About this time Hung commenced to attend the public examinations at Canton. These examinations confer upon successful candidates one of four literary degrees, commencing with a district examination, leading to a departmental one, to a provincial one, and finally to a Pekin examination, from which members of the Han-lin college are selected.
Although Hung-sui-tshuen was always one of the most distinguished at the district examinations, through the corruption of the Manchoo officials, to whom bribery alone is a passport, he was unable to obtain his degree. At last, upon another visit to the public examinations, about the year 1836, an event took place that ultimately, in no slight manner, affected his future career. This I cannot do better than give in the words of the Rev. T. Hamberg:—
"In the streets he found a man dressed according to the custom of the Ming dynasty, in a coat with wide sleeves, and his hair tied in a knot upon his head. The man was unacquainted with the Chinese vernacular tongue, and employed a native as interpreter. A number of people kept gathering round the stranger, who used to tell them the fulfilment of their wishes, even without waiting for a question from their side. Sui-tshuen approached the man, intending to ask if he should attain a literary degree, but the man prevented him by saying, 'You will attain the highest rank, but do not be grieved, for grief will make you sick. I congratulate your virtuous father.' On the following day he again met with two men in the Siung-tsang street. One of these men had in his possession a parcel of books consisting of nine small volumes, being a complete set of a work, entitled, 'Keuen-shi-leang-yen,' or 'Good Words for Exhorting the Age,' the whole of which he gave Hung-sui-tshuen, who, on his return from the examination, brought them home, and after a superficial glance at their contents, placed them in his bookcase, without at the time considering them to be of any particular importance."
Once more, in the year 1837, Hung-sui-tshuen attended the examinations. Upon this occasion, after being placed high on the list, his rank was afterwards lowered. This, with the gross injustice and partiality of the examiners, so affected him, that he returned home very ill. His illness lasted for a considerable time, during which he underwent a marvellous series of visions or dreams.
In the account of Hung's visions and earlier life, it will be necessary to quote frequently from Mr. Hamberg's little work, he having received in detail many important facts I only had in substance from Hung-jin. I feel the more confident of the indulgence of my readers from the fact of the interesting nature of all I shall quote, and, moreover, the absolute necessity of doing so in order to enable them to form a correct judgment of the noble character and almost superhuman career of the Tiping-wang.
It must be remembered that in a country like China, where literary distinction, until Manchoo corruption altered it, was the recognized path to honour and fame, everything tended to excite the hopes and ambition of Hung-sui-tshuen, who was more than usually intellectual, and whose failure to attain eminence, through the degenerated policy of the Manchoo dynasty, who no longer observe the rights of the literati in their selection of public officers, must have been accompanied with a degree of mortification and bitterness never experienced by Europeans, who have a variety of paths to distinction.
The visions of Hung-sui-tshuen, as related by Hung-jin, are thus published in Mr. Hamberg's account:—
"He first saw a great number of people, bidding him welcome to their number, and thought this dream was to signify that he should soon die, and go into the presence of Yen lo-wang, the Chinese king of Hades. He therefore called his parents and other relatives to assemble at his bedside, and addressed them in the following terms:—'My days are counted, and my life will soon be closed. O my parents! how badly have I returned the favour of your love to me! I shall never attain a name that may reflect its lustre upon you.' After this he lost all strength and command over his body, and all present thought him about to die—his outward senses were inactive, and his body appeared as dead, lying upon the bed; but his soul was acted upon by a peculiar energy, so that he not only experienced things of a very extraordinary nature, but afterwards also retained in memory what had occurred to him. At first, when his eyes were closed, he saw a dragon, a tiger, and a cock entering his room, and soon after, he observed a great number of men, playing upon musical instruments, approaching with a beautiful sedan-chair, in which they invited him to be seated, and then carried him away. Sui-tshuen felt greatly astonished at the honour and distinction bestowed upon him, and knew not what to think thereof. They soon arrived at a beautiful and luminous place, where on both sides were assembled a multitude of fine men and women, who saluted him with expressions of joy. As he left the sedan, an old woman took him down to a river, and said, 'Thou dirty man, why hast thou kept company with yonder people and defiled thyself? I must now wash thee clean.' After the washing was performed, Sui-tshuen, in company with a great number of virtuous and venerable old men, among whom he remarked many of the ancient sages, entered a large building, where they opened his body with a knife, took out his heart and other parts, and put in their place others, new and of a red colour. Instantly when this was done, the wound closed, and he could see no trace of the incision which had been made.
"Upon the walls surrounding this place, Sui-tshuen remarked a number of tablets with inscriptions exhorting to virtue, which he one by one examined. Afterwards, they entered another large hall, the beauty and splendour of which was beyond description. A man, venerable in years, with golden beard, and dressed in a black robe, was sitting in an imposing attitude upon the highest place. As soon as he observed Sui-tshuen, he began to shed tears, and said, 'All human beings in the whole world are produced and sustained by me; they eat my food and wear my clothing, but not a single one among them has a heart to remember and venerate me; what is, however, still worse than that, they take of my gifts and therewith worship demons; they purposely rebel against me, and arouse my anger. Do thou not imitate them.' Thereupon he gave Sui-tshuen a sword, commanding him to exterminate the demons, but to spare his brothers and sisters; a seal, by which he would overcome the evil spirits; and also a yellow fruit, to eat which Sui-tshuen found sweet to the taste. When he had received the ensigns of royalty from the hand of the old man, he instantly commenced to exhort those collected in the hall to return to their duties to the venerable old man upon the high seat. Some replied to him, saying, 'We have indeed forgotten our duties towards the venerable.' Others said, 'Why should we venerate him? let us only be merry, and drink together with our friends.' Sui-tshuen then, because of the hardness of their hearts, continued his admonitions with tears. The old man said to him, 'Take courage, and do the work; I will assist thee in every difficulty.' Shortly after this, he turned to the assemblage of the old and virtuous, saying, 'Sui-tshuen is competent to this charge.' And thereupon he led Sui-tshuen out, told him to look down from above, and said, 'Behold the people upon this earth! hundredfold is the perverseness of their hearts.' Sui-tshuen looked, and saw such a degree of depravity and vice, that his eyes could not endure the sight, nor his mouth express their deeds. He then awoke from his trance, but still being under its influence, he felt the very hairs of his head raise themselves, and suddenly seized by a violent anger, forgetting his feebleness, put on his clothes, left his bedroom, went into the presence of his father, and making a low bow, said, 'The venerable old man above has commanded that all men shall turn to me, and all treasures shall flow to me.' The sickness of Sui-tshuen continued about forty days, and in vision he often met with a man of middle age, whom he called his elder brother, who instructed him how to act, accompanied him upon his wanderings to the uttermost regions in search of evil spirits, and assisted him in slaying and exterminating them. Sui-tshuen also heard the venerable old man with the black robe reprove Confucius for having omitted in his books clearly to expound the true doctrine. Confucius seemed much ashamed, and confessed his guilt.