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Authors: Jonathan Spence

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It also seems to me probable that the earliest prayers used in Guangxi would have been the simplest ones, echoing in part those Hong had just read in Matthew's Gospel via Liang Afa's translation of the Sermon on the Mount; these simple prayers contain no anachronis­tic references to the Ten Commandments or other theological matters of which Hong Xiuquan knew nothing until later (as, for example, does the prayer on
TR,
119). Hence I place them here.

22.
 
The various Confucian elements in Hong's early thought are carefully examined in Shih,
Taiping Ideology,
chap. 8. If Hong did need help with a quotation or a detail, it is almost certain that one of the families with whom he lodged would have had at least one of the scores of simplified cribs and outlines that circulated in China at the time, and could be bought in local bookshops, perhaps even from roving peddlers in town or country. See Bai, "Primers and Paradigms," chap. 2.

23.
  
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu,
1;
TR,
25.

24.
 
The six can be clearly seen in
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu,
2-5;
TR,
26-30.

25.
  
Legge,
The She King (shijing),
19.

26.
 
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu,
2b, echoing Legge,
Analects,
250,
feili siwu.

27.
 
The exact characters used by Hong for this episode in
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu
3, are in the
Shujing.
See Legge,
Shooting,
2/3/21, 66. With variants, the passage is also glossed in Mencius—see Legge,
Mencius,
5/1/1, 342-43. Hong seems to have conflated this with a
Zuozhuan
passage on the elephants' and birds' actions at the time of Shun's death— see
Yinshu,
3, and Murohashi,
Daikanwa,
11105 (10:663), top line.

Again, Hong turns to an allusion from the
Boo{ of Poetry
that he learned by heart in school, an allegorical poem in which a grieving son expresses his sorrow and remorse that he could not have served his parents better while they lived.

Fatherless, who is there to rely on?

Motherless, who is there to depend on?

When I go abroad, I carry my grief with me;

When I come home, I have no one to go to.

Cold and bleak is the Southern Hill, The rushing wind is very fierce. Other people all are happy— Why am I alone so miserable?

The Southern Hill is very steep, The rushing wind is blustering. Other people all are happy— I alone have left my tasks unfinished.

TR,
237, and
Yinshu,
3b; Legge,
She-King,
2/5/8, verses 3, 5, 6, with minor changes, 350- 51.

28.
 
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu,
3b-4;
TR,
29.

29.
  
TR,
29;
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu,
4; Watson,
Meng Ch'iu,
118.

30.
  
TR,
29; Watson,
Meng Ch'iu,
57.

31.
        
TR,
29,
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu,
5; see passages in Liang,
Quanshi,
101-2, 490. Hong may well be echoing the philosopher Xunzi here.

32.
   
TR,
30-31;
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu,
6.

33.
  
Taiping zhaoshu,
in
Yinshu,
6, modifying
TR,
31.

34.
  
Taiping tianri,
in
Yinshu,
23b, amending
TR,
67; Hamberg,
Visions,
38.

35.
  
Taiping tianri,
in
Yinshu,
24, modifying
TR,
67.

36.
       
Hamberg,
Visions,
35-36. For the hymns, see Isabel Wong, "Geming Gequ," 113- 14.

37.
       
TR,
115-16 and n. 13, slightly modified following
Tiantiao shu,
in
Yinshu,
3. On dating the prayers, see
TR,
111, and discussion in Bohr, "Eschatology," 161.

38.
       
Hamberg,
Visions,
28. This ritual is startlingly like the Taoist ritual of "the Sacrifice of the Writings," as described in Schipper,
Taoist Body,
89, though there the documents are burned "outside the ritual area" and the presiding masters "mime drunkenness."

39.
        
Hamberg,
Visions,
28, 35-36, and
TR,
116, both slightly modified following
Tiantiao shu,
in
Yinshu,
3b.

40.
       
Hamberg,
Visions,
27-28.
Taiping tianri,
in
Yinshu,
24-25
(TR,
68), gives a rather different time span, with the young man's release being on 8/15. There is a misprint in the son Huang Weizheng's name in
Yinshu,
25.

41.
 
TR,
68;
Taiping tianri,
in
Yinshu,
25-26.

42.
 
TR,
69;
Taiping tianri,
in
Yinshu,
25b—26.

Chapter 7: The Base

1.
 
Taiping tianri,
in
Yinshu,
25b-26b;
TR,
69; Hamberg,
Visions, 29.

2.
 
Hamberg,
Visions,
29.

3.
       
See
Taiping tianri,
in
Yinshu,
26b;
TR,
69; and the detailed map in Guo Yisheng,
Ditu,
21.

4.
 
Taiping tianri,
in
Yinshu,
26b-27;
TR,
69-70; Guo Yisheng,
Ditu,
21.

5.
 
Laai, "Pirates," 167, drawing on later Nanjing God-worshipers' registers.

6.
 
Curwen,
Deposition,
83, 88.

7.
 
Laai, "Pirates," 169.

8.
 
Murray,
Pirates,
57-59.

9.
 
Ibid., 25, 67-68.

10.
       
Ibid, 71-73, 149-50. Shi Yang was also often known simply as Zheng Yi Sao, "Zheng Yi's wife."

11.
 
Fox,
Admirals,
89-91, 96-97.

12.
 
Ibid, 93-95.

13.
 
Laai, "Pirates," 109.

14.
 
Ibid, 30, 182; Fox,
Admirals,
92, and Scott,
Destruction,
7.

15.
 
Scott,
Destruction,
47.

16.
 
Ibid, 100 n, 141; Laai, "Pirates," 27, 78.

17.
 
Scott,
Destruction,
97-98, 248-50.

18.
       
Laai, "Pirates," 68-70, 112; Bingham,
Narrative,
2:264, emphasizes the number of these mixed liaisons in Macao.

19.
 
Scott,
Destruction,
209-10, 217, 234; Laai, "Pirates," 79-80.

20.
       
Scott,
Destruction,
224, on children and rent; 218 on guns; 235 on spoiled opium; 226, 232, for her possessions.

21.
 
Ibid, 229, 235; Laai, "Pirates," 83.

22.
 
Laai, "Pirates," 62, 90, 109, 110.

23.
       
Ibid, 108, 118-19. There were eleven such "companies"—
mifanzhu tang
—in Nan- ning alone by 1850.

24.
       
Murray and Qin,
Tiandihui,
16-19, 143-44; ibid, 18, translates the phrase
jushi
as "carry out a rebellion," which seems too precise in the context. The Heaven-and-Earth Society was just one of dozens of informal and clandestine groups and federations that spread in China at this time, as vastly growing populations brought new pressures on the land, compounded by bureaucratic inefficiencies, unfair taxation patterns, natural disasters, erosion of uplands, and other environmental damage to lakes, hills, and waterways. But unlike many others, it survived and spread, sparking more than fifty-five local uprisings or attacks on cities in the southeast coastal provinces and in Guangxi between 1800 and 1840, prompting massive government reprisals, and thus a deepened sense of injustice. See ibid, 231-35, appendix C. This number also included occasional risings in Yunnan, Gui- zhou, Hunan, and Jiangxi.

25.
       
Ibid, 189, omitting the Chinese transcriptions; see also Murray, "Migration," 180; David Ownby, introduction to
Secret Societies Reconsidered,
18. An excellent overview of the intersection of demographic problems with the growth of the secret societies is Jones and Kuhn, "Dynastic Decline," 108-13, 134-44.

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