Abbreviations
BPP / Elgin British Parliamentary Papers, Correspondence Relative to the Earl of Elgin's
Special Missions to China and Japan, 1857-1859
(London, 1859)
BPP
/1 UP
British Parliamentary Papers,
Irish University Press Area Studies Series, China, 32,
Correspondence, Memorials, Orders in Council, and Other Papers Respecting the Taiping Rebellion in China, 1852-1864 CR The Chinese Repository,
20 vols. (Canton and Macao, 1831—51)
DSCN Daily Shipping and Commercial News NCH The North China Herald
LMS London Missionary Society
NA-DD National Archives, Diplomatic Despatches from United States Ministers to
China, 1843-1867 PRO / FO Public Records Office / Foreign Office Archives
TR
Franz Michael and Chung-li Chang,
The Taiping Rebellion: History and Doc
uments,
vols. 2—3
Foreword
1.
Some aspects of Taiping growth and communitarian sense in a time of radical change and foreign impact fit well with the analysis in Benedict Anderson's
Imagined Communities:
see esp. 20, 22, on "sacred" and "truth" languages; 40, on "the privileged access" and "high center"; and 55, on pilgrimages and "centres of sacred geographies."
2.
Cohn,
Cosmos,
19-20.
3.
Ibid., 55.
4.
Ibid., 77, 95, on dating of millenarian ideas; quoted 56, 99, for phrases. Cohn (96) hypothesizes that these millenarian beliefs sprang from the "suffering" caused to Zoroaster and other thinkers by the destruction of their "ancient way of life, with its familiar certainties and safeguards."
5.
Wilhelm,
I Ching,
9, 29, 121, hexagrams "ch'ien," "sung," and "li."
6.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching,
tr. D. C. Lau, 101, 103.
7.
See Seidel, "Image," 216, 223, and quotations on 225 from the "Sutra of the Transformations of Lao Tzu."
8.
Ziircher, "Prince Moonlight," 2-5, 12-18, 21, 53. Boardman, "Millenary Aspects," 70-71, 79, discusses the Taiping in relation to Norman Cohn's categories of millenarian thought.
9.
Ter Haar,
White Lotus,
212, 260. On 120 Ter Haar specifically rejects the idea that Manichaean elements influenced the Chinese case.
10.
A good introduction to the European tradition is McGinn,
Visions.
On Hussites, Taborites, and Anabaptists, see Cohn,
Pursuit of the Millennium;
on the Puritan "Diggers" and "Levellers," see Woodhouse,
Puritanism and Liberty;
and on the ethos of John Bunyan's world, Hill,
Tinker.
For the American experience, see Holstun,
Rational Millennium,
esp. 103-65, on John Eliot and his "empirical millennialism," and Bloch,
Visionary Republic,
25, 120, 205. Rubinstein,
Origins,
gives an erudite analysis of the work of the early nineteenth- century Protestant missionaries in China.
11.
The English edition of Jen Yu-wen's work was brought to completion after Mary Wright's death by Adrienne Suddard, and published as
The Taiping Revolutionary Movement
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973).
12.
These texts are entitled the
Tianfu Shengzhi
and the
Tianxiong Shengzhi.
For Wang Qingcheng's latest analysis of their importance, see his essay " 'Tianfu Shengzhi,' 'Tianxiong Shengzhi' he Taiping Tianguo Lishi," in his
Taiping Tianguo de wenxian he lishi
(Beijing, 1993), 197-244.
13.
A forceful exposition of this view is given by Esherick,
Origins,
esp. 326, where he argues that like other peasant societies China was replete with "teachers, prophets, or just plain madmen preaching a variety of new cults and doctrines" and that therefore it is "far less important to know where they got their ideas than to understand how their ideas attracted an audience." See Wills,
Mountain of Fame,
259-73, for a recent biographical summary of Hong.
14.
A recent exploration of this important area of Bible translation and missionary endeavor is that by Smalley,
Translation as Mission.
15.
The best surveys in English of Taiping history remain Jen,
Revolutionary Movement,
and TR. On Taiping religion the subtlest coverage is in Bohr, "Eschatology," and Wagner,
Heavenly Vision.
On suppresion, the key works remain Wright,
Last Stand
, Kuhn,
Rebellion,
and Smith,
Mercenaries.
Chapter 1: Walls
1.
Chinese Repository
(hereafter
CR),
2:196;
CR,
4:536, on top of walls;
Canton Register,
Jan. 26, 1836, on perimeter walk;
Canton Press,
Nov. 28, 1835, on fire; Downing,
Fan-qui,
3:74, on factory roofs. S. Wells Williams discussed the 1835 fire in a letter to his brother Fred, Canton, Nov. 24, 1835. See Williams Papers, MS no. 547.
2.
Hillard,/o«raa/, 78-82; Hunter, Fan
Kwae,
74. A detailed plan of the factories, drawn in 1840, is in Morse,
East India Company,
3:1.
3.
Hodges,
Peacock,
347 n. 20, on opium sales; Morrison,
Commercial Guide,
11, on mail, passim on trade; King and Clarke,
Research Guide; Canton Register,
Aug. 26, 1834; Hunter,
Fan Kwae,
50-51, on the milking cows; Hutcheon,
Chinnery,
65, 78, 109, for illustrations of the buildings; Downing,
Fan-qui,
1:259-67, on the hotels.
4.
Hunter,
Fan Kwae,
12-15, 18-19, 78; Hutcheon
Chinnery,
65, 78, 109. A vivid description of the fire by Robert Morrison is in
CR,
4:34-36. For successive panoramas of the factories and waterfront between 1730 and 1832, see Morse,
East India Company,
1:192, 256, 2:144, 3:218, 368, 4:64, 336.
5.
Hunter,
Fan Kwae,
54-55.
6.
Ibid., 64.
7.
CR,
4:437.
8.
Hodges
, Peacock,
158-59, 343-44; Hillard,
Journal,
153-54.
9.
Stifler, "Language Students," 62-67.
10.
Ibid., for detailed coverage; Hunter,
Fan Kwae,
19, 27; Stevens, "Gospel," 432; Barrett,
Singular Listlessness.
11.
CR,
4:535; Morrison,
Commercial Guide,
46.
12.
Hunter,
Fan Kwae,
27, 37-39;
CR,
4:428-35; "Jargon spoken at Canton,"
Canton Press,
Feb. 6, 1836; Morrison,
Commercial Guide,
glossary following p. xii; Fairbank,
Trade,
13; Downing,
Fan-qui,
2:124.
13.
CR,
4:432-33.
14.
Adapted from Hunter,
Fan Kwae,
22.
15.
Ibid., 8-9.
16.
CR,
4:189; Hodges,
Peacock,,
180-81.
17.
CR,
4:44, 342.
18.
CR,
4:192-93.
19.
Hunter,
Fan Kwae,
21-24, 31-32;
CR,
5:432.
20.
CR,
4:464-71; compare with Hoo Loo, who died at Guy's Hospital, 1831;
CR,
3:489- 96.
21.
CR,
4:462-64, and tables, 472; Gulick,
Parker.
22.
CR,
4:244.
23.
CR,
4:190.
24.
CR,
4:342, 535.
25.
CR,
4:38-39, 43-44, 191.
26.
Hodges,
Peacock,
179.
27.
CR,
4:44-45, 101-2, 245.
28.
Hodges,
Peacock,
171-72; Morrison,
Commercial Guide,
13;
CR,
4:291-92, for paintings, including
Battle of the Bogue.
29.
CR,
4:102, "An Outcast," dated Sat., June 6, 1835.
Chapter 2: The Word
1.
Bridgman, "Obituary," 314-15; Wylie,
Memorials,
84;
CR,
4:436-37, on robberies; Morrison,
Commercial Guide,
12, on the journey. For the detailed background of the Canton Protestant community, see Rubinstein,
Origins,
chaps. 5-8.
2.
CR,
4:45.
3.
Stevens, "Seamen," 423-24; Morrison,
Commercial Guide,
13.
4.
CR,
1:292, estimate; Downing,
Fan-qui,
1:239-44;
Canton Register,
Oct. 4, 1836, on Portsmouth Point, and Nov. 15, 1836; Shen Fu,
Six Records,
118-19, for a Chinese view.