Chinese University of Hong Kong Chung Chi Divinity School THEO 5501
An Overview of the Liturgy in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
Master of Ministy (Worship and Sacred Music) Leung Yat Hin 1006444500 December 2015
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents 2
Chapter 1: Introduction 4
Chapter 2: ：Chapter 2: An Overview of the liturgy in the Taiping 8 Heavenly Kingdom
Church furnishings (House of Worship, Decoration, Table, 8
Seat Arrangements)
Use of Imagery 28
Calendar and Festivals 33
Worship on Sabbath/the day of worship (Instrumental 45
music, Hymn Singing, Scripture Reading, Creeds / Ten
Commandments, Preaching and Evangelistic Gatherings,
Prayers and Firecrackers)
Sacraments (Baptism and Holy Communion) 77
Daily Office and Prayers 84
Rites of Passage (Wedding and Funeral) 87
Chapter 3: Issues worth discussing in the future 102
Chapter 4: Conclusion 109
Appdenix: Public Written Prayers by Prince Gan (Omitted in English N/A
2
Version)
Bibliography 113
Illustrations
A Ti-Ping Church by Lindley 17
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Chapter 1: Introduction
The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) led by Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全, 1814-1864) was one of the major uprisings in the Qing Dynasty, and the only Christian revolution in
China until today. At its beginning, it took the name of “Congregation of God
Worshippers” as a form of indigenized Christianity. Although orthodox Christians would criticize their faith as heresy, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom claimed itself as a
Christian regime, and a state-church form of Theocracy since its start in the 1840s.
Worship was the most important matter for members of the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom. Worship services were led by leaders of the rebellion, whose liturgy in turn depended heavily on their knowledge of the faith. It was a form of indigenous worship service without guidance from Western missionaries, with every rite designed from scratch, and from what Hong Xiuquan had learned from Western missionaries within a few months.
Most Christians today do not recognize the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as a Christian
State due to its doctrine, and accordingly lose interest in its religious pattern. The
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it is submitted was a Christian tradition which embraced
4 many fine Christian traditions and established much creative indigenization of the
Christian faith.
The Taipings were unable to maintain an identical liturgy throughout its territories, since occupation and military control were unstable throughout its reign, and its border was always changing. The Taipings were only able keep the Heavenly Capital
(Tianjing, now Nanjing, Jiangsu) under total control, and most remote areas did not observe the “correct/official” rites of worship. In this essay, I will limit the scope of the liturgical development in the Heavenly Capital. I shall attempt to supplement my project by investigation the liturgy which took place at other places outside of the capital.
There are many different views to the Taiping liturgy, most of which are negative since history was written by the victors (Qing scholars) and orthodox Christians
(missionaries). In addition, as leaders of Taipings were mainly from the grassroots sector, this limited their understanding to the Christian faith. This, coupled with the lack of previous patterns of worship to follow, the “authentic” liturgy of the Taipings had been difficult to sustain throughout the uprising.
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There were many researches on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, they were mostly done by history scholars. Jen Yu-wen ( 簡又文,1896-1978), a Chinese
Christian scholar had paid much attention to the Taipings, but his research scope was too wide and comprehensive. For the purpose of this project, I shall rely primarily on the in-depth research of Luo Ergang (羅爾綱, 1901-1997). Although Luo’s research work, some written in English and some in Chinese, did not focus specifically on the liturgy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they are of much relevance to my present project.
This paper is mainly a historical research on liturgy, aimed at exploring and digging out the lost pearls of the liturgy in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The objective of my project is to provide a fundamental source for future researches. It is hoped that this project will encourage reinvestigation and exploration of the positive characteristics of their liturgies, and how they serve in the spiritual formation of the
Taipings.
I am deeply affected by the passion of Mr. Jen Yu-wen throughout my writing, as he said that “When I am out in gatherings and conversations, I will always speak of the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. I am already deeply addicted to it and I
6 will work with perseverance”1. I also wish to thank all my predecessors who had laid a solid foundation before us, and I hope that this research will be the same to those that comes after me.
This paper will be divided into four chapters.
The first chapter consists of an introduction.
The second chapter consists of an elaboration on the liturgical worship of the Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom.
The third chapter provides questions and suggestions for future researches.
The fourth chapter sets out the conclusion.
1 Jen Yu-wen, Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II) (太平天國典制通考), (Hong Kong: Jen’s Mengjin Book House, 1958), 2055. 7
Chapter 2: An Overview of the liturgy in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
The worship liturgy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was unique. According to
Prince Zhang Lin Shaozhang (林紹璋, ?-1864), the Taipings had their distinctive worship manner due to their supplementary revelations from God. 2
This chapter will introduce different aspects of worship in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom, including liturgical furnishings (places, decorations, tables, seats), utilization of visual elements, Heavenly Calendar and festivals. I shall also describe the worship order on the day of worship (musical instruments, hymn singing, scripture reading, creed and ten commandments, preaching and evangelical meetings, prayer, firecrackers, sacraments, daily office and prayers, and rites of passage) of the Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom. Through the introduction, it is my objective to uncover the actual and ideal worship liturgy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Church furnishings
House of Worship
In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the place for worship was usually named the
2 “A Letter from the Rev. J. L. Holmes”, recorded in Luo Ergang and Wang Qingsheng, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version) (太平天國資料叢刊續編), Vol. 9 (Nanning: Guangxi Normal University, 2004), 237. 8
“Heavenly Father Hall” (天父堂), “Heavenly Chamber”(天廳) or the “house of
worship”(禮拜堂). From “The Hall of Glory” in the Heavenly King’s Palace, to a
room in the barracks, or even a pagan temple, they can all become a house of
worship. 3 In Hong’s poetry the Poems to the Heavenly Father, he claimed that
his flocks should “Worship Jehovah every morning and evening with their heart.
Why should believers worship devoutly? There is a profound truth about this.
Worship in spirit is more sincere than the performing rites without faith.
Throughout the pursuit of truth, sincerity is more precious than gold.” 4
According to the Taipings, the key to worshiping God (Jehovah,爺火華 Yehuohua,
of which the first word Ye (爺) also meant grandfather or sir in Chinese.5) was to
worship with sincerity and a pure heart, and the location of the house of worship is
somewhat insignificant.
.
In the formal civil system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Liangsima(兩司馬)
was a root-level of governing body which consists of 25 families. Each Liangsima
owns a Heavenly Father Hall as a house of worship for the 25 families. According
3 Memories of my Sufferings (思痛記) by Ligui (李圭) regarded the hall as “Heavenly Father Hall” (天 父堂), and The Land System of the Celestial Court (天朝田畝制度) regarded it as “House of Worship” (禮拜堂). Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1850. 4 Poems to the Heavenly Father (天父詩), No. 117. Edited by the Association of Chinese Historians, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom(太平天國資料叢刊), Volume 2 (Shanghai: Shenzhou Guoguang She, 1952), 450. 5The Book of Heavenly Percepts, in Augustus F. Lindley, trans. Wang Weizhou and Wang Yuanhua, Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author's Personal Adventures (II) (太平天國革命親歷記) (Hong Kong: Cosmos, 2000), 744. 9
to the “Taiping Manifesto”, the Land System of the Celestial Court (《天朝田畝制
度》), “A common treasury and a Heavenly Father Hall should be established
every 25 families, and it is the composition of a Liangsima.” The Heavenly Father
Hall of Liangsima or higher establishments are usually multi-function locations,
as both religious house of worship and government office. 6 Zhang Dejian(張德
堅), a Chinese scholar that opposed the Taipings the most, recorded that “the table
and chairs set for worship services are also worktable for the Taiping ringleaders.
They also settle disputes and cases before the table. Beatings on the table with
ferule are frightening.” 7 Li Kui(李圭, 1842-1903) wrote in his work Notes of
Bitter Experience, states that “paper and writing brushes are piled up on the table
beside the eastern wall of Heavenly Father Hall, where the clerks of bandits wrote
down their prayers. Weapons and flags and tools are placed in the western side of
the hall.” 8 As for the worship in the palace of the Heavenly King, foreign
missionary J. L. Holmes recorded that, the masses would pray to the Heavenly
King, Heavenly Elder Brother (Jesus Christ) and Heavenly Father. 9 This is
therefore proof that the Heavenly Father Hall function both as with governmental
6 “The Land System of the Celestial Court”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Volume 1, 322. 7 Zhang Dejian, “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 8 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1850. 9 “A letter from Rev. J. L. Holmes”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 239. 10
purpose and also for worship purposes in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
A distinctive feature of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom worship was the
destruction of idols. The destruction of idols and the transformation of their
temples provided a significant number of new places of worship for the Taipings.
The reason for destroying idols came from the second commandment of the
Decalogue, which states that "You shall not make for yourself an image in the
form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a
jealous God" (Exodus 20:4-5, New International Version).
According to the formal “Taiping Book of Common Prayer”, the Book of
Heavenly Percepts, the destruction of idols was important, as “Everything besides
our Sovereign God are fiends, they puzzle and tire out common people, and we
must not worship them. Worshipping the fiends is an offense to the Heavenly
Commandments.” 10The Taipings also followed the teachings of Leung Faat (梁
發, 1789-1855), the first Chinese preacher. Leung’s book had great impact on
Hong Xiuquan and the newly-formed Congregation of God Worshippers. In his
10 “The Book of Heavenly Percepts” (London Version), Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (II), 743. 11
book Good Words Exhorting Mankind (勸世良言), Leung stated that “all idols in
the temples should be removed, and become a place to worship the one true God.
Our God rules over heaven and earth, He is the Nature of nature, could not be seen
and without any images. We come from the same and only God, no matter in the
ancient times or modern days, all of us are always in the same family." 11
Observing the above teachings, Hong Xiuquan demolished the shrines in his own
ancestral hall when the uprising started.12 Hong then wrote the name of the one
true God on a piece of white paper, covering his own ancestral shrines. We can
also see that the Taiping Army showed no mercy to idols. In Zhang Dejian’s book
Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings (賊情匯纂), he stated that “the temples
were ruined, and idols were destroyed.” Every time before the temples were
ruined, the Taipings would stand around it, and the leaders would shout “In the
name of the Heavenly Father and the power of his son Jesus, we demolish this
temple.” 13 However, there are also records which showed that the Taiping army
would only destroy the temples, but not ancestral halls and mosques, since there
11 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1676. 12Theodore Hamburg(1819-1854),The Chinese rebel chief, Hung-Siu-tseun; and the origin of the insurrection in China(太平天國起義記), (London: Walton and Malberly, 1855), 54, Online Materials, Accessed 20th November 2015, https://books.google.com.hk/books?id=bLcvAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=zh-TW&source= gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. 13 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1818-1819. 12
were no idols inside. This research indicated that since ancestral halls were kept
intact, it was likely that the common people could have more tolerance towards
the Taipings while they destroyed the idols since most people were suffering from
the oppression of the Qing Dynasty too.14
Although most temples were desecrated, sometimes the Taipings would only
remove its idols but kept the temples, and convert them into houses of worship.
The Tapings stated that it is “turning foul and rotten into a holy and dedicated
location”. In Zhaowen County of Jiangsu (Changshu), during the second month of
1863, some “enlightened” princes "would move the false gods and Buddha statues
in the temples to other locations, and the hall would be converted into a Heavenly
Father Hall. They set up the worship table and the longhairs (another name of the
Taipings) would stand in two lines, holding their swords." 15 Even the Heavenly
King and Prince East Yang Xiuqing (楊秀清, 1823-1856) had resided in Taoist
locations like the Guanyu Temple and Wanshou Palace after the occupation of
Hankou16. It was evident that “location of worship” was not important and the
Taipings can worship God anywhere.
14 “Reports from the Rev. Alexander Wylie(1815-1887)”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 210-212. 15 Idols from some temples were melt into coins since they were made of copper, and the bricks and stones from the temples would become the construction materials of the palaces. Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II),1821. 16Ibid.,1817. 13
Decoration
In 1844, when Hong Xiuquan first received God’s calling, he wrote the
Decalogue of Moses on ten bamboo sticks and placed them outside his ancestral
hall. This was the original form of the Heavenly Percepts. 17 With the
establishment and institutionalization of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,
Heavenly Father Halls had also established its unique culture of decoration.
Augustus Frederick Lindley (1840-1873) provided an illustration of the settings
of a Taiping Heavenly Father Hall with a picture in his book Ti-ping Tien-kwoh:
The History of the Ti-ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author's
Personal Adventures. We will firstly describe the settings of a typical Heavenly
Father Hall, then we will further explore the furnishings and other facilities
inside the hall.
In a simple, root-level Heavenly Father Hall led by Liangsima or the Heavenly
Halls in the barracks18, we can see that the decorations are simple, reflecting our
descriptions above: “relying on the heart of reverence rather than furnishings.”
17Ibid.,1660. 18 Zhang Dejian said that “Worship services in the army would be relatively simple, and the worship services in the cities would be in total luxury”. “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 14
Since the houses of worship were mixed with the bureaucratic offices,19 the halls
would be simply decorated, with only a piece of paper hanging on the roof, with
the words “Heavenly Father Hall” written on it, or the piece of yellow paper
would have the words “Abundance Grace of the Heavenly Father” written on it
20 . Furthermore, a bamboo plate with the words “According to Heavenly
Commands” inscribed on it would be placed on the table21. The Taipings would
also prepare a few chairs for the celebrants (leaders) to sit on. Other members of
the congregation would sit on the chairs too, as they are also brothers and sisters
of the “Holy family”. However, there were times that the condition did not
permit a “standard” setting, “when there are no table and chairs, the Taipings will
sit on the ground to worship the Heavenly Father”.22 For example in Zhenjiang
Pass, there was only one table, and the congregation members would kneel in
front of it. 23
In the Heavenly Capital (Tianjing/Nanjing) or relatively stable regions, the
19 Elijah Coleman Bridgman (1801-1861), “A Letter to the editors of the North China Herald”, dated 22nd July 1854, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 148. 20 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II),1849-1850. 21 Thomas H.Reilly, trans. Li yong, Xiao Junxia and Tian Fang, The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire (上帝與皇帝之爭—太平天國的宗教與政治), (Shanghai: Shanghai People, 2011), 125. 22 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 23 “A narrative from two Europeans living in Nanjing for a few months”, The Overland Friend of China, dated 15th January 1857, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 173. 15
Heavenly Father Hall would be much more delicate. In the illustration “A
Ti-Ping Church” in the book of Augustus Frederick Lindley, big calligraphy
characters “Heavenly Father Hall” were written in the middle of a green wall.
Table and furnishings were well-placed. The hall was decorated with different
types of lanterns24. Lindley once lived among the middle and upper class in the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He was the representative of “brothers from
overseas” though he was not a missionary nor religious leader. As Lindley tended
to beautify Taiping Heavenly Kingdom25 excessively in order to promote the
revolution, this picture to a certain extent reflected the worship service in an
"official standard." Lindley commented that the worship services he participated
in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were “no different to the churches in Britain”.
