all be of either lightish brown, dun, or
mist-grey colours. The Russian officers,—whose bravery and whose
highly civilized standing as commanders in modern warfare no one
now questions,—not only make their men as grey as possible, but
usually themselves come into the field in grey. It may be argued
that the French, whose military officers are also very efficient, use
red trowsers. To this I reply that their mere authority does not
weigh against the obviously solid, and very cogent reasons I have
adduced ; further that the French have, like ourselves, been, during
the last thirty years, fighting only with semi-barbarous and inefii-
ciently armed peoples.

As to appearances, they are of very secondary importance ; par-
648 APPENDIX.

ticularly with English troops, to whom hice, Wke noise, is perhaps
less necessary than to any other soldiers in the world as stimulants
to fight. But if the reader will get a suit of clothes, such as
those just described, made as a sporting suit, he will see that the
dress has not only a very martial air, from its evident adaptation
to the business of warfare, but that it is also much more artistic,
though less gaudy, than the present coats and trowsers of mean-
ingless shape. In form the dress of the active Zouaves most
nearly resembles it; particularly in the closeness about the feet.
But the Zouaves’ hat is neither so useful nor so picturesque
as the slouching wide-awake ; while his breeches contain a super-
fluity of cloth which is objectionable as regards its weight, espe-
cially when wet, and as regards its greater likelihood of catching
in thorny brushwood.

What has been said above as to the quantity, shape and colour
of clothing, applies to the dress of all those persons accompanying an
army, who do not ride. It also applies to the head and upper
clothing of those who do ride; for with our present instruments
and methods of war (fire-arms and rapid strategical moves) it is
evident that any protection which a sufficiently strong helmet
might afford, when a blow happens to be directed against the head,
will not compensate for the certain loss of physical force to man
and horse caused by its constantly existing great, additional
weight. As to the question whether the breeches of horsemen
should be tight or not, I merely point to the facts that certain
nations, who pass a large portion of their lives on horseback—as
the Mongols of the Tartary desert—use wide breeches ;.and that
the breeches I have recommended for foot soldiers would hardly be
wider in the seat than those used by our grooms. Beyond this I
say nothing. The canal-intersected country around the foreign
settlements in China affords no scope for horse exercise beyond a
very limited and monotonous sort of park-riding on paths, &c.,
which the foreigners have constructed or modified for the purpose.

T cannot, however, refrain from contributing to keep up atten-
tion to one circumstance which has been dwelt on by several
writers. I refer to the fact that the proper men for horse soldiers
are not the tall long-legged men, but the little short-legged ones.
The heavier and stronger of these,—the broad-shouldered and long-
armed,—might carry as their more special weapons the cold steel
arms for hand-to-hand fight, and constitute the heavy cavalry ;
while the altogether small and light men—the born “jockeys ”—
APPENDIX. 649

might carry as their more special weapons revolver pistols or even
revolver rifles, and act as light cavalry. The tall strong men which
the British Isles produce, while oppressive burdens on horseback,
would be invaluable as grenadiers. As such they might at times
safely charge, with the bayonet, many kinds of foreign light cavalry,
with a fair chance of running them and their small horses down.

APPENDIX B.
FORM FOR OFFICIAL LETTERS.

Tue following is an example of a form for official letters that
might with clear national advantage be adopted by all branches
of the British Executive :—

To rae Conontau Secretary, Sir James Jones.

From tHE GovERNOR-GENERAL OF CaNnaDA, John Robinson.

Written in CanapA, in Montreal.

In 1855, on August the twentysifth.

In REPLY TO THE CoLONIAL SECRETARY'S DESPATCH of 1855,
August the first, No. 198.

(Or if the letter were not a reply,)

Resprctine the enactment of a new law on land sales (or, the

promotion of a subordinate official, &c.).

The next following paragraph should enter at once on the sub-
ject. Instead of wasting time and paper on the present opening
expressions “I have the honour to state” or “to inform you,” it
should begin to state or to inform. It seems, too, that all such
expressions and words as “ your superior wisdom,” “your better
judgment,” “respectful,” &c., as used by subordinates towards
superiors, might now be advantageously interdicted by circular.
These are merely conventional deferentialisms, prescribed by custom,
and mean nothing, beyond what it is most dignified to assume,
and what may be fairly assumed, till the contrary distinctly
appears, viz. that the subordinate is actuated by the feelings
proper to his station.

