The varied elements of his followers—the simple God-worshipper, the discontented Hakka, with Triads, outlaws, and other known opponents to the Manchoo rule—were all destined, by Hung-sui-tshuen's comprehensive mind, soon to establish for themselves an important political existence. The Bishop of Victoria wrote:—
"The literary talent, the moral greatness, the administrative ability, the mental energy, the commanding superiority of the latter soon won for him the post of leader and director of the movement; and Hung-sui-tshuen became, by universal consent and the harmonious deference of Teen-tih (Fung-yun-san) himself, the chief of the insurgent body. He found in the tumultuous bands, who, inflamed by civil discontent, had been engaged in hostilities with the provincial rulers, the nucleus and the body around which the persecuted Christians gathered as a place of refuge and safety. He transformed a rebellion of civil malcontents into a great rendezvous and rallying-point for his oppressed co-religionists. He rendered the insurrection a great religious movement—he did not transmute a Christian fraternity into a political rebellion. The course of events, and the momentous interests of life and death—the dread realities of the rack and torture, imprisonment, and death—drove him to use in self-defence all the available means within reach, and to employ the resources of self-preservation. He joined the rebel camp, preached the Gospel among them, won them over to his views, placed himself at their head, and made political power the means of religious propagandism.
"The adoption of the Imperial style, at so early a period as 1850, shows the grand projects and the vast designs which speedily unfolded themselves to the view of the new leader. Nothing but an expulsion of the hated Man-chow tyrants, the subversion of the idolatrous system, and the incorporation of the whole nation into one empire of 'universal peace,' as the servants of the one true God, and the believers in the one true Saviour Jesus Christ, with Taeping-wang himself, the political head and religious chief of the whole—could henceforth satisfy minds inflamed by enthusiasm and animated by past success."
Before the close of the year 1851 the standard of a national revolt was raised, and a Chinese dynasty proclaimed. Hung-sui-tshuen again moved his camp, marching upon and capturing the city of Yung-ngan. He was here elected Emperor by the enthusiastic acclamation of his followers. It is said Sui-tshuen offered the supreme dignity to each of the four chiefs, Fung-yun-san, Yang-sui-tshin, Siau-chau-kwui, and Wai-ching (the last, a powerful leader of some thousands of his own clan); and that, only after their refusal and unanimous election of himself, he accepted power, appointing them princes of the four quarters; the position in which they afterwards became known to Europeans. From this period the style God-worshippers became relinquished in favour of the title of the new dynasty, Ti-ping-tien-kwoh.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] See Map of China.
[3] The Chinese place little value upon hereditary rank; but, in lieu thereof, have the extraordinary custom of ennobling a meritorious or successful person's ancestry, though the honours are not inherited by his descendants.