God's Chinese Son

by Jonathan Spence

  It is essential to Hong Xiuquan, if he is to keep his paramount position within the Taiping movement, that the central truth of his journey to Heaven not be disputed. Yang may speak with the voice of God, but Hong has seen and talked with God, recorded the color of His beard and clothes, and has seen and talked with Jesus. Thus when he is presented with a lengthy text in Chinese that argues the Christian doctrine with great force and yet denies that God can have material nature, Hong alters it with care before releasing it as a Taiping sacred text. Hong makes both deletions and additions. He deletes the statement "God is immaterial and invisible," adding instead the sentence "He can be seen only by those who ascend to Heaven." Hong also cuts a longer passage that runs as follows: "God is without form, sound, scent or taste; we can neither observe His form, nor hear His voice, nor feel nor perceive Him by any bodily organs." And Hong substitutes for this and other lengthy passages of similar import remarks designed to humanize the God whom he has seen, such as the homely metaphor "When the house leaks God can observe it." Thus purged and amplified, the text is published as a Taiping sacred work in 1854.23

  Simpler on the surface, but perhaps deeper in theological implications, is the formal declaration by Hong that henceforth Yang Xiuqing shall bear a new title in addition to those he already possesses. Because of the solace the East King has brought him by his frankness and fearless hon­esty, says Hong, Yang shall be called the "Comforter" and the "Wind of the Holy Spirit," the phrase that the Taiping use to translate the "Holy Ghost," or third person of the Trinity. By conferring this title, says Hong, he consciously echoes the words used by Jesus, who "addressed his disci­ples, saying 'At some future day the Comforter will come into the world.' " Hong is here referring to the fourteenth chapter of John's Gos­pel, which—though not yet published by the Taiping—has been in his possession for several years in Gutzlaffs Chinese translation. According to John, at the end of the Last Supper, Jesus tells his anxious disciples, "I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." Jesus also says, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:16 and 26).

  The phrase "Holy Ghost," so central in the Christian idea of the Trin­ity, is muted in this early Chinese translation. But there is no denying that when Hong says to Yang that "the Comforter and the Wind of the Holy Spirit spoken of by our Heavenly Elder Brother is none other than your­self," he has ventured into new and difficult terrain, especially since Hong knows well the passage in John's first epistle, where it is written, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."24

  That Yang, through deliberate manipulation of Hong, is here moving to a higher stage in the Taiping hierarchy can be suggested by the chilling reference to the Comforter that follows those quoted by Hong. For in John's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 7, Jesus also says, "I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you."

  Yang is aiming high, and when you aim high, others must fall. Two of Hong Xiuquan's closest and most trusted associates are also publicly humiliated by Yang in God's December visitations. One of these is the North King, Wei Changhui; the other is the marquis Qin Rigang. Both have been with Hong Xiuquan from his earliest days at Thistle Mountain. Wei, a man with some education, gave all his family possessions to the God-worshipers after they helped him in his local village; Qin, while working as a miner, also studied military arts and became a formidable strategist. For years both men have handled key military assignments for Hong, and Qin is regarded as the senior-ranking Taiping officer after the surviving kings.

  Yang uses his claim to speak for God to humiliate North King Wei in many ways. Whenever God appears, Yang's women attendants summon the North King at once with drum calls; if Wei is late, it is the women who relay God's messages to him. When Yang is speaking with God's voice, Wei must kowtow in full prostration before him. When Yang is in a trance in his sedan chair, Wei must walk, not ride, beside him. Even Yang's stewards keep Wei jumping, by refusing to disturb their master to clarify the messages or to see if his trance has ended. Qin has to endure similar humiliations and even has to help carry the East King's sedan up the palace steps.21

  The December clash between the East and North Kings includes one other confrontation that illustrates how each maneuvers for position with Hong Xiuquan, East King Yang to prove his own morality, North King Wei to show his support of Hong's imperial perquisites. The incident starts when Yang suggests that Hong has more than enough embroideries and robes in his palace, and should economize for a time instead of acquir­ing more. The North King, ignoring Yang, replies to Hong:

  You, our second elder brother, are the true Sovereign of all nations of the world, and you are rich in the possession of all within the four seas; although robes and garments are sufficient, it will still be necessary to be constantly engaged in making up more.