26
24This picture is an illustration in Lindley’s book, drawn according to his memory. Augustus F. Lindley, Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author's Personal Adventures (Beijing, China: Foreign Language Press, 2003), 360-361. 25Xia Chuntao, The Fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Re-examining the religion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (天國的隕落：太平天國宗教再研究) (Beijing: Renmin University of China, 2006), 356. 26 Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (I), 273. 16
Image: Worship in a Ti-Ping Church
Although Zhang Dejian opposed Taiping Heavenly Kingdom vigorously, his description of the Heavenly Father Hall was very thorough. “The Heavenly
Father Halls in the city were extravagantly decorated. A square table was placed in the hall, hung with embroidered or red tablecloth (altar front). Curtain and lanterns were always hung in the hall, and couplets or paintings were hung on the columns. Tripod vassals (鼎), vases and mirrors were displayed, and the trophies from battle campaigns were all arranged in order. There were even glass lamps individually placed and hung in disorder (rather than in pairs). For example, sometimes a pair of Chinese character “longevity” was captured, but it would be paired with something else in the Heavenly Father Halls. The couplets were
17
unrelated and uneven in length. Paintings, calligraphies, colored lanterns, and
antiques were displayed in the whole hall, such setting was claimed to be
gorgeous and lovely. However, they never realize that these objects are not in
their proper locations, so that when any Chinese gentries knew about such
arrangements, they would tease and laugh, while sighing secretly at the same
time.”27 Although the ignorant behaviors of the Taipings were criticized by the
Chinese elites and the Qing leaders, I think that the Taipings tried their best to
select all gorgeous and lovely objects to place them in the Heavenly Father Halls,
as their best offerings to God. The mismatch was just similar to the behaviors of
overnight millionaire today due to their lack of understanding in art.
Table
The essence of the Heavenly Hall was the table, which was equal to an altar or
communion table today. This table was mostly a table for government officials in
weekdays, and there was no record of a dedicated table for worship except for
Heavenly King’s palace28. Zhang Dejian stated that the table would be tied with
embroidered or red tablecloth (yellow and red were conventional colors of
27 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 28 “A Letter from the Rev. J. L. Holmes”, North China Herald, 1st September 1860. A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 239. 18
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It is however, the tablecloth was green in the above
picture “A Ti-Ping Church”, it might be reflecting the Taiping houses of worship
in a later period after the missionaries resided in the Heavenly Capital). Ma
Shouling the poet wrote in his poetry that “the table was decorated with a
tablecloth, and chairs were covered with chair cloth”. This proved that the
members of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would decorate the table in their
Heavenly Father Hall. Zhang also stated that "a pair of vases or chinaware were
placed on the table, a yellow silk flag with small sharp corner was inserted inside
such containers. A small bamboo plate was erected in front of the table, with the
length of three chi (Chinese feet) and the width of on cun (Chinese inch), with
the words ‘According to Heavenly Commands' on it".29
The furnishings on the table were commonly seen among the reports. The
offerings on the table represented the best integration of western worship liturgy
and Chinese traditional religious rites in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In his
poem “Worshipping the Heavenly Father”, Ma Shouling described, “neither
incense nor candle is burnt. Only the shadow of an oil lamp is flickering there.
Furthermore, three bowls of tea and rice are placed on the table. Meat and
29 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 19
vegetable are placed too, representing their reverence to God.” 30The offerings
on the table were always criticized by Christians at that time and Christians
today.
The members of the Congregation of God Worshippers in mid-1840s were living
in a relatively harsh condition before the uprising emerged. According to the
record of a Lutheran missionary Theodore Hamburg (1891-1854), only two
lamps and three cups of tea would be placed on the table in their baptism
gathering. People would drink the tea after they were baptized. 31
After the march to Nanjing officially started in 1850, meat as a part of the
offerings would be placed on the table after the Taipings started to occupy the
prosperous Yangtze areas. For example, Prince West Xiao Chaogui (蕭朝貴,
c.1820-1852) had been “filled” by the Heavenly Elder Brother (Jesus),
descending to the barrack and asked the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom “did the three of you purchase pork to worship the Heavenly Father?”
30 Ma Shouling (馬壽齡), ‘Worshipping the Heavenly Father’(敬天父), New Poems from Jinling Between the Years of Kui and Jia (金陵癸甲新樂府), recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 4, 735-736. 31 In the early stage of the Congregation of God Worshippers, believers would drink the cup of tea, while after Prince Gan returned to the Heavenly Capital, they would no longer drink the tea. The Chinese rebel chief, Hung-Siu-tseun; and the origin of the insurrection in China, 55. 20
They replied, “Yes.” 32
As the Taiping army captured the rich and populous Yangtze area, the offerings
on the table had become increasingly abundant. Zhang Dejian recorded that
“there had been two lamps, three cups of tea, three courses of meat, and three
jars of wine” on the table during worship services33. According to the instruction
of The Book of Heavenly Percepts, meat, wine, tea and rice were to be prepared
to worship God and exhort for God’s mercy(At the middle era, wine was banned
and was replaced by food)”. 34 To be exact, in the palace of the Heavenly King,
J. L. Holmes described that "a roasted pig, a goat, and some food were placed on
table". 35
The above took place in the Heavenly Capital. Other remote locations were
much more simple. For instance, there were only three bowls of rice, three cups
of tea and three pairs of chopsticks were prepared in worship in Zhanjiang pass.
32“Decrees from the Heavenly Father”, recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 2, 252. 33 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 34 According to Luo Ergang, the Early version of the Heavenly Percepts is the Berlin version and the later version in the London Version. There are difference in the Liturgies recorded, and we will discuss more of it in the later sections. A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 1, Page 5 of Forward. Berlin Version: Page 5 of Chapter 1 in the previous book. London Version: Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (II), 744. 35 “A Letter from the Rev. J. L. Holmes”, North China Herald, 1st September 1860. A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 239. 21
36 In 1860, when missionary Griffith John (1831-1912) visited Pingwang of
Suzhou, he observed that there were only three cups of tea in a root level
barracks. 37
The Taipings usually retreated the offerings from the table and distributed them
among the leaders after the worship service. The other members would also take
some food offering as their meal. 38 After the Taipings captured the Heavenly
Capital, they established a Dimsum Bureau, making pastry for their worship
services. Zhang Dejian recorded, “Before worship service starts, the officials
would write an order to the Dimsum Bureau to retrieve different types of fruits
and pastries. They will also go to the central kitchen to retrieve food to worship
the Heavenly Father. Only Jiangning (another name for the Heavenly Capital)
has this privilege, but not the barracks outside the capital. They would also take
the trophies they captured as offerings. If they had captured abundant trophies,
the feast would be abundant. When there were only very few trophies, rice and
bean paste would also be served for the worship service. On special occasions,
36“A narrative from two Europeans living in Nanjing for a few months”, The Overland Friend of China, dated 15th January 1857, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 173. 37 “A Letter from the Rev. Griffith John”, Missionary Magazine and Chronicle, Vol. 24, October 1860, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 224. 38 Chen Zuolin, “Memoirs from Ke Gardens” (可園備忘錄), recorded in Luo Ergang, History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國史), Vol. 2 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1991), 718. 22
festivals, birthdays, given birth, hundred days’ feast or the capture of new
territories, they will have even greater feasts to worship the Heavenly Father.39.
However according to the Chinese gentries, the Taipings “recklessly wasted good
food indigents by stir-frying Chinese cabbage with sea cucumber, frying bean
sprouts with shark's fin, cooking bird's nests with radish, cooking meat with
ginseng and longan…they also added pepper to every meal” due to their
ignorance. The most interesting offer was dog meat. The Taipings saw dog meat
as the best offering to the Heavenly Father, which would be distributed to each
Heavenly Father Halls immediately after being butchered.40 It is believed that
the custom to worship Heavenly Father with dog meat was unprecedented and
unique in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, as most “elder brothers” of the revolution
came from Guangxi, a traditional dog-consuming province.
What were the meanings of the sacrifices? The Book of Heavenly Percepts
clearly recorded the Taipings offered food was “to sacrifice and exhort”.
According to Griffith John’s observation at Pingwang, the Taiping Army told
him that “the tea is for worshiping the Heavenly Father.” 41 When Prince Gan
39Zhang Dejian, “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 40 Anonymous, “Suffering in Jinling”,A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 4, 747. 41 “A Letter to the Rev. Griffith John”. 23
Hong Rengan (洪仁玕, 1822-1864) met the missionary Joseph Edkins (艾約瑟,
1823-1905), he claimed that the real meaning of the offerings as, “merely for
expressing gratitude and thanksgiving, rather than seeking special favour from
God. The leader (Heavenly King) totally understood that the offerings are useless
for worship. Prince Gan and the Heavenly King never use these offerings. These
offerings served as an interim setting for the newly converted, and to allow the
pagan to gradually transform their secular practice. 42
Afterwards, Edkins asked Prince Gan why the offerings on the table werethree in
numbers. Prince Gan then answered, “They represented the three persons of the
Trinity. Prince Gan interpret it in this way, and he had never asked about the
actual meaning. These offerings were a temporary and interim replacement to
idol worship. Prince Gan himself would never use them.” 43 That is why Joseph
Edkins later said, "the leaders in Jvrong of Jiangsu brought three bowls of rice
into the hall at breakfast and supper time every day, and place them on the table
in the middle as an offering to the Trinity. After praying, they would bring the
bowls away and bring in the “four jewels for scholar” (writing brush, ink stick,
42 “Reports from the Rev. Joseph Edkins”, North China Herald, 11th August 1860,recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 231. 43Ibid.,235. 24
ink slab and paper) and other furnishings would be placed on the table. 44
However, Griffith John and Jen Yu-wen thought that the three cups of tea on the
table were not to represent adoration to the Trinity, but a most solemn salute
according to Chinese customs. 45 I believed that since the meanings of liturgy
was not well defined, there would be diverse explanations from different people.
Presumably, to the Chinese, it was just a form of most solemn worship to God
with the traditional custom of three, but when the three pairs of chopsticks
appeared, it should relate to the Trinity.
Seat Arrangements
The seating arrangement in the Heavenly Father Hall had made the equality of
Congregation of God Worshippers prominent. In the Land System of the Celestial
Court, it required that the commanding officer of five families (伍長) to lead men
and women separately to the church on the day of worship . 46 Although men and
women were seated in separate, The Taipings were pioneers to allow different
genders worshipping together in the mid-1800s. The Heavenly King once wrote in
his poetry Poems for Children, “The true sovereign-God should be praised by all
44 “The Rev. Joseph Edkins’ visit to Nanjing”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 278. 45 Griffith John, “Newsletter from the Rev. John: Religion in the Taiping Army” (楊牧師通信：太平軍 的宗教), Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1940. 46“The Land System of the Celestial Court”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 322. 25
nations. Men and women on earth should worship together every in morning and
evening.” 47 Ma Shouling described an outdoor evangelistic meeting in his poem,
stating “Even when the audiences are tired, the preacher is still preaching non-stop.
After men listened to the sermon, they will go away and women then come.” 48
This proved that women had a relatively important role in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom even when the gender segregation policy was enforced when the
Taipings first entered the Heavenly Capital. However, we can see that the Taipings
also honoured the Chinese custom of separating of men and women though they
had a quite major reform on the participation of women. Also, we could also see
that some gatherings in the top-level were still limited to men, like a worship
service in Prince Zhang’s palace. 49
The seating arrangement of the Taipings also represented the equality of brothers
and sisters. They sometimes sat in a circle or on the ground. In the above picture
from Lindley’s book, which was a worship setting for middle-upper class, men
and women sat on two side respectively, and the person who presided over the
47 “Worshipping God”, in Poems for Children, recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 231. 48 “Worshipping God”, in Poems for Children, recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 231. 49 “Letter from the Rev. J. L. Holmes”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 237. 26
gathering stood in the middle. 50Zhang Dejian described the congregation “sat
around the hall. The head of the bandits and the literate ones sat on the seats in
the middle, and the other bandits sat on both sides.” 51 The celebrant faced
towards the door52. I believe that such seating arrangements came from the
fellowship seating arrangements in Issachar Jacox Roberts’s church. Since Roberts
only had around ten people in his church when Hong Xiuquan was with him, I
suspect that he would use a circle form rather than a very formal seating
arrangement in the nave. The circular seating arrangement presented a form of
intimacy, participants were equal and were treated as brothers and sisters. The
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had absorbed this culture of sitting in a circle since
the uprising started. Furthermore, based on the respect of Chinese customs, men
and women were still segregated and appropriate distance was kept. 53
Nevertheless, after the Heavenly Capital was established in Nanjing, a “Diagram
of Worshipping the Lord and Heavenly King” was created and indicated that a
court-style seating arrangement. Such arrangement was no longer as “secular” as
before, nor the same as root-level churches. The direction of worship and
50 Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author's Personal Adventures, 360-361. 51 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 52 Zeng Hanzhang, “Memories from the Disaster” (避難紀卻), recorded in Luo Ergang and Luo Wenqi, Lost Archives from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國散佚文獻勾沉錄), (Guiyang: Guizhou People’s, 1993), 195-196. 53The Book of Heavenly Percepts, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 1, 6. 27
sequence of members were recorded in detail. 54 Theoretically, when the
congregations worshiped the Heavenly Father, they would face north, which was
similar to officials having an audience with the Qing emperor55. This practice
imitated traditional Chinese values and was different from the “liturgical east” in
western churches.
Use of Imagery
As mentioned, destruction of idols was one of the major characteristics of how the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reacted to the Decalogue and monotheism. When the
Taipings first conquered Nanjing, they “paraded the idols through the streets like
Mardi Gras, and mocked the idols and all other superstitious articles.” 56 Due to their
Protestant background and as a grass-root movement, the Taipings at that time could not clearly distinguish between worshipping the intangible God through sculpture and the worshipping of idols. As a result, they treated the sculpture in the Roman Catholic
Church in the same way as the shrine of Confucius. 57 In one instance when the
Taipings just captured Nanjing, the soldiers entered a Roman Catholic Church
54 “Diagram of Worshipping the Lord and Heavenly King” (朝天朝主圖) is the seat arrangements of the Heavenly King and his chancellors in the “Gloria Hall”. The throne would face the south, and all princes and chancellors would face north and worship the Heavenly King. Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (I), 136. 55 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1850. 56 “A Letter by the Italian Franciscan Missionary Mgr Rizzolati”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 42. 57 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1827-1828. 28 founded by French missionaries. The soldiers tore down the Crucifix, pushed over the altar, and forced the Catholics to trample over the crucifix (which they rather die than yield). That incident took place on a Good Friday. This action angered the French missionaries and the French government58, which provoked the French army to start firing at the Taiping Army.59
Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom deeply detested Chinese idols, the Taiping
Army adopted traditional pattern of Chinese official garments on their robes (since the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a church-state, such robes were the formal dress for both official and worship purposes). The Heavenly King himself and the princes used dragons and phoenixes as their emblem. Only the Heavenly King could use nine dragons, Prince East could use eight dragons and the number decreased according to the grades of the officials. Prime ministers could use four dragons as their emblem. 60
There is a difference between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Qing Dynasty in their definition and use of dragons. The Taipings used the number of dragons to define the hierarchy of the bearer, while the Qing Emperor and princes used the number of claws in one dragon to define their status. Also, all formal Heavenly Decrees included
58 “A Letter by the Bishop of Nanjing Diocese, Francis Xavier Maresca (1806-1855)”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 48. 59 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1827. 60 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (I), 158. 29 dragons, as stated in a poem, saying “I ordered Qin Rigang (秦日綱, 1821-1856) to compose a poem of celebration, and write down their family name on a yellow sheet of paper (Heavenly Decree), with pattern of dragons on it”.
