There

a black robe, was sitting in an imposing attitude, in the highest place. As soon as he observed Siu-tsuen, he began to shed tears and said: "All human beings in the world are produced and sustained by me; they eat my food and wear my clothing, but not a single one among them has a heart to remember and venerate me; what is, however, still worse, they take my gifts and therewith worship demons; they rebel against me and arouse my anger. Do thou not imitate them! upon he gave Siu-tsuen a sword, commanding him to exterminate the demons, but to spare his brothers and sisters; a seal by which he would overcome evil spirits ; and a yellow fruit, which Siu-tsuen found sweet to the taste. He then gives him charge to do the work of bringing round the perverse; and, taking him out, told him to look and behold the perverseness of the people upon earth.

Siu-tsuen looked and saw such a degree of depravity and vice that his eyes could not endure the sight nor his mouth express their deeds. He then awoke from his trance, but being still partially under its influence, he put on his clothes, left his bedroom, went into the presence of his father, and making a low bow, said: "The venerable old man above has commanded that all men shall turn to me, and all treasures flow to me." "When his father saw him come out, and heard him speak in this manner, he did not know what to think, feeling at once joy and fear. of Siu-tsuen continued about forty days, and in these visions he often saw a man of middle age, whom he called his Elder Brother, who instructed him how to act,

The sickness and visions

accompanied him in his wanderings to the uttermost regions in search of evil spirits, and assisted him in slaying and exterminating them." Siu-tsuen during his sickness, when his mind was wandering, often used to run about his room leaping and fighting like a soldier engaged in battle. His constant cry was "Tsan-jan, tsan-jan, tsan-ah, tsan-ah!" Slay the demons! &c., &c.

"His father felt very anxious about the state of his mind, and ascribed this their present misfortune to the fault of the geomancer1 in selecting an unlucky spot of ground for the burial of their forefathers. He therefore invited some magicians in order that by their secret art, they might drive away the evil spirits; but Siu-tsuen said, 'How could these imps dare to oppose me? I must slay them! I must slay them! Many, many, cannot resist me.'

The imagination of Siu-tsuen ran riot in all directions: the demons he believed himself to be pursuing took the forms of birds or beasts according to their own wills. His seal was always powerful enough to overcome them when other means failed.

"During his exhortations he often burst into tears, saying, 'You have no hearts to venerate the ancient father, but you are on good terms with the impish fiends.'

"Siu-tsuen's two brothers constantly kept his door

1 Geomancers are the people whose business it is to select a lucky place for the interment of a deceased person. Before the burial takes place the geomancer, with his instruments, directs the digging of the grave, and is supposed so to arrange matters that the spirit will be pleased with its new home. The prospect that the grave commands, and its angle from the Pole, also its proximity to water, are all points for consideration.

6

shut, and watched him to prevent him from running out of the house. After he had fatigued himself by fighting, jumping about, singing, and exhorting, he lay down again upon his bed. When he was asleep, many persons were accustomed to come and look at him, and he was soon known in the whole district as the madman.' He often said that he was duly appointed Emperor of China, and was highly gratified when any one called him by that name." Siu-tsuen's relatives tried in vain to cure his disease by means of physicians. "One day his father noticed in a crack of the door-post a slip of paper, on which were written the following words in vermilion: The noble principles of the Heavenly King, the Sovereign King Tsuen.' He took the paper and showed it to the other members of the family, who, however, could not understand the meaning of the characters.”

From this time Siu-tsuen gradually regained his health. "Many of his friends and relations now visited him, desirous to hear from his own mouth what he had experienced during his disease, and Siu-tsuen related to them without reserve all that he could remember of his extraordinary visions. His friends and relatives only replied, that the whole was very strange indeed, without thinking at the time that there was any reality in the matter."

" 1

It must be recollected that the substance of these visions was narrated by Hung-jin fifteen years after

1 During his illness, Siu-tsuen also 'composed several odes, generally relating to the power that he supposed himself to possess, to punish evildoers and reward the virtuous.

their occurrence, and therefore allowance must be made for error. Still the story is so simply told, and with such self-evident absence of intention, that it may be taken as giving a close approximation to the truth. At the time of the visions, those who heard Siu-tsuen relate them seem to have considered them as the utterances of a madman, or at least of one whose reason was temporarily impaired, and therefore it is not probable that they would have taken very much notice of them, or borne them long in their memory. It was when Siu-tsuen burst out into his subsequent career of conquest that these sayings must have been in some measure recalled to mind and discussed in village gossip, and as may be readily conceived, those portions which seemed most to bear upon the proclamations and actions of Siu-tsuen, would have been those that were eagerly brought forward by the fortunate hearers. When Hung-jin told his story to Mr. Hamberg, the insurgents had not reached Nankin, nor had there been any information about their movements after they had proceeded northwards from the Kwang-si province. Mr. Hamberg also bore a high character for caution and truthfulness, and it must have been under the full conviction of the credibility of his informant that he permitted himself to place such entire faith in the account given to him.

As soon as he had regained his health Siu-tsuen was for several years engaged as teacher at a school some miles away from his native village. He is stated at this time to have been severe as a schoolmaster, and in many ways to have become much changed, being more

reserved, and in all respects more manly, than before his illness. He also again attended the public examinations at Canton without success.

In 1843, whilst engaged as a teacher by a family of the name of Li, in a school about ten miles from his own village, a relation of his of the name of Li happened to look over his books, and amongst them found the tracts already spoken of, "Good Words exhorting the Age." He asked Siu-tsuen their contents. Siu-tsuen said he did not exactly know, and that he had brought them from Canton some time previous. Li borrowed the books, took them home with him, and read them. Upon returning the tracts he told Siutsuen that they were very extraordinary writings, and differed considerably from Chinese books. Upon this, Siu-tsuen set to work and carefully read them, and was astonished to find that they supplied a key to his own

visions.

"He now understood the venerable old man who sat upon the highest place, and whom all men ought to worship, to be God, the Heavenly Father; and the man of middle age, who had instructed him, and assisted him in exterminating the demons, to be Jesus, the Saviour of the world. Siu-tsuen felt as if awaking from a long dream. He rejoiced to have found in reality a way to heaven, and sure hope of everlasting life and happiness. Learning from the books the necessity of being baptised, Siu-tsuen and Li, according to the manner described in the books, and as far as they understood the rite, now administered baptism to themselves."