The above form being adopted, the receiver would first, on open-
ing the letter, see, apart from the address on the envelope, that it
was really to himself. He would next see from whom it was. To
650 APPENDIX.
e
ascertain this at present we have to find our way to the end of the

letter, whereby a valuable portion of the national time is lost, in
private not less than in public correspondence. The receiver would
then learn the circumstances of space and time under which the
sender wrote. In noting these circumstances, I have followed the
scientific method of descending from generals to particulars. That
is the Chinese plan, as regards both space and time; and I may
here observe that in this respect, as well as in their general em-
ployment of the decimal system of calculation, the Chinese have
been for centuries, as they are still, much more civilized than we
English. Not only does the Chinaman put the year before the
month, and the month before the day ; but he, for instance, would,
in addressing a letter to this country say :—

“To England country,— York county, Hull town, King’s street,
the shop of such and such a sign, and inside of that, Brown Thomas.”

Even in the name, and in domestic as well as public life, the
Chinese observe the order—one which we have been compelled to
adopt in our Directories, &c.—of putting the general or family name
before the particular or individual name. In our own method of
addressing letters, we are as unscientific as the elements permit us to
be,—beginning at the very end, and ending at the very beginning ;
to the serious waste of time, and therefore of the national money, in
our post-office establishments ; in which the letter-sorters have to
skip all the first part of an address in order to find, at its end, the
most general division of space that it contains.

The first paragraph of my form is also borrowed from the
Chinese. It saves much time in the comprehension of the details
in the body of the despatch, to learn first the general nature of the
subject. In our English despatches, as now written, the reader
often finds himself plunged into a confusion of minute details
without the slightest notion of what it is they all refer to.

As a large portion of the form above recommended could be
printed for each public office, there would in that way be an addi-
tional saving of physical labour.

At the end of the letter the simple signature of the writer would
be affixed as authentication.

In private or unofficial life, new conveniences, whether instru-
ments or methods, i.e. real steps in civilization, are often regarded
as vulgarities. Many people, for instance, thought it derogatory
to travel on railways for some time after their introduction. I
therefore hesitate to recommend the introduction into private cor-
APPENDIX. 651

respondence of the form above described. Although no genuine
friendship (or affection as the case might be) need be left unex-
pressed in the body of the letter, I am certain many men would
feel offended on getting a private letter, the fore part of which was
a printed form filled up. That it would be an enormous national
gain, by making certain common mistakes and omissions impossible,
and by saving time, both to writer and reader, there can be no
doubt whatever.

But I have no hesitation in recommending the Post-Office
Administration to commence first advising and, after due time,
enforcing the universal adoption of the Chinese mode of addressing
letters for conveyance by post. It can be very easily done. Let
clear instructions for addressing letters, accompanied by illustrative
examples, be printed, and not only suspended at every post-office,
but also distributed for sale at a very low charge. After a month
or two, notice could be given that all letters the addresses of which
did not at least commence with the name of a country, if for foreign
parts, or with that of a county or (very) large town if for the
British Isles, would be opened and returned. After a year the
whole system, of descending throughout from generals to particu-
lars, could be made compulsory. The rules are so simple that the
poorest people who are able to write would find little difficulty
in observing them, viz. :—First, write along the top of the envelope,
in a plain hand, the name of the country or county your letter is
to go to; then, underneath that, write the name of the town in
which, or nearest to which, the person lives; then write the village
or street he lives in, and, after the street, the number of the house;
and then write his name, putting his family name first and his
name of baptism last.

APPENDIX C,
EXECUTION AT CANTON.

Tuer place used as the execution-ground at Canton is in the
southern suburbs, about midway between the forts known to
foreigners as the Dutch and French “ Follies.” It is, however,
some distance back from the river, being about halfway between
the southern wall of the city, which runs parallel to the river, and
the latter; and distant from each about 120 or 130 yards in a
652 APPENDIX.
e

straight line. There is no street leading directly to it, either from
the river or the city. There is a dense population all around.
This is composed, towards the north and west, of the inmates of
shops and dwellings, respectable in its immediate neighbourhood,
and getting more wealthy as the foreign factories (distant about a
mile) are approached. To the south and east, the suburb is, gene-
rally speaking, poor, being inhabited by low and even criminal
classes. The execution-ground itself is a short thoroughfare or lane,
running north and south, about fifty yards in length, eight yards in
breadth at its northern end, and gradually narrowing to five yards
at its southern extremity ; where the projection of a house-corner
reduces it to a mere passage of one yard and a half in width, and
five in length. At the end of this latter is a high strong door,
closed and guarded during executions. The eastern side of the
ground is bounded in its whole length by a dead brick wall, of about
twelve feet high, forming the back of some dwellings or small ware-
houses. Against this wall, at about an equal distance from each
extremity of the lane, a rack is erected, always containing a number
of human heads in different stages of decomposition. Further to-
wards the north end, a shed runsalong a portion of it, in which the
executioners, &c., stand while awaiting the appearance of the
criminals. The western side is composed of a row of workshops,
where the coarsest description of unglazed earthenware is made.
The doors and the small openings, that serve as windows to these
places, open into the lane ; which, when no execution is going on,
is partially filled with their earthen manufactures, drying in the
sun. The narrow passage, at the southern end of the lane, leads
into a filthy square, surrounded by similar pottery workshops ;
while its northern end is crossed, at right angles, by a tolerably
decent street. The portion of this latter which is open to the lane
has a tiled roof carried over it, and under the shed so formed the
superintending mandarins sit during executions,—the shop behind
being then closed, and the street on both sides blocked up by their
attendants. A screen being placed between them and the sufferers,
they never actually see what passes.

