God's Chinese Son (20 page)

Now at last the murky mists begin to lift,

And we know that Heaven plans an age of heroes.

Those who brought low our sacred land shall not do so again;

All men should worship God, and we shall do so too.

The Ming founder tapped out the rhythm of his chrysanthemum poem,

And the Han emperor poured out wine tor the singing wind.

As with all deeds performed by men since ancient times,

The dark clouds are scattered in reflected light.
²⁰

In February 1850 a change seems to occur in the shape of the God-worshipers' military organization or at least in the language with which it is discussed. From this month on there is talk of the God-worshipers having an "army" on the march, moving between the four areas where they have their bases, an army that demands careful tactical planning, feeding, and other logistical support. There are set piece attacks on pre­pared "demon" positions. Loyal "troops" who have traveled from distant places have to be replaced, and allowed time to rest up, unless ten or twenty of them choose to volunteer for further combat. Troops from "nearby places" can stay in action for a few days longer. Reports of mili­tary action have to be carefully written up by the commanders and taken to Hong Xiuquan's temporary home in the north-eastern Pingshan base area, where Hong is recovering from a leg injury that prevents him from riding on horseback. Hong's base area is now sometimes called "the court," and Hong himself referred to as the "Taiping king." Tempers flare at some of the leaders' strategy meetings, as they argue about whether to press on with a given attack or to retreat. Food supplies run out, with no prior warning being given to commanders in the field, causing desperate hardship.
²¹

A record of conflict from Baisha village, a few miles east of Hong's temporary home of Sigu and just outside the southern area of God-worshipers' control, shows many of these elements in place at once: the vio­lence slowly growing, from squabble to threat to confrontation, with the concern over arms and supplies constantly cutting into the narrative. The enemy driving the people of Baisha into the God-worshipers ranks are first described as "demons," and might be government-supported non- Hakka local families, or local bandit groups allied to such families. In the main part of the narrative, they are simply called "bandits," or "outsider bandits."

Heavenly Brother asked Luo Nengan about the real situation in Baisha. He answered, "Li Desheng left his plowing buffalo with Lin Fengxiang to be fed. The outsider bandits from Lingwei village tried to extort money from Li Desheng, but the latter refused. So two of the bandits stole Li's buffalo from Lin Fengxiang's, but Lin got it back from them. He did not hurt the bandits during the fight. Next day, forty or fifty bandits went to Lin's house, yelling and trying to provoke a fight. Eight of us, while preparing our meal, saw the bandits begin to shoot their guns. Five of us grabbed our own weap­ons, and chased them; they escaped, leaving behind two cane shields, a box of gunpowder, and five guns. The second time, two hundred bandits showed up and we defeated them with fifty-eight people. They escaped and left three cane shields, a box of gunpowder, two guns, and one 'cat-tail-shaped' gun. Now we have assembled one hundred eighty brothers in Baisha."

Heavenly Brother asked Luo Nengan how they could supply enough food for the army. Luo: "The relative of Li Deshang, Wu, donated two thousand
dan
of rice."

Heavenly Brother: "Who arranged the horses?"

Luo: "Qin Rigang."

After Heavenly Brother asked Luo many questions, He bid Luo to return and temporarily disband his troops, just retaining a dozen or so. Heavenly Brother: "When you go back, don't worry! Everything will be taken care of by Heavenly Father's and Heavenly Brother's Heavenly Army. You can defeat one thousand people with ten people; if they dare come again, we will send more troops to fight them. .. ."
²²

Given the colossal amount of grain these new Baisha allies could offer— two thousand
dan
would have been over one hundred tons—they would be invaluable allies in case of a major attack or siege by Qing forces. Yet the God-worshiping leaders were still clearly cautious about massing so many people in the central base areas that they would prompt immediate reprisals.

