Ti-ping Polygamy.--Ti-ping Women.--Their Improved
Position.--Abolition of Slavery by the Ti-pings.--Its Prevalence
in China.--Moral Revolution effected by Ti-pings.--Their
Religious Works.--Their Conduct Justified.--Jesuit
Missionaries.--Consul Hervey's Despatch.--Apathy of
Missionaries.--Its Consequences.--Chinese Antipathy to
Christianity.--Christianity of the Ti-pings.--Their Forms of
Worship.--Ti-ping Marriages.--Religious Observances.--The
Ti-ping Sabbath.--Its Observance.--Their Ecclesiastical
System.--Forms of Worship.--The Mo-wang.--Ti-ping Churches.
During my intercourse with the Ti-pings, if one part of their system and
organization appeared more admirable than another, it was the improved
position of their women, whose status, raised from the degrading Asiatic
_régime_, approached that of civilized nations. This improvement upon
the ignorant and sensual treatment of 2,000 years affords strong
evidence of the advancement of their moral character. Although the
practice of polygamy has by some war Christians been used as an argument
to justify murdering the Ti-pings, I do not remember an instance in
which those ultra-moral personages have endeavoured to teach the
Ti-pings the difference between the law of well-beloved Abraham's time,
upon which many of their religious rules are framed, and the later
dispensation of the Gospel. It is, however, a great mistake to imagine
that the Ti-pings are either confirmed or universal polygamists. In the
first place, as they have thrown off _all_ the other heathen practices
of their countrymen, there is no reason to suppose they would make this
an exception. In the second place, I know that many who have become
enlightened by the New Testament, have abandoned polygamy; while a vast
number of the rest, only partially instructed, are either averse to it,
or simply maintain the establishment of one principal and several
inferior wives, or concubines, according to ancient custom, and as a
mark of high rank. It is also a fact that in some countries a plurality
of wives is rather beneficial than otherwise; and it may be that China
is one of these. But above all, however detestable we may consider
polygamy, where is the _Divine_ command against it?
The Ti-pings have abolished the horrible custom of cramping and
deforming the feet of their women. But although, under their improved
system, no female child is so tortured, many of their wives have the
frightful "small feet;" having, with the exception of the natives of
Kwang-se, some parts of Kwang-tung, and the Miau-tze, originally
conformed to the crippling custom. All children born since the earliest
commencement of the Ti-ping rebellion have the natural foot. This great
benefit to the women, their consequent improved appearance, and the
release of the men from the tail-wearing shaven-headed badge of former
slavery, form the two most conspicuous of their distinguishing habits,
and cause the greatest difference and improvement in the personal
appearance of the Ti-pings as compared with that of their
Tartar-governed countrymen. The much higher social position of the
Ti-ping ladies over that of their unfortunate sisters included within
the Manchoo domestic _régime_, has long been one of the brightest
ornaments of their government. A plebeian Ti-ping is allowed but one
wife, and to her he must be regularly married by one of the ministers.
Amongst the Chiefs, marriage is a ceremony celebrated with much pomp and
festivity; the poorer classes can only marry when considered worthy, and
when permitted to do so by their immediate rulers. In contradistinction
to the Manchoos, the marriage knot when once tied can never be unloosed;
therefore, the custom of putting away a wife at pleasure, or selling
her--as in vogue among the Chinese--or the proceedings of the British
Court of Divorce, has not found favour in their sight.
Every woman in Ti-pingdom must either be married, the member of a
family, or an inmate of one of the large institutions for unprotected
females, existing in most of their principal cities, and superintended
by proper officials; no single woman being allowed in their territory
otherwise. This law is to prevent prostitution, which is punishable with
death, and is one which has certainly proved very effective, for such a
thing is unknown in any of the Ti-ping cities. The stringent execution
of the law has, in fact, been rather too severe, for I have seen cases
where women have rushed about the streets to find new husbands directly
they have received the melancholy tidings of their late beloved's
decapitation by the "demon imps." It is possible these bereaved ladies
may not have been on the strength of the regiment; but at all events
this acting of the law was rather too exaggerated. The conduct of the
Chinese lady who fanned her husband's grave to dry it previous to her
early acceptance of a new lord, and so preserve a correct propriety, is
more excusable than this. Woman is by the Ti-pings recognized in her
proper sphere as the companion of man; the education and development of
her mind is equally well attended to; her duty to God is diligently
taught, and in ordinary worship she takes her proper place; many of the
women are zealous and popular teachers and expounders of the Bible; in
fact, everything is done to make her worthy of the improved position she
has attained by reason of the Ti-ping movement.
The institutions for unprotected women are presided over by duly
appointed matrons, and are particularly organized and designed to
educate and protect those young girls who lose their natural guardians,
or those married women whose husbands are away upon public duty, and who
have no relations to protect and support them. Very many of the women
accompany their husbands upon military expeditions; inspired with
enthusiasm to share the dangers and severe hardships of the
battle-field. In such cases they are generally mounted upon the Chinese
ponies, donkeys, or mules, which they ride à la Duchesse de Berri. In
former years they were wont to fight bravely, and could ably discharge
the duties of officers, being however formed into a separate camp and
only joining the men in religious observances. The greatest physical
comfort to the women is their enjoyment of natural feet and the ability
to move about as they wish; though, unfortunately, it is only amongst
the youngest that this prevails entirely. It is utterly impossible to
describe a more striking contrast than that presented in the walk and
carriage of two women, one having the compressed, and the other natural
feet; the former, even when standing still, has a very unsteady
appearance, but when stumping along with the usual uncertain tottering
gait, apparently in danger of rolling over at every step, the crippling
custom excites the utmost disgust and the greatest commiseration for its
victims. And yet this revolting exhibition is by the Chinese described
as "swaying elegantly from side to side like the graceful waving of the
willow tree!"
It is, probably, due to the feet--and Chinese feet are naturally very
well formed--being of their natural shape, and the consequent elegance
of carriage, that many of the Ti-pings' wives have been selected as the
handsomest prisoners captured during the war, and that they appear in
such advantageous contrast with the Imperialists.
The detestable system of slavery is totally abolished by the Ti-pings,
and the abolition made effective by punishment with decapitation upon
the slightest infringement of the law by male or female. The law as far
as the slavery of men was concerned had no great occasion for existence,
such cases being uncommon in China; but the real necessity for such an
important innovation consisted in the fact that every woman was more or
less a slave. The head wives of the aristocrat and the plebeian,
although not actually recognized as slaves, are still purchased by the
bridal present, upon receipt of which, and never otherwise, they are
handed over to their purchaser, or husband. The inferior wives are
simply bought; with or without the knowledge of their family, for no
equality of position is required, as they are selected according to the
fancy of their future master, from relatives or slave-dealers as the
case may be. Besides those who are purchased for wives, a great
proportion of the women of China become the concubines of successive
masters, by whom they are sold from one to the other; many are bought
for domestic slavery; but vast numbers are purchased for a life of
public infamy. The establishments set apart for this purpose are
immense, and contain several hundred women purchased at the tenderest
ages and reared to this wretched existence. At Hong-kong, at Shanghae,
and several other places in China, buildings of this class are
maintained upon the British territory, and the Hong-kong colonial
government, and Shanghae municipal council, regularly tax and recognize
them. It is the common practice of the poorer Chinese to sell their
female children, and when the vastness of the population, and the fact
that these children are mostly purchased for immoral purposes, is
considered, the consequences may easily be imagined. At many and widely
separated parts of China, I have seen comely young maidens from twelve
to twenty years of age, offered for sale by their mothers, or
speculators, at prices varying from _six_ to thirty dollars, so that, as
I have frequently heard the Chinese say, "You may sometimes buy a
handsome girl for so many cash a catty (weight of one pound and a third)
_less_ than pork." This is the precise state of things which the
Ti-pings would not tolerate amongst themselves, and which they would in
time have taught all China to abhor were it not for foreign
interference.
If the Ti-pings had not been interfered with, it is possible, though
very improbable, they _might_ have caused a temporary falling-off of
trade, consequent upon the nullification of Lord Elgin's treaty, the
usual effects of civil war, &c., and it is quite certain the residue of
indemnity, as far as the Manchoos were concerned, would have been lost;
but whatever might or might not have been the result, trade would not
have suffered much, for the Ti-ping power would soon have been supreme.
Far nobler, then, would it have been for England to have avoided the
contamination of the Manchoo alliance, and to have preserved the respect
and friendship of at least a portion of the Chinese empire.
[Illustration: SALE OF A CHINESE GIRL AS WITNESSED BY THE AUTHOR AT
E-CHING, ON THE RIVER YANG-TSE-KIANG.
London, Published March 15^{th} 1866 by Day & Son, Limited Lithog^{rs}
Gate Str, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Day & Son, Limited, Lith.]
The wonderful achievement of the Ti-pings, not only in effecting an
important moral revolution, but also a national deliverance of their
countrymen, affords an almost incredible psychological phenomenon.
Rising, as it were intuitively, from the lowest depths of moral
degradation, they suddenly recognize and instantly abandon all those
vices and national evils which had become engrafted upon the Chinese
mind by the solemn and unswerving practice of 2,000 years. With
meteor-like perception, the great originator of the revolution becomes
convinced of the degradation of his countrymen. China, rooted to her
antiquity, her seclusion, and her apathy, beyond the most distant hope
of change or improvement, yields to this new influence, and bows before
the teaching of the almost unknown student, Hung-sui-tshuen. The
traditional lore of more than 2,000 years, the mystic and
deeply-venerated teaching of ancient sages, the profligacy and idolatry
sanctioned and indulged in for ages, are suddenly disregarded. But in
one way can this be accounted for. Divine Providence has manifested
itself in a manner as marvellous and superhuman as in the recorded
miracles of old. The miraculous interpositions of Divine Power in the
olden times appealed to the senses of small portions of a semi-barbarous
people by a physical and visible wonder. This most extraordinary of
revolutions has effected the moral regeneration of a vast proportion of
the human race by an invisible and wonderful agency. Therefore, whatever
may be the apparent result of the hostility of foreign dynasties, of
this we may rest assured, the Almighty Power that has seen fit to kindle
the glimmering sparks of the first Christian movement in modern Asia has
lighted a torch that may not easily be extinguished, faint and obscure
as that light may burn amid the gloom of persecution which, in all
climes, and in all ages, has marked the dawn of Christianity. Nations
may rejoice over the seeming triumph of their policy, and may witness
unmoved the martyrdom of the noble Ti-ping leaders, but nevertheless the
moment will arrive when that smouldering spark will burst into a fire
that may not be controlled by human agency.
I have probably had a much greater experience of the Ti-ping religious
practices than any other European, and as a Protestant Christian I have
never yet found occasion to condemn their form of worship. In the first
place, the principal and most important article of their faith is the
Holy Bible in all its integrity--Old and New Testaments entire. These
have always been circulated through the whole population of the Ti-ping
jurisdiction, and printed and distributed to the people gratuitously by
their Government. Besides the Bible, numerous religious works by the
Tien-wang (the Tai-ping king), and Kan-wang (his prime minister), have
been commonly circulated among their followers; but I entirely deny that
these, or any single one of them, tend to alter, modify, or supersede
any part of the Word of God, as some persons have taken upon themselves
to intimate. These works have been issued as the individual explanations
and opinions of the two authors, but never as any essential article of
belief. Had such not been the case, is it likely the Bible would have
been given in a complete form, by which any peculiar and erroneous
teaching of the Tien-wang would have become exposed? And is not this
free and unlimited circulation of the Scriptures the very best and most
certain prospect of improvement? So anti-Christian, however, have been
the arguments of nearly all opposed to the Ti-pings, that it is even
possible some of their sect may dispute this truth.
Any one influenced by a sense of justice or Christian feeling will
naturally wonder why a large proportion of idolaters, suddenly converted
to the faith and accepting the Bible with joy, should require any
defence for their unavoidable errors--errors common among the most
perfect, and such as new disciples must, in the natural order of
_learning_ the holy mysteries, have been surrounded with. The answer
must be, that all those in any way interested in the suppression of the
Ti-pings, carefully circulated all the errors they could detect and all
they could invent, cautiously concealing the fact that, whatever errors
there might be are to be attributed to the Ti-pings not being able to
thoroughly master, and rightly interpret, in a few years what no
Christians have been able to do unanimously in nineteen centuries.
It may be asked, What had the religion of the Ti-pings to do with the
war that has been waged against them?--was that religion the true _casus
belli_? Was any _casus belli_ ever stated? Assuredly not. With none of
the circumstances allowed by _men_ to justify killing their
species--such as a just war, a defensive war, &c.--the Ti-pings have
been most wantonly massacred. It may be urged by some that the
sanguinary war maintained by the revolutionists can be held as a proof
of their un-Christian character, and that they are endeavouring to
propagate their faith by the sword. The simple reply to this is, that
the Ti-pings have proved themselves to be far more merciful than their
enemies. Oppressed and persecuted, their patriotism became aroused; they
sought not to establish their faith by the sword; they sought to recover
their patrimony from the usurping Tartar. They fought to uphold
Christianity, not to crush it. Far from being incited by fanaticism to
deeds of blood, it is a well-known fact--particularly stated by the
Revs. Griffith John, Joseph Edkins, Lobschied, Muirhead, and
others--that the Ti-ping chiefs have always deplored the great loss of
life consequent upon their struggle for liberty. In the tenth century,
Christianity was introduced into Denmark by the sword, in the thirteenth
into Prussia, and became established throughout Europe by religious
wars. All Christianity has been compelled frequently to maintain itself
by force of arms. The seventh century witnessed the wars against the
Saracens; and if, as some people have stated, the Ti-pings had been
fighting for the purpose of _establishing_ their religion, and were
wrong for so doing, then it is a sad reflection that all Christianity
must be wrong, and that our Christian ancestors should have become
either martyrs or Mohammedans.
The annals of history, and the practices of modern civilization,
sufficiently prove the necessity of civil liberty for the enjoyment of
Christian worship; why, then, should the Ti-pings be blamed if, in order
to obtain the latter, they have been compelled to fight for their
freedom?
The rise of the Ti-ping rebellion singularly resembles many events
mentioned in sacred history, and many of the Ti-pings have delighted in
comparing themselves to the Israelites of old. Even should the
revolutionists have placed a warlike interpretation upon such passages
from the _New Testament_ as, "Think not that I am come to send peace on
earth; I come not to send peace, but a sword;" "for he beareth not the
sword in vain;" who among us dare judge them as misinterpreters of
Gospel, remembering the conversion of the heathen is executed according
to the will and pleasure of the Lord, and not by any rule or formula
laid down by man? It would be idle and presumptuous to say this must be
the plan, or that shall be the manner; and yet there have been found
ministers of the Gospel who are ready to justify the outrages committed
on the Ti-pings, because they think they have not accepted the Word of
God in the manner they should have done!
When the statements of the various missionaries are perused, it must be
wondered how it is that those who have been sent to China through the
Christian generosity of the British public, have never yet attempted to
succour or guide aright the great Christian revolution. The Bishop of
Victoria, the Revs. Griffith John, Muirhead, Edkins, Mills, Milne,
Lobschied, Lambath, and many others too numerous to mention, have
rejoiced in the most eloquent terms about the Ti-pings, have partially
approved, and criticised their acts, when sending _their reports_ to
England. What have they _done_ to assist those who have "entreated"
them, as Mr. Holmes, the Baptist missionary, was entreated, to come and
teach the Word of God? Absolutely nothing!
Last year, it was estimated that the whole number of Protestant
Christian converts in China, the result of more than thirty years of
missionary labour, was some 1,400, and these included all the employées
of the different mission establishments, many of whom, I have good
reason to know, have an amount of faith similar to that of the
Portuguese rice Christians of Macao, who, not long since, struck in a
body, and told the priests they would not be Christians any longer,
unless they received another quarter of a catty more rice per day.
England sends more missionaries amongst the poor benighted heathen than
any other nation; yet the work of all she has sent to China put together
will not equal the proselytes of one Jesuit. The Jesuits penetrate the
vast Chinese empire in every direction, shaven-headed, and dressed as
natives. With a sublime earnestness of purpose, many of them devote
their lives to their missionary work; adopting the strange and hostile
country, and giving up for ever all ties of home, kindred, or nation,
these devoted men never depart from China, but, till death relieves
them, labour with that unfaltering perseverance so eminently
characteristic of the order of Jesus. I do not, by any means, advocate
either the principles of the Jesuits, or their peculiar mode of
propagating them; but what I do maintain is, that while the
self-sacrifice of the Jesuits forms one extreme of missionary labour, so
the confinement of Protestant missionaries to the treaty ports
constitutes the other, and that many could be well employed in the
interior.
What excuse can missionaries give for their surprising negligence of the
Ti-ping rebellion? Can it be that ministers of the Gospel egotistically
preferred their 1,400 converts to the 70,000,000, and upwards, of those
who might have become Christians under the Ti-ping authority during
1861-2, had our missionaries helped them, and our Government permitted
them to exist? Of course not! Well then, why? Let the British officials
who prevented the few missionaries who would have gone to the Ti-pings
reply for them, and those who would not go at all reply for themselves.
Their reasons must indeed be plausible to find approbation. If the
Ti-pings were _very_ bad, all the more occasion for teaching them; if
very good, how is it the missionaries allowed them to be sacrificed
without protest? In all probability no reply would be given; but the
conduct of the British consuls at Canton, Ningpo, and Shanghae, affords
the true answer, as far as those missionaries who were willing to preach
the Gospel to the Ti-pings are concerned. At Canton they were refused
passports to the territory of insurgents. At Ningpo the missionaries
were withdrawn from that city when it was captured by the Ti-pings, as
Mr. Consul Hervey states in his despatch of Dec. 31st, 1861, to Mr.
Bruce:--
"I would here state that with a view of avoiding needless
discussions with the insurgents.... I thought it best to desire
our missionaries to abandon the city.... The city has now become
a gigantic camp, and a scene of desolation and riot, and has
therefore ceased to be the fit and proper abode for teachers of
Christianity and propagators of the gospel. (?) _This step will
tend to simplify considerably our future relations with the
Taepings at Ningpo._"
This sinister passage must be remembered when considering the
treacherous expulsion of the Ti-pings from the city by the allied
Anglo-Franco-Manchoo piratical fleet.
Do the subscribers to the mission funds expect Mr. Consul Hervey to be
the director of the missionaries, or a competent judge of "a fit or
proper abode for teachers of Christianity"?--if so, in the latter case
they are wofully deceived.
Captain Corbett, R.N., writes to Admiral Hope from Ningpo on the 20th
December, 1861:--
"The missionaries are gradually removing out of the city. I
thought it my duty to remonstrate with them against remaining
_where, in the event of any difficulty arising between ourselves
and the Taepings, they would prove a source of great
embarrassment to us_."
Why all this anxiety to force the missionaries away from their duty? To
get them out of the way before the commencement of the hostilities
already decided upon, seems the only answer!
At Shanghae Mr. Consul Medhurst has interfered with the missionary work;
but, above all, Mr. Bruce's regulations actually _prohibit_ the
communication of missionaries or any other British subject with the
Ti-pings; in consequence of which, I was compelled to _smuggle_ the Rev.
W. Lobschied up to Nankin in May, 1862.
It will thus be seen, the teaching of the Word of God, and the spreading
of the Gospel unto the uttermost ends of the earth, has, in China, been
made subservient to official intrigue. This may somewhat explain the
extraordinary apathy of missionaries, although it certainly cannot
justify their neglect of their Master's orders. Missionaries should be
servants of Christ alone; but out in China, it appears, they are either
politicians, or they permit the object of their sacred mission to be
perverted by unscrupulous officials, and thereby become secularized.
Whatever may have been the benefit of the missions hitherto, their
wanton, cruel sacrifice of the greatest Christian movement this world
has ever witnessed has dimmed their glory with a shadow all time cannot
remove; it is even needless to blame them for neglecting the innumerable
and less favourable points of the Ti-ping religion--the grand and
unalterable _fact_ was the possession of the whole Bible as their only
faith, and the hitherto unparalleled free circulation of it by the
martyred revolutionists.
Only last June, the Bishop of Victoria, at the Highbury College grounds,
referred to some of the remarkable scenes incident to the rebellion, and
observed--"that in Amoy, which had suffered deeply, missionary work had
made more progress than in any other city in China! One effect of the
Ti-ping movement had been the wide-spread destruction of idolatry, by
which a vast work had been done, preparatory to that of the missionary."
The idols, indeed, _were_ all destroyed, but the missionaries did not
step in. And now that the Ti-pings have been driven from their former
possessions, and nearly exterminated, all the idols have been replaced
by the Manchoos; and the missionaries may rest assured it will take them
infinitely longer to overthrow the re-established Budhism than it
occupied the Ti-pings in the first place. The Chinese have been edified
by witnessing the Europeans fighting to suppress what has always been
looked upon by natives as a religious movement, alien to the ancient and
national faith of the country, in fact, as Christianity, or the religion
of the foreigners. This being the case, it would be absurd to expect the
Chinese will again come forward and adopt the creed for which they are
daily beholding the Ti-pings suffer,--a creed to which they are
naturally averse, and dare not profess if they would, not only from
dread of their Manchoo Government (which will certainly keep a sharp
look-out to suppress any new outbreak of a movement which so nearly
overthrew their own dynasty), but from the very fact that they have seen
the strong and resistless "foreign devils" allied to the Manchoos for
the express purpose of exterminating the Ti-ping Christians. There can
be no ground for cavilling about the right of the Ti-pings to such
denomination, the fact being that they accepted the Bible, acknowledged
it as the Word of God, and worshipped His Son, as the Tien-wang has
written, "as the Saviour of men's souls." Can the missionary-made
Christians do more?
For my part, I shall ever rejoice, because I have been in a position to
render what little assistance I could to many hundreds of the Ti-pings
who have requested me to give them the foreign interpretation of
different articles of faith; and I shall ever regret that, while
missionaries are sent with exhaustless munificence into parts that _will
not profess_ Christianity, to the Ti-pings, under whose authority
millions _have_ professed and accepted the Scriptures with an enthusiasm
and firmness of purpose never excelled, not one has been sent or
volunteered to go.
It is difficult to understand, how ministers of the Gospel should not
have felt a generous sympathy with men, whose profession of Christianity
not only entitled them to the brotherhood they have always claimed with
Europeans, but actually deprived their movement of a very great element
most essential to its success--the popular national rising against the
Manchoos.
Even Mr. Bruce, their greatest enemy, has stated,--
"My impression is that both the prospects of the extension of
pure Christianity in China through the instrumentality of these
men, and the success of the insurrection among the Chinese,
viewed as a political movement against the Tartar Government,
have suffered materially from the religious character
Hung-sui-tshuen's leadership has imparted to it.
"Not only the gentry and educated classes, but the mass of the
people, regard with deep veneration the sages upon whose
authority their moral and social education for so many
generations has reposed. And the profession of novel doctrines
resting on the testimony of a modern and obscure individual,
must tend not only to deprive the revolt of its character as a
national rising against the Tartar yoke, but must actually
transfer to the Tartars and their adherents the prestige of
upholding national traditions and principles against the
assaults of a numerically insignificant sect."
What could appeal more powerfully to our sympathy than this statement of
an enemy? But for their profession of Christianity the Ti-pings would
have carried the whole population of China with them long ago. Mr. Bruce
in the above statement, and all persons acquainted with Chinese
character, agree that the minds of the people are so immutable and
apathetic, and so fixedly rooted to the ancient superstitions and
idolatry of their country, that all change seems impossible. This being
admitted, is it not certain that some superhuman effort must be made?
The Chinese, with their strong and peculiar idiosyncrasies, will never
be _taught_ Christianity: whenever they become Christians, it will be in
exactly the same manner the Ti-pings became so, viz., by their own
readings of Scripture, as the Author shall see fit to inspire them, but
certainly not through foreign teaching or interpretation. If the Ti-ping
rebellion _should_ be utterly extinguished, the result will be dismal
for generation after generation. The cause of true religion will have
been delayed and driven backwards. It is to be hoped that it may be
otherwise, and that the Bishop of Victoria prophesied truly when he said
that--
"On the eventful day on which the flag of Taeping-Wang floated
triumphantly from the battlements of Nankin, a light has been
kindled in the empire of China, which shall _never_ be
extinguished, and those first and faint glimmerings of truth
will brighten with increasing clearness, and 'shine more and
more unto perfect day.'"
As I have already stated, the principal feature of the Ti-ping faith is
their acknowledgment of the Holy Bible as the word of the True God. All
their religious practices are deduced from its authority, and, in so far
as they have been able to effect it, their form of worship and belief
assimilates to Protestantism. All the principal sacraments of the
Protestant religion are either observed or celebrated with such error or
approximation as they have been interpreted with. The holy communion,
unfortunately, has not been correctly understood; in its place every
fourth Sunday the Ti-pings are in the habit of partaking of grape-wine.
Each Sabbath three cups of tea are placed upon the altar as an offering
to the Trinity; it is only since 1859, when Hung-jin, the Kan-wang,
joined the Ti-pings, that the cups of tea have been tasted; previously,
they were a part of the offerings rendered up at each worshipping,--a
custom generated by their confusion of the ancient sacrifices mentioned
in the Old Testament with the offerings and the Lord's Supper of the
New.
Baptism constitutes the principal and most important of their
sacraments. Until the arrival of the Kan-wang at Nankin, none but
grown-up persons who, after a strict and lengthened examination, were
found duly qualified, were admitted to the fellowship of the Ti-pings
and baptized as Christians. The following were the forms observed, as
issued by the royal authority of the Tien-wang, in the "Book of
Religious Precepts of the Ti-ping Dynasty":--
"FORMS TO BE OBSERVED WHEN MEN WISH TO FORSAKE THEIR SINS.
"They must kneel down in God's presence, and ask Him to forgive
their sins; they may then either take a basin of water and wash
themselves, or go to the river and bathe themselves; after which
they must continue daily to supplicate Divine favour, and the
_Holy Spirit's_[32] assistance to renew their hearts, saying
grace at every meal, keeping holy the Sabbath day, and obeying
all God's commandments, especially avoiding idolatry. They may
then be accounted the children of God, and their souls will go
to heaven when they die; all people throughout the world,
whether Chinese or foreigners, male or female, must observe this
in order to obtain salvation."
The prayer of the recipient of baptism was as follows:--
"I [_A. B._], kneeling down with a true heart repent of my sins
and pray the Heavenly Father, the Great God, of His abundant
mercy, to forgive my former sins of ignorance in repeatedly
breaking the divine commands, earnestly beseeching Him also to
grant me repentance and newness of life, that my soul may go to
Heaven; while I, from henceforth, truly forsake my former ways,
abandoning idolatry and all corrupt practices, in obedience to
God's commands. I also pray that God would give me His Holy
Spirit to change my wicked heart, deliver me from all
temptation, and grant me His favour and protection, bestowing on
me food and raiment, and exemption from calamity, _peace_ in
this world and glory in the next, through the mercies of our
Saviour and elder Brother, Jesus, _who redeemed us from sin_. I
also pray that God's will may be done on earth as it is done in
Heaven. Amen."
These prayers, together with many others, were slightly altered by the
Kan-wang, whose superior, in fact perfect knowledge of Christianity as
practised by the English Protestant Church, led to the improvement of
many and important forms of the Ti-ping worship. Unfortunately through
the total loss of the numerous and valuable original Ti-ping documents I
had gathered during my service and intercourse with those people, I am
unable to give my readers a literal translation, or do more than notice
what may be never otherwise known or rendered verbatim to this world.
All my journals, manuscripts, and other original papers, collected upon
the spot, have, although often recommenced, been successively captured
by the Imperialist troops, with the rest of my baggage; therefore I must
request those who may feel an interest in my narrative, to excuse the
incompleteness of any parts I have recounted from memory.
Marriage among the Ti-pings is solemnized with remarkable strictness,
and the ceremony is performed by an officiating priest, or rather
presbyter. All the heathen and superstitious customs of the Chinese are
completely relinquished. The ancient customs by which marriages were
celebrated--the semi-civilized espousal of persons who had never
previously seen each other; the choice of a lucky day; the present of
purchase-money, and many others--are abolished. Those only that seem to
be retained are the tying up of the bride's long black tresses, hitherto
worn hanging down, and the bridegroom's procession at night, with music,
lanterns, sedan-chairs, and a cavalcade of friends (and in the case of
chiefs, banners and military honours), to fetch home his spouse. As a
natural consequence of the absence of restraint in the enjoyment of
female society, marriages amongst the Ti-pings are generally love
matches. Even in cases where a chief's daughter is given in alliance to
some powerful leader, compulsion is _never_ used, and the affianced are
given every opportunity to become acquainted with each other.
I have frequently seen the marriage ceremony performed, and I can only
say that, excepting the absence of the ring, it forms as close and
veritable an imitation of that practised by the Church of England as it
is possible to imagine. When the bridal party are all met together, they
proceed to the church (_i.e._ "the Heavenly Hall," within the official
dwelling of each mayor of a village or circle of twenty-five families,
excepting in the case of chiefs, who are married in their own hall), and
after many prayers and a severe examination of the bride and
bridegroom's theological tenets, the minister joins their right hands
together, and when each have accepted the other, pronounces a concluding
benediction in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To the best
of my belief divorce is not only not permitted, but actually unknown or
thought of. Adultery is punishable with death; and it may be that this
is the only case in which the Ti-pings consider a complete release _a
vinculo matrimonii_ justifiable. All their rules upon the subject, and
in fact their entire penal code, I once possessed; unfortunately I have
no translations, and none are to be obtained outside their ranks.
All Budhistic ceremonies are rigidly prohibited at funerals, and also
the common Chinese sacrifices to the manes of their ancestors, while a
form of Christian burial is established, and a regular service read over
the coffin by an officiating minister.
Various forms of prayer, ceremonies, and thanksgivings are used upon all
felicitous or adverse events:--upon the commencement of all expeditions,
at births, building of houses, previous to battles, after victory and
after defeat, for daily use, for all sick and wounded persons, for
harvest, for rulers and princes, for blessings and success vouchsafed,
which they invariably attribute to God.
In every household throughout the length and breadth of the Ti-ping
territory the following translation of the Lord's Prayer is hung up for
the use of children, being painted in large black characters on a white
board:--
"Supreme Lord, our Heavenly Father, forgive all our sins that we
have committed in ignorance, rebelling against Thee. Bless us,
brethren and sisters, thy little children. Give us our daily
food and raiment; keep from us all calamities and afflictions,
that in this world we may have peace, and finally ascend to
Heaven to enjoy eternal happiness. We pray Thee to bless the
brethren and sisters of all nations. We ask these things for the
redeeming merits of our Lord and Saviour, our Heavenly Brother
Jesus' sake. We also pray, Heavenly Father, that Thy holy will
may be done on earth as it is in Heaven; for thine are all the
kingdoms, glory, and power. Amen."
Frequently I have watched the Ti-ping women teaching this prayer to
their little children, the board containing it being always the most
prominent object in the principal apartment of their dwelling. Children
have often run up to me on entering a house, and then pulling me
towards the board, commenced reading the prayer.
[Illustration: TEACHING THE LORD'S PRAYER IN A MIDDLE-CLASS TI-PING
HOUSEHOLD.
DAY & SON, LIMITED, LITH.]
The seventh day is most religiously and strictly observed. The Ti-ping
sabbath is kept upon our Saturday, and no sooner has the last knell of
the Friday midnight sounded, than, throughout Ti-pingdom, the people are
summoned to worship their God. The Sabbath morn having been ushered in
with prayer, the people retire to their rest or duties. During the day
two other services are held, one towards noon and the other in the
evening. Each service opens with the Doxology:--
"We praise Thee, O God, our Heavenly Father;
We praise Jesus, the Saviour of the world;
We praise the Holy Spirit, the sacred intelligence;
_We praise the Three persons, united as the True Spirit," &c._
This is followed by the hymn:--
"The true doctrine is different from the doctrine of the world.
It saves men's souls, and affords the enjoyment of endless bliss.
The wise receive it at once with joyful exultation.
The foolish, when awakened, understand thereby the way to heaven.
Our Heavenly Father, of His infinite and incomparable mercy,
Did not spare His own Son, but sent Him down into the world,
To give His life for the redemption of all our transgressions,
When men know this, and repent of their sins, they may go to heaven."
After this the minister reads aloud a chapter of the Bible, and then
follows a creed, which is repeated by all the congregation standing,
similar to that contained in the Ti-ping trimetrical classic, than which
a more closely resembling counterpart of our Apostles' Creed it would be
difficult indeed to imagine.
"But the Great God,
Out of pity to mankind,
Sent His first-born Son
To come down into the world.
His name is Jesus,
The Lord and Saviour of men,
Who redeems them from sin
By the endurance of extreme misery.
Upon the cross
They nailed His body,
Where He shed His precious blood,
To save all mankind.
Three days after His death
He rose from the dead,
And during forty days
He discoursed on heavenly things," &c.[33]
After this the whole congregation kneeling, the minister reads a form of
prayer, which is repeated after him by those present. When this litany
is concluded, the people resume their seats and the minister reads to
them a sermon, after which the paper containing it is burnt. During the
singing of hymns the voices are accompanied by the music of very
melancholy-sounding horns and hautboys. Upon the conclusion of the
sermon the people all rise to their feet and with the full accompaniment
of all their plaintive and wild-sounding instruments, render with very
great effect the anthem:--
"May the king live ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten
thousand years."
Then follow the Ten Commandments, with the special annotations affixed
to each:[34]--
"1. Worship the Great God.
2. Do not worship depraved spirits.
3. Do not take God's name in vain. His name is Jehovah.
4. On the seventh day is the Sabbath, when you must praise
God for His goodness.
5. Honour father and mother.
6. Do not kill or injure people.
7. Do not commit adultery, or practise any uncleanness.
8. Do not steal.
9. Do not lie.
10. Do not covet."
The services are concluded with a hymn of supplication, and then large
quantities of incense and fire-crackers are burnt.
The Sabbath is most strictly kept; not the slightest infraction is
permitted: shops are closed, work suspended, and even military
operations if possible. Upon that day, between services, the chiefs meet
together to discourse upon religious subjects and frequently to
supplicate the assistance of Divine Providence for a deliverance from
the incessant dangers and perils of their hazardous life. Meanwhile the
ecclesiastics, until church-time arrives, proceed through the camps and
dwellings, examining and instructing the soldiers, women, and children.
The ecclesiastical system of the Ti-pings is a form of presbytery. The
Tien-wang is king and high priest over his people; four princes occupy
the next rank in the lay government of the Church, and after them
several grades of clergy, who have to pass special and very severe
examinations before obtaining their orders. These clerical examinations
are conducted by the Ecclesiastical Court, presided over by the four
principal divines and four princes, at Nankin; but before office is
bestowed upon successful candidates, the whole of the papers, essays,
and work of the student are submitted to that extraordinarily diligent
man, the Tien-wang, subject to his approval or rejection. Not only this,
but the whole work of his vast territory and numerous followers, passes
through and is culminated in his hands.
Over each parish of five-and-twenty families, a minister is placed, and
a Church, or Heavenly hall, is built for him; over each circle of
twenty-five parishes, a superior or elder of the Church is appointed,
who, in rotation, visits all the churches under his control upon
successive Sabbaths. In like manner the chief ecclesiastic of the
district performs his duty, and above him, the superior of the
department. Once during each month, the whole of the people are
assembled--soldiers, civilians, men, women, and children, in some
prominent locality under the canopy of heaven; a platform is erected,
and their chief Wang or governor preaches to them, and gives a general
lecture upon the subject of all orders, military, civil, and social
administration. This mass meeting is also practised previous to any
grand or important movement taking place.
Issuing forth from the gates of the city, the entire populace follow
their governor, who, proceeding to the elevated position selected for
him, generally a small hillock or rising ground, harangues them with
great energy and enthusiasm. His large--eight-foot square--wang flag is
planted by his standard-bearer immediately behind him, while his two
snake flags (the armorial insignia of the chiefs) are held upon either
hand by their particular bannermen. The foot of the hillock is encircled
by the chief's body-guard, outside whose cordon the troops, with their
numerous and many-coloured banners, are formed in brigades; between
which, the civilians, men, women, and children, are congregated.
As nearly as I can remember, the following is _verbatim_ the delineation
of an address I heard the Mo-wang deliver at Pau-Yen. Upon reaching a
table in the centre of the elevated platform, he said aloud, "Let us
praise the Heavenly Father;" upon which he knelt down, the whole
multitude following him and praying for several minutes. The Mo-wang
then rose and asked, "Are all the country magistrates present?"
Receiving an affirmative answer, he then spoke as follows:--
"The great God our Heavenly Father has sent the Tien-wang to
rule over us, and to subdue the rivers and mountains to his
dominion. This is by the great goodness of the Heavenly Father.
All you country people, therefore, should listen reverently to
the commands of the king, which I now proclaim. Formerly the
people suffered much; now you have found peace, and the land is
again becoming rich. I exhort any who still remain away from
their homes to return to them without fear. The previous
distresses which you have endured were sent by the will of
Heaven. They are now past, to return no more. _All among our
troops who are so wicked as to rob or abuse you shall be
punished with death. If there be any such now among you or
prowling through the country, bring them to me, and I will
punish them as they deserve._ I also exhort you to regularly
render the tribute and taxes due to the king. You have eaten the
bitter, you may now enjoy the sweet. As for you, O Heavenly
soldiers (Tien-ping), we trust only to the help of the Heavenly
Father, and expect to obtain the empire. Listen then to the
commands of the king. From the beginning till the present all
our sufferings and battles have been for you, O people of the
middle kingdom, that you might be freed from the hated dominion
of the Manchoos. We have hitherto succeeded only by the favour
of the Heavenly Father. Whenever, therefore, you go to fight
them, let your heart be true to Him, and never suffer the imps
to overcome you. When you go forth, do not rob the people, do
not commit violence upon females, nor burn houses. If any of you
do these wicked things, I will not pardon but certainly punish
you."
At these gatherings, the infinite variety of military costume, the
bright and gorgeous colours, the rich floating folds of the silken
flags, the whole variegated appearance of the multitude of well and
becomingly dressed members of a new people, as it were, united for the
cause of freedom, and imbued in a wonderful and enthusiastic manner with
the fixed determination of Christianizing their mighty empire,--all
these combined, presented to the moralist a grand and imposing aspect.
Besides the priests appointed to regular parochial duties, great numbers
are attached to the army, and each Wang, or chief of high rank, is
provided with several, both to perform the household religious services,
and instruct the immediate followers of the chief.
The clergy are all dressed entirely in black; the elders, or superiors,
being distinguished by an ornament of pearls worn on the front of their
head-dress.
The churches of the Ti-pings are not separate buildings, but consist of
a Sacred, or "Heavenly hall," specially constructed for the purpose of
Divine worship, in all the principal official buildings, and palaces of
the princes or Wangs. In every case the Heavenly hall is the most
important portion of the building, and its consecrated character is
never violated by being used for other than religious purposes.
[Illustration: TI-PING LADIES OF RANK.]
FOOTNOTES:
[32] It has, notwithstanding such evidence of their appreciation of the
fact, been stated that the Ti-pings denied the Trinity and the Holy
Ghost.
[33] Trimetrical Classic. See Appendix.
[34] Annotations. See Appendix.