God's Chinese Son

by Jonathan Spence

  43. TR, 236, slightly modified following Chin, Shiliao, 86.

  44. TR, 235, modified following Chin, Shiliao, 86.

  45. TR, 235, slightly modified following Chin, Shiliao, 86.

  46. TR, 236; Chin, Shiliao, 87. I understand Hong to be using the word tai in its two different senses here, first as "womb" and then as "fetus."

  Chapter 21: Snowfall

  1. BPP/IUP, 250, Roberts letter of Jan. 22, 1862, Inclosure 6 in no. 44, Medhurst to Russell, Feb. 7, 1862; also printed in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 314-15.

  2. NCH, Sept. 7, 1861.

  5. NCH, Feb. 8, 1862; DSCN, Feb. 3, 1862, lists Roberts among passengers arriving in Shanghai on Feb. 2, aboard the Willamette. Roberts' follow-up letters and partial retrac­tions of the charges against Hong Rengan are in NCH, March 6, 1862, and BPP / IUP, 370—71. Lindley in Ti-ping, 2:566—568 n, gives a blistering attack on Roberts' activities in Nanjing.

  4. BPP/IUP, 235-36, C. Goverston statement to Vice-Consul Markham, Jan. 18, 1862, Shanghai, Inclosure 11 in no. 41, Medhurst to Russell, Jan. 23, 1862. Consul Medhurst had warned British subjects against such "ventures" on Jan. 14, 1862. BPP / IUP, 227.

  5. BPP / IUP, 232-37, Joseph Lambert statement to Vice-Consul Markham, Jan. 20, 1862, Inclosure 12 in no. 41, Medhurst to Russell, Jan. 23, 1862.

  6. BPP /IUP, 231-32, Minutes of Special Meeting of Jan. 15, 1862, Shanghai, Inclosure 9 in no. 41; NCH, Feb. 1, 1862; BPP/IUP 256.

  7. BPP /IUP 229, Minutes of Jan. 3, 1862, Inclosure 7 in no. 41.

  8. BPP / IUP, 233-34, Inclosure 9 in no. 41. The same meeting is covered in NCH, Jan. 25, 1862.

  9. NCH, Feb. 1, 15, 1862. BPP / IUP, 256, Medhurst to Bruce, Feb. 4, 1862.

  10. Curwen, Deposition, 130, on ice and snow; ibid, 138, 273, shows the lack of winter clothing later in 1862.

  11. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 518-21.

  12. NCH, March 2, 1861, by "A Native Christian," trans. Rev. W. G. E. Cunnyngham; and J. S. Burdon in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 237-39.

  13. "Native Christian," in NCH; "H" [HughesJ, in NCH, March 2, March 23, April 6, 1861.

  14. BPP / IUP, 261; Yung, My Life, 101. Yung Wing dates this sight to Nov. 1859, but since it is after the fall of Suzhou, and from other internal evidence, we can tell he means Nov. 1860.

  15. "Native Christian," in NCH.

  16. Ibid.; Griffith John, in Clarke and Gregory, Reports, 231-32.

  17. J. L. Holmes, ibid, 230.

  18. Wolseley, Narrative, 350, also printed ibid., 335. A comprehensive analysis of the loss of life during this stage of the Taiping rebellion is in Ho, Population, 236-42. Ibid., 274, gives the bleak analysis made by the scholar and Taiping captive Wang Shiduo. 9.DSCN, Feb. 3, 1862.

  20. BPP/WP, 239.

  21. Ibid., 238-41, Inclosure 2 in no. 42.

  22. DSCN, Jan. 27, Feb. 24, 1862.

  23. PRO/FO 671/2, Gordon to Staveley, June 1862.

  24. DSCN, March 27, 1862.

  25. BPP/ IUP, 392, Medhurst to Bruce, Shanghai, June 9, 1862.

  26. DSCN, Aug. 15, 1862.

  27. DSCN, Dec. 1, 1862.

  28. DSCN, Feb. 21, 1862.

  29. DSCN, March 11, 1862.

  30. DSCN, May 30, July 7, 1862. il.DSCN, Aug. 8, 1862.

  32. DSCN, Aug. 15, Sept. 26, 1862.

  33. All these lost dogs are sought by their owners in advertisements placed in DSCN between Oct. 2, 1862, and May 27, 1863.

  34. Katherine Bernhardt, Rents, Taxes, chap. 3, esp. pp. 106-9; Curwen, Deposition, 133, 243 nn. 31-32.

  35. Cole, Bao Lisheng, esp. 26-29, 41-43.

  36. Curwen, Deposition, 118, 124-25.

  37. BPP /IUP, 288-89.

  38. Ibid, 116.

  39. Ibid, 115, 370.

  40. Forrest, "Ming Tombs," NCH, July 6, 1861.

  41. SPP/ IUP, 170.

  42. Edkins, "Narrative," 291; Jane Edkins, Chinese Scenes, 201, 204. Her letters show the decision as much more debated by them and difficult than her husband suggests in his "Narrative."

  43. W. Lobschied, whose visit and letter to the Hong Kong "Daily Press" are given in Lin-le, Ti-ping, 2:598-603.

  44. TR, 1527.

  45. TR, 1513.

  46. Growing out of the Daily Shipping News, the DSCN was first published in 1862. See King and Clarke, Guide, 77, 177.

  47. The Shanghai xinbao, as announced in DSCN, Sept. 26, 1862. Shanghai's earlier com­mercial history and periods of prosperity are well described in Linda Cooke Johnson, "Shanghai."

  48. R. E. Johnson, China Station, 109-13.

  49. BPP /IUP 392, Medhurst to Bruce, Shanghai, June 9, 1862.

  50. DSCN, Dec. 1, 1862, April 10, 1863.

  51. DSCN, June 3, 1863; NCH, July 4, 1863.

  52. DSCN, Nov. 22, 1862.

  53. DSCN, May 26, 1863, Sept. 26, 1862.

  54. DSCN, Dec. 1, 1862.

  55. Fogg in DSCN, Jan. 8, 1863, and photo stores in DSCN, Jan. 27, 1862, Feb. 21, 1862, June 3, 1862. The shops were J. Newman and C. & W. Saunders.

  56. Risley, DSCN, Sept. 26, 1862; racehorses, DSCN, Feb. 14, May 29, 1863.

  57. PRO/FO 97/111, cases 252, 327, 120, and 328.

  58. PRO/FO 17/405, cases 30, 63, and 106, and PRO/FO 97/111, case 346, for the assault on Susan Cheshire.

  59. DSCN, Feb. 28, 1862; NCH, March 15, 1862, June 23, 1864.

  60. Licenses, DSCN, Dec. 1, 1862; Mason, DSCN, May 30, 1863; Hayden, PRO/FO 17/ 405, case 112.

  61. PRO/FO 97/111, passim, and cases 314, 321, and 344, for the dramatic repeat offenders. For an astonishing case of police abuse to some Shanghai "gentlemen" who are beaten and rolled in the mud see DSCN, May 20, May 21, 1863.

  62. DSCN, Feb. 18, 1863.

  63. PRO / FO 97/111, cases 17, 55, and 202.

  64. BPP / IUP, 424, Bruce to Russell, July 14, 1862.

  65. DSCN, Feb. 23, 1863.

  66. BPP / IUP, 521, Staveley to Bruce, Shanghai, Nov. 13, 1862, Inclosure 3 in no. 103.

  67. As in DSCN, July 7, 1862, where the gentleman concerned owns "five Colt revolvers" as well as a bloodhound.

  6&.NCH, Oct. 27, 1860.

  69. BPP / IUP 469, Admiral Hope to Admiralty, Oct. 1862, Inclosure 1 in no. 74.

  70. DSCN, May 30, 1862.

  71. NCH, June 28, 1862; Curwen, Deposition, 161-62.

  72. BPP / IUP, 442-43.

  73. DSCN, Sept. 26, 1862, for butter; NCH, Feb. 1, 1862. This latter is a sardonic piece, dated to "1962" and signed "C'est moi."

  74. Belgian, BPP/IUP, 458; Swedish, NCH, June 15, 1861; Prussian, NCH, June 16, 1864; Italian, BPP /IUP, 489.

  75. Curwen, Deposition, 118, 135, 136; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 458;BPP/IUP, 101, 247, 259, 383, for the howitzer.

  76. Curwen, Deposition, 138-39.

  77. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 452—60; Smith, Mercenaries, passim; Curwen, Deposi­tion, 238-42 nn. 15-23. The most recent study of Ward is Carr, Devil Soldier.

  78. Curwen, Deposition, 139-40, changing romanization.

  79. Lin-le, 77-ping, 2:623-24.

  80. See Tianxiong shengzhi, 2:49b, and Tianfu shengzhi, 34a. Hong's work on these two texts seems to fit well with the fine exposition in Wagner, Heavenly Vision, 110, that after 1853 "the vision did not provide any further guidance," and consequently there was a "foreshortening" of the "scenario." For Hong Rengan on the same texts, see Xia, Zongjiao, 180-81. The unique surviving copy of the Tianxiong and Tianfu shengzhi, now in the British Library, is undated. In the list of Taiping publications printed in vol. 1, the charac­ter qian, "former," in the title of the revised New Testament, Qianyizhao shengshu, has clearly been inserted to replace the earlier xin, "new." Thus the book was probably pre­pared before and circulated after the revised New Testament. Xia, Zongjiao, 142, 148, con­cludes from this that the book was printed after the 29th Taiping book, Hong's elder brothers' account of their younger brother's revelations, which still has the xin in the title of the New Testament, and before the Taiping calendar for 1861, where qian appears in the conten
ts as a regular-sized character. This is shrewd. But it remains unclear why the Tianxiong shengzhi, if published later, was not numbered as no. 30, and why it is in a style of print quite different from that of the other Taiping volumes, both the vol. 29 and the 1861 calendar. Since R. J. Forrest did not obtain this text in 1861 or 1862 when he got all the others, including the revised Old and New Testaments, it apparently was not in gen­eral circulation at that time.

  Chapter 22: Partings

  Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 318-19. For Shi's immense trail of campaigns see ibid., 304-17, and Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 115-20.

  Curwen, Deposition, 136; ibid., 87, suggests Li still did not know of Shi's fate in 1864. On the growth of Li Hongzhang's power see Spector, Li Hung-chang, and Cheng, Taiping Rebellion, chap. 6.

  Curwen, Deposition, 122, 146.

  Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 524, says the stored grain totaled over 50,000 piculs—a picul being approximately 130 pounds.

  Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 525.

  Curwen, Deposition, 140.

  Ibid., 141; Xia, Zongjiao, 273, gives the religious contexts of this confrontation.

  Curwen, Deposition, 147-48.

  TR, 1513.

  Prosper Giquel cites deserters' testimony to place Hong in Huzhou in May 1864, though he was probably there some months earlier; Hong Rengan in his confession is vague on the dates; see Giquel, Journal, 80, 87; TR, 1513-14.

  Curwen, Deposition, 289 n. 83; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 526.

  Curwen, Deposition, 145; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 527.

  Gordon report in Curwen, Deposition, 298 n. 42.

  Ibid., on the scavengers; ibid., 151, 294-95 nn. 24-26, on the fugitives.

  Cited in Curwen, Deposition, 298 n. 42.

  Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 525. See the testimony of David Williams, alias Thomas Sayers, Charlie, Charles, NCH, Oct. 3, 1863.

  Curwen, Deposition, 295 n. 27; quotation from ibid., 299 n. 42.

  Ibid., 297 n. 41.

  Ibid., 291; Jiuyizhao shengshu, Exodus, in Yinshu, 26b.

  Curwen, Deposition, 145-46; TR, 1474-75, with variant of Hong's wording.

  Li in Curwen, Deposition, 153; Hong Rengan in TR, 1513; Tiangui in TR, 1531.

  Guo Tingyi, Shishi, 2:1072; Jen, Revolutionaiy Movement, 528.

  See the annotated prayer for the dead in TR, 118, as contrasted with Tiantiao shu, in Yinshu, 8. Zeng Guofan reported to the emperor that Hong's body, wrapped in yellow satin "embroidered with dragons," was discovered and exhumed on July 30. The corpse was then beheaded and burned. Zeng added that the head was hairless, but with a gray mustache. See Lay, Autobiography, 82, 95. On the burial of Hong see also Xia, Zongjiao, 299-302.

  TR, 1531.

  Curwen, Deposition, 153.

  Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 530-31; TR, 1531, Young Monarch's confession; Cur- wen, Deposition, 154, 299-300 nn. 45 and 46, citing Zhao Liewen's diary on details of the capture.

  Curwen, Deposition, 157—58.

  Ibid, 161-62.

  Ibid, 182; also ibid, 305 n. 84. Curwen's appendixes 1 and 2 also have further con­versations by Li with his captors, including Zhao Liewen. Appendix 3 contains a compre­hensive analysis of the variant editions of Li's confession.

  Curwen, Deposition, 155; Guo Yisheng, Ditu, 143, for exact route and dates.

  See Giquel, Journal, 72, 75, on the former Gui Wang, Deng Guangming. Ibid, 101, mentions the Young Monarch's presence in the area in Aug. On the origins of the Ever- Triumphant Army see Leibo, Transferring Technology, 26-31, 36-38.

  Giquel, Journal, 32, 78, on bodies; ibid, 35, 36, on commanders and officers killed.

  "Account given by Patrick Nellis," NCH, Nov. 12, 1864. See also "the Statement of Mark Conroy" in the same issue.

  Richard Smith, Mercenaries, 131-32, 155-56.

  NCH, May 21, 1864. Such blindfold wheelbarrow races, using real barrows over long courses, were common in England from the 1830s; other variants of wheelbarrow races are discussed in the eccentric and charming volume Causeries brouettiques, 212—20; ibid, 236-40, discusses Chinese wheelbarrows.

  .36. Giquel, Journal, 77, 83, 88-89. For an overview of the Huzhou campaign, see Leibo, Transfening Technology, 51—60.

  37. Giquel, Journal, 88-89.

  38. Ibid, 77, 84, 98.

  39. Ibid, 99, 102.

  40. Ibid, 84.

  41. Ibid, 85, 152 n. 46.

  42. TR, 1507.

  43. TR, 1514.

  44. TR, 1521, 1529; Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 536.

  45. TR, 1532, slightly modified following Xiang, Zihao, 2:856.

  46. TR, 1531.

  47. TR, 1532.

  48. Jen, Revolutionary Movement, 536. For some time after the deaths of these Taiping leaders remnants of the various Taiping field armies that had been out foraging for sup­plies at the time Nanjing fell fought on in Fujian and in northern Guangdong; the last of these Taiping forces was destroyed by Qing troops in early Feb. 1866. See ibid, 537-44. Jen notes ibid, 535 n. 63 and 536 n. 65, that one son of Hong Rengan and one son of Li Xiucheng managed to survive, and grow to maturity. Jen's further assertion (536 n. 65) that Hong Xiuquan's two youngest sons also managed to survive is not generally accepted by Taiping scholars.

  Bibliography of Works Cited

  American Baptist Foreign Mission Society Archives. Valley Forge, Pa. Issachar Jacox Rob­erts Papers and Correspondence.

  Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nation­alism. London, 1985.

  Anliang yue (Local pacification agreement). Compiled in 1845 for Jintian villages, Guiping county. Reprinted in Taiping Tianguo wenxian shiliao ji, 345-48.

  Bai Limin. "Primers and Paradigms: A Comparative Approach to Understanding Elemen­tary Education as a Pre-condition for Industrialization in Late Imperial China." Ph.D. diss., La Trobe University, 1993.

  Bak, Janos M., and Gerhard Benecke, eds. Religion and Rural Revolt. Manchester, 1984.

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  Barnett, Suzanne Wilson, and John King Fairbank, eds. Christianity in China: Early Protes­tant Missionary Writings. Cambridge, Mass., 1985.

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  Bays, Daniel H. "Christian Tracts: The Two Friends." In Barnett and Fairbank, eds., Christianity in China, 19-34.

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  Bernhardt, Kathryn. Rents, Taxes, and Peasant Resistance: The Lower Yangzi Region, 1840— 1950. Stanford, Calif., 1992.

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  ----- . "Millenary Aspects of the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864)." In Sylvia Thrupp, ed.,

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