Inevitably the leaders of the God-worshipers worry about the potential loyalty of followers such as these: some call the new recruits "brothers," some call them "demons." Sometimes Jesus, through Xiao Chaogui, is asked for his opinion, and declares the newcomers good people, worthy recruits to the Taiping cause, people who will "support the kingdom." Hong Xiuquan often remains unconvinced, believing that the true goal of these strangers from afar is to "destroy the army."
²³

Regardless of such suspicions, there are mass baptisms of the new arriv­als, four hundred at a time one day in late February 1850, after they have been preached to at some length, and taught the secret code names for their leaders. As to the hierarchy of the top leadership, as it is now emerg­ing, the faithful are told that "those who sincerely acknowledge Hong Xiuquan are in the presence of the Old One on High; those who sincerely acknowledge Feng Yunshan, [Yang] Xiuqing, and [Xiao] Chaogui are in the presence of Old Elder Brother." The converts are told to live with patience and sincerity, to convert their wives and children, so that all may live as children of God before their final entry into Paradise.
²⁴
For their part, the leaders undertake to receive all the sincerely faithful into the God-worshiping ranks, whether or not they bring "ritual offerings" with them, for all are equal before the Lord, and each family's lacks or sur­pluses are the common concern of all.
²⁵
By early April 1850 Hong Xiu­quan sometimes wears a yellow robe, a garment only emperors are allowed to assume, though he wears it in secret, inside the home of the believer with whom he is sheltering.
²⁶

The transcript of the initiation of one God-worshiper into the nascent Taiping forces has been preserved in a Taiping text. This particular cere­mony takes place on April 9, 1850, at Hong Xiuquan's base—or retreat— in Pingshan. (The convert, Tan Shuntian, later became one of the Heav­enly King's senior officers.) The main questions are posed by Xiao Chao- gui, acting as mouthpiece for the Heavenly Elder Brother, Jesus. Hong Xiuquan is present, but acts as observer only, seated—in the absence of any other furniture in this isolated mountain home—upon the bed. The Taiping's own record of this encounter runs as follows:

Heavenly Brother declared to Tan Shuntian: "Tan Shuntian, do you

know who is talking to you now?"

Tan Shuntian: "You, Heavenly Brother."

Heavenly Brother: "Who is that person sitting on the bed?" Tan: "It is Second Brother [Hong Xiuquan]." Heavenly Brother: "Who sent him here?" Tan: "Heavenly Father."

Heavenly Brother: "Why did Heavenly Father send him here?" Tan: "Heavenly Father sent him to become the King of Great Peace [Tai­ping]-"

Heavenly Brother: "What is meant by: 'adding starlight brings the view of Holy Father'?"

Tan: "It means if we have our Second Brother |i.e., Hong Xiuquan], we
will be able to see Heavenly Father." Heavenly Brother: "Who is 'Rice King'?" Tan: "It is Second Brother."

Heavenly Brother: "You should acknowledge him. In Heaven you should trust Heavenly Father and me; on earth you should follow his instruction; you must not be stubborn and willful, but follow him obediently."

Tan: "With all my heart I will follow Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother,

and Second Brother." Heavenly Brother: "Who is 'Two Stars with Feet Up'?" Tan: "It is East King [Yang Xiuqing]." Heavenly Brother: "Who is 'Henai'?" Tan: "It is also East King."

Heavenly Brother: "You should recognize East King since it is he who is the mouthpiece of Heavenly Father. All nations on earth should lis­ten to him." Tan: "Yes, I know."

Heavenly Brother: "Shuntian, at times of hardest testing do you lose your

nerve or not?" Tan: "I do not lose my nerve."

Heavenly Brother: "You should remain faithful until the end. It is just as it is with sifting rice, one watches it with one's eyes and then sepa­rates out the grains. The Taiping course is set, but caution is still essential. The basic plan must not be divulged to anyone." Tan: "I will obey the Heavenly Command."

