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EAST ASIA.
opinion, it was probably because they plunged too daringly into the new religious
and political career. Too indifferent to the claims of the old national Ming
dynasty, they had not sought in the past history of the country a stand-point of
common action against the Manchu usurpers. In 1848 began the great revolt,
arising at first out of a petty quarrel about some idle ceremony, but soon assuming
the proportions of a general outbreak, in which religious passion, class interests,
and hatred took part. From the Kwangsi valley the flames spread rapidly
throughout the southern provinces, whence they gradually reached the Yang-t/e
basin, the Hoang-ho, and the very gates
of Tientsin. The kingdom of the
" "
Ta'iping that is, the " Great Peace" was proclaimed in 1851, and in 1853 Nanking
was chosen as the capital, under the name of Tienkiug, or " Heavenly Abode."
Mistress of the fertile central provinces, of all the Lower Yang-tze valley, and
even of Ningpo and other seaports, the insurrection had every chance, if not of
ultimate success, at least of profoundly modifying the whole political and social
system. But now came the European intervention in favour of the Manchu
dynasty, first with volunteers, and then with regular Anglo-French forces.
Although mingling Christian rites with their worship, using
in their edicts a
language borrowed from the missionaries, including the Bible amongst their sacred
writings, and even offering official positions to foreign Christians, the TaYpiiigs
failed to secure the sympathy of the European residents, who preferred their
commercial to their religious interests. By their means the Imperialists saved
Shanghai in 1862, and soon after rapidly recovered all the more important strategical
points. Then followed the usual wholesale butcheries, to escape from which
the rebels banded together as brigands, still wasting the open country, but without
further political aim. The empire was preserved, but the restoration of the old
order of things is only apparent.
The various secret societies of the " Nenuphar,"
the " Three Precious, Heaven, Earth, and Man," and so many others, all aiming at
the political and social renovation of the land, are still at work. The old
machinery of the laws, formularies, official practices, also become daily more out
of joint with the times, while the growing relations with foreign' countries are
exercising a profound influence, and hastening the ruin of effete institutions.
The few European colonies settled on the coast and along the banks of the
Yang-tze, although a mere handful compared with the surrounding multitudes, are
the real starting-point of a new epoch in the national life of China. Henceforth
East and West are united in the great movements of history, while the empire is
becoming yearly better known to the outer world by geographical exploration.
European travellers have already traversed the land in every direction, and fresh
itineraries are thus constantly added to the network of previous research. Nothing
now remains to be done except the methodic exploration of the several provinces.
BASIN OF THE PE'I-HO PROVINCE OF PECHILI.
The region of China proper, in which the capital is situated, forms the
northernmost of the eighteen provinces. It even lies at some distance from the