He Took Up
His Residence In A Buddhist Monastery; And The Ascetic Deprivations, The
Loud Prayers And Invocations, The Supernatural
Counsels and meetings, were
the course of training which every religious devotee adopts as the proper
novitiate for those honors
Based on the superstitious reverence of mankind
which are sometimes no inadequate substitute for temporal power and
influence, even when they fail to pave the way to their attainment. He
left his place of seclusion to place himself at the head of the largest
party of rebels, who had made their headquarters in the remote province of
Kwangsi, and he there proclaimed himself as Tien Wang, which means the
Heavenly Prince, and as an aspirant to the imperial dignity. Gradually the
rebels acquired possession of the whole of the territory south of the
Canton River, and when they captured the strong and important military
station at Nanning the emperor sent three commissioners, one of them being
his principal minister Saichangah, to bring them to reason, but the result
was not encouraging, and although the Taepings were repulsed in their
attempt on Kweiling, they remained masters of the open part of the
province. One of the Chinese officers had the courage to write and tell
the emperor that "the outlaws were neither exterminated nor made
prisoners." Notwithstanding the enormous expenditure on the war and the
collection of a large body of troops the imperial forces made no real
progress in crushing the rebels. Fear or inexperience prevented them from
coming at once to close quarters with the Taepings, when their superior
numbers must have decided the struggle in their favor and nipped a most
formidable rebellion in the bud.
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