The next day, Tan received his formal baptism.
²⁷

As the troubled times draw more and more men and women to the God-worshipers' ranks, the Taiping leaders must not only feed and pro­tect the newcomers but also protect their own reputation for virtue, and stop both licentiousness and dissension in their own ranks. Hong's original commandments had been strongly critical of sensuality, and now these are reinforced by examples from the Bible and Mosaic law. It is early in 1850 that the Taiping leaders begin to make pronouncements hinting that men and women should be separated, in the interests of decency and the com­mon good. Feng Yunshan, Hong's close friend and founder of the God- worshipers, who has left his wife and children at home in Guanlubu, is held up as the model for male behavior. A woman, Hu Jiumei—probably a daughter of the wealthy Hu family that had donated their possessions to the God-worshipers—is announced to be the paragon of female behav­ior. God Himself, through His son Jesus, sends poems down to earth in their honor, brief classical poems each of four seven-beat lines, that make mnemonic puns on the chosen models' names, and point out their virtues. Thus the poem for Hu Jiumei as the paragon for women plays on the idea that the homophone for Hu's name is another character that means "lake":

Women observing Hu, a well of pure water,

Will long remember that pure repose as they boil up their tea.

The mountain birds can be large or small, the trees make no distinctions;

Each red flower has a single bud, dwelling among men.
²⁸

Speaking through one of the congregation, God's wife also comes to earth, with her own exhortations to the God-worshipers: "My little ones, above all heed the instructions of God the Father. Next, heed the instructions of your Celestial Elder Brother. In general, be faithful and true, and never let your hearts rebel."
²
''

Such moral exhortations are backed by stern examples of public punish­ment for wrongdoers. One God-worshiper named Huang Hanjing, who is discovered to have been having sexual relations with a woman, is con­demned to a beating of 140 blows with a heavy pole. The woman he slept with—even though Huang had either kidnapped or abducted her in some way—receives 100 blows.
³⁰
Given the shock and loss of blood from such beatings, this number of blows could amount to a death sentence.

The webs of divine and earthly family relationships inevitably inter­twine in these heavenly messages and practical instructions. When Xiao Chaogui, for example, spoke as the voice of Jesus, he would naturally address Hong Xiuquan as his "younger brother." But in earthly life, Xiao had recently married a female relative of Hong Xiuquan's, perhaps a cousin, and so the two men were bonded together as "brothers-in-law." If Xiao wished his wife to be more obedient, as he apparently did at times, then he could do so in the voice of Jesus demanding that his "blood rela­tion" obey her husband.
³¹
Instructions from on high, parallel to those given to Hu Jiumei, could also be given in the name of God or Jesus to other God-worshiping women prominent in the organization, as in the case of those for the "second daughter" of the Chen family, Chen Ermei. Such messages had the force of divine decrees, as in the case of the one of January 30, 1850: "Chen Ermei, women must know how to keep out of the way: men have quarters that should be left to men, and women have quarters that should be left to women. Senior or junior sisters-in-law should also keep a proper balance, for the older ones have things to do that would not be suitable for younger sisters-in-law, just as the younger have things to do not suitable for the older. It is never good for them to compete with each other."
³²

From such pronouncements grows the Taiping policy of separating men and women altogether into separate camps and units, until such time as all will win their Heavenly Kingdom and be reunited. But as the Tai­ping develop this policy it results not merely in restricting women's lives but also in the formation of women's army units, and in establishing the rights of women to serve as officials in the Taiping bureaucracy. The fullest explanation of this policy's rationale from a Taiping text is the following:

Moreover, as it is advisable to avoid suspicion [of improper conduct] between the inner [female] and the outer [male] and to distinguish between male and female, so men must have male quarters and women must have female quarters; only thus can we be dignified and avoid confusion. There must be no common mixing of the male and female groups, which would cause debauchery and violation of Heaven's commandments. Although to pay respects to parents and to visit wives and children occasionally are in keeping with human nature and not prohibited, yet it is only proper to converse before the door, stand a few steps apart, and speak in a loud voice; one must not enter the sisters' camp or permit the mixing of men and women. Only thus, by complying with rules and commands, can we become sons and daughters of Heaven.
³³