Breaking the Chains
Page 38
Hung began converting his friends and relatives. One important convert was Feng Yun-shan, one of Hung's childhood friends. In 1844, when he was about thirty, Hung destroyed the tablets to Confucius in the village school and lost his job. Hung and Feng then went on a preaching expedition to Kwangsi. After some months Hung returned to Kwangtung. Feng stayed in Kwangsi and founded the Pai Shang-ti Hui (God Worshippers' Society). When Hung was about thirty-three years old (1847) he went to Canton and spent two months with Rev I J Roberts, an American Christian missionary. When Hung left Roberts and joined Feng in Kwangsi, he was immediately accepted as the new leader of the Pai Shang-ti Hui. Feng and Hung began to plot rebellion. The rebellion started in July 1850. On 1 January 1851 Hung proclaimed his new dynasty: T'ai-p'ing T'ien-kuo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace). Hung gave himself a most illustrious title: T'ien Wang (Heavenly King). He gave Feng the title of Nan Wang (Southern King). Another important leader of the Taipings, Yang Hsiu-ch'ing, became Tung Wang (Eastern King).
Yang had joined the Taipings a little before the rebellion began. After Hung declared his new dynasty he made Yang commander in chief of the armed forces. Yang (a dealer in firewood by trade) organized the Taiping army. At the start of the rebellion the army numbered a few thousand, however, as the rebellion progressed its ranks swelled to more than a million. The Taiping army was very well disciplined and its fighters were excessively enthusiastic. Yang's army had both male and female fighters in it. It was made up of divisions of female soldiers and divisions of male soldiers - under the Taipings men and women were considered equal. Strict rules of conduct governed soldiers in camp and on the march. Sexual contact was forbidden (even for married couples). Great rewards were promised to those who followed the rules. Yang also put in place a system for spying on Taiping members. After the death of Feng (mortally wounded in battle) Hung placed a great deal of power into the hands of Yang. He grew contemptuous of Hung and attempted to gain authority over him. Consequently, Hung had him killed - in his attempt to wrestle power away from Hung, Yang used the ploy of going into trance and becoming a channel for the Lord (Yahweh). On some trance occasions Yang used information gathered by his spies to confront Taiping traitors - when speaking as the voice of the Lord, Yang would appear to know every detail of the treason.
With Feng in the vanguard the Taipings marched north along the Yangtze River Valley. Their message of property held in common and equal distribution of land attracted many impoverished Chinese. As they pressed on towards Nanking, village after village and town after town converted to the Taiping cause. On 10 March 1853 the Taiping army took the city of Nanking. Feng had died on the way there. Hung made Nanking his capital and renamed it T'ien-ching (Heavenly Capital). The Chinese gentry were unable to support Hung and the Taipings because they were against Confucius - according to Hung, Chinese culture was the work of evil demons. Tseng Kuo-fan, a Chinese official of the Ch'ing government, became champion to the Chinese gentry. 1862 saw Tseng and his army surround Nanking. The city fell to Tseng in July 1864. Hung committed suicide. 100 000 Taiping defenders of the city chose death over surrender. Taiping resistance continued in parts of china until 1868. Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists trace their origins to Hung and the Taipings.
Although the Taipings are labelled Christian, Hung's teaching had more in common with Judaism than with the religion of Jesus or the religion of Paul. Hung recognized the Old Testament Lord as his father. The Old Testament God is Yahweh, the god Moses encountered in the 'burning bush'. Little significance was given to Paul's impossible theory of original sin and redemption or to Christian ideas of love.
Some Ving Tsun Kung Fu histories have Leung Jan born about 1816. That would make him two years younger than Hung Hsiu-ch'ing. It is suggested Leung Jan began his Ving Tsun training with Leung Yee Tei in the 1830s. Leung Jan would have been about thirty-five when the Taiping Rebellion began. He would have been about fifty when the rebellion ended. Leung Jan took Chan Wah Shan as his student - Chan would have been about ten years old when the Taiping Rebellion began. Early in the 20th century (about 1910) Chan Wah Shan took Yip Man as his student. In the 1950s Bruce Lee became a student of Yip Man. He was not one of Yip Man's noted students. Yip Man's top students at that time were: Leung Sheung, Lok Yeo, Chu Shen Tin, Cheung Cheuk Heng, Wong Shun Leung, and Victor Kan. Grandmaster Kan (the only Yip Man student teaching in Europe) is generally acknowledged to be Yip Man's successor.
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