The use of dragon as emblem was said to have come from a revelation from God in the early stage of the uprising. The Heavenly Father descended to the world and instructed Hong, saying, “the dragon in the golden hall is a great treasure, but not the demon.” Moreover, Hong Xiuquan had also dreamt of a big golden dragon transforming into a golden dragon palace in heaven, and the golden dragon had also come and met with Hong when the Taipings captured Hanyang. Therefore, the golden dragon was also called the “precious dragon”. However, there were also other types of dragon. Those whose eyes were red would be regarded as evil, namely, the “old snake from the East China Sea”.61 Another way to distinguish between the precious dragon and the devil was the number of claws. All dragons in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had five claws, those that had only four claws were the snake demon.62 As for commoners, they would sometimes hold up portraits of dragons and parade in the streets of the Heavenly Capital. In their mind, worshipping the golden dragon is the
61 “Decrees when the Heavenly Father Descends (II) ”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 1, 52. 62 “Decrees from the Heavenly Father”, recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 2, 344. 30 same as worshipping Jesus Christ. 63
Some murals from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were preserved until now, which serves as a good opportunity for us to study the art in the Heavenly halls. The art of the Taipings mostly consisted of animals and landscapes64. For example, in the palace of Prince Gan, there were two drum and trumpet pavilions, and the large screen wall between it was painted with dragon, peacock, donkey and fish. According to records, there was a large piece of wooden plank on the screen wall, and a golden character
"Blessings" was written on it. Above the character was the beatitudes from the book of Matthews (the Chinese term 八福 for the beatitudes is “The Eight Blessings”)65
This shows that art was common in the Heavenly Capital. The Taipings incorporated
Chinese landscape painting and Chinese mythical symbols into their art as well.
However, since the Taipings found themselves strictly required to abide by the second commandment “not to create idol”, there was no figure nor Bible story found in their paintings.
63 “Reports from Sir Harry Smith Parkes (1828-1885)”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 312. 64 There are a few portraits in 72-74 Tangzi Street, Nanjing, namely “Horses under massive willow trees”, “Cranes and Longevity”, “Peacocks and Peony”, “Yinyang ducks and Lotus”, “Lions playing with Balls” revealed that the Taipings would easily differ idols and animals. The idols they destroyed were mainly sculptures of men. “Taiping Portraits from Tangzi Street”, Wikipedia, Internet, Accessed 23rd November 2015, https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A0%82%E5%AD%90%E8%A1%97%E5%A4%AA%E5%B9%B 3%E5%A4%A9%E5%9B%BD%E5%A3%81%E7%94%BB. 65A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 369. 31
There was a shift in the later period when the Taipings expanded to Sufu Province (蘇
福省). Some pagan art from Chinese myths like “Turning Stone to Sheep”(《黃初平叱
石成羊》 ) or “The Feast of the Eight Immortals” (《八仙同樂圖》) were found in the palace of Prince Shi (Li Shixian 李世賢, 1834-1865) in Jinhua, Zhejiang66. It is difficult to explain why some of the “corrupted” pagan art found its way into the leader’s mansion. However, I would submit that since most new believers in the later stage of uprising had not been “catechized”, they integrated the Suzhou art and Yue
Chinese operas into the Taiping architectures when they joined the rebellion. However, this is merely speculation and further investigations would be needed. 67
Prince Gan was trained by the London Missionary Society, He then left Hong Kong and reunited with the Taipings in 1859. Subsequently, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom seemed to get back “on track” through his religious reforms. Augustus Frederick
Lindley claimed that in the wedding of his friend Eir, the minister was clothed in a splendid black silk garment embroidered with gold and silver crosses68, despite the fact that cross was not common to the earlier years of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
(the cross was once torn down in the Roman Catholic Church when the Taipings
66 Zhu Zhiming, “An analysis of the artistic and historic values of the portraits in the Palace of Prince Shi”, Chinese Packaging Science and Technology Review (中國科技博覽), Issue 2, 2013, 240. 67 Please refer to the book by the History Museum of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, A Collection of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Art (太平天國壁畫全集) (Shenyang: Liaoning Art, 2014). 68 Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (II), 478. 32 captured Nanjing). Also, we note that a cross stood in the chapel of Prince Loyal’s
Mansion today as a historical restoration in Suzhou. It is my submission that this must have been a misinterpretation of the Taiping worship liturgy as cross was not popular in those days. Nevertheless, we can see that the understanding of the liturgy in the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was very diverse, and evolved through time. The Taipings might have become more able to differentiate between idols and religious symbols after they make contact with foreign missionaries when they approached Shanghai during their conquest.
Calendar and Festivals
Heavenly Calendar
There are already many researchers studying the calendar of Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom. Accordingly, we will focus on the relationship between the Heavenly
Calendar and the worship service on the Sabbath.
In his book, Guo Tingyi (郭廷以, 1904-1975) evaluated the Heavenly Calendar as
“a combination of non-Chinese and non-Western, both yin and yang.” 69 The
Heavenly Calendar of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was initially established by
69 Guo Tingyi, A Research on the Calendar of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國曆法考訂) (Taipei: Commercial Press, 1973), 1. 33
Prince South Feng Yunshan (馮雲山, 1815-1852), and subsequently revised by
Hong Rengan.70
The aim of a new calendar was to “magnify the way of the Lord and to banish all
superstitions, especially the use of the old Chinese almanac.” The Taipings
believed, “if ordinary people could honour the Heavenly Father, the Lord will take
care of them, and whatever they do, it will be blessed and smooth. 71 Hong
Rengan emphasized that, “If we choose the dates through the almanac, and mark
different days as good or bad, we are just fabricating our Lord’s mercy or
judgement. We need to know that every day is all created and prepared by our
Heavenly Father, every day is a great day and there is no difference between the
hours.” 72 The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom opposed to defining a day according
to the almanac as a good day or a day with bad luck. They linked the old lunar
calendar with idolatry and abolished it.
The Taipings worshipped weekly on their “day of worship” (禮拜日), namely the
Sabbath according to the Bible, which is a Saturday in modern term. However,
70 Prince Gan wrote the foreward of the later published Heavenly Calendar. Hong Rengan, “Forewords of the Heavenly Calendar” (天曆序), in Luo Ergang, A Collection of Poetries of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國詩文選) (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1960) , 11. 71 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (I), 340-341. 72 “Forewords of the Heavenly Calendar” , 11. 34
since the Chinese word “Libairi/day of worship” equals to Sunday in common
knowledge, both westerners at the time and scholars today are often misled. Guo
Tingyi said, “‘Sunday’ in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was different to our
usual Sunday in western calendar, it was a day earlier. They took the Saturday as
the day of Worship. 73 Therefore, Saturday and the “Day of Worship” was
commonly misinterpreted.
Based on the Heavenly Calendar of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the day of
worship lied with the four lunar mansions of Xing, Fang, Xu and Ang (星、房、虛、
昂), rather than Sundays.74 The Taipings observed the teachings from the Torah,
by worshipping on the day of Sabbath instead of Sunday (Day of the Lord) which
the Protestant usually observes. Hong’s action of reinterpreting the “day of
worship” reinvented the meaning of “Sunday” at that time, confusing yet
innovative. He followed the Jewish calendar and worshiped on the same day as
Seventh-day Adventists.
The Book of Heavenly Percepts emphasized the need of observing the Sabbath. On
Sabbath, the Taipings would stop their work and participate in worship services.
73 Ibid.,20. 74 The Book of Heavenly Percepts, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 1, 5-6. 35
This practice probably originated from Issachar Jacox Roberts. In Liturgy and
Rites of East Canton Baptist Church, Issachar Jacox Roberts provided
prerequisites for baptism, stating, “Anyone doing business or work on Sunday
should be expelled from the church”. 75 Thus when Hong Xiuquan wrote the
Book of Heavenly Percepts, he remarked the fourth Commandment of observing
Sabbath as “Worship every seven days, praising the Lord God. (In small fonts:)
Our Lord God created heaven and earth, mountain and sea on the first six days,
and suspended his work on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath. Human being
enjoys the blessings and creation of our Lord God on this day each week.
Therefore, they should devoutly worship and praise our Lord God for his grace
and virtue every seven days. 76
Since most foreigners living in China at that period were missionaries or
Christians, they were particularly interested in the religious custom of the Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom. As the custom of observing Sabbath was different from the
mainstream church, foreigners were curious about such practice.77 We can see
75 Issachar Jacox Roberts, “Liturgy and Rites of East Canton Baptist Church”, in Wang Qingcheng, Archives and History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom—New Documents from Overseas and the History of these Documents (太平天國的文獻和歷史—海外新文獻刊佈和文獻史事研究) (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 1993), 479-480. 76The Book of Heavenly Percepts, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 1, 6. 77 If we scan through A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version) Volume 9, we can see that Sabbath was stricter in the early days. Later, when the missionaries lost their interest and hope in the Taipings, they also found that their faith was not as pious as before. 36
there are many articles written by the westerners at that time, discussing if the
Taiping were observing Sabbath. In my own view, the Taipings in peaceful times,
that is, among the “elder brothers” from Guangxi, they would try their best not to
work on the Sabbath. However during wartime, especially among the
non-so-devoted leaders (such as Prince Loyal Li Xiucheng (李秀成, 1823-1864)),
or the common people at the bottom of the society, or outside the Heavenly
Capital, or in some places marked with “non-mission field”, Sabbaths were not
observed. Some of the new members even did not know what Sabbath was.78
The time of Sabbath in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was different from that of
the Israelites. Jewish Sabbath begins and finishes at sunset. The Taipings followed
the Chinese time system instead. In the third Geng (Chinese hour, 2300-0100
hour) , they would start their worship service. Therefor, their actual time of
worship starts from Saturday midnight, worshipping till the beginning of the
following day. Hong Xiuquan wrote in his poem, “The gong was first struck at
midnight, people were called to worship Jehovah and the Heavenly Elder Brother.”
79 Every week they would, “strikethe Zheng (a bell-shaped percussion) for sixty
78A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 212, 295. 79Poems to the Heavenly Father, No. 280, recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 2, 450. 37
four times, and the music would be played for three times. Thousands of
pseudo-concubines and female officials were led to praise God and the sound
reverberated through the celestial court.” 80 Midnight was extremely late in
pre-electric era, but some commentaries state that since the Taipings had suffered
from strict surveillance and suppression from the Qing officials throughout their
early days, the Heavenly Father issued a decree and ordered them to have their
gatherings at midnight. This custom was then continued after the Kingdom
established. 81
The Taipings had very strict discipline on how to participate in worship services.
Zhang Dejian wrote that “If one was to be absent from worship for three times
without reason, he would be delivered to the pseudo-commander, beheaded and
his corpse be displayed publicly.82 Furthermore, the Land System of the Celestial
Court also recorded that all government officials should devoutly offer meat and
food sacrifice on the Day of Worship according to their ranks. Officials should
praise the Lord God Heavenly Father, and preach on the Bible. Officers who do
80 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 81 “A Booklet by the Rev. Griffith John”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 254.
82 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 38
not seriously follow this order will be demoted as peasants.83 Though the laws
were strict, it is not known how it was actually implemented. It probably
depended on the faith of the leader concerned. As stated above, the “elder brothers”
from Guangxi were relatively faithful in observing such requirements. An
interesting fact was that the Heavenly King would even burn all his underwear
worn in the previous week before the day of worship, and prepare new clothes to
worship God.84
Festivals
There were six major festivals in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, all of which
were religious holidays. The date of these festivals could be found in Hong
Xiuquan’s poem:
“The Heavenly calendar was mainly designed to show filial obedience to
Jehovah. We worship every seven days and enjoy the increasing blessings from
God. The second day of the second month is to remember Jehovah calling upon
the Heavenly King, we give thanks to Jehovah, for sending me to kill the snake
83“The Land System of the Celestial Court”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 326. 84 Sheng Xunchang, An Overview of the Taiping Culture (太平天國文化大觀) (Nanning: Guangxi Minzu, 2000), 295. 39 demon.
The third day of the third month is the ‘Descending of Jehovah Festival’. His
Kingdom is on earth as it is in heaven. We shall kill the bandit leader (Qing) by midnight this year. Then all nations should bow before God and his wife.
The second priority of the Heavenly Calendar is to worship the Heavenly Elder
Brother，who sacrificed himself for the atonement of our sin to grant us life.
The thirteenth day of the first month is the Ascension Day of the Heavenly
Elder Brother. His blessings flow like a river, and people all over the world should be deeply grateful for it.
We remember our Heavenly Elder Brother ascended to his throne, and also my coronation on the second month. I bring peace to the humankind. The ninth day of the ninth month is the festival of the Descending of the Heavenly Elder
Brother. Remember how he came to the world and took away our sin.
The third priority for the Heavenly Calendar is to know Prince East. The heavenly father descended on and entrusted Prince East. In ancient times,
40
Jehovah preached in the air. Today, he entrusted his imperial decrees through
Prince East, Yang Xiuqing.
Every seventh day of the seventh month, we remember the ascension of Prince
East, he shall be remembered from generations to generations. We thank God
for descending on him, entrusting him with healing power, we also believe that
he shall go into heaven with us.
Each generation of the Heavenly Kingdom should observe these three priorities.
This is the will and truth from heaven, which will bring incessant blessing.” 85
In short, the festivals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can be summarize in the following form.
Festival Date in the Meaning Heavenly Calendar Ascension 13th day of the Ascension meant death instead of the real of the first month “ascension”, and it was somewhat connected with Heavenly Good Friday and the Jewish Passover in the month Elder of Nisan. Brother
Jehovah 2nd day of the This festival reminds us of how the Heavenly King calling second month was called to kill the snake demon (Qing) at the upon the beginning of the uprising.
