one of the “extreme clippers” that could make the China trip in just over a month—as well as a soldier of fortune of, if not equal talent and reputation, at least enormous potential. What he continued to lack were opportunities; and China in 1854 only frustrated him again.
In March 1853 the Taiping T’ien Wang, Hung Hsiu-ch’üan, had led his armies to their greatest triumph: the capture of Nanking, China’s second most important city and the seat of power for the central empire. It was immediately renamed the “Heavenly Capital,” and nothing seemed to stand in the way of a Taiping march to Peking and the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty.
But the rebellion stalled. Rather than taking the full and considerable might of the Taiping armies north, Hung dispatched only an expeditionary force to take Peking, then immersed himself in the affairs of his new capital. Ruling through a cabal of assistant wangs who rivaled the Manchus in the complexity of their intrigues, Hung became preoccupied with the construction of palaces and lost much of his political fervor. His appetite for concubines grew as his interest in the conduct of the civil war died. While his northern expedition was slowed and then defeated by imperial troops, Hung—despite his puritanical pronouncements to the faithful—assembled a large harem that became his refuge. The number of wives and concubines a man was allowed soon became codified under Taiping law: the higher the man’s post, the greater the number, giving free rein to the lust of the T’ien Wang.
Hung’s retreat into a closed and sensual world was mirrored in Peking by the Emperor Hsien-feng’s. Those citizens of China who would not or could not pledge loyalty either to a messianically deluded peasant or to the ineffectual, arrogant libertine who sat atop the Dragon Throne now found themselves trapped between the armies of both—for the war went savagely on. Whole cities were pillaged and burned repeatedly,rivers became choked with bodies, and China teetered on the brink of self-destruction.
Most of this spectacle lay out of sight of the foreign settlements in the treaty ports, and foreign emissaries sent to negotiate with the Chinese government still fumed in exasperation about Peking’s unwillingness to live up to its treaty obligations. Thus the rebellion continued to be viewed with a somewhat favorable—if cautious—eye by the Westerners.One American commissioner sent to deal with trade problems in China,Humphrey Marshall of Kentucky, informed Washington in April 1853 that “[a]ny day may bring forth the fruits of successful revolution, in the utter overthrow of the existing dynasty.” And President Franklin Pierce, in his annual message to Congress for that year, announced that “[t]he condition of China at this time renders it probable that some important changes will occur in that vast empire which will lead to a more unrestricted intercourse with it.”
But missionaries and other Taiping advocates could not keep reports of what the rebellion was doing to the Chinese interior and to the Chinese people from eventually reaching the treaty ports. The foreign settlements soon learned that Hung was not so much a Christian as a man who identified himself with Christ, and the anarchy and bloodshed that were everywhere rife became cause for extreme alarm. Not only was the rebellion taking millions of lives, it was giving those European powers that wished to absorb large sections of China into their own empires a rationale: the protection of their business and nationals. Recognizing this danger, U.S. Commissioner Marshall soon dropped his advocacy of the great rebellion and warned Washington that continued Taiping successes would render China “like a lamb before the shearers, as easy a conquest as were the provinces of India.… It is my opinion that the highest interests of the United States are involved in sustaining China—maintaining order here and engrafting on this
In March 1853 the Taiping T’ien Wang, Hung Hsiu-ch’üan, had led his armies to their greatest triumph: the capture of Nanking, China’s second most important city and the seat of power for the central empire. It was immediately renamed the “Heavenly Capital,” and nothing seemed to stand in the way of a Taiping march to Peking and the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty.
But the rebellion stalled. Rather than taking the full and considerable might of the Taiping armies north, Hung dispatched only an expeditionary force to take Peking, then immersed himself in the affairs of his new capital. Ruling through a cabal of assistant wangs who rivaled the Manchus in the complexity of their intrigues, Hung became preoccupied with the construction of palaces and lost much of his political fervor. His appetite for concubines grew as his interest in the conduct of the civil war died. While his northern expedition was slowed and then defeated by imperial troops, Hung—despite his puritanical pronouncements to the faithful—assembled a large harem that became his refuge. The number of wives and concubines a man was allowed soon became codified under Taiping law: the higher the man’s post, the greater the number, giving free rein to the lust of the T’ien Wang.
Hung’s retreat into a closed and sensual world was mirrored in Peking by the Emperor Hsien-feng’s. Those citizens of China who would not or could not pledge loyalty either to a messianically deluded peasant or to the ineffectual, arrogant libertine who sat atop the Dragon Throne now found themselves trapped between the armies of both—for the war went savagely on. Whole cities were pillaged and burned repeatedly,rivers became choked with bodies, and China teetered on the brink of self-destruction.
Most of this spectacle lay out of sight of the foreign settlements in the treaty ports, and foreign emissaries sent to negotiate with the Chinese government still fumed in exasperation about Peking’s unwillingness to live up to its treaty obligations. Thus the rebellion continued to be viewed with a somewhat favorable—if cautious—eye by the Westerners.One American commissioner sent to deal with trade problems in China,Humphrey Marshall of Kentucky, informed Washington in April 1853 that “[a]ny day may bring forth the fruits of successful revolution, in the utter overthrow of the existing dynasty.” And President Franklin Pierce, in his annual message to Congress for that year, announced that “[t]he condition of China at this time renders it probable that some important changes will occur in that vast empire which will lead to a more unrestricted intercourse with it.”
But missionaries and other Taiping advocates could not keep reports of what the rebellion was doing to the Chinese interior and to the Chinese people from eventually reaching the treaty ports. The foreign settlements soon learned that Hung was not so much a Christian as a man who identified himself with Christ, and the anarchy and bloodshed that were everywhere rife became cause for extreme alarm. Not only was the rebellion taking millions of lives, it was giving those European powers that wished to absorb large sections of China into their own empires a rationale: the protection of their business and nationals. Recognizing this danger, U.S. Commissioner Marshall soon dropped his advocacy of the great rebellion and warned Washington that continued Taiping successes would render China “like a lamb before the shearers, as easy a conquest as were the provinces of India.… It is my opinion that the highest interests of the United States are involved in sustaining China—maintaining order here and engrafting on this
Similar Books