In this lane, not larger than the deck of a hulk, and almost sur-
rounded by dead brick walls, upwards of four hundred human
beings have been put to death during the past eight months of the
present year. Itis fetid with the stench of decomposing heads, and
rank with the steams raised by the hot sun from a soil saturated
with human blood. Sometimes the bodies of such criminals as
APPENDIX. 653

have friends, are allowed to remain till these remove them for burial.
The first time I entered the place, I found four bodies so left, lying
in various attitudes as they had fallen, their heads near them, and
two pigs moving among them, busily feeding in the pools of blood
that had gushed from the trunks. At the distance of about seven
yards, and facing this scene, a woman sat at the door of one of the
pottery workshops, affectionately tending a child on her knees, of
one or two years old: both stared hard, not at a sight so common
as pigs feeding among human bodies on human blood, but at the
strangely-dressed foreigners.

Having heard, on the evening of the 29th July, 1851, that thirty-
four rebels or bandits were to be executed on the following day
between eight and ten o'clock, I went to the ground at about half
past eight with two English residents at Canton, who had not pre-
viously witnessed any execution. We found only a few of the
lowest official attendants on the spot. A hole in the ground, near
to which a rough cross. leant against the wall, showed me that one
man at least was going to suffer the highest legal punishment : cut-
ting-up alive, and called ling che, “a disgraceful and lingering
death.” A few steps in advance of the shed at the north end, under
which the mandarins sit, a fire of fragrant sandal-wood billets was
burning on the ground. Knowing that it was customary to exclude
at the time of executions, all but the officials from the place, I
deemed it advisable to prepare for maintaining our ground, by
taking up a position on a heap of dry rubbish in the southern
corner of the lane; from which slightly elevated stand we should,
besides, have the best view of the proceedings. After waiting thus
a long time, making liberal distributions of eau-de-cologne over
our handkerchiefs and jacket collars, the main body of officials at
length began to arrive. The cross was placed and secured in the
hole prepared for it, and the police runners began beating out the
refractory of the crowd with split rattans. One man motioned to
us to leave, but on my telling him quietly in Mandarin that we
should not do so unless specially required by the officers, we were
no more interfered with. The door at the southern end was now
closed, and a guard stationed within ; soon after which the crimi-
nals were brought in, the greater number walking, but many carried
in large baskets of bamboo, each of which was attached to a pole
and borne by two men. We observed that the strength of the men
so carried was altogether gone, either from excess of fear or from
the treatment they had met with during their imprisonment and
654 APPENDIX.

trial. They fel} powerless together as they were tumbled out on
the spots where they were to die. They were immediately raised
up toa kneeling position, and supported thus by thé man who stands
behind each criminal. The following is the manner of decapitation.
There is no block, the criminal simply kneels with his face parallel
to the earth, thus leaving his neck exposed in a horizontal position.
His hands, crossed and bound behind his back, are grasped by the
man behind, who, by tilting them up, is enabled in some degree to
keep the neck in the proper level. Sometimes, though very
rarely, the criminal resists to the last by throwing back his head.
In such cases a second assistant goes in front and, taking the long
Chinese tail or queue (otherwise rolled into a knot on the criminal’s
head), by dragging at it, pulls the head out horizontally.