85 Hong Xiuquan, “Decree on Recording the Roots of the Heavenly Calendar”, A Collection of Poetries of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. 41
Heavenly King Coronation 21st day of the To celebrate the same-day coronation of Jesus and of both the second month the Heavenly King. It was somehow related to Heavenly Easter or Ascension day. According to Prince Gan, Elder the Heavenly King did not know how to calculate Brother and Easter accurately, but he knew that Easter would be Heavenly around that period. So the Heavenly King placed his King. coronation on the day to celebrate the reign of Christ, allowing himself to be equally honorable as the Heavenly Elder Brother. Also, the Chinese Character of King (王) consists the three Chinese character: two (二), ten (十) and (一), which also means 2186
Descending 3rd day of the Jehovah first condescends on Yang Xiuqing (Prince of Jehovah third month East), and issued an imperial decree through his mouth. This act was commemorated as a “great miracle”.
Ascension 27th day of the Prince East was killed in a coup. To comfort his of Prince seventh month followers, the Heavenly King praised his East contribution and martyrdom by creating this festival. (“Ascension” in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom equals death)
Descending 9th day of the Jesus’s first possession on Xiao Chaogui (Prince of the ninth month West). Heavenly Elder Brother
87
Among these festivals, two of them relate to the Heavenly Father, three to the
86 “Reports from the Rev. Joseph Edkins”, 232. 87 This table is generated according the Jen’s Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (I), 368-372. 42
Heavenly Elder Brother, and one to remember each of Prince East and Prince West.
There were no festivals to remember the Heavenly King himself directly. According to the analysis of Jen Yu-wen, the festival of Coronation and the Festival of Calling already established the authority of the Heavenly King, so there was no need for extra festivals.88
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also celebrated the festival with worship services.
During joyous festivals, they would “not stick to routines but would prepare extra feasts to worship the Heavenly Father.”89 For example, on the birthday of the
Heavenly King (Hong was born on the 10th day of the 12th month in lunar calendar, which is January 1st, 1814 in the Gregorian calendar. The 10th day of the 12th lunar month was January 9th. However, Methodist missionary Josiah Cox (1829-1906) claimed that the date should be January 20th. This was probably caused by the inconsistency between the Heavenly Calendar, the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar.). “His henchmen in Ningbo took this day as a festival (which was not one of the six official festivals). On this day, people would hear the shouts of salute constantly, with flags haning on the city wall and fluttered in the wind. All the officials would gather, and Captain Huang (Huang Chengzhong 黃呈忠, b. 1826)
88 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (I), 373. 89 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 43 would give a speech on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which consisted of around
100 sentences. There were fruits, pastry and roast pig in the feast, which was similar to the offerings when Chinese people worship idols in their traditional festivals.” 90
The above reflects the fact that the Taipings celebrated their festivals through worship services. 91
After Prince Gan came to the Heavenly Capital in 1859, the Taipings had more contacts with foreigners. According to Lindley, Taipings started to celebrate
th th Christmas, but the date was on December 23 instead of December 25 . Lindley said that the Taipings were much more pious than the average Christians. A grand banquet was set in the palace of Prince Rong (Liao FaShou 廖發壽 d. 1864). Special worship liturgy was held in the Heavenly Father Hall and all government officials would celebrate with a grand banquet in joy.92 However, the Christmas festival was not common throughout the whole Kingdom.
Worship on Sabbath/the day of worship
90 “Diary of the Rev. Josiah Cox” (郭修理牧師的日記), 25th April 1862, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 404-405. 91 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 92 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1860-1861. 44
The Taipings celebrated their weekly service at midnight of Saturday as the beginning of Sabbath. As discussed in the previous section, the worship liturgies of each individual group differ slightly. Some were strict, while others were somewhat simpler.
The poem “Worshipping the Heavenly Father” by Ma Shouling describeda part of the worship service in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom this way:
“Neither incense nor candle is burnt. Only the shadow of an oil lamp is flickering
there. Three bowls of tea and rice are placed on the table. Meat and vegetable are
placed to represent their reverence.
This would be the same every morning and evenings, and every seven days, their
worship service will be even more serious and delicate.
They would stand and praise God in murmurs. After they finished praising the Lord,
they would burn the paper which had their prayers written on it as a pleasing aroma
to God.
The believers would first kneel on the ground to pray together silently, then stand
up together to make proclaimations (Original annotation: said the words “kill all
demons”).
45
They would never forget to expel demons every time they eat.”93
In the book Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings, Zhang Dejian recorded a serious worship service in detail. One day before the weekly service, the local leader would send someone in advance to “carry a flag, strike the bell-shaped percussion instrument throughout the city, shouting ‘Tomorrow will be our weekly worship service.
Everyone should respect this service and must not neglect it.’
At midnight on Saturday, all halls would burn two lamps/candles and offer three cups of tea, three bowls of food, and three cups of wine. They would strike the gong and sit around the hall in a circle. The head of the bandits and his clerk would sit in the middle. The other bandits would sit on both sides without order. After they “spoke” the hymns of praise together, the clerk would write down the names of the participants on a yellow sheet of paper. Afterward, he would hold the yellow sheet of paper memorial in his hand, kneel on the ground and speak out his written prayer. At that time all bandits would kneel. The clerk would then burn the yellow prayer sheet after his prayer. Finally, they would share the offered dishes. This was the liturgy of the weekly worship service.” 94
93 Ma Shouling, “Worshipping the Heavenly Father”. 94 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping 46
In my previous study “The Completion of the Conflict between Sacred and
Secular—a Research on the Liturgy of Matrimony in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom”,
I had try to re-create the worship order of a standard Taiping worship service as follows95.
1. Singing Doxology and the hymn96
2. One lesson of scripture reading by the worship leader
3. Reading the Creed in a form like the Taiping Trimetric Classic. The host led by
reading aloud, followed by responses from the congregation
4. The congregation kneels
5. Pray through written prayer (or to cite some written prayers from The Book of
Heavenly Percepts)
6. The congregation returns to their seats
7. Sermon
8. The clerk read the prayer and the worship order written on the yellow paper
Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 95 Leung Yat Hin, “The Fulfillment of the Debates between Sacred and Secular—The Liturgy of Matrimony in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as Example”, Term Paper for THEO5344 (Liturgy), Chung Chi Divinity School, December 2014, 11-12. 96 Liu Wei, “Restudying the Doxology of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom”(太平天國《三一頌》再研 究), Journal of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, No. 121, April 2010, 33. 47
aloud97
9. The members sign their name one by one, ensuring a heartfelt prayer
10. Burn the yellow paper (to present the prayer/memorial to heaven)
11. The congregation stands, singing in unison with all instruments playing: “Long
Live our King!”
12. The congregation recites the Ten Heavenly Percepts (The Decalogue)
13. The congregation sings a hymn as prayer
14. At the end of the service: they would burn incense and light firecrackers98
The contents of the worship service consisted of instrumental music, hymn singing, scripture reading, reciting the creed, preaching, prayer, responsive antiphons, Ten
Commandments and burning of firecrackers. We shall investigate them one by one.
Instrumental music
I had been researching on the music and hymnody of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in my other essay, “The Worship and Hymnody of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
(1851-1864)”. In this section, I shall present some of my findings on the music used in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
97The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire, 125-126. 98Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (I), 274-276. 48
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attached great importance to music. Hong Xiuquan once composed a poem, saying, “Music should never stop throughout day and night.
Whoever stop playing music is against the decree and will be prosecuted. Heaven is happy and full of beautiful music, and the earthly Kingdom should rule the world, bringing peace unto humankind.” 99 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had its own music management system, with the position of “Master of Heavenly Music
(instrumentalists)” and “Master of Heavenly Gong (percussionist)”. According to the standard of Heavenly King, there should be 300 Masters of Heavenly Music and 48
Masters of Heavenly Gongs, and other princes would have less members in their orchestras according to the Heavenly Standard. 100
According to Liu Wei, Hong Xiuquan established the music system according to his strict reference to the Book of Chronicles and Psalms. Based on what he learned from
Issachar Jacox Roberts and the Bible, he made a courageous and genius step forward, creating the atmosphere of “on earth as it is in heaven”. American missionary Charles
Taylor from the Methodist Episcopal Mission, South had recorded the musical
99Poems to the Heavenly Father, No. 170, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 2, 457. 100 Liu Wei, “An Explaination of the Glossary of the Taiping Sacred Music” (太平天國宗教音樂專用 語釋疑), JiaoXiang-Journal of Xi'an Conservatory of Music, Vol. 29, Issue 3, September 2010, 23-24. 49 instruments of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom including horn, xiao, gong, drum, cymbals and suona101, these were traditional Chinese instruments and are still in use today.
There is still one remaining piece of Taiping instrumental music kept till today.
Namely, the “Taiping Drums and Gongs” in Daifu Liyang. This battle-related orchestral piece utilizes a full Chinese orchestra, with more than 30 pieces of percussion and wind instruments. It has six movements. Namely, preparing the horses, war drill, going out for battle, fierce battle, victory and the celebration. Of course, the music piece has already become some sort of “traditional experience” for children, instead of serving its original religious purpose. 102 In my opinion, since the
Heavenly King had no knowledge of Hebrew or European musical instruments, he could not have known any differences between them and Chinese music. Thus musical instruments in the Bible and Psalms “became” Chinese instruments literally, strictly in accordance with how the Bible was translated into Chinese, resulting in an interesting form of indigenization.
When missionaries visited the Heavenly King, they sighted two Drum and Trumpet
Pavilions outside the palace. When Heavenly King was having a meal, members of
101 Liu Wei, “Explanations on the Historical Fact of the Accompaniment Instruments in the Religious Music of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom” (太平天國宗教音樂伴奏樂器史實解析), Journal of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Issue 3, April 2010, 23. 102 Zhu Xingyan, “Attractive Liyang: Historical Battle Beats from the Taiping Army—Taiping Drums and Gongs”, Internet Materials, Accessed 29th December 2015, http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzg2OTg4NDg=.html. 50 the orchestra would play their drums and gong, while firecrackers, and ear-piercing flute whistling played by the musicians, making it an extremely noisy scene. The noise would last until the Heavenly King finishes his meal.103 In Entering the
Dungeon, Yu Gongmao recorded that, “Every time the bandit leader eats, he would ask the musicians to perform their music in a group.
Robert J. Forrest also recorded the music performed in the palace of Prince Gan, when he “Once arriving at the newly renovated palace with the smell of oil paint and gold plating, you would see two pavilions on both sides of the street. Two teams of musicians would performed continuously not in a harmonious fashion. Sometimes the volume would be low so that they would not be disturbing. Other times the music would be in high pitches, which was unbearable. I had stayed in the palace for four days, of which the music had only paused for no longer than half an hour.”104 It proved that the continuous performance of music was one of the methods of “on earth as it is in heaven” in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used music to “proclaim the victory of
103 “Sightings from Robert J. Forrest in the Heavenly Capital”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 365. 104Ibid.,369. 51 revolution”105, instrumentalists became the key for music performances. Each noble would employ a certain number of musicians according to corresponding standards.
Musicians thus received a higher social status much like craftsmen in the later period, as the Heavenly King crowned over 2700 princes before his death in 1864, and all of their mansions required musicians. There was one job advertisement at that time saying, “There are many talented people and heroes in the south of the Yangtze River.
No matter you are carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths or trumpeters, please come.
We recruit all types of talents.” 106 This piece of advertisement indicated the importance of music in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Hymn Singing
Since most members of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were illiterate “believers”, the
Taipings wrote their government decrees, doctrines and poems in vernacular (instead of literal Chinese by the Qing government). It expected that members participating the gathering “could be sincere rather than using the classical and literal language that are unnecessary”. The simple and popular use of language absorbed slangs and local dialect, rooted in daily life and brought livelihood into worship services. Even current
105 Lost Archives from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 190-191. 106 Liu Wei, “Glancing through the Music System of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from the Music Yamen”, People’s Music, Issue 2 2011, 54-55. 52 researchers commented their hymns as “popular, fresh and unique”. 107
The most famous Taiping hymn is the Doxology, as recorded in the Book of Heavenly
Percepts.
No matter they were at home or on the battlefield, all members of the nation had to sing the Doxology in their prayers before their meals every day and in their weekly worship on Saturday midnight.108 As a rough estimate, more than a million persons would be singing this hymn when the Taipings ruled over a great portion of the
Yangtze area. The doxology was sang with the tune OLD HUNDREDTH from
Genevan Psalter, with minor modifications in an indigenized form. As a comparison, I first list out below the version from Issachar Jacox Roberts’ church, which is written in Long metre, namely 8.8.8.8.
“Praise the Holy Father, one true God Jehovah,
Praise Jesus as the redeemer of the world.
Praise Holy Wind as the Holy Spirit,
Praise the Trinity, the only God.”
107 Bai Jian, “An Overview of Taiping Hymns” (淺探太平天國詩歌), in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Research Bureau of the History Department of the Nanjing University, Researches on the History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國史論考) (Nanjing: Jiangsu Guji, 1985), 295-323. 108 “Restudying the Doxology of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom”, 33. 53
The metre of the Doxology as amended by Hong Xiuquan was in 8.9.8.9.
“Praise God on high, our Holy Father,
Praise Jesus as the redeemer of the world.
Praise Holy Wind as the Holy Spirit,
Praise the Trinity, God united in one.”
As heretic, the Taipings introduced a lot of revision to the lyrics to fulfill its political agenda such as deifying their leaders. For example, Prince Yan (Qin Rigang 秦日綱,
1821-1856) promoted different leaders in the Kingdom to masters of nature. The following is his altered version of the Doxology.
Praise God the Heavenly Holy Father. He is the only God.
Praise Heavenly Elder Brother, who sacrificed himself for humankind and the
world.
Praise Prince East as Holy Spirit Wind, curing and saving the sick.
Praise Prince West as the Master of Rain, the most honourable.
Praise Prince South as the Master of Clouds, the most righteous.
Praise Prince North as the Master of Thunder, the most humane.
54
Praise Prince Wing as Master of Lightning, the most just.109
Based on the study of Liu Wei110 we discover that Hong Xiuquan had modified the music tune OLD HUNDREDETH as follows:
There are four reasons why hymns were not well taught in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom. Firstly, among the Congregation of God Worshippers before Jintian
Uprising (The initial Taiping uprising in 1851), Hong Xiuquan would teach the congregations to sing the hymns in person, so the “elder brothers” would usually be more accurate in singing the Doxology. However, as the scale of the uprising expanded, coupled with the fact that the Taipings was basically a grass root uprising, there were problems in learning hymns. Secondly, the western hymns have semitones
(fa, ti), but the Chinese music uses a pentatonic scale. Chinese people at that time found semitones difficult to master 111 . Thirdly, according to the principle of
109 “Praise from the Baron Dingtian Qin Rigang”, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (III), 10. 110 “Restudying the Doxology of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom”, 36. 111 C.S. Champness and W. Nelson Bitton, “Music in China, What the Missionary Can Do for Church: A symposium of Opinion Upon”, The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, Vol. 11, (Shanghai: 55 hymnology, adding extra words into the existing 8.8.8.8. would also affect the rhythm, and the long meter was quite different to the Chinese five words or seven words poetry metre. Fourthly, there was still no functional notation method for Chinese people at that time, for example the famous hymnal Yangxinshenshi (養心神詩) compiled by Robert Morrison (1782-1834) and his successors was notrecorded with musical scores. Without the guidance of missionaries, learning to sing and vocal lessons was hard to keep up with.
Scholars today also debate on whether the Taipings sang or spoke hymns. In her article “Selection of Historical Data on the manifestation pattern of hymns in the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom”, Liu Wei specifically discussed that there were divergence of opinions on such topic. She stated that the opinion of “reciting/speaking” hymns mostly came from the scholars from Qing Dynasty. Since they were usually unable to make contact with the Taiping leaders, they usually recorded the worship services in root levels. As the grass roots had no training on hymn singing, they usually spoke the hymn. Western missionaries were men of faith, and they knew what the hymns were, and as the Taipings were very friendly to “brothers overseas”, they usually receive a better standard of treatment. So westerners usually recorded that the
Presbyterian Mission Press, 1909), 189-195. 56
Taiping sang hymns with the accompaniment of Chinese music. 112
No matter whether hymns were sung or recited, the Taipings were criticized by both
Qing and Western commentators. For the Chinese side, since Qing scholars and officials were hostile to the Taipings, Taiping hymns were criticized as speaking or intoning in most cases. Ke Garden Memorandum recorded a worship service in the
Armory and Stable Bureau in the Heavenly Capital saying, “congregation members sat and spoke hymns, they sounded like Sanskrit chants. 113 In Surviving the Tiger’s
Den, Gu Shenzhi believed that hymn singing in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was
“sitting down, and sang one hymn. The leader facing south first read aloud, and the congregation on two sides followed (antiphon). The sound of hymn singing was neither Buddhist chants, nor Chinese opera, nor shouting, nor storytelling. It was very strange and we teased them. However, the Taipings were sitting down solemnly and reverently. Anyone who smiled or laughed would be definitely punished, insulted, or even flogged. 114
To the westerners, the missionary J. L. Holmes described the Congregation of God
112 Liu Wei, “Historical Materials of the Hymns in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國宗教讚 美詩表現形式的史料甄別), JiaoXiang-Journal of Xi'an Conservatory of Music, Vol. 30, Issue 2, June 2011, 24-29. 113 History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 2, 715. 114 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1854. 57
Worshippers worship services by “singing, or to be exact, speaking the hymn.”115
Since the hymn education was weak, most normal members of the Kingdom only knew a few key liturgies (like the Ten Commandments), “Gloria Patri” (Doxology) and simple daily prayers. They were not required to sing well. 116
I believe that learning through reciting hymns was a good educational method, like how they recited a recently-written hymn by the Missionary John Lewis Shuck
(1812-1863).117 Throughout different articles, we could also see that citizens of the
Kingdom learned the fundamental beliefs and doctrines through reciting hymns.
Hymn could also raise the morale of the soldiers. For example, when the Heavenly
King was besieged by Zhang Guoliang (d. 1860), he wrote a hymn with sonorous rhyme, and asked all the soldiers and guards to recite them. Women and children also sang it on the streets.118 I believe that hymns were either being sung or recited or both.
Apart from the Doxology with the altered tune OLD HUNDREDETH, there was a
115 “A Letter from the Rev. J. L. Holmes”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 237. 116 “A Letter from the Rev. Griffith John”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 262. 117 “A Letter from the Rev. J. L. Holmes”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 219. 118“Sightings from Robert J. Forrest in the Heavenly Capital”, 354. 58 hymn listed in the Book of Heavenly Percepts. Here is the literal translation.
“The true WORD will never be the same as the teachings in the world. It saves
our soul and bless us forever.
The wise men are eager to accept the WORD as their blessings. When the foolish
reflects, the way to heaven will be opened.
The abundance grace of the Heavenly Father is immeasurable. He sent his crown
prince (elder son) to the secular world, sacrificing his life to redeem our sin.
If we repent, our soul shall be raised unto heaven.”
Zeng Hanzhang called the Doxology and this hymn as “Classic for Heavenly Father”,
He said that this hymn is also read aloud rather than sung. At that time, “the leaders of the bandits faced the outer ring, they read aloud the Classic for Heaven Father once, there are 24 sentences, 96 words in total.” In What I see written by Yu Yi’ao (b. 1838), there were two hymns, both old and new. The old hymn of praise was the “Hymn to the Heavenly Father”, with the last sentence modified as “As humankind learn to repent, the Heavenly King shall live and rule for ten thousand years. The new praise changed the doxology as:
Praise God on high, our Holy Father,
59
Praise Jesus as the redeemer of the world.
Praise Holy Wind of Jehovah as the Holy Spirit,
Praise the Trinity, Father, Son with the same bloodline.
(The later hymn was in the same way) 119.
Though appears to be confusing, one could see that the hymns of the Taipings was evolving throughout different stages of their reign.
There is no denying that the Doxology and the hymn of praise was the most popular hymn of all, some might even call it the “national anthem of the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom”. This was also the only Christian hymn which was most widely sung throughout the Yangtze River area during the 15 years of Taiping regime, and was the most popular Chinese hymn in the 19th century. The Taipings had written a lot of other hymns or poetry. however, only the Doxology and this hymn were recorded in the
Book of Heavenly Percepts, hence its importance. I hope there will be further researches on the singing in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as more and more historical sources are revealed.
119 Lost Archives from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 195-196. 60
The Taiping hymns are vernacular and fresh, I shall introduce two other hymns to illustrate what the Taipings used to sing in those days.
The military song of Taiping Army, “We are all Taiping Army”:
“We are all soldiers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
We expressed our loyalty under the Taiping banner,
Whatever being alive or dead, we will closely follow the actions of Hong
Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing.
If anyone who wanted to rebel from us, they are not human being.
We are all the Taiping army, and do not rob people of their money or women.
If you do not believe us, please observe where our soldier conquered.
People are not worried and can settle down without fear where our army
occupies.”
Conquer the nation with the Heavenly King
“The sun is already in its midday, and we should follow the Heavenly King to
conquer the nation. When we conquer the nation, we can enjoy the blessings
61
from heaven. We shall enjoy the pleasures of the paradise for ever and ever.”120
Scripture Reading
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regarded the Bible as their supreme classic.
However, they never put a cross on the Bible, they used dragons instead.121 The
version of Bible that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used was mainly based on
the translation of Karl Friedrich August Gutzlaff’s (1803-1851) translation, and
further modified by the Heavenly King himself 122. According to Lo Egang, the
New Testament of the Taiping Bible was completed and published, while the Old
Testament was only up to the Book of Judges. Nonetheless, Hong Xiuquan
claimed that he had published the entire Bible. 123
The Heavenly King paid great attention to the teaching and exegesis of the Bible.
In his Poetry, Poems to the Heavenly Father (which was mainly written for his
concubines), he required the women to “read one chapter of Bible every day, read
one poem in turn. On The day of worship, they should also read the Heavenly
120 “An Overview of Taiping Hymns”, 315. 121 Eugene Powers Boardman, Christian Influence Upon the Ideology of the Taiping Rebellion, 1851-1864 (New York: Octagon Books, 1972), 78. 122 “A Letter by the Rev. Elijah Coleman Bridgman(1801-1861)”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 148. 123 “Reports from the Rev. Joseph Edkins”, 232. 62
Percepts (Ten Commandments). The women would firstly read a chapter of the
Epistles, followed by one chapter of Psalms every day. They should also read the
Old Testament and New Testament in rotation everyday” 124. These orders,
however, were only carried out strictly in the palace before the worshipful leaders.
The Land System of the Celestial Court was the manifesto of the Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom. It stated that the leader of a local church (Heavenly Father
Hall), Liangsima should take charge of teaching the Old Testament, the New
Testament, and the Decree of the Heavenly King.125 All officers and civilians
should listen to the Bible presentation and sermon on the day of worship. The
senior officials, “including commanders of division, brigade, and lieutenants
should also go to different Heavenly Father Halls in their territory to preach on the
Bible on the day of worship every 49 days to educate the civilians and examine
whether they had seriously followed the Heavenly Percepts.”126 This indicated
that education through the preaching of the Bible was important in their vision.
However, since most of the foreign observers were Christians and even
124Poems to the Heavenly Fathe, No. 265, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 2, 469. 125“The Land System of the Celestial Court”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 322. 126Ibid.,326. 63
missionaries, they paid special attention to the religious tract, especially the
teaching of Bible in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Most of the foreign
missionaries who arrived in Nanjing were not satisfied with Hong Xiuquan's
attitude towards the Bible. They found that although the Heavenly King had many
translations of the Bible, they would rather revise it. The Heavenly King did not
approve any annotations on the Bible made by missionaries. According to Robert
J. Forrest, Hong would write his “heavenly order in random” on the blank of each
page with his brush-pen dipped in red ink. 127
Throughout the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, although the nation had
published and popularized the Chinese Bible, the major leaders (except for Prince
Gan) all had a smattering of knowledge of the Bible. For instance, Prince East did
not understand why Jesus was nailed to the cross, and resurrected on the third
day.128 Basically, the masses would not be able to read the Bible129, and they were
also not interested in the gospel130. Moreover, in the barracks of the Taiping Army,
it was recorded that “every house was furnished with religious books. However, it
seemed that they had never read the books, while carefully protecting them from
127“Sightings from Robert J. Forrest in the Heavenly Capital”, 366. 128 “Narrative from John Bowring(1792-1892)”, Adventures in the East, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 164-165. 129 “Reports from Robert Milligan McLane(1815-1898), the American Ambassador to China”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 136. 130 “Diary of the Rev. Josiah Cox”, 298. 64
being torn up or abused.” 131 The Bible was held high instead of being read. The
lack of Bible teaching was one of the biggest problems in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom.
Another reason for the unsatisfactory evangelism of the Bible was due to Hong
Xiuquan’s secluded life after he entered into the Heavenly Capital. He relied on
the elder brothers from Guangxi to spread the faith. Since teaching of Christian
doctrines was unsystematic and not understood by too many due to their
educational levels, we could see most failed to recognize that the Bible was the
most important religious literature. Thus, the edification of faith gradually became
very weak. In most gatherings, believers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did
not read the Bible aloud, or they replaced the reading of Bible with preaching
(details will be explained later).
However, from a national perspective, the Bible was still an important part of
primary education. For example, in the imperial examinations in the Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom, the Bible was the textbook instead of the Four Books and the
Five Classics, which were the standard textbooks in the Qing imperial
131A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 191. 65
examinations. The corresponding results and subsequent assigned official position
of the students were determined according to their knowledge of the Bible.132
Creeds / Ten Commandments
In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, all children must learn from the religious
books published by the Heavenly King. Among which are the Taiping Trimetric
Classic and the Book of Heavenly Percepts.133 Schools in the Heavenly Capital
also used them as textbooks, which stood in contrast to the old-style Trimetric
Classic for centuries. 134
Joseph Edkins believed that the Taiping Trimetric Classic "briefly describes the
creation of God, the depravity of mankind, and the history of Israel, as well as the
incarnation and crucifixion of Christ.”135 One part of Taiping Trimetric Classic
relates to worship service. It says “Worship every seven days, in order repay our
Lord’s grace; everybody shall have piety in their hearts.” 136
132 “A Letter by the Rev. William Muirhead(1822-1900)”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 245. 133 “Narrative from the Rev. Joseph Edkins Visiting Nanjing”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 278. 134 Ibid.. 135 Ibid.. 136 “Trimetric Classic”(三字經) , in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 1, 225. 66
Unfortunately, the text of Taiping Trimetric Classic was extremely long, it is
doubtful ifmany grass-root believers could recite it. That might be the reason why
the Taipings were only required to understand the Book of Heavenly Percepts and
the Doxology hymn. I have also discovered that the Taipings would recited the
Lord’s prayer as a way to educate their children. The Lord’s prayer was written on
wooden boards with white oil in every families, and were hung on the most
prominent position in the house.137
The Ten Heavenly Percepts (Ten Commandments) were not only the constitution
of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but also the core of their faith. One rule in the
army was to get familiar with the “Heavenly Percepts and praises.”138 When the
Taiping Army met their “foreign brothers”, they would firstly recite the Ten
Commandments to confirm their identity as brothers or foe.139 When placed
under a strict leader, Heavenly soldiers would need to memorize and recite the Ten
Commandments within three weeks, or they would be beheaded.140 Most of the
new believers could recite the Ten Commandments141. Further, people getting
137 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1854. 138 “Barracks Order of the Bandits” (賊定營規式), A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 5, Book 3, 151. 139 “Reports by Thomas Taylor Meadows(1815-1868)”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 58. 140 The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire , 134. 141 “Narrative by the Rev. Michael Simpson Culbertson (1819-1862) regarding his visit to the rebels in Nanjing”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 138. 67
baptized would need to speak their vows for “not worshipping the evil or do evil,
but only observe the Heavenly Percepts.” 142
Preaching and Evangelistic Gatherings
Preaching was very important in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Land
System of the Celestial Court expressed that one of the purposes of going to
church was to preach and listen to sermons. 143 According to Jen Yu-wen,
preaching was half religious and half political.144 Since the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom was run by Theocracy, blending sacred and secular, most officials (also
elder brothers) would become worship leaders by “sitting in honourable seats and
preaching on the Heavenly Percepts. The contents of sermons were usually
encouraging people to honour God and blaming all disasters and catastrophes on
their disrespect to God. 145
There were preaching in the normal church service and evangelical meetings. The
poem “Preaching” by Ma Shouling recorded an evangelistic meeting in the
142The Chinese rebel chief, Hung-Siu-tseun; and the origin of the insurrection in China, 55. 143“The Land System of the Celestial Court”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 322. 144 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1864. 145 Li Wenhai, Liu Yangdong, The Social Life and Customs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天 國社會風情) (Beijing: Renmin University of China, 1989), 12-13. 68
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:
“When the Gong was stricken for four times (2am), flags were waved to
signal the mass that “when the rooster crows, preaching time will start”.
When people arrived at the event venue, we could see that the table was
covered with altar front, and chairs were covered with chair cloth. Around
the fifth strike of gong (4am) at night, people started to stand there and wait
for the start of the gathering.
They waited until noon. Finally, a man in a red robe came, riding on a horse.
His guards held spears, halberds, and instrumentalists playing woodwinds
around him. He dismounted the horse majestically and ascended to his seat.
After a long period, he started his preaching, saying, “We started from the
Jintian Uprising initially, and it is not easy for us to expand to this scale. We
built the foundations of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom through harsh
winters and summers, and we crossed dangerous mountains and rivers.
You people are born in a peaceful time, and are able to climb up the
Heavenly Ladder without striving. (The story of Jacob ladder in Genesis is
cited here)
In the Heavenly Kingdom, you do not need to worry about the death of your
69
husbands and wives. We will all meet again. We do not need to blame, to
hate, or to be sad. What we should do is to expel demons (the Manchus
from Qing Dynasty) and to enjoy blessings from heaven. At that time, the
Heavenly Father and the Heavenly Elder Brother will look after and protect
us.”
The listeners were tired, but the preacher was not. After he asked the men to
return home, then women would come and listen to the sermon. However,
those women would only giggle. What the preacher said was meaningless
and unreasonable.”146
Ma Shouling simplified the whole sermon with a poem, so we can skim through its
“long preaching”. There are great evangelistic meetings where “the platform was
built with soil as a lecture hall. Ten thousand people would listen to the sermon.”147
Individuals who did not participate in the sermon would be severely punished, like
being flailed for seven weeks, punished by flogging for one thousand times and
even beheaded.
Preaching was one of the important ways of mobilization and public announcement
146 “Preaching the Sermon”, New Poems from Jinling Between the Years of Kui and Jia, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 4, 736. 147 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1863. 70
in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zhang Dejian claimed that “there would be
preaching when they were punishing criminals, pillaging the public, dispatching
troops, setting out, selecting concubines for the Heavenly King, ordering the
Taiping Army to fight an uphill battle, facing death, comforting rebellious army,
before robbery of goods and materials, and threatening others to contribute goods
and materials. 148 Although this comment is rather negative, we could still observe
the function of preaching in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as a way of
mobilization and inspiration to counter difficult circumstances.
As Ma Shouling stated, “The listeners are tired, but the preacher is not.”. The
sermon was tiring and clumsy, to a certain extent “old truth without new ideas in a
mere formality.”149 In a sermon that Wilson van Dusen listened to, “the official did
not give any explanations of their faithf. What they did was just to remind people to
be loyal, vigilant, and courageous to fight for the Heavenly Kingdom.” 150
According to the full sermon text of Prince Mu (Tan Zhaoguang 譚紹光
1835-1863) as recorded by Augustus Frederick Lindley, the sermon focused on the
divine right to the Heavenly King, how people suffered from Qing oppression,
148 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, as recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 266. 149 An Overview of the Taiping Culture, 297. 150 “Diary of the Rev. Josiah Cox”, 298. 71
army rules, encouragement for paying tax and to obey the decrees of the Heavenly
King. Furthermore, soldiers were encouraged to be loyal to Heavenly Father in
order to conquer the demons.151 This proves that preaching in the theocratic
environment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was mostly integrating religion and
politics as stated above. The Taipings tended to solve civil affairs in a religious
way.
Prayers
Corporate prayers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were divided into daily
office and the prayers on the Sabbath day worship. Prayers in the daily office were
relatively spontaneous and they called it “spoken prayers (Prayer from mouth)”.
The Taipings would also read pre-scripted prayers from the Book of Heavenly
Percepts and named them as written prayers (memorial). However, the prayers on
the Sabbath day worship were different, as a dedicated person wrote them on the
Sabbath. In the following passages, we shall first discuss the prayers on Sabbath,
with the prayers in the daily office to be discussed later.
The contents of prayers on Sabbath mainly consisted of a few spontaneous prayer.
151 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1864. 72
They would deliberately invite the clerk in the army to prepare written prayers to
worship the Heavenly Father.152 One person would lead the prayer, and burn the
written memorial as offering after reading it aloud. 153
However, the contents of prayers vary according to the depth of their faith.
According to the records of the missionaries, they pray for “people with unruly
mind (pagan), victory on the battlefield or conquering the whole nation as soon as
possible. The more thoughtful prayers would aimed at repentance and salvation of
their Spirit.”154 Zhang Dejiang stated that some giddy-headed leaders seemed to
kneel and pray. However, they were cursing silently “beg God the Heavenly
Father’s power to strike the Heavenly King with lightning, and consume Price
East with fire. The Taipings kneeled behind him could not refrain from snickering.
But for the elder brothers from Guangxi or obdurate believers, they would pray
with awe and reverence.155
Another characteristic of the prayers in the Sabbath worship service was the
burning of the sheet written with prayers as offerings. Ma Shouling noted that,
152 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1850. 153The Chinese rebel chief, Hung-Siu-tseun; and the origin of the insurrection in China, 56. 154 “A Letter by the Rev. Griffith John”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 225. 155 “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 73
“the prayers would be burnt after the Taipings used them to praise God, which are
then ascended to Heaven.”156 Prince Gan believed that the burning of written
prayers was aimed at helping new believers, by integrating their traditional
practice. After Price Gan gain power in the court, he opposed the burning of
written prayer, and planned to abolish it eventually157, though he did not succeed.
Furthermore, Prince Gan himself wrote a prayer (Appendix I, not included in the
English version), with an introductory comment, “Everyone should keep this
prayer, it need not be burnt after praying.” Since Prince Gan had received
teachings from the orthodox faith, he hoped that this prayer could become a way
of edification and a way to help the Taipings back on route. The prayer contained
the creation of God, the incarnation of Christ and His salvation, faith to God and
forgiveness, as well as the hope to conquer the whole nation.158 The prayer was
composed of 1058 words, while takes about seven minutes to recite. I believe the
burning of prayers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a combined act of burnt
offering, as pleasing aroma from the Old Testament and the Chinese practice of
burning yellow paper as a means to offer sacrifices to idols. It was probably a mix
of the two, thereby delivering the prayers to the heavenly realm.
156 Ma Shouling, “Worshipping the Heavenly Father”. 157 “Reports from the Rev. Joseph Edkins”, 231. 158 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1911-1914. 74
Firecrackers
According to Augustus Frederick Lindley, the Sabbath worship would end with
firecrackers. Wu Kin Pan analyzed firecrackers after service as a form of spiritual
formation combining solemnity and jubilation of worship service.159 Firecracker
was used throughout the whole Taiping reign, no matter in the palace or on a junk
with elder brothers from Guangxi. Firecrackers would be used to worship the
Heavenly Father. 160
There were limitations for the firecrackers too. Since the worship started at
midnight, the setting off of firecrackers would affect the non-believers (the
Taipings never forced anyone to convert to Christianity), thus “God” announced
that firecrackers was not essential in worship service by saying “the holy
firecrackers were omitted in such dead night and cold winter, so as to sympathize
God’s children.”161 Another reason might be the lack of gunpowder when the
Heavenly Capital was under siege. In the latter period of the Taiping reign, when
missionaries stayed in the Heavenly Capital, he tried to listen to the Holy
159 Wu Kin Pan, “The Insights of the "Spirituality" in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom towards Chinese Churchs”, Master of Divinity thesis, the Chung Chi Divinity School of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. 160 “A Letter by Dr. Divie Bethune McCartee(1820-1900)”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 295. 161 “Decrees from the Heavenly Father”, recorded in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 2, 344. 75
Firecrackers, but he found none throughout the whole Sabbath. No one was
praying, and his Chinese servants did not observe Sabbath (maybe they prayed
already at midnight which the missionary did not notice) 162
In a more serious setting, when the Heavenly King had his meals, “drums,
cymbals and gongs would be performed concurrently with the sound of the
firecrackers. The noise would last until he finished having the meal.”163 Daily
prayers of the general community would also be reminded by setting off
firecrackers.164 Of course, firecrackers would also be set off in grand celebrations,
seemingly “all explosives, drums and firecrackers had been shipped to Nanjing for
the celebration”.165 When the birthday of Heavenly King was celebrated in
Ningbo, the sound of salute shots was non-stop.166 Since Augustus Frederick
Lindley was mainly associated with the upper class of the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom, and due to his extremely positive view of the Kingdom, he would
participate in most of the celebrations and firecrackers would be familiar to him.
However, in the grass-root environment where there was lack of goods and
162 “Narrative from Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley(1833-1913)”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 326. 163 An Overview of the Taiping Culture, 292. 164 “A Letter by the French Jesuit Missionary Fr. Staislas Clavelin(1814-1862)”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 115. 165 Ibid., 170. 166 “Diary of the Rev. Josiah Cox”, 404-405. 76
materials, salute shot or firecrackers would not be used as frequently in order to
retain the gunpowder for battles.
Sacraments
Baptism
Since Hong Xiuquan was almost baptized,167 and was affected by Good Words
Exhorting Mankind by Leung Faat, he promoted baptism to all his early believers.
When Hong Xiuquan, Hong Rengan and Feng Yunshan (later Prince South) “first
heard the faith, they immediately came to realize the truth. They all repented
before God the Heavenly Father, and went to Shijiaotan to be baptized.168 They
baptized themselves according to their knowledge on baptism. “They prayed to
the God and renounced demon worship and promised not to do malicious deeds.
They would follow the Heavenly Percepts. They then pour water on their heads,
saying ‘cleanse my sin, change me from old to new.’ After the baptism, they were
167 Roberts wrote an article, “The Taiping King” in 1856, saying that “Hong applied for Baptism to join our church…however just before the actual rite, the chairman(Roberts) told him that, ‘Becoming a member of the Church is not in the form of employment, and not related to any salaries and wages. We should not join the church with any evil intention.’ At that time, Hong said, ‘I am poor, and have no money to live. Joining the church would lose my job and I do not know how to live on.’ Hong was worried about the Baptism as he would lose his job, and I doubt his intention of being baptized. Then the Bapitism was indefinitely delayed.” Wang Qingcheng, “The Early Relationship between Hong Xiuquan and Issachar Jacox Roberts(1847-1853)” (洪秀全與羅孝全的早期關係(1847-1853)), Internet, accessed 7th December 2015, http://jds.cass.cn/UploadFiles/ztsjk/2010/11/201011171205064483.pdf, 8. 168 The Days of Taiping(太平天日), the Chinese Text Project, Internet, Accessed 17th November 2015, http://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&file=94784&page=26, 41-42. 77
full of joy.”169 This was the official record of their baptism.
During the early period in Guangxi, baptism was voluntary. Hong Xiuquan only
requested people who listened and believed in the sermon to repent and baptize.170
Theodore Hamburg wrote that three cups of tea and two lamps were placed on the
table. People would write their sin on a piece of paper, and would write down their
names. They would read this sheet of paper aloud and burn it, as a form of real
repentance. They would be questioned to expel the demon, not to perform
malicious deed and observe Heavenly Percepts only. They would then kneel after
agreeing with the above requirements. The celebrant would take a cup of water
from a basin to pour on their heads, saying, “the past sin is cleansed, you should
abandon old grievance and become a new person.” After they stood up, they
would drink the cup of tea on the table, and then wash their chest and heart with
water to express that their innermost beings were also cleansed. Sometimes they
would baptize by the river, and participate in the daily office every morning and
evening after baptism.171
According to the Book of Heavenly Percepts, the prayer they spoke in the course
169 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1656. 170 The Chinese rebel chief, Hung-Siu-tseun; and the origin of the insurrection in China, 54. 171 Ibid.,55. 78
of baptism was “Your son/daughter (name) kneel on the ground and repent
sincerely. I pray that God the Heavenly Father could have extra mercy on me,
pardoning my previous ignorance and how I broke the Heavenly Percepts
repeatedly. I pray that God the Heavenly Father to have mercy on me, pardoning
all my previous sins, allowing me to change into a better person, and allowing me
to ascend to Heaven. I sincerely repent and will never worship demons or do evil
deed. I would observe the Heavenly Percepts. Heavenly Father, please always
grant me the Holy Spirit Wind, soothing my evil heart, and guide me from the
illusions of the devil. Please often look after me and keep me away from evil.
Bless me with your daily cloth and food, prevent me from disaster or difficult
circumstances, and live in tranquility throughout my life, bringing me to heaven
afterward to enjoy eternal blessing. In the name of the redeemer, the Heavenly
Elder Brother Jesus, interceding all our prayers to our Heavenly Father. May your
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Please hear and accept our prayers, as they
are all entreated from my heart. (Long form of Chinese Amen)”. 172
When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established, the liturgy of baptism was
also listed in the book of Heavenly Percepts. People would “kneel and pray for the
172The Book of Heavenly Percepts (Berlin Version), A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 1, 23. 79
pardon of God. They might have used ‘verbal prayers’ or written memorials. After
they prayed, they would cleanse themselves with a basin of water. However, it is
better to be cleansed in rivers. After they cleansed themselves, they would worship
the Heavenly Father every morning and evening, to ask for his care and his Holy
Spirit Wind to inspire their hearts.”173 That the Taipings regarded river as a better
place of baptism might have originated from the term “baptism in wilderness” in
the Bible version translated by Gutzlaff. 174
However, in the later period baptism became simplified. People only washed their
chest with water, to express the cleansing of mind and heart. 175 When Joseph
Edkins visited Prince Gan, Hong Rengan replied that baptism was no longer
strictly executed. Prince Gan said, “baptism was to sprinkle first, then to wash
their chest. It was no longer strictly executed. We did it a lot when the uprising
started. Re-baptism is forbidden. Everyone should be baptized.” 176 This
indicated Five major elements of the Taiping baptism, namely (1)
sprinkling/baptism in rivers; (2) washing of chest; (3) denial of rebaptism; (4)
everyone could baptize others; (5) baptism was no longer strictly enforced in the
173The Book of Heavenly Percepts(Berlin Version), A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 1, 2-3. 174 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1718. 175 Zhang Tiebao, Yuan Rong, Mao Xiaoling, Culture in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國文 化)(Nanjing: Nanjing Publishing, 2005), 42. 176 “Reports from the Rev. Joseph Edkins”, 232. 80
later period.
There was a funny observation on baptism in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Since everyone could baptize someone else, and due to their lack of knowledge,
William Alexander Parsons Martin (1827-1916) expressed that some believers in
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom baptized by washing their belly (several inches
below their chest)177, which was far removed from the original meaning of
cleansing their heart.
Holy Communion
There was no communion within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, or to be exact,
it was not expressed in a “bread and wine form” like the common Christian
churches would. Jen Yu-wen wrote in his book that Liang Fa only talked about
baptism but not communion178. Thus communion was not a part of the Taiping
faith.
Some say the prohibition against alcoholic drinks in the Taiping Heavenly
177 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1856. 178 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1687. 81
Kingdom was also one of the reasons for lack of Holy Communion. An early
version of the Book of Heavenly Percepts (Berlin version) recorded that meat,
wine, tea and rice are the necessary items for faithful worship to the Heavenly
Father179. However, a later version (the London version) modified it as meat,
food, tea and rice in London version later180, and “wine” was omitted. When
Joseph Edkins interviewed Prince Gan, he was asked about the implementation
of Holy Communion. Prince Gan replied, “We have no Holy Communion. The
Taipings did not know there was Holy Communion. Wine cannot be used in any
religious rites, and the law strictly prohibited the private drinking of alcohol.” 181
However, Hong Rengan himself was a heavy drinker. He requested the Heavenly
King to release the ban on wine for his private needs after he arrived in the
Heavenly Capital182. Furthermore, as the moral standard was lowered in the
Kingdom, different nobles could buy wine and opium throuhg their own ways.
For locations outside the Heavenly Capital like Wuhu, there was never a total
alcohol ban.183 So to a certain extent, there might not be a tight relationship
179The Book of Heavenly Percepts(Berlin Version), 4. 180The Book of Heavenly Percepts(London Version), 742. 181 “Reports from the Rev. Joseph Edkins”, 232. 182 According to Robert J. Forrest, Prince applied for a special permission on the life of alcohol ban from the Heavenly King, as he could not eat anything without wine, and his application was immediately granted. “Sightings from Robert J. Forrest in the Heavenly Capital”, 371. 183 “A Letter by Dr. Divie Bethune McCartee”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 296. 82
between the banning of alcohol and the lack of Holy Communion.
An interesting fact regarding Holy Communion was its introduction into the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the later period. Researches told that it was being
held once in a month and wine made of grape was used. In some locations,
people would drink wine together on the fourth Sabbath each month.184 I believe
that their understanding of Holy Communion was probably similar to the early
church, as “they broke bread in their homes and ate together with gladness and
sincere hearts”. (Acts 2:46b).
In my humble opinion, the daily gathering before meals, offering food to the
Heavenly Father and sharing them afterward was a form of fellowship and a
Taiping-style communion of faith. This was also to a certain extent a
re-enactment of the agape feast in the early church.
Daily Office and Prayers
If we say that the worship on Sabbath was the most solemn celebration, the Taiping did not cease to worship on the other six days. Through those six days, as stated in the
184 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1859-1860. 83
Book of Heavenly Percepts, the Taiping Army would worship God every morning, evening and in special occasions by offering their prayers and expressing their piety.
As there were too many illiterate members in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the
Book of Heavenly Percepts had already prepared a series of written prayers, in particular the morning prayers, vespers, and prayer before meals. These prayers were different from written prayer “memorials” on Sabbath. They need not be burnt as offerings, and would be somehow considered as spontaneous prayers.185 Missionaries recorded that, “they would read Genesis every morning and evening, read aloud/sang a hymn together after the lesson, and complete their prayer with Doxology. The music accompaniment was not harmonious.” 186
The believers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also set up their table to worship God every day, and this was their daily prayers saying, “Your son/daughter (name) kneels on the ground, and beg for the mercy and help from our Lord the Heavenly Father.
Please always grant me the Holy Spirit Wind, soothing my evil heart, and guide me from the illusions of the devil. Please often look after me and keep me away from evil.
In the name of the redeemer, the Heavenly Elder Brother Jesus, interceding all our
185“A Letter by the Rev. Griffith John”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 225. 186A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 75. 84 prayers to our Heavenly Father. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Please hear and accept us our prayers, as they are all entreated from my heart. (Long form of Chinese Amen)” 187. As for meal prayers, it would be “Our Lord the Heavenly
Father, bless me with your daily cloth and food, prevent me from disaster or difficult circumstances, bring my soul to heaven to enjoy the eternal blessings.”
There were different views on the time of prayer, like “praying before and after meals”, “praying three times a day” or “only praying before meals”. 188 My observation is that the Taipings would usually pray before meals and say their morning and evening prayers. On their morning prayers and vespers, they would definitely sing/speak hymns, and say simple prescript prayers.189 They would also
“praise the Heavenly Father, Jesus Son of God, and Prince East the Holy Spirit when they speak their thanksgiving prayers. People alternately stood and kneeled with an extremely pious face when they pray. These prayers would even be accompanied with gong and other music in a higher-standard setting.”190 In some areas, the believers would kneel on the ground to pray together silently, then stood up together to
187The Book of Heavenly Percepts(Berlin Version), 3. 188 “A Letter by the Bishop Monsignor FrancoisXavier-Timothée Danicourt” and “A report of current situation by Thomas Francis Wade(1818-1895)”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 169, 174. 189 “Narrative by the Rev. Michael Simpson Culbertson (1819-1862) regarding his visit to the rebels in Nanjing”, 144. 190 “Reports by Walter Henry Medhurst and John Bowring”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 159. 85 proclaim (Original annotation: said the words “kill all demons”) as in the poem in the previous paragraphs. The mission of expelling demons in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom was combined with the constant meal prayers.191 They lived a life full of hymns and prayers as their daily office, and as their form of spiritual formation. 192
Rites of Passage
Wedding
In my previous study “The Completion of the Conflict between Sacred and
Secular—a Research on the Liturgy of Matrimony in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom”, I studied the wedding custom of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,
which linked Chinese traditional ethics and rites with the liturgy of matrimony in
the Protestant Church. Putting it briefly, weddings in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom could be summarized as “monogamy, anti-concubines (for civilians
and lower rank officers), prohibiting fornication, forbidding prostitution,
opposing that wife must submit to her husband, raising female status, allowing
the remarriage of widows, allowing marriage between Chinese and Westerners,
disagree with foot-binding, disagree with arranged marriage and promote
freedom of choice. They also used dragon and phoenix on a marriage
191 Ma Shouling, “Worshipping the Heavenly Father”. 192“Reports from the Rev. Alexander Wylie”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 212. 86
certificate.”193
Weddings were usually held in the Heavenly Father Halls. 194 The worship
liturgy was similar to that on the Sabbath. 195 The Land System of the Celestial
Court expressed that all weddings could claim their same amount of expenses
from the Heavenly Treasury.196 However, it should be noted that the Heavenly
Treasury did not function outside the Heavenly Capital, which therefore created
different scales of wedding especially in the later stages.
Augustus Frederick Lindley had recorded two weddings in his book, which
provided us with much first-hand historical data. However, I already have
already said that Lindley had an over-positive attitude to the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom, and he was mainly active in at the upper and middle classes, and as a
role model of “brothers from overseas”, he was too well treated and could not
accurately reflect the real situation in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Lindley
himself was also not a priest. As a soldier, it would be hard for him to
193 Liu Yinyun, “A Prediction on the Marriage System in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom” (太平天國 婚姻制度蠡測), Researches on the History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 277-285. 194Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (I), , 頁 273. 195Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (II), 478. 196 “The Land System of the Celestial Court”. 87
comprehend the complicated liturgy in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.197
Furthermore, the Taipings could only uphold their vision in the Heavenly Capital,
there had been lot of tensions with traditional weddings, especially in the border
territories. 198 Lastly, since the Heavenly King isolated himself from his
subordinates after his entrance to the Heavenly Capital, there had been
segregation between men and women, even if they were husbands and wives.
Enjoying many concubines himself, I doubt if the policy of the Heavenly King
on marriage were strictly observed by his flocks.199 In the next section, I will
focus on the liturgy of Matrimony, and will not attempt to discuss their marriage
ethics like polygamy in this paper.
The Book of Heavenly Percepts was surely the only first-hand source of what the
Taipings actually prayed in wedding.
197 The Fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Re-examining the religion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 356. 198 In the areas which the Taipings could not totally control, they allow the indigenous wedding ceremonies, and the most “standard” wedding setting could only be seen in the Heavenly Capital. Liao Sheng, “An analysis of the reformation of Wedding Rites in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom”, in the Journal of the Mianyang Normal College, Vol. 28, Issue 3, March 2009, 104-106. 199“The Fulfillment of the Debates between Sacred and Secular—The Liturgy of Matrimony in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as Example”, 8-9. 88
“In all joyous occasions including birthdays, baby showers (full-month
celebration), weddings, there should always be meat, food, tea, and rice as
offerings to exhort the Heavenly Father. You should say such prayer:
‘Your son/daughter (name) kneels on the ground and prays to the Heavenly
Father:
We have Your son/daughter (name)’s birthday/baby shower/wedding today,
Thus we prepare meat, food, tea, and rice as offerings to our Lord God the
Heavenly Father,
We pray that the Heavenly Father would bless Your son/daughter (name)’s
family on such joyous occasion.
In the name of the Redeemer, the Heavenly Elder Brother Jesus, interceding
all our prayers to our Heavenly Father. May Your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Please hear and accept us our prayers, as they are all entreated
from my heart.” 200
Among the two weddings recorded by Augustus Frederick Lindley, one belonged
to his friend L.. Lindley recorded, “the decorations included flowers, flags, and
silk with embroideries. The holy altar was decorated with flowers bouquet”.
200 “The Book of Heavenly Percepts”, 742. 89
“The leaders wore court crowns and dresses, women wore brightly and brilliantly,
and priests were dressed in a splendid black silk garment embroidered with gold
and silver crosses. The bride wore a long veil, and bridesmaids wore red clothes
with red corsages. The groom (westerner) wore his military uniform and stood
on the right of the holy table.201
In the second wedding that Lindley recorded, it was said that “the priest prayed
for the bride and groom, who then examined their vows, and held their right
hands, accepting their marriage by mutual consent. The priest then blessed the
new family in the name of the Heavenly Father, Heavenly Son, and the Holy
Spirit, and signaled the dismissal”. Except for the lack of rings, there was no
difference from a wedding in Britain.”202
Other records from the westerners concerned mostly about the family system and
composition, while liturgy was not a major concern. Theodore Hamburg
recorded that in the early gathering of the Congregation of God Worshippers in
Guangxi, there would be animal sacrifices in weddings, funerals and New Year
201“The Fulfillment of the Debates between Sacred and Secular—The Liturgy of Matrimony in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as Example”, 10. 202Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (I), , 273；in”The Fulfillment of the Debates between Sacred and Secular—The Liturgy of Matrimony in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as Example”, 4, 12. 90
day. The offerings would be shared with the mass after the worship service.203 It
is likely that the animal sacrifice was as the same as the normal “meat, food, tea
and rice” in the Taiping worship services, though there is no record to show if the
animal sacrifice was a real sacrifice laid on the table or just a dish of cooked food.
The lack of record was a result of difficulty in tracing the history of the early
liturgical development. In any event, wedding prayer was merely a later addition
to the original prayer book.204
As for the records from Chinese scholars, Wang Kun in his pseudo-literature
“Stories from Dunbi” (盾鼻隨聞錄) said that, “the bandits would certainly
worship the Heavenly Father in their weddings. Two candles were lit up in the
middle, one red, one green. The bridegroom would also wear red, and the bride
wore in green. After bowing to each other, they shall enter the bridal
chamber.”205 Generally speaking, how wedding outside the Heavenly Capital
was celebrated is relatively unclear. Some weddings might not even have
religious elements. There was record stating that one Taiping leader had his
wedding “quite similar to the secular wedding, only without the ceremony of
drinking the nuptial cup. Some people even betrayed the order of the Taiping
203The Chinese rebel chief, Hung-Siu-tseun; and the origin of the insurrection in China, 55-56. 204 “Culture of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom”, 45. 205 Wang Kun, “Stories from Dunbi”, Vol 5, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 4, 399. 91
Heavenly Kingdom by arranging a feast of thirty tables, and chanted the songs
for idols (local deities) with drums. However, such praise offered to the local
deity clearly violated the rules of the Taiping army for not worshipping idols,
though there was no record of any punishments in this case.206
If we only analyze the Taiping weddings from the perspective of liturgical
studies, they had creatively integrated east and west, joy and solemn. It was a
Chinese wedding observing western values. It emphasized mutual consent in
marriage, promoted free choice in marriage, questioning of the vows, holding
right hands like the Book of Tobit did, and secured the marriage with a
dragon-phoenix contract.207These were not from the customary Chinese practice,
and was a totally new way of celebrating and understanding marriage in China at
that time or even today.
Funeral
As the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom expanded their territories through wars, there
had been a large number of casualties in different war campaigns. Even Prince
South, Prince West were killed during the conquest. Therefore, the Taipings were
206 Xia Chuntao, “Marriage Condition and Relationship between Different Genders in the Taiping Army”(太平軍中的婚姻狀況與兩性關係探析), Internet, Accessed 26th December 2015, http://www.qinghistory.cn/qsyj/ztyj/sxwh/2005-02-21/26829.shtml. 207“The Fulfillment of the Debates between Sacred and Secular—The Liturgy of Matrimony in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as Example”, 15. 92 no strangers to death. Death was called ascension in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom. For example, the death date of Prince East was soon turned into the
Festival of the Ascension of Prince East, which was celebrated annually. This was somewhat Christian, since the mortal death does link to life eternal according to common Christian views.
“Celebration for Ascension” was a poem written by Ma Shouling, criticizing the way how the Taipings treated the dead.
“You earn Heavenly blessings when you are alive, and do you have the
same when you die? Does this doctrine stand?
You were poor when you were alive, and being blessed with abundant grace
when you ascend, this mindset was cunning and shrewd.
Who ever seen real ascension? Who knows if you really ascended? This is
like one person speaking of his dreams.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sent announcements throughout the city
through imperial decrees, saying that coffin and shroud are not allowed.
They believed that the soul will enter the world of bliss. Human remains are
actually useless and can be used to fill the moat.
93
They asked people to laugh rather than crying in funerals, which is really
abnormal. They believed that the bereaved should not be sad, but being
happy.
Can't you see that Prince East, Prince South and Prince East the Second all
died off after entering into the mini-paradise? (The bandits called the
Heavenly Capital as mini-paradise.)
After they died, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ordered Prince Yan to write
celebratory poems, and the Taipings also wrote their names on a yellow
imperial edict with dragon patterns.
At first I thought that what they said was the breakdown of moral ethics,
however, after careful thought, I think that what they think is not ridiculous.
The one who lived on seems like living in hell, and the ones who passed
away received honour, to us they are living in a real “paradise”.” 208
In short, the view of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of death was something
honourable and should be celebrated with joy. The Book of Heavenly Percepts
said, “Ascension is the best thing we can encounter, and we should be joyous
208 Ma Shouling, “Ascension to Heaven”, New Poems from Jinling Between the Years of Kui and Jia in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,Vol. 4, 740. 94
rather than being sad.” 209 There were other written prayers in the Book of
Heavenly Percepts stating “ascend to heaven and enjoy eternal blessings” or
“Worship every morning and evening, and you will ascend to heaven” or “Only
the people who can abandon all secular emotions can ascend to Heaven”. The
Book of Heavenly Percepts also clearly instructs that, “children of God were
taken care of when they were alive, and their souls shall ascend to heaven, and
enjoy eternal blessings after their death. No matter Chinese or foreigner, men or
women, this is the only way for human being to ascend to heaven.”210 Heaven as
a place of eternal blessings, was an assurance to remove sadness from people
losing their relatives and friends. As the poem said, “they asked people to laugh
rather than cry in funerals, which is really abnormal. They believed that the
bereaved should not be sad, but being happy.” What more people found
unsatisfactory with the regime however was the fact that they could not properly
bury their ancestors.
The Taipings had a strong will for their heavenly afterlife, and strictly prohibited
the use of traditional Fengshui and other religious ceremonies to release souls
209The Book of Heavenly Percepts, Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (II), , 頁 743. 210The Book of Heavenly Percepts, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 1, 3. 95
from purgatory. Augustus Frederick Lindley recorded that “At the funeral, all
Buddhist rites are strictly prohibited. Ancestral worship and the worship of ghost
are also prohibited. They designed a new Christian form of funeral, and a
religious official would stand before the coffin to preside official ceremonies.”211
However, I have some doubts about this passage, since coffins were not used in
the middle or higher class.
In addition, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom advocated filial piety by creating a new
funeral tradition.
The Taiping used the commandment “Honour your father and your mother”
(Exodus 20:12a) to replace the old Chinese attitude to the dead. They
disregarded the fake filial piety, which Chinese people expected to acquire riches
and honor by burying their ancestors in graveyards with good fengshui. Prince
Gan pointed out that “some children regarded their parents invisible when they
were alive, and took their skeletons as the tools to acquire riches and honor. The
parents had never enjoyed good food or delicate clothes and other actual benefits
when they were alive. However, after their death, the children would offer gold,
211 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1853. 96
silver, pig and sheep, which was actually fake filial piety that asked for selfish
benefits. If one does not care for his parents when they were alive, can you make
it up after they die?”212 I believe that this is why the Taipings felt needed to
reform the culture of death and funeral.
Another problem relates to coffins. In traditional Chinese views, the quality of
coffins is deeply related to the level of respect to their ancestors. Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom believed that “since the soul will enter the world of bliss,
human remains are useless and can be used to fill the moat.” Therefore, “no
coffin and shroud were used throughout the Heavenly Capital.”
The Taipings were in war constantly with the Qing Empire, and there was a high
rate of casualties. In my personal opinion, reducing the number of coffins used
could save a large amount of high-quality wood planks. However, this is not the
major concern of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. They believed that human
remains were useless after ascension. Even the Heavenly King himself was
buried in the garden of his palace, and his body was merely wrapped in yellow
silk with dragon pattern.213
212 Culture in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 139. 213 Ibid., 138-139. 97
The Chinese intellectuals strongly criticized the Taipings for disrespecting the
ancestors, as the traditional values believed that a decent coffin was a symbol of
respect and decency. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom collapsed, we found
that many people re-buried their ancestors in coffins.214 It seemed that such
revolution on the use of coffins had been too radical and, resulting in a loss of
loyalty to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
As the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom develops, there had been evolvement on
funerals, turning Chinese funerals into Taiping liturgy. The earlier version of the
Book of Heavenly Percepts (Berlin Version) and the later version (London
version) had recorded the changes in the funeral liturgy, which areas follows:
Berlin version
“In the funeral, it is forbidden to invite monks to host Buddhist rites. At the
encoffining ceremony, wearing of shroud, heading to burial grounds, meat,
wine, tea and rice should be prepared to worship the Heavenly Father.
People shall say the following prayer, “Your son/ daughter (name) kneels on
the ground and pray to the Heavenly Father. Today, the soul of (name)
214The Social Life and Customs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 82-84. 98
passed away on (date and time). Now we are having a funeral
(encoffining/wearing of shroud/heading to burial grounds) for him/her, and
we offer meat, wine, tea and rice to you, and beg the Heavenly Father to
show His mercy, bringing the soul of (name) into heaven and enjoy the
great blessings of Heavenly Father. May the Heavenly Father take care of
your children (name)’s family, granting us peace, prosperity, living a well
life and save us from evil. In the name of the Redeemer, the Heavenly Elder
Brother Jesus, interceding all our prayers to our Heavenly Father. May your
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Please hear and accept us our
prayers, as they are all entreated from my heart.”
At the encoffining ceremony, wearing of shroud, heading to burial grounds
and burying the coffin, everyone shall sing aloud, “By the decree of our
Lord God, by the decree of our savior Jesus, by the decree of our Heavenly,
the righteous King Hong Xiuquan. Taboos cannot affect us, devils shall hide,
always the best, living in prosperity and a life being blessed.”215
The London Version:
215 The Book of Heavenly Percepts(Berlin Version), 6. 99
“Ascension is the best of the best, one should be joyous instead of being sad.
All the old rules should be abolished. People should use meat, meal, tea and
rice to worship and pray to the Heavenly Father, saying “Your son/ daughter
(name) kneels on the ground and pray to the Heavenly Father. Today, the
soul of (name) ascended on (date and time). Now we offer meat, wine, tea
and rice to you, and beg the Heavenly Father to show His mercy, and we
offer meat, food, tea and rice to you, and beg the Heavenly Father to show
His mercy, bringing the soul of (name) into heaven and enjoy the great
blessings of Heavenly Father. May the Heavenly Father take care of your
children (name)’s family, granting us peace, prosperity, living a well life and
save us from evil. In the name of the Redeemer, the Heavenly Elder Brother
Jesus, interceding all our prayers to our Heavenly Father. May your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Please hear and accept us our prayers, as
they are all entreated from my heart.” 216
These two prayers clearly indicated that the later version changed “passed away” into
“ascended”. Also, all old customs like “encoffining ceremony, wearing of shroud, heading to burial grounds and burying the coffin” were abolished and removed from
216 The Book of Heavenly Percepts(London Version), Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including a Narrative of the Author’s Personal Adventures (II), , 742-743. 100 the litany. As we discussed above, since there was a ban on the use of coffins in the later period and the enforcement of “ascension” and to deny the value of human remains, thus the liturgy had to be amended.
101
Chapter 3: Issues worth discussing in the future
Since this piece of research is mostly a historical paper that digs out the undiscovered facts of worship in the Taiping Kingdom, one cannot spend too much time on analyzing the Taiping liturgy, and compare it with worship service in the Christian sect. However, I think that there are still some observations that could be raised, and I hope that my research can be a solid stepping stone for future researches.
Firstly, I am concerned about the Heavenly Calendar and the Liturgical calendar. The feasts and festivals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in my opinion, had taken its initial form from the liturgical calendar.
There was a total of six festivals in Heavenly Calendar of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, all of them were religious festivals. Some festivals, such as the Ascension of the
Heavenly Elder Brother and Festival of Coronation were related with crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. In the last few years of Taiping regime, they would also celebrate Christmas. To me, this was a signal or a condensed form of the temporal cycle in the liturgical calendar. Ascension of Prince East was to remember the death of an important leader in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the birthday of the
102
Heavenly King celebrated in Sufu Province was a form of the sanctoral cycle in the liturgical calendar. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also marked significant events as celebrations, such as the Festival of Jehovah calling upon the Heavenly King, Festival of the Descending of Jehovah, Festival of the Descending of the Heavenly Elder
Brother, and the Festival of Coronation, all of which were related to the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In a sense of church calendar, these festivals were all ministerial related, like church anniversary or mission Sunday.217 From the use of temporal, sanctoral and ministerial celebrations, we can see that the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom partially adopted a form of a Christian time and rhythm.
Secondly, the use of dragon was an innovative action for Christians even today. There are still much hostility and doubts regarding dragons today in China, especially for home churches or believers with lower education level. The Taipings however, had perfectly demonstrated the grading of dragons (precious gold dragon and old snake from the East China Sea) and placed dragon with Jesus in the same room. This form of integrating Chinese traditional culture and Christianity was totally original. It is worth further discussions on how to blend Chinese totem and Christianity, and review the use of dragon as a form of blessings and luck rather than a form of devil, as I think
217 James F. White, Trans. Liyishi, Introduction to Christian Worship (基督教崇拜導論) (Hong Kong: Chinese Christian Literature Council, 2011), 50-58. 103 that Chinese dragons are quite different from western dragons, and solving this problem can help a lot of grassroots churches in China today.
Thirdly, hymn writing in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had balanced the solidness of doctrine and the use of vernacular vocabularies. Although most “younger brothers” could not sing well or even had to recite rather than sing, their songs had been very easy to sing and allowed grassroots members to participate. Today we usually comment “praise and worship” music as shallow and too simple, and the traditional hymns as boring and dull, I think that the Taiping hymns were really a breakthrough in spreading their faith and became a tool for preaching to grass root believers.
Furthermore, much time was spent in creating materials that new believers could understand, lowering the threshold for seekers of the faith, making the church friendlier to newcomers. These hymns also popularized the revolutionary theories of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.218 In a way, these music were not much different from the Red Songs that the Communist Party used one century later, and they both successfully mobilized a great amount of proletariat.
Fourthly, baptism in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was unique, especially to the churches which use the sprinkling method. The pouring of a basin of water signifying
218 “An Overview of Taiping Hymns”, 318. 104 the overflow of water; water rubbing their chest to have “their heart cleansed and faces anew”, was a perfect form of indigenization. This is an excellent interpretation of what the baptism really mean in the Bible, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
(Matthew 15:16-20)
Fifthly, there were spontaneous prayers and written prayers in the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom. Written prayers provided a good model for members to follow, and were carefully written by the most knowledgeable person in the group. Spontaneous prayers express their passion to the faith. Thus the balance of the two helped the
Taiping prayers to have both depth, structure and passion. The Taiping prayers were mostly simple and easy to understand, and its repetitive model like the liturgy of the hours in the medieval abbeys was easy to learn and take part in. This is a reminder to our long and clumsy prayers in churches today. I am also interested in the tradition of burning written prayers, as it was affected by the traditional custom of burning paper money, however, it is also a very good form of indigenization to present the prayer as a pleasing aroma (Revelations 5:8).
105
Burning prayers and offerings on the table were not merely a model of contextualization, but also a compromise of the Christian faith to Chinese customs.
For these both items, both Hong Xiuquan and Hong Rengan believed that they were not necessary for worship service, and their setup was for the new believers and those who were familiar with pagan customs. I think that these methods were Christian compromising with the Chinese culture, helping new believers to worship God in a familiar manner, but not demanding everything anew.
The worship theology in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was both serious and joyous.
Zhang Dejian once said, “the bandits would definitely worship God when there is something to celebrate, and they also took every Sabbath worship service as a celebration. At that time all members would prepare their memoirs to submit to God, praising and celebrating by passing their peace.”219 In addition, the custom of setting off firecrackers indicated that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom celebrate every worship service, and enjoyed the constant celebration of heaven on earth. Such theology of celebration, to a certain extent, seemed to be a foretaste of the Second Vatican Council a century before. Worship was the peak of their religious life and the greatest
219 Zhang Dejian, “Intelligence Handbook on the Taipings” Vol. 9, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Vol. 3, 261-264. 106 celebration of all.220 The offering of dog meat was also eye opening, that a fellowship having dog meat in an agape feast was a very strong bond of brotherhood.
However, since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom focused itself on reaching grassroots believers, it could not establish a concrete middle class of intellectuals as their backbone. Although they also enlisted talents through the civil service examinations, and examined them with Bible and Christian doctrines, there was no space for intellectuals to participate in the development of doctrines, nor devoting any resources for their spiritual formation. The sermons in worship services were mainly to mobilize people, to enhance troop morale or to issue orders, while neglecting the basic religious education needs (of course the leaders themselves were also not proficient enough). Bible education was also not enough since most of the members were illiterate, and the inheritance of faith became difficult. This is why the Qing scholars kept on teasing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in all directions (including liturgy, of course).
Actually, there are still a lot of issues in relation to worship worth discussing. For example, the mixed gender worship service at that time was one of the breakthroughs.
Men and women sitting in one hall was a taboo for China at that time. Secondly,
220 Trans. Secretary for the Chinese Bishops, “Constitutio De Sacra Liturgia”, “Documents from the Vatican II Council”, Internet, Accessed 28th December 2015, http://archive.hsscol.org.hk/Archive/database/document/v2sc01.htm. 107
Death without a coffin is even a greater breakthrough even for today and actualized
“for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19) for the body would decompose much more quickly without a coffin. Thirdly, the relationship between the offerings on the table and Trinity was something worth discussing. I regret that these interesting issues could not be discussed in this thesis, and could only be left for the future researchers.
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Chapter 4: Conclusion
The liturgy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was designed without much guidance from missionaries, and they came mostly from the most respected and solemn religious rites in China. It was similar to the modes adopted in the sacrifice in spring and autumn by Confucianism221. The difference was that it replaced the idols just as
Confucius with God.222
At that time, English priest Victoria considered the believers of Congregation of God
Worshippers “lacked instruction on spirituality and didn’t understand the liturgy of prayer and worship. Furthermore, they had no clear idea and clear understanding on the liturgy of the Holy Communion, Protestant Church holy orders and church organization and etc.”223 This was a true reflection of the practical liturgy of Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was indeed a creative attempt of the incorporation of state and church. This attempt had no guidance from missionaries and was totally
221 “A Letter by the Rev. Griffith John”, A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 225. 222 Studies on the Institutions of Tai-ping Tien-kuo (II), 1760. 223 The Social Life and Customs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 5-6. 109
Chinese. The seriousness and strictness of the Taiping liturgy had literally changed the custom of almost one million people, who managed to destroy all idols in its territories, and the Taipings promoted and sung the hymn tune OLD HUNDREDTH with Doxology with over a million people. The Land System of the Celestial Court allowed us to see a visionary framework of Christianization and contextualization within the whole country, as a church built for every 25 families throughout the whole state, as an actualization of the Christendom.
Although the doctrine of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was impure and could not be considered as orthodox, we could see that the Taipings had the best indigenization of the faith, which was even better than what happened later in the 1930s. The Taipings were misunderstood, since there were not much education on what they do. For example, after the idols/ancestors shrine were removed from the temple, the Taiping would only replace their names with God’s name, and in the early period, they continued to worship God with joss sticks, candles and paper money. 224
Indigenization and heresy, sometimes would only be of slight difference.
In addition, the liturgy of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can only serve the grass roots.
224 The Chinese rebel chief, Hung-Siu-tseun; and the origin of the insurrection in China, 54. 110
It failed to satisfy a group of Chinese intellectuals with solid literature and historical foundation. The failure to build up a middle class and to explain the doctrine clearly made the liturgy in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom somewhat ridiculous and even generated superstition.
However, according to the missionaries, they claimed that after the rebellion, Chinese people did not deny Christianity as before, and they did not connect Jesus Christ,
Christian Church and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It was found that there were still people worshipping the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Elder Brother in
Zhangzhou after the Kingdom collapsed225. The civilians near Suzhou also began to realize that it was unwise to worship idols.226 It could be that the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom had paved the way for Chinese people to come to God through its devoted worship liturgy.
Due to the limitations of this research, I can only dig out some of the hidden treasures of Taiping Liturgy. I hope this paper can arouse the interest of history and liturgy scholar, to discuss the way of future indigenization of Christianity in China. Though
225 “A Letter by the Rev. Carstairs Douglas(1815-1877)”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 443. 226 “A Letter by the Rev. William Muirhead”, in A Collection of the materials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Extended Version), Vol. 9, 444. 111 the Taipings failed, its depth and width of indigenization will continue to motivate us to glorify God through our own practice and liturgy.
112
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