  To this clear challenge to his own authority, the East King responds as follows:

  I beseech you, our second elder brother, to pardon this younger brother's crime and permit this younger brother to memorialize straightforwardly. If apparel were insufficient, then it would be necessary to make up more; but if it is said it is sufficient, it will be better to delay the making up of more, and then we can see the second elder brother's virtues of economy and love of man. Why should our younger brother Zheng [the North King] memori­alize on the necessity of constantly making up more clothing?

  Faced by these conflicting claims, the Heavenly King praises Yang, saying:

  Brother [Yang XiuQing] You are certainly what the ancients called a bold and outspoken minister. And you, brother Zheng, although you may have a sincere regard for your elder brother, are not so straightforward and open in your statements as our brother Qing; for which he is to be much more commended. Later, in the reign of the Young Monarch, all who are minis­ters should imitate the example of our brother Qing in speaking straightfor­wardly as he has done this day; thus will they fulfill their duty as ministers.26

  The humiliation of Marquis Qin is more indirect, but after he and the East and North Kings have been treated to a banquet by the Heavenly King, in honor of their presence at God's visit, he is firmly reminded by Hong that he is not in the inner circle of Hong Xiuquan's "brothers" and that such special grace, rare already, will not be repeated once Hong Xiu­quan has departed this world, for Qin is, and will remain, only a "minis­ter" and not a king.2'

  This distancing of Qin does not however mean that Yang accords North King Wei the same kingly dignities he claims for himself, any more than he does Shi Dakai, the Wing King, who in any case is away most of the time directing the western campaign and poses no current threat to Yang. What Yang has done, with Hong's apparent agreement, is structure an inner "family" of four brothers, with Jesus the eldest, Hong Xiuquan the second, and Yang himself the fourth. (The third place in this sequence was either allotted to the South King, Feng Yunshan, now safely dead, or to Hong's eldest son, Tiangui, still only four years old.)28 In an abbreviated history of the Taiping movement and its beliefs, written by two of Yang Xiuqing's close advisers and issued on his personal orders in 1854, Yang is described as being "personally ordered by the Heavenly Father to descend into the world, to become the Senior Assistant and the Chief of Staff of the Heavenly Kingdom, to save the hungry and redeem the sick, and to rule the younger brothers and sisters of all nations throughout the world."29 In the same text Yang's "Holiness" is distinguished from the "eminence" of the other kings, just as the "kindness and liberality" of Yang the Comforter is separated from the mere "tolerance" of the other kings.30

  On March 2, 1854, God pays another visit to earth through the mouth of Yang. This time, His message is in two parts. One part is again directed against the veterans
from Guangxi, especially those of the highest ranks, just below the kings; three of these men are manacled and lectured on duty and morality before they are released. Two other men, senior Guang­xi veterans, are brought forward and accused in front of all their col­leagues of sleeping with their wives on four or five occasions, instead of following the Taiping prohibitions of sexual love until such time as final victory over the demons has been won. One of these men—now a minister at court, and in earlier days the collaborator with Hong Xiuquan on the expanded Taiping version of the Ten Commandments—is given a pardon after he makes a full confession. The other is condemned to death, along with his wife, by being beheaded in public, on the grounds that they tried to suborn their female staff from revealing the news of what they had done.31 In making his accusations, God through Yang reminds the Tai­ping officials of the penetrating power of his vision, which has led him to unmask traitors in the Taiping ranks on crucial occasions in the past, both in the Guiping region and in occupied Yongan. By pinning this scrutiny to the intimate activities of the bedchamber, Yang even more strongly makes the point that no one can escape God's all-seeing eyes and Yang's network of informers.32

  In the second part of his March message God speaks through Yang of the fundamental virtues that are embedded in China's classical texts. God first states his position elliptically, through a riddle-like couplet:

  The heroes of old are never lost to us,

  For their achievements have been preserved for us in the pages of books.