The executioner stands on the criminal’s left. The sword ordi-
narily employed is only about three feet long, inclusive of a six-inch
handle, and the blade is not broader than an inch anda half at the
hilt, narrowing and slightly curving towards the point. It is not
thick; and is in fact the short, and by no means heavy sabre worn
by the Chinese military officers when on duty. The executioners,
who are taken from the ranks of the army, are indeed very frequently
required by the officers to “ flesh their maiden swords” for them ;
which is called hae kow, “ opening the edge,” and is supposed to
endue the weapon with a certain power of killing. The sabre is
firmly held with both hands, the right hand in the front, with the
thumb projecting over and grasping the hilt. The executioner,
with his feet firmly planted some distance apart, holds the sabre
for an instant at the right angle to the neck about a foot above it
in order to take aim at a joint: then, with a sharp order to the
criminal of “ Don’t move!” he raises it straight before him as high
as his head, and brings it rapidly down with the full strength of
both arms,—giving additional force to the cut by dropping his
body perpendicularly to a sitting posture at the moment the sword
touches the neck. He never makes a second cut, and the head is
seldom left attached even by a portion of the skin, but is severed
completely.

On the present occasion thirty-three of the criminals were
arranged in rows with their heads towards the south, where we
were standing. In the extreme front, the narrowness of the ground
only left space for one man at about five yards from us; then came
two in a row; then four, five, &c. At the back of all, about twenty-
five yards from us, the chief criminal, a leader of a band, was bound
APPENDIX, 655

up to the cross. The executioner, with the sleeves of his jacket
rolled up, stood at the side of the foremost criminal. He was a
well-built, vigorous-looking man of the middle size: he had nothing
of the ferocious or brutal in his appearance, as one is led to suspect,
but on the contrary had good features and an intelligent expression.
He stood with his eye fixed on the low military officer, who was
the immediate superintendent, and as soon as the latter gave the
word pan/* “ punish !” he threw himself into the position above
described, and commenced his work. Either from nervousness or
some other cause he did not succeed in severing the first head com-
pletely, so that after it fell forward with the body the features kept
moving for a while, in ghastly contortions. In the mean time, the
executioner was going rapidly on with his terrible task. He
appeared to get somewhat excited, flinging aside a sword after it
had been twice or thrice used, seizing a fresh one held ready by an
assistant, and then throwing himself by a single bound into position
by the side of his next victim. I think he cut off thirty-three
heads in somewhat less than three minutes, all but the first being
completely severed. Most of the trunks fell forward the instant
the head was off ; but I observed that in some three or four cases,
where the criminals were men apparently possessing their mental
and physical faculties in full strength, the headless bodies stood
quite upright, and would I am certain have sprung into the air had
they not been retained by the man behind ; till, the impulse given
in the last instant of existence being expended, a push threw them
forwards to their heads. As soon as the thirty-three were decapi-
tated, the same executioner proceeded, with a single-edged dagger
or knife, to cut up the man on the cross: whose sole clothing con-
sisted of his wide trousers, rolled down to his hips and up to his
buttocks. He was a strongly-made man, above the middle-size,
and apparently about forty years of age. The authorities got him
by seizing his parents and wife ; when he surrendered, as well to
save them from torture as to secure them the seven thousand
dollars offered for his apprehension. The mandarins, having future
cases in mind, rarely break faith on such occasions. As the man
was at the distance of twenty-five yards, with his side towards us,
though we observed the two cuts across the forehead, the cutting
off of the left breast, and slicing of the flesh from the front of the

* In the language of criminal procedure this word means “to punish ;” in
ordinary language its signification is “to do,” “to transact,” &.
656 APPENDIX.
e
thighs, we could not see all the horrible operation. From the first
stroke of the knife till the moment the body was cut down from
the cross and decapitated, about four or five minutes elapsed. We
should not have been prohibited from going close up, but as may
be easily imagined, even a powerful curiosity was an insufficient
inducement to jump over a number of dead bodies and literally
wade through pools of blood, to place ourselves in the hearing of
the groans indicated by the heaving chest and quivering limbs of
the poor man. Where we stood, we heard not a single cry; and I
may add that of the thirty-three men decapitated, no one struggled
or uttered any exclamation as the executioner approached him.
Immediately after the first body fell, I observed a man put him-
self in a sitting posture by the neck, and, with a business-like air,
commence dipping in the blood a bunch of rush pith. When it
was well saturated, he put it carefully by on a pile of the adjacent
pottery, and then proceeded to saturate another bunch. This so-
saturated rush pith is used by the Chinese as a medicine. When
all the executions were over, a lad of about fifteen or sixteen, an
assistant or servant I presume of the executioner, took a sabre, and
placing one foot on the back of the first body, with the left hand
seized hold of the head (which I have already said was not com-
pletely cut off) and then sawed away at the unsevered portion of
the neck till he cut through it. The other bodies were in the
mean time being deposited in coffins of unplaned deal boards.
When that was nearly finished, the southern door being opened,
we hastened to escape from a sight which few will choose to witness

a second time without a weighty special cause.
T. T. M.

22nd August, 1851.

THE END.

 

s, CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL,