LITERARY NOTICES.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 99, 9 October 1863, Page 6

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Taepinp llei?eluon in China : (A Narrative' of jits' rise and Progress, :i/j ; ;*-r;baßa4''fl : poiiioipjg ; nal.\'ppcurjoentis- and Information obtainedin Cfiina. $y - Commander Lin dsct Brin£, lUNr/ v "].Fllß.6 : .^, lately employed in Chinese, , yvaiexs,- .- ; . ; '■ ■■ : , : , : v- ; Five Months in the Yasg-Tsze. Wijth — a- Narrative of the Exploration of its U,pper Watera, and Notices of the •Present Rebellions in China. By Thomas W. Blakistox, late Captain Royal Artillery. These careful and conscientious works will do much to enlighten the English public on the subject of China, a subject which, though not in itself very inviting, is of great importance, and much needs all the light which can lie be thrown upon it. Commander Brine's history of the Tacping rebellion is extremely well written, aud is remarkable for the ability with which different accounts are collected and made to elucidate eaph oth «r. The early history of the rebel chief, Hung-siu-tsuen, he has abridged from a biography by Mr Hambersr, a Swedish missionary, who gained his information from Hung jin, si relative and co'league of Hung-siu-tsucn, who was personally known to Mr Humbert, and whose account has been confirmed in all essential respects by the later information which has been acquired since from other quarters. The subsequent history lias been compiled by Commander Urine from a variety of sources, including a large number of the Taeping writings, the Government Pehin Gazelles and English narratives of visits to the rebels, military and missionary. The impression which the whole evidently makes on the' compiler, and which he succeeds in making us share with him, is, that the rebel leader is a man of undoubted sincerity and great fervor, but of an extremely narrow and dogmatic cast of mind, and of very small practical ability. The most wonderful feature in the whole history is, that such a fanatical oneidea'd nature should have stirred up so vast a movement, which so soon showed the power to exist and develop independently of him, and which yet had so loyally remained subject to his sway, — a sway wholly based on transcendental assumptions, which have grown wilder and more dream}', till at length his reason seems virtually gone. As the history is but little known, we will briefly condense our author's account of it. Hung-siu-tsuen — i.e., the " elegant and perfect " Hung — <vas born in 1818, in the province of Kwang-tung, about thirty miles from Canton. His father, although " head-man " of the village (a position of great trust), was very poor, and was obliged to take take the studious boy from school at the ago of sixteen, to help in supporting his family. Eventually, however, tbe^village people gave Hung-siu-tsuen the appointment of teacher in the school, which gave him the means of continuing his studies, but, although, he went up to Canton for examination over and over again, he never succeeded in obtaining the bachelor's degree which was his great desire. At one of these visits to Canton, in 1833, he fell in with a Eative Christian convert, who gave him a-scries of nine small volumes entitled "Good Words exhorting the Age.*' The author of these tracts was a man named Leang-Afah, a convert of Dr. Milne's at the college at Malacca, and the tracts have been since ascertained to "contain a good number of whole chapters from the Bible, according to the translation of Dr. Morrison, many essays on important subjects from single texts, and sundry miscellaneous statements founded on Scripture." The young student took them home, " and not deeming them of much importance, lie simply glanced at their contents and put them aside/ In 1837 he again went up for examination at Canton, and again failed. Broken down in health 'and spirits, he returned home to his native village, and was, through illness, confined for some time to his bed.'' During this illness he was subject to visions, the chief of which related to an imaginary visit to some splendid hall in which was seated a venerable man, who thus addressed him: — "'All humai beings in the woild are produced 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 \enerate me ; what is, however, .still worse, they take my gifts and therewith worship demons : they rebel against I me and arouse my anger. Do not thou imitate them !' Thereupon he gave ' Siu tsuen a sword, commanding him to exterminate the demons, but to spare his brothers and sisters. 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 After he had fatigued himself by fighting, jumping about, singing, and exhorting, he lay down upon his bed. He often said that he was duly appointed Emperor of China, and was highly gratified when any one called him by that name.'' At last, however, he recovered his health and reason, and was again engaged as a schoolmaster, and again attended the public, examinations at Canton, but with no better success than before. In 1813, while teaching in a school about ten miles from his native -village, a relation of his, named Li, ■borrowed his old tracts entitled " Good Words exhorting the Age," and on returning them told Hung-sin -tsuen that they were very extraordinary writings. Upon this, the latter " set .to work and carefully read them, and .was surprised to find that they supplied J,^, a key .to his own visions. He now understood the venerable old man who

Sat upon the L" highesT placed and whom all men ought to worship, to be God, the Heavenly Father ; and the man of middle age, \yT\b had. instru ted him, and assisted him in exterminating the demons, to be JesuSj the Saviour of the World. : This was the turning point' in his career, lie and his friend Li now baptised each other, discarded, their idols, and removed the tablet of Confucius that was placed in the school- ; room. In consequence of this, he lost his situation as teacher, but a year or two afterwards he obtained another,; although by that time his new faith was well known, and he had made many converts. In 1847, having heard that Mr Roberts, a Protestant missionary,: was preaching in Cinton, Hung-siu-: tsuen and his friend Hung-jin went thither, and the former remained with Mr Roberts two months or more, receiving instruction, Being too poor to remain there long, he left in June 1847, i for His cousin's house in the Kwang-si ; province, and there discovered lhat one' of his converts, Fung-yung-san, had < been spreading the new doctrine very widely. He soon joined them, and it: is stated that at this time the *' Society ' of the Worshippers of God," as they ! were called, numbered about 2,000 in the Kwei district aione. The first breacb of the peace took place about '. the end of this year, when toiie of the converts began to destroy the idols and interfeie with the worship of the neighbouring villages. Two of the leade s were cjnsequently arrested and imprisoned. Oue of them died in prison, and the other, Fung-yung-san, having been released on condition of leaving the neighbourhood, went back with Hung-siu-tsuen to the latter's home, where tbej' remained herding buffaloes on the hills for half a year, apparently without any ambitious plans for the future. In 1849 they Went to pay a visit to their friends in Kwang-si, and there found that a seriesof ecstatic revivalsha'l been going on, of which the ehi J f utterances had been recorded, and were presented to Hung-siu-tsuen for his inspection and opinion. He "declared that the words of those moved were partly true and partly false, and that some were from the devil and some from God.'' The two most noted of these ecstatic visionaries were Yang-siu-tshin (afterwards known as the Eastern Kinjr), who "always presumed himself to be under the immediate •di'reet ran of the Heavenly Fath r," and Siau-clum-kwui fihe Western King), who always spoke in the name of the " Elder Brother." The Taeping proclamations usually omit the mortal names of these speakers, and introduce their exhortations as if really uttered by the divine persons who are supposed to have inspired them; from which has arisen much of the jarring &nd almost blasphemous effect produced on European minds by the rebel announcements. Early in 1559, Hung-siu-tsuen wrote to his family and his relations, calling upon them all to leave their home and join him in Kwang-si, which they did, and about the e»d of the year he had drifted into tfco~*distinct position of a rebel chief. How this came about is net clear, but Commander Brine thinks that it was in a great measure occasioned by amalgamation with some of the disaffected bands already existing in the province of Kwang-siu About the middle of 1851, Ilung-si-tsuen assun.cd the title of Tien Wang, i.e. the Heavenly Prince or King, and after capturing the city of Yung-gnan in the Ea^e'ii pa t of Kwang-si, he was proclaimed first Emperor of the new dynasty of Tae-pingor " Great Peace." On tha 30th November he issued a proclamation giving the title of king to the chief leaders of his party, and enjcining all the officers and soldiers to follow his doctrine. The imperialists besieged Yung-gnan for many months in vain, but in April, 1852, the Taepings as they were now called, sallied out from the city in the city in three bodies, and breaking through the enemy's lines, marched away to the North-east. At the retaking of the city, the imperialists captured a rebel general, whose name, llung-ta-tsuen, so closely resembled that of llung-siu--tsuen, that it probably contributed to form the impression which prevailed for j many years, that this was the Tien Wang himself, and consequently that by his execution the Taepings had lost their leader. Before his death Hung-ta-tsuen made a \ery remarkable confession, which Commander Brine gives at full length. It throws a good deal of light on some parts of the internal history of the rebellion, — that is, if it be a true confession, to which opinion our author decidedly leans. On the other hand, the man's account of himself is unsupported by any of the narratives of the movement which have reached the outer world. One very curious item in his confession is that during the occupation of Yung-gnan, " a calendar was issued under the direction of Yang, in uhich no intercalary month teas inserted, but in this matter 1 zcas not a party.'"