  Once the Taiping officials, on God's urgings, have done their best to explain this utterance, God through Yang gives his own elaboration:

  "You should ask Fourth Brother [Yang] to notify your Heavenly King that among the ancient books which were condemned as demonic are Four Books and Thirteen Classics which advocate Heavenly feeling and truth. These books exhort people to be filial and loyal to their country. For this reason, East King requested me to order the preservation of those books. You should keep the books in compliance with truth, filial piety, and loyalty, but destroy those which celebrate sensual desire and absurdity. Historical writings throughout the ages, in venerating good and condemning evil, have inspired filial piety and loyalty among people, motivating them to kill rebel­lious officials and prodigal sons. The absolute moral standard which they advocate is crucial to social mentality and ethics. Moreover, since I created Heaven and Earth, most of the faithful men and heroes I have sent down have been responsible persons. These heroes are not necessarily demons, so their names are recorded in various writings and last forever. How could you destroy those books and erase the names of these figures? I have sent down the Heavenly King to rule the world. This is the right time for our heroes to help establish the Heavenly Law and exterminate evil. Those who remain loyal to Heaven are also motivated by immortal fame which will inspire later generations to be loyal. Also, there is no need to avoid the word shen (god); the same goes for many words which before were regarded as taboo. From now on, the dragons drawn from Heavenly Court should be guarded by five paws, since four paws signify a demonic serpent. The chief minister can adopt the phoenix as his symbol."

  All the woman officials kneeled down and listened to the Heavenly Decree. Each of them promised to follow the Heavenly Father's instruction. The Heavenly Father returned to Heaven.53

  In thus reasserting that certain core values of the Chinese past are pre­served for all time in the Confucian classics, and can be ignored only at the Taiping's peril, Yang is striking at the heart of the doctrine that Hong Xiuquan has put together across so many years. Originally, it was Hong himself who was the scholar, filling his early pronouncements with echoes from his reading and Confucian moral judgments. But slowly the versions of his vision of 1837 came to contain more details of God's anger with Confucius, and even of Confucius' public humiliations; in the Thistle Mountain years, Jesus, through the mouth of Xiao, also joined in the chorus of condemnation. This was made clear in an account of a visit by Jesus to the Taiping mountain retreat in the winter of 1848:

  Heavenly King asked Heavenly Brother: "How is Confucius doing in Heaven?"

  Heavenly Brother: "When you ascended to Heaven, there were a few occasions on which Confucius was bound and whipped by Heavenly Father. He once descended unto the world and instructed people with his writings. Although he had some good points, he often made great mistakes. All his books should be burnt during the Age of Great Peace [Taiping]. However, since Confucius can be generally regarded as a good person, he is allowed to enjoy happiness in Heaven, so long as he does not descend again."54

  A similar message, linked to anti-Manchu patriotic slogans designed to win over secret-society membership, was reiterated during the campaigns of 1852 and 1853, in the names of both Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing. But now, with the city of Nanjing, with its large population and many scholarly inhabitants, as the temporary—perhaps permanent—Heavenly Capital, Yang seeks to establish his own reputation as the preserver of eternal values. His declarations to Hong, which have been recorded and distributed to the people of Nanjing, not only show his special powers as God's mouthpiece but are also larded with references to the role of the virtuous ministers and moral exemplars drawn from the Confucian clas­sics, especially to the central text, the Confucian Analects,35

  In so appealing to mainstream Confucian values Yang Xiuqing also shows an awareness of the deep unhappiness of many people—both the educated elite and the uneducated—with the Taiping occupation. Gentry militia leaders like Zeng Guofan, who are now building up their own regionally based army forces in a sustained effort to hold back the Tai- pings, have shown themselves fully alive to the importance of this war over moral values, and able to fight back with pronouncements of their own. As Zeng phrases it in a proclamation widely distributed in central China at this time:

  Since the days of T'ang, Yu, and the Three Dynasties, the sages of all ages have been sustaining the traditional culture and emphasizing the order of human relationships. Hence, ruler and officials, father and children, high and low, honored and humble, were as orderly in their respective positions as hat and shoes which can never be placed upside down. Now, the Yueh [Taiping] bandits steal some dregs of foreign barbarians and adhere to the religion of God; from their fake king and fake ministers down to the soldiers and menial servants, they address one another as brothers, alleging that only Heaven can be called father. Aside from this, all the fathers of the people are brothers and all the mothers are sisters. The farmers cannot cultivate their own fields to pay taxes, because it is said that all the land belongs to the Heavenly King. The merchants cannot do their own business to make profits, because it is said that all the commodities belong to the Heavenly King. The scholars cannot read the classics of Confucius, but they have others called the doctrines of Jesus and the book of the New Testament.

  In short, the moral system, ethical relationships, cultural inheritance, and social institutions and statutes of the past several thousand years in China are at once all swept away. This is not only a calamity in our great Qing Dynasty but is, in fact, the most extraordinary calamity since the creation of the universe, and that is what Confucius and Mencius are crying bitterly about in the nether world. How can all those who study books and know the characters sit comfortably with hands in sleeves without thinking of doing something about it?36

  Yang's reassertion of certain traditional Chinese values overlaps with the Taiping discovery of a plot to open the gates of Nanjing secretly to the Qing forces encamped outside. The leader of this conspiracy, Zhang Bingyuan, is a holder of the licentiate's degree that Hong had failed to pass, an alert and inventive man, who by the time his plot is discovered in March 1854, has recruited in person and through intermediaries, an esti­mated six thousand disaffected soldiers and Nanjing residents. His plan secretly to open one of the eastern city gates at dawn so the Qing troops can storm inside is foiled only by the dilatoriness and suspicions of ambush by the Qing commander. There is also a disastrous muddle in which
one party plans its armed link according to the Taiping calendar while the other calculates according to the traditional Qing calendar; since the two calendars use the same terms for dates that are in fact six days apart, the mistake is discovered only when it is too late.

  Yang's subsequent uses of the power he has wrung from Hong Xiu­quan in December 1853—to be the ultimate arbiter of death sentences in legal cases—is given ironic substance by Zhang Bingyuan's fatal subtlety. For when Zhang is first arrested, and charged with attempted treason by a Taiping informer, he convincingly insists the informer is an opium addict, who acted as he did because he was afraid that Zhang would turn him over to the authorities. For this crime the informer is executed on Yang's orders before all his charges against Zhang have been substanti­ated. When the main plot is unraveled and Zhang is interrogated by Yang's agents, he blithely lies again, naming thirty-four of the most tal­ented Taiping military officers as his co-conspirators. Only when all thirty-four have been summarily executed do the Taiping leaders find they have been duped into doing themselves much of what Zhang himself had hoped to achieve. The final execution of Zhang can not atone for all these Taiping dead.37

  The contradictions in Taiping text and policy are now so pronounced that they can hardly be concealed. But it is not only on Confucian ground that the battle is being joined. In the biblical world as well tensions and ambiguities are pressing to the fore. Hong Xiuquan, as God's second son and Jesus' closest younger brother, obviously has a kind of primacy over Yang as "fourth brother." Yet with Xiao Chaogui now long dead and the voice of Jesus stilled, Yang's double claims as voice of God and "Comforter and Wind of the Holy Spirit" give him two places in the structure of the Christian Trinity, while Hong has consistently and consciously denied the nearness of any force to God Himself. Just as Jesus himself is lesser than his father, so is the Comforter and Wind of the Holy Spirit only an ema­nation rather than an equal force. Moreover, though other Taiping leaders have traveled up to Heaven, and met at intervals with the Father, Son, and others in the holy families, it is Hong Xiuquan's revelation of 1837 that is the decisive one, with his vision of the golden bearded God in black dragon robe, and his special nearness to Jesus' wife and children, his elder sister-in-law, and his son Tiangui's first cousins. But how can such claims be balanced or evaluated in all their complexity, since no one in the Tai­ping leadership has training in theology, and Issachar Roberts has been banned from visiting the Heavenly Capital by the American commis­sioner, punctilious about the neutrality of the United States in the current war?