outlaws; but the Puntis got assistance from the
mandarins, and then the Hakkas were defeated
in their turn. Their houses having been destroyed
by fire, in their distress they took refuge with
the followers of Sin-tshuen, who were living in
small communistic communities, numbering from
one to three hundred persons, throughout the
country.

In this manner the Puntis and the mandarins,
their protectors, became the enemies of Sin-
tshuen and his sect. Sin-tshuen and Yun-jan
were compelled to hide in the house of a friend,
at a place only accessible by a defile which a
handful of people might defend. The mandarins
became acquainted with this place of refuge,
and sent troops, by whom the pass was blockaded.
The commune at Thistlehill received news of the
danger of their prophet—it was said, of course,
by revelation. A great crowd gathered, and beat
off the imperial soldiery. Now, thought Sin-
tshuen, was the time to unveil his plans. He had
made preparation by inducing all members of
the different communities to sell their property,
and depose it in the common treasure, from
which every one had what he wanted. So when
he called them out to battle, free from impediment,
they followed his call in great numbers.

Sin-tshuen having seized at once an important
market-town, surrounded by a large river,
fortified it. When the imperial soldiers arrived,
they only erected a camp. When provisions
ran short, Sin-tshuen evacuated the town safely,
by help of a stratagem. The mandarins, when
they entered, plundered and burned above two
thousand shops, and murdered many of the
inhabitants. This cruelty excited the people, and
the war began in earnest. Even the women
took an active part in it. Two female
commanders joined the rebels, each leading two
thousand fighting women. These dangerous
troops the prophet set apart, and one-half of
them he placed in advance of his right, the other
half in advance of his left, wing.

The chiefs of the Triad society, whose
purpose was the restoration of the Ming dynasty
and the expulsion of the Tartars, thought it
wise to support the rebel chief. Sin-tshuen
bade them welcome if they would worship as he
did. This they would do, they said; and sent
in their bribes in victuals. The prophet sent
them sixteen preachers of the new doctrine.
After this the eight chiefs of the Triad society,
with their troops, joined in the growing strife.
Fifteen of the preachers had all the money
given them by their disciples paid into the
common purse, as the law would have it; but one
of them kept it for himself. He sold arms
belonging to the commune to buy opium. He
was drunk, and had wounded some brethren.
He was decapitated.

This severity made a peculiar impression on
the eight chiefs of the Triad society. "If a
man," they said, "who has been sent as a
teacher to us is treated so severely for a trifling
offence, how would they deal with us?" That
was the thought which induced seven of them
to leave the sect, and even join the army of the
emperor. One of them, Lo-shai-kang, liked
both the discipline and religion of Sin-tshuen,
and was faithful to his cause. Sin-tshuen agreed
with the Triad society as to expulsing the
Tartars, but not as to restoring the Ming dynasty.
"When our plains and hills will be reconquered,"
he said, "then we will found a new dynasty."

In the autumn of 1851, Sin-tshuen removed
his camp to the city of Yung-ngan, in East
Kwang-si, where he took the treasury and the
provisions of the government.

In this city Sin-tshuen was proclaimed
emperor of the new dynasty, which was called
"T'hae-ping T'heen-kwoh" (Great quiet
Kingdom of Heaven). The success of the rebel
emperor after this time is known. He led his
army through the provinces of Kwang-si,
Hu-nan, Hu-peh, Kiang-si, Ngan-hwut, and
Kiang-su, where he conquered the old capital
of China, Nan-king, in March of the year 1853.

He has, at length, taken Nan-king, the sacred
old national city, the Moscow of China, leaving
his enemies the mandarins as yet in possession
of Pekin, comparatively modern, and with no
particular sacredness about it. Perhaps this is of
good augury to us, now the masters of Pekin with
the imperial palace Yuen-ming-yuen in ashes at
our feet, and the imperial prince Kung quietly
taking the right hand or lower place in
presence of our envoy. If, as they say, Pekin is
China, and the holder thereof the ruler of the
country, then the last hour of the great mandarin
sham has sounded, and between "Young
China" and the red-haired barbarians the burial
will not long delay.

The rebels against the constituted state
authority are also rebels against the constituted
state religions. The two often go together in
the history of nations, and stand as cause and
effect strongly linked in one. They are, in a
manner, Christians, these Tai-pings; in a manner
only, for their doctrines are somewhat confused
and their theology of the clumsiest, and the
way in which they mix the waters of their various
fountains more wonderful than admirable. But
twilight is very dear in a dungeon, and the
smallest chink which lets in the sun is very
serviceable when the life below is perishing
for lack of light. Even the unsatisfactory
travesty of Christianity which the Prince of
Peace and his disciples set forth is a better
something than the atheistic nothing, common
to the more educated Chinese mind. The
Buddhist has a firmer grasp on truth than this,
for any positive form of faith is preferable to
dead negation.

Europeans who have been much in China and
are supposed to know more of the bearings of
this national question, advocate our alliance
with the rebel party, even while we are thundering
at the gates of the imperial palace, and
smashing the lions set before the Tartar quarters.
It is said by those who know better than
ourselves, that this Ming or national party "is
desirous to be on friendly terms with us, is
ready to make the most favourable treaties with
us, and to give every